Top: screen grab of NY Times slideshow. Bottom: Zune marketing cruft.
Different ideas about mobile media this morning.
Item 1: David Pogue's fairly favorable review of Microsoft's second attempts at the Zune.
Item 2: But why putz around with sub-1 watt speakers? See how to carry the big iron in Corey Kilgannon's article in the NY Times this morning, Bicycles that Carry a Powerful Beat, and Sometimes a Rider or Two, about kids from Queens who mod their bikes to carry enormous sound systems. Pictures by Tyler Hicks in the online slide show are exquisite. The joy of cruising, tinkering, and friendship in the crisp light of a warm winter day.
Item 3: This mobile-protest platform sited at the edge of Lafayette Park, in front of the White House in early November, 2007. The armature is made of galvanized pipe clamped to the frames of two BMX-style bicycles, and supports a platform with a generator and a fairly large LCD screen and speaker system, as well as a Statue of Liberty, donation and comment buckets, and at least one American flag. The normal medium for Lafayette Park protesters is hand-painted plywood signs and outrage-photos in worn office-supply presentation sleeves, so this guy really stood out. I wonder if his rig can be rented out for parties?
Item 4. Vista-guy. In January of 2007 there were three or four people with computer backpacks at my subway stop advertising the launch of Windows Vista. The backpacks looked heavy, and the people looked self-conscious, but the concept was well executed. I asked them how they could keyboard and mouse when the screen was above their heads and they just smiled and shrugged. I also asked them if they needed to travel in groups so they could reach each others backpacks for all the obligatory Windows reboots and, to their credit, they thought that was pretty funny. I desperately want to see these guys on the club scene, using the screens to pick up dudes/chicks or be outrageously retro-techno.
And I'm neglecting to mention the Amazon Kindle. I've yet to speak with a non-technologist who actually knows about this device, or, when it's explained to them, has any interest in it. I'd like to tie this to the National Endowment for the Arts' To Read, or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence report in a future post.