day 71

pearl harbor, circa 2001 3: media loves the dick tracy wristphone

Yesterday we introduced the radical idea that the next wave of innovation might come from Japan instead of Silicon Valley. The internet appliance could already be available, if only we could read Japanese. Here is an example, once again, from Stephen Anderson's conversation on the internet. "First, look at the Sharp Zaurus line for a small device. The MI-10DC is a PDA with a digital camera, small color display, and Internet connectivity through a 28.8 K modem. This amazing little device can browse the web (text preferred for me, even with compression). "You can scribble a message with the touch-pencil and send a note off to someone. And the camera? Yes, for reporters out there, you can send the image back to base, but I did not try to guess time/quality of the transmission. I did watch the camera take our pictures as we went by - it was jerky video - and then saw the images stored in memory as a file. "Drawback of Zaurus? Price is still more than double the target of $500, but give it time. The MI-10DC sells for 155,000 yen ($1409 at 110 yen/dollar) but you can bargain for a discount that is bound to increase every day in Akihabara. I did find some discounts when I asked about other devices." Tune in tomorrow for more evidence of the coming attack on Silicon Valley.

pearl harbor, circa 2001 1 2 Daily Dose Index