Every Picture Still Tells a Story, but 'Family Album' Is Redefined

"Several old PC's that Mr. Baker would otherwise have placed in deep storage have been put to work in the capacity of dynamic photo frames or, as Mr. Baker likes to put it, 'picture flippers.'

Mr. Baker, a 46-year-old entrepreneur, cut holes in walls throughout his house in Corona del Mar, Calif., installed monitors and used the old computers to display slide shows of the 15,000 or so digital photos he has collected. The pictures change every three seconds. The frame in the dining room generates the most conversation among family members and guests....

'We're beginning to take pictures not to keep them around, but to reach out and touch someone with them, to extend the moment, that sense of presence,' said John Seely Brown, the recently retired chief scientist at the Xerox Corporation and author of 'The Social Life of Information.'

Dr. Brown cited the increasing practice of sending photos by e-mail as an example. 'There's a sense of using this to connect in the moment to someone else I want to touch,' he said. 'I'm more concerned about getting it to them and touching them than in having a photograph I can put in an album.' " [NY Times: Technology]

While I wouldn't go so far as to cut holes in my walls, we do have an old 486 PC that's doing nothing because it's running Windows 95 and has no internet access. It used to be the kids PC for games, but they won't even look sideways at it anymore now that the wireless network puts three other machines on the net. So maybe I'll turn it into a "picture flipper."

What I really wanted to highlight, though, are the Ceiva digital picture frames. I bought one of these for my Grandma because she's in a nursing home, and we don't get to visit her as often as we'd like to. It was incredibly easy to set up the Ceiva when I bought it, and then I just plugged it in a phone jack and power jack in her room and voila - instant pictures! Every night, it dials into the Ceiva server to see if I've sent any new pictures to it via the web.

Of course, the beauty of it is that I can snap a hundred pictures with my digital camera, find two that I like, and send them to the frame without having to worry about printing them out first. My Dad and my brother can even send pictures to it (perfect for those occasions when my niece Beans is being particularly cute).

Overall it's worked great, even though it gets knocked around a lot in my Grandma's room. In fact, this past winter the phone jack on the frame itself went bad, but Ceiva replaced it without any hassle or cost to me. I've been very impressed with their service, and we're thinking of buying a couple more for family that live further away (Bruce - hint, hint).

While I wish they would make an 8" x 10" version (actual picture size), I highly recommend one of these if you want to regularly send pictures to people that live far away from you.

Will Americans go for mLife?

" 'I still have Japan-envy,' admits Matthew Hart. It's not that Hart doesn't cherish his new cellphone, or appreciate having a real 'mLife' before most Americans. It's just that 'the 3G videophones they have over there, the ones that open up with the big color screens ...' He trails off wistfully. 'We're getting closer, but we're still nowhere near Japan.'

Hart, a commercial real estate developer in Palm Beach, Fla., is a self-described gadget and cellphone junkie -- he keeps 15 or so retired handsets in his closet. He's the kind of guy who gets a kick out of using his Bluetooth-enabled cellphone as a cable-free modem for his Bluetooth-enabled PowerBook so that he can check his e-mail in a park (just for example). The type who hangs around in chat rooms explaining to innocents the difference between locked and unlocked handsets, and why you should pay more for the latter. The kind who buys a T68i handset -- not officially available in the U.S. yet -- off eBay because it's slightly better than his still-new T68 (a replacement for the Nokia 8890 he got in London).

And he's precisely the kind of guy AT&T Wireless must win over with the mMode service launched April 16 (in select US markets including Palm Beach) if it's to have any hope with more typical U.S. cellphone users. A central feature of the company's obscurely marketed mLife 'wireless lifestyle,' mMode is an imitation of imode, the highly successful, always-on data service offered by NTT DoCoMo in Japan.

Imode users (over 32 million at last count) can buy tickets, find the nearest Starbucks, download and swap pictures, set up group get-togethers and do far too many other things to list here. Charges for whatever digital content or services they buy simply show up on their phone bill -- no credit cards, no electronic wallet, no personal info, no fuss....

For many skeptics, imode-type services will never take off in the U.S, for one simple reason: the car. In Japan, the ubiquitous mass transit system is often cited as a primary reason for imode's success. The transit system creates a lifestyle full of 'microniches' of time. There's a lot of hanging around nearby bus, subway and train stations, usually waiting for friends or for transport. Imode and its competitors have filled this otherwise empty space with well-received services and cutting-edge handsets -- handsets that cellphone aficionados like Matthew Hart drool over....

But debates over mass transit versus car culture may miss the real point. Truth is, Americans just don't have the right tools to go online wirelessly. If imode had been offered in Japan over the kind of inferior handsets offered in the U.S. today, it would have failed miserably. In other words: It's the handsets, stupid....

For Americans who've never been to Japan and played around with an imode handset, there's really no Stateside parallel to help them understand how enjoyable the experience can be. 'I just cringe when I see handsets in America,' says analyst Berman. The best analogy may be this: Whereas Japanese handsets are fun, colorful iMacs, those sold in the U.S. are drab, grim DOS terminals. To get an idea of what using imode is like, imagine clear colorful screens, startling sound quality, and easy-to-understand, icon-based menus navigating you through services you really want to use. And imagine this: sitting alone in a cafe with a grin on your face because you're having fun with your cellphone. In Japan, you can actually see this happening. It's not that the Japanese are deranged gadget freaks, it's simply that the cellphones are a kick to use. (And cute! Even grown men agree....)

Matthew Hart is ready to do his part. He's already got his sights set firmly on the upcoming P800 handset, and he's dreaming up how he's going to use it. His killer app for his killer phone? The ability to find local movie times, pay for tickets and have the charges show up on his phone bill. 'Especially in Florida, where the movie theaters are huge and there's always a long line,' he says. 'That, to me, would be a great thing to use a cellphone for.' "

Question is, how many Americans will agree with him?" [Salon.com]

Ooh, ooh - Mr. Kotter, Mr. Kotter! Me! Plus, a whole generation of Net Generation kids.