the human story for today is our need to focus. the need to do just one thing at a given moment and stick with it for many hours. developers know how to do so (hey nir, can you turn off the music and ask andrew to put his headphones on please?). i know that for me playing music does the trick and specifically practicing yoga. calming the mind is an art that requires constant and un interrupted practice. i cannot imagine the brain enjoying 100% capacity at any given moment, just as much as it enjoys 0% capacity. the truth is pretty much always in the middle. face it, we have learned to respond to these interruptions better than focus, and it goes back to the days where the telephone was invented.

sleeping is the best time for the brain to not consume new streams of data and process all it has been bombarded with, make new connections and archive/store the data. from a quick survey with close friends and family, i learn that sleeping patterns are very much affected and do worsen with time. how many of you out there in the internets sleep with the TV on?

this is why i take two long breaks from my work and focus on relaxing my mind and body, explore new geographical areas of our planet, meet new people, study a new language, and more often then not play/write music and expand my photography skills. this works in phases though and i find that it takes some time to re-adjust the mind and relax – slow down. the longest break i have ever taken from life was a 3 months trip to brasil. no iphone, no laptop, no internet connection. would you be surprised if i told you that it did not take long to re-adjust to the new situation and that i loved it? i took my best photos and wrote my best music while taking these breaks from life.

much like a hard reset, browser cache cleaning and the application of a new style sheet – one may immerge back with fresh energy and a newly re-wired brain. so – for the sake of your career, mental health and own happiness – plan on taking a longer time off. you deserve it.

Good chance of getting:

- 4G LTE: 100Mbit up, 50Mbit down (peak). this will be huge for everyone. streaming made easy, uploading live videos and pretty much change the rules of the game when it comes to utilizing the phone. the big question is – can the carrier(s) handle the demand?

- HD front and 8MP rear camera with a dual flash system. HD facetime – thank you very much. better photos at low light condition? yes please. no doubt apple will introduce major improvements to the camera, both hardare and software. by now the iphone is the most popular camera on flickr and it’s growing fast. we want to be able to take better photos easily, at different conditions and share them quickly. as the pixel count rises so the demand for bandwidth (see 4G LTE) and a quick turn around for large file sharing. we can ex (cpect something unique with this feature’s new offering. the inherit problem is the small chip for the camera and it’s ability to shoot in lower light conditions.

- wider screen: has been rumored for a while with some fake prototypes etc. can’t wrap my head around a wider screen unless it’s up to full HD, which will be, no doubt, incredible (i’ll rate this as 1% chance of happening). if i’ll have to guess it will be retina 2.0 with a slightly higher pixel density and a more crisp display than the current 960 x 640 at 326 ppi.

- better battery life: with iCloud and push across the board, there is no doubt apple is pouring tremendous effort behind making their devices stay up and running longer. expect something unexpected.

- built in noise cancelation mic: a la jawbone, it’s time for the iphone to become a better phone. and please let’s take care of the proximity sensor issue. please.

- NFC with eWallet OR BLE (4.0) + APIs: this will be very exciting to have. finally. eWallet patents are around for a while and android is a head of the curb. if we look east to japan we see clearly how mobile is used and credit cards are gone. yes – gone. the phone will be THE payment system in the very near future. it’s the credit companies that should be on their toes with this one. it is really all a matter of timing no? can’t enter too soon and definitely not too late.

there has been much discussion over Bluetooth Low Energy, otherwise known as BLE, which is the 4th version of bluetooth, now available in the just released macbook airs. what the new standard means is low energy consumption and wider range (50m) which means awesome apps and peripheral devices are heading our way. this is an interesting strategic call by apple, do they go with NFC and RFID or do they bet on BLE? based on the this recent move of incorporating BLE chips within the new line of macbook air… well… let’s see what happens

Little chance of getting:
- solar charging: apple has been working on this for a while now. heck, there is a prototype out in the wild that is solar enabled (link). this is a game changer and the reason why there’s little chance of getting this one is because it’s probably required to perform much more tests and phase out gradually. maybe a device which combines both battery and solar charging a la hybrid first.

- haptic display + APIs: probably the advancement i would like to experience the most. haptic displays will revolutionize the way we interact with smart devices and their touch screen as they provide feedback to our touch sensory system. imagine that each button you click on a touch screen feels real. this is huge for UX across the board and opens the doors for some unique applications. android has immersion – a great company to follow with a great mix of products, worth mentioning are their medical related haptic devices. check it out here.

- new map application: apple has made significant moves to become a player and tighten their vertical integration. this app should be nothing but fantastic and introduce features never seen before on smart devices. one option could be an augmented reality turn by turn navigation, integrated with location meta data and the users social graph.

here is my short list of top apps for the iphone first, at random order:

VOIP:
skype: veteran at it’s field. skype is affecting the bottom line by saving money. $3/month for unlimited calls in the US, the ability to work over 3g and soon facetime is where the industry will be, no matter how much carriers want to extort the end users. bar none, skype is keeping us all connected. with PBX integration and a future IPO this company will continue to dominate and lead the way in it’s field.

SOCIAL:
facebook: this facebook app is a fantastic example of how apps can pack zest with style. this is the top used app because it’s well done. nothing much to say, we are all on it and loving it.

foursquare: i am a big fan of the NY based company. real time, location based (and soon NFC), 4squre has started something great that is echoing throughout. mayorships, badges and a solid business plan. i hope for more goodness from these guys.

PHOTOGRAPHY:
fotomecha: probably my favorite camera app (for still photos) in the appStore, because it allows me to be creative and capture moments i.e. more than one moment, and create a flow in time.

itimelapse: for video capable iphones, this app allows timelaps video creation with some nifty features for creative control. you need to be patient and stable, or maybe you need the glif.

MUSIC:
FiRe: top recorder which integrates well with soundcloud. i use it often to record music,conversations etc. these guys are fantastic with performance and know the audio frameworks well. money well spent.

SPL meter: i use this app to know when the sound around me is affecting my hearing. hearing gone bad cannot be regained. those tiny hairs in the hearing tube will not grow back. sounds particular and you may call me old fashioned, but no concert/club in the world is worth loosing our hearing for.

READING:
goodreads: bar none, the top app to sync your pdf files for offline reading. i also sync movies to it and this is the reason i get more done. 30m on the subway is a great time to launch this app (both iphone and ipad). with the ability to sync documents from dropbox, google docs and others, this app packs a punch of useful features.

HOME:
airphones: great little app that turns the iphone into a wireless headset over wifi. you will need to install a server on your mac or windows machine.

mobile mouse: while you have airphones streaming audio from your mac mini, which is hooked up to a 50″ plasma, you will need to launch a browser and go on veetle.com. this app is the best i’ve seen and worth every penny. again, you will need a server running on your machine.

This project started off when I joined Pure West as a member. Yoga became a big part of my life as I practice on daily basis. Since Pure West offers around 27 different kinds of yoga between 5 studios, starting as early as 6am – you can imagine the teachers they have as staff and the frequency they update the schedule.

Something was broken. The paper schedule provided at the front desk was out of date as soon as it was printed. Could be a minor change to a single class, to time of full moon where ashtanga is not practices (which can not be reflected in a single week sheet), to the twice a month led practice of mysore.

Pure uses spa-booker as their service provider, doing all the heavy lifting with proprietary database system and interfaces to both manage the content and display it to the public. it gets more complicated than that as some classes are special and specific where members (or non members) need to pay and more.

Since spa-booker is working on their own version for the mobile devices, and I knew I am in need of a solution for myself that can probably serve others – I jumped on the challenge to create something.

Working closely with two friends, Tomer and Claudio, together we build this app that does the following well:

- single click to get class schedule and class info
- fast loading of the data
- layout that matches the small iphone screen

Essentially we build a system that scrapes the HTML of the entire week. Then we parse the content diligently and store it in our XML proprietary format. The interface picks up the XML whenever someone launches the application and displays it on screen accordingly.

For performance reasons we are re-visiting Pure’s website every two hours to see what had changed, parse the content and re-write the XML. On the client side only one day is loaded from the server. When a user changes a day, we go back to the XML and look for the content of that day exclusively.

The app is a UIWebView essentially, as the app is developed as a web application. The release to the AppStore will help the discovery, but also for us to learn the process and time line for doing so, as we plan to move forward with other developments of our ideas and our client’s.

The beauty of iOS apps is that they strive to keep things simple. When you launch the application, it is really hard to judge how much work was put into it, and how much lifting is done in the background. Things just work as they should, both in layout, style and user experience, including performance specifically.

One of the advantages of designing this app abstractly, is that now we can custom create it for any spa-booker customer within the day.

We are in touch with Spa Booker who are supporting our efforts. Future plans may include using their API’s to book classes directly from the phone, add more specific information to classes, like which element of zenyasa is being practices today, and provide a delta of changes since a user last visited the schedule.

The Pure East application (the 2nd location for Pure on the upper east side) is pending approval by Apple. Based on the approval of Pure West, it is a matter of days before that one will be approved as well.

Here are 10 inspiring TED talks to get your day started:

10 Inspiring TED Talks for Startups.

what helped the iphone take off was the community of developers. believe it or not, it is the early hackers who put their time and wits into action, to jailbreak it. jailbreaking means you free the phone from the exclusivity of the appStore, and are able to install apps from other developers (for free or for $$). there are several alternative appStores out there, like cydia and ‘rock your phone’.

why would anyone be interested in installing apps that are not on the appStore? mostly because they extend the capabilities of the device beyond what apple allows or is planning for the time being. for example: tethering. how long did we hear from ATT that tethering is arriving? why can’t we share our internet connection with our laptop and have the iphone serve as a hub? ATT is planning to do so (they claim they are making way for the bandwidth load they are experiencing altogether) for an extra (yes, u heard it right) extra $30 a month. so you pay $30 on your iphone to be constantly online with an unlimited bandwidth (it actually is capped if u check your account page online), and you will pay $30 more to tether.

if you jailbreak your iphone you can install an app called myWi which allows you to tether for a small one time fee of $20. sounds like a good deal right? it is.

another good example is using your data plan as you wish. the internet neutrality act proposes that each and every one of us can use his/hers connection as they please without the internet provider throttling and/or blocking the connections (which happens in spades, though most providers do not admit this). in fact, chile is the first country in the world to anchor network neutrality within it’s constitutional right.

currently ATT does not allow skype calls to be made over the data plan. only wifi. the same goes for ‘face time’ with iphone 4. you can see the other side only if both are over wifi. that pretty much sucks doesn’t it? well, ATT has been putting billions of dollars into infrastructure and i can attest that their signal has gotten better (not much but better) here in NYC. however, i cannot understand what reasons they had (besides greed) to up the data plan cost from $20 on iphone g1 to $30 for the exact same package.

back to business. if you install my3g you can fool the phone into reporting it is over wifi while you are actually over the data network.

want more examples? they are a plenty: sbsettings (allows you to control the phone via a swipe jesture, turn on the phone, the data connection, blue tooth, kill processes and more) proswitcher: allows you to multitaks, meaning putting an app in the background (now partly available in os4) ultrasnow: allows you to unlock the phone, so you can use it with other GSM carriers in the US or over seas (something ATT must provide you by law when traveling abroad – which they don’t). and many many more.

so now back to the title – the next stage of smart phones. well, the title is misleading. it should really read the next stage of smart devices. and that is exactly what they should be: smart devices.

the revolution had already started with the micro sim cards for the ipads. take a device and connect it to the internet – you are golden. forget about minutes, rollovers – all we really have is our data connection. do you want to make a call? launch skype. you can make unlimited calls in the US for $3 a month. face it – a phone is just an application, just like your painting tool or recording device. whatever you want to do will be %100 over the network without extra fees or hidden charges.

and they are all afraid of it because they will loose tons of money right? all the fees on our bill, state charged nickel and dimes for F charge and G cost. the interent scares that scavengers because what will you charge on top of the data plan?

and that is all i really want and the next phone i will get: a device that has the ability to connect to the internet without a phone attached to you. an ipod touch with a micro sim card will do fantastic for me and i will gladly give up my iphone for it.

the future is all about our freedom and ability to connect. it is all about us spending much less (think annually) and getting much much more bang for our buck.

all around me i see the matrix moving all around – where ever i look…

examples? aplenty.

digital media consumption: slate devices are here to rule the world. the more i play around with my ipad the more i realize how wonderful a 12h battery can serve humanity on the go. and that is key here – on the go. consider it a platform and not a gadget. mobile devices are here to stay. desktop computers? time to turn them into art. they are out the door in terms of dominating the market. face it – we consume, and we consume a lot. in 2010 who is not HDD? seriously… having all media streamed and centralized in a long hour operating device with a crisp device and intuitive interaction will break all barriers. from kids to astronauts. it is just a matter of time.

learning: kids will benefit much from slate devices (BTW, there are over 8 competitors about to launch their products and compete head to head with apple’s ipad). i see kids carrying a huge school bag on their small backs, all these massive books – i say no more! soon enough all the material will be available as a digital book, that will fit within the pound a a half a salte device weighs. with many hours of operation it is a no brainer for schools. moreover, the content can be layered with videos AND become interactive. how about that for creating interesting course material, tests, quizzes and home work?

the kitchen: yes my friends, the kitchen. one of the most important and fun rooms in any house hold – the room where we feed our body, the room where mostly women spend time (excluding metrosexual guys who care for their bodies like myself) to prepare meals for their families. how come there is no digital help there in 2010? sure, we have DVD players etc, but that is used to consume media. how about enhancing the experience in the kitchen? from social media, videos of recipes, timers, integration and interaction with consumer products, baby monitoring and much more. times are shifting my friends, didn’t i mention that?

the living room: yes – last and definitely not least, the title of this post. the real cash cow of media and hardware companies. the area where we will notice aggressive and fierce competition. let’s start with what we have today: we have a one direction big screen and a cable company that decides what we can watch, when and at what cost. they shove commercial right where we don’t want them and make billions. all of that my friends will rapidly change. to date, youtube video uploaded in 2 months accumulate to more footage ever released by all major networks aggregated within the last 20 years. incredible isn’t it? the future is prime content mixed with user created content that will become more and more high end as we go along. check out gary vaynerchuk and winelibrary.tv for prime content centered around wine. and more people are doing their own home production while building brand equity.

so we have great content in our finger tips. what will shift is the hardware. more and more TVs will be released in the near future that will run an operating system. like android, windows and mac/iphone OS. what that means is that the TV will become interactive and essentially a new product. TV 2.0. not widgets a la samsung. but a real computer that has a huge and beautiful display, input and outputs that can allow decoding of HD video and audio signal etc. all we got to expect from a TV, but the control moves back to us – the consumer. and this will happen not a moment too soon.

how long will it take apple to create a beautiful 50″ backlit LCD that runs the iphone OS, which allows multi touch and can be turn into a table when u want a flat user interaction? there are a couple of android based TVs coming out very soon from japan. face it. the TV can and should do much more than it is doing today. screw the big networks – power to the people. consume media when u want it and how u want it. let me buy the episodes i like directly to my set top box, sync it with all my devices seamlessly and make sure i can collaborate around it with my close ones.

if so far we had seen a great and exciting new ecosystem rising – the appStores. from apple to android, blackberry and samsung. we will see apps made for the TV as well. and here is where i ask you – what kind of apps can u envision being used in the living room? how will the TV enhance the usage and integration with other devices around our living space? our phones, our slates, and in the future maybe our cloths and appliances.

worlds are shifting my friends – they are shifting…

Strobist: Five Things Music Can Teach Us About Lighting.

men usually do not carry bags around. they try and utilize any available storage space (jean pockets mainly) to avoid the “trouble” of carrying a bag (common in israel).

the home/car keys goes in the front pocket (bulky), the other front pocket holds the cell phone, wallet goes in the back , or can squeeze in front and, and the list goes on… when visiting a cafe in Tel-Aviv for example, you will notice that the table has everyone’s items on display otherwise it will be painful to sit, right?

on a medical note, realize that carrying these items creates tiny imbalances that influence your posture and has microscopic effects on your spine. sound silly and you may dismiss it.. don’t say i did not warn you though…

to my point: there is something inherit about us men, genetic even, that our primal impulse is to refuse the usage of a bag in order carry stuff around.. it makes sense, it saves us lots of trouble and assists in keeping all our belongings safe and available. no… we will not use it. one may say it’s fashion related, that we don’t want to look feminine… or maybe (just maybe) it is the hunter within us that wants to be as light as possible.. you know, so we can responds to imminent attacks from wild animals – our lives are at stake here..

sometimes you will see a couple walking down the street holding hands. so romantic right? if you look closely you will notice that the guy is carrying a bag, which is not his own.. she packed all she will need (wallet, keys, makeup kit, emergency makeup kit, tissue paper, tampons, hand sanitizers and all you one she conceivably thinks may come in handy).. the poor guy looks defeated almost… why? because he planned on carrying pretty much nothing.. and he ends up carrying everything

guys are hunters, women are gatherers.. they go out to the fields for a while, pick berries and mushrooms, examine colors and compare notes. they need stuff (whatever that is) to get by. us men hunt lions, we need to move fast on our feet, carrying nothing but our weapons.

us guys can “get ready” quickly,  minimize what we carry on us, avoid a bag altogether right? we leave our homes happy. we have it all ON us, without any accessories..  and then the lady comes by, bats her eye lids and asks “can u please carry this for me?”… “sweetheart” he tells her, “i am hunting lions here! i need to be agile and responsive! the last thing i need is to carry a bag! .. what the hell?!”. and of course he carries it (if he is a gentleman) with an inherit feeling of defeat.

sounds familiar? i thought so… what does it all have to do with technology (this is a technology blog…) you are probably wondering by now…

here is my question: can the ipad change the game for men?one of the great things about the iphone is that it is quite small for what it can do. it can fit into your jean pocket or clipped to a  belt. the ipad is a versatile device that will require some sort of carrying (not the one portrayed in the image above for sure.. though some men would find it appealing). the right design and concept may start convincing more men that carrying a bag around is cool and masculine. we won’t have to feel like a girl walking around with a bag full of stuff we don’t need.

i personally think there is room for an ipad carrying bag that men would adopt and use. time will tell.