Although the iPhone 3.1 is old news for those in the augmented reality space, it dovetailed so nicely with my current reading I had to include it! Echoing Heidegger, Baudrillard calls for us to pay more attention to the cultural mediation of objects.

"First of all man must stop mixing himself up with things and investing them with his own image; he will then be able, beyond the utility they have for him, to project onto them his game plan, his calculations, his discourse, and invest these manoeuvres themselves with a sense of a message to others, and a message to oneself. By the time this point is reached the mode of existence of 'ambient objects' will have changed completely, and a sociology of furnishing will perforce have given way to a sociology of interior design." (Baudrillard, 1997. "The System of Objects")

Great intro to Google Podcast App at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_labs_launches_listen_podcast_app.php

This is just another example of the new flush of innovation around audio content. On this topic, last month I gave a talk at ABC Radio National (excellent Australian public broadcaster) on disruption and the future of radio. Radio networks like RN have an appealing opportunity to bring more web 2.0 into the audio only experience so as to retain their audience in the face of ongoing disruption. (Avoiding 'red ocean' competition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy.)

Key ideas:

• audio only for much of the audience
• twitter/web = radio/library
• 'age of mobile internet'
• simplicity is key for mass adoption (and the podcast ain't there yet)
• crowd sourced 'likes' can automate/curate audio-only personalized programs

Augmented reality is charging up the Gartner hype cycle on the way to the 'peak of inflated expectations'. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle].

Today's example is the new Android browser at http://layar.com - right now I have to assume it's largely hype, but hopefully we'll end up with an augmented reality analogy for html before too long. This would allow for an augmented reality commons [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons] and will be a critical step if we're to see the potential for this technology met.

For a fictional treatment that's only inches of time away, I enjoyed William Gibson's Spook Country [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spook_Country].