Evolution of User Experience on the Platform

Convergence of IP, Telephony, GPS, Radio, and Television in Mobile

In his premiere presentation of "From Abacus to iPhone to CrestaTV" at the Fenwick and West Conference Center on 2/17/'09, George Haber closes in on the nascent primacy of the moble desktop as an expression of user wants and needs as "the evolution of the user experience on the platform is what matters".  Drawing a parallel to Moore's Law, Mr. Haber posits the lemma that "if something can be done in software, it will".  He argues persuasively for software as the best (and most cost-effective) route to collect input in a world where communications standards evolve much more quickly than hardware can be replaced.  The CrestaTech gamble is that "in the next step, all of the reception of radio signals, plus (in the future) the transmission of radio signals (which includes television), will be done in software".  CrestaTV "brings together radio, tv, and GPS onto your notebook to create a universal media center on the go".  You can multi-task with the internet and share radio based programs with your social network in a real-time bridge.  "It is a region free device" because it automatically adapts to the ever-expanding array of emerging standards in the spectrum wherever you go. "It's like carrying a radio, a tv, a slingbox, a tivo, and a navigation device" on a chip in your computer.  The chip is very inexpensive, and implements all of these services in an integrated interface that locates all signals (within 3 seconds) in a Google Maps display, from which you graphically select the signals that you want.  He calls the system of RF transceiver adaptability "programmable broadband".  

CrestaTV began in late in 2005 with a first round of $1.5 million.  The second round was funded about a year later for approximately $5 million.  The universal receiver was demonstrated at CES this year using most of the largest standards.  Another 50 standards are in the process of inclusion, which will be implemented in round three.

This has stimulated more than a few of us to think about live mobile broadcasting.