Hello everyone, and welcome to my dream app - Telepath. Many thanks go out to the judges for selecting Telepath from thousands of submissions. The process of reviewing over 2,700 entries and narrowing it down to just 24 ideas must have been exhausting. At this stage, I assumed that Telepath wouldn’t make the cut and was supporting a few contestants already. I’ll keep supporting my favorite ideas, and will now get to support my own, as well. I am looking forward to the first round, although frankly speaking, I don’t have any clue about what to expect. It’s time to go back and read through the contest rules again. Most of all, I’m excited about the opportunity to collaborate with a passionate community of insightful people here on making Telepath the best dream app it can possibly be.
What is Telepath?
We don’t always have the luxury of being in front of a computer - whether at lunch, running errands, or on travel. Telepath is an extension of the Mac using SMS as the protocol for information exchange to and from your mobile phone. Event triggers can be programmed on the Mac using Telepath to send alerts to your mobile phone via SMS, and can even trigger actions on your Mac based on your response to these messages directly from your mobile phone. Potential uses include email delivery, IM, Growl notifications, and security alerts. Telepath is a new type of “remote access” technology, with your phone as an extension of your Mac experience.
When you are in front of our computer, there is so much interactivity going on - email, instant messaging, news alerts, calendar notifications, various Dashboard widgets, and so much more. When you step away, the interactivity stops. Telepath helps to extend that interactivity by using your mobile phone, the device you carry around in our pocket, as the ‘mobile Mac appendage.’
While the delivery of information to the mobile phone may be the most obvious use for Telepath, there is a two-way component here that has tremendous potential. What if you could interact and control your Mac remotely based on your responses to these notifications, or even act as the initiator? Many of you with Internet-enabled, iSync-compatible phones may look at Telepath and not see much added value beyond what you already have. However, Telepath is about staying informed and engaging with your computer remotely.
Telepath is unlike any other dream app finalist in that it’s not actually used while you’re at your Mac! It acts as the conduit between your Mac and your mobile phone. While you’re at your computer, Telepath is only used for creating rules and filters for what the experience will be while you’re away. It’s basically a mobile server for the mobile client in your pocket.
A Call for Participation
We are only at the very beginning of this application’s life. It’s a simple concept, and one that needs your support. I’m sure that many of you will have ideas for Telepath that I couldn’t possibly dream up. Please share those ideas with me and let’s make Telepath the best dream app it can possibly be! This is a group effort, and we all benefit from its success. While it may be my idea right now, by the end of this process, it will be the collective idea of those of us who contributed to its realization. And, if we aren’t one of the lucky three finalists at the end of the contest, then let’s go build this app anyway…ok?
Some important decisions need to be made and some research needs to be done. Telepath needs your help.
* Is SMS the best way to implement this?
* If we build a more fully featured mobile Java app, does it become less consumer friendly?
* How does we arrange for the delivery of an SMS to a computer?
* How do we determine which notifications are relevant?
* How do we make the two-way aspect compelling?
* What are the cost impacts based on various rate plans and mobile carriers?
* How will Telepath know when to activate? Bluetooth proximity loss?
* How willl we make the syntax simple for messages initiated from the phone?
* Etcetera…etcetera…
How do we, as a community, create the best possible extension of the Macintosh experience for our mobile phones? Think that question over and post a reply to this blog entry. Oh, and take part in the Telepath forum!
Thank you. I look forward to your participation.
