I am not a phone person. I find phones generally intrusive, and prefer to talk on the phone only by prearrangement. Consequently, I especially loathe cell phones, which would make me far more accessible than I personally believe is good for my mental health.
That said, I just read that Feedburner is debuting a new service that will deliver feeds to mobile devices such as cell phones and pagers:
SmartFeed Mobile Server. As I understand it, this service delivers feeds to mobile devices such as cell phones and pagers. It even will deliver podcasts -- although I have no idea how feasible that part is with mobile bandwidth issues.
So what? Well, this kind of service means that if you find yourself stuck in traffic and you forgot to bring your MP3 player, you could download a recent episode of a favorite podcast right there in your car! Or you could check out new items from your favorite blogs while waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles office.
This kind of service could have even bigger implications for the developing world. As
A Point recently noted, "For India, this can represent a tremendous leap in the amount of information available to people, ... and has the potential to change the structure of relationships. ... Many Indians will probably buy a cell phone before they buy a full-fledged computer."
It's a small step in the right direction. OK, upon further consideration I probably won't get a cell phone. (I really do hate them that much.) But if they could build this mobile capability into a portable MP3 player, I might buy that.
