Open Sesame

My friend Dean from WebTV was the cofounder of Slim Devices which was recently acquired by Logitech. Besides making great software and hardware, Slim decided early to make their server software open source. As a result lots of developers and even competitors started using theirsoftware. A recent example is the Netvibes+Slimserver mashup. Its awesome and a great idea that would never happen if conventional wisdom prevailed at Slim. Fortunately they tossed out conventional wisdom  day 1.

More CE companies should follow the Slim Devices model.

Open, sesame CE guys.

Sonos. I love my Sonos but I want to write apps for it. I want a search engine on Sonos. I'd really love Last.fm integration. And I want YottaMusic to control my Rhapsody playlists that are accessed by Sonos. To do the latter now I have to set up all Rhapsody playlists for Sonos on Lauren's dell laptop. Sad but true.

Apple iPhone & iPod. Who knows if the iPhone will actually be closed over time but it would be tragic if it was closed. Even Microsoft knows better as anyone can develop 3rd party apps for WindowsMobile. I'd also like to write apps that could integrate gps with the nike ipod so I could mash it up with google maps and track where I've been hiking or biking.

Comcast HDPVR Can you imagine how many sweet apps could be created if Comcast turned on networking or even the firewire port on their HD PVR.

We need open consumer electronics. The CE space needs to be turned inside out. We need to be able to mash up hardware and software. Services and apps will be created that we haven't even thought of yet. Dave Winer has a denon receiver with a web server on board. Cool.

Just a sign of things to come.

Comments

[Mike]

I have Sonos too and I agree that last.fm would be a killer app for Sonos. I am also a big fan of YottaMusic and would love to see some kind of integration with Sonos. While we're at it, how about a Sonos/Pandora integration?

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