RSS began its life as a really simple way for content providers to syndicate their content and for content consumers to subscribe to their favorite providers. When the blogosphere emerged, RSS really took off. Now, just as its “simple” technology cousin, HTML, provided the underpinnings of the Web 1.0 technology platform, RSS is emerging as a platform for delivering the broadband and mobile ready applications of a Web 2.0 enabled world. Backed by two application examples, this blog presents a thesis of the key moving parts integral to the RSS platform and how they come together.

CornerScreen Networks leverages the emergence of three trends -- user-defined RSS feeds, enhanced tools for organizing online content and Google-style advertising networks -- and unifies them within a slide viewer application that runs in a corner of your computer screen.

In the age of always-on broadband, I think that it is time for someone to build a service around live (or pre-recorded) television content. Think about it. Beyond financial programming, there are logical applications around music, news, sports, reality television and educational programming.

A thought occurred to me the other day; what if you could combine the pen drive with the View-Master? What I am thinking of is a pen drive-sized device that could store photos and other graphic files the same way as any USB based storage device (i.e., stick the drive in a computer's USB port and drag photos onto the drive). But, similar to the View-Master, this device, which I will euphemistically call the iPocket, would have a lighting source that could "project" images in the drive onto a wall or some other background.

New consumer electronics devices leapfrog their predecessors by incorporating new types of functionality that re-define the "problem" their predecessors solved. Just think, for example, how TiVo has re-defined the VCR experience. Well, if the embrace and extend strategy can work for the innovator, then such a strategy can work for the predecessor. Along those lines, I have been ruminating on the question of what would the cordless telephone look like if it were to be re-invented?

I have recently started devoting more energy towards becoming financially literate. You may wonder, "What does financial literacy have to do with the O'Reilly audience?" Well, after spending some time playing around with the different financial web sites and reading a really interesting book, I started to contemplate a new web site (destination) and web service (APIs).

Imagine a web service/site that enhances the travel experience by improving trip research and planning, finding people to travel with, people to connect with at your travel destination, and enabling you to keep loved ones apprised of travels during a trip via mobile camera phones. This blog does just that.

With 40% of the online population now having always-on, broadband connections, new types of tools are needed for consumers to better manage the online information that flows through such connections. This blog discusses the attributes of one such tool, which I call an inter-personal information manager, or iPim for short.

When do client applications matter? Simply put, when does a rich client have an "unfair advantage" over a web browser in terms of bringing real value-add to the application composite?

This blog focuses on the evolving consumer Internet, and specifically, how the "old" web (of web pages and web sites) morphs into a new and improved Internet.