Bay Blogger Thursday

SFist: So, what started first -- the phone fetish or the blog?
Eric Lin: the phone fetish. for sure. the phone fetish started about 4 years before the first bubble
Eric Lin: then, back when the first tech websites (there weren't blogs yet) were fixated on PDAs, i started writing about all the cool cell phones in asia. all the other tech writers told me i was crazy
SFist: Were you thinking about device convergence already?
Eric Lin: no. the first smartphones were so crappy i didn't want to touch one. but i was thinking that PDAs didn't do much for me, but the minute i got my cell phone, i couldn't live without it
SFist: Interesting. So you brought a giant old brick phone to the Web 1.0 party -- but that would have been out of date, even for the early web. What was your first phone?
Eric Lin:
an ericsson 788. i was living in portland, oregon with a roommate also named eric. we moved into a new house and pac bell wasn't going to hook our phone up for like a month. we decided screw the landline and just got cell phones. that way we'd know which eric people were calling for
Eric Lin: that was 1997
SFist: And at what point did you realize that you couldn't live without it? Because we just lost ours at the DNA lounge, and have been desperate for it!
Eric Lin: well since i didn't have any alternative phone line, the addiction was pretty much immediate. about a month into using a cell phone i was like "this is perfect. regular phones are so stupid and backwards. my phone should be about where i am, not about where the phone is"
Eric Lin: back then i couldn't dream of all the things they would do to become the center of our lives
SFist: So yeah, back to the convergence thing. We're hard-core SMS addicts now, and are tres jealous of our Treo toting friends. Would you say the whole PDA versus cell phone war is over, with phones having kinda won?
Eric Lin: totally. the numbers prove it. pda sales shrink every quarter, phone sales still keep growing. smartphones keep growing too.
Eric Lin: the age of pdas has passed
SFist: Now other countries, and Japan and South Korea in particular, generally see the cool new stuff long before we do. I mean, Motorola just doesn't make phones with the same kind of features that LG and Samsung are. What gives?
Eric Lin: *ducks as the last 300 people who use non-Treo palms throw something at me*
Eric Lin: believe it or not, moto has a whole division in SK making cool phones. just we don't get to see them here.
Eric Lin: japan and SK's network aren't that advanced over what we have here now, but they had them like 18 months ago. we might see stuff that cool here in another. but the fact of the matter is in SK and Japan, most people walk or take public transport most the day...
Eric Lin: that means they have plenty of time to use all sorts of cool features on their phones.
Eric Lin: most americans sit in their office in front of a broadband connected pc and then drive home
SFist: Ah-ha! Yeah, driving and SMS definitely don't mix.
Eric Lin: so they're just not interested in mobile gaming or dating or watching tv
Eric Lin: texting while driving was recently outlawed in the UK
Eric Lin: it was an all too common occurance
SFist: Well, it should be said driving and talking aren't so great, either...
Eric Lin: true. but who drives in SF?
Eric Lin: it's tough to talk on the phone while i'm on my motorcycle
SFist: In other words, America's culture of fat, sedentary people who drive a lot is holding us back yet again?
Eric Lin: exactly
Eric Lin: that's one of the reasons that most companies launch fancy cell phone features here and nyc first
SFist: Now yeah, you mention life here in SF.
Eric Lin: we're not as fat and lazy
SFist: BART's juicing the tunnels...
SFist: 3G and EVDO are in full effect...
SFist: Gavin's talking about citywide wifi, and that means VO-wifi phones mebbe...
SFist: Could SF catch up to a certain extent?
Eric Lin: catch up to SK or japan? no. those guys aren't even bothering with wi-fi they're skipping to city wide wiBro or WiMax.
SFist: Damn.
Eric Lin: they laugh at our pitiful attempts
Eric Lin: *laughs maniacally*
SFist: It's sad, really. But if you want a giant payroll database or insecure backbone router, come to Silicon Valley!
Eric Lin: or if you want a huge house!
Eric Lin: my roommate is working on a 20,000 sq. ft. house in atherton
Eric Lin: who needs that kind of space??
SFist: Well, home wireless products seem to do real well here, maybe because nobody wants to wire a giant McMansion?
Eric Lin: no doubt. although he's in charge of running ethernet through the whole thing because they're doing it as they build the house. but think of all those huge old mansions in cow hollow or san rafael
Eric Lin: with some tech millionaire crying
Eric Lin: because the walls are made of plaster and he needs to have internet everywhere
Eric Lin: we are the wifi kings here
Eric Lin: there's an open wifi port everywhere
Eric Lin: i keep mine open for visitors to alamo square park
Eric Lin: or at least my corner of it
SFist: We've also seen some cool car-based wireless solutions emerging -- and San Francisco did do a pilot wifi bus project called the "Superbus." Any automotive tech you've got your eye on?
Eric Lin: i just was up at the MSFT mothership
Eric Lin: and they showed us the latest kitted out cars
Eric Lin: but much simpler than that, you need check out the junxion box
Eric Lin: it's not just for cars, it can work anywhere.
Eric Lin: it takes a cellular data card and uses the connection to create a wifi hotspot
Eric Lin: in your car or where ever you are
Eric Lin: dope as shit!
SFist: They had one wired up at the Engadget meetup, no?
Eric Lin: yah
Eric Lin: other than that, all the cool stuff in cars is centered around in dash navigation, which they're adding live traffic information and rerouting to now
SFist: Anything else out on the horizon you're seeing? Like super-cool devices that are going to get a lot cheaper?
Eric Lin: well regular phones and mobile devices are packing a whole lot more smart features into them. there's some hot phones that aren't really smartphones coming, and it seems the same can be said for other stuff like the ipods and whatnot. plus as the cost of putting bluetooth or wifi into stuff is coming down, we're seeing cool new [shit], like the burton AUDEX jacket
Eric Lin: which i'm totally drooling over
SFist: Wearable computing for the masses? Or at least trustafarian snowboarders?
Eric Lin: well trustafarian snowboarders this year. the masses in about another 2 years.
Eric Lin: but wouldn't it be great not to have to carry around a dorky bluetooth headset with you becuase it was built into your favorite upper playground hoodie?
SFist: We'll buy one when The North Face comes out with 'em so we can rock it at hip-hop shows.
Eric Lin: so true. it makes me sad TNF doesn't make truly technical clothing anymore
Eric Lin: thank the bay area for sierra designs and mountain hardware
Eric Lin: yay!
SFist: You could create a bluetooth mesh network of telemetrics from a climbing team, for instance...
SFist: Geolocation data, heart and respiration rate...okay, now we're geeking otu.
Eric Lin: or just copying the technology in universal soldier
Eric Lin: which i guess is geeking out even worse!!
SFist: That was just on SpikeTV the other day! Wow, we digress.
SFist: So how long have you been in San Francisco covering the tech beat?
Eric Lin: i'm a few months shy of my 7 year anniversary
SFist: Looking forward to this new boomlet we're seeing?
Eric Lin: yes. especially since i
Eric Lin: i'd love to get a place here during the next bust if there is one
Eric Lin: i don't mind renting, but owning a cool pad sure would be nice
Eric Lin: is that too jaded a way of looking at this?
Eric Lin: i mean i love that the economy is picking up again.
Eric Lin: but i dread having to fight to get tickets to shows at the great american or bimbo's again. i hated when every show was sold it in 12 hours to dot com jerks who bought 12 dollar drinks all night
Eric Lin: and worse, what if they bring back house music too. boy i hope the current low profile web 2.0 trend continues.
Eric Lin: i like running into people who just got bought out by yahoo or whoever at places like mission bar. it makes me feel like we're doing things right this time
SFist: Well, thanks to blogs, they'll be playing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or something.
Eric Lin: CYHSY was already sold out this time. before a real second boom
Eric Lin: (and yes, i missed that show, i always forget to buy tickets until the last minute)
SFist: Well, thanks for your time today. Before we sign off, how about an only in San Francisco story?
Eric Lin: oh man. i've seen it all here, but the funniest thing to me is even though we all treat SF like it's this huge metropolitan city, it really is tiny. there's no more than two degrees of separation to anyone here.
Eric Lin: or anywhere else for that matter.
Eric Lin: i wish i had some awesome story about some TV kicking some redneck's ass or something. but it happens so often i don't even remember those anymore
Eric Lin: let's just say that when i moved into my latest flat it took me less than a week to discover that 4 exes live within 1 block of me.
Eric Lin: and that 3 of them were dating other exes of mine
SFist: Ha! An Armistead Maupin moment if I ever heard one.
Eric Lin: SO TRUE