After I have blogged about VoIP , I now have MSN and GTalk permanently installed on my work PC; GTalk through web GMail permanently, with Gizmo Project and Mercury occasionally on my Powerbook. The problem is, MSN and iChat offers video chat, audio chat as well as IM but GTalk offers audio chat and IM only. While there are methods and applications that offer crossed platform IM, audio and video chats are seemingly only available with the same application on both ends. Adding the different computers and OSs, Gizmo Project is pretty well the only application that can do both audio chat as well as IM when both ends have it installed or IM only when just one end has it installed with the other end having some other IM client install; and GP works on both PC and Mac.
Here comes the Web 2.0 age.
Well, actually social networking services have been around for a couple of years. While I have only just been invited to join my first social networking service, I found out there are many of them around such as Facebook, Windows Live Spaces, MySpace, Google orkut,…… The list goes on and on. I don’t want to have to join 50 services just to be able to do one thing with all my friends and colleges.
It would be nice to be able to consolidate different types of applications into one suite like that of Windows Live or Google. Still, not everyone are installed with the same suite. While I am using GMail, GTalk, and GCalendar, I could use G.orkut which would integrate at least the “contact” (email address book) very well; but no, friends used MSN Live Messenger and/or Facebook (Hey, which one has most babes anyway?). Just like we have many languages in the world, modern communications are just not as simple as the plain old landline telephone.
So what do we have now? Direct SMS/MMS (video calls with 3G phone), SMS relay notification, over cellphones; Push Mail, mobile web, IM, VoIP over smartphones? Then there is the different cellphone systems over the 5 Continents. Unless you have the top end cellphone nowadays, you may be carrying 2 or every 3 different cellphones if you travel around the world often. Many many ways but all with different hardware/software. Carrying chargers alone could back your back.
Ohura! Scotty! I want that universal translator online and I want it now! I kiss all humanoid females, alien or otherwise!
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