Google Maps now also shows pedestrians how to walk from point A to B. (Dutch) One of the options is to avoid hills as much as possible.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how mobility coaching brands are brought to life; they help you from point to B through any possible means. Soon you’ll hear exactly how to walk through an ear-piece. You’ll hear where to take the subway (that’s been paid already) to end up at a rental car with which you can leave the city quickly and reach your next destination. This is a small step in that direction.

Readers of the American newspaper the New York Times will get a special frame on the technology and business pages. In this frame they'll be offered a special selection based on their LinkedIn profile. (LinkedIn is a social network for business professionals.) Members that are active in the energy sector will for instance receive relevant news from the energy market. Besides that it is also possible to share the news from the New York Times with LinkedIn contacts or to start a discussion with people from the user's personal network.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

People are more involved with the world in which they live, extremely involved in the lives of their family and friends, involves with their neighborhood, involved with their town, slightly less involved with their state and even less with country’s and world politics. Of the first they want to know everything, of the last just the headlines and between those a bridge. By personalizing the news the NY Times is a step closer to this. After this all sources will get their turn, different opinions will get their turn, or we can even create our own news. Then a newspaper (call it an example of ‘the media’) will no longer determine what the news is, but the people. The NY Times facilitates that and this is a good step in that direction.

Related trends

• More involved

The popular Dutch website Buienrader (Showerradar) is now also available for the iPhone through a special application. (demo).

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will communicate interactively, go into dialogue interactively, through all possible screens. At first these were computer screens, but now cell phones and iPhone screens are becoming more common. The navigational system, e-paper and especially the television will soon follow. It’ll become a trick to recognize a person through each screen and pursue the dialogue through that next screen, with different properties.

TechCrunch, the biggest techweblog, will develop a larger version of the iPhone with its readers. The device has to meet three criteria: thin, simple and cheap. Internet is central, so the device only has to run Linux and Firefox. Besides a large touch screen it'll only have an on/off button, wifi and a battery. All for the price of about two hundred dollars.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Slowly all products will become open source. It’s about adding value to people’s live by others; it’s the next step in cooperation between people. The closed concept of companies in an office building was needed in the mass-production and mass-communication era, but this phase is coming to an end. Brands that survive are experiencing a brand coming out. This is a nice example.

Related trends

• Brand coming out