Like any new technological development, 4G is a lot closer than you think. Tests are already underway and some battle lines are being drawn with regards to how the market for these services will emerge. This development is on track to coincide with the equally rapid development of real time systems like Twitter and Google Wave. What is likely to emerge are services that create instantaneous streams to deliver and share not just text and hyperlinks, but video, audio, whiteboarding and files. This will be:
a) Faster
b) From a static or mobile device
c) With more reliable synchronization via the cloud
d) Easily archivable and searchable

Even more exciting is the continued evolution in hardware and always on devices. Taking the iPhone as an example, it’s gyroscope has redefined gaming and sent the experience into a much more physical dimension. The Wii is another case, even being used as part of physical therapy regimens.

Doing some exploratory thinking about the possibilities opened by Google Wave, I came up with this very early idea of something that could turn out to be pretty interesting. In explaining it, I’ll assume you’ve watched that huge 1h20min video they have about it (it’s worth every minute, but there’s an abridged — 10min — version).

Motivation

People have been doing code review through email for ages. It’s the easiest, dead-simple way of doing it. Just add a post-receive-hook to your repository and make it email a diff of every new commit to a mailing list. People answer to that email, inlining comments where needed. Great, you say. But… It’s not 2.0. Bummer.