iPhone + twitter =

Wouldn’t it be great if twitter was able to draw more metadata from tweets sent from smart devices like the iPhone? For example, it could check location, weather and even snap a picture to accompany your tweet. You could set how much of this information would be public.

It strikes me that the next evolution for twitter would be able to make the actual tweets more layered. Smart devices might be the way to do that.

Instead of tracking your contacts’ latest contact details, wouldn’t it be great if an online address book service would allow your contacts to do their maintenance for you? So instead of one tracking potentially hundreds of contacts, every user only ever worries about keeping their own details up to date.

Perhaps there are already Web services that do this – Plaxo maybe – but for it to work everybody needs to take part. It would not work if there were still 50% of your contacts who were working on an old standard.

Instead of just mirroring the functionality of desktop email clients, webmail services really should use the concept of cloud computing to make more of email.

GMail has already ventured into this direction by adding chat functionality to their webmail service – which now included translation bots.

But what if a Webmail services offered a host of Web modules that could be inserted into messages? Maps, feeds, pages – so that the message the receiver gets is actually a living, breathing, fully functioning Web page?

The true power of RSS is that you can edit your own newspaper. But you still have to read it on a screen.

What if we can combine a low-tech medium with a hi-tech streaming technology?

This idea is to create a newspaper company that delivers you your own daily newspaper, printed on news-print, comprising of the feeds you select. Literally any RSS feed should be able to stream into it.

Advanced lay-out software would do what computers do best – arrange information so that everything fits onto the page. The company could then sell advertising space and populate your pages with some targetted advertising.

This, totally unique newspaper could then be delivered to your door – everyday.

What if parcel delivery companies create “mesh” networks to improve on delivery times?

Their advanced route planning computers and GPS tracking systems could easily create on-the-fly hubs, timing two vehicles to intersect routes and switch some parcels. This increases the probability that an item could reach its destination faster.

I’ve had this Minority Report style vision of somebody arriving home, pouring themselves a drink, plonking down on a couch and watching a big screen of his friends’ twitter updates. Which naturally made me think that Twitter in screensavers would a be a good idea.

Obviously this cannot be a new idea. A quick Google reveals the obvious (D’oh).

But still, I think the concept can be pushed if enhanced by beautiful design. Tweets appearing coloured bubbles according to the emotion contained within, or the friend’s gender or relationship to you.

Could also be an amazing installation at a party. Get people’s twitter feeds up in a club or other venue and people can communicate across a room. People could even wear their twitter names on T-shirts to facilitate flirting