Spotting of trends is an essential skill for anyone that sits in the fast paced world of technology and has any hopes of staying ahead of the curve. We bloggers try to do it by subscribing to every possible feed we can get our hands on and applying our various memetracking algorithms and aggregation tools to the task. Others will pour through the feeds manually in an attempt to savor every last morsel of information.

The methods and information absorption tactics we are working on honing now will be the norm in a few years, and what will separate the men from the boys, so to speak, is their ability to make sense of the nose.

That’s the point of Richard Laermer’s book 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade. It’s a book about how to find the signal in the noise as well as a few predictions on how media will be forced to change for it to remain useful.

One of the things he talks about in his book (as well as his blog) is the publishing business and their inability to put out books in print while the information is still relevant:

The editing is done exactly how far in advance? If I write a book that is to come out in say December of 08– they have to have it in February. Why? ‘Cause they have a “schedule to follow,” but it would seem with digital technology you should be able to write right up to the deadline (like we do online).

To address this, he was able to somehow convince his publisher to release his book in digital form online - for free. The free part was obviously to make the splash, but he felt pretty solid on the fact that digital book releases would be the future of the book business.

It’s an interesting discussion, definitely one with some good nuggets and news consumption tips and tactics. Watch it via the embed below, or download the MP4.

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A couple weeks ago, the iPhone Dev Team released a method for “jailbreaking”, or unlocking the iPhone 1.1.1 requiring nearly seventy steps, involving knowledge of command-line and SSH protocols. Subsequently, other projects updated their Mac-only software that automated the process of unlocking phones to allow third-party applications to work again on the iPhone. Windows users, however, were left without an easy method to return their iBrick to its former glory.

Now, iDemocracy hopes to bridge the gap for Windows users. Designed as an open-source C# app, it automates most of the process of “jailbreaking” and installing third party iPhone apps even on phones running Apple’s latest firmware.

iDemocracy simplifies the process of a complicated hack so that even the common PC-user could do it with ease. The maximum user interaction required is the downgrading of firmware, but iDemocracy guides the user through every step of that as well. You will need to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to run it, as well as iTunes.

The application is reportedly well received in the iPhone hacking community, and appears to be well supported at the developers’ download site. If you’re a Windows user and an iBrick owner, this could be the solution you’re looking for.

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