Check out this story about a mysterious technology/device code-named 'Ginger' due to come out in 2002, invented by Dean Kamer who, among other things, invented the insulin pump.

Hayden Books has shelled out a quarter-million dollars just to reserve the rights to the 'making of' book, to be composed by Steve Kemper. So what is 'Ginger'? Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Apple's Steve Jobs both think its a revolutionary product, amazing in potential and an instant hit. Kamer has hinted that it's an alternative to products that: "are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities." Of course, cars leap immediately to mind.

If the quote were 'an alternative for products that are...' I would think it was a device I'll call the navigator. Picture this, a PDA with a small GPS and wireless modem (too many 'I have a great solution' stories start out with that stipulation, I know). You tell it where you want to go, and when you need to be there, and it sees that you get there. By integrating in realtime with subway schedules, highway traffic patterns and accidents, train schedules, taxi companies, etc. it would give you the most efficient way to get to where you want to go, and it would do it turn by tunr, moment by moment, in real time. If the situation changes, it updates the plan.

Picture this: You need to get from Berkeley to Palo Alto as fast as possible, but it's 8am on a rainy Monday and the freeways would take two hours. Tell this palmtop device where you need to go (via address or clicking and zooming on a map) and it knows you have a car, and how you drive, based on 'watching you' on the road (with the GPS), and knows that that's not the best solution, so it directs you to walk to the bart station, where, based on your walking speed you'll make the next BART train to Montgomory St. station.

Once there, you need to get to the CalTrain station quickly to make the peninsula train down to Palo Alto. Your navigator knows exactly when your BART train will arrive, and will tell you which way to exit. 15 minutes before your BART train arrives at Montgomory, it placed a request with one of SF's taxi companies for the short hop, and told it exctly when you'd be arriving. You exit the station to see the cab, who's ID number and color description has been relayed to your palm, and you're wisked to the CalTrain station with a few minutes to spare to get your ticket and take the train down to Palo Alto, where either another cab is waiting for you or, depending on how much time you have and how much you're carrying (and your disposition towards walking) the device gives you block by block graphical and/or spoken directions to the door of your destination.

Of course, this doesn't need a dedicated device. A GPS springboard module (or the Palm equivilant) and a CDPD modem (a Palm VII, Ricochet, or OmniSky modem) would provide all the end-user needs. Of course the largest obstacle would be the realtime data integration between various transportation agencies.

Extra features come easily. You could toss a URL to a friend, coworker, or client, and they could track your progress, along with an estimate of your arrival time. If the navigator knows you'll be late (slow train or missed train, for example) it can fire off a message by phone, pager, or email to let the distant party know your updated arrival time.

Anyhow, I've gone off on my own distant tangent. I think such a product would be immensely useful, and if I'm off the mark, then I'm all the more curious as to what 'Ginger' is. It seems that whatever it is, it doesn't cut into the space of Apple or Amazon, given their principals' knowledge and acclaim of the project.

Then again, anything Hayden would pay a quarter million for probaby will have a large third-party development base. Hmm. I guess we'll see in 2002.

I hate waiting.