“I must say that it’s been surprisingly difficult, in various conversations with folks not immersed in the IxD space, to get across the essential distinction between context-aware applications and location-based services (LBS)…Mac Funamizu has actually nailed two separate things here. The first demonstrates precisely what I, at least, mean when I use the words “context aware”: but for some residual core of basic functionality, the device’s capabilities and available interface modalities at any given moment are largely if not entirely determined by the other networked objects around it. If you pair the device with a text, it’s a reader; at the checkstand, it provides a friendly POS interface; aimed at the skyline, it augments reality.”
Link: Worth a thousand words, etc. (speedbird.wordpress.com)
[...] So in light of the continued interest in LBS (not to mention the Starbucks scenario), it’s worth asking, would you rather have a location-based service, or a context-aware one? There are some interesting thoughts on context awareness from an industrial design perspective at Speedbird (via Small Surfaces). [...]