Do you Poken? If You Don't, You Will

Spreading like wild fires across Europe and launching in Japan this week, Poken seems ready to take over the world. Cell phone and mobile communications being are huge hit with teens and tweens and nearly every single adult is carrying at least one mobile communications device. Almost everyone from 13 to 30 has embraced text messaging and growing numbers of people are joining social networking services like LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace and so on. Poken seems set to bridge the gap between business card and social network.

After setting up the Poken upon your computer you simply hold it next to someone else's Poken in a RFID high-five. Once the little hand lights up green, your contact information is exchanged. More specifically your ID within the Poken database is exchanged and you store whatever social information that you want to share in that location. The next time you go online and plug-in your Poken you are connected to the people with whom you've Poken'd. Proper verb conjugation and a US release date are both still elusive, but you can order from international web vendors now and start to Poken all your friends. Pokens are around $20-$25 apiece and are available in about 8 different fun character shapes.