AT&T, iPhone and the Shape of Things to Come

These were among the prototype technologies unveiled this week by AT&T, the Dallas-based communications giant with research facilities in New Jersey, Atlanta and Austin.

While held in an imposing Manhattan skyscraper built decades ago to house telephone network equipment, the previewed technologies had little to do with the traditional phone business.

AT&T (NYSE: T) is "definitely no longer merely a phone company," Chief Technology Officer John Donovan said. "We're really trying to stretch ourselves."

Transforming the User Interface

Donovan, noting an internal company program called "AT&T 2.0," said the company is focused heavily on making it easier for consumers to use technology. He said that as his industry has pursued tools for ever greater productivity, the human factor has often been overlooked.

He said in the future, "you'll really see us start to transform the user interface" and actions that once required typing will be done by touch or speaking.

AT&T's other tech priorities are "mobility and video," he said.

Across the U-Verse

Many of the technologies shown publicly for the first time on Monday involved AT&T's U-verse TV service, which has more than half a million customers and is available in parts of 13 states, including Georgia.

Peter Hill, vice president of video and converged services at AT&T Labs in Atlanta, demonstrated an application that matched his travel route to work with traffic cameras, allowing him to see his coming commute on a TV.

A "media throwing" feature allowed any image from the Web to be tossed from a computer to a TV screen.

iPhone at Center Stage

The Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone, for which AT&T is the U.S. carrier, was a popular demonstration platform at the event.

A program called "Splat" let Hill push the image of a tomato or a baseball on his iPhone screen with a finger and have the object wind up on the TV, leaving a simulation of a mess of broken glass.

Hill and a colleague also used their iPhones to play a Pokemon card game, with their handsets flinging out virtual cards and the TV screen serving as the table.

Other researchers showed iPhone applications still in testing, including voice-recognition software used for ordering pizza or searching for movies online.

One presenter asked his iPhone to display "action movies with Bruce Willis" and a list quickly appeared with links to YouTube clips.

Nearby, a prototype remote control system allowed speech commands to search an on-screen channel guide for movies and TV shows.

Donovan noted that the demonstrations are a "view of where we're headed."

"A lot of it will make it to market," he said. "A lot of it will change before it makes it to market."