Please Notify Kin’s Next Of Kin
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on April 12, 2010 by admin in Technology
Monday, April 12th, 2010The marketing of Microsoft’s new KIN may miss the mark in about a dozen ways, but at least it got the tech press talking about something other than the iP… PHEW! That was close.
Because even though it was born just today, we’re not sure how long it has to live. It’s rare that I’m utterly dumbfounded by the release of a tech product. But if you’re as perplexed as I am regarding what to think about Microsoft’s Kin, perhaps we can learn something together as I try to dispel my ignorance. There has been a quiet buzz about the product’s release for some time now (as codename “pink”), but today was the official rollout. Such as it was. According to available press materials, the Kin is targeted at “social networking-savvy teens and twenty-somethings”, but if you were aiming at this market, wouldn’t you want to roll your product out by having somebody like Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers pitch it, as opposed to a guy with a pot belly in a form-fitting shirt who – if you are a twentysomething – probably looks like your dad? The video below from Microsoft’s own press site blows it six ways to Sunday. It’s embeddable, but uses Silverlight; it’s presented by two fortyish guys who keep talking about their proposed market as “they”, sounding most of the time like their proposed market is a demographic they made up based on their ignorance and then created by looking for certain results; and it’s…well, BORING. I don’t think the device and related concepts are so far off the mark; I’d LOVE a phone that eases my transitions from social networking to web and e-mail to phone. And I mean one that isn’t the iPhone. But the promise of this sort of thing is inevitably so interwoven with the service that makes it work that I can’t imagine the Kin’s partnership with Verizon delivering all of this at a useful price. If you find the actual Kin site as annoyingly “hip two years ago” and cryptic as I did, Engadget has an expansive and thorough roundup of the product that puts all the pieces together. Which I think bodes poorly for the Kin, you really should be able to explain a product in a sentence or two if you’re marketing it to attention-impaired millenials. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Discount The Five-Finger Method
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 16, 2009 by admin in Technology
Friday, October 16th, 2009A cool touchscreen interface concept by 10GUI rethinks the window-based interface and explains why a standard touchscreen just doesn’t work for the desktop computer.
I’m always babbling about innovative laptops and cool user interfaces, but the video at left explaining a new user interface concept by 10GUI is probably the most insightful rethinking of the desktop that I’ve seen in a long time. As an interface designer myself, I think the iPhone (although I feel no need to own one myself) is probably the most brilliant personal computer interface to date. I’ve been dying to own a larger device that utilizes its multitouch features, which is why I’m always drooling over the idea of a Mac tablet or dual-touchscreen laptop, but have also often thought about how a lot of the features of a multitouch screen are actually antithetical to the realities of desktop use. This video by 10GUI references that, and offers a fantastic solution. I’d have to try the deeper levels of task and file management that they demonstrate in the video before I’d know if I agree with the solutions offered, but on the surface they make perfect sense. I’d love to see this interface integrated into a real device and try it. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, the nerd all the nerds love to hate (Michael Arrington) just (ahem) touched on this topic the other day over at TechCrunch. Read the rest of this entry »
iWish iHad a Mac Tablet
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on August 13, 2009 by admin in Technology
Thursday, August 13th, 2009Almost as much as I wish the tech news industry would stop taunting me with the idea.
This Mac Conversion Goes A Little Overboard |
I have no interest in owning an iPhone. I don’t go to meetings every day with trembling hands and utter “My name is Ian, and I’m powerless in the face of Apple“. I refuse to use iTunes, and I hate their business strategy and software. I get mildly annoyed when people tell me how I’ve made so much progress since I started using a MacBook (a machine I love, by the way). In spite of all this, I literally salivate when someone says “Mac Tablet”. I saw an Apple MessagePad back before I even used computers, and was dumbfounded when I finally started using a PC in 1999 to find that the product had been quickly abandoned. So will the world of tech industry and business news PLEASE STOP TORTURING ME? Industry sources have been saying “coming this fall” since around the time of this May 2008 rumor. Yesterday’s rumor is that they just shot an ad for the new Mac Tablet at a diner in Truckee, California. This all hot on the heels of the buzz about some mysterious “veteran analyst” actually handling the thing. To fan the flames of my lustful depravity, Mashable presented this comprehensive roundup of imagined Mac Tablets last week. My pick would have to be Tommaso Gecchelin’s flexible touchscreen notebook (pictured below), which most agree is an exceedingly unlikely Apple design. For now, alas, the only available Mac Tablet is the Axiotron ModBook, which somehow seems like one of those car kits that turns a Volkswagon into a sports car. Maybe I should’ve included the Mac Tablet in my list of Disappointing Technologies… Read the rest of this entry »
Google Voice, iPhones, And SpyPhones
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 8, 2009 by admin in Technology
Saturday, August 8th, 2009Google Voice is amazing. And creepy.
I just got an invite to try Google Voice, and after giving it a quick test run, I was left a little uneasy. I’m not really a tin-foil hat type, but I’m often reminded of William Burroughs’ remark that “A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on”. The uneasiness kicked in as soon as I clicked on the “accept” link, and had to decide whether or not to use one of my existing G-Mail accounts. Should I use my business account? My personal account? I knew that to test the service, I’d be entering both my mobile and land line numbers. Which meant I’d be linking pieces of my Google search history with my e-mail content, two phone numbers, and my name. And storing it all in one place on a Google server. I opted to create a new G-Mail account. In spite of Google Voice’s amazing features, I’m going to have to ponder exactly how to put it to use, because the same things that make it cool make it creepy. You can record calls, transcribe them to text, do conference calls, and even pick up as someone leaves a voice message, just like an answering machine. All in one place. Which is exactly the issue. All in one place. On a Google server. I know we’ll all eventually have shaved heads, a number instead of a name, and be constantly under surveillance like in the George Lucas movie THX 1138
Hyperlinking Reality
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on April 7, 2009 by admin in Technology
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009What if you could click on the objects around you for more information about them?
Imagine you’re in Rome, and by pointing your iPhone at a statue, you’re able not only to identify the statue, but also able to click on links to Wikipedia about it, and then switch to Google Maps to locate the nearest cafe for a break from sightseeing. This scenario is quickly becoming less and less like science fiction, thanks to new tools like Photosynth and Mobvis. We touched on Photosynth a while back, but they’ve more recently teamed with CNN to bring you an interesting and different way to look at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. Unfortunately, if you’re on a Mac, you won’t be able to see how interesting and different. They say they’re working on a Mac-friendly version, but for a more cross-platform look at what these tools have to offer in the meantime, see the Photo Tourism project page at Washington University. You might also check out the short video Hyperlinking Reality Via Camera Phones (also below), which presents the concept in a simpler, more visual manner. And although the presenter and narrator step randomly into programmer gobbledy-gook, cut them some slack. At least they have the courtesy to do it in English! The project is being developed by Visual Cognitive Systems Lab, at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. This technology has amazing possibilities, but I’m also always a little leery of the possible negative uses. Imagine a more highly developed version of this that merges the tools with Google Street View (with which I’ve previously expressed some annoyance) and Facial Recognition Systems. You could literally click on the faces of people around you for biographical information. Unless of course they had an adequately-developed tinfoil hat, as I apparently do… Read the rest of this entry »