Re: [NTLK] The "iMoleskine" ?

A different point of view..
I am reminded by reading all these posts that Apple will probably not make
a device that only feeds us geeky few.... They would only do it for the
masses. So all this technical discussion of the underpinnings of the OS,
while a great read, is probably lost on the consumer component- which is
clearly, IMO, the way in which Apple [no computer] Inc. is moving.

I wonder if there might be some discussion on the less technical and the
more UI condition?

Just a thought :)

On 5/20/08 3:38 AM, "Simon Stapleton" <simon.stapleton@gmail.com> wrote:

> Of all the manufacturers, Apple have probably the best chance at the
> moment to make a real, workable, and above all sellable, tablet
> device. As a hardware and software manufacturer, they don't have to
> compromise on the "lowest common denominator", they can target the
> sotware to specific hardware, and vice versa. On top of that, they
> have a very, very, solid underpinning in OSX, and proven experience in
> making devices that effectively hide the OS "mechanics" with the
> iPhone, iPod, and even the Newton.
>
> I don't see the current iPhone platform as being Newton v2, but it's
> definitely a step along the way.
>
> Whether you love or hate OSX, it has the capability to provide the
> underpinnings of an absolutely *blinding* tablet device. Not some
> godawful "desktop shoehorned into a palmtop", but a real, honest-to-
> goodness tablet device as befits a son of Newton. A paradigm-busting
> combination of hardware and software, a real machine for the rest of
> us. Much of what's there, in fact, makes more sense as part of an
> "user-opaque" device, rather than the current "desktop" approach.
>
> Spotlight - as has been pointed out, this makes little sense when you
> know where things are on your machine. If you make user (and even
> programmatic) access to the filesystem opaque, it makes a lot more
> sense.
> Metadata - a baby almost thrown out with the bathwater during the move
> to OSX, and one never truly exploited by any OS, this is a perfect
> partner for omnipresent search. And OSX's support for metadata,
> although underutilised in its desktop incarnation, is better than it's
> ever been.
> Filesystem notifications - New with Leopard, and pretty much only
> currently used for Time Machine, this makes it possible to know
> exactly what's changed on a filesystem between 2 points in time, and
> thus, what needs synchronising. That could be very handy for a
> portable machine.
> Omnipresent scripting ability could be used to build something very
> like the Newton's assistant, but going further, far further.
> ZFS is coming, and this can remove the artificial barrier of "this
> data is on this disk". Combined with curernt technology one can
> imagine a tablet device that automatically and seamlessly forms part
> of your desktop when "docked", backs itself up as part of your desktop
> (and leaves its backups there so you can use that data on your desktop
> even when your tablet is not around)
> "Write anywhere" could be used, along with a decent cursive recogniser
> to provide a newton-like interface, or, with bluetooth devices for a
> more "conventional" approach.
>
> Taken to its logical extreme, this could really become the "compute
> anywhere" machine. "dock" it with a desktop machine to use a bigger
> screen, and potentially to use the other facilities of that machine as
> well ( extra processing power and memory through the magic of fat
> binaries, dvd/cd media via drive sharing a la macbook air, etc).
>
> The UI challenges to do something like this would be considerable, but
> really could break the WIMP / filesystem view stranglehold, push
> computing out of its current stagnation, make computing more
> accessible, more usable. People laughed at the original Macintosh
> interface, called it a toy. Now pretty much every computer uses a
> derivative of that interface. People laughed at the iPhone, at its
> lack of buttons. How many iPhone knockoffs have been launched since
> then?
>
> To be fair, something like this could fall flat on its face, too.
>
> Simon
>
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>

-- 
bryan cantley
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+
    Professor of Design Theory
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