UX buzzspree

Amazon announced their new Kindle e-book reader on their homepage today.

From what little I can tell of the kindle, although it looks slimmer and less clunky than the old one, I don’t see the revolutionary design some have been predicting. Meanwhile Google has announced it is making many books readable via cell phone. Not to be outdone, Amazon may be making a Kindle client for iPhone and other cell phones. Could it be the era of the e-book has dawned? I’m not holding my breath.

The AP has a story “MIT researchers make ‘sixth sense’ gadget” which is way too good to be true. This is obviously a hoax. The article ends saying the gadget is made with $300 worth of off the shelf components.

The device created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists can turn any surface into a touch-screen for computing, controlled by simple hand gestures.

The gadget can even take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger. Read more…

According to AFP (via Google), Apple was just awarded a patent for muti-touch. Of course, they didn’t invent the technology. But they describe specific interactions they developed.

US Patent 7,479,949 is awarded to “(Steve) Jobs et al” for a method of “detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display” to command computing devices.

A multi-page patent available online at the US Patent and Trade Office on Monday details iPhone or iPod Touch commands such as finger or thumb swiping, twisting, or spreading to flip pages, rotate views, or enlarge images. Read more…

The patent records an early application date of Sep., 2006 but most of us became aware of multi-touch via Jeff Han‘s brilliant demo video at TED (Filmed Feb 2006; Posted Aug 2006). (I still enjoy watching this video even though a lot of this interaction is becoming more common.)

Something I didn’t know: according to Wikipedia, multi-touch capable screens were developed as early as 1982 by the University of Toronto and Bell Labs.

I’m no patent attorney but the existence of prior art may make any legal defense of this patent difficult, to say the least. However, it seems the claims relate to very specific interactions and their resulting response, such as the 2 finger drag scrolling a page or other methods of screen manipulation.

As I previously posted, more touch screen PCs were unveiled at CES this month. (via Network World)

HP, Asus, Shuttle, and MSI have all unveiled stylish new touch screen-capable all-in-one PCs at CES 2009.

HP is following up on the popularity of its classy line of consumer TouchSmart PCs with a rebadged version of its TouchSmart IQ504t geared towards kiosk-style use in places like schools and hotels.The new dx9000 TouchSmart Business PC starts at US$1400, and has the same-sized 22-inch multitouch screen and built-in Webcam as the IQ504t, but adds a faster 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU and greater support options. Read more…

And since Apple didn’t announce a much wished for touch tablet or laptop, a 3rd party has announced a touch screen post-installed on an exiting Apple 24-inch display for an additional $1399 or buy the whole system pre-installed for $2299. It’s not the portable everyone was wishing for but interesting. I assume it’s too high a risk to offer this add-on for Apple laptops since everyone expects Apple to do this soon.

If Apple does this soon, they could look like pioneers to the vast majority who aren’t yet aware of the touch PCs.
HT: SlipperyBrick

The New York Times Bits column invents an imaginary “Touch-Screen Antagonist.” Everyone understands touch screens are not ideal for every situation. I don’t think you can imply this is an emerging movement.

Apple has claimed a number of innovations for the iPhone. Add this: the emergence of antagonists to the touch-screen display. At C.E.S., it was common to hear their refrain.

“I’m a power e-mail user,” goes the mantra. “I need a physical keyboard.”

In rough terms, these users are advocates of the BlackBerry and other devices that have a traditional Qwerty keypad. The “power user” mantra isn’t an overt attack, more of a passive-aggressive one with a slightly disparaging tone that tends to make it sound as though touch-screen users are lightweights who occasionally send an e-mail message or text to their mothers. Read more…

The WIMP interface (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) may be nearing a mid-life crisis but not necessarily death. Not quite yet. Microsoft Windows 7 incorporates more support for multi-touch, leading reporters to project a big future for touch screens in the home or office. Time will tell. As mentioned in the quote below, “Some things” are better done with a keyboard and mouse.

Critics have suggested that office workers or home users would be reluctant to abandon their carefully honed typing skills in favour of poking and prodding their monitors.

John Curran, the head of Microsoft’s Windows group in Britain, acknowledged that “some things” would continue to lend themselves to keyboard and mouse, but said that “touch has some advantages in how you can design and manipulate something”.

If adopted widely, touchscreen PCs could go some way to replacing the mouse, which has been the dominant interface device since it was invented by Xerox researchers in the 1970s. Read more…

Wired has a story on “Windows 7″ with some video of the UI in action. The reporter is sarcastic and refers to the Mac UI a bit, but can you blame him?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off CES 2009 with a keynote full of notable announcements. Microsoft showed off Windows 7 Beta, Windows Live, a flexible display, and boasted big spending on research and developement over the past year. Read more…

SmashingApps.com has a great collection of 21 Mac Apps. These really are some useful little utilities and some I haven’t heard of before. In fact, the only one I have used before is CyberDuck.
Most are for tweaking the way your mac behaves or making some repetitive tasks easier.

This is the post where we are listing out few great free tools for Mac Operating System, this is an exclusive post for our those readers who are the Mac users. But our other readers will also enjoy this post. Don’t forget to bookmark this post for your future reference as it has few most useful and free application that will be helpful for you when you are on your Mac system. This is absolutely a great list of 21 Free Apps For Mac OS X That Are Absolutely Useful. Read more…

A company called Originatic is introducing a flat, wall mounted PC at CES this year. They plan to market to both home and business. I’m not sure I would want to wall mount a computer in my home but I can see the advantages of small footprint and security for business kiosk use.

The Smart-Leaf debuted at CES 2008 as a concept; it seems that Originatic have been doing some market research since then. Both home and business users are being targeted, with Originatic believing the former want an “out of the way” machine for kitchens while the latter desire “cost-effective, space efficient” alternatives to the usual information kiosks. Read more…

Geek.com reports on an Apple patent related to gloves that still allow use of a touch screen. In my experience, patenting something doesn’t mean it will come to market. I doubt Apple will try to sell gloves that point out a major shortcoming of their product. However, it does solve a problem however inelegantly.

If you happen to work outdoors in the Winter and love your iPhone, then you have probably realized all too soon that hands wearing regular insulated gloves and touchscreens do not mix. In order to aid in this problem, Apple has decided to file for a patent for a glove that will keep your digits warm in the icy cold and still let you dial your iPhone without issue. Read more…