So many things happened in the interface and gui evolution since this blog stopped temporarily any kind of posting.
The iphone is certainly the most adopted one but this is only a small part of what is almost on us and that will face in the coming months or years in worst case scenarios.
The excellent design blog Smashing magazine has published a quite good (but not exhaustive summary of it). The Futuristic user interfaces post is fun to read and put a good status on what is happening and the ways that are progressing to made this keyboard/mouse paradigm becoming obsolete.
This confirms that interfaces are designed to be more portable, more intuitive, more immersive, this by strongest ways to surround users or by enhancing reality enabling the mix of additional information over reality.
I found on this video just while browsing and surfing some videos on dailymotion.
Funny that the buzz is made on such a cheap demo, but at this time it has launched an unprecedent element to the “masses”:
the Graphical User Interface a.k.a. the GUI. This will then change the world of Personnal computing forever and will define the norm as for at least 20 years.
We already spoke a lot of the new interfaces of the future on this blog (see previous articles here & there).
Now it’s becoming official as Microsoft announced for the end of this year the release of its Surface computer. Nothing new compared to what we alreasy present but a comercial device instead of a prototype.
The interaction with wireless devices and betweeb surface and objects put on it, start to open exciting perspectives.
Sent by my dear friend Michelange Baudoux (founder of the company ObjectiveGui).
This is a global view on almost all the current and upcoming technologies and their evolution from the hype to the hypotetical productivity stage.
One thing is sure, some are quick to evolve (RFID), others are blocked in the curve since ages (i.e: tablet PC’s)
The number of announcements about the arrival of the mobile internet and all its derivatives (marketing, services …) have occurred a numerous of time already.
The networks (Wap, GPRS, 3G, Wifi, WiMax) have been considered as a leverage and … nothing happened because no real adapted contents nor services were delivered beside (And oftently an excessive pricing, being a huge barrier for users).
Each device type generation have also been considered as a potential factor to start the mobile internet wave: gsm, gsm with colour screens, with wifi, pda connectable to any network… and again nothing sufficient to see a start.
So what?
As told, contents and services (and usability)are certainly the key. But what contents and what services? Due to the number of devices and then screen resolutions available on the market, it is very difficult for a content or service provider to test applications and mobile content areas properly.
This could be history soon with the new CS3 release from Adobe; wich is including Adobe Device Central a development framework with integrated emulators of mobile device with integrated knowledge base about the huge amount of different devices available.
Another software giant announcing a move on the mobile internet’s field is Microsoft with its project Deepfish: a mobile device browser.
These announcements are clearly not a revolution, but strong signals from the industry at two capital levels: User experience and application design tools for improved RMA (Rich Mobile Application).
Beside that, pure mobile based applications will certainly shortly explose, services as described by Forbes, some of them are already there in some places like mobile paiments, other are still studied in labs.
So Mobile internet is closer than never, we all know it will arrive soon, the only question is when?
