Background
As it's the twentieth anniversary of the Mac I've found myself over the last few days reading articles about the original development of the Mac, Star, and Lisa; how they came up with and honed the various interface elements. It's all stuff that we're now familiar with and consider ubiquitous, such as scroll bars, windows, icons etc. The current state of the interface art seems to work quite well, but I do think there are alternatives -- major alternatives really, when it comes to the very idea of launching applications to perform tasks.
Years ago I was one of the first to get my hands on an Apple Newton, and I've had every hardware version since then. The Newton was a computer -- in that you could download software into it, and it was very flexible in how you used it -- but because it was a handheld they took the opportunity to start again from scratch with regard to the interface and what metaphors it would use.
Instead of using a desktop as the backbone of the OS, they chose a notepad, or rather, an endless roll of note paper. You didn't create new notes, or save them or name them. You simply drew a line across the screen and wrote something new below it. The OS then turned the line into a separator and date stamped it, using the first few words of the note as a title to be used when viewed in the overview mode. Third party developers wrote enhancements for the OS that made the notepad incredibly powerful, and easy to navigate.
When going back to an earlier note, the first thought wasn't "what did I name it," or, "where did I file it", but rather, "when did I write it?" This reference to a timeline seemed such an obvious and natural method of searching that I began thinking about how it could be used in a fullsized setting -- for everything. Not just notes created or edited, but having every activity recorded on the timeline. If the timeline projected into the future as well it could also serve as a scheduler.
So, the timeline could act as one type of filing system and be a planner or calendar. From that base I came up with three other elements that together with the timeline would handle all tasks that someone might perform when sitting at the PC, or device. Then the question of the makeup of the device itself came up; actually it is a suite of devices that encompass all of the situations where the user might find himself.
So I'll continue by describing the hardware. Remember that this scenario is set several years in the future...