Computer Use in the Near Future?
For years I used to write short notes in my Newton—spur of the moment thoughts about how I'd like the Newton to evolve, and how it could interact with a much bigger system.
Eventually I sucked a lot of those notes out and arranged them in a sort of mini-site—hoping that someone with programming or entrepreneurial talent might absorb and implement even some of the suggestions. You never know.
I even pitched it to Bob Cringely for his opinion. He liked the idea of the block in particular, and suggested that although I'd described the concept in a lot of detail, most big concepts get radically re-defined by the time they are eventually implemented; he suggested that I refine the concept to three or four compelling ideas to make it more digestible.
I guess those ideas would be:
- The portability of your data, negating synchronization
- Seamless sharing and filtering of information through dragging, dropping, stretching etc.
- The OS knowing where you're at
- The OS guessing what you're trying to do
This was all written long before I switched to a Mac and it's interesting to read it again in the present context. It struck me, for example, how iPhoto echos a little of the concept by using four distinct areas of the screen to let you do several image processing-related tasks without going near the traditional menus...
Anyway, the button below will take you to the mini-site. Have a read. I'd be interested in what you think.