A couple weeks ago I was at dinner with some friends. At some point, talking about recent trips, people wanted to see pictures. As iPhones ware passed around (always a little worried that swiping to the next photo might reveal something not intended to be shared), we realized that we could exchange photos with Apple’s new AirDrop feature. While this was pretty cool, the technology wasn’t seamless, and didn’t work for everyone. So the conversation…
 
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London’s Natural History Museum recently opened the interactive film “Who do you think you really are?” It’s the inaugural experience in their David Attenborough Studio lecture theater — a 64-seat theater where each seat has its own tablet computer. The 50-minute film teaches visitors about evolution using a mix of techniques. It looks like an interesting experience, using narrative storytelling, heads-down individual interactive segments, and heads-up/social augmented reality and image sharing. The project was a…
 
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On the eve of the rumored announcement of an Apple Tablet, I started thinking about similar devices in Star Trek. In Trek lingo they are referred to as PADDs. For a show made in the 60s and 80s it’s interesting to see how their conception changed over time. In the original show the earliest padds were pretty basic, like clip-boards that the crew could carry around — making notations with a stylus. In The Next…
 
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Here’s a great piece on Engadget by Paul Miller: Editorial: 10 outdated elements of desktop operating systems. It’s a very interesting read, not just about the problems of existing desktop operating systems, but pointing out that some of the possible solutions are right in front of us. What’s cool is the degree to which phones are leading the development of new ways for us to use computers. Why? Phones are not encumbered by legacy software,…
 
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