A New Paradigm For Web Browsing

dsaci points out a New York Times article about how surfing the web may change to a more graphics-based endeavor. With the advent of devices like the Wii and the iPhone, the capability to directly control objects on a screen is becoming a popular and affordable technology. That, combined with immersive interfaces such as Piclens, could be the future of web browsing. Quoting: "'I've wondered for a long time why the computer interface hasn't changed from 20 years ago,' said Austin Shoemaker, a former Apple Computer software engineer and now chief technology officer of Cooliris. 'People should think of a computer interface less as a tool and more as a extension of themselves or as extension of their mind.' Voice, too, is finally beginning to play a significant role as an interface tool in a new generation of consumer-oriented wireless handsets. Many technologists now believe that hunting and pecking on the tiny keyboards of cellphones and P.D.A.'s will quickly give way to voice commands that will return map, text and other data displayed visually on small screens."

Comments

Re:Yeah good luck with that

[Gothmolly]

Thanks, you've illustrated my point perfectly.

Re:I prefer cross-platform standards.

[Anonymous Coward]

at least the Deep Zoom technology Microsoft has baked into Silverlight looks pretty cool - and it's already PC and Mac cross platform with Linux (via Moonlight) promised. I couldn't work out from the mobile announcements if it would be available on WinMo and S60 straight away, and I guess we'll have to waiting on the iPhone until Jobs gets his act together.

Watching the demo at the MIX conference for http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/ I was amazed how easy it was to zoom in and out through what would have been pages of data in a traditional sense, and hard to handle even with Ajax.

The live site is pretty cool, but the video at http://www.visitmix.com/blogs/News/Mix-Keynote-Hard-Rock-Demo/ shows that there is even more cool stuff waiting in the wings.... now we can design in the X, Y and Z planes with fractal page layouts. My head is already starting to spin!

Re:Yeah good luck with that

[Dun Malg]

As the proud owner of an iMate JAM, an iMate K-JAM and a Mio P550, as well as having a number of friends with older HTCs and other iMates, I can assure you that yes, they do crash... I have some friends with the newer HTC phones, and they report that WM6 seems to be more stable, but a few of them have reported serious problems with battery life. Indeed, I used to use a Mio A701 (WM5) and it was a bloody nightmare. It required a reboot every 6-8 hours because the radio driver would quietly crap out (no error message, the phone would simply no longer receive or place calls!). I've had much better luck with my HTC TYTN II/Kaiser (an AT&T Tilt I reflashed with the HTC Kaiser ROM) with WM6. Battery life was indeed an issue at first, but if you're a dork like me you can try different radio ROMs until you find the one that lasts longest with your hardware. I recently flashed it to WM6.1 (requiring a 6.1 compatible radio ROM) and battery life is even better. As much as I'd love a non-Microsoft OS on my phone, I have to admit that WM6 is perfectly serviceable for my needs. It's relatively open so there's lots of software and hacks for it, and the phones with the features I require* all run it.

* slide out keyboard, GPS, touch screen, simple USB laptop tethering, and HSDPA, so don't point that stupid toy "1 out of 5 ain't bad" iPhone at me!

Re:Yeah good luck with that

[elrous0]

Can you imagine trying to dictate a regular expression?

Even worse, can you imagine an entire office full of people in cubicles dictating all at once?