Thursday, May 31, 2007

Touch screen madness

There's lots of buzz in the world about touch-screen interfaces. The godfather of the genre is Jeff Han, who gave a presentation that I'm sure everyone at Apple has been forced to watch.

Of course, now the iPhone has a shiny interface, and Bill Gates is showing off his new thing that will be forgotten in a year. Not to mention the interesting story about a high tech pen.

These are interesting ideas, for letting us interface with our information in more intuitive ways. But who cares if I can write with a pen and plug it in so then it'll order a book for me or email someone? I can whip out my phone or other thingy and just email them in the first place. A coffee table that will show all my photos? How complicated will it be to upload all my photos off my camera? It's the total experience, not just the shiny finale, that tells the story of technology. Will we find it useful? Will it be simple and easy, or not worth the hassle?

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