Putting this “Future Visions” video in public squanders attention that Microsoft could otherwise have focused on its current and imminent new products — like Windows Phone. Take a new iPhone 4S and a Windows Phone 7.5 device back in time 20 years and they might seem equally impressive to a pair of 1991 eyes. But one of them sold more in a weekend than the other does in an entire financial quarter. Is not Windows Phone scarily similar to the Newton? Innovative design, much to praise — and but striking the market like a wet match?
A few of those look pretty useful, the architectural ones especially. Personally the display on the plane would frustrate me, having to lift my arm out for every simple command / motion, it would be more practical to use a smaller tablet to interact with it, similar to the people sharing / stealing the whiteboard with / from each other near the end.
The one that stood out the most to me was the paper at the end, It's something that I have been wondering about for a long time.
Every morning I walk to work and some clown nearly hits me with the newspapers he's throwing from his car, not to mention half of them end up in the bushes. I've seen OLED displays being talked up for a couple of years now and their flexibility is no secret, surely there's a way to incorporate that into / onto a thin canvas type material that could essentially be a buy once newspaper, keep the size the same worldwide, that of an opened newspaper page or even only half a one and just have the newspaper received digitally and displayed.
That was the idea anyway, but with everyone apparently owning a tablet pc of some sort now you can just access all the major print news sources through practically any browser.
Still a canvas material would be more flexible, and I wouldn't worry about dropping it / stepping on it constantly like the missus Ipad :P
The bit where the little boy and girl are talking through the glass, is that meant to be like they're talking online? Would be funny if the little girl morphs into a 50 year old man...
I also like how you don't see a single ad on any of those screens... yeah right...
lol bollocks, the planes we have still look the same as the planes from 10 years ago. Plus unless MS go around inserting carrots in everyones asses, the future will never look like an MS commercial.
Hell, most schools I know are still using the same shit they had 10 years ago.
He does have a point though. And it's not just Microsoft. Heaps of companies prototype cool looking shit then release something inferior.
Shrug, I don't see the problem. Aim high IMO, there's plenty of time for the grim reality of users and engineering and people being fucking PEOPLE to grind away at the aspirations of the design team during development.
Hell, most schools I know are still using the same shit they had 10 years ago.
Then you know shit schools. Every classroom in my kid's school has wicked crazy technology.
P.S. I wasn't talking about internal prototyping, which is totally necessary, and so wasn't Gruber. I just find it silly when companies show and tell, then never release anything nearly that cool.
A lot of Public primary schools now have interactive whiteboards in place of the old black/chalk boards. Some teachers don't embrace it though... and treat it as a regular white board...
A lot of Public primary schools now have interactive whiteboards in place of the old black/chalk boards. Some teachers don't embrace it though... and treat it as a regular white board...
Yeah, that something my kids say. It's nifty having all this tech in schools, but if some of the teachers are still scared of email, it's not going to be particularly valuable.
Interactive whiteboards sounds amazing. Kids these days should stop learning and getting smart with cool things, in my day we were happy if we got one of the four demountable rooms with airconditioning between the two thousand kids, and then only if the teacher wasn't stingy :P (and those rooms smelled toxic'y, so you can be sure that we were miserable either way!).
You have a tendency to go crazy when anyone who uses Apple stuff mentions the word Apple somewhere. It's like auto attack mode or something.
So when did I go crazy exactly? I pointed out that an an admitted Apple disciple was criticising MS' modus operandi. And then in the next post I SHRUGGED to indicate nonchalance. Should I have put a smiley in there so you felt safe too?!
Is it because I said 'fuck' or something? What has happened to this place :(
when it is about flash, and at the expense due product depth then fuck of
buying apple because it is the best, is like buy a prius because it is the greenest, it is a joke
(my point is with the toyota might use less fuel, and look all pretty, but the amount of energy used in the mining and production of the materials required to built it far and away negate any green factor)
Anyway, ignoring the Apple-centered nature of the blog post, I do agree with Gruber about the companies that do this. Building all these expectations about future awesomeness only to release a product that falls far behind it is not the best thing. I'm not saying anything about Windows Phone 7 or Android, I'm just saying in general and I generally agree with the argument.
i.e. How much a huge waste of time was the Courier project, when companies like Apple have actually released something and are selling them like hotcakes. Btw, I'm using MS and Apple as an example because I know of the example...
Hell, most schools I know are still using the same shit they had 10 years ago.
Computers, laptops, paper, pens, whiteboards, projectors, lecturns with cameras for the projectors, and teachers?
That's what I remember from 2001.
I can only think that they've probably integrated better networks to those things now insetad of teachers bringing a disc or early 64mb thumbdrives. Probably wifi for students and phones are probably not banned anymore.
Funny though, because in 2000 we were still submitting assignments digitally, but from 3.5" floppy. I guess because you couldn't have expected every kid to have had a burner at that stage.
Anyway, ignoring the Apple-centered nature of the blog post, I do agree with Gruber about the companies that do this. Building all these expectations about future awesomeness only to release a product that falls far behind it is not the best thing. I'm not saying anything about Windows Phone 7 or Android, I'm just saying in general and I generally agree with the argument.
So you hate concept cars too ?!
I really don't see the problem, at all. Sure it might not be feasible, but that's just not the point of the exercise. I love that R&D is aspirational and that we get to see where the pie-in-the-sky guys would love to take us.
Its not a promise, its just a pretty picture of what could be, so I don't feel like I got a lump of coal when the reality turns out to be more functional than the original goal. How boring and stale if they kept this shit to themselves!
PM
WWW