Tuesday, July 19. 2011Is the Desktop Having an Identity Crisis?Both Apple and Microsoft's new desktop operating systems borrow elements from mobile devices, in sometimes confusing ways. Apple is widely expected to unveil a major update this week to OS X Lion, its operating system for desktop and laptop computers. Microsoft, meanwhile, is working on an even bigger overhaul of Windows, with a version called Windows 8. Some have criticized Mission Control, Apple's new centralized app and window management interface, saying that it adds complexity rather than introducing the simplicity of a mobile interface. At the other extreme, Lion allows any app to be rendered full-screen, which blocks out distractions but also forces users to switch applications more often than necessary. ----- Personal Comments:
From my personal point of view and based on my 30 years IT/Dev experience, I do not see the change of desktop Look&Feel as a crisis but more as a simple and efficient aesthetic evolution. Why? Because what was made for mobile phone first and then for new coming mobile devices like tablets is what some people were trying to do on laptop/desktop computer's GUI for years: trying to make the GUI/desktop experience simple enough in order to make computers accessible to anyone of us, even to the more recusant to technology (see evolution of windows and Linux GUI). That specific goal was successfully reached on mobile phones/devices in a very short time, pushing common people to change of device every two years and making them enjoy new functionality/technology without having to read one single page of an instruction manual (by the way, mobile phones are delivered without any!). It looks like technological constraints and restrictions were needed in order to invent this kind of interface. Touch screen only mobile phones were available since years prior Apple produces its first iPhone (2007), remember the Sony-Ericsson P800 (2002) and its successor the P900 (2003), technically everything was here (they are close to the "classic" smartphone we are used to have in our pocket nowadays), but an efficient GUI and in a more general way, an efficient OS was dramatically missing. What was done by Apple with iOS, Google with Android and HTC with its UISense GUI on top of Android brings out and demonstrates the obvious potential of these mobile devices.
The adaptation of these GUI/OS on tablet (iOS, Android 3.0), still with the touch-only constraint, rises up new solutions for GUI while extending what can be done through few basic finger gestures. It sounds not surprising that classic desktop/laptop computers are now trying to integrate the good of all this in their own environment as they did not succeed in doing so on their own before. I would even say that this is an obvious step forward as many ideas are adaptable to desktop computer world. For example, making easier the installation of applications by making available App store concept to desktop computers is an obvious step, one does not have to think if the application is compatible with the local hardware etc... the App store just focus on compatible applications, seamlessly. So more than entering a crisis/revolution, I would say that desktop computer world will just exploit from the mobile devices world what can be adapted in order to make the desktop computer experience for the end-user as seamless as it is on mobile devices... but for some basic tasks only. You can embed a desktop OS in a very
nice and simple box making things looking very similar to mobile
device's simplicity, but this is just a kind of gift package which is
not valuable for all usages you can face on a desktop computer...
making this step forward looking like a set of cosmetic changes, and not more... because it just can not be more! Today, one is used to glorious declaration each time a new OS is proposed to end-user, many so-called "new" features mentioned are not more than already existing ones that were re-design and pushed on the scene in order to obtain a kind of revolutionary OS impression: who can seriously consider full screen app or automatic save as new key features for a 21th century's new OS? Let's go through some of the key new features announced by Apple in Mac OS X Lion:
- Multi-touch: this is not a new feature, it "just" adds some new functionality to map to already available multi-touch gestures. - Full Screen management: it basically attached a virtual desktop to any application running in full screen. Thus, you can switch from/to full screen applications... the same way you were already able to do so by switching from one virtual desktop to another. - LaunchPad: this is basically a graphical interface/shortcuts for the 'Applications' folder in the Finder. Ok it looks like the Apps grid on a tablet or a mobile phone... but as it was already presented as a list, the other option was... guess what... a grid! - Mission Control: this is also an evolution of something that was already existing. The ability to see all your windows in addition to all your virtual desktops. I'm pretty convinced that these new features are going to be really useful and pleasant to use, making the usage of the touchpad on MacBook even more primordial, but I do not see here a real revolution, neither a crisis, in the way we are going to work on desktop/laptop computers. Study Finds That Memory Works Differently in the Age of Google ----- The rise of Internet search engines like Google has changed the way our brain remembers information, according to research by Columbia University psychologist Betsy Sparrow published July 14 in Science. “Since the advent of search engines, we are reorganizing the way we remember things,” said Sparrow. “Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.” Sparrow’s research reveals that we forget things we are confident we can find on the Internet. We are more likely to remember things we think are not available online. And we are better able to remember where to find something on the Internet than we are at remembering the information itself. This is believed to be the first research of its kind into the impact of search engines on human memory organization. Sparrow’s paper in Science is titled, “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips.” With colleagues Jenny Liu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard University, Sparrow explains that the Internet has become a primary form of what psychologists call transactive memory—recollections that are external to us but that we know when and how to access. The research was carried out in four studies. First, participants were asked to answer a series of difficult trivia questions. Then they were immediately tested to see if they had increased difficulty with a basic color naming task, which showed participants words in either blue or red. Their reaction time to search engine-related words, like Google and Yahoo, indicated that, after the difficult trivia questions, participants were thinking of Internet search engines as the way to find information. Second, the trivia questions were turned into statements. Participants read the statements and were tested for their recall of them when they believed the statements had been saved—meaning accessible to them later as is the case with the Internet—or erased. Participants did not learn the information as well when they believed the information would be accessible, and performed worse on the memory test than participants who believed the information was erased. Third, the same trivia statements were used to test memory of both the information itself and where the information could be found. Participants again believed that information either would be saved in general, saved in a specific spot, or erased. They recognized the statements which were erased more than the two categories which were saved. Fourth, participants believed all trivia statements that they typed would be saved into one of five generic folders. When asked to recall the folder names, they did so at greater rates than they recalled the trivia statements themselves. A deeper analysis revealed that people do not necessarily remember where to find certain information when they remember what it was, and that they particularly tend to remember where to find information when they can’t remember the information itself. According to Sparrow, a greater understanding of how our memory works in a world with search engines has the potential to change teaching and learning in all fields. “Perhaps those who teach in any context, be they college professors, doctors or business leaders, will become increasingly focused on imparting greater understanding of ideas and ways of thinking, and less focused on memorization,” said Sparrow. “And perhaps those who learn will become less occupied with facts and more engaged in larger questions of understanding.” The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Columbia’s department of psychology.
Time-lapse video shows how iPhones move across EuropeVia geek.com ----- Back in April, the news of Apple’s somewhat-secret iPhone location-data-tracking broke to much disapproval. The Internet was abuzz with outraged iPhone users concerned about their privacy. With a few months’ time, the dust has settled a bit, and a few people have even figured out ways to put this technology to good use. Take Crowdflow’s Michael Kreil for example. Kreil took location data from 880 iPhones all across Europe over one month’s time, he aggregated the data from April 2011, and then visualized it by creating an amazing time-lapse video. We’re able to see how iPhone customers move across the different countries in Europe. The video definitely has a psychedelic feel to it with its bright undulating lights flying around the eye-catching-colored maps of Europe. The map style resembles a bunch of fireflies buzzing about Europe. The lights fade on and off to represent when data is turned off, presumably at night when we tend to turn off our phones when going to sleep. Kreil said that most iPhones don’t collect data at night since the owner is, typically, not moving. Because of this, the image becomes blurry at night, and the lights dissolve. Kreil said that he couldn’t decide on a color scheme, so he made three videos of the same data, but in different colors. We chose our favorite below, but make sure to watch the others if you have a different color preference. We also recommend watching the videos in full HD and in full-screen mode. He also noted that he’d like to see the same project applied to the entire globe, which makes our little time-lapse-loving geek hearts flutter with excitement.
----- More videos @ CrowdFlow
(Page 1 of 1, totaling 3 entries)
|
QuicksearchPopular Entries
CategoriesShow tagged entriesSyndicate This BlogCalendarBlog Administration |