Via GIGAOM

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User interfaces present one of the most interesting quandaries of modern computing: we’ve moved from big monitors and keyboards to touchscreens, but now we’re heading into a world of connected everyday objects and wearable computing — how will we interact with those? Metaio, the German augmented reality outfit, has an idea.

Augmented reality (AR) involves overlaying virtual imagery and information on top of the real world — you may be familiar with the concept of viewing a magazine page through your phone’s camera and seeing a static ad come to life. Metaio has come up with a way of creating a user interface on pretty much any surface, by combining traditional camera-driven AR with thermal imaging.

Essentially, what Metaio is demonstrating with its new “Thermal Touch” interface concept is an alternative to what a touchscreen does when you touch it — there, capacitive sensors know you’ve touched a certain part because they can sense the electrical charge in your finger; here, an infrared camera senses the residual heat left by your finger. So, for example, you could use smart glass to view a virtual chess board on an empty table, then actually play chess on it:

“Our R&D department had a few thermal cameras that they’d just received and kind of on a whim they started playing around,” Metaio spokesman Trak Lord told me. “One researcher noticed that every time he touched something, it left a very visible heat signature imprint.”

To be clear, a normal camera can do a lot of tracking if it has sufficiently powerful brains behind it – some of the theoretical applications shown off by Metaio on Thursday may be partly achievable without yet another sensor for your tablet or smart glass or whatever. But there’s a limit to what normal cameras can do when it comes to tracking interaction with three-dimensional surfaces. As Lord put it, “the thermal camera adds another dimension of understanding. If you have a [normal] camera it’s not as precise. The thermal imaging camera can very clearly see where exactly you’re touching.”

Metaio has a bunch of fascinating use cases to hand: security keypads that only the user can see; newspaper ads with clickable links; interactive car manuals that show you what you need to know about a component when you touch it. But right now this is just R&D – nobody is putting thermal imaging cameras into their smartphones and wearables just yet, and Lord reckons it will take at least 5 years before this sort of thing comes to market, if it ever does.

For now, this is the equipment needed to realize the concept:

Still, when modern mobile devices are already packing tons of sensors, why not throw in another if it can turn anything into a user interface? Here’s Metaio’s video, showing what Thermal Touch could do:

Via INSIDE Intercom

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Cards are fast becoming the best design pattern for mobile devices.

We are currently witnessing a re-architecture of the web, away from pages and destinations, towards completely personalised experiences built on an aggregation of many individual pieces of content. Content being broken down into individual components and re-aggregated is the result of the rise of mobile technologies, billions of screens of all shapes and sizes, and unprecedented access to data from all kinds of sources through APIs and SDKs. This is driving the web away from many pages of content linked together, towards individual pieces of content aggregated together into one experience.

The aggregation depends on:

• The person consuming the content and their interests, preferences, behaviour.
• Their location and environmental context.
• Their friends’ interests, preferences and behaviour.
• The targeting advertising eco-system.

If the predominant medium of our time is set to be the portable screen (think phones and tablets), then the predominant design pattern is set to be cards. The signs are already here…

Twitter is moving to cards

Twitter recently launched Cards, a way to attached multimedia inline with tweets. Now the NYT should care more about how their story appears on the Twitter card (right hand in image above) than on their own web properties, because the likelihood is that the content will be seen more often in card format.

Google is moving to cards

With Google Now, Google is rethinking information distribution, away from search, to personalised information pushed to mobile devices. Their design pattern for this is cards.

Everyone is moving to cards

Pinterest (above left) is built around cards. The new Discover feature on Spotify (above right) is built around cards. Much of Facebook now represents cards. Many parts of iOS7 are now card based, for example the app switcher and Airdrop.

The list goes on. The most exciting thing is that despite these many early card based designs, I think we’re only getting started. Cards are an incredible design pattern, and they have been around for a long time.

Cards give bursts of information

Cards as an information dissemination medium have been around for a very long time. Imperial China used them in the 9th century for games. Trade cards in 17th century London helped people find businesses. In 18th century Europe footmen of aristocrats used cards to introduce the impending arrival of the distinguished guest. For hundreds of years people have handed around business cards.

We send birthday cards, greeting cards. My wallet is full of debit cards, credit cards, my driving licence card. During my childhood, I was surrounded by games with cards. Top Trumps, Pokemon, Panini sticker albums and swapsies. Monopoly, Cluedo, Trivial Pursuit. Before computer technology, air traffic controllers used cards to manage the planes in the sky. Some still do.

Cards are a great medium for communicating quick stories. Indeed the great (and terrible) films of our time are all storyboarded using a card like format. Each card representing a scene. Card, Card, Card. Telling the story. Think about flipping through printed photos, each photo telling it’s own little tale. When we travelled we sent back postcards.

What about commerce? Cards are the predominant pattern for coupons. Remember cutting out the corner of the breakfast cereal box? Or being handed coupon cards as you walk through a shopping mall? Circulars, sent out to hundreds of millions of people every week are a full page aggregation of many individual cards. People cut them out and stick them to their fridge for later.

Cards can be manipulated.

In addition to their reputable past as an information medium, the most important thing about cards is that they are almost infinitely manipulatable. See the simple example above from Samuel Couto Think about cards in the physical world. They can be turned over to reveal more, folded for a summary and expanded for more details, stacked to save space, sorted, grouped, and spread out to survey more than one.

When designing for screens, we can take advantage of all these things. In addition, we can take advantage of animation and movement. We can hint at what is on the reverse, or that the card can be folded out. We can embed multimedia content, photos, videos, music. There are so many new things to invent here.

Cards are perfect for mobile devices and varying screen sizes. Remember, mobile devices are the heart and soul of the future of your business, no matter who you are and what you do. On mobile devices, cards can be stacked vertically, like an activity stream on a phone. They can be stacked horizontally, adding a column as a tablet is turned 90 degrees. They can be a fixed or variable height.

Cards are the new creative canvas

It’s already clear that product and interaction designers will heavily use cards. I think the same is true for marketers and creatives in advertising. As social media continues to rise, and continues to fragment into many services, taking up more and more of our time, marketing dollars will inevitably follow. The consistent thread through these services, the predominant canvas for creativity, will be card based. Content consumption on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Line, you name it, is all built on the card design metaphor.

I think there is no getting away from it. Cards are the next big thing in design and the creative arts. To me that’s incredibly exciting.

Via SlashGear

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With the wearable device known as MYO, there’s no need for the computer to see you to understand your commands. Instead, this armband connects to your device – Mac and Windows for now, Android and iOS soon – with Bluetooth and reads gestures you make with your hand and arm through muscle fluctuations. This armband is already out in the wild – the full “second wave” for the public comes in early 2014.

While devices like Leap Motion require that you stay within a pre-determined space that its sensors can “see”, MYO stays within the Bluetooth range of reading. This means you’ll be kicking it at either 100 meters (330 ft) or 50 meters, depending on if you’re working with Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) or not – LE works with the shorter range.

The armband is a “one size fits all” sort of situation, and the final form hasn’t exactly taken shape as yet. The mock-ups you see here are about as close as the team has gotten to a real final form, while demo videos still show a slightly less finessed iteration.

The video

The consumer edition of this device will have a pre-set selection of gestures easily recognized by the sensors in the device. As the developers at Thalmic Labs suggest, this is only done to make things simple right out of the box:

“We want you to have the best experience with your MYO! In order to do this, at the general consumer level we are going to be providing you with set gestures that are easily recognized. This is not due to a technical limitation but instead will allow you to have a more seamless user experience out of the box. You will then be able to decide what each gesture represents.”

Thalmic Labs is a North American based company that was only fully founded in 2012, made up of 21 creative minds and headed by Canadian entrepreneur Stephen Lake. MYO is currently up for pre-order for $149 and again, ships in “early 2014.”

Via ars technica

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It’s been quite a year of surprises from Google. Before the company’s annual developer conference in May, we anticipated at least an incremental version of Android to hit the scene. Instead, we encountered a different game plan—Google not only started offering stock features like its keyboard as separate, downloadable apps for other Android handset users, but it’s also offering stock Android versions of non-Nexus-branded hardware like Samsung's Galaxy S4 and the HTC One in the Google Play store. So if you’d rather not deal with OEM overlays and carrier restrictions, you can plop down some cash and purchase unlocked, untainted Android hardware.

But the OEM-tied handsets aren't all bad. Sometimes the manufacturer’s Android offerings tack on a little extra something to the device that stock or Nexus Android hardware might not. These perks include things like software improvements and hardware enhancements—sometimes even thoughtful little extra touches. We’ll take a look at four of the major manufacturer overlays available right now to compare how they stack up to stock Android. Sometimes the differences are obvious, especially when it comes to the interface and user experience. You may be wondering what the overall benefit is to sticking with a manufacturer’s skin. The reasons for doing so can be very compelling.

A brief history of OEM interfaces

Why do OEM overlays happen in the first place? iOS and Windows Phone 8 don’t have to deal with this nonsense, so what's the deal with Android? Well, Android was unveiled in 2007 alongside the Open Handset Alliance (a consortium of hardware, software, and carriers to help further advance open standards for mobile devices). The mission was to keep the operating system open and accessible to all so users could mostly do whatever they wanted to do with it. As Samsung VP of Product Planning and Marketing Nick DiCarlo told Gizmodo, “Google has induced a system where some of the world's largest companies—the biggest handset manufacturer and a bunch of other really big ones—are also investing huge money behind their ecosystem. It's a really powerful and honestly pretty brilliant business model.”

The main issue with all of these different companies using the same software for their hardware is one of differentiation—how does Samsung or HTC or LG or Sony make an Android phone that doesn't have the same look, feel, and features as the competition's similarly specced phones? Putting their own skins, software, and services on top of Android gives them access to the good parts of Google's ecosystem (in most cases, the Google Play store and the surrounding software ecosystem) while theoretically helping them stand out from other phones on the shelf.

These skins haven't exactly been received with open arms. For many enthusiasts, skinned Android sometimes means that outstanding hardware is bogged down by all these extra offerings that manufacturers think will make their handset more appealing. But the overlays—or skins, as they’re often referred to—usually change the way the interface looks and acts. Sometimes it introduces new features that don't already exist on Android.

For Samsung, its Android interface domination began with the Samsung Behold II, which ran the first incarnation of the Samsung's TouchWiz Android UI. The name previously referred to Samsung's own proprietary operating system for its phones. Reviewers weren't too excited about Samsung's iteration of the Android interface, with sites like CNET writing that the “TouchWiz interface doesn't really add much to the user experience and in fact, at times, hinders it." Sometimes it still feels that way.

Samsung is notorious for packing in a breadth of features, but its aesthetics are often lacking. But again, that’s subjective, and it all comes down to the user. I’ve been using the last version of TouchWiz on a Galaxy S III. While I’ve had some instances where it was frustrating, I’ve come to appreciate some of the extra perks that shine through.

HTC's Android skin is called the Sense UI, and it was introduced in 2009. I’ve had some experience with it in my earlier Android days when I had an HTC Incredible, but it’s come a long way since then. According to Gizmodo, the interface's roots go back to 2007, when HTC had to alter its software for Windows Mobile to make it touch-sensitive so that it wouldn't just be limited to stylus input. It was eventually ported over to the HTC Hero, which was also the first Android device to feature a manufacturer’s interface overlay.

As for LG and Sony, their interfaces have less storied histories (and less prominent branding). Each borrows moves from what the two major players do and then implements the ideas a little better or a little worse. It’s an interesting dynamic, but the big theme here is choice: there is so much to choose from when you’re an Android user that it can be overwhelming if you’re not entirely sure of where to go next. Brand loyalty and past experiences can only go so far as the constant stream of updates and releases means manufacturers seek new directions nonstop.

Each manufacturer puts some flair on its version of Android. Samsung's TouchWiz Nature UX 2.0, for instance, features a bubble blue interface with bright, vibrant colors and drop shadows to accompany every icon. LG’s Optimus UI uses... a similar aesthetic. But both interfaces allow you to customize the font style and size from within the Settings menu, even if the end product could ultimately end up as a garish looking interface.

Among the selection of manufacturers, Sony and HTC have been the most successful in designing an Android interface that complements the chassis on their respective flagship devices. HTC's Sense UI has always been one of my favorites for its overall sleekness and simplicity. Though it's not as barebones as the stock Android interface, Sense 5.0 now sports a thin, narrow font with modern-looking iconography that pairs well with its latest handset, the HTC One.

Sony's interface is not only pleasing to use, it also matches the general design philosophy that the company continues to maintain throughout its lifespan. Though it has no official alias, the Xperia interface showcases clean lines and extra offerings that don’t completely sour the overall user experience.

In this comparison, we're taking a look at recent phones from all of the manufacturers: a Nexus 4 and a Samsung Galaxy S 4 equipped with Android 4.2.2. The HTC One, LG Optimus G Pro, and Sony Xperia Z are all still on Android 4.1.2. We were unable to actually get any hands-on time with the latest Android 4.2 update to the HTC One.

We didn't include Motorola in the gang because the company is undergoing a massive makeover right now. Plus, its last flagship handset was the Droid Razr Maxx HD, which debuted back in October and has relatively dated specifications. We have some high hopes for what might be in store for Motorola’s future, especially with Google’s immediate backing, but we’re waiting to see what’s to come of that acquisition later this year.

Lock screens, home screens, and settings, too

Home screens and lock screens are perhaps the most important element of a user interface because that's what the user will deal with the most. Think about it: every time you turn on your phone, you see the lock screen. We need to consider how many swipes it takes to get to the thing you want to do from the time you unlock your phone to the next executable action. (And hopefully there are some shortcuts that we can implement along the way to save time.)

On stock Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, Google included a plethora of options for users to interact with their phone right from the lock screen. The Jelly Bean update that hit late last year added lock screen widgets and quick, swipe-over access to the camera application. The lock screen can also be disengaged entirely if you would rather have instant access to your applications by hitting the power button.

In TouchWiz, Samsung kept the ability to add multiple widgets to the lock screen, including one that provides one-touch access to favorite applications and the ability to swipe over to the camera app. You can also add a clock or a personal message to the lock screen. TouchWiz even takes it a step further through the use of wake-up commands, which let you check for missed calls and messages by simply uttering a phrase at the lock screen. To actually unlock the device, you can choose to swipe you finger across the lock screen or take advantage of common Android features like Face unlock.

As for the home screen, Samsung continues to offer the standard Android experience here, except that it tacks on a few extra perks. Hitting the Menu button on the home screen will bring up extra options, like the ability to create a folder or easily edit and remove apps from a particular page. There's also an "Easy" home screen mode, which dials down the interface to a scant few options for those users with limited smartphone experience—like your technophobic parents, for instance. Easy mode will display bigger buttons and limit the interface to three home screens, though basic app functionality remains.

The HTC One just recently received an update for Android 4.2.2, though we didn't receive it in time to update our unit for this article. Regardless, HTC's Sense 5 is a far cry from its interface of yore—but that’s not a bad thing. It features a flatter, more condensed design with a new font that makes it appear more futuristic than other interfaces.

Rather than implement a lock screen widget feature, HTC lets users choose between five different lock screen modes, including a Photo album mode, music mode, and productivity mode, which lets you glance at your notifications.

Sense’s home screen can be a bit of a wreck if you’re looking for something simplistic. Its BlinkFeed feature takes up an entire page. Though it’s meant for aggregating news sites and social networks that you set up yourself, you can’t link up your favorite RSS feeds. By default, it’s your home page when you unlock the phone. You can change the home page in Sense 5 so that you don’t have to actually use the feature, but it can’t be entirely removed.

LG's lock screen is just as busy and impacted as Samsung's, with a Settings menu that's almost as disjointed. Like Samsung's, it offers different unlock screen effects, varying clocks and shortcuts, and the ability to display owner information in case you lose your phone. As for the home screen, Optimus UI offers a home backup and restore option, as well as the ability to display the home screen in constant Portrait view.

Sony's Xperia Z handset is currently limited to Android 4.1.2. Its settings are laid out like stock Android, but there is no ability to add widgets or different clocks to the lock screen. We'd expect this sort of thing to become available when the phone is updated to Android 4.2.

Notifications

In the latest version of Jelly Bean, Google introduced Quick Settings, meant to provide quick access to frequently used settings. This is one area where the OEMs were ahead of Google—many of the interfaces have integrated at least a few different quick settings options for a while now.

Samsung's TouchWiz has been the most successful in implementing these features. You can scroll through a carousel of options or display them as a grid by pressing a button. LG’s Optimus UI borrows this same idea but overcrowds the Notifications panel with extra features like Qslide (more on this later). Even on the Optimus G Pro’s 5.5-inch display, the Quick Settings panel feels too congested to quickly find what you want without glancing over everything else first.

Sony and HTC kept it simple with their Notifications shade for the most part. Our HTC One and Xperia Z are running Android 4.1.2, so there's no built-in Quick Settings panel to take advantage of. Neither OEM implements its own version of the feature. The One's Android 4.2.2 update reportedly adds quick settings, and we assume that the same will be true of the Xperia Z when it gets its update.

App drawers

The only OEM overlay that keeps it as simplistic and straightforward as stock Android is Sony. You can categorize how you want to display apps and in what order, but beyond that there's not much else between you and your applications. You can uninstall applications by long-pressing them and dragging them to the "remove" icon that appears rather than dragging them to one of the home screens.

That's not to say what Samsung and LG provide isn't user friendly. Both manufacturers offer additional options once you head into the applications drawer. LG enables you to sort alphabetically or by download date, and you can increase icon size and change the wallpaper just for the application menu. You can also choose which applications to hide in case you would rather not be reminded of all the bloatware that sometimes comes with handsets.

As for the Galaxy S 4, Samsung offers a quick hit button for the Play Store. You can view your apps by category or by type, and you can share applications, which essentially advertises the Play Store link to various social networks.

HTC's interface falls short when it comes to the application launcher. As Phil Nickinson from Android Central put it, the HTC Sense 5 application drawer makes simple look complicated. The grid size, for instance, appears narrower and takes up precious space. Rather than make good use of the screen resolution, HTC displays the apps in a 3-by-4 icon grid by default, with the weather and clock widget taking up a huge chunk at the top. You also can't long-press on an application to place it on a home screen. Instead, you have to drag it up to the top left corner and then select the shortcut button to finally place it on the home screen—apparently, this feature is fixed in the HTC One’s Android 4.2.2 update (but we've yet to try it ourselves). It’s a bit of an ordeal to make the app drawer feel "normal" as defined by the rest of the Android OEMs. In general, we feel like Sense takes the most work to achieve some level of comfort.

Dialers

The Optimus UI offers an information-dense Dialer app. You can sift through logs, mark certain contacts as favorites, and peruse through your contacts right from within the app. LG offers an option to make the dialer easy to use one-handed.

Although the Sense UI’s dialer layout feels a bit cramped, you can still bring up a contact from your address book by simply typing in a few letters of their name. You can cycle through your favorites, your contacts, and different groups. However, it would be more convenient if the Contacts screen worked like a carousel rather than a back-and-forth type of menu screen. Extra dialer settings also take up quite a bit of space at the top of the screen rather than being nested in menus as they are in other phones. Each screen in the Dialer has a different set of settings, which can be a bit confusing. Sense UI’s dialer app—and its overall interface—has a bit of a learning curve to it, but at least the aesthetic is nice.

Samsung’s Dialer interface also has a favorites list and a separate tab for the keypad, but otherwise It’s much more simplistic looking than the rest of TouchWiz. Sony kept the Dialer relatively untouched too, adding just an extra tab for favorites.

In the end, Jelly Bean has the best, cleanest-looking dialer application. While the extra categories are a good idea for users with a hefty number of contacts and groups of people to compartmentalize, sometimes minimizing the number of options is better—especially in the case of an operating system that is wholly barebones to begin with.

Apps, apps, apps

Google packs up a suite of applications with the stock version of Android to perfectly complement the company's offerings. On the Nexus 4 and the Google Play editions of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One, you'll encounter applications like Google Calendar, Mail, Currents, Chrome, and Earth. Not all of the manufacturer’s handsets come with this whole set of apps out of the box. The regular edition of the Galaxy S 4, for instance, doesn't include Google Earth or Currents, but it does have the Gmail and Maps application. Some carriers will package up handsets with their own suite of apps, and carriers might also include things like a backup application or an app that lets you check on your minutes and data usage.

For the most part, however, these handsets do include their own versions of calendar and mail apps (though the Google Calendar app is available in the Play store, the non-Gmail email client isn't). They have camera apps with software tweaks that are compatible with the hardware contained on the device. Some handsets also have a bunch of extra features just because; Samsung is especially fond of this.

Camera applications

Perhaps the biggest differentiator between interfaces is the camera features and controls. We'll start with the HTC One, with its Ultrapixel camera and myriad features. You can use things like Zoe to stitch together several still images and create a Thrasher-like action photo or just combine two slightly mediocre photos to make one worthy of sharing on social networks. The Ultrapixel camera also automatically adjusts exposure and the like to produce a fine looking photo, as we found out when we tested it out in our comparative review of the Google Play edition of the HTC One and the standard version.

The stock Android camera application isn't totally devoid of features, however. Android 4.2.2's new camera UI has scroll-up controls that make it easy to quickly switch between things like Exposure and Scene settings. And while it could certainly use a little oomph like HTC introduced with its camera application, there is such a thing as too much good stuff—especially when you look at what LG and Samsung have crammed into their camera interfaces.

Samsung's TouchWiz-provided camera application is a bit of a mess. On the Galaxy S 4, you'll have to deal with buttons and features splattered all over the place. There's a Mode button that lets you cycle between the 12 different camera modes—things like Panorama, HDR, Beauty face (which enhances the facial features of your subject), Sound & shot (which shoots a photo and then some audio to accompany it), and Drama (which works a little like HTC's Zoe feature). Those camera options are all fun to use from time to time, and you can change the menu screen from carousel to grid view so that you're not too overwhelmed by the breadth of options. But there are still so many buttons lining the sides of the viewfinder on the display.

There's also a general Settings button in the bottom corner that will expand out with more icons, taking up even more room on the screen. Below that are two buttons for switching between the front- and rear-facing cameras, as well as the ability to use the dual-camera functionality while snapping a photo. TouchWiz is great at offering a bunch of choices, but it can get a bit exhausting. If there were a more concise way of making these available, it would make the Camera application less intimidating to use.

LG's Optimus UI camera application isn't any better. Rather than allowing the entire screen to be used as a viewfinder with icons that lay on top of it like with TouchWiz, the menu options take up the top and bottom third of the screen. It’s nice that LG offers a little symbol in the preview window to let you know how your battery life is doing and which mode you’re shooting in, but figuring out what symbol does what takes a bit of time. At least with Samsung’s large catalog of offerings, there’s an explicit description about what each camera function does.

Sony’s camera app is a bit easier to navigate. It has found the right medium between simplicity and feature-filled functionality. Unfortunately for its hardware, that doesn't translate over to how well the camera actually performs. But the interface is something that other OEMs should strive for: a straightforward, easy-to-use preview window that’s just what Goldilocks was looking for.

Where the camera application really matters is with handsets like the HTC One. That extra bit of software that HTC packs up with its One is essential for its camera functionality to operate at its prime. As our own Andrew Cunningham put it in his review of the Google Play edition of the HTC One:

...there are the HTC-specific features that the "ultrapixel" camera on the [GPe] One lacks, namely Zoe (which can stitch together several still images to convey action), the ability to stitch together "highlight movies" from short videos on your phone, and pretty much any feature that lets you combine two unsatisfactory photos to get one satisfactory one (like Always Smile or Object Removal). These have been replaced by a slightly tweaked version of the stock Android camera, which we assume will make it to the Nexus phones and tablets in the next release of Android.

Additionally, the Google Play edition One had some image quality issues when it shot in automatic shooting mode. The standard One—which is fueled by HTC's Sense 5—can adjust its exposure based on its surroundings. The Google Play edition—the stock Android 4.2.2 version—doesn't have those same software tweaks in its camera application.

In some ways, this is actually the best argument for why you would consider an OEM-tied Android handset over an unlocked, stock one: the software has been tweaked to work best with that specific handset's internals.

Calendars

In May, Google Calendar got a makeover in addition to color-coded functionality in order to vary days and events for each calendar. The new interface was particularly focused on streamlining the design aesthetic across all Google applications, and while the update didn't introduce too many new features, it did make Google's Calendar app a little more palatable.

Samsung's calendar application is not the prettiest thing to look at, but it's certainly feature-filled. Users can switch between six different calendar view modes and four different view styles, including the ability to view the calendar in a list or pop-up form. There are also a number of minor settings that you can individually adjust, including the ability to select what day your week should start on.

HTC's Sense uses its own proprietary calendar application, too. You can sync your accounts, choose the first day of the week, set the default time zone (and another if you travel frequently), and even display the weather within the calendar app. At the bottom of the screen, Sense will show upcoming events at a glance, and you can tap to add more throughout the day. You can also sort your calendar by meeting invitations.

LG's Optimus UI employs a similar interface to Sense UI’s with the calendar view at the top and tasks for meeting invitations available at the bottom. Still, it doesn't feel as informative as what stock Android and Samsung are putting forward. Sony provides a Calendar app that uses a similar icon to Google's stock app, and while the interface looks the same, it doesn't have the color-coding abilities of Google Cal.

Mail

The Nexus 4 and Google Play edition handsets come with their own suite of Google-branded applications, including two e-mail apps: Gmail and a nondescript Email app. While Gmail is a little more feature-filled, with the option to use things like Priority inbox, the Email app's interface appears a little barren. You can add Exchange, Yahoo!, Hotmail, and other POP3/IMAP accounts to it or add your Gmail account to keep them synced up in one app. However, with the app's straightforward nature, there's not much else to it. Mail applications offered by other manufacturers don't veer too far from what's here, though. They essentially offer the same basic functionality and settings across the board.

Annoyingly, most of the Mail apps, like Samsung's and LG's, bury server settings at the very end of the settings panel. But all of them take a page out of stock Android's book by providing a combined inbox view, which is especially helpful if you're juggling between a myriad of different accounts.

HTC's e-mail application has the same design as its other OEM-offered proprietary applications, but it's much easier to navigate than other apps. The Settings button resides at the top of the page with a bunch of options, including the ability to add an account or set an "out of office" message. From there, you can even access additional settings. HTC also provides a couple of different sync settings, for instance, to help preserve battery life.

Sony's Mail application is nice and easy as well. You can hit the settings button in the bottom right corner to mark a piece as unread, star it, move it to another folder, or access the general settings panel.

Other apps

With each OEM overlay comes a whole set of applications that could prove to be useful in the end. Except Samsung's, that is—the manufacturer has bundled a huge set of features and capabilities that feel redundant and might even suck the life out of your battery if you're not careful.

The Galaxy S 4 comes preloaded with a bunch of applications, including Samsung's own app store, entertainment hub, and app that enables you to access content on your phone from a desktop computer. The only perk of signing up for a Samsung account and going that route is being able to track where your phone is in case you lose or misplace it. Samsung can back up phone data too.

But there's more where this came from. Samsung includes a remote control application for your television called Samsung WatchON, but it's only compatible if you have an active cable or satellite television subscription. There's also S Health, which helps you manage your lifestyle and well-being. And if you're a hands-free type of user, you can take advantage of gesture-based functionality like Air gestures or enable the screen to keep track of your eye movement.

Samsung isn't the only offender when it comes to stuffing applications and features onto its flagship handsets, however. Sony oversaturated its own music and movie store, and it has a Walkman music-playing application alongside Google Music. When you hold down the Menu button, there's a row of "small apps" that gives you quick access to things like the browser, a calculator, and a timer. We covered these briefly in the Xperia Tablet Z review, but they work the same on the Xperia Z handset: once you launch the "small" app, the app will appear in a pop out screen on top of the interface. It's kind of like multitasking.

LG, on the other hand, lets the carrier pack it with apps. LG then includes a multitasking feature called Qslide. You can choose from several Qslide-compatible applications that pop up over an open application in order to do things like leave a note and use the calculator. It also has a setting that turns off the screen when you're not looking.

Among all phones, there are a great number of features and apps to adapt to using. While I don't find things like Samsung's Air gestures and Smart scroll gimmicky, it can get frustrating to venture into the apps drawer only to find it crowded with icons of applications that you will never use. Some of these features and apps are things you'd never find packed up with the stock version of Android—because they're not always necessary.

The future

We're still waiting to hear about Android 4.3 and what it will bring to the mobile platform. Every time Google launches an update, you can bet that the manufacturers will follow suit with their interfaces (you know, eventually). That's what causes the biggest conundrum for Android users. I had things like Quick Settings already available on my Galaxy S III before Google natively implemented them into Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, but for the OEMs that didn't build their own version of this feature, I'm constantly at the mercy of my carrier and the manufacturer. They dictate when I'll receive my update for the latest version of Jelly Bean.

The biggest gripe about OEM overlays is that each company is selling its own brand of Android rather than Google's. Remember the Android update alliance? That didn't work out too well in the end. Carriers and hardware makers aren't keeping their promises, and as that trickles down to the consumer, it eventually confuses the public. As Google attempts to implement interface and performance standards, manufacturers will go ahead and hire a team to make Android look virtually unrecognizable. Samsung's app and media store sort of feels like an insult at times, but it knows that it doesn't have all the clout to make strides with its own mobile operating system.

There is a silver lining to all this, at least for purists: why should you even bother with OEM interfaces when you can now purchase two of the most popular handsets with stock Android on them? Google has already said that it will be working with the providers of Google Play edition phones to provide timely updates, so you certainly don't have to worry about fragmentation or waiting around to get the latest version of Android.

The OEMs have provided several different experiences for both hardcore and novice Android users alike, which has only contributed to the proliferation of the platform. Here at Ars, we prefer the stock version of Android on a Google-backed handset like the Nexus 4 and Google Play editions. Even if they're not chock full of perks and applications, they'll receive the most timely updates from Android headquarters, and their interfaces are mostly free of the cruft you get from the OEMs. For many consumers, it might not matter when Google chooses to update the phone, but for us, we like to know that Google is pushing through the software updates without any setbacks.

In the end, choosing an OEM-branded version of Android means that you're a prisoner of that manufacturer's timeline—an especially unfortunate situation when that manufacturer decides to stop supporting software updates altogether. We've said it time and time again—in the end, it's really your experience that will determine which interface suits you best. So as far as the future of Android goes, it's not just in Google's hands.

Via TechCrunch

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At SXSW this afternoon, Google provided developers with a first glance at the Google Glass Mirror API, the main interface between Google Glass, Google’s servers and the apps that developers will write for them. In addition, Google showed off a first round of applications that work on Glass, including how Gmail works on the device, as well as integrations from companies like the New York Times, Evernote, Path and others.

The Mirror API is essentially a REST API, which should make developing for it very easy for most developers. The Glass device essentially talks to Google’s servers and the developers’ applications then get the data from there and also push it to Glass through Google’s APIs. All of this data is then presented on Glass through what Google calls “timeline cards.” These cards can include text, images, rich HTML and video. Besides single cards, Google also lets developers use what it calls bundles, which are basically sets of cards that users can navigate using their voice or the touchpad on the side of Glass.

It looks like sharing to Google+ is a built-in feature of the Mirror API, but as Google’s Timothy Jordan noted in today’s presentation, developers can always add their own sharing options, as well. Other built-in features seem to include voice recognition, access to the camera and a text-to-speech engine.

Glass Rules

Because Glass is a new and unique form factor, Jordan also noted, Google is setting a few rules for Glass apps. They shouldn’t, for example, show full news stories but only headlines, as everything else would be too distracting. For longer stories, developers can always just use Glass to read text to users.

Essentially, developers should make sure that they don’t annoy users with too many notifications, and the data they send to Glass should always be relevant. Developers should also make sure that everything that happens on Glass should be something the user expects, said Jordan. Glass isn’t the kind of device, he said, where a push notification about an update to your app makes sense.

Using Glass With Gmail, Evernote, Path and Others

As part of today’s presentation, Jordan also detailed some Glass apps Google has been working on itself, and apps that some of its partners have created. The New York Times app, for example, shows headlines and then lets you listen to a summary of the article by telling Glass to “read aloud.” Google’s own Gmail app uses voice recognition to answer emails (and it obviously shows you incoming mail, as well). Evernote’s Skitch can be used to take and share photos, and Jordan also showed a demo of social network Path running on Glass to share your location.

So far, there is no additional information about the Mirror API on any of Google’s usual sites, but we expect the company to release more information shortly and will update this post once we hear more.

Via The Washington Post

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Swipe, swipe, pinch-zoom. Fifth-grader Josephine Nguyen is researching the definition of an adverb on her iPad and her fingers are flying across the screen. Her 20 classmates are hunched over their own tablets doing the same.

Conspicuously absent from this modern scene of high-tech learning: a mouse.

Nguyen, who is 10, said she has used one before — once — but the clunky desktop computer/monitor/keyboard/mouse setup was too much for her.

“It was slow,” she recalled, “and there were too many pieces.”

Gilbert Vasquez, 6, is also baffled by the idea of an external pointing device named after a rodent.

“I don’t know what that is,” he said with a shrug.

Nguyen and Vasquez, who attend public schools here, are part of the first generation growing up with a computer interface that is vastly different from the one the world has gotten used to since the dawn of the personal-computer era in the 1980s.

This fall, for the first time, sales of iPads are cannibalizing sales of PCs in schools, according to Charles Wolf, an analyst for the investment research firm Needham & Co. And a growing number of even more sophisticated technologies for communicating with your computer — such as the Leap Motion boxes and Sony Vaio laptops that read hand motions, as well as voice recognition services such as Apple’s Siri — are beginning to make headway in the commercial market.

John Underkoffler, a former MIT researcher who was the adviser for the high-tech wizardry that Tom Cruise used in “Minority Report,” says that the transition is inevitable and that it will happen in as soon as a few years.

Underkoffler, chief scientist for Oblong, a Los Angeles-based company that has created a gesture-controlled interface for computer systems, said that for decades the mouse was the primary bridge to the virtual world — and that it was not always optimal.

“Human hands and voice, if you use them in the digital world in the same way as the physical world, are incredibly expressive,” he said. “If you let the plastic chunk that is a mouse drop away, you will be able to transmit information between you and machines in a very different, high-bandwidth way.”

This type of thinking is turning industrial product design on its head. Instead of focusing on a single device to access technology, innovators are expanding their horizons to gizmos that respond to body motions, the voice, fingers, eyes and even thoughts. Some devices can be accessed by multiple people at the same time.

Keyboards might still be used for writing a letter, but designing, say, a landscaped garden might be more easily done with a digital pen, as would studying a map of Lisbon by hand gestures, or searching the Internet for Rihanna’s latest hits by voice. And the mouse — which many agree was a genius creation in its time — may end up as a relic in a museum.

The mouse is born

The first computer mouse, built at the Stanford Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., by Douglas Englebart and Bill English in 1963, was just a block of wood fashioned with two wheels. It was just one of a number of interfaces the team experimented with. There were also foot pedals, head-pointing devices and knee-mounted joysticks.

But the mouse proved to be the fastest and most accurate, and with the backing of Apple founder Steve Jobs — who bundled it with shipments of Lisa, the predecessor to the Macintosh, in the 1980s — the device suddenly became a mainstream phenomenon.

Englebart’s daughter, Christina, a cultural anthropologist, said that her father was able to predict many trends in technology over the years, but she said the one thing he has been surprised about is that the mouse has lasted as long as it has.

“He never assumed the mouse would be it,” said the younger Englebart, who wrote her father’s biography. “He always figured there would be newer ways of exploring a computer.”

She was 8 years old when her father invented the mouse. Now 57, she says she is finally seeing glimpses of the next stage of computing with the surging popularity of the iPad. These days her two children, 20 and 23, do not use a mouse anymore.

San Antonio and LUCHA elementary schools in eastern San Jose, just 17 miles south of where Englebart conducted his research, provide a glimpse at the future. The schools, which share a campus, have integrated iPod Touches and iPads into the curriculum for all 700 students. The teachers all get Mac Airbooks with touch pads.

“Most children here have never seen a computer mouse,” said Hannah Tenpas, 24, a kindergarten teacher at San Antonio.

Kindergartners, as young as 4, use the iPod Touch to learn letter sounds. The older students use iPads to research historical information and prepare multimedia slide-show presentations about school rules. The intuitive touch-screen interface has allowed the school to introduce children to computers at an age that would have been impossible in the past, said San Antonio Elementary’s principal, Jason Sorich.

Even toddlers are able manipulate a touch screen. A popular YouTube video shows a baby trying to swipe the pages of a fashion magazine that she assumes is a broken iPad.

“For my one-year-old daughter, a magazine is an iPad that does not work. It will remain so for her whole life,” the creator of the video says in a slide at the end of the clip.

The iPad side of the brain

“The popularity of iPads and other tablets is changing how society interacts with information,” said Aniket Kittur, an assistant professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. “.?.?. Direct manipulation with our fingers, rather than mediated through a keyboard/mouse, is intuitive and easy for children to grasp.”

Underkoffler said that while desktop computers helped activate the language and abstract-thinking parts of a child’s brain, new interfaces are helping open the spatial part.

“Once our user interface can start to talk to us that way .?.?. we sort of blow the barn doors off how we learn,” he said.

That may explain why iPads are becoming so popular in schools. Apple said in July that the iPad outsold the Mac 2 to 1 for the second consecutive quarter in the education market. In all, the company sold 17 million iPads in the April-to-June quarter; at the same time, mouse sales in the United States are down, some manufacturers say.

“The adoption rate of iPad in education is something I’d never seen from any technology product in history,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in July.

At San Antonio Elementary and LUCHA, which started their $300,000 iPad and iPod experiment last school year, the school board president, Esau Herrera, said he is thrilled by the results. Test scores have gone up (although officials say they cannot directly correlate that to the new technology), and the level of engagement has increased.

The schools are now debating what to do with the handful of legacy desktop PCs, each with its own keyboard and mouse, and whether they should bother teaching students to move a pointer around a monitor.

“Things are moving so fast,” said LUCHA Principal Kristin Burt, “that we’re not sure the computer and mouse will even be around when they get old enough to really use them.”

Via Phys Org

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A paper-based touch pad on an alarmed cardboard box detects the change in capacitance associated with the touch of a finger to one of its buttons.

The keypad requires the appropriate sequence of touches to disarm the system. Image credit: Mazzeo, et al.

The touch pads are made of metallized paper, which is paper coated in aluminum and transparent polymer. The paper can function as a capacitor, and a laser can be used to cut several individual capacitors in the paper, each corresponding to a key on the touch pad. When a person touches a key, the key’s capacitance is increased. Once the keys are linked to external circuitry and a power source, the system can detect when a key is touched by detecting the increased capacitance.

According to lead researcher Aaron Mazzeo of Harvard University, the next steps will be finding a power source and electronics that are cheap, flexible, and disposable.

Among the applications, inexpensive touch pads could be used for security purposes. The researchers have already developed a box with an alarm and keypad that requires a code to allow authorized access. Disposable touch pads could also be useful in sterile or contaminated medical environments.

Via Technologizer

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How a little-known 1971 machine launched an industry.

Forty years ago, Nutting Associates released the world’s first mass-produced and commercially sold video game, Computer Space. It was the brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, a charismatic engineer with a creative vision matched only by his skill at self-promotion. With the help of his business partner Ted Dabney and the staff of Nutting Associates, Bushnell pushed the game from nothing into reality only two short years after conceiving the idea.

Computer Space pitted a player-controlled rocket ship against two machine-controlled flying saucers in a space simulation set before a two-dimensional star field. The player controlled the rocket with four buttons: one for fire, which shoots a missile from the front of the rocket ship; two directional rotation buttons (to rotate the ship orientation clockwise or counterclockwise); and one for thrust, which propelled the ship in whichever direction it happened to be pointing. Think of Asteroids without the asteroids, and you should get the picture.

During play, two saucers would appear on the screen and shoot at the player while flying in a zig-zag formation. The player’s goal was to dodge the saucer fire and shoot the saucers.

Considering a game of this complexity playing out on a TV set, you might think that it was created as a sophisticated piece of software running on a computer. You’d think it, but you’d be wrong–and Bushnell wouldn’t blame you for the mistake. How he and Dabney managed to pull it off is a story of audacity, tenacity, and sheer force-of-will worthy of tech legend. This is how it happened.

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