BumpTop 1.0 - New Leopard Secret Feature - CONFIRMED!
just kidding.
but has anyone heard anything else about this? I don't know if it has any future but it's nice to see some real innovation.
I think this could be really useful on a mactablet (if they ever make one). Also I think that steve has to stop hating the stylus so much. What he said was true - they're annoying, you lose them, you always got to get them out... but the truth is that we have been writing with pen for centuries and it would help to have them around. I think they should keep the quick and clean finger UI on the iPhone and add a stylus later on for writing and illustration (especially for a mactablet).
here is the youtube video of the bumptop...what do you guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ODskdEPnQ
but has anyone heard anything else about this? I don't know if it has any future but it's nice to see some real innovation.
I think this could be really useful on a mactablet (if they ever make one). Also I think that steve has to stop hating the stylus so much. What he said was true - they're annoying, you lose them, you always got to get them out... but the truth is that we have been writing with pen for centuries and it would help to have them around. I think they should keep the quick and clean finger UI on the iPhone and add a stylus later on for writing and illustration (especially for a mactablet).
here is the youtube video of the bumptop...what do you guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ODskdEPnQ
Comments
I think it's a pointless gimmick. It looks cool but can you imagine throwing 10,000 documents in there? Not only will the physics engine kill your processor, you'll never be able to sort the items. The whole reason that we went to the computer model from a real desktop is that the computer model is far more efficient. One example is coverflow. It's also a nice feature to look at but it's actually faster to just scroll down the normal text to find the right album.
Its nice to use visual recognition to find documents instead of names in certain applications. Imagine scrolling through names of pictures vs looking through thumbnails. The concept of folders and "spaces" can still be applied along with this idea. I think the concept has promise ... I wouldn't dismiss it as a pointless gimmick ...
There are still vociferous champions of the "spatial finder" from pre-OS X Mac days; the reasoning being that scrupulously maintained analogues of real world interactions make GUIs more intuitive and easier to commit to muscle memory.
I think that's true up to a point, but one of the reasons the classic Mac environment could pull that off is that the user was far less likely to be dealing with huge numbers of files-- hard drives in the days of OS 7 were likely to be in the hundreds of megs, not gigs. Sorting through an extensive iTunes or iPhoto library by shoving around little icons would be insane.
While direct manipulation of symbolic links has its uses, I think it's pretty clear that the way things are going favors specialized data bases with purpose built front ends, ala iTunes and iPhoto, and continued improvements in meta-data based searching, ala Spotlight.
I think it's a pointless gimmick. It looks cool but can you imagine throwing 10,000 documents in there? Not only will the physics engine kill your processor, you'll never be able to sort the items. The whole reason that we went to the computer model from a real desktop is that the computer model is far more efficient. One example is coverflow. It's also a nice feature to look at but it's actually faster to just scroll down the normal text to find the right album.
Bingo. My computer is much more organized than my apartment, and I'm so grateful for that.
In fact, since I was 14 and using 4DOS, I always have been proud of how organized my computer "desktop" has been (back then it was called the Root Directory, remember?) and have enjoyed creating an organizational structure that is far superior to my desk drawers, tabletops, and shelves in my real living spaces.
I became frustrated while watching the YouTube video because it seemed almost as if they were trying to de-invent the computer. If I wanted my computer to be as messy as my real life, I wouldn't use a computer at all.
The mantra through the entire video was "piles". In my house, piles are an indication that I've got to get better organized. Clean, empty spaces mean I've got my life in order.
Didn't Apple file for a patent on something like this a few years ago having to do with folders, and piles?
Organizationally If you use color coding, grouping by type, and kind, date, etc. etc. etc... it could be a really great development. There were parts in the video that I thought they were really on to something. It's not like it's not a good idea, but the theme of the desk and workplace as being all piles of clutter also was done totally wrong. It should have demonstrated how to use it to organize those files in ways like Im going to mention, and then pan back to the real desk at the end and have it all organized and clutter free.
What if you could pick up a group of files, flip into the menu, and chose how you wanted those files sorted - then pick up and grab another stack of more files as a pile, sort them in a similar way, and keep going - then at the end choose from the menu to have all the similar files from different piles re-group themselves with the similarities that you just designated in the menu from each group. You could just as easily grab the whole desktop, and group it one way, but you may want different groups sorted differently. Using those 3D cubes, stacks/file cabinets, or whatever. You could also use "folders" to give those 3D cubes specific drawers that you designate by color to group them in a different way, or have your sorted groups, grouped, and in the menu and chose for that group to be grouped in a folder - then grab all the sorted folders, and group that pile into a file cabinet, or cube, and date it. Plus you should still always be able to switch into one of the other three views (icon, list, or column) to look any selected group.
No idea is without possibilities, but I still hate the way they fell onto the desktop with somewhat of a realistic like gravity effect. Those documents positions when on the desktop should have been constrained to up, down, L-side to R-side, and given limitations so they would not have overlapped when they fell unless you designated them as a grouped bunch. They also should have stayed constrained to the direction of the line drawn when they were selected. So if you selected them and dragged them out to your right they would have use that line direction as north, or up, and turned accordingly.
[edit]
After watching the video again it looks almost ready, but it wasn't set up as an organizational tool. It is more like a demonstration off possibilities on how to grab the documents, but it needs to be able to sort within the grab, and some of the 3D effects looked totally pointless, completely unusable - other than to play with, and mostly for show.[edit]
But I like it, and it would be really cool if something more practical, but something like this was in leopard.
All and all. Apple should buy this, and patent the crap out of it.
My 2¢
just kidding.
but has anyone heard anything else about this? I don't know if it has any future but it's nice to see some real innovation.
I think this could be really useful on a mactablet (if they ever make one). Also I think that steve has to stop hating the stylus so much. What he said was true - they're annoying, you lose them, you always got to get them out... but the truth is that we have been writing with pen for centuries and it would help to have them around. I think they should keep the quick and clean finger UI on the iPhone and add a stylus later on for writing and illustration (especially for a mactablet).
here is the youtube video of the bumptop...what do you guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ODskdEPnQ
I thought the demo (if it's not a scam) was intriguing and innovative. But this is the kind of functionality that Apple will bring to the laptop with Multi-Touch technology on an MT panel in lieu of a standard keyboard. You'll use your finger(s) to perform all the manipulations shown in that demo and much more. For clarity, I'm not talking about finger manipulations directly on the computer LCD screen but on an MT panel that occupies the physical space where the keyboard normally sits. The results of the finger manipulations will be visible on both the MT panel and the computer's LCD screen.
make it green and call it leopard and he'll be all over it!
looks fun, but it would need the STEVE touch... and it would need to be a "feature" you could switch off.
Using a core animation engine in Leopard would make the Mac version run totally smooth too.