my schools computer tech was talking about microsofts new infared screen tech and he said its the first time that they have had better stuff coming than apple. what kind of stuff is apple working on right now?
At present I think that multi touch is a fairly limited technology. I like the way Apple has used it sparing to accomplish nice "gestures" like swiping through contacts/emails etc to delete them .
The predominant demo for multi touch seems to be moving windows around or resizing graphics. That's cute and all but that's just not how I compute. Manipulating and scaling photos is a tertiary act at best on a given day.
I'm convinced that the most natural apparatus for input is ones voice but I do welcome all forms of input. Multi touch doesn't obviate text input so it's always going to have to work in conjuction with an method that supports character input.
I hope this guy isn't talking about Microsoft Surface. Infrared???
You won't be able to win with this guy. I can tell that now he's one of those psuedo geeks that knows enough to fool neophytes.
Microsoft has a lot of technology but nothing they have or can deliver is something Apple can't touch and vice versa.
As opposed to experts on an internet forum?
Microsoft Research employs some of the most well known researchers in Multi-Touch. The key to surface isn't the actual hardware device but the underlying software. IF Microsoft releases a good multi-touch SDK then it becomes the center of action for multi-touch research because every OTHER system is proprietary (and held very close to the chest) OR a mish-mash of thesis projects cobbled together. Good for demos, not so good for product development.
Right now MS has a few other technology initiatives that are exciting or interesting:
SilverLight - potential flash killer, very cool tech
XNA - Allows easy game development on the 360 with simplified DX9.
Tablet SDK - allows for pen interaction and tablet software development
Multi-pointer SDK - an interesting technology that allows multiple mouses at one time from MS Research in India. Doesn't seem connected to the Surface team.
All of these are developer oriented technologies and is an area where Apple is nowhere near as strong as Microsoft. Studio > XCode. .NET/Studio > Objective C/IB. DX > OGL (this one more debatable...but XNA > nothing).
That said there are some really cool things for devs in Leopard and OSX provides many services that are simply not there or poorly implemented/thought out in Windows.
While I like some of the stuff on Roughly Drafted he really missed the boat on the Surface analysis given that Bill Buxton is now a part of MS Research. A lot of the prior art listed are based on the research work by Buxton and his team at Toronto. And Andy Wilson and Steven Bathiche are no slouches either.
Whether Surface ends up being a viable product is almost immaterial. Its more small volume concept car than production vehicle anyway. But ideas built into concept cars and race cars eventually make it down into production vehicles. In that sense I think Surface will be highly relevant and successful.
I'm posting this to answer the question, not to impress people with Microsoft's mad multi-touch skillz.
I think the mouse is the best pointing device there is. Laptops have a trackpad because they can be used on the go, always carrying a mouse around is not convenient, thus the need for a new pointing device. This is the same for handhelds, the mouse can be replaced by a stylus or your fingers. But I see no reason (yet?) to replace the mouse on a computer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison
At present I think that multi touch is a fairly limited technology.
Hodges could do exactly the same demo using a mouse or the trackpad. While watching the demo, I kept thinking about Sketchup. On Sketchup you can move and rotate a 3D model with the mouse, use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out, etc. Hodges' carousel of movies could be a cube on Sketchup, instead of putting your finger on the display, just use a freaking mouse or the trackpad.
As he said himself: "If we want to interact directly with the screen what we need is a technology which essentially replicates that single pointer [the mouse], so I can use my finger as that one pointer." News flash: I already have a pointing device. He would like to go further than this (multi-touch = multiple pointers) but why oh why would I put "10 fingers on the screen to interact with it"?
The mouse didn't come out of the blue and it wouldn't make any sense without a graphical user interface, the desktop metaphor, icons, pull-down menus, etc. I can't help but think that we'll need a new kind of user interface to take advantage of multi-touch on personal computers, and I don't see it coming yet. I'm all ears, though. This could take some time, the mouse was invented in 1963, Xerox worked on GUIs during the 1970s, the Mac shipped in 1984.
my schools computer tech was talking about microsofts new infared screen tech and he said its the first time that they have had better stuff coming than apple. what kind of stuff is apple working on right now?
I love this bit from the RDM page
Quote:
At previous CES shows, Microsoft has dutifully rolled out iterations of product visions that nearly all either ended up as huge failures or never even made it to market:
•2000 Web TV (dead), Microsoft TV (what's that?), WinCE smartphones previewed two years early
•2001 Xbox (billions of dollars in losses), Ultimate TV (gone), "Windows Powered" (more WinCE rebranding)
•2002 Mira (stillborn), Freestyle (the code name for Media Center)
•2003 Media Center PC, Tablet PCs, SPOT watches, Media2Go (the iPod Killer; four losers in total)
•2004 Media Center again, Media2Go re-announced as Portable Media Center (dead)
•2005 Digital Entertainment Anywhere ramblings
•2006 Xbox 360 (stuffed into the channel), more Portable Media Center (later sacrificed for the Zune)
•2007 Vista (cooly received, rejected by Dell), Windows Home Server (still in progress)
With that line up of dead-end “innovation” from one of the largest tech companies on the planet, one is left to wonder: why is Microsoft suddenly and uncharacteristically playing up a secret product, purportedly older than the Xbox and Longhorn?
When will people learn, just because M$ SHOW something does not mean it will even get into production.
Throughout their entire history they have consistantly failed to deliver a HUGE amount of hyped and promised software (I'm sure there is a list on RDM somewhare ) and that which WAS delieverd was buggy as hell and most of it was left to die forgotten. microsoft BOB anyone?
Apple has the base technology to answer most of the "Advances" that Microsoft has proposed on hand. Tablet PC's with Ink, Surface with Apple's multi-touch from the iPhone, they have gestures from the Newton, etc. The problem with a lot of them is that Microsoft announced the software technology without a viable hardware platform that would with mass market appeal, and the proof to that is the lack of tablets or even convertible laptops/tablets on the market today. Apple has been prudent in not following this path. Microsoft can get away with it because they are just doing the software and not marketing the hardware. It's a feature to their software line that OEM's can use if they think they can make a profit with the hardware. Surface will fare no better than tablets, and probably worse, for the same reasons.
Microsoft Surface has not even generated hype. It was announced three weeks ago. Except for a few Microsoft fanboys, it has been forgotten.
The reason it didn't generate that much hype is because people already investigated Jeff Haan, and the iPhone after Apples announcement. Not to say that surface isn't awesome. I think it's the best thing I've ever seen from Microsoft, but it's not an actual product that is going to be launched. And if it is it's going to be a $10,000.00+++ toy. It's an R&D technology experiment and they are going about playing with it in the right way IMO, but it's practical usefulness in todays world is very limited. It's a great demo though. I give them high praise for it.
The reason it didn't generate that much hype is because people already investigated Jeff Haan, and the iPhone after Apples announcement. Not to say that surface isn't awesome. I think it's the best thing I've ever seen from Microsoft, but it's not an actual product that is going to be launched. And if it is it's going to be a $10,000.00+++ toy. It's an R&D technology experiment and they are going about playing with it in the right way IMO, but it's practical usefulness in todays world is very limited. It's a great demo though. I give them high praise for it.
What amazes me is that it actually took Microsoft 6 months to copy the multi-touch functionality and graphical resemblance of Apples iPhone. 6 months! for something that they can't even fit in a monitor times as big as iPhone!
Seriously, this is not exiting at all. It is just an embarrassment for Microsoft.
And surface? Please. Pathetic.
The only thing halfways decent looking is Silverlight and it should just go away since Flash/Flex does it better and it would be one less thing to clutter websites and confuse people who would rather NOT have to download yet another plugin.
Apple at least innovates by itself and then makes it so useful you just have to have it. Therein lies the magic.
Comments
You won't be able to win with this guy. I can tell that now he's one of those psuedo geeks that knows enough to fool neophytes.
Microsoft has a lot of technology but nothing they have or can deliver is something Apple can't touch and vice versa.
lol, good one
Oh, just send the Roughly Drafted article:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM...3BE6E1DDE.html
I've seen similar in pruduct ads in architecture magazines.
ta!
Infrared???
The multi-touch infrared notebook from Microsoft Research Cambridge?s Steve Hodges?
The multi-touch infrared notebook from Microsoft Research Cambridge?s Steve Hodges?
Thanks for the link.
At present I think that multi touch is a fairly limited technology. I like the way Apple has used it sparing to accomplish nice "gestures" like swiping through contacts/emails etc to delete them .
The predominant demo for multi touch seems to be moving windows around or resizing graphics. That's cute and all but that's just not how I compute. Manipulating and scaling photos is a tertiary act at best on a given day.
I'm convinced that the most natural apparatus for input is ones voice but I do welcome all forms of input. Multi touch doesn't obviate text input so it's always going to have to work in conjuction with an method that supports character input.
I hope this guy isn't talking about Microsoft Surface. Infrared???
You won't be able to win with this guy. I can tell that now he's one of those psuedo geeks that knows enough to fool neophytes.
Microsoft has a lot of technology but nothing they have or can deliver is something Apple can't touch and vice versa.
As opposed to experts on an internet forum?
Microsoft Research employs some of the most well known researchers in Multi-Touch. The key to surface isn't the actual hardware device but the underlying software. IF Microsoft releases a good multi-touch SDK then it becomes the center of action for multi-touch research because every OTHER system is proprietary (and held very close to the chest) OR a mish-mash of thesis projects cobbled together. Good for demos, not so good for product development.
Right now MS has a few other technology initiatives that are exciting or interesting:
SilverLight - potential flash killer, very cool tech
XNA - Allows easy game development on the 360 with simplified DX9.
Tablet SDK - allows for pen interaction and tablet software development
Multi-pointer SDK - an interesting technology that allows multiple mouses at one time from MS Research in India. Doesn't seem connected to the Surface team.
All of these are developer oriented technologies and is an area where Apple is nowhere near as strong as Microsoft. Studio > XCode. .NET/Studio > Objective C/IB. DX > OGL (this one more debatable...but XNA > nothing).
That said there are some really cool things for devs in Leopard and OSX provides many services that are simply not there or poorly implemented/thought out in Windows.
While I like some of the stuff on Roughly Drafted he really missed the boat on the Surface analysis given that Bill Buxton is now a part of MS Research. A lot of the prior art listed are based on the research work by Buxton and his team at Toronto. And Andy Wilson and Steven Bathiche are no slouches either.
Whether Surface ends up being a viable product is almost immaterial. Its more small volume concept car than production vehicle anyway. But ideas built into concept cars and race cars eventually make it down into production vehicles. In that sense I think Surface will be highly relevant and successful.
Vinea
I'm not impressed with it.
I'm posting this to answer the question, not to impress people with Microsoft's mad multi-touch skillz.
I think the mouse is the best pointing device there is. Laptops have a trackpad because they can be used on the go, always carrying a mouse around is not convenient, thus the need for a new pointing device. This is the same for handhelds, the mouse can be replaced by a stylus or your fingers. But I see no reason (yet?) to replace the mouse on a computer.
At present I think that multi touch is a fairly limited technology.
Hodges could do exactly the same demo using a mouse or the trackpad. While watching the demo, I kept thinking about Sketchup. On Sketchup you can move and rotate a 3D model with the mouse, use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out, etc. Hodges' carousel of movies could be a cube on Sketchup, instead of putting your finger on the display, just use a freaking mouse or the trackpad.
As he said himself: "If we want to interact directly with the screen what we need is a technology which essentially replicates that single pointer [the mouse], so I can use my finger as that one pointer." News flash: I already have a pointing device. He would like to go further than this (multi-touch = multiple pointers) but why oh why would I put "10 fingers on the screen to interact with it"?
The mouse didn't come out of the blue and it wouldn't make any sense without a graphical user interface, the desktop metaphor, icons, pull-down menus, etc. I can't help but think that we'll need a new kind of user interface to take advantage of multi-touch on personal computers, and I don't see it coming yet. I'm all ears, though. This could take some time, the mouse was invented in 1963, Xerox worked on GUIs during the 1970s, the Mac shipped in 1984.
my schools computer tech was talking about microsofts new infared screen tech and he said its the first time that they have had better stuff coming than apple. what kind of stuff is apple working on right now?
I love this bit from the RDM page
At previous CES shows, Microsoft has dutifully rolled out iterations of product visions that nearly all either ended up as huge failures or never even made it to market:
•2000 Web TV (dead), Microsoft TV (what's that?), WinCE smartphones previewed two years early
•2001 Xbox (billions of dollars in losses), Ultimate TV (gone), "Windows Powered" (more WinCE rebranding)
•2002 Mira (stillborn), Freestyle (the code name for Media Center)
•2003 Media Center PC, Tablet PCs, SPOT watches, Media2Go (the iPod Killer; four losers in total)
•2004 Media Center again, Media2Go re-announced as Portable Media Center (dead)
•2005 Digital Entertainment Anywhere ramblings
•2006 Xbox 360 (stuffed into the channel), more Portable Media Center (later sacrificed for the Zune)
•2007 Vista (cooly received, rejected by Dell), Windows Home Server (still in progress)
With that line up of dead-end “innovation” from one of the largest tech companies on the planet, one is left to wonder: why is Microsoft suddenly and uncharacteristically playing up a secret product, purportedly older than the Xbox and Longhorn?
When will people learn, just because M$ SHOW something does not mean it will even get into production.
Throughout their entire history they have consistantly failed to deliver a HUGE amount of hyped and promised software (I'm sure there is a list on RDM somewhare
The multi-touch infrared notebook from Microsoft Research Cambridge?s Steve Hodges?
Steve Hodges, isn't he the PC guy in the mac ads?
...
Throughout their entire history they have consistantly failed to deliver a HUGE amount of hyped and promised software ...
Microsoft Surface has not even generated hype. It was announced three weeks ago. Except for a few Microsoft fanboys, it has been forgotten.
Microsoft Surface has not even generated hype. It was announced three weeks ago. Except for a few Microsoft fanboys, it has been forgotten.
The reason it didn't generate that much hype is because people already investigated Jeff Haan, and the iPhone after Apples announcement. Not to say that surface isn't awesome. I think it's the best thing I've ever seen from Microsoft, but it's not an actual product that is going to be launched. And if it is it's going to be a $10,000.00+++ toy. It's an R&D technology experiment and they are going about playing with it in the right way IMO, but it's practical usefulness in todays world is very limited. It's a great demo though. I give them high praise for it.
The reason it didn't generate that much hype is because people already investigated Jeff Haan, and the iPhone after Apples announcement. Not to say that surface isn't awesome. I think it's the best thing I've ever seen from Microsoft, but it's not an actual product that is going to be launched. And if it is it's going to be a $10,000.00+++ toy. It's an R&D technology experiment and they are going about playing with it in the right way IMO, but it's practical usefulness in todays world is very limited. It's a great demo though. I give them high praise for it.
What amazes me is that it actually took Microsoft 6 months to copy the multi-touch functionality and graphical resemblance of Apples iPhone. 6 months! for something that they can't even fit in a monitor times as big as iPhone!
Seriously, this is not exiting at all. It is just an embarrassment for Microsoft.
And surface? Please. Pathetic.
The only thing halfways decent looking is Silverlight and it should just go away since Flash/Flex does it better and it would be one less thing to clutter websites and confuse people who would rather NOT have to download yet another plugin.
Apple at least innovates by itself and then makes it so useful you just have to have it. Therein lies the magic.