Just seen some of the first pictures of the iPad. Great looking product design. Check it out…
The new iPad as a laptop thingy-ma-jig. Courtesy of engadget
Mr Steve Jobs of Apple ended by saying:
“We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts — we want to make the best tech, but have them be intuitive. It’s the combination of these two things that have let us make the iPad.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself!! Our thoughts on the new iPad to follow…
You may have caught some of the buzz about the Apple’s impending new product development announcement. Since Steve Jobs gleefully demo’d the first iPhone, the tech world has got slightly flustered every time Apple books a venue for more than 20 people.
This evening (UK time) Apple will announce what is slated to be a new Tablet computer. At this stage it’s 99% sure to be a new Apple Tablet, like this one mocked up on the T3 Site.
I’m really interested to see what they come out with, for three reasons:
1. Since buying a Toshiba Tecra tablet PC to experiment with sketching design concepts, I’ve been intrigued and frustrated by tablet computers. In typical Microsoft style, the tablet PC had some brilliant bits like the handwriting recognition, but overall it was really just some pen interface stuff tacked onto the top of windows, making it inappropriate as a touch sensitive user interface and disappointing as a user experience. So I’m very interested to see what the masters of user interface innovation have come up with. Remember it was Apple who originally invented the Mouse and the drag and drop Desktop metaphor we use so much today. They’ve certainly been busy over the last few years submitting a lot of patents for touch sensitive interfaces. With incredible timing the USPTO have actually today granted a patent for a proximity-sensing touchscreen.
Diagram from Apple's latest Patent for proximity sensing touchscreen.
2. I’m also hoping to see Apple remain loyal to it’s creative customers and for this to be a fantastic electronic sketchbook. I actually really liked sketching on the tablet PC. Everyone has different opinions about this, but I always found it much easier to sketch directly on the screen of the tablet PC, rather than use a graphics tablet, where my hand’s moving on the desk while I look at the results on the screen a couple of feet away. I’m not holding out much hope on the graphic drawing ability though, as Apple will inevitably have made compromises to reduce cost. I imagine they will have prioritised functionality like mobile internet connection to download ebooks, which has more mass market appeal and will leverage iTunes to sell books. This little old product designer will be disappointed though if it’s no good as an arty farty tool.
3. Finally I can’t wait to see what kind of lovely thing they’ve come up with this time. Apple are such a good example of a company that really ‘get’ what good product design is for and I love them for their bravery. It will be fascinating to find out what their strategy has been in selecting the balance of functionality and features. I suspect it will be a lot like the iPhone and have some crucial missing component (like the G3 was missing from the fist iPhone), and this one will only be a “nearly there” product leading to the fully awesome version 2 next year.
So let’s see what happens in the next few hours! We’ll report back what we find.
Because the product design process is a creative innovation process there are many (more…)
We’re currently trialling Office Web Apps and Google Apps as part of our big collaboration test this year. Our intention is to use these tools to do a better job and offer more for our clients – particularly for the start-ups launching new products, where we need to give more help in getting the product to market.
Product Design Consultancy is a complex activity involving a lot of disciplines and people putting in their own ideas, information and decisions. So we need a better system than we have now (emailing documents around) enabling everyone in Realise, our Network of partners, other suppliers and clients to collaborate on projects. For us as a small business, Google Apps and other online collaboration software is a low enough cost to make this possible.
But actually what cost could we pay in future? Are we potentially selling our souls? Product Design does involve sensitive intellectual property (IP) which does make me question the safety of (more…)
I was recently blown away by the $300 short film sensation “Ataque de Panico”. Then along comes something even more extraordinary.
The Third & The Seventh is a bewilderingly beautiful world, which apart from the human and animals is created from the imagination of one man (Alex Roman) and a computer. Ladies and gents, we have arrived at the place where Computer Generated Imagery is indiscernible from reality. No in fact, it is enhanced reality.
Given the way the power of computer graphics, software and games are developing I find it both entrancing and disturbing that we will soon (perhaps within the next decade) be seeing such rich immersive environments be created in real time. It is becoming harder by the day to distinguish reality from the electronic version, which raises some interesting philosophical questions and potential design problems for humankind. Fancy a go in the Matrix anyone?
Ok enough preamble… enjoy this (recommend you click HD):
The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.
By the way, for all you aerodynamicists out there, yes I do think the wind turbine blades are back to front and they start turning too quickly, but I think we can forgive him this can’t we?
Pronounced. /smʌtʃ/ [smuhch]
-verb (used with object)
1. to smudge or soil.
–noun
2. a smudge or stain.
3. dirt, grime, or smut.
Origin: 1520–30; perhaps to smear;
probably from Middle High German smutzen to smear or soil; schmutz see smut]
How we used it: Yesterday I was walking with the family up a chalky track to the ridge known as “Pepperbox Hill”. The recent snow thaw and heavy rains had washed a lot of the silt down the track, so near the bottom of the (more…)
Story goes that Federico Alvarez from Uruguay made this incredible Sci-Fi “Aliens attack earth” short film. Wait for it… at a total cost of $300. Of course that doesn’t include his own time during which he must have grown a long white beard and shrivelled into the shape of Yoda.
However, the good news is he’s got a well deserved $30million movie deal on the back of this masterpiece with Sami Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures in Hollywood. So there’s a bit of inspiration to all our wonderful entrepreneurs sweating away to bring products to market. The white beard and stunted shape could pay off, though to be honest it probably won’t be quite such a staggering 100,000% return on investment (that’s what ROI means in case you were bothered) in creativity & design.
So our thanks to Alastair Ross our innovation guru for showing this to us today… Don your best headphones and check it out:
(Oh and to all our clients… don’t get any funny ideas about us creating you a blockbuster animation for £200!).
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