Just Connect the Bubbles Dots That Are Leading to Touch-Based Desktop Computing

I, for one, haven't bought into the iPhone craze. I'm not paying AT&T because 10-plus years ago the old AT&T resisted the whole 3G thing simply because it did not want to pay QCOM licensing fees for a better chip technology and I don't care for Apple tying the iPhone to a single provider --- gone are the "for the rest of us" days at Apple, long gone. If iPhones ever become available via Sprint, I'll reconsider. 

But I did buy a Palm Pre (Sprint) when my Blackberry toasted recently and I really like its touch interface because I can play Bubbles. I haven't completely given up on getting a free TR Legal-branded iPad despite repeated "hints" to the folks in the land of 10,000 invoices on this blog -- it will be the first thing I look for in my goodies bag at the registration desk in Denver -- but I am bidding on iPads at QuiBids when I'm not busy playing Bubbles, high score 788! (and only bidding on the Wi-Fi models because I'm not paying AT&T data charges for the 3G iPad). I'm not paying list price for this gizmo either because I think the iPad is just a footnote, albeit a significant one, for things to come. Maybe TR CEO Tom Glocer will FedEx his used iPad to me if Denver swag disappoints. See A Blogosphere Handshake: Tom Meet Jason Wilson, Jason Meet Tom Glocer and its comment trail.

And I'm still hoping that one day Tom and I will share a beer because I think it would be a very interesting experience (at least for me; probably not for Glocer) to talk with the one TR person who doesn't have a script he/she must follow.  See Removing Our Inherited Blinders: Thomson Reuters CEO on the Next Generation of Westlaw (Dec. 1, 2009) ("Dear Tom, Nice blog. Let's have a beer. Teach this old dog a new trick. First beer is on me. Joe"). But I digress ... .

A New Desktop Interface is Coming. Like Jason Wilson, I wish my desktop (and laptop) environment was different. No less an industry authority than Tim O'Reilly says it will be: "If the iPhone didn’t tell us that the 25-year reign of the mouse and windows user interface popularized by that original Macintosh was soon to be over, the iPad shouts it loud and clear." Quoted in Is the iPad Setting the Stage for the Wider Adoption of the Touch-Screen Interface?

Also like Wilson, I think information users are ready for, perhaps eagerly awaiting, this interface transformation. He writes

I think for content creators and designers, we need to be concerned about the iPad effect. Forget the iPhone 4, Droid whatever, or Windows Mobile 7. It is the large appliance any two-year old can use that is telling us our ideas of how we should be (want to be) physically manipulating and interacting with digital objects (content) are changing, and probably faster than we think. And I don’t think this is bleeding edge stuff either. I think the community is ready for it.

When I bought a new Windows 7 laptop last December, I wasn't interested in waiting for a touch-based tablet because I'm not an early adapter and, besides, I want a multi-touch interface that replaces the keyboard and mouse with a touch pad controller. Is touch-based hardware under development? You bet. "Over the next several years, touch screens will undergo strong growth in large-size applications such as all-in-one PCs, Mini-note/slate PCs, and education/training," noted Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies at DisplaySearch in Touch Screen Shipments Pass 600 Million in 2009, Up 29% Y/Y. Watch Microsoft jump a couple of versions to Windows 10. All one has to do is connect the bubbles, ah I mean, dots. [JH]

Photo Credit: The Blog Widow