Windows Vista/Me, Windows 7, and touch computing
Remeber Windows Me? You might, if you were unlucky enough to buy a computer after 2000 but before XP came out. It was a POS, with more holes in it that '98 SP2, and a clunky and terrible user interface. All of the best ideas (system restore.. and were there any others?) were used in XP. No one cares or remembers Me, the same will happen to Vista. The best things about it (which are... widgets? Multiple monitor support? Desktop search?.. if you did not have google desktop..) will all end up in Windows 7.
So this came about because Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates put on a little show yesterday of Windows 7, which is supposedly only two years out, and will have the huge upgrade of multitouch support. That would be amazing, and would be one of the biggest advances in general computing in a long time (yes, iPhone touting white box lovers will claim that their enlarged track pads really set the pace, and their beloved overhyped little status symbol they carry around was the real first multitouch computer. Sure, and none of that will have anything like the impact of Windows 7.)
I say this because we are about to have, for the first time in a very long time, a true revolution in how we interact with our computers. We've tried talking to them, which proved difficult, and mostly we've gotten by with a typewriter keyboard and a pointy stick you can poke things with. Not that I dont love a good mouse (especially when I am on my xbox, and instead of turning left slightly I swing wildly and fire that rocket right into the wall which is now 6 inches from my face.) But soon, that will all change, and we will be rocking out minority report style. With advances in haptics, it will also be possible to type on a flat screen and feel as though you were pressing keys, a tech already found in some cell phones. The possiblities are of course vast, from simple file management and navigation, to gaming, industry applications. This, combined with the other major trend of mobile internet devices and always available internet, will for the first time since the internet, completly change the nature of computing.
So this came about because Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates put on a little show yesterday of Windows 7, which is supposedly only two years out, and will have the huge upgrade of multitouch support. That would be amazing, and would be one of the biggest advances in general computing in a long time (yes, iPhone touting white box lovers will claim that their enlarged track pads really set the pace, and their beloved overhyped little status symbol they carry around was the real first multitouch computer. Sure, and none of that will have anything like the impact of Windows 7.)
I say this because we are about to have, for the first time in a very long time, a true revolution in how we interact with our computers. We've tried talking to them, which proved difficult, and mostly we've gotten by with a typewriter keyboard and a pointy stick you can poke things with. Not that I dont love a good mouse (especially when I am on my xbox, and instead of turning left slightly I swing wildly and fire that rocket right into the wall which is now 6 inches from my face.) But soon, that will all change, and we will be rocking out minority report style. With advances in haptics, it will also be possible to type on a flat screen and feel as though you were pressing keys, a tech already found in some cell phones. The possiblities are of course vast, from simple file management and navigation, to gaming, industry applications. This, combined with the other major trend of mobile internet devices and always available internet, will for the first time since the internet, completly change the nature of computing.
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