Gene Becker is a very insightful and cool guy who was the Director of the HP Labs Cooltown program and my boss at the time. In Cooltown we focussed on ubicomp, mobility, and pervasive media research. Gene is also the guy behind the project with Dreamworks for delivering the HP rendering farm for the Shrek [...]
Compaq Airlife 100 Review
We are starting to see some reviews of the Compaq Airlife 100. Carrypad has one of the more detailed reviews here.
This is one of the new products my team worked on over the past year. I cannot tell you how challenging it is to take a phone operating system and put it on a touch netbook. You may even ask yourself why anyone would do this, and there were times we wondered ourselves:) But it is clear that combining a mobile operating system and ARM platform gives you amazing communication capabilities, good media capability, and stunning battery life. These are all killer attributes for a netbook. Just drop in a SIM card and you are browsing the web, streaming videos, etc — and able to do it all day. If you have designed or developed Android products you are likely already starting a list in your head of the many design challenges of such a product, and yes we had to tackle all those and probably a few more you haven’t come up with yet.
I would love to give a detailed post to all of the design challenges and how we went about tackling them, maybe some time in the future, but unfortunately that is still in the realm of confidential. Here are a few high level notes though…
HP Buys Palm
HP Buys Palm … How cool is that! I love the WebOS platform, and the idea of building mobile apps just as you would web apps. I can’t wait for this deal to be finalized!
Bringing User Centered Design to the Agile Environment
Over at Boxes and Arrows Anthony Colfelt has an excellent article entitled “Bringing User Centered Design to the Agile Environment“, there are also some excellent comments that have been made on the post. Anthony points out several minefields he sees in doing UCD in an agile environment: Mine 1: An unclear role for design Mine [...]
Dan Saffer on Researching and Designing Interactive Gestures
A nice video of a presentation by Dan Saffer on designing interactive gestures. Dan points out many of the challenges we see in designing for our TouchSmart devices. In particular what he calls Gorilla Arms, or the issue of holding your arms straight out at length for using a large touch screen. He discusses the idea of [...]
subtlemob by Duncan Speakman
Duncan Speakman has been working on something he is calling subtlemob, which is a sort of reaction to the flashmob meme. The idea is to have a cinematic experience in the moment as you are in a place with others who may also be participating. In a mediascape called “always something somewhere else” Duncan created [...]
HP and Touchscreens
I have worked on a number of Touchscreen products like the HP TouchSmart and the HP Slate, as well research products like the HP multi-touch Misto table. But these were not HP’s first touch products by far. Actually that honor goes to the HP 150, one of the world’s earliest commercialized touch screen computers.
The Power of Play: Using Fun to Increase Engagement and Drive Viral Distribution
The Power of Play: Using Fun to Increase Engagement and Drive Viral Distribution, a XEOPlayShop Looks like an interesting tutorial and Nicole usually has some great insights to pass along. The Power of Play is a one day hands on tutorial workshop on how to design viral distribution and social interaction through the emotions of play. These [...]
Pervasive Media Studio at SXSW
I am not going to make it to SXSW this year because of some critical project activities but some embers of my team will be there. I encourage everyone interested in pervasive media to check out the various activities related to the Pervasive Media Studio. I am particularly hopeful about the ”Pervasive Games and Playful Experiences: Rendering the [...]
Great day for a ride
Google adds biking directions to Google Maps. See the official announcement over at the Google Blog. I already checked out my route to work and Google suggests a different route than I have been taking. Looks like it is probably a bit safer and almost the same distance as my usual route. That is kind [...]
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