Avatar - massive usage of Apple iPads and Touch Computing
Today finally I got to see the Avatar movie by James Cameron in my local Imax movie theater. I've heard mostly positive reviews about the movie and since I'm very much into both sci-fi and fantasy, I enjoyed it immensely. I really liked the 3D effects and great CGI... and massive usage of Apple iPads, just have a look:
OK, these were not really iPads Steve Jobs unveiled on their Apple special event, but the basic assumptions about the "fictional" devices the protagonists were using are exactly the same as the ones that constitute the foundations of the Apple's gadget.
Touch interface is everything
I've got an iPhone for a few years now and I've written how iPad will improve your productivity and I strongly believe the touch interface will make a huge difference on the way we use our computers in the future.
Touch means flexibility
Touchable (is that a word?) interface will be ultimately flexible because it will adjust the interface (and input devices like keyboard) to the task or app at hand. It's like with the iPhone - they keyboard pops up when you need it and the layout of the keyboard depends on the context, too!
Touch is natural
We love touching. I'm using a Magic Mouse now and I love it. No buttons, just gestures and a surface I can touch. Same for the iPhone. We love touching things, not pressing them.
Touch is cool
Watch The Avatar again and focus on the places they show the cool touchable screens and the iPad-like devices and they are just stunning. They look great and they seem to feel great. And cool.
Have you seen Avatar? And the kinda-iPads in there? Did they draw your attention?
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I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.
I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the..... Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.
2 comments
Feb 17, 2010
Tomasz Mioduszewski said...
Touch is a future - fully agree on that with you, Michael. But I must say, that I've been impressed more by the working stations shown in Avatar - with round, transparent screen (of course with a touch interface) around the operator. However I'm wondering if transparent displays are usefull, or just cool (knowing too much about what is behind your screen may be distactive). Anyway... I'm hoping that such a round workstation will be put oneday in the middle of my room.
Feb 17, 2010
Michael Sliwinski said...
The ergonomics of touch interfaces needs still to be verified, especially large ones like Apple iPad's or the workstations we saw in the Avatar.True, transparent screen may be one hell of a distraction. Just think about the hype of transparent windows in Windows XP, yet hardly any application was taking advantage of this feature.
Although they do look cool. Thanks for your comment, Tomasz!
