'Cross The Breeze » technology

My issue with the iPad

Kris Hoet — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:26:00 +0000

It’s not about the lack of Flash support. Although you visit less sites in their mobile version (if available) on the iPad thus the lack of Flash support is a bigger pain than on the iPhone, I knew what I was getting into when I bought one. Nor is it the lack of multi-tasking capabilities, I’m sure once iOS4 arrives on the iPad we will have that (kinda) sorted out. And also the fact that there are only few really good iPad apps is an issue (for now). There may as well be several thousand apps available (250.000 if you count all iPhone apps), we all know most of them are rubbish.

My issue is with the OS. It still is a big phone, without the phone functionalities then… probably to avoid situations like this to happen. Now a mobile phone typically is a very personal piece of technology. You don’t just hand to someone else to toy with it, it’s yours and personal. And that’s where the problem lies, for me the iPad isn’t personal. Not like the iPhone (or any other mobile phone for that matter). My wife and I both have our own mobiles but it’s rather unlikely that I we will get a second iPad, we both use it. But since it’s built on a mobile OS, it’s not really built for multiple users. There’s no need for that on a phone but it means that on the iPad there’s a primary user next to other people that can also use it. But not in the same way.

Still don’t see the problem? I really enjoy Flipboard, so does my wife. But it’s logged in with my Twitter/Facebook accounts so she cannot really enjoy that part. I could add her email account(s) to the iPad but then those would be visible to both of us, that’s not really what you want. And we try and beat each other on playing Mahjong but since there’s only one high score, it impossible to tell (remember) who it was from. It would enable me to personalize the iPad for the kids when they use it as well. With us, the iPad is typically lying around in the living room for anyone in the family to use when they feel like it. But since I’m the primary user (and the geek – yes, that too) it’s mainly setup towards my needs. I find that a missed opportunity.

It would be great to see the iOS for iPad change in a way you can have a user login upfront, similar to what we are used to on our PCs/Macs. Or the possibility to switch between users, all to get a more personal experience on a multi-user/shared device. I’m afraid that is not going to happen (soon) so maybe in that case it’s worth asking the developers of Flipboard, Reeder, Mahjong, … to implement the possibility to switch between users in the app itself. Less ideal, but it would still solve my issue with the iPad.

September, when robots take over the internet

Kris Hoet — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:02:00 +0000

Looks like September is going to be robo-arm month. Microsoft is doing something cool with robots on RememberReach.com for the launch of Halo Reach (September 14th) featuring a user-generated light sculpture of Reach’s Noble Team.

“The Kuka KR 140 bot, normally deployed in car factories, has been outfitted with an LED and stationed in an undisclosed San Francisco warehouse. Visitors direct the machine to plot the 54,000 points of light that will form the Noble Team monument.”

Curious to see what the final sculpture will look like. In the meantime Coolhunting tells us Audi and Kram/Weisshaar (design firm) are preparing Outrace, an installation that will take over Trafalgar Square from 17 September through 23 September as part of the London Design Festival. This installation uses eight industrial robots from Audi’s production line to deliver messages sent from people around the world as 3D lighting graphics.

“The project explores ways to integrate innovative technology within the arts, using LEDs to scroll out user messages by attaching the powerful light heads to the mechanical arms of the robots. A long-exposure camera will capture the resulting light traces, creating videos of the user messages so that participants can share their experience across their social media platforms.”

As I said: September, when robots take over the internet ;)

When augmentation is about reducing

Kris Hoet — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:37:14 +0000

Here’s an interesting interview with Kevin Slavin at PICNIC NY Salon. It’s 8 months old but only just came to my attention thanks to a tweet of Helge Tenno. His thoughts around augmented cities and why maybe ‘augmented’ should be about taking things away instead of just adding them to the world as we are already drowning in data as it is. Take a look.

Looking at this (what I wrote earlier) that definitely makes sense to me.

I’ll be good catching up again with Kevin in NYC in March. And Helge, I hope we will meet each other as well one day ;)

Augmented (hyper)reality

Kris Hoet — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:33:12 +0000

An iPad, why would you be needing that for? Today you hold a little square in front of your webcam, not anymore tomorrow. Sure you are ready for the future? ;)

This looks a bit like it could be Capital 4.0. If you don’t know Capital, check it out below (blogged about this long time ago).

Pictionaire 2.0

Kris Hoet — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:24:53 +0000

Gosh. Would I love to see what we could do with this at the agency, out the current ‘review’ table – in the new one ;)

[Via my buddy Steve]

Now that’s what I call targeting

Kris Hoet — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:56:45 +0000

Wanted: experienced security personnel.

[Via @heldenmerk]

Mindgoggling

Kris Hoet — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:59:55 +0000

This is how the Urban Dictionary defines this: “(adj) something that is so baffling only goggles could understand”. I suppose that is how you got to think of Google Goggles, a mobile tool that allows you to take a picture of something to get instant search results based on the content of the picture. Sounds cool, check this out.

It did remind me of a Microsoft project I read & blogged about 3 years ago, a side project of Photosynth at that time. They talked about a very similar tool but don’t remember hearing from this after that.

Question to ask the Photosynth guys maybe? Or Steve, maybe you know (can find out)?

Follow me: the rabbit edition

Kris Hoet — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:43:59 +0000

To promote the show SyFy, Fallon created a multimedia marketing campaign, which includes the following twist on out-of-home:

Other campaign elements include a detective agency, a tea shop, and a casino. So what are you waiting for, go check it out ;)

[Via AdPulp]

Cereal gaming

Kris Hoet — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:37:53 +0000

Augmented reality is the new black, but only few people seem to be doing something really interesting with the concept of AR. I don’t really want to hold a white paper with a black mark on it in front of my laptop to get a 3D image of a car projected on it… or at least on screen that is. I could already see that same 3D car on my screen in the past without all the AR complications. Catch my drift? Do something different and fun like the example below, or make it useful like what Ray Ban did recently with their Virtual Mirror.

Enjoy.

And if you do want to create some AR with cars, maybe make it some more like this ;)

[Via Helge Tenno]

WordPress 2 for iPhone

Kris Hoet — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:00:27 +0000

Trying out the new WordPress 2 app in the iPhone. IT beats me why this is a new app and not an upgrade to the v1 of which I had already but anyway the app looks handy and a good step up from the first version. Two things I still miss are the lack of access to your stats such as you can see at http://m.wordpress.com and … there is no more second point since inserting link just now takes away the comment I wanted to make related to the lack of an easy way to add links :)

Looks nice, now hit publish.