Apple, Google and Microsoft moved into Nokia’s crosshairs yesterday as the Finnish company bought Symbian, the major threat to the iPhone and Android SDK’s and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS. read full post »

I like maps. I even read maps. If Tive goes quiet in the back of the car don’t worry, he hasn’t fallen through the armrest, he’s just reading a map. Thankfully reading maps is normal behaviour for the bored. It won’t beat MarioKart but it keeps boredom at bay in traffic jams. Luckily for me, and the rest of you closet map lovers, there are a multitude of map oriented services and applications. Some of them are even quite useful…

read full post »

No, not the little claymation chap who was Tony Hart’s imaginary friend. Morph is “concept device” created by by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (UK) to explore the kinds of devices and benefits that nanoscale technologies have the potential to create. Have a look at this video (I will post it here when our video button is restored…). It shows how Morph can be a watch, a phone, a calculator and a beer mat. It can sense chemicals in the air; it re-charges itself from the power of the sun; it’s self-cleaning and it can turn into jewelery. The video animation depicts user benefits from a personal perspective: a young woman sits outside a cafe on a sunny day sometime in a future set to lame chill-out music. Everything is perfect. Can’t wait.

I wrote a piece a while ago about how ambient interfaces were the next step in digital - being able to control computers without the rather awkward encumbrance of a keyboard and mouse. And lo and behold, the world has gone ambient interface crazy.

The Wii remote, multi-touch screens, the iPhone - these are all devices that use your body in a much more natural way to interact with devices. They are somehow more human.

Here’s a list of some other, more recent examples:

read full post »