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Monthly Archives: July 2010

Desktop Multitouch

I don’t know if there’s some information I’m missing in this, but what on earth is the point of a desktop multitouch trackpad, especially one that lacks pressure sensitivity?

Multitouch is a great feature, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t get how people can find it useful on something that isn’t a touchscreen.  It may just be my opinion as a power user, but trackpads are ugly things.  The first thing I do when I use a laptop is find a mouse.  The precision, accuracy, and overall ease of use with a mouse is something that a trackpad can’t replicate.  Even with adding the multitouch gestures, there’s nothing in the list that I find overly difficult to use with either regular mousing or keyboard shortcuts (With the possible exception of pinch/zoom).  Four-fingered sliding for switching applications just seems unnecessary and complex compared to Alt-Tab or even just moving your mouse to the window you want.

I realize that people are slowly looking at revolutionizing desktops and trying to inject new technology into them, but I think it’s not going to take off.  Things like tablets and smartphones are making computers portable and opening up new opportunities, but desktops will be around for a while simply because of how robust they are and how used to the interface.  If we were to get multitouch into the desktop area, it would only be appealing to me if it was for an operating system entirely rewritten to make good use of it all the way around, not just taking an existing OS and tacking on a couple of novelty features to it.

So, congrats Apple – yet another product that people don’t know what it’s good for, yet will buy anyways.  No wonder profits are soaring.

WP7 – Too Little, Too Late?

So, reviews of prototype Windows Phone 7 devices rolled in last week, and the reviews were for the most part pretty good.  Some things are still not working yet (Like the Game Center, which I think is one of the biggest selling points of the platform), but all in all it is starting to look closer to a finished product.

But is it enough to compete on the same level as mature platforms like Android and iOS 4?  Honestly, I don’t think it has what it takes.  As nice of an interface and design that the platform has, they’re taking the wrong attitudes when it comes to the competition.  This came across in an Engadget review with Windows Phone Corporate CP Joe Belfiore where he stated that people will be taken in by the new features of the phone, and essentially tolerate the fact that it doesn’t have now-common features like multitasking and copy-paste.  After all, the iPhone didn’t have that at the start, so it must be okay for them to do the same, right?  Not at all.  Technology is an ever-changing business, and what seemed perfectly fine even a year ago can seem outdated and primitive now.  Microsoft can’t expect consumers to let these missing features just slide, especially given the development time they’ve spent on this platform, plus all of the mistakes they’ve made in the past with Windows Mobile.

That’s not to say that they’re doomed from the start.  The platform has a lot of potential, but simply is going to suffer from what I like to call “First-gen syndrome”.  Devices with the platform may be a little lacking in quality, features that should be present will be missing such as multitasking and copy-paste, and third-party applications will be limited.  If they can get over the first year and have decent sales, good developer support, and an active desire to get their platform up to par and beyond the competitors, I think it would be a great phone to have.  However, it all relies on them being able to convince consumers that the full portable Microsoft Office Suite, XBOX Live integration, and their “glanceable” interface is worth the growing pains.

It’s quite a gamble, and one that I think could pay off if they take the time to develop and improve the platform properly.  A few devices are looking incredibly sharp (Mainly that Dell Lightning!), and it’s already looking miles ahead of where they were with Windows Mobile, so I’m confident that in a year or two they can take a good chunk of market share out of Apple and Google (Of course, I hope they take more out of Apple, but that’s just me).

Fun With Lightning

So, my entire day yesterday was spent dealing with a problem with transmitters up in Moose Jaw.  Don’t want to get into too many details, but after a very long day determined that it was a problem with the antenna system 800ft. up the tower.  Had a crew up last night and found nothing obvious, so they went back up today to do a more in-depth look at it.  What did they find?  Well, what you see above.  The guess is a lightning strike hit the bay causing the problems.  Needless to say, this is not going to be fun to fix.

On the upside, got to learn a couple of new interesting skills thanks to other engineers coming out and helping out.  Obviously not my idea of a fun day, but I have to say that there aren’t many jobs out there with excitement like this!

Technical Difficulties

I admit I appreciate my Squarespace account a little more today than I did when I canceled it – currently have a nasty bug somewhere that’s preventing me from adding images to any of my posts. Minor, but still really annoying, especially since I have two or three blog posts written now that are just sitting there saved. Hopefully I’ll get it fixed soon.