The coming touch screen revolution

We are going to see a touch screen tablet Mac before 2008. I'm convinced this will become the dominant mode of relating between people and machines over the coming decade. And that this will facilitate Moore’s Law levels of growth in the interactivity and community building power of the net.

Here's Jeff Han's piece at the 2006 TED Conference, edited down to 8 minutes from the original 20 or so. 27 mb, 38 mb, 31 mb, respectively, so kind of a slow download...

As a QuickTime file, Windows Media file, and DivX.

Here's links to the players for each: QuickTime, Windows, DivX.

When you look at the iPhone demo or Steve Jobs' MacWorld keynote, and some video podcasts, and hear about the "pinching motion" for zooming in, and its complement, the "spread," for zooming out, it's clearly based on the same conceptual approach, if not using similar code, to what Jeff Han is doing. There's a report that Apple tried to hire him to work on the iPhone...

I wonder if it could be possible to turn Axiotron/OWC's ModBook into a touchscreen PC instead of a Wacom stylus tablet...

I was at a workshop with one of Google’s search researchers last week, and asked him what he could say about touch screens. He had a lot to say. When I asked him how one would get the software to try it on the ModBook, he said, “Just write Jeff Han’s—he’ll probably give it to you.”

When I showed the Jeff Han piece to the 6th graders in the After School Program where I teach, their first question was, how much does that cost?

Fascinating stuff. And Jeff Han's is just one of the TED Conference presentations--there must be over 50 now, and I've not seen a boring one yet. All available, for free, to stream, download, or subscribe to as a video podcast. Definitely my favorite videocast. Folkways is my favorite audio-only podcast....but that's another story.