Airing on the Optimistic Side

In one of my first posts on this blog I talked about Apple's MacBook Air which had just been released.

Well, today I enjoyed this review of the MBA written by Paul Stamatiou. (For reference, Paul is a 21 year old student of Computational Media at Georgia Technical Institute. His blog is a popular destination for tech reviews, tips, and How-Tos. I've been reading it for nearly 2 years and highly recommend it. No, he did not pay me to say this.)

On the whole, he's happy with his MBA, (he gives it a 9/10) even though it's a technical downgrade from his old MacBook Pro. I think it's interesting that someone with such an investment in computers would sacrifice functionality for convenience. Granted, convenience is supposed to be what laptops are all about, and Paul doesn't seem to feel the loss in performance is enough to worry about. Still, this makes me wonder if we'll see Apple's "think[ing] different" start a trend where fun factors start taking precedence (for general consumers, at least) over practicality. I got my video iPod for Christmas, 2005, and less than a year later I had people saying to me, "Oh, you've got one of those big ones.." Because, by that time, the popularity of the Nano and the Shuffle had taken hold - even though mine holds 30g of data. I still use that iPod daily, and I still prefer it for its carrying capacity over its light-weight, more gym-friendly cousins.

I wonder if popular computers will eventually experience as much of a divide as we see with something like cars. Perhaps the MacBook Air is the first Lambo of computers. (Lamborghini doesn't look so different from Apple - at least, their site is pretentious enough. Enjoy the background music.) As for the other end of the spectrum..."Built Panasonic Tough?"

What does that make Nicholas Negroponte's XO? A smartcar?

No Touchie - The Next Step

Think that TED Talks video we all received about the multi-touch tech was amazing? Well, so did I. Then my friend pointed me to this. While it's not as well-developed, and currently not as useful as the multi-touch devices such as Microsoft's Surface, this new development from Elliptic Labs may be the next step in computer interfacing. Forget touch-screen. This is a screen you don't touch at all, and as the Gizmodo article explains, doesn't require you to wear any sensors. Here's the brief video demo:

Apple Anorexia

Today at Macworld '08, Apple presented their new notebook, the MacBook Air. It's got bragging rights as the world's thinnest laptop. Although I have my doubts about how well they've balanced aesthetics and usability, I have to admit it looks very nice. Here's the guided tour:



And I thought my computer was snazzy.

In our reading of Bolter and Grusin we've become well-versed in the theory that all media are evolving toward a Strange Days-ian, "Wire"-esque state of total sense-engagement to the greatest extent that they can. (At least, that's my take on it.) Keeping that in mind, we can make some interesting observations about Apple's new baby.

"It is...a creed among interface designers," write Bolter and Grusin, "that interactivity increases the realism and effectiveness of a graphical user interface: the icons become more present to the user if she can reposition them or activate them with a click of the mouse." (pp 29-30.)

At 2:00 in the video, our good friend John begins explaining the capability of the MacBook Air's trackpad. He demonstrates how certain simple finger movements perform some common tasks such as zooming, manipulating graphics, and web browsing. Normally these tasks are performed via interface buttons or keyboard-shortcuts. If all electronic devices with some kind of interface eventually followed this trend, it would eliminate the need for many interface functions to exist and provide a more immediate experience.

At 4:52, John triumphantly proclaims that, "MacBook Air was built for the wireless world!" He goes on to explain the minimal need for wires and other cumbersome peripherals. For one thing, iTunes members now have the option of renting movies online, which saves them from having to lug around the external disc drive and going to the movie store to pick up the DVD du jour. Score. Plus, thanks to WiFi technology and features like Migration Assistant and Remote Disk, you do not have to physically connect the laptop to any additional media whatsoever if you want to copy data in any capacity.

All of this demonstrates how Bolter and Grusin's ideas about immediacy and immersive qualities have a strong presence in this particular breaking-edge medium.