Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

I think you're misssing the point a bit there though. You say if we don't change things stagnate, when in fact assuming that the future is going to be more bigger and better touch screen displays along with gestures where you don't have to touch anything at all then we are in fact stagnating. Just look at touch screen phones. Yes the operating systems have evolved massively since the first iPhone, but the actual interaction of using a touch screen hasn't. Yes theres been research into ultra responsive resistive touch screens that allow pressure sensitivity and much more detailed control, and people have added styluses and played around with shape changing surfaces, but at the end of the day its a bit of a dead end seeing as all you can actually do to interact with one is tap and swipe. Sure that makes for a great product right now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be pushing for more than that now.

The same applies to gestural interfaces, I'm sure with time they'll allow for great control of computers and they are a step forward from a touch screen by allowing further ranges of gestures, and leap seems to be a very good implementation of this, but at the same time theres no feedback there, where there is opportunity for there to be much more which could be much much greater. And thats without even thinking about the arm ache that complex operations with your arms in mid air causes (I though it was mentioned in that rant, the scenes of gestural interfaces in minority report had to be broken down into incredibly short sequences as they were wearing the actors arms out)

Look at music. No-one "touches" that anyone, and isn't it amazing to have access to the entire history of the worlds music in your pocket? Bret's thinking says we should all be like this guy:

This bit is definitely missing the point. Just because he says things should be physical and use the capabilities of the hand, doesn't mean he's advocating a return to analogue. Things like the mp3 player are a massive step forward in terms of usability and convenience. Its more about challenging what the next form of interface should be, and asking people to consider something that lends itself more towards tactility than just another screen.

In actual fact, whatever the next big thing in terms of interface will be has probably been in development for a long time, it won't be something that the consumer is familiar with, but technologies like these take a long time to develop to the point where they are actually usable. Lets face it, nobody saw the iPhone coming and it seemed like a revolutionary invention, but in fact the capacitive touch screen had been in development for years, and it was a combination of the right product at the right time that made it big.