MOBILE VS. PC -- Please Chime In!

[Renegade]

I want to provoke a discussion on the mobile environment. I also want people to chime in as either DEVELOPERS or USERS.

USERS can chime in and tell us DEVELOPERS about how you use your mobile device, and what needs aren't met.

Those DEVELOPERS of us can then think and plan to come up with solutions to problems for people.


I think that this could be a good exercise 

http://www.startupsm...ace-pcs-in-2011.html

Mobile devices to outpace PCs in 2011

A new report reveals mobile internet devices will outsell desktop personal computers this year, prompting a shift in the way businesses operate and advertise.

According to the Technology Predictions 2011 report, released by consulting firm Deloitte, non-PC computing devices such as smartphones, tablets and netbooks will prove more popular than PCs.

Deloitte’s findings form part of a list of annual predictions for the technology, media and telecommunications industry.

Damien Tampling, Deloitte’s head of technology, media and telecommunications in Australia, says 2011 will be a “watershed” year for how people use computers and information.

“Non-PC devices put a world of information and computing power at your fingertips – anytime and anywhere,” Tampling says.

What are things that can enrich our lives in this new paradigm?

[40hz]

Mobile for passive. PC for active.

If you are primarily a consumer of information, mobile solutions should be sufficient for you.

If you are a content creator, maintainer, or someone who needs to more than casually interact with your info environment, then PCs are the better way to go.

The world does not live by tweets and clicks alone. The ability to easily enter numerous and complex keystrokes is still difficult on mobile devices. Until the data input barrier gets resolved, PCs will continue to have a bright future.
 

[KynloStephen66515]

Until the data input barrier gets resolved, PCs will continue to have a bright future.

-40hz (January 28, 2011, 07:50 PM)

So basically, until we have full sized qwerty keyboards attached to phones, we are all good? 

[Renegade]

Mobile for passive. PC for active.

If you are primarily a consumer of information, mobile solutions should be sufficient for you.

-40hz (January 28, 2011, 07:50 PM)

So basically, until we have full sized qwerty keyboards attached to phones, we are all good? 

-Stephen66515 (January 28, 2011, 07:58 PM)

I think that we're looking at things the wrong way here.

At the moment, that's all very true. But it doesn't have to be that way.

The mouse and trackball were revolutionary.

But we also have video and audio input capabilities that we're not doing much with.

I think the next big input revolutions will be in STT (speech to text, or speech recognition) as commands and video recognition for gestures as commands.

We're seeing it in Microsoft's Kinect now.

Once those problems are solved, the mobile platform will be open as a productive platform and not just a passive one.

However, the current state of things is pretty much that -- mobile passive, PC active.

I've looked into it, and there are some C APIs/SDKs out there for STT/SR. I'd like to wrap one up for .NET if I could find the time. But it's a big project. I'd have to commercialize the wrapper to recoup the costs.

I'm a bit surprised that it's taking this long to get there though. SR/STT and video recognition (VR) are viable on the mobile platform to one degree or another. The power is there for some things.

This year will see the roll-out of more mobile technologies like NFC and limited SR/STT/VR.

I've already seen what's coming out in bada, and it will be catchup time for Apple with iOS and Google with Android for some things there. bada will simply offer much better tools than iOS or Android. That's the platform to watch right now.

[barney]

If you are primarily a consumer of information, mobile solutions should be sufficient for you.

Well-l-l ... no.  Even as a consumer, manipulation and data entry are important.  That will not be viable until Speech-to-Text matures.  Anything small enough to carry conveniently simply will not be capable of reasonable physical input.

There are a couple if StT apps on my phone, but they do not work well.  StT needs to understand both text and command input before it can be called viable.  Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking is a great example:  up to version eleven (11), and it still has trouble doing both.

I'm reminded of a scene in a Harrison Ford Sci-Fi movie where he, from across the room, tells the computer how to manipulate images of a crime scene.  When portable devices reach that level of sophistication, they will become immeasurably more important than they are now.  Until that time, a smartphone or a small tablet are nice to have, but are useless for any significant input.

That said, I'd love for one - or more - of you to prove me wrong and create an app that would let me interact efficiently with my phone  .

[Deozaan]

An Indie game developer recently wrote a blog explaining why touch input isn't as great as many people make it out to be. It seemed somewhat related to this topic:

Touch-screens have been a key driver of the smartphone market - but this is more because they facilitate maximum screen size in smallest form factor, rather than any particular benefits of the touch-screen itself. I fondly remember the ability to stumble along the pavement drunk, writing perfectly accurate text messages with one hand and rolling a cigarette with the other, whereas on a smartphone I seem unable to walk and text while sober and using both hands without flying into an angry rage at the sheer bastard difficulty of it all.

[...]

Compared to the economy of the mouse, many actions on a touchscreen feel like hard work. Consider the position of the arm when resting on a mouse correctly: it's well supported all the way along. You have all the muscles from the shoulder down to the fingers to co-ordinate movement, without having to move from the resting position. With the tiniest movement you can flick the cursor from one side of the screen to the other, or scroll up and down with the mouse wheel. To me that is entirely preferable to moving the arm around in the air unsupported which is required to interact with a touch-screen (or to put it another way, I want my arm to rest at right angles to the screen).

-http://klobb.posterous.com/a-touchy-subject

He makes a great point in that last paragraph I quoted. Mobile devices are great for short bursts of media consumption, but terrible for long term anything, really. Muscle strain and fatigue set in. Didn't we learn this from the Wii? Now we've got Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect trying to get in on the action. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing games on the Wii (I haven't tried Move or Kinect), but most of the time it feels like the "waggle" would work just as well (or better) if they assigned the response to a button push. Any game I've played that is designed for long-term gaming sessions have very little/infrequent waggle. Though I should clarify that I think using the Wiimote as a pointer isn't bad, as it basically just requires slight movements of your wrist, much like operating a mouse.

But I suppose I'm getting off topic since this isn't about gaming consoles.


Another reason why touch screens aren't so great, and probably my favorite quote from the article:

As of 2011, we don't have transparent hands.

-http://klobb.posterous.com/a-touchy-subject

Read the rest here: http://klobb.postero...com/a-touchy-subject

[barney]

But I suppose I'm getting off topic since this isn't about gaming consoles.

-Deozaan (February 01, 2011, 09:00 PM)

Well-l-l ... it kinda is not off topic.  Games need the same kind of input that's been discussed if they're to have any real value/impact on the various portable devices available today.  (Or does anyone think that games won't be an issue?  Hey, check the various markets.)  iOS hasn't done it, Android hasn't done it ... actually, gaming performance could be a real measure in this arena.  Only, for once, the performance wouldn't be hardware based  .

OK, anybody up for creating a voice-controlled interface to World of Warcraft ... or is that a stretch too far  ?

[Renegade]

But I suppose I'm getting off topic since this isn't about gaming consoles.

-Deozaan (February 01, 2011, 09:00 PM)

Well-l-l ... it kinda is not off topic.  Games need the same kind of input that's been discussed if they're to have any real value/impact on the various portable devices available today.  (Or does anyone think that games won't be an issue?  Hey, check the various markets.)  iOS hasn't done it, Android hasn't done it ... actually, gaming performance could be a real measure in this arena.  Only, for once, the performance wouldn't be hardware based  .

OK, anybody up for creating a voice-controlled interface to World of Warcraft ... or is that a stretch too far  ?

-barney (February 01, 2011, 09:18 PM)

There is one... Mother screaming, "GET DOWN HERE FOR DINNER~!!!"