Radial Menus, Release to Select

Engaget recently covered the release of a new mobile device by Enblaze. I like the radial interface, and the move away from buttons, which in my opinion is one of the weakest interactions of a touch screen. Some downsides of this approach include

• accidental triggering of features when you lose your grip momentarily
• Bias or inefficiency (unless it automatically switches) to switch between left and right hands
• Loss of spatial memory
• Loss of the visual efficiency in vertical and horizontal grid alignment

Hot Bumptop

Bumptop, an augmentative 3D desktop for Windows, looks to be getting [edit: some] things right. Via Lifehacker

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Triumph of the Nerds — Video

I stumbled across the following series by Robert Cringely, which represents a fairly good overview of personal computing history from the Altair, the Alto, Apple I, II and Mac, IBM PC, OS/2, and the various shades of Windows. It was made in 1996, when Apple was looking like a goner.

Ignoring the pink polo shirts, quite a good series on some of the strategic moves which made the industry what it is today.

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