The AppsLab

This is worth a read if you’re interested in the recent, rapid innovation in credit card purchasing. @chexton » Blog Archive » Why Square could be one of the greatest Trojan Horses in recent tech history My short-sighted question about the seemingly competing innovations of Square and NFC are succinctly addressed thusly: Firstly, although Square currently relies on… Read More

IM has been a fixture in the home and in enterprises for well over a decade. One of the nice, possibly underhyped, features of IM is presence, i.e. letting your contacts know when you’re free to chat and when you’re busy. I suppose invisible is also a presence state, but from the would-be chatter’s perspective,… Read More

Lately, there’s been a flood of interesting concepts, from touchless control, to gesture control, to foldable displays. Now, check out the micropointer. Interface Design: Ring-Based Controls – Core77 I love the video production. It feels like it’s been lifted directly from Robocop or Demolition Man, very “vision of the future”. I kept expecting Cyberdyne Systems or Omni Consumer… Read More

So, this is pretty amazing. I’ve chatted about bendable displays here a few times with Gary (@syd_oracle) and with Joel (@joelgarry), and it seems we’re on the verge of seeing some really fantastic innovation in that area. Very cool stuff, check out the video. Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen

Two major developments, not surprises mind you, this week pertaining to credit card payments. First, Square announced Square Register, the next step in their quest to free merchants from expensive POS terminals. Square’s Disruptive New iPad Payments Service Will Replace Cash Registers I’m a big fan of Square and its conveniently tiny little doohickey, essentially a… Read More

Hot on the heels of the Imaginary Phone comes this gesture-controlled music player/workout tracker. Adrien Guenette Might Be Onto Something With His Gesture-Controlled Music Player Interesting. Gestures seem to be all the rage among smart designers, but will they catch mainstream attention? Probably not until Apple builds them into the next generation of iPhones, he… Read More

I saw this several times before I realized it wasn’t a joke. Hasso-Plattner-Institut: Imaginary Phone Apparently, you wear a camera that sends your gestures to the phone. I wonder how far from the device you need to be to make this work. With the mounting evidence that cell phone radiation is a bad thing, this… Read More

If you’ve read here long, you’ll know gamification is one of our hobbies. Like it or not, gaming is the future, and not just in consumer software. All Games Are About Death This post sounds morbid at first blush, but it makes some great points about death as a game mechanic, namely that death isn’t… Read More

As with last year’s Google IO, Google sent us home with several cool gifts this year. All attendees received the Limited Edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a Verizon LTE MiFi, as well as the promise of a Samsung Chromebook when they are released in June. Unlike last year, several goodies were given to the attendees… Read More

Rich (@rmanalan) pointed me to a post called Why Mobile Apps Will Soon Be Dead. This is, and has been, a hot topic for quite some time, as developers move to mobile and are faced with learning new skills on new platforms and face new deployment and distribution hurdles. The announcement of Angry Birds for… Read More

Thanks to John Sim (@JRSim_UX) and his work with Fishbowl (@FishbowlE20), I found this interesting proof of concept video done by John Brunswick (@johnbrunswick) showing a Dropbox experience on top of Oracle UCM. E2.0 Workbench Podcast 3 – HTML5, UCM and WebCenter “QuickBox” | John Brunswick Pretty cool stuff. We’ve been in love with Dropbox… Read More

I’m happy to announce that AppsLab has grown by one, and we’re pleased to welcome Noel Portugal (@noelportugal) to our little family. If you read here, you’ll recognize Noel’s name. I first met Noel back in June 2008, when he reached out to me to show me OraTweet, his Twitter clone built with Oracle APEX.… Read More

I considered making that a question, but let’s be honest. Macs have never been invulnerable to penetration; they’ve just been underserved. Crying wolf? Apple support forums confirm malware explosion | ZDNet When my parents finally decided it was time to get a computer, I recommended a Mac. One of the many reasons was that malware… Read More

So, this is weird. The Galaxy Tabs all Google IO attendees were given last week aren’t recognized as file volumes when connected to a computer. Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition not seen in Android File Transfer, Windows usability is spotty — Engadget I heard about this first from Matt (@topperge), and initially thought it was… Read More

Yesterday, I saw a post on five reasons why Chromebooks are a good idea. Then later, one on six why they’re not. These aren’t point-counter point posts, but they do seem to take enterprise vs. consumer perspectives. Last week, during the IO keynote, I remember thinking that although the chipper marketing targeted a consumer’s perspective,… Read More

This has me weirded out a bit. University of Chicago Shows Off its Automated Library | Geekosystem Check it out in action. Where to begin. It’s definitely an intelligent and economical use of space, like vertical or condensed bike parking. So, I admire the design. Still, it feels like someone set out to create Wikipedia IRL.… Read More

Maybe you remember the Most Useless Machine? It’s been upgraded and now takes offense at your insistent operation. Useless Machine Upgraded, Fights Back | Geekosystem Happy Friday.

Update 3: The short answer is yes and yes, but not without your approval for each. Read on if you want the full story. By now, you may know that each attendee of Google IO (@googleio) received a limited edition Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is a great tablet, slimmer, lighter and seemingly better constructed… Read More

So yesterday at Google IO (@googleio), Chromebooks were officially announced, and we saw this video for the first time. Pretty smart advertising. Google’s push into enterprises and educational institutions is also smart, although you wonder why Google Apps weren’t bundled. Give it time. This feels like Take X at the good old NC, maybe with… Read More