“Interaction is the Achilles’ heel of most MP3 players; Introducing tap-based textual navigation to select tracks is sexy”, I wrote in 2000. A condensed version of an article first published Nov. 2000 in Digital Culture, Globe’s Monthly Digital Culture magazine. Globe’s is Israel’s leading financial newspaper.
Handspring Visor PDA with MiniJam, an MP3 player (Circa 2000)
The Visor is an interface machine poised to absorb all other appliances, hitting them with superior interaction. Here’s how it assimilates cameras, phones and even the old TV remote control. These Interaction Machines , optimally balanced in size and ease of use, lead the next phase in the evolution of computing as they silently crawl into our pockets. User-friendliness now has its own physical platform, and the theater for the next battle for world domination is your kitchen table.
Evolution is accelerating again
Phones have lately been growing larger displays, developing their skills at recognizing their masters’ voice, lowering their body mass to better fit into our pockets. Infrared intra-device communication is back. And for the first time in over a decade, we have a completely new popular hardware platform – after this option has been buried for good by analysts.
