John Peel's Record Collection

One of the things I have always believed in is the importance of tangible objects that we can hold in our hands and experience.

As much as I love my music being collected digitally and held on a hard drive. I have always found it a far more enjoyable experience to count and collect my CDs and spend time organising them into perfect patterns that have some intrinsic value to me. Think Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and the importance of organising record collections, (here's a clip from the film to illustrate the point). One of many projects I have done like this is organising my DVDs by colour.

Creating an experience like this in a digital world is never going to be possible. But there are steps that can be taken to make the most of the medium.

Have a look at this experiment to recreate John Peel's record collection online.

Browsing through records, it is possible to pull records out, have a look at the artwork and even look at the notes John Peel made about them.

There is talk of the API for this being released in the future. Even if that can't be done there is inspiration to be had from playing in this record collection.

With the added functionality of Spotify playback you can always use it to discover some new music if nothing else.

One handed soft keyboard

Interesting idea Microsoft Research, and I like the thought process

Two things that strike me initially ....

1. It takes up a lot of screen space replying to texts and emails where you have to check what has already been said might be difficult... but if you are just typing something off the top of your head that's not going to be a problem
2. It's at an angle if you look at what you type while you are typing you have two things to look at that both require different perspectives

You can read a little bit more about the keyboard at Gizmodo and The Verge the images have been leaked from a presentation and published online by WMPowerUser.com

What do the Windows 8 Tablets mean for Nokia?

Nokia and Microsoft

Nokia's partnership with Microsoft looked like it was going to help both companies become leaders in the mobile market.


The Lumia 800 is a great smart phone but hasn't changed the fortunes of Nokia, recent announcements of job losses keep dark clouds hovering over Nokia's fortunes. 


Despite being a great phone the Lumia 800 has problems rooted in it's "parent companies" having conflicting interests and products. Nokia Music clashes and confuses with Zune Music+Video and the same is easily said of Bing Maps and Nokia Maps. The reasoning for the competing products is understandable but the results are not conducive of a good user experience.

Microsoft Tablets

As announced last night Microsoft have produced their own Windows 8 Tablets, and on first impressions they look pretty good.

The Metro interface present in Windows 8 is the same design principle in Windows Phone 7 and it works wonderfully on a mobile device. Put simply a tablet is a mobile device so there is reason not to expect the Metro UI to work scaled up.

The pro model makes clear attempts to blur the line between tablet and ultra-book, we'll have to see if they can pull that off in a few months time. I'm a skeptic of this approach, making a new product better than both an ultra-book and a tablet is a difficult game. Note the tablets with the biggest market share haven't tried this. Things look better with the lower end RT model, which is clearly aimed at being a mobile tablet device, a closer competitor to Apple iPads and Amazone Kindle Fires. 

How much the OS and UI differs from future Windows Phone OS releases will be seen in time. But at the moment it looks like Microsoft is approaching with a PC down approach. Opposite to the likes of Apple and Android who make differing versions of their mobile OS for tablets. It would also be fair to say that Microsoft's previous attempts at stripped down desktop OS on tablets have not been earth shattering.

Nokia Tablets?

So what does this mean for Nokia?

Rumours of a Windows 8/Windows Phone tablet from Nokia have been around for a long time. Some fan mock ups have looked pretty exciting like this one;

From recent announcement it appears Microsoft are going to take the tablet market for themselves and Nokia have been left behind. Phones and tablets are not in the same picture at Microsoft.

But what about the future for Microsoft? The Surface tablets are hardware and branded as Microsoft products. Are Microsoft intending to be more involved in their hardware and will this spell bad news for Nokia? Is there anything to suggest that Microsoft are not planning for to build their own 'Microsoft Phones' in the future?

If Microsoft push into mobile hardware, it is not looking bright for Nokia, and if Microsoft continue to leave them behind in their rush for the mobile market then they are going to get a lot worse.

Right now it seems unlikely a Lumia tablet is coming anytime soon, and tablets are to be Microsofts super portable PCs. Wether this approach is going to work, which as I say hasn't traditionally worked for user experience, will be answered in time. Although time is something that, worryingly, Nokia may not have much of.

Tactus - Tactile Touch Screens

The big buzz in the tech world at the moment is touch screen technology. As a result markets are being flooded with touch screen devices and applications. But, is the current implementation of touch screen technology the future the way we want it to be?

When I look at it, the biggest problem with touch screen technology is the lack of any tactile feedback. Even my first iPhone felt disappointing compared to my friend's £10 Nokia. His phone had big clear buttons he could feel and easily use without looking at the phone.

With buttons on the phone he could answer a call, write a message and perform any number of tasks without ever having to look at the phone. Remember writing a text message at school under the desk without the teacher noticing?

My current phone has a nice idea for feedback. Some buttons, like the back button, respond with a tiny vibration. This feedbacks that an action has been recognised, and when it vibrates unexpectedly I know I've accidentally touched an icon.

Think of gaming on an iPad compared compared to a console. Consoles have controllers that can be held in the hand. When I'm playing a game I have a familiarity with the controller that means I don't need to look down into my hands. Therefore, my game paying is never distracted and I can be totally immersed in Call of Duty.

On an iPad, an attempt has been made to overcome the lack of having no controller to hold. The controls are on the screen, but having the controls on top of the game makes the experience less immersive. And, being totally immersed in the game is what makes it so enjoyable.

A rumor circulating tech blogs since the boom of the touch screen devies, is a tactile touch screen.

Tactus have recently announced working prototypes of their tactile touch screens. The solution appears as a completely unobtrusive way to provide users with a vital tactile response to their actions.

Will this make touch screens a more engaging and immersive experience?

The signs are pointed in the right direction. I'm hoping the implementation matches the idea.

Watch the video and see what you think...