24 July 2002

New and old interfaces for handhelds AllNetDevices has some good articles on text-entry interfaces for handhelds: In a portable world, QWERTY still rules: the form is good (users don't want to learn anything else), and vendors are coming up with interesting ways to implement QWERTY in the devices. Successful now: the Blackberry, which is held like a games controller (with the thumbs used to type); in future: maybe VBK's virtual keyboard or Virtual Devices' VKey, both of which create virtual keyboards on a surface upon which finger movements can be interpreted. Unique keyboard overlay for Palm OS (EXideas' MessageEaseST, which looks like it might be similar to Eatoni's software, see below) Compare and contrast with new approaches in software (eg Eatoni's CEHLNSTY) and hardware (eg: Fastap, a new keypad). Of these different interfaces, Rodcorp likes those that flexibly implement QWERTY, like the virtual keyboards (as long as they're accurate) and the Fastap (as long as it can get into enough handsets). 1:48:06 PM     comments

The art of the screensaver 22 screensavers to download 11:38:54 AM     comments

N Digital, Algorithmic, Computational Artists A list of digital, algorithmic, computer, computational artists, in no particular order. Casey Reas and Ben Fry make brilliant computational art. The highlights are Reas' Tissue and Paths projects and Fry's genomic cartography. And together they made Proce55ing, a simple programming environment for visuals, for mortals like you and us. Scott Snibbe. His Breath is very infra-mince (Duchampian) and the dynamic systems series use human movement (eg cursor movements) as their input. Roman Verostko, best-known of the algorithmic/plotter artists. Example: cyberflowers 10:20:38 AM     comments