True, true…. [ubicomp2006]

Seen as a status message on the network here at UbiComp:
“the ubicomp wifi isn’t ubiquitous, reliable or fast. funny.”

Technorati Tags: funny, IM, industry, conference, ubicomp, ui

Handiest Hint EVA

Merlin Mann says:
“First off: do yourself the biggest favor ever, and make that stupid “Caps Lock” key into something more useful. In the months since I first mentioned remapping this typewriter relic using third-party utilities, the folks behind OS X have been kind enough to bake it right into the Keyboard & Mouse PreferencePane (”[Apple] > System Preferences… > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard > Modifier Keys“).”

I always accidently hit the caps lock key and in reality I never use it (the shift key works fine for me), so I’m happy about this one.

Technorati Tags: Apple, blog, hci, usability

Capitol of Punk

Relevant to my week here in the U.S. at UbiComp is a mapping tour and video podcast of key punk sites in Washington DC

Technorati Tags: consumerelectronics, design, hci, mobile, travel, ui, video, web2.0

Role of usability in the new version of Microsoft Office 12 for Mac

Overview of the upcoming (late 2007) version of Office 12 for the Macintosh. Including this quote:
“We had what we thought was going to be this perfect UI solution, and the first time we put it in the labs, no-one understood it! It was so different they were completely confused!
We just finished up another round of usability testing on the new UI yesterday, and the program manager said the difference is like night and day”.

Technorati Tags: Apple, article, hci, Microsoft, ui, usability

The Sidekick in person

Funnily enough I ran into an old colleague of mine, Jeff, here at UbiComp. He’s now living back in the States and has got himself a Sidekick III. I had a very quick go of it the other day and it seems to be the best device around (which isn’t really saying much…).

What I like about it:
- Push email
- Has Yahoo!, AOL & MSN IM clients on at all times and notifies of new messages
- Consolidated communications (IM, email, SMS, MMS, voice, voicemail)
- It’s on a fixed data plan
- Good little full keyboard

What it needs:
- 3G connection – GPRS is suitable for most stuff but slow for things like browsing
- WiFi connection – well that’d be great for cheaper high speed data for things like VoIP, web browsing, large attachments, internet radio, RSS feed enclosures
- Google Talk client like Mylo and Nokia 770
- Skype client like Mylo
- At least 2MP camera, it’s only 1.3MP
- Slightly smaller form factor like Mylo
- Opera browser like Mylo
- Sync with the Mac (iCal, Address Book, iTunes music, photos, video)
- An RSS feed reader
- The build quality plastics seem a little poor and the trackball seems quite delicate.

In a perfect world the Sidekick and Mylo would mate and Apple would deliver the baby.

Technorati Tags: Apple, consumerelectronics, design, hci, IM, mobile, Nokia, Phonecam, Skype, ui, usability, Yahoo!

First thoughts from UbiComp 2006 [ubicomp2006]

Couple of quick points from UbiComp 2006. At half time on Day 1:
1) Great, entertaining, thought-provoking keynote by Bruce Sterling. He talked about the beauty of the UbiComp language and created a Meme Map for his ‘Spime’ (space & time objects) lifecycle.
2) The audience here at UbiComp are completely different to the MobileHCI audience. Here there are people queuing up to ask questions here, and there are some good questions. Lots of smart people here, so it’s going to be a great learning experience.
3) These people are organised, there’s even a feedback session where they are looking for people to recommend how to improve the conference.
4) Bagels and big mugs of tea for breakie- brilliant!
5) Free WiFi throughout the conference level – though it’s suffering under the load of the audience [later... in fact it seems to be getting a lot worse with 70% packet loss making it virtually useless] (FYI: It’s $10/day in the room here at the Newport Beach Marriott) Re: Marriott – Just enough space in the room for yoga, and staying here means I’ll be able to go for a swim at lunch time Also an awesomely comfortable king size bed.
6) Still no powerboards, where is our wireless power!
7) Book of Proceedings – when will we move to CD?!
8) I don’t feel like socialising yet, maybe I’ll warm up, or maybe I’m just tired. Three time zones in two days, though I’m sleeping OK.
9) Hmmmm, social software at this one isn’t great either
10) One Minute Madness – All 39 posters and 16 demos have 1 minute each to give us the down low on their work

Technorati Tags: hci, industry, travel, ubicomp, ui