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Nokia’s take on Apple
For the past years, Nokia have been run over by Apple in the high-end mobile market. Their N95 came out around the same time as the iPhone, and it was touted as a direct competitor, even though most people who tried the N95 were more likely to wanting to stab themselves in the eyes. It was a horrendous phone, and from what I’ve read, the N97 and N8 isn’t any better.
With this in mind, it makes me happy reading the following from Financial Times about Marko Ahtisaari. It’s because of guys like Marko, Adam Greenfield and Jan Chipchase (who left recently) that Nokia can remain relevant in mobile market.
Read this:
“‘I still think the whole industry is missing a trick,’ said Mr Ahtisaari during a meet-the-press session in London yesterday. ‘All the touchscreen interfaces are very immersive. You have to put your head down. What Nokia is very good at is designing for mobile use: one-handed, in the pocket. Giving people the ability to have their head up again is critical to how we evolve user interfaces.’
Given humanity’s growing fixation with staring at glowing rectangles, any innovation that helps improve off-screen interaction really would be ‘social change’, as Mr Ahtisaari puts it.”
Nokia shouldn’t design for the iPhone-crowd. They’re already well on their way to losing that bet (if they didn’t already), but the mobile world is much much more than upbeat American college students — after all there are 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions and only 50 million iPhones.
Also, he points out that there’s a lot of potential in social data about maps:
That doesn’t mean Nokia won’t try to bring more “social” elements and personalisation into its own services. “I think as we move into the MeeGo platform, [there will] more and more layers of value above maps … and social data about maps – other paths that people you know have taken through cities.”
It’s in statements like these you can feel the importance of having great people in your company.
Whether Nokia will deliver or not, the future will show. It doesn’t look too good:
/via Nokia’s designs on Apple | Tech Blog | FT.com
Notes from Adam Greenfield’s talk at MEDEA, Malmö
Today I attended a talk by Adam Greenfield at MEDEA in Malmö. Ever since we wrote our bachelor’s project on Digital Patina, the ideas surrounding the networked city, everyware and ubicomp have struck a cord with me. I find it immensely interesting, but there is so much to read and understand in these disciplines that it’s hard to find the time when I already waste so much attending lectures I don’t care about, and writing papers I don’t want to spend time writing.
(Is it clear that currently I’m a bit tired of attending school because “I have to” after doing it for so many years?)
NB: These notes are written by me and are mainly intended for myself, but feel free to be inspired. They are not necessarily correctly worded all the way through, but it’s as I remember them and shall hopefully use them in the future.
Title: Elements of networked urbanism
Diagnosis <-> Manifesto
Background in UX
Watch normal human beings interact
People ≠ Stupid
80-90% does not go beyond the surface of the device’s functions
Tired of processual web development
PC = 1:1. No assumptions on non-specialist people.
“Encalming” computing.
Effortless mastery.
Colonization of everyday life by computing.
Victor Hugo: “This will kill that: The press will kill the church, printing will kill architecture.”
Humanity = urban species
Affordances <-> Strengths
12/2012: 20% of non-video internet traffic will be networked sensors (“Non-human computer interaction” I would call it)
The internet will predominantly be about non-human interaction – it will be about data.
Cities ≠ mute components. They will be scriptable resources.
IPv6 can give every grain of sand a node.
What is now a constant will be a variable (Harry Potter-stairs)
Architecture = HTML
Things become explicit. Can be dangerous to know too much about your neighborhood. Always include a utility.
We don’t browse in urbanism anymore – we search.
Post queries to the City.
Cities should be about people negotiating.
It will become possible to be superuser of a city.
It will become easier to share knowledge than to hold on to it.
Expiring -> Persistent (Digital Patina)
Real-time makes the city actionable like never before.
Wayfinding conventions will be disrupted – Wayshowing is the future, but it is negative. What happens when our augmented reality contact lenses crash?
Being lost is a wonderful thing. It forces us to pay attention.
There is an expense in everything.
McLuhan: “Every extension is also an amputation.”
When things become networked, they change form object to service.
The physical object goes from ownership to use. They become sociable.
Physical custody is removed.
Urban environments are about friction.
We need to be careful about superimposing social network principles to the city. We need discovery and differences.
The map is never neutral.
What happens when we reach cognitive resource limitations?
Be aware of giving feelings to technology. They are not personalities, but functions.
There’s a difference in behavior between physical systems and psychological.
Things I need to look up and have probably misheard:
Anne Halloway (?)
Mark Weiser, Xerox
“Coming age of calming technology”
Technological Determinism
The Fun Palace, London.
Archigram, 1960s
Living Glass
Goffmann?
Site: superfuture
The Media Equation
Philip K. Dick – Ubik.