iPod + Lipstick = iStick

Designed by Alexei Mikhailov, the iStick is a beautiful device.

Sporting four touch-sensetive surfaces and icons for Music, Videos, Photos, and iTunes. Mikhailov is quick to point out that the iStick is not for viewing movies, and the screen is far too small for decent picture viewing - unless that slick silver block at the end hides a pico projector, so you can use a wall as your screen.

Whilst the iStick won’t be making a debut in Apple’s repotoir of players any time soon - even if it does have Cover Flow - I’d still love to own one.

More shots of this beautiful device after the jump>

Nokia’s Remade Phone Concept Is Rubbish

Remade is a design concept from Nokia, and is nothing new - literally. Announced at the Mobile World Congress, Remade is a mobile phone created entirely from re-used materials.

The concept is made from such tree-hugging materials as upcycled aluminium cans, plastics from drinks bottles, keys from old tyres, and printed electronics on the inside. No real info on the screen (or the battery), but at a push, you could possibly use second-hand materials to create small LCD panels for the display.

Did Microsoft Really Copy Apple? [Updated]

It has always been a running joke that Microsoft’s Windows systems look surprisingly like Apple’s OSX systems, with features like desktop search in the taskbar, and the look of Vista.

There are two schools of thought here - on the one side, Microsoft copies all (or most) of their ideas from Apple, and claims them as their own executing the copies as originals. On the other side, Microsoft doesn’t take their ideas from Apple - period - and the similarities are purely coincidental.

I’d like to take you through a new concept - The Usability Funnel. This is a concept covering the evolution of operating systems and their interaction with humans.

[Updated] Google to Announce GoogleOS - GooglePhone in the Future?

Google is alleged to announce a Google OS (Operating System) for mobile devices on Monday’s press conference. According to sources, this software will be “a complete mobile-phone software stack”.

EA moves toward an open gaming platform

Today a Senior Executive at Electronic Arts, Gerhard Florin, said that “We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible”.  He also said that the web and set-top boxes would grow in importance to the industry.

There are many upsides to this, namely the cost. An Open platform means that the software engine and the hardware base would be designed, built, tested, and upgraded by an open source community - Open source hardware already exists, like the daisy MP3 player, which is entirely open source, with the schematics and designs openly available to anyone.  An open hardware platform would be freely developed, and the only cost would be parts, which can be minimised.

The other upside of an Open gaming platform is that games would only need work with one standard. So one set of standards, one set of hardware, and one software engine  to test and develop for. This would reduce development time, and cost too - these savings could be passed on to the gamers themselves.

But an Open platform may not be such a good plan. Open platforms may give rise to hardware and software hackers, which is fine - but it could lead to exactly the diversity that lead the games market to have 3 major gaming consoles, splitting the gaming market.

But what do you think? Are you a developer, or maybe a gamer? Let me know what you think about this idea, does the gaming market need a new console, or do you think the majority of gamers will move to this new idea?

Hit the comments with your thoughts.

Graham

[via BBC UK - article here]

Notepad for iPod Touch & iChat

Just to let any iPod Touch/iPhone owners out there know, I’m planning to come out with a Notepad app for the iSlates, as well as a geographic chat app.

Check back soon for more,

Graham

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