But if it wants to follow on from the iPhone then it has to extend what’s gone before. It’s going to have to fill the space as advertised and provide some desktop-like features. To occupy the sub-notebook/netbook world, it’s going to need a bit more functionality than a mobile phone. It’s revealing that I’m writing this on an iPhone but will upload it from the desktop where I feel I have more control.

Screen size

When web browsing I’m expecting to get the full desktop version of every website, unless a page has specific browser detection this already happens with the iPhone. But on the desktop I expect to have extended ways to deal with the content, of which plugins and background processes are a big part. Will Apple allow me to install a Delicious plugin or chop and change between 2 – 3 apps running at once? Will I be able to have my web code open in one programme and the site I’m working on in another? Better yet, will they let me install an alternative browser, one with a wealth of extensions already developed? All very doubtful.

Size of the market

Currently I see good uses for the iPad in business and education. Imagine the delivery person using it to find your house, or the hospital doctor pulling up digital X-Rays, or the classes with lessons tailored to individual students with content delivered at a suitable pace and level.

If marketed and priced right, I can even see it becoming the next big gaming device at Christmas. Evidence suggests major games developers are already switching to the platform. But what will take the iPad into the mass market?

Essential or extravagance?

With the iPod and iPhone, Apple were entering established markets where demand for the product type was already developed. With the iPad it’s different since most consumers won’t have heard of a tablet, let alone be convinced of why they need one.

The boundary between creating and consuming could be what makes the difference here.

The adaptable device

The genius behind this device is that Apple haven’t bowed to the pressures of the rumour mill. They haven’t created an overcomplicated piece of hardware full of whizz-bang features (OK, it could’ve had a camera). The genius of Johnny Ive and co. is that they didn’t tinker with a winning formula. It looks like an oversized iPhone. This leaves the software people to work from a solid foundation and build features into later updates that match developer and consumer needs (sorry guys, not necessarily ‘wants’).

Another genius move is that Apple haven’t cornered themselves too much with the possibilities for this device, meaning that everyone interested has their own thoughts and hopes for what it can do. Software driven products like the iPad have a huge potential to capture the imagination.

So if anyone’s listening and if this post can be at all useful, I’d be interested to hear your ideas on what you’d like to see it do.

With its Symbian OS, I’ve always recommended it with the warning that it’s a bit of a geeks phone. Downloading applications from the net, they don’t go through the same vetting that takes place with the Apple App Store. Some can be a little less stable than others and in some instances they conflict. Feature-wise it’s a solid phone if you’re prepared to perform the odd restart and fault find.

I’ve always thought it’s the utilitarian answer to the iPhone. Where Apple customers are until now unable to copy and paste, you can with an N95, but the button is somewhat hidden. Patches, fixes and apps exist for the Nokia where the system is not as locked down. What’s great about the N95 is that, where the need arises, someone’s usually solved a functionality problem in advance. The answer is hardly ever ‘we don’t support that’.

So before I get swept away in Apple and Palm hype, I thought I’d log my favourite apps. Here goes:

• Fring. One of my favourite apps for functionality. It links with Skype and you can have what looks like a normal phone call through WiFi (free if you’re calling someone on their computer). I regularly talk to people in Australia on this and after a few hitches (generally with the net speed at the other end) it now works perfectly. It also works with other social networking sites.
• Gmail. An amazingly fully featured app from Google. It keeps a local copy of your email but syncs with their server. You’ll never lose a message and it has better functionality than the iPhone app. I’m able to search, a feature iPhone users have only had through their web version up until now.
• YouTube. Another Google usability triumph. Although it doesn’t always seem to be as up-to-date as the web version and clicking on browser web links don’t open the app automatically, it does have one killer feature: it’s the only app I have that (without hacking) streams video over the 3G network. Really useful.
• Google Maps. Simply amazing. This app takes advantage of the inbuilt GPS receiver in the phone. With this I’m never lost, I can always find directions to a destination from my location to within a few metres. Coupled with Google Latitude, it’s a great tool for keeping up with people across London. I can also access Google Street View from my phone, I can’t count the number of times this has been really useful.
• WirelessIRC. Despite the name red-herring, I actually use this to access Twitter. Unlike most other Twitter apps, it runs happily in the background. Whenever I want to update myself on other’s activities I can immediately view, rather than take the time to launch an app > connect to the network > download tweets etc etc. I can easily copy and paste text to re-tweet (RT) and using Nokia’s inbuilt functionality, I can copy and paste posted URLs to my web browser. (NOTE: On the N95, the copy and paste functions are found under the key that looks like a pencil on the bottom left below the screen).
• BBC iPlayer (1.5). Although newer versions exist, they seem to have been blocked from working on the N95. Don’t despair, you can still download the app from sources across the web. BBC iPlayer is a fantastic boost to the multimedia capabilities of this phone. As long as you’re not worried about the jump between the listings app and the in-built RealPlayer to stream programmes, you’re never going to miss a programme again. Shame it only works on WiFi (unless hacked) and doesn’t support downloads.
• Opera Mini. A web browsing experience comparable with a PC. I use this mainly to access Google Reader. The Mini browser comes with the ability to create ‘bookmarklets’, something that when mixed with a little Javascript, allows me to post interesting links to Delicious. All of this functionality is a life-saver on long train rides (or even the cramped commute to work).
• Web development apps such as SIC! FTP and s60HTMLed. This combination means I can effectively edit web pages from anywhere. s60HTMLed is a great application but takes some setting up. You need to download Python for S60, the ‘appuifw2′ extension and in my case I had to Symbian Sign the web editor.
• Shozu. A multipurpose photo up-loader that allows me to tag and describe pictures that I upload to Flickr.
• Snaptweet. A service that scans my Flickr account and adds pictures with the ‘snaptweet’ tag to my Twitter stream.
• GooSync. Synchronise your inbuilt calendar with Google Calendar. Simple and effective.
• Last but not least, the other inbuilt features like the WebKit browser (yes, the iPhone isn’t the only one that comes with this); 5Mpixel camera; and accelerometer for quick transition between landscape and portrait display. (NOTE: to set the display, go to Menu > Tools > Setting > General > Personalisation > Display > Rotate screen ‘Automatic’).

My advice for N95 users is to every-so-often, backup everything and look for system updates. I think an amount of this functionality will not work, or would be more buggy with older software. Where lots of phone manufacturers forget about updates only months after release, Nokia have been consistent in their support so you may as well take advantage of this goodwill. The phone isn’t perfect and there’s lots of other software I haven’t mentioned, but I thought I should acknowledge this phone’s 15 months service to me before I upgrade.

So, this got me thinking about the whole concept of the click. What is a click? How central is it really to our experience on the web? Can we do without it? And if it was taken away, what would that web look and feel like? Read on for my research and opinion.

Background, FYI

(For the uninitiated, which included me to some degree). Computer mice and clicking have been with us for a while. The first commercial computer to include a mouse was the Xerox 8010 Star introduced in 1981 (according to Wikipedia, I was only just on the planet at this point so can’t vouch for it). Since then the concept behind clicking has been adapted to other input devices including trackballs, touchpads (generally used on laptops), touchscreens, graphics tablets etc.

Clicking is bound up in the WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device) approach to GUI’s (Graphical User Interfaces) and relates to the user clicking and selecting a part of the screen to activate a command on the computer. Before the GUI and the mouse, text based interfaces were dominant and the return key would be the usual part of the keyboard that did the activating.

Since its development, clicking has been so fundamental in the WIMP world that input devices such as touchscreens have extended the concept to variants such as ‘tapping’ etc. The terms may change based on the user experience but the general interaction remains the same, again due mostly to the unchanging fundamentals of the 2D GUI.

How does this relate to the web?

Clicking helps to define the overall experience of the web. For example, it’s the last action before making a payment to make a purchase. It’s in the modern psyche as an expression of intention. Amazon patented ‘1-Click’ in 1999 as it ‘refers to the technique of allowing customers to make online purchases with a single click’. A lot is happening behind the scenes, but for the user this is reduced to a single action/concept. Other examples would include the proliferation of hyperlinks with explanatory text like ‘click to proceed’, ‘click to pay’ and the dreaded ‘click here’.

It’s always interesting to me how the popular perception of a thing shapes its explanation. This is because, of course, for some ‘1-Click’ is actually ‘1-Press-Return-Key’ or ‘1-Tap’. Clicking doesn’t naturally enter into the experience of a command line user or someone using certain types of assistive technology. What is universal in these examples is the activating of the command to progress to another web page or buy a product. This is a fabulous example of why the link text ‘click here’ is so nonsensical (and on its own so non-descriptive and just lame).

Of course the web is built on the hyperlink and for most clicking has become central to this interaction. Which brings me back to dontclick.it. What happens if the click is taken away? Well, it’s disconcerting at first. However, even though the website is initially a strange experience, I found myself getting used to it quite quickly. This made me wonder why I’d been such a blind follower of the click for so long. I’d never questioned.

Click-less future?

Now onto a general theme for this blog; Apple. They’ve just released the MacBook Air to predominantly positive reviews and despite its other boundary-pushing features, the one they’re most keen to promote on their website is the ‘multi-touch’ gesture support.

For the first time, they’ve brought multi-touch gestures from their successful iPhone and iPod touch products into their main computer offering. Although these features don’t replace the click, they could point to (pun intended) a future without it. What about a Minority Report inspired interface where ‘point and click’ becomes just ‘point’?

For many years, Apple’s relationship with the ‘click’ has been embroiled in the one or two button mouse debate. Seasoned computer users have derided their choice to stick with one button mice and even now their offering is a kind of fudge.

With the correct interface, could the click be superseded by a gesture? Gestures in computing are nothing new. Again, according to Wikipedia, the first mouse gesture was “the ‘drag,’ …introduced by Apple to replace a dedicated ‘move’ button on mouses shipped with its Macintosh and Lisa computers”.

For most, removing the click would have a fundamental impact on the psychology of human computer interaction, as expressed in this quote from the dontclick.it site:

clicks make me think of isolated segments this is immersive.
01.17.2008 msg# 37833 by ‘roger doonan’.

Apart from the psychology, what about accessibility/usability? By extension, some replacement for the mouse (pointing device) could help those with motor control difficulties. i.e. not having to click on exactly the right pixel on the screen. Take it a stage further, replacing the keyboard with a gesture based interface could revolutionalise computer usage for those of us for whom the standard QWERTY keyboard represents a barrier.

The end is in sight

There are lots of interface design problems that would need addressing before the clicking could ever stop. I wonder how complex a system could get before a gesture became indiscrete enough to place ambiguity between it and the user. I also wonder if computer interface designers will ever get to purely gesture based interaction without a paradigm (I got that word in Rik!) shift from creating more and more complex interfaces, towards distilling it right down to what the user actually needs.

These are just my thoughts on what may be to come. As always I’m hoping to add to any discussion that’s taking place, this is not a bid for revolution (although could you imagine an online petition to abandon the click? “Click here to abolish the click!” – wholly hypocritical).

Update 22 February 2008: “Apple Depicts Advanced Multitouch Gesturing Control Panel in Mac OS X” – an article written a couple of days ago about possible developments using muiti-touch.

This is the first time I’ve seen an introduction to the platform and I must say I think it has acres of potential. Yes it might be later then the rest (Apple’s iPhone has been shipping since the summer, Android isn’t ready for consumers until late 2008), but the same happened with the Wii and, due to it’s unique features, it surprisingly dominates the games console industry. Apple, probably Google’s biggest ‘competitor’ (according to AppleInsider, Google chief Eric Schmidt sits on Apple’s Board of Directors), has redefined the mobile experience but their environment is not open (apps development is only available through Safari) which is why unless they release their grip they’ll never win at fighting the tide.

Conversely, if Google’s open platform can keep what looks like an iPhone inspired interface whilst also fostering innovation, it’ll soak up the demand for next generation handsets that Apple kick-started.

Update, 16 November 07: Google’s Dave Burke gave a presentation on Android at the recent Future of Mobile event held in London on 14 November. Mike Butcher blogged his talk. Although apparently he didn’t say anything new, it’s interesting to note that Android is Linux based with Java running on top. During the presentation Dave created a programme in under 8 minutes, it seems Google is trying to emphasise the ease with which programmes can be created.

So, there’s a date for your diary.

I find myself wanting to find out more about the multitude of listed features, however those that jump out for me include ‘Positional Audio Effects’, ‘Drag-and-Drop Support’, ‘Hot Spots’ and the (OS based?) enhanced web navigation.

On a similar subject, Roger made the point in a previous post that Apple’s iPhone could’ve been better had it included some kind of tactile feedback. Well, it’s recently become clear that Apple did research the idea of a physical feedback interface when it was developing it’s Multitouch technology.

All of which (if implemented) could mean a real boon for the accessibility and usability of OSX.

From a web design point of view it means the mobile Safari browser is (officially) coming to the UK before the expected pre-Christmas release date of the iPhone. So comments on tuning our sites have immediately become more useful.

Surface is moving more towards a human centered (less tech, more seemless integration in the human environment) method of computing due to it’s interaction style. However, I feel that both currently suffer from the same problem – invention without a clearly defined use. They’re both great ideas and I believe bringing computers-to-humans (not the other way around) is the only way to go. In fact I hope we’re on the brink of a human computer interaction revolution (with products like the iPhone), however, surely that will only come when we’re not consciously aware of the technology linking us to the digital world? Is this the age of physical computing?

Update: (6 July 2007) Thomas Baekdal found a Surface parody that makes a similar point. Good stuff.