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Posts: 440 | Thanked: 2,256 times | Joined on Jul 2014
#66
Originally Posted by Setok View Post
The question about the tablet form factor is interesting. The OS and UI has very intentionally been designed to scale to many different sizes and forms. If you pop by our office you might have a chance to see it running on a tablet :-). We chose this form because of its mobility and the ability to use it neatly as a trackpad. Plus we wanted to avoid the 'yet another tablet' syndrome but bring out something really iconic and different.
And I like the idea of the trackpad computer, but I guess my main point was not so much about the device but the environment in which it is used. Most of my non-pc-gamer friends don't own a monitor to plug a solu into, they use a laptop, on their couch. And so Solu is asking them, not only to change their OS but also their entire habits around computing, which is a big ask.

Originally Posted by Setok View Post
On a related theme, I don't actually see desktop computing disappearing anywhere. Sure, people use tablets on the sofa, but for work, a keyboard, and an 'indirect manipulation device' (=a mouse or trackpad) is highly desirable for purely ergonomic reasons. I was once at a presentation by a 'visionary' talking about how pure mobile was the future and computers were going to die. Every single person in that room was sitting behind a laptop. There's a reason for that.
I'm a programmer by trade, and I absolutely agree that there will always be a place for the mouse+keyboard+big screen combo. I simply cannot imagine a future where hunching over a laptop or tablet would be a better way of working than my current setup.

But i'm not sure I would push the 'work' side of the Solu too much, I can see people getting it for more the 'social' aspect of it.

Consider this; people now watch video on demand services such as netflix as a primary means of entertainment, which is great because its available all the time, but it lacks the synchronicity of scheduled TV in that you aren't watching something at the same time as your friends. With Solu, the details of what you're watching can be shared on the cloud, and so you can organise a weekly viewing of Game of Thrones with your friends and watch it simultaneously together, perhaps with integrated instant messaging so you can comment on whats happening in the show, safe in the knowledge that your friends are up to the same point. Maybe you're watching a movie, and you can 'share' what you're watching and some of your friends can jump in and watch together in real time.

I think its that level of social integration into the OS that is the real benefit for non-technical users.
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