mathoda.com

When I first saw multi-touch screens being developed in universities, I knew it would be pretty revolutionary. They later showed up in movies like Minority Report, devices like the Apple iPhone (my iPhone post), and presentations such as the one shown here: http://www.mathoda.com/archives/112.

Microsoft has now thrown it’s hat into the ring with Surface, a multi-touch table computer:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Pretty neat, although they are targeting high end resorts and other such places as the first customers for their $10,000 computer.

I suggested desktop multi-touch would happen in an earlier post, stating:

Despite this recent history, I believe software that runs on your local computer without needing an internet connection is going to make a come back. Two things will cause this change.

The first is that multi-touch interfaces will come to desktop machines, allowing for new types of desktop applications. You only have to look at the Nintendo Wii to see that when the human interface to a machine changes, new forms of software can meet previously unmet or unknown desires.

http://www.mathoda.com/archives/123

As cool as multi-touch desktop computers are, I’m waiting for the first laptop/tablet computer with multi-touch capabilities.

Steve Jobs of Apple indicated that their multi-touch efforts were first directed to such a device, but they decided to redirect towards the phone market due to its size and the obvious integration advantages with the iPod.

I’m sure Apple and Microsoft and a few dozen startups are hard at work developing a multi-touch laptop… who will get the prize?

Update July 20, 2007: Microsoft research demo’ed a rudimentary multi-touch laptop.  See my blog post: http://www.mathoda.com/archives/167

Tesla Motors, creator of an all electric car, is creating a dealership in Los Angeles.  Near Santa Monica Boulevard & the 405.  I’m excited, even if I’m not quite ready to spend $98,000 for a 2 seat roadster.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garagebriefs26may26,1,987834.story?track=rss

I am consistently more impressed by the innovations emerging from one web company in particular than any other, and no, it’s not Google or Microsoft or Myspace or Wikipedia.

There is another company that seems to innovate much faster, and focus more strongly on being very useful in many interesting ways to many people, that has very rich information on its users, and is growing by leaps and bounds. For a youthful demographic, it is perhaps the most important site they stay on.

I’m talking, of course, about Facebook. With a clean elegant interface, and a degree of usefulness that infuses the whole site, it’s not really a social network site. It’s a social utility.

Signs of its power are growing. Among the younger generations, Myspace’s unruly ugliness has been eclipsed by Facebook’s elegant interface. (Rupert Murdoch, are you listening?)

And the true power of Facebook hasn’t hit the entertainment and business worlds yet, despite the fact it would be very useful to those worlds.

And Facebook isn’t stopping. It continues to evolve into something more powerful. They are now announcing that they are opening their website to outside application developers. For Facebook this may mean they are creating an even richer ecosystem of data and usefulness.

For the users of Facebook, this should let you see when and what applications friends are adopting, which could be very interesting in encouraging you to adopt new features on the site.

For developers, the applications can not only take advantage of the size and this new form of viral growth in the Facebook community, but they will also potentially be able to take advantage of the rich information Facebook has about its customers and their relationships to each other. If before it was difficult to compete with eBay’s stranglehold on buyers and sellers, the Facebook ecosystem may make it easier for an eBay competitor to emerge.

If Google is trying to create one super computer that solves all of your information needs, Facebook is creating one ecosystem that can do the same thing.

If Facebook ever ponders creating a search solution, Google look out.

For more, on Facebook’s past, present and future, see the Fortune magazine article here:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/24/technology/facebook.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007052417

Or find out more about Facebook’s application initiative here:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/24/facebook-launches-facebook-platform-they-are-the-anti-myspace/

Update, 5/31/07: An excellent analysis of Facebook’s core power can be found here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/121140079/

Update, 7/7/07: Rupert Murdoch, the power behind Myspace, recognizes Facebook’s ascendancy, as I point out here: http://www.mathoda.com/archives/165