[Sigia-l] Touching you, touching me

[Listera]

Chris Heathcote:

> I'd love to know in which cultures you would consider it peculiar, and
> in what way. 

NYC. I find it peculiar because digital devices are already capable of
exchanging data without having to touch, via auto-discovery and public
protocols. 

> It is meant to be slightly intimate and personal - like a
> handshake, 

How and with whom you handshake in various cultures is a whole dissertation
waiting to happen.:-) Generally speaking, though, handshaking occurs twice
(while meeting and leaving). However, a group of people, say in a conference
room, may have to exchange data many times, in permutation. Touching phones
like that would look silly after a while, especially if you don't need to.

> rather than poking connectors into holes or each person
> wading through menus.

That's the worst case scenario, and not uncommon in current phone UI
designs. With Rendezvous, however, somebody walks into my room, opens his
wireless PowerBook and within just a few seconds they can automagically
listen to my iTunes playlists without wading through any menus, if I allowed
them. I'm positive that the wireless iPod will also do this shortly.

> Some of us have (some of us live our private lives on Macs), and
> whilst very useful in certain contexts, isn't going to fulfill all
> roles. 

I'm not saying ZeroConf can solve all problems, but the notion of
auto-device discovery has been with us for a number of years, from PCs to
printers to TV to enterprise-level DBs. It's a public API. I'd rather see it
get wider adoption than proprietary solutions.

> I don't want to advertise my phone and ways to connect to it to
> everyone. 

Paris Hilton does. :-) If you don't want to broadcast your availability, you
don't have to, with Rendezvous.

> It's great for local wifi magic though.

Well, it's as 'local' as a touching cellphone and its uses can and do reach
well beyond wifi.

I'm all for UI experimentation. And I applaud Nokia and everybody else
that's trying. I do hope to own and use a cellphone before I die, so I'm
interested in attempts that make them approach a modicum of usability. My
narrow problem here is that this requires what I consider an unnatural act
when there's at least one other way that to me seems superior.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba