Maybe I don't need to wait for wall-sized monitors after all.
Thanks to Genie Tyburski's TVC Alert, I read today's article in the Register about a new browser software that the developer, Picsel Technologies, claims will be able to display high-resolution graphics and even video on a cell phone screen.
The killer is that the application can be anything. I've watched a Picsel equipped iPaq displaying four windows. One had a Word document in it; another had a game of Doom playing in it, another showed live video, and the last had a .PDF Acrobat file in it. And incredibly, it was possible not just to view these files, but to cut and paste one to the other. You could cut the video, and paste it into the Acrobat.
I've gone on before about the need for large monitors to allow for side-by-side display and manipulation of words, numbers, and images. To fully support creative problem solving and collaborative work we need to be able to spread information out (like we do with hard copy on our desk) and look for patterns and realtionships.
I guess I'll still have to see just how high-resolution these new little screens are. Picsel "promises 'full desktop-quality content' " according to the article. But my concern has been that even current desktop monitors aren't big enough to do the information display job needed to support knowledge workers.
Still ... Four applications running on a cell phone screen? With drag-and-drop functionality across windows? Put that on a 17 inch laptop with voice and broadband and we might just have something, huh?
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