Google is working on something called Google Chrome. In short, it is how Google is going to fix the browser. Take a look for yourself, this looks mighty interesting.
Update: Zyb said that my initial post was pretty lame (read the comment below)... and I agree. Because...
Google have conveyed pretty techie stuff in an understandable and entertaining way, while at the same time generating enthusiasm for the product to be. Of course, this is not my words, but what Zyb said (and again - he is right).
Using comics to explain very complex tasks is nothing new. It has proven to be a very effective way to make complexity simple - and even better - to make people get the point quickly. I have used "comic" style illustration a couple of times.
In 2006 I had to visualize how disorganized and wasteful 40 designer was saving files (everyone used their own made-up file structure, and none had any idea were something else was). I did this by creating a small comic (not as good as Google's though), where I illustrated just have many steps, and how many people a person had to see, in order to find a group of files that he needed to send to a client.
I then, still in comic mode, illustrated just how easy this would be if we centralized this process, and introduced automation to speed up intermediary tasks.
The effect was instant understanding, and none were able to argue against it.
But perhaps the most famous use of comics, to convey complex tasks, is the work of Larry Gonick. He has created many books about history, genetics, statistics, environment etc (see them here), and all of them conveys very complex things in an easy to understand comic.
Note: In 2005 he gave a one hour talk about how this works at Stanford University, but it is no longer available.
Another good example is "[something] in plain English", the series by The Common Craft Show. While it isn't actually in the form of a comic, it is very similar in nature.
(via Google Blogoscoped)
Here is a brilliant idea. What if your furniture could react intelligently to your presence and anticipate when you need it. Or what if it could move out of your way out of the way when you are just passing by? What if your furniture could help out in social situation? Wouldn’t that be something?
There are many online image editors. Like Picnik (which was recently bought by Google), Pixlr, Aviary Phoenix, Photoshop online and many others. All them require that you go to their website to edit your images. Wouldn't it be interesting if you could bring the online image editor into your own web apps.?
Back in late October 2009, Adobe Labs showcased an upcoming feature in Photoshop called Content Aware Fill. And it was absolutely amazing. Now they have released another video, showcasing even more impressive image manipulations.
Earlier this week Penguin presented their vision for how they could translate their book into the ebook format. Or rather, how they can really make us of digital publishing to create much better books.
Remember Microsoft Surface? You know, the big multi-touch coffee table? Now Microsoft is working on a much smaller version with Mobile Surface.
Today, Microsoft announced "Windows Phone 7 Series", featuring a completely new edition to the long infamous Windows Mobile operating system. It looks modern, polished, graphically exciting and nothing like the tiny windows 95 that we have been used to seeing.
The newspaper industry is falling over themselves in the fight to come up with a ever more impressive newspaper tablet. The problem is that they miss the point completely (as I wrote about in "The Future of News, Tablets, and Business Models").
As you probably know, both Google and Microsoft have entered into a partnership with Twitter and is now incorporating social search into their regular search engines. This is a big deal because social is a very important element of the future of search... it's not the only part though.
Wouldn't you like to mix wild hand gestures, cute birds flying around your screen, Twitter, tweeting bird sounds, and your web camera? Well, now you can with Flyar.
A number of people have pointed me towards PhotoSketch, a research/student project from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at National University of Singapore (now there is a mouthful).
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