Posts tagged ‘industrial design’
Review: On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore
On the Edge, by Brian Bagnell, tells the history of Commodore, from their entry into and development of the personal computer industry, to their massive collapse just 15 years later.
In-depth review of the Amazon Kindle »
After six months of use, Robert Mohns reviews the Amazon Kindle e-book reader in detail: what it’s like to read full novels on, its battery life, wireless and PC based syncing options, and everything else about what it’s like to live with.
In short: the device successfully “disappears” from your conscious – like a regular book — and leaves you with just the story.
I found this bit interesting (and scary):
Beyond its current consumer-centric design, we think Kindle has huge potential in education and vertical applications. School children today carry back-damaging backpacks full of heavy textbooks that would be trivial to replace with one 10.3-oz. Kindle. A 2006 BBC News article reported that half of UK school children suffer a back injury at some point due to carrying schoolbooks, and 8% have back problems that affect school attendance; other studies show school children often carry book loads approaching 60% of their body weight. The health implications are obvious.
We think the first educational publisher to get on board is going to make a killing selling Kindles to schools. Content can be updated at any time, wirelessly, making paper textbooks obsolete the day they’re printed. Reliable subscription revenue for publishers, lower costs for schools, and better student health could come together in one, small package from Amazon.
Why are mouse sensors in the middle of the mouse?
In 1987 researches found the best place for a mouse’s sensor was at the front of the mouse between the thumb and forefinger, because it gave much more precise control. But today, most sensors are in the middle of the mouse — why?