BumpTop is a downloadable software to organize your deskpot as if it was your physical desk. Just like you can move, throw, stack, and slide books and papers on your desk, you can do the same with your desktop items with BumpTop. Unlike your Windows desktop which mainly consists of icons, BupTop will also be used for quick links to photos and websites.

It has been avialabale for a while using a mouse. But today BumpTop is supporting Windows 7 multitouch features by adding a number of new touch gestures such as scrunching, shoving, zooming, and flicking. It is the perfect way to to intuitively assemble photos, websites, and applications. The coolest thing is that some gestures depend on how you position your finger. Use the side of your finger to shove items but your tip to flick them.

Actually, it is not just like a physical desk. The 3D interface is similar to a room since there are walls all around. You can stick objects on the wall such as a facebook icon and flick photos towards it to upload them onto a profile. There are also a number of simple photo editing features such as cropping using the laso tool. In addition, if you wanted to do some file management, BumpTop shows icons in a similar manner to opening a folder on a Windows desktop.

This might be the perfect user interface for a tablet since it offers much more flexibility than other interfaces developed by tablet manufacturers such as Asus, Toshiba, and Always Innovating.  Most of these only have a few icons of the most common websites you visit such as search engines, email accounts, social networks, and video/photo/music services. With BumpTop, you can manually create those same interfaces, and more. You’ll have a field day playing around with the gestures and showing others the touch craze that is about to descend on us.

See the video after the break.

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But a report from Gizmodo suggests Apple is looking far beyond that. They are redefining print. Apple wants more book, magazine, and newspaper publishers developing hybridized content – text with intermittent video and audio clips. The only goal of the Kindle and other e-readers was that they relocated text from paper to digital formats. This new hybridized content will allow readers to read a passage or a chapter and then view a short video clip to better imagine the story line and the characters. Incidentally, the New York Times today published a piece about these “vooks”, which are mashups of text, video and web features. These vooks are already out and can be viewed on any web browser based computer as well as the iPhone, which might suggest that Apple is working to be the main distributor of this format.

Dozens of net tablets exist on the market now that can perform the same functions; media, web, and e-reading. What has been rumored for the past year is that the Apple tablet will be more like a larger iPhone. But just making a device larger in size isn’t Apple-like behavior. Besides, if it is true that Steve Jobs has been working on this for many years while killing the project several times, it is hard to believe all this attentiveness and hard work is only about increasing the size of a device.

Gizmodo also says Apple is working with publishers of textbooks in order to sell them on iTunes. In addition, they say the New York Times was approached by Apple about putting the paper on a “new device.” This throws more light on NYT’s Times Reader, a desktop application running on top of Adobe Air for viewing the news similar to its print addition.

Image from sitepoint.

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Why is this perfect for designers of all kinds? Because as the video rightly points out several times, you want to always get inspiration as a designer. You want to clip images quickly, organize them together, make comments, and allow others to collaborate with you. With the Courier, you can easily “save” web images by flicking the pictures from the web to a journal page, make comments on it, share it with anyone. You can publish entire projects online in three file formats, using either a Courier file, PDF, or a powerpoint. These users that you share it with can comment on this image or project, further giving you insight on your design.

To illustrate that this booklet/tablet might be made for designers, one needs to look at two Microsoft Research projects which the Courier is likely based on,  Codex and InkSeine. Codex is a dual screen prototype device which allows two users to view two screens by either placing it in a folded standing vertical/horizontal form or even by taking the screens apart and giving one to a friend. In the Codex video, it is clear that this form factor was intended for designers collaborating on projects. On the other hand, InkSeine is an inking and notes organizer application which sure does look similar to the UI of the Courier, especially the color picker and the scrapbook capabilities.

We’re not going to summarize the video. But one neat feature was the saving gimmick in the hinge. If you have an image and you wish to put it on another page, simply drag it to the hinge, and start flicking through pages. The image will stay in the hinge until you release.

One thing which I’ve been wondering about is the speed with which these videos are showcasing the device.  For example, check out 00:30 where the user is “flipping” through websites. Presumably, each website is like a tab in browser, and when you have 10 browsers open on a portable device, chances are you won’t be flicking with ease. With regards to speed on portable devices and commercials, we saw this a year ago when the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority banned an iPhone television advertisement for misleading consumers about the speed of the device.

Mary Jo Foley of ZDnet says that according to her unverified tipster, the Courier should be available in mid-2010, which she says is rather optimistic. Additionally, the Courier for now might be running on top of Windows 7.

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Horwitz also says that it will be a 10.7″ touchscreen that looks like a large iPhone and it will also run on the iPhone OS. One version will sport 3G connectivity while another won’t. It might have been designed as a replacement for magazines and newspapers, in other words as an e-reader. He also says it will be announced in January and ship in May or June in order to build “iPhone-like hype”.

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What other signs do we have pointing towards an Apple tablet? Michael Tchao, one of the original developers of Apple’s Newton, is being rehired to a VP of Product Marketing role at Apple after a 15 year hiatus from the company. During that time, one of his more successful career highlights was at Nike  Techlab where he  led efforts related to the Nike + iPod line of products.

The Newton was a failed Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) venture by former CEO John Sculley. The device was an organizer for contacts, notes, and calender, with the most important feature being handwriting recognition.  First sold in 1993, Newton was killed in 1998 with analysts speculating it might have been competing with the Macintosh.

Michael Tchao was the person that initiated the project after approaching CEO John Sculley on a plane over the Pacific ocean. Sculley, who ousted Steve Jobs in a board battle, may have thought of Newton as a way to reinvent personal computing. It’s no surprise then that some speculated that the project might have also been killed by Steve Jobs when he returned as CEO.

From AppleInsider.

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Innovation at Microsoft isn’t halting with its recent Courier booklet prototype. Microsoft filed a patent for a multitouch keyboard that senses where your fingers are on top of the touchscreen. Apparently, typists are ticked off that with touchscreens, they have to keep on looking at the keyboard.

I’m not sure how well that would work. The idea is that typists will now “know” where there fingers are the entire time. But as you can see from the picture, the technology might only be able to detect the location of your fingers when they are adjacent and pointing forward. What I’m getting at is, how about if your index finger is at the H button, and you want to press the Y button? If you inadvertently miss and place your index a little too far left, does the device detect that too?

Was this intended for the Courier? Probably not since typing on one of the 7″ screens would not be ideal and neither is typing on both the screens since you won’t be able to see any content then. But considering Microsoft envisions places with many horizontal and vertical touchscreens, this might be a strategic research initiative on their part.

This is not the only proposed solution for touchscreen typing. Last June, a British inventor decided to design a virtual keyboard named Crocodile Keyboard (below) with keys that are shaped into a triangle rather than a square or circle. The triangles would decrease the surface area of the key, which would reduce errors by preventing you from accidentally typing the key next to it, while still being able to view what letter the key is for. Inventor David Baker was planning to file a patent for this and was trying to work with Apple to use this technology, a process he admits is “very difficult.”

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From Liliputing.

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eviGroup revealed their first net tablet, the Android Wallet MID which will run on a 533/667MHz Samsung ARM CPU. There’s nothing about this 800 x 480 5″ iPod Touch look-a-like that will set it apart from the crowd. It has a 2 MP camera, 2 miniUSB ports, micro SD slot, 2/4/8GB of internal memory, built-in GPS, 126/256MB RAM, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a speaker of its own. It weighs 200 grams, while the iPhone 3GS is 135 grams for comparison sake.

Android France says eviGroup mentioned that they might be releasing a “possible input device”, most likely an ultra-slim portable keyboard. With regards to a release date, there is conflicting reports of either end of year release date or beginning of 2010, most likely through mistranslations.

It has yet to be seen what the perfect MID size is. With 5″ screens coming out such as the Wallet MID and the Archos 5, it might be a sign that manufacturers and designers are targeting consumers who still want to fit the device in their pocket but also have the ability to browse web pages at full width with ease. The Wallet MID does come with 3G/Wifi which might make it ideal to drag along with your mobile phone. One feature which the Archos 5 has is the ability to use the mobile phone’s 3.5 G connection to browse the web through BlueTooth. It is not clear whether the Wallet MID has this feature.

From Slashgear.

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We thought tonight at Gizmodo Gallery there would be an announcement of the CrunchPad and we were wrong. What Gizmodo was probably talking about is a tablet by Microsoft, which is now called Courier.

It has two 7″ multitouch screens which can fold like a book, similar to the Asus Eee Reader. The back of the booklet is leather with the two screens stuck together with a hinge. Included is a 3MP camera with 4x zoom/flash and a stylus pen. The video posted by Gizmodo shows that the two screens are connected by allowing you to flick content between screens.

Judging from the video posted at Gizmodo, the unit is aimed for more than web browsing. It is a life organizer. Journals, notes, pictures, clips. This is truly game changing. The dual screen allows you to make notes notes while viewing a website. It is not clear if there will be a virtual keyboard since if that’s the case, there must be a method to keep the screen on an angle.

It was just last week that ZDnet heard that at least one Microsoft executive was assigned to the project. Now Gizmodo is saying that the device is in a late prototype stage and engineers are working on the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies. A good estimate of when this device should hit the market is mid to late 2010. Lets hope that when an official announcement is made, Bill Gates is not the one presenting.

Form besttabletreview.

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