One Device Life

Can you imagine living with only one device? No computer, no tablet, perhaps even no phone. This idea is even more radical than it sounds. The announcement this week by Microsoft of the Microsoft Continuum gave us a strong insight into where technology and more significantly, human interaction, is heading. This is not in a far-off sci-fi future, this is the immediate future. We will all be living this vision shortly, which is why it is especially important to consider the ramifications beyond the technology itself.

The Single-Device Paradigm

Your phone as your PC, and your tablet, and your work computer, makes sense. You get to discard the fragile, expensive large screens from your life, and at the same time get to access the full power of a PC everywhere with no tradeoff. This idea, however, does pivot on the assumption there are screens to access.

The private sphere will move from personal or work computers to single devices connected to shared screens. Our concept of public screens will be uprooted. They will no longer be out-dated public library computers, shared screens will be the norm. 

The Microsoft Continuum has the potential to help bring people together and in the process, enrich their experience with technology, each other and their lives. Traditional computer monitors will no longer be necessary. Since its inception, the vision at nsquared has been to put digital tables everywhere in order to enhance collaboration and get people talking away from isolating personal devices. The Microsoft Continuum represents a step toward this vision.

The digital table is a social technology that allows people to share the same screen. In the same way, the Microsoft Continuum is a tool for people to share screens. Sitting at home, the family will be able to sit around their digital coffee table, their devices connected simultaneously, exploring and sharing together.

This is no small announcement. Microsoft has given us a profound vision to the potential of technology to enhance our lives. Microsoft Continuum and shared screens is a future worth looking forward to.

Welcome to nsquared

 

nsquared is a small, devoted team of tech & design heads based in Sydney, Australia that all believe in one thing: more collaboration and sharing will improve our lives. For this reason, we spend our lives working with and trying to harness cutting edge technology, whether it be digital tables or Microsoft Kinect, in order to help bring people together.

We also realise that it is a good idea to take a step back to remember why you are really doing things sometimes. This week we launched a new Introduction to nsquared video to help explain our vision to the world - have a look and let us know what you think! Conversation is what we love best.

#RTV2015

This week is the annual  "Realizing the Vision of a Connected World" symposium, hosted by American material innovation company Corning. The event itself is focussed on understanding and projecting the future of technology by bringing together some of the world's juiciest brains to ignite and inspire discussion ; asking us the questions that most of us would find so difficult. Where are we going? Why? And significantly, how?

Amongst a host of distinguished speakers such as Dr Genevieve Bell, Vice President of Intel, and Dr Bill Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft, will be our founder and director Dr Neil Roodyn - see him here on stage at a talk earlier this week. Having been involved in the software development industry since the 1980s, Neil will be shedding some insight into where he sees the future, and how he is realising his vision.

Corning's "Realizing the Vision" symposium is a landmark event on the calendar for any tech-head and the event itself will highlight the exciting possibilities technology has to offer, and will give us a glimpse into the near and not-too-near future. Corning is perhaps best known for their viral "A Day Made of Glass" video series, a snapshot of the future where every surface is interactive and technology is seamless.

The event itself, hosted in Mountain View California, will contain some select cutting-edge technologies depicted in Corning's "A Day Made of Glass" series such as mirrored interactive displays and other exciting visionary technology.

Glass is such an important part of our modern technologies that we need to consider how our world would look without modern glass. We are living in the Age of Glass, check out the latest videos by our friends the Mythbusters.