BumpTop 3D Desktop Environment Acquired by Google

[Bocaj]

This argumentation is getting tired.. Just because someone does something different it isn't necessarily good or better, and doesn't necessarily increase innovation and lower prices.

I'm sure many said that when the first iMac came out, much like the flash based mp3 player. Or a small hand held device that you can use to make phone calls AND surf the web with.

A phone with internet, pfff, that isn't innovative, a phone is a phone, you don't need internet capability with it.


I wonder what non-innovative apps you have on your iPhone...?

 

[SkippyThorson]

May Google burn in hell

I can't take this crap. Must they just buy everything with no actual intention to link it all?

This is EXACTLY what killed General Motors. They have their greedy fingers in a little of everything, and they have no real ideas on what to do but acquire things and move forward with them, all snowballing as they go.

This is absolutely lunatic. BumpTop was one of the little guys I was rooting for, and they made a really cool useful product. Now it's going to be yet another endless Google Beta.

😡 Damn you Google.

Damn you.

 

[windows311]

I can't take this crap. Must they just buy everything with no actual intention to link it all?

This is EXACTLY what killed General Motors. They have their greedy fingers in a little of everything, and they have no real ideas on what to do but acquire things and move forward with them, all snowballing as they go.

This is absolutely lunatic. BumpTop was one of the little guys I was rooting for, and they made a really cool useful product. Now it's going to be yet another endless Google Beta.

😡 Damn you Google.

Damn you.

They very well might have a plan, we don't know.

One thing I think Google needs is some serious UI design help. So many apps, web utilities, etc that have very little cohesiveness at all. From Feedburner to Analytics to Adwords and so on. Someone from the show Hoarders should go to Google and help them organize.
They really have some brilliant ideas that just flounder in execution. One would be my Nexus One sitting right next to me.

 

[Drag'nGT]

I'd love to use this on a touch interface (iPad). But on my desktop... sorry. I want to need it because it's really cool but I just don't. 😱

 

[Millah]

Wow, what happened to Google? Seems like all they do these days is try so blatantly hard to follow anything Apple is doing. It's like every day they ask themselves "gee how fan we step on Apples toes today" or "what else can we do to follow what Apples doing."

Bumptop is really a complete gimmick. It doesn't do anything very useful and more or less adds complexity to something that doesn't need to be more cumbersome. It looks cool for a few mins and that's it, gets old quick.

 

[Analog Kid]

Well.. I think there might be potential for an actual 3d environment.

The more I think about it, the less sure I am of that. There are a few places where 3D visualization would be useful, such as CAD or medicine. I'm not sure how it helps on the desktop, ever. We've had centuries to revolutionize our physical work environment and have mostly come up with 2D interfaces-- desktops, paper, keyboards, mice. Everything is flat.

We do stack storage-- shelves, drawers. We pile papers. I'm not sure that qualifies as 3D though-- or that the existing folders-within-folders, icons-on-icons metaphors don't offer similar utility.

There are places where simulated 3D offers a unique capability: I like how fast user switching indicates a change of context. I kind of wish that technique had been used for Spaces instead.

As crappy as 3D displays are, I'll be amazed if it really offers a better way to organize information than we've managed in the physical world.

This is absolutely lunatic. BumpTop was one of the little guys I was rooting for, and they made a really cool useful product. Now it's going to be yet another endless Google Beta.

I've been frustrated by Google's lack of focus too, but if you were rooting for BumpTop, then be happy-- they were successful. Often the reward for success is acquisition. They made their fortune. I'm not convinced this is going to be a Google product-- sometimes companies look at these types of products as living resumes. They've proven what they're capable of, now Google want's access to that talent.

 

[Lesser Evets]

"The 10 or so clicks it takes today..."

What bum**** computer these days take 10 clicks to get a photo into email?!??? ... oh... yeah. A PC. Nevermind.

 

[hankolerd]

i like how they talk about being able to drag+drop a picture to the e-mail client to create a new message with it attached, and how with other solutions it takes "ten or so clicks", when really you can drag+drop a picture on mail and it will open a new message with it attached.🙄
I am excited to see what Google plans to do with it though.🙂

 

[dziewuliz]

to all the nay sayers...

how can you actually comment on something you haven't even tried?

I really don't care about the multi-touch capabilities, I've been using the free version ever since it came out on mac, and the latest version has replaced my original OSX desktop already. I like to keep my files in piles, and most of you have been doing the same with stacks already. I prefer to keep my items organized, and even if it's not the case in finder, I can still fully utilize my desktop now: drag and drop files, put some notes on it, that's all I need. Also I don't care about the 3D eye-candy stuff, I only use it in 2D with piles. Apple could learn a lot from it, and I guess their biting their fingernails now, because they didn't think of it first...

Shame on you for bad-mouthing it, it's a 3rd party application for heaven's sakes

 

[EricBrian]

Wow, that is pretty durn cool. Can't wait to see what the big G does with it.

 

[sswanky]

Yay! My desktop won't look cluttered anymore...er, ah...never mind! 😛

 

[SandynJosh]

That's not really 3D, it's still on a 2D display. Combine this with a glasses-free 3D display and it may get interesting.

Seeing this was like deja vu all over again. This was tried in the early years of the Mac when the CRTs were still black and white. It was a similar messy looking screen then and now.

I run multiple businesses on my laptop and this old idea gave me a headache.

 

[SandynJosh]

to all the nay sayers...

how can you actually comment on something you haven't even tried?

Some of us nay sayers HAVE tried it on a Mac in the '80s and kicked it to the curb before you were born.

I only use it in 2D with piles. Apple could learn a lot from it, and I guess their biting their fingernails now, because they didn't think of it first...

Shame on you for bad-mouthing it, it's a 3rd party application for heaven's sakes

It was a 3rd party application 25 years ago too, I don't see where anything is different except the advent of touch screen over mouse click. I run Tiger and keep a folder on my desktop for each of my businesses. How does that differ from anything this application does, other then the lipstick?

 

[SandynJosh]

They simply did it for the purpose of obtaining gestures for a possible future tablet product because they don't really have the skills nor the evelopment culture to create their own...

I wouldn't be that harsh on Google. Everyone there is too young to know this idea is not new at all and has been tried on Macs and found lacking long before Google was incorporated.

 

[FFArchitect]

Don't buy this direction...

Computing interfaces are intended to organize, not simulate piles on a desk. I don't see how this is going forward.

 

[SteveG4Cube]

Looks about as practical as MS Bob.

 

[fpnc]

I saw a demo like this at Apple about 15 years ago so this is nothing new. In fact, Apple called their stacks of objects "piles" just like they did in the video from BumpTop. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple held some patents on "piles" and other aspects of the interactions shown in the BumpTop video.

 

[Tailpike1153]

Looks interesting. Still waiting for the UI from the Minority Report.

 

[Jason Beck]

If I learned anything from the movie Jurassic Park, it is that just because you can do something, it does not mean that you should.

And the movie Hackers. The 3d GUI made me cringe.

"Hack the Kernel!"

LOLzomgWTFbbq373372600hax0rs!

 

[fremachuca]

google is on a killing spree!

 

[powers74]

box

Yeesh. That's not claustrophobic at all.

Seems promising, but I didn't really see anything new other than a glitzy gui. I guess it'd be a little better interface for touch screens but functionally, not much new.

Computing interfaces are intended to organize, not simulate piles on a desk. I don't see how this is going forward.

Great point.

 

[arachnivore]

Everybody's getting too distracted by the 3-D gimmick here.

I remember seeing bump top a while back on TED (http://www.ted.com/talks/anand_agarawala_demos_his_bumptop_desktop.html) and then seeing OS X get stacks that fan out or pop open and cover flow. Now the iPad has piles of pictures you can splay out.

Maybe Bump Top had patents for these ideas but could never afford the legal team to sue Apple. Maybe Google is just collecting talent.

Aside from stacks and piles, Bump Top explores a critical idea of making interface elements behave like physical objects. This isn't a new idea. Part of what makes the iPhone so intuitive is that lists scroll like the wheel of fortune. Since people interact with the physical world their entire life, interfaces that mimic common physical objects are easy to understand, predict, and control.

 

[Zc456]

I really don't see how this fits into Google's plans. There primarily a web-based company. It makes no sense to acquire something that is for the desktop, unless they plan on integrating into Android; Chrome OS... I doubt it.

to all the nay sayers...

how can you actually comment on something you haven't even tried?

*facepalms* Umm, there's been a free version available to try for years prior to Google acquiring it. So your statement holds little water. Further more, as mentioned above, Google is a web-based company. This modifies your desktop. Desktop =/= Web. So unless they plan on integrating this into Andriod (for who knows what reason), its as pointless as AOL acquiring Beebo. 🙄

Computing interfaces are intended to organize, not simulate piles on a desk. I don't see how this is going forward.

I second that.