January 24 1984.

No this isn’t a World War 2 documentary getting their D-Day date wrong. This is in fact, an article about the future of the desktop; and you can’t talk about the future without first talking about the past. Right?

So what happened on this date that is so important to the future of our digital desks? Well, Apple launched the original Macintosh featuring a revolutionary new way to communicate with the user. Images. Until then, users had been communicating with their machines via command lines and endless scrolling command lines of meaningless words. Well now, they had their very own digital desktop, complete with icons and floating windows.

It was a huge success so, naturally, they continued to build and improve on the Macintosh Operating System. Then, a few years later, Microsoft decided to use it. Now there was no stopping it. So, both Apple and Microsoft built and built and built their operating systems and its’ interface until we eventually come to today. Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard. These operating systems and their respective interfaces have become so mature… it’s almost impossible to improve them.

So, what’s next? Well with the increasing number of new types of devices, new types of interfaces are needed. Take the Apple iPhone for example, multi-touch technology and therefore needing a bit of a new interface design. It’s a multi-touch interface again, with the Microsoft Surface which takes another different approach.

Well, it’s probably the next big thing in Interface Design right now; who can win the race to design the next innovative desktop interface?

One of the most well-known and popular in terms of a possible answer, is BumpTop. The concept is designed around recreating your off-screen, physical desktop on-screen. It sounds a bit of an odd idea untill you watch their video (embeded below)

It’s interesting however ot be honest, I don’t really want my desk mess on my computer screen as well.

Of course, in a years time, this post may be in the history books; right next to the date at the top of the post. Why? The technology industry is forever changing and is therefore our predictions are forever changing. The whole industry may be following one past, then one company could come along and change it all. Thats what makes this industry so interesting.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

The physical keyboard has been with us since the very beginning… that is, since the beginning of computers. The mouse also arrived soon after. The word computer has the instant connotation of the keyboard and mouse of which people are simply lost without them. But with recent breakthroughs in interfaces such as Multi-Touch and Voice Recognition; are these pieces of iconic equipment here to stay?

Microsoft aims to get it’s Microsoft Surface into many consumer’s homes within the next five or ten years; with no keyboard and mouse. Apple is aiming at 10 million iPhones to be sold by the end of next year - again, no keyboard on the device. So looking down the road there doesn’t seem to be any sign of our faithful tools. But that’s only if they don’t fail. After all, it’s only Microsoft’s and Apple’s hopes for these technologies to enter the consumers’ homes and it’s not a definite win yet.

Personally, I use the keyboard all the time and , on a laptop, it can’t be subsituted for an on-screen one. I don’t really mind, in fact, I prefer the keyboard to a physical one on devcies like the iTouch and the iPhone but for my main computer, physical is here to stay.

So… what about the mouse? I really don’t think there is any subsitute quite like it in my opinion. It’s accurate, elegant and simple. However, saying that; they’re not here to stay as they are. There getting better. Take the Logitech MX Revolution for example. It doesn’t exactly look like your everyday bog-standard mouse, but it is. It’s more egonmic, much more customizable and doesn’t look half bad either.

So, in conclusion, I reckon that both the keyboard and the mouse are here to stay. There may be other devices such as the portable phones, media players that begin to take much more innovative approach to their produts, but in terms of your everyday laptop or desktop - it aint changing all that much.

Disagree? Have you seen some totally new, cool and innovative approach to the input interface that completely counter-argues my whole post? Let me and other readers know in the comments!

Hey guys,

Just a quick little paragraph to say that the blog will start becoming a bit more active. I kind of went in to this whole thing with a blindfold around my head which is where this post originated from. I give you…. 3 Things to de before starting a Blog.

 1) Plan it - Make sure you know what you’re doing with your blog. What sort of design you want, the content you want to write and where you’re going to blog. This is really helpful. If you don’t plan and begin, somewhat like I did, your life becomes a mess and so does your mess

2) Write beforehand -  This is a must. If you want to, and I suggest you do, blog on a regualar basis (see below tip) and your life is already  very busy as it is, make sure you write a few posts before hand. The last thing you want is for blogging to become another one of those things that *has to be done by tommorow*.

 3)  Blog on a regular basis - Okay, I guess that this isn’t something to do before you start a blog, but make sure you prepare yourself for it. It may sound great beforehand, but it’s a big commitment. If you don’t, your blog will fail. Trust me. 

 Hope that gave you some insight, and remember, make sure you learn from my mistakes

 Any requests, feedback or something more to add, we welcome you to leave a comment

The platform you are on this very minute is home to some of the most valuable tools in the world. Tools that no other platform has. So, are you using them to your advantage? No? Then you should, and if won’t take my word for it; then here are a few reasons why you should embrace social media.Okay, so, a bit of background if you’re not sure what Social Media is. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Pownce, Digg etc are al defined as “Social Media” although to be honest, nobody really knows what it is except a very valuable tool as you will learn in this article. You may have heard terms like “Social Networking” and “Sharing with your friends” when others are describing these sites.In my opinion, Social Media is a collection of all these previously mentioned above.So you may be asking yourself, “So?”; which is a very common response when explaining these sites to people outside of the geek niche.However, in practice, those same people become somewhat addicted to this array of tools and platforms therefore making it one of the most valuable tools for both uses in the realms of personal use and business use.So here are my 4 reasons on why you should embrace on what we have come to know as “Social Media”.

1. Personal Connections. This is fairly self-explanatory; want to send a link to your friend? Post it to FaceBook. Need to share some photos with your family at the other side of the world? Upload it to Flickr or many other photo sharing website.
2. Personal Marketing. Need to get a good word out and about about yourself for some support? Twitter. Want to get yourself known out and about the internet? Blog. Simple one word answers to your questions.
3. Business Marketing. Are you launching a new product within your company and need to generate some publicity? Blog it. Twitter it. Just make sure your working on commission first though
4. Personal Advantages (Software etc.)  Are you looking for a bit of new software to fulfill a certain need? Twitter it. The help of the community is now more helpful and powerful then any mainstream media broadcast ever was or will be.

So, Social Media has positive effects on both sides of the work and play spectrum. Tune in sometime next week for the counter argument to this post. 

Blogging is definitely a buzzword in today’s modern internet culture. It’s everywhere, and has been for quite some time now. Evolving from online diaries to analytical views of the news, blogging is still considered one of the web’s newest technologies. It doesn’t just stop at long posts either; blogging has been broken down into microblogging, tumblelogging and in many ways, podcasting.

However, recently I’ve noticed a new way to blog which seems to be becoming a bit of a trend, no not a new type of blogging, a new way of blogging. This way I have come to call “Fast Food” Blogging. I’m “Fast Food” blogging right, yep, that’s right. Right here on lockergnome.com. 

So, do you know what it is yet? I hope so. It’s basically blogging communities or networks. Such sites as wordpress.com, blogger.com and lockergnome.com are all home to “Fast Food” Bloggers. So, you’re probably wondering why the hell I dubbed this “Fast Food” Blogging. Well, let me explain. When you create a blog using one of these services, you already some form of community there. I’m not saying that you have instant readership but you get the blogging software, a variety of themes to choose from, hosting all provided for you when you start. So all you have to worry about is writing the good articles ;-) 

There are many advantages to “Fast Food” Blogging which I shall list here in a list.

1. The Geek’s Do It For You. Many people like the idea of blogging but when it comes around to it, they can’t get it off the ground. This isn’t because they can’t write interesting and engaging posts, it’s just the fact that they can’t design themes or install their blogging platforms. This is why “Fast Food” Blogging has been so appealing and successful towards the non-geek user.
2. It’s Free. You don’t pay for hosting, domains or anything of that sort. Just sign up and tap away
3. Established Readers. That particular site will probably already have an established reader base on some of the other blogs out there. Promote your blog; often blogs get to the front page etc. Just write good articles, link them to a few people and get them noticed. Established readership does not mean thousands and thousands of people are going to start flocking to read your new posts, you still have to try and get them there first. 

So there are just a couple of advantages to “Fast Food” Blogging, only a couple but probably some of the biggest things people worry about or find difficulty with when starting a blog.