What a lot of parenthesises in that last post...

I've been coming off night-shifts and so have found myself laying in bed a bit more than I normally do - this has led to me thinking about stuff. What now follows is an attempt to be insightful, clever and all that stuff that successful bloggers are good at.

It seems that mobile computing has increased somewhat, but it hasn't become as ubiquitous as the tabletop PC. I suspect that this is because there isn't really a "killer app" for mobile computing. Sure it's nice to have calender/contacts - but for ease of use a pocket diary is cheaper, smaller and easier to use. The gradual convergence of mobile phone and pocket PC illustrates that perhaps communication is is way forward, look at how SMS texting has taken off (in Europe at least). Perhaps we need universal wifi, and make it easier to connect to it.
You don't need to configure a hundred and one settings for your mobile phone to work.
However SMS is a pain in the thumb, at least for anyone over the age of thirty. Likewise tapping out messages on a tiny screen/keyboard is tiresome and hardly an intuitive way to enter information.
The tabletop PC didn't really take off until the advent of Windows, and Windows is only popular because it is simple. I would suggest however that this simplicity is less a function of the software, as more a function of hardware - specifically the Mouse.
Give a child, or someone who has never used a computer before a mouse and within seconds they are able to control the cursor with very little teaching required. Move the mouse, the pointer moves - it's that simple, you don't need to "tab" between boxes, remember "-switches" or use a keyboard to enter command strings. Some folk are nervous if you put them in front of a keyboard, but a mouse is completely innocuous, hell even the name is "friendly"

So, for mobile computing to become more popular I suggest that a new way of controlling the hardware is needed. I don't know what, if I did I could become a millionaire. Will it involve Haptics or voice recognition (I suspect not, it'd be embarrassing to talk to a lump of plastic). I think it will be something completely new, something out of left-field that will take the world by storm. Then we will have the next computing revolution.

Personally I'm waiting for a bluetooth microwriter to show off what a gadget geek I am. Chord keyboards are in absolute opposition to what I have just written, but I'd use one.