The future of widgets is the past
'Widget' is a funny word. Historically, this is what it meant (according to www.dictionary.com)
| 1. | a small mechanical device, as a knob or switch, esp. one whose name is not known or cannot be recalled; gadget: a row of widgets on the instrument panel. |
| 2. | something considered typical or representative, as of a manufacturer's products: the widgets coming off the assembly line. |
Then in the 80's is about when you had widget kits for software development. they were screen elements, but still like definition 1 above- part of the instrument panel. Today, we still have widgets in that sense, but now a new concept: the little software utility application.
I love them and the tools (Adobe AIR and Flex) for building them. This is like java in 1996. but enough history. On with the real topic.
I believe widgets are going to move off your computer screen and back into being a small mechanical (or rather electro-mechanical) device. Some already have. I count bluetooth earpieces in this category of widget. Those little widgets in Nike shoes. Dive computers. I think we will have many more, without gong to sci-fi, and they will be cheap and connected to the internet (IP V6 no doubt) or at least your wireless internet relay widget (from XOHM) that all your devices share.
Email direct from your brain. A weather widget on your wrist watch. William Gibson's microsoft. A flickr slide show on your sunglasses. Flexible, electronic ink screen on your forearm (or sub-cutaneous- even better!). A zippo-lighter sized movie projector.
Who needs a desktop. I want widgets the way the used to be.
