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I love the idea of their brand being alive and belonging to almost any environment. Most specifically, in your environment. For example, I identify with much of Google's technology, but their logo and aesthetics aren't necessarily something I relate to. Why not let the consumer/user personalize the brand?

While AOL may still be a bit of a dinosaur, this a definitely a step in the right direction.

While there's some good old Linux doing the donkey work underneath, the First Else's futuristic and intuitive user interface mesmerized us during the presentation and our hands-on, all thanks to "sPlay" -- a right-thumb-controlled, sci-fi-like fan menu interface. Else actually did a live demo on its prototype First Else with no visible glitches, and when we had our hands on the device we got the same great responsiveness. Else CEO Amir Kupervas made a good point about how "smart" phones should actually be adapting to us instead of us having to adapt to cluttered menu systems, which led the to birth of sPlay and the fisheye display which provide minimal but necessary information, while keeping a consistent layout and visual aesthetics across different applications. At the same time, these features are positioned within reach of the right thumb, and sPlay takes it further by letting you easily browse different content by just a simple swipe of the right thumb. Kupervas went as far as saying this single-hand operation is "the death of main menu," mocking most other smartphone platforms.

Very cool. But... Like most devices, it is hard to make judgment on user experience until one of these is in your hands.

It sure looks like the "future" though, doesn't it?

A friend sent me this video yesterday and I must say, I was absolutely stunned. It's by a Barcelona based design group whose mission is to explore the relationships and interactions between people and technology (that subject that I find very interesting) through installations that "merge real and digital into a creative environment where people are invited to touch, play, move, feel as they do in the real world."
This video humanises the user-interface of a multi-touch device (a phone, pda, computer, etc. that allows the user to use 2 or more fingers to interact it) and, to me, raises the question of whether we are more comfortable with our digital social interactions than our real ones. It is made through a combination of realtime video and stop-frame animation which gives it quite a jerky feel, very similar to that of an actual phone or computer (I know that my phone is very much like this.)
Website : http://www.multitouch-barcelona.com/
Hi Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/multitouchbarcelona/sets/72157618590701108/

Music : 'Wake Up, Wake Up' by Lullatone

I've always wondered if a "tweetdeck interface for email" would make sense. Basic column for white listed important people, add columns for filters (search terms, groups of people,etc.) and other parameters. People can write longer emails, but the form factor enforces things to be shorter when they can. Integrate in some simple plugins for media sharing (pictures, video, large doc attachments). It would also know when notifications came in from facebook,twitter,etc. since each service usually uses a certain email address. This is my killer email app. If someone builds it, name your price, and ill be your first customer.

Picked up this comment from Fred Wilson's post about dealing with 500 emails. The application of design principles that help manage Twitter makes a lot of sense for email.

I like the concept of email borrowing from another field to be improved.

The rumours published last week may be true after all: Google is testing a new search interface on random people, as these screenshots from Gizmodo reader Matt Karolian confirm.

Bring on the change. If there's one thing all Google sites have in common is their lack of colour variety.

If these screenshots tell the truth then we may be looking at a nice new Google fairly soon (or one could hope).

Thanks