Archive for December, 2007
2008 Concept Mac
The iPhone/iTouch input UI can do everything the Macbook trackpad/click-button combo can do and then some. It also opens up a new line of feedback and interaction between the application and the user.
Throw in a Toshiba solid-state disk drive (with capacities up to 128GB in embeddable, 1.8″ and 2.5″ enclosures) and you’ve got another category-changing leap.
Papervision3D 2.0
Papervision3D, the ActionScript/Flash-based 3D development toolkit has been getting better with every release. Version 2.0 was announced only a couple days ago and people are already doing amazing things with it. Will definitely be using it in my projects to help visualize complex information (and no, I’m not talking about this sort of thing).
For those interested in learning more, core developer John Grden will be conducting a 2-day class in February 2008 in San Francsisco. Here’s his report from the class conducted last weekend in New York City. Astounding results with so little code. If you’re into Flash and are curious about 3D, this is a good opportunity to get a rapid brain transfusion.
We should be seeing even more interesting stuff come out by then. My favorite 3-D modeling/rendering package Strata3D already has support for Collada, the open 3D file format that can be imported (and now, animated) in PV3D. And later this month we should be seeing direct PV3D-generation support in Swift-3D.
Realtime 3D, complex modeling, procedural animation, and interactivity — all delivered inside Flash. Throw in Flex and AIR and It should really open up some interesting venues both on the web and in desktop apps 
Can’t wait till February.