I believe in the small tablet device. Apples iSlate, or whatever it will be called, is the way of the future. Or maybe the Microsoft Courier, or… whatever. I think a small, portable device, that does not try to be a full blown computer, is the way of the future.

I have been drawn to the idea of such devices for a long time. Perhaps it’s from watching/reading too much sci-fi. There was some British sci-fi show called Star Cops. I saw it in the late 80s. Some UK cop gets posted on the moon to help sort out local crime. It was an understated show with few fx, but the cop had a little box thing (called “Box”), about the size of a paperback book, that contained an AI that was his personal assistant. It would so research on his behalf and book flights (to the moon and back) for him. It would answer phone calls and take messages if he was busy. I loved the idea.

Daniel Keys Moran had Trent, the genetically engineered genius hacker who wrote his own agent (Ralf the Wise and Powerful) that could go out into the net and act on his behalf. Sometimes Trent was in the driving seat and the Ralf was his avatar, or sometimes Ralf could act autonomously. Ralf  lived in a small portable device when it wasn’t roaming the net.

About 6 years ago, I bought my first PDA. I took my tax return from my first full time lecturing job and bought me a little HP something or other. It was a piece of crap. Perhaps I had high expectations for computing in the palm of my hand. I wanted to believe these devices were useful, even paradigm shifting. But it was a gutless piece of crap. I struggled with it for a while, but the final nail in it’s coffin was when I became a Mac convert and found I could no longer even sync my calendars without jumping through hoops.

Now my mobile phone does everything the PDA ever did, but better. And it makes phone calls. And surfs the web. And takes decent pictures.

But my phone is still a pain to sync with my computer.

I have a netbook. My ASUS eeePC that I’m writing this on. I love it because it’s small and portable and does what I want it to. But it’s not the device I *want*. It is still just a cut down computer with a keyboard and all the old school modes of interaction.

I really believe that Apple radically changed the game with the iPod touch and iPhone. The interaction with those devices is magic. So many of us have seen movies like The Matrix and Minority Report that show amazing conceptualisations of how cool user interaction could be with touch or motion. So few devices even come close to realising this. Apple stands out from the pack as one who does come close. Microsoft has Surface, but I want it in my pocket!

And there are the many imitators. Lots of touch devices got rushed to market in the wake of the iPhones success. Bless them. To be fair, I have not tried many of these devices. But even the ads make them look bad. Pale imitations. But that’s not the point. The point is that we are finally heading in the right direction (for me). So many people are mind locked in the old paradigm of keyboards and business apps. Let those people have their 24″ laptops with twin graphics cards and a car battery to run them. I *don’t* want my portable device to be a full blown computer. I already have one of those.

But give me a portable device I can slip into my pocket. Don’t give me pissy little wana be full keyboards (the Nokia E72? Give me a break!). Give my touch screen. No. Give me smart *multi* touch with gestures

I don’t think we are there yet. We still have new user interaction patterns to work out. We have AI to develop (not *real* AI, but machines that are smart enough to help me get the job done with me wanting to kill it, AKA the paper clip). We still have hardware to refine. It’s early days, but I *so* looking forward to seeing what devices 2010 will bring.