Innovation in Software

I am unashamedly a software guy. For me, hardware gadgets are inflexible lumps of molecules I can’t do what I want with. In software, if I can think of it I can make it happen providing I have the time.

One of the reasons I think the iPhone and iPod Touch are revolutionary is because the hardware is as “small” to the user as possible. It gets out of the way, handing over as much as possible to the software. There are few buttons to press, very few physical constraints: here’s a big screen which is a multi-touch input device, here’s some sensors that tell you if the device is vertical, horizontal or being shaken around, here’s an OS that gives you storage, network connectivity, do what you want.

The great thing about this, it allows for real innovation in the software space. Look what Brian Eno made:

The Long Now Blog tells us:

“Brian Eno has conspired with Peter Chilvers on a recently released iPhone app called Bloom that allows you to make your own generative music. (see video above) While at best I would be labeled as “musically challenged,” I found it addictive and easy to make a soundtrack to my daily activities with this tool. Very fun, and definitely a higher brow activity than Guitar Hero.”

I can’t argue with that – it’s very simple, but you can see how it could develop into a very addictive and powerful creative application.

via Guy who also wants to see (Electroplankton)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplankton) porting to iPhone as well. Give it time, give it time…