It’s the “We are just as cool as apple, really we are!” syndrome. I can see lots of uses for that sort of interface … for school or work. If you have a dig ass desk with a lot of papers and documents, I can see replacing it with a big ass desk that is interactive. For office or school. For other work areas, it would be fantastic in plant operations, monitoring , security, air traffic control … anything that could benefit from combining lots of video, graphics and text in a large fluid interface. Really, it’s sort of like the interfaces on the Next Generation Enterprise that changed as the crew used them and “punched buttons”.

But instead of showing those uses ( how about for examining cat scans, MRI, x rays and other digital medical imagery along with chart information? ) Microsoft has this great tool, but wants to be “cool” and “hip.” So they show a big ass table doing iPhone type functions, or a couple of ( sad to say, geeky looking people ) in a bar… because they are hip and cool. It’s cool to play with fake bubbles on the table right?

When I first saw the “I’m a mac / I’m a PC” ads I chuckled, but thought they were playing to old stereotypes and prejudices. But lately it seems as if Microsoft is actually trying live down to the very worst traits in the worst of those commercials.

News flash: Being yourself is cool. Trying to be cool is not.