Touch surfaces want to be horizontal

In the nsquared development studio we have been saying for years that the advantage of touch, really shines on the table top and in the hand because of the orientation of a horizontal screen lends itself to far superior touch experiences.

This morning in his presentation of the new Mac OSX software Steve Jobs made the following statement:

“touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical, it gives great demo, but after a short period of time you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time your arm wants to fall off, it doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible, touch surfaces want to be horizontal,…"

"this doesn't work"

Thank you, Steve and Apple for helping to clarify this point in such a concise manner. Let's hope more people listen to this and understand the benefits of horizontal touch surfaces.

Introducing the certified Surface applications for business.

In this video Dr. Neil announces that nsquared has reached the milestone of having 10 applications certified for Microsoft Surface and shows us the 3 business applications in the nsquared business pack that are certified for Microsoft Surface.

10 out of 10!

“We’re very proud of the fact that nsquared schedules is the 10th nsquared Microsoft® Surface® Application to receive the prestigious “Certified for Surface” award.” said nsquared’s Director, Dr. Neil Roodyn. “As far as we can tell, there are now 13 Surface applications that have been Certified for Surface, and 10 of them were created by the nsquared Surface development team in Sydney,” he continued.
We now have 10 applications certified for Microsoft Surface. This includes all of the applications in the nsquared business pack and all the applications in the nsquared education pack.
Having our applications certified for Microsoft Surface provides our customers with a level of assurance that we are delivering high quality software that provides a great Surface experience.
Now when you visit the Microsoft surface site to discover available applications, you can see that nsquared is the dominant player in this market.

Let's meet globally, in style

Our iPad app, nsync, has had a facelift.

This is the iPad app to help you organize meetings with people around the world.
nsquared nsync lets you view the time in four different locations around the world.
You can then find a time that would suit people in some or all of those timezones.

Download it from the Apple AppStore

Dr. Neil speaks to CodeCast

Last moth while Dr. Neil was in the USA he caught up with Ken Levy of CodeCast.

The interview turns into an extended conversation on a variety of topics including Microsoft Surface, multi-touch applications, Bing Translator and the Messenger Connect SDK.

These are all technologies that we at nsquared are very proud to have worked with Microsoft on helping to deliver.

You can download the podcast here.

nsquared education pack stars at TEDx Redmond

This week some of us have been lucky enough to witness and be a part of the latest TEDx event in Redmond. TEDx events are a spin off from the well known TED events as a result of interest from a number of groups in hosting their own TED like events. TEDx this week was organised by a young lady who could possibly be the world's youngest teacher. Adora Svitak is 12 years old and is a passionate and accomplished teacher of reading and writing skills. The event that she organised, TEDx Redmond, focused on technology in education and the future of education.

As one of the world's leading software development teams for Microsoft Surface, we were delighted to have been invited to attend. The bonus for us? Our educational apps got another good workout and once again proved their worth and position in the market.

It might be our imaginations, but it seems that we've had an unusual rise in the number of enquiries for our new

education pack early this week, and we're thinking it's because of the great feedback from TEDx. The software is intuitive to use, but requires that users to engage with it. They focus on the development of literacy and numeracy skills, but also have a number of cross curricular benefits.

Schools and public libraries are currently showing the greatest levels of interest and commit

ment.

To find out more about the nsquared education pack for Microsoft Surface you can visit http://nsquarededucationpack.com/ or give us a call on +61 2 9233 5355.

The nsquared education pack is live.

Today we're proud to announce the release of the nsquared education pack for Microsoft Surface.

The nsquared education pack for Microsoft Surface is the first of the nsquared educational series. It focuses on providing highly interactive learning experiences that are designed to enhance young students’ attention and retention rates. Game-based learning is acknowledged as an extremely effective teaching approach and most of the seven nsquared education pack activities utilise this method. While the activities are designed to enhance literacy and numeracy skills, students learn to manage themselves in collaborative and competitive environments when they participate.

Teachers who want to match the activities to their current curriculum content can easily customise the activities. Each education pack is supplied with the nsquared teacher tool that enables teachers to create and change content for the activities using their PCs.

The nsquared education pack is supported by a dedicated web site. “As of ourlaunch day today, there are already a number of free content packs ready for teachers to download so that they can easily change the content.” said Dr. Neil. Teachers or library administrators can find out more and download the available content packs from the web site.

This week Dr. Neil and the team on the ground in the UK are excited to be on the road taking Surface and the nsquared education pack to a number of schools in England and Wales. More updates will be provided as the week continues.