Google has acquired BumpTop. Here’s the message from the BumpTop site, verbatim:
Dear BumpTop fans,
More than three years ago, we set out to completely change the way people use their desktops. We’re very grateful for all your support over that time — not just financially but also through all the encouraging messages from people who found BumpTop inspiring, useful, and just downright fun.
Today, we have a big announcement to make: we’re excited to announce that we’ve been acquired by Google! This means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will no longer be available for sale. Additionally, no updates to the products are planned.
For the next week, we’re keeping BumpTop Free available for download at bumptop.com/download to give BumpTop fans one last chance to grab a copy.
Existing BumpTop Pro users should visit bumptop.com/pro for more information.
Thanks again for all your support over the years. Despite our change in strategy, we remain as passionate as ever about helping shape the future of computing!
Sincerely,
The Bumps
April 30th 2010
MacDailyNews Note: Here’s a YouTube video showing a BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype:
Direct link to video via YouTube here.
Bumptop. Just because you can does not mean you should.
@Nerd Beautiful
Congrats!
Everyone seemed to forget that part. May you live an eternally blissful marriage blessed by a plethora of mini-nerds.
In addition to the above both Rush Limbaugh, and John Stewart commented on Apple. Comment section of both are rather funny, even if the stories themselfs are less remarkable.
Wow, that looked nice – and utterly useless…
Way to go Google…
Many 3-D desktops have been around for years. This is one of the most disorganized and ugly one. Makes sense for Google’s taste.
The desktop (metaphor) is fading away yet Google seems to be headed in that direction.
I stopped not long after they showed a stylus – seems like a pretty useless idea. Do people really want to replicate real-world desk piles (and mess) on a computer via the desktop metaphor? And why does this give me mild flashbacks to Microsoft Bob?
What is a pTop?
A long time ago, I remember seeing the BumpTop.
I thought it was really cool.
But then, when I thought about downloading it, I realised that, for me, it just looked good, and that I couldn’t really see anything else valuable about it or how it would help me in any way.
So I didn’t even download it.
I’m not saying BumpTop wouldn’t be useful to anybody.
BumpTop might be a real boon to someone who has a workflow that could be improved by that method of organisation.
Just not for me.
First, they present files as a huge pile of mess, and then give to their poor users eternal pain of endlessly arranging and re-arranging the piles. 8|
I mean, this “management” can really take most of your activity. Very much Micrsofty, I am sorry.
Pen based? Oh come on . . .
I think the basic problem with a desktop UI like this, isn’t the fact that it’s too cluttered (look at your actual desk, it can be as cluttered or uncluttered as you like). And even though in the video they spend 90% of the time showing off how to achieve the perfect cluttered mess, they do show ways to clean the desktop too.
Here’s the real reason something like this is a complete failure; it is way to hard to learn. “We’ve implemented new novel gestures such as DragNCross, LassoNCross, …” Apple realizes that to make a computer easier to use, we need to reduce the learning curve associated with how we interact with the UI. Less or no menus, gestures that mimic real life (pinching, dragging). I have never in my life Lassoed then crossed a pile of thing in my house.
After watching the video for a length of time I realized I would be guessing at what gesture invoked what response. That’s the real problem with a UI like this, not inherently the clutter factor.
Based purely on the comments I see here, none of you have actually used this app. It’s only been available for the Mac for about 4 months, It was a work in progress… Too bad it was gobbled up by the soul sucking giant that is google.
Google, where cool things go to die!
Like I said, nobody commenting here has actually used it… If you had you’d know that the video above is probably the windows version. None of those gestures had trickled down to OS X.
“Played with it for 15 minutes, shrugged my shoulders and dragged it to trash.”
Wow! You lasted that long!
Like I said, meh…
@3monkeys, I was evaluating their product based on their scripted and controlled demo. That would mean that if anything their product is being presented in the best possible light (ala the Mojave Experiment shenanigans).
“Google acquires BumpTop (with video)”
There’s video of a corporate acquisition?
Google wants the average person to learn complicated commands to make piles of files.
Apple wants to eliminate files completely with the iPhone and iPad, letting you just get things done.
Hmm. Which way do you think the market is going to go?
Another way to put it:
All the frustration of paper. None of the power and convienience of a computer.