Fox News has been busy building their “revolutionary” Fox News Deck, capitalizing on the interest in high-tech computer user interfaces, like those mentioned in the recent “User interfaces in the movies and beyond” here at AE Portal. Hey, why should the NSA have all the fun?
While The Verge report generated heat in comments, TechCrunch had some relevant reporting:
The screens measure 55 inches, run Windows 8 (soon: Windows 8.1, presumably) and look damned futuristic. …Microsoft’s PPI business comes from its acquisition of Perceptive Pixel in July 2012. Microsoft, through that acquisition, is now an OEM of some of the largest touchscreens in the world; PPI displays also come in an 82-inch variant.
TechCrunch later added: “If the new studio at Fox News, with its big-ass touchscreens, looks a little bit like Minority Report, that’s because it’s just like Minority Report. Oblong, the same company that helped create the technological interfaces seen in the futuristic movie, outfitted the new studio with a product called Mezzanine, powered by G-Speak, allowing Shepard Smith to drag and drop videos on a wall like he’s directing an orchestra. John Underkoffler, Chief Scientist at Oblong, confirmed Fox News’ use of the Mezzanine product to TechCrunch, calling “the whole undertaking a laudably ambitious undertaking on the part of Fox News.”
Here's the story from Fox, the first in broadcast news with a Wii-style wand for the show host:
Michael Pollan says (Oct 28): “Don't miss this fascinating exchange between NYT's Bill Keller and Glenn Greenwald on the Future of News.”
The Colbert Report responded with their own tech initiative, the 'Info News Veranda', claiming the “Fox News Deck is like the holodeck in Star Trek — it feels like you're surrounded by news, but it's all an illusion.”
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had its own take, in the Screentastic Mr. Fox, which explains that “Shep Smith and Fox News have fixed the non-broken part of their newsgathering apparatus.”