kallasoft

Google’s Android mobile platform has a pretty interesting approach to the unlock screen that makes it more than just a simple way to avoid hitting buttons in your pocket. Android’s unlock screen actually introduces a new level of security to the device that didn’t previously exist on mobile phones without introducing an annoying new system that the user would need to work through each time they wanted to use the phone (e.g. entering a password), take a look:

Pretty interesting approach, and the fact that it’s configurable can lead to any number of custom combinations of zigs, zags and straight lines you could set your unlock combination to, effectively giving you an entry level of security on your device if it went missing or a friend had it.

I’m personally curious to see what other applications of touch screens pop up over the next 5 years as they become common place in laptop and notebook designs. As we’ve seen prototypes of the next release of Windows all running on touch-screen enabled laptops and realizing that Apple likely has a touch-screen laptop in the works for a release next year some time, it can’t be too much longer until we see some initial cuts at this.