or this
with a completely configurable panel, which is potentially context sensitive, or at least switchable, and can be laid out ad lib.
The new paradigm comes from seeing hardware as a tactile interactive object that happens to do some computing, rather than as a computer that happens to have a touch screen.
The iPhone already does some of this, but it's too small to do more than play games on. If you scale up the size, the possibilities get more interesting.
I was working as the Systems Architect for a system not too unlike what you're describing back in '89. Ran into an insurmountable problem and had to round-file the effort. Can't remember what the problem back then was.
