San Francisco, USA - British-born Bill Moggridge who was reponsible for creating the first flip-open computer (the 'Grid Compass') back in 1979 has died of cancer in San Francisco in the United States, it has been reported. The Grid Compass was a ground-breaking machine for its time. It was a clamshell-style device with a screen which closed over the keyboard - like modern laptops. It was a comparatively clunky and low-powered device, and was expensive at $8,150 on its release in 1982. But with an Intel 8086 processor, a 1,200-bps modem and a 320 by 240 pixel display, it found a market in the US military. It was even taken into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985. A legendary industrial designer and computing innovator, Moggridge went on to found his own design consultancy firm, and received a lifetime achievement award in 2009 at the National Design Awards. His interest "lay not in the physical design achievements", the Design Council said at the time of the award, "but in the way that the user interacted with the hardware and software." (FA/NSN)
