Hmm, now that seesmic web has desktop notifications, it's nearly all you need - final step will be addition of multiple twitter accounts. [alexleonard]
Does 802.11b have a better signal range than 802.11g? Don't need it for file transfer - only net sharing. Best coverage is most important. [alexleonard]
A remarkably interesting look at the possibilities for fundamental changes in the way we interact with computers, from the premise that multi-touch technology is the way of the future, and the fact that as humans we’ve been equipped with tools that can handle extremely complicated tasks. What are those tools? Hands.
I see Mr. Miller’s point: the incredibly old model of controlling your computer with a single point of interaction - the mouse and it’s pointer – has been around so long that people just accept that it’s the best/only way of interacting with a computer. The time is night, however, that this interaction should change.
The video below is a concept, and idea put together to promote debate and innovation. There’s no product for sale. Still, I think it’s a very worthwhile watch and whilst the desktop interface may seem quite alien I think it achieves its purpose, namely getting our brains thinking about what is possible.
Interestingly Apple have just launched the “Magic Mouse” 1, which is a mouse whose entire surface doubles as a touch interface, with support for multi-touch interactions. You can see it in action over on the Apple website.
This video examines the benefits and limitations inherent in current mouse-based and window-oriented interfaces, the problems facing other potential solutions, and visualizes my proposal for a completely new way of interacting with desktop computers.
Apparently they were going to run into issues with name usage on “Mighty Mouse” – I for one remember the cartoon that went by that name, though I don’t think that’s where the issue was going to come from. ↩
By the way, the ‘strangely enjoyable’ part of my title refers to the second video below. Steve sent me this link and, in some weird way, I find it strangely compelling. Maybe it’s just the contrast, or maybe it’s because it’s stupidly late and I’m completely trashed.
Songsmith does Nirvana
Thanks Steve, this has somehow made my night. I think you’re right – I should get Songsmith and this whole film composition malarky will become much easier.
In a nerdy way, humour is alive and well and it’s a very good thing to see the piss being well and truly ripped out of Microsoft’s “Launch Party” video, which, must truly be one of the all time worst moments in video.
I’ve included the Microsoft video below the piss-take, but if you do watch it, well, don’t watch the whole thing, it really is painful watching, and it doesn’t get better as it goes along.
Here’s a very handy little tool for quickly showing what folders are using up all your hard drive space.
It’s a bit light on the feature front, but does exactly what I needed it to do – which is highlight orphan folders that are eating space which I know I don’t need.
It’s an added plus that it doesn’t need installation – just runs from the extracted download folder.
FolderSize is another in a relatively long line of similar tools (our favorite is the previously mentioned WinDirStat), but it boasts a couple of nice features that sets it apart from most.
First and foremost, it’s portable, which means it’s the perfect app to throw on your PC repair kit thumb drive. Second, where some of these tools can take a while to analyze your hard drive usage, FolderSize seems to run really fast and light. On the downside, it’s not as feature rich as most of the alternatives, and you can’t drill down through the results or even open folders in a new Explorer window from its interface. You can, however, zoom in and out on the window for a closer look at folders using your mouse’s scrollwheel.
This sounds like pretty big news to me – Nokia are claiming that Apple have infringed on their intellectual property and could be liable for a license agreement settlement for every iPhone model since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.
The ten patents in suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.
So Google Wave is out, well, a “preview” version of Google Wave is out. I received my invite in my inbox this morning along with about one hundred thousand others. What does it look like?
Nothing remarkable looking there really, but what’s behind it is a little more fascinating (if you’re a nerd). What is that fascinating technology? Synchronous communication – as you’re typing the text appears on your Wave companions screen.
Whilst at first this may not sound like much, I’ve slowly found my head filling up with the possibilities. Here’s a test case:
I recently was providing some support to a client. We were chatting in Skype and I was using TeamViewer to connect to their computer. As I could see their screen I could see what they were typing. Watching them type I knew what their question was after they’d written a few words and was instantly able to compose my answer. Often I’d finished my answer before they’d finished typing their question. I’d have to wait for them to finish typing, send their message, and then I’d instantly hit send on my message. They must have been a little confused: “How can he answer so quickly?!”
I was their caped crusader, their saviour, the support guru with mysterious powers of IT knowledge. Doing this I realised how IM is somewhat frustrating – how long do we spend watching ‘Timmy is typing…’
Google Wave finishes with that – now communication is as synchronous as a conversation. What’s more is it’s all open source and adds a massive extension function to allow you to plug Wave into a myriad of possibilities around the web.
Interested?
As you can see in that image above, I have some invites left. Less than six though – I’ve got three left, if you’d like one, leave a comment here and I’ll send an invite to the email address you use for your comment.
I’m an ardent Firefox user – have been for years and despite all the developments in other browsers on the market, Firefox still provides me with everything that I need, and none of the other browsers come close.
Still, every once in a while I’ll spend a bit of time in Chrome or Opera – usually when I’m working on music and don’t want to open my last Firefox session which, inevitably, will consist of about 20 tabs.
Today was one of those cases where I found myself using Chrome to check my feeds and I noticed a post about Microsoft giving away copies of their web development tools. I headed over to the MS site and lo and behold I could not watch any of the demo videos due to a lack of Microsoft’s Silverlight product – a bit of a competitor to Adobe’s Flash.
I tried to install Silverlight and what message do I get but:
Microsoft Silverlight may not be supported on your computer’s hardware or operating system.
This Web browser or operating system may not be compatible with Silverlight. Please review the system requirements and, if you wish to proceed, choose the link for your operating system.
Even better is that they include a table of compatibility that doesn’t even acknowledge Chrome (not to mention Opera):
Silverlight Compatibility List
I wonder is that an intentional dig at Chrome? That wouldn’t really make sense if Microsoft want to push Silverlight as a real alternative to Flash.
There’s some amusing back and forth going on over at patphelan.net regarding a post about battery life on the iPhone and how little use it is to him if it’s going to die after 4 hours.
…4hrs later it was dead as a dodo.
No phone, no email, no effing way of getting the SIM out, no access to a charger and lots of missed calls.
I rushed back to the office dreaming of electricity for my paperweight, gave it a quick charge and my life was good again.
It was gone again 4hrs later, this resulted in a hilarious quest for a paper clip in the Mespil Hotel, (they dont do paper clips) got a result though, bought a packet of safety pins in a chemist and suddenly I was good to go in my E72.
I delved into the comments thread leaving my thoughts, but nothing beats Bernard Tyer’s comments which you should check out.
I have always found it remarkable the lengths to which iFans will go to excuse design flaws on Apple’s behalf.
Wow, this looks like quite a nifty product. Some real thought going into UX and UI design. Read the full article over on Gizmodo for more information
It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we’ve all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft’s astonishing take on the tablet.
To watch the video, you’ll first need to install the flash player.
‘ Courier is a real device, and we’ve heard that it’s in the “late prototype” stage of development. It’s not a tablet, it’s a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.
Well this looks like quite a change for Nokia. Very interesting to see the linux-based Maemo OS in action, which you can see in the video demonstration below.
Last 100 had this to say:
Nokia N900
Despite being pitched as the closest thing to a PC that fits in your pocket (”PC-like experience on a handset-sized device”) — a common theme in the marketing of all recently released smartphones — the N900’s UI appears to be extremely finger-friendly and optimized for its 3.5 inch 800 x 480 pixel (resistive) touch screen, where the previous and slightly larger N810 (4.1 inch) was stuck in a PC-centric UI design paradigm.
And unlike the N810 and, for some critics, the company’s recently released flagship Symbian powered smartphone, the N97 (see my review), the N900, on paper at least, has the processing power to match its UI and computing ambitions – an ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 600MHz with OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration.
