We had this little problem last year – we really wanted SOMETHING to do an online study/learning guide with.. well not just ’something’, we wanted it to be media rich in that it is not just visually appealing but allowed all sorts of GUI features (like popups, tabs etc) so that it could have more media-rich content.

The reason at the time was because the course we were working on had SO many resources, from all over the place, and we thought it might be a good thing to bring everything together, in to context.  (and to make it look nice).

I started thinking of ideas for a GUI and realised one of my favourite interfaces would have to be iTunes!  The interface is called cover flow and it’s visually delicious to say the least.

This is the iTunes coverflow GUI, nice hey?

As it turned out, after some searching the net for Flash resources, I found this awesome Open Source Initiative Flash-based cover flow project.  The beauty of it, like the beauty of iTunes, is it basically gets all its data from an XML file.  So that got me thinking.

What if the learning guide was entirely in XML?  Well, why not.  You could request a course code in your web browser, a php page could parse your request to Flash, which then loads the XML learning guide menu in coverflow, and voila, ajax the content in to the page with each click in the flash cover-flow!

I modified the Flash-based coverflow to suite our purpose.  I made the initial course trial static, in that the content was being loaded from html files, and the course-specific XML only contained details on the course topics and titles etc.  Now however I’m working on the full deal, the entire learning guide in XML.  It’s all coming together rather nicely.

We've nick-named it the HLG (hypertextual learning guide). You select your study module from the coverflow menu, and all the content loads below via ajax. The content sits in the course XML, and the XSL handles the rendering of all the variations in that content. This example has some readings, but there could also be videos, podcasts, all sorts of stuff.

Learning XSL has been a highlight of the last week, I’m still quite a noob at it, but so far I’ve done some awesome things – I can handle all sorts of variations in the XML (which means variations in content) and render it on the page nicely – videos come up with a video icon and use the jQuery prettyBox plugin, documents come up with a document icon, abstracts have the abstract viewable via a jQuery clueTip plugin.. its all coming together.

I have some more work to do with the XML/XSL, but I think it will all go well. At the end of it, I'll basically have a single php file, that takes course code requests.. the page will talk to a library of standard resources like the images in the cover-flow menu, the background images, css, and javascripts. It'll then talk to the requested XML (via a php transform and XSL file) to get all the details and content.

Phase 3 will be doing an administration interface, to manage the XML.. ohh fun.

Hey!!
While I’ve been working on gloobus preview, kitkat has done some incredible things to gloobus (coverflow). He call his branch gloobus on fire, and as you’ll see on the next video, it’s really on fire!!!!

Note: It is experimental but you can test it here:

https://code.launchpad.net/~am-monkeyd
bzr branch lp:~am-monkeyd/+junk/gloobus_on_fire

After this exiting video, I’ll tell you more news about gloobus.

Next week its gonna be released the 0.4.1 version (gloobus-preview) that fixes all bugs reported in 0.4 It will be compatible with karmic. There will be nautilus 0.28 patched to, we’ll distribute the normal version and offer the simplified one in another branch so this way there are the two versions.

And remember that you can donate to this incredible project (link in the right bar)

Windows Seven è il nuovo sistema operativo di casa Microsoft, l’evoluzione di Vista… Sì, ammetti che chiamarlo “evoluzione di Vista” può sembrare una minaccia, ma a sentire i dirigenti di Redmond sarebbe il futuro dell’informatica. Vi ricordate delle accuse mosse a Microsoft di aver copiato Vista da Mac OS X, o meglio di aver incorporato funzioni un pò troppo simili a quelle di Apple? Bè, facciamo un piccolo ripasso p chi non ricorda la disputa. Quando Apple presentò Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, i cartelloni pubblicitari del nuovo sistema operativo aveva come slogan la battuta: “Redmond, accendi le tue fotocopiatrici”. Battuta simpatica, ma pochi anni dopo si è scoperto che tale frase aveva un fondo di verità. Windows Vista presentava alcune novità: visualizzazione immagini, opzioni di vista cartelle, calendar,  sistema di ricerca interno, gadget… Microsoftrespinse le accuse, ma con scarsi risultati, e siccome le funzioni copiate in Vista non possono battere quelle originali e ormai consolidate di Mac OS X, il sistema operativo di Microsoft non riuscì a spiccare il volo, e all’indomani dell’uscita di Seven, si può ormai affermare che Vista sia stato un mezzo fallimento (nonostante Microsoft sia riuscita a sistemare alcuni bug e a erndere l’OS abbastanza stabile). Ora però Apple ha rilasciato il nuovo Snow Leopard , e Microsoft, per non restare indietro, ha cominciato la vendita di Seven in Beta, ancora debole e non del tutto completo. Tralasciando il lato tecnico (Seven non è costruito con la nuova tecnologia a 64bit di Snow Leopard, o meglio, c’è la versione di Seven a 64bit, ma non è compatibile con le applicazioni in 32) vediamo le nuove caratteristiche di un utente di medio livello. Seven in realtà  non varia molto da Vista, anche se alcuni problemi sono stati risolti. Accendendolo, si nota subito la stessa grafica pesante di Vista, e dopo i soliti biblici tempi di attesa, ci si trova nel Desktop, dove, grande novità, non si cominciano a visualizzare messaggi di attenzione e di conferma. Ma salta subito all’occhio la barra inferiore, io sono un Mac User, e mi è sembrato di vedere qualcosa di famigliare… icone grandi… niente scritte, solo icone… ma non vi sembra un pò il classico dock di Mac? Strano, secondo Microsoft la nuova barra è la maggiore rivoluzione di Seven (e sembra anche l’unica)… Questo Windows “sembra” sempre più il cugino della Mela… Il prossimo Windows (dovrebbe chiamarsi Vienna) avrà anche il coverflow? Bah, Seven è da poco che lo studio, ma a prima vista è la continuazione della filosofia adottata da Microsoft per Vista… quella fallimentare… Io propongo una colletta per regalare a zio Bill un Mac, visto che gli piace tanto…

Muy bueno el efecto que nos presenta el bueno de Addy Osmani, al estilo CoverFlow de los sistemas de Apple como el Itunes, pero usando simplemente JavaScript y HTML5.

JavaScript CoverFlow

Por supuesto, que al usar HTML5 no se ve en los navegadores costras de la familia Explorer.

Link: Open-Source JavaScript CoverFlow | Demo

J’aime mon ipod, même si j’ai perdu mon jailbreak
avec le firmware 3.1 ! Sniiif !

Mon blog passe d’ailleurs assez correctement sur safari :
( ou ici application facebook par lien hypertexte )

J’ai des petites applications favorites :

STYLISH GIRL ” une femme très chic” :

Ou des jeux :

(FLING, Idaft, doodle kids, balls)

]]> http://nkreipke.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/itunes-9-das-schlimmste-was-apple-je-verbrochen-hat/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:04:46 +0000 nkreipke http://nkreipke.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/itunes-9-das-schlimmste-was-apple-je-verbrochen-hat/

Ich bin ein Apple-Fan. Doch wenn Apple weiterhin so etwas macht wie das neue iTunes, bin ich das die längste Zeit gewesen.

Heute morgen starte ich mein allzeit geliebtes iTubes 8.1.1, dass mich darauf hinweist, dass eine neue Version von iTunes verfügbar ist. Weil ich neugierig bin und auch den Blogeintrag von MKGB gelesen habe, hab ichs mir auch gleich mal heruntergeladen.

Was ich nach einem Neustart sehen musste, hat mich zu tiefst erschüttert:

Man muss sich nur mal die Titelleiste anschauen. Der Verlauf ist grauenvoll. Das wars mit einheitlichem Design in Mac OS X. Auch QuickTime X wurde vom Design her eher Windows Vista angepasst, jedoch das was iTunes hier zeigt ist grauenvoll. Die Buttons, die Suchleiste und allgemein das Design passt einfach nur gar nicht zu OS X.

Noch schlimmer ist der neue iTunes-Store. Er ist einfach nur total unausgereift. Nicht nur dass er selbst auf einer guten Grafikkarte extrem laggt beim scrollen. Dass die Navigation vollständig in die obere Leiste verschwunden ist find ich okay. Allerdings wie diese aufgebaut ist, ist einfach müll. In der Leiste auf dem Screenshot fehlen zum Beispiel die Punkte “Hörbücher” und “iTunes U”. Wo die sind? Die sind da, sie werden nur ausgeblendet weil das Fenster zu klein ist! Die einzige Möglichkeit die Punkte anzuwählen ist das Vergrößern des iTunes-Fensters. Allgemein ist der neue Store weder an die Höhe, noch an die Breite angepasst. Überall im Store erscheinen vertikale Scrollleisten! Wenn man, wie auf dem Screenshot zu sehen, einen Titel kaufen will, muss man erst nach rechts scrollen! Das soll benutzerfreundlicher sein?

Allgemein hat sich der vorher ausgeklügelte Store mit Coverflow in eine oberflächliche Webseite verwandelt, wie man sie ziemlich ähnlich auch in allen anderen Stores wie Musicload u.ä. findet.

Jedem, der noch nicht auf iTunes 9 geupdated hat, empfehle ich, abzuwarten. So, wie es jetzt ist, ist iTunes ein absolut unausgereiftes Produkt. Und genau das ist es, was mich absolut enttäuscht. Apple hat noch niemals so ein gedowngradetes, unausgereiftes Produkt herausgegeben. Und das, obwohl iTunes das beinahe wichtigste Programm in Mac OS X ist.

iTunes 9 came out today. Got it and installed it on my computer. I also got iPod Touch OS 3.1 for my iPod.

If there’s something I nitpick about my iPod, it would be the album art for the songs/albums that I have in my PMP. So today, I reorganized my stuff again and made sure that most if not all of my songs on my iPod had album art. I love browsing through Coverflow so I find seeing those blank squares in Coverflow quite annoying.

So any of you guys getting any of the new iPods?

For those who didn’t follow the announcements closely yesterday/last night, iPod Touch has OS 3.1 and a 64Gb version selling for $399. iPod Nano gets a camera that shoots video but not stills, glossy anodized aluminum body, a slightly wider screen and 0.2 ounces lighter. iPod Classic goes up from 120Gb to 160Gb at the same price of $249. iPod Shuffle gets three new colors and a glossy special edition version that can be bought online.

I’m liking the green Nano very much.

I have been looking around for a free coverflow sample control and stumbled upon this gem. The source code is even shared out so you can see how the author of this cool component made the coverflow control, taking advantage of Perspective 3D that is newly introduced in Silverlight 3.

View the live sample here and here’s the link to the download page for this cool Silverlight Coverflow control.

And now for something completely different: Apple’s Safari browser version 4 has left beta and there’s a new interface design (or ‘chrome’ as it’s known) on the Windows version.  What’s interesting is that the main navigation bar is, in parts, very similar to the navigation bar of Google’s “Chrome” browser which has been out for a while now.  In particular, the two icons on the extreme right of the bar are almost identical in form, and also divide up various utility functions of the browser in a similar way.

In general, it is apparently the trend in browser design to have as clean an interface as possible (which is something Safari has long had), if you ignore the rise of the Firefox add-ons.  And I suppose whilst there may seem to be similarities superficially, there are two important caveats to keep in mind.  Firstly, Safari offers other interface elements which are far sleeker than Chrome’s (Top Sites view, coverflow, etc).  Chrome seems to be modeled on Google’s web products, with the history view being essentially a slightly glorified web page.  Secondly, the inner workings of the two browsers are something more than similar.  The engine which renders html is, in both applications, WebKit: an open source project.  Not so different after all.

So there you go.  Tech interlude over.  Normal service will resume shortly.

John Stowers (Blog) and Me have been working on gloobus integration in nautilus, here you can se our progress

Remember that you can donate us here:

Manteniendo las especificaciones del DX900 pero perdiendo su capacidad para usar dos tarjetas SIM, llega también el Acer X960. A cambio de la pérdida de una SIM ofrece un interfaz de usuario mucho más trabajado y bien diseñado.

Este interfaz permite usar widgets para mostrar la información en pantalla, permitiéndonos personalizar la pantalla a nuestro gusto. Las aplicaciones que muestran la predicción del tiempo y la zona horaria incluyen animaciones en tres dimensiones para hacerlas más espectaculares.

La sombra del iPhone sigue asomando en muchos interfaces, lo que vemos aquí tanto en el reproductor de música como en la visualización de fotos, donde nos podremos mover entre los distintos elementos arrastrando el dedo por la pantalla, al más puro estilo Coverflow.

En el Acer X960 la conectividad viene garantizada por la compatibilidad con HSDPA y HSUPA, permitiendo velocidades de descarga de hasta 7.2 megabits por segundo y de subida de hasta 2 megabits por segundo, además de incluir también Wi-Fi y Bluetooth 2.0. El resto de especificaciones se mantienen como en el otro modelo.

Por tanto, tenemos una pantalla de 2.8 pulgadas con resolución de 640 × 480 píxeles, ranura para MicroSD y cámara de 3.2 megapíxeles, en este caso con flash. Con la misma batería, al no incorporar dos SIMs, la autonomía sube hasta las 6 horas de conversación y 275 horas en espera.

Más información | Acer.
Vía | Xataka.

Maybe they stuck a Mac-mini somewhere in the trunk:

Chrysler showed off its UConnect touchscreen in the 200C.

Safari 4 | Sviluppato da Apple Corporation
Screenshot | 1 | 2 | 3 | Download (Versione beta) (disponibile per Windows XP, Vista e MacOS) | Sito web ufficiale

Il browser di casa Apple è tra i migliori in termini di rendering, velocità e performance. Quando gli ingegneri di Cupertino implementeranno una piattaforma di estensioni che sappia competere con quella di Firefox, unitamente alla disponibilità (dalla versione 3) per Windows, Safari potrà decollare oltre il 6% del mercato attuale ed essere apprezzato come uno dei migliori in assoluto.

La prima impressione, all’avvio è di aver aperto per errore Chrome. Una grafica molto semplificata e stravolta ricorda (in ambiente Windows) molto il browser made in Google. Due soli menù principali, le tab sopra i preferiti, la funzione TopSites (vedi lo screenshot 2). Tutto ricorda Chrome. Curiosa e sfiziosa la nuova funzionalità CoverFlow (vedi lo screenshot 3) in cui è possibile sfogliare la cronologia, i siti più visitati e i preferiti con un bellissimo effetto tridimensionale. In più la cronologia ora è completamente indicizzata, come in Firefox, e risulta facile cercare quei siti visitati in precedenza. Infine l’aspetto più importante, è stato implementato il nuovo motore di rendering Nitro che presenta miglioramenti visibili nell’esecuzione di javaScript e nel caricamento delle pagine. Come se non bastasse è il primo browser ad ottenere 100/100 all’Acid3 Test.

Tante sono le piccole migliorie che rendono Safari un ottimo browser. Dalla correzione del rendering dei font (che ora appaiono normali e non schiacciati come nella versione 3), all’ottimizzazione dello zoom di pagina, dalla possibilità di caricare i feed nella barra dei preferiti, alla corretta gestione della stampa.

Provandolo su Windows sono rimasto positivamente colpito da Safari, che non ha nulla di meno dei propri concorrenti. Rispetto a Firefox ha la pesante lacuna dei componenti aggiuntivi, e la mancanza di una versione per Linux, che potrebbe essere un florido campo di sviluppo. Quando questi difetti verranno meno, Safari potrà giustamente essere incoronato il miglior browser in assoluto.

Download di SAFARI 4 (versione beta) (disponibile per Windows XP, Vista e MacOS)

Gli altri browser, sul Markus Blog:
«Windows Internet Explorer 8», 23 Marzo 2009
«Google Chrome 2», 26 Marzo 2009
«Mozilla Firefox 3.5», 30 Marzo 2009
«Opera 10», 7 Aprile 2009

Ti è piaciuto? Condividi questo post:

O showmetech mudou de endereço. Visite nosso novo site, clicando aqui.

Sneller dan alle andere browsers. Met coverflow.

Hier downloaden

Some time ago, I made the decision to move past David Lanham’s Agua folder set (as lovely as it is).

I settled on Pry by Jonas Rask (who has a variety of excellent work). Pry was designed for Leopard and therefore includes all the necessary icons (downloads, etc.). However, the folders are not front-on (something I mentioned about Agua v.2), so they don’t really jive with CoverFlow. This problem is solved by the Pryspective set by Vibe Star AKA Sander van der Heijden. While making the Pry folders CoverFlow-compatible is certainly a good idea, I’m not a huge fan of the Pryspective icons. Unless you’re a big CoverFlow user, I’d go with the regular Pry set.

Jonas created a number of variants including both etched and overlaid versions (I prefer the more colorful overlaid Pry Aluminum set). He has also made matching hardware icons and CS3 and MS Office-specific folder sets. MacThemes members have also made a variety of versions including “Pry Ply” (wood), white, red and chocolate.

For those who don’t know, the best way to apply new icons (such as the Pry and Agua sets) is to use Panic’s CandyBar. While you can do it manually (some icons more simply than others), CandyBar is much, much simpler and its integrated icon organization features make it worth the $29 price tag if you’re really into customizing your computer. Of course, there’s also a fifteen day, somewhat limited trial (you can only have 250 icons in your library) available.

La fiebre iTunes también llega hasta la decoración y es que, una vez organizada y catalogada toda tu biblioteca musical, da gusto elegir música visualizando las carátulas.

Basándose en esa idea, Li Jianye ha diseñado iShelf, un soporte que simula el efecto CoverFlow de Apple, y permite albergar hasta 5 discos.

Al tratarse de un concepto y no comercializarse, siempre podéis coger un trozo de tablero en casa, o agujerear el escritorio, y fabricaros vuestro propio CoverFlow 1.0.

Fuente | NoPuedoCreer