interface
Latest
Solution for broken car interfaces with new iPod software
We don't know how wide-spread this problem is, but I figured if this frustrating complicatioin happened to one user, he probably isn't the only one: SecurityMonkey at the ITtoolbox Blogs posted a tragic story with a happy ending involving Apple's latest iPod software update and factory car interfaces. This dramatic tale of heart-wrenching loss and emotional reuniting with his iPod + car integration kit begins with the software update for is 5G iPod that iTunes 7 requires. Upon connecting his recently updated iPod to the factory Nissan adapter in his car, the display presented the 'No iPod' error message pictured above.Ultimately, SecurityMonkey was able to recover his factory iPod connectivity with the daring attempt of using the Restore function now built into iTunes 7. Granted it's a time-consuming process since it requires re-syncing all the music back onto an iPod (it also erases any data/files on the iPod, so back those up), but upon reuniting his refreshed iPod with his Nissan - their techno-sexy love was once again in full bloom.Again, this is the first report we've seen of issues like this, so we have no idea which iPod models this affects, or which decks and interfaces are experiencing these quirks. If any of y'all run into similar problems, give us the details in this post's comments, or submit a tip via our tips form.
Aqua is dead, long live Aqua!
Apple seems to use iTunes as a test-bed for new user interface design styles, and iTunes 7 brings with it an almost complete overhaul the Aqua look we have all grown to love/hate/tolerate. While on the surface, the iTunes 7 interface may seem very similar to that of previous versions, there are a few very distinct differences that I think forebode greater system wide changes to come in 10.5 Leopard. Since the initial version 10.0, OS X has gone through a variety of system-wide interface changes while still keeping some very important aspects of the original Aqua UI. First we lost the pinstripes, then we got brushed metal, and most recently, we see the move with most applications to a "unified" interface. With iTunes 7, Aqua is gone for good. Glossy radio buttons, scroll bars, control buttons and track information windows are all gone; replaced by sleek utilitarian sand-blasted metal. I think this is the first significant peek we've had into the rumored complete redesign of the OS X UI for Leopard. I, for one, welcome this change. While the glossy days of old were an exciting way to draw new users–indeed, it was part of way I switched– it quickly became an eyesore for many; designers in particular. The introduction of the Graphite visual style fixed a lot of issues graphics professionals had with the bright colors of the interface clashing with their work, but everything was still not dandy. For pro and power users their Mac is not only a computer, it is the tool of their trade, and something they use day in and day out to get things done, and while no one wants to work in a badly designed, ugly UI, minimalist utilitarianism is sometimes the key to reducing distraction. Of course, much of this is personal opinion, but it is an opinion I know is shared by at least a small core group of Mac die hards. What's your take on the new interface? Is it just a fluke, or a hint at things to come?
Sony STR-DA5200ES receiver adopts PSP/PS3-style interface
Sony's upcoming high end home theater receiver, the STR-DA5200ES features HDMI connections, 7.1 audio, video upconversion and everything else you would expect, will share something borrowed from the PSP. No, it's not a UMD-slot, it's the crossbar-style menu that will also be in use on the Playstation 3. You'll be able to access the menu as an overlay while still playing HD video playing behind it, picture-in-picture, and possibly be able to set up your A/V system without an engineering degree. This might be a bigger revolution in home theater than the Nintendo Wii controller is to gaming, a truly user-friendly UI would be a rare boon for users with complex systems. They'll be showing off this and many other components at CEDIA next week, if they really do have an interface that anyone can use the next challenge will be keeping your family away from it so they don't mess it up.
Artist's rendition of Zune interface surfaces
Well it's official; we've definitely gone Zune-crazy 'round these parts. Not content with presenting you with a super-blurry photo of the upcoming device's supposed interface, we're now reporting on an artist's rendition of the GUI from someone claiming to be in the know -- so keep in mind that you're looking at mockups here and not actual screenshots. Anywho, the pictures jibe pretty closely with all the info that's streamed in so far: although they depict a rather no-frills white-on-black menu screen, when you slap some skins onto the background (like Bill Gates' old mugshot, for instance), it seems like a pretty aesthetically-pleasing experience. We're not gonna repeat ourselves and regurgitate all the functionality and specs that you've heard so many times before; instead, we're sending you directly over to iLounge to peep the full set of meticulously-rendered drawings. Hey, even if these shots end up looking nothing like what appears on the final device, whoever whipped them up has a promising career as a fake product designer and Internet rumor-starter of the highest caliber.
First PS3 interface video walkthrough
You've already seen wooden mockups, developer kits, prototype controllers, and even blurry interface shots, but now for the first time ever, IGN has scored an exclusive video walkthrough of exactly how the menu system will operate when you first power up your brand new PlayStation 3. As noted before, the interface takes many of its cues from the highly-regarded PSP GUI, with simple drop down menus giving you access to all the important settings like video resolution, audio output, and management of your virtual friends. Although the interface may appear a little barebones to some, it certainly comes across as quite functional and intuitive, and Sony promises that there will be some degree of configurability for those of you who love to schlock up your MySpace pages. Anyway, instead of wasting your time reading our amateurish description of the walkthrough, why not hit the vid itself on Google Video; or for more complete viewing options (higher resolutions, different formats), head over to IGN directly by following the Read link...[Via Joystiq]
PS3 developers share same XMB as PSP owners
Last E3, we saw how the PS3 would share the same XMB (menu system) as the PSP. You'd be able to look at photos, listen to music, watch videos, surf the internet, and I guess you could play games too. Well, thanks to a video from 1UP, it looks like the final PS3 devkits share the same interface. The menu isn't as fancy as what PS3 players will experience, but I guess it gets the job done.[Via Joystiq]
Your fingers to be the next-gen computer interface
The University of Buffalo's mad scientists are hoping that the "Fingertip Digitizer" will kick off the next phase in computer interfaces by harnessing people's learned physical motions and movement to kill the UI learning curve. All one needs to do is simply slip the sleeve onto their fingers and the device's thin-film embedded force sensors and tri-axial accelerometer will track their movements in real-time, even providing tactile feedback corresponding to physical motions and virtual environments. One might reminisce of a Tom Cruise flick or other implementations of gesture interface control, but the "Fingertip Digitizer" works a bit different then most by allowing the user to not only to command the system with motion, but also feel it (perhaps most similarly to Novint's Falcon). For example, if you move your hand to pick up a ball, you will not only instruct the computer to grab the ball, but feel the pressure and weight of the ball in your hand; should you motion pulling the trigger on a sniper rifle in an FPS, you'll feel that 1.5-pound hair-trigger move ever so slightly with your index finger. The whole system is going to be on display at this year's SIGGRAPH if you're nearby and want to peep one vision of future haptic interfaces, but otherwise you'll have to wait until this system hits commercial applications within about three years to get your mitts on these mitts.
Interface Changes in Patch 1.12
I find some of the interface changes included in patch 1.12 to be quite interesting, and they follow the recent trend of integrating popular addon features into the core UI. Feature number one on my list is the new "floating combat text" functionality. You'll find options for it under the interface options menu (see right), and it mimics the Scrolling Combat Text addon, which shows combat information floating over your character. I've always found this to be a more convenient place to view information, but it can be too spammy at times. And, if you've never played with Scrolling Combat Text, I'd recommend giving it a try now that it can be enabled without downloading anything. The look of the addition is dead-on, though it's a bit less customizable than the real thing, which allows you to select more precisely which messages you'd like to see, as well as customizing colors and fonts. This simplified interface may be more accessible to more users, however, as the number of options Scrolling Combat Text provided could be a bit daunting. However, I may end up sticking with the original, because I prefer to be able to resize the font used.Of special interest to me as a healer is the new name plate functionality. If you aren't familiar with the phrase, name plates are the little health bars that show up over enemy and friendly NPCs when you hit the "V" key. In the past, name plates would only appear above hostile targets and NPCs. It's long been on my wish-list of features to have the ability to have name plates over friendly targets as well - for ease of seeing the health of players around me when either ungrouped or in a scattered raid, where you may not necessarily be near your own party. (Battlegrounds, anyone?)Now, if you check your key bindings (see above), you will see a binding for showing name plates (for the existing functionality) as well as one that allows you to show friendly name plates or all name plates. Combined with the battlegrounds change that automatically groups players on joining, and my priest may have to respec holy and go back to trying to heal in battlegrounds. Next up is a feature that came as a complete surprise to all of us - iTunes integration. This is a Mac-only feature, as, apparently, the Mac development team managed to get it working first. If you're running the Mac client, you'll see the above options at the bottom of the list of key bindings, allowing you to bind keys to basic iTunes functions.The final feature addition, at least that I noticed, is the new auto self cast checkbox in the interface option. I've used a feature like this before - as part of CTMod, and probably other addons as well. With this option checked, if you do not have anyone targeted when you try to cast a friendly spell (a buff or heal spell, for example), it will automatically be cast on yourself. In some situations, and for some character classes, this can be very useful - allowing you to keep a hostile target selected while casting useful spells on yourself. But it can be difficult to get used to, especially for healing classes who frequently use little but friendly spells.
Character Transfer Affecting Add-Ons?
In the wake of the paid character transfer service going live recently, a few players have apparently been experiencing some issues with their custom interfaces & add-ons after transferring their characters. Reader Sean Bonner reports that after his characters' move to the Eitrigg realm yesterday, he has been having many add-on problems, and this post over at Metroblogging also reports similar issues."6 months worth of interface development and addon fine tuning is UP IN SMOKE. When I started up...on Eitrigg all my custom interface, addons and macro preferences got left behind on Stormrage, or at least in the Stormrage folder. I figured out how to move my macro files over and now all 60 of my macros are available. But, I can't figure out which addon .lua files to move to restore my add-on preferences. I've made copies and dropped them in all the folders I can think of with no luck." Have any of you who have also transferred your characters experienced any problems after the move? Blizzard, any news on why this might be occurring? Chime in if you have any info on this problem; hopefully this can be brought to Blizzard's attention & the issues addressed.
PlayStation 3 UI revealed to be PSP-like
Sony was showing off the PlayStation 3's top level interface in what appears to be a private demo during E3. The UI obviously borrows its appearance from kid sibling, the PSP, with some new console centric tweaks: there's a "Users" menu, a web browser with some impressive (albeit very Mac OS X-looking) features, and "Friends" support for voice and video chatting, oh yeah, and gaming. It's a sleek-looking piece of work (as is customary for Sony) but let's hope the thing scales well from the start. With the copious amounts of functionality being bundled into Sony and Microsoft's next-gen offerings, scalability should be central to the design. Of course, this is something Microsoft is (hopefully) rectifying right now in the 360's Dashboard (right guys?). There's another video after the break showing off a nearly identical demo via QJ.net. We include it for thoroughness. [Thanks to everyone that sent these in]
Sony's PS3 interface revealed
We saw those shots of the "Warhawk Store" and "My Singstar Online" during Sony's PS3 press event, but what we didn't see is a top level interface for the console. According to this video, it sure borrows a lot from the PSP, and therefore seems a bit limited for all the crazy uses Sony has planned for the console. Though we're sure Sony has put a lot more thought into this than we have. Also, the PSP interface has been generally well received, so why try to fix what isn't broken? The biggest additions are the new "Users" and "Friends" options, the former allowing you switch between different user profiles, while the latter didn't look quite fleshed out, but we guess it'll do what it sounds like. We also noticed under the settings option a mention of keyboard and mouse settings, rumored accessories which would seem quite appropriate for all of the PS3's PC leanings, so we'll keep an eye out for more news on that front.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
PS3 pad loses DualShock name and vibration but picks up Wii-esque motion detection and wireless connectivity
In a shocking turn of events, the PS3 controller has gone from banamerang to wireless DualShock 3, except without the DualShock name and vibration.If you take a good look at the back of the new control pad (see the close-up above), you'll notice that the DualShock 2 brand name imprinted on the old controller has now been supplanted by a row of LED lights to show which input has been set, either wirelessly or via the wired USB recharge port. Sony's now the only name in-line for PS3 controllers either on the pad or in the press releases (see "the new PS3 controller").
VLC 0.8.5 released with Intel Mac, Growl support, many improvements
The most excellent jack-of-many-formats VLC media player has just reached version 0.8.5, and boy does it pack a whallop - just check out the release notes. The biggest new additions to write home about are Universal Binary support, Growl notifications, a statistics system, new skin support including skins from Winamp 2 (for those who just can't let go), new video filters, support for downloading updates (possibly due to Sparkle?) and a whole lot more.VLC is a feature-packed media player with support for a boatload of media formats, and is available free for many OSs from VideoLAN.
The Brain Port, neural tongue interface of the future
Seems like every distant vision of the future has man jacking into his gear via some crazy head gear or a plug on the back of the neck or head. We just take it for granted that yeah, that's the fastest way to get to the brain: through the stem or straight into the cortex. Well, think again, because the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition's 30-year neural interface project is yielding fruit -- the kind you can taste. Their Brain Port machine / sensory interface uses 144 microelectrodes to transmit information through sensitive nerve fibers in your lingua, enabling devices to supplement your own sensory perception. The system, which is getting shown off to Navy and Marine Corps divers next month will supposedly have sonar integration for sub-aqueous orientation, but has already apparently given some landlubber blind people the ability to catch balls, "notice" others walking in front of them, and find doors. With IR, radar, sonar, and other forms of detection, the researchers believe this device will obsolete night vision -- even our own eyes -- sooner than later.
Add-Ons and Patch 1.10, Revisited
When the test server first came up, I made a post regarding the numerous add-on problems people were seeing. Well, now it's patch day and there are a number of mods that won't be in working order when the servers come back online - including favorites like CT Raid Assist and Decursive. European community manager Aeus has made a post, presumably as an attempt to calm the flow of complaints before they start, reminding everyone of possible add-on issues. While I'm hoping this won't be as bad as it sounds, patch days are usually a tumultuous time of fixing and tweaking for those of us that use any UI mods. Since the servers are down, now's as good a time as any to check for updates to your favorite UI mods - so get at it!
Battlefield 2142 scans of PC Gamer cover story leaked
The Battlefield 2142 hoopla is starting to look more and more real as scans of the PC Gamer issue in question have surfaced online with BF 2142 featured as the magazine's May cover story. Digg contributor Iced_Eagle has pointed us to an 8.5MB archive of images from the mag, with 9 pages concerned with 2142 and 2 pages having to do with Half-Life 2: Episode 1. If you're interested in knowing "where your unstoppable 20-foot Mech is," then you'd best get to that reading online or off ASAP. For those still skeptical of any gaming news outlet coming out with such a story in the general vicinity of April Fools' Day, keep in mind that the game appears to not only be the magazine's cover story, but that its coverage also fills up all those pages of print mentioned earlier. EGM merely dedicated a single page with a brief line in the table of contents to its Apple iGame prank this year, so this would seem like a lot of effort on PC Gamer or some extremely dedicated Photoshopper's part to fool the gaming public. Will this fall prove to be the point when the BF franchise finally frags in the future? At this point, it would certainly seem so. Read on for further details about the game; the cover pic links to the scans.
360 design process out of the box
Some members of the Xbox design team did a session with a usablity interest group in Seattle called SIGCHI and provided a bit of insight into the design process for the 360 interface and... styro-foam. Above are four design possibilities that were narrowed down to the "blades" we all know. ExperienceUCD.com crashed due to all the attention, but here's an excerpt (thanks to Xbox-Scene):On the original XBOX there were 45 screens that needed to fit on 250MB while on the new design and complexity of the system there were 450 screens. These screens had to fit on 2.5MB. To accomplish this was quite a feat. The team had narrowed the core design to four interfaceThe next steps they conducted were usability testing of the four designs. Each of the designs had a flash interface designed and tested in four regions with around 6 participants per region. The top two designs were the top two (loop and concertina). The main reason was ease of use. The overall winner was concertina because of the unique interface coupled with the user feedback on how easy the interface was to navigate. The interface zoomed the user in and out giving them a spatial experience and relationship.The team also acknowledged the importance of the out of box experience. How the user feels, when purchasing and opening their product . Apple does an outstanding job at this. A great reference was the Japanese do a great job at this with their packaging. You buy a snack that has 25 cents worth of product but $2 worth of packaging. They understand the importance of this experience. Would you rather open a brown box with black writing on the side per almost all of consumer electronics or have that experience be just as ritualistic as turning on your TV. I feel like I carry this torch every day at my job, but it isn't just about the end product, but how someone gets there and their experience along the way. I would have liked to have seen a little less thought put into the pretty cardboard and a little more put into actually getting the packages on the shelves. Assuming you had a box to open, are you happy with the 360 "out-of-box experience" and interface design (at least it wasn't cribbed from Dell)?
iPhoto 6: First Impressions
So I just finished installing my copy of iLife 06, and since I'm the most interested in the new iPhoto and iWeb apps, I thought I'd post a few initial thoughts at least on the new iPhoto, which is technically now at version 6. I've been playing with and poking at it for roughly 20 minutes, so this will obviously be just a raw rundown of what I've noticed is new and different so far: Starting, using and quitting the app is noticeably faster. I'm running it on a PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz with 1.5 GB RAM, but I've still noticed a general increase in speed and responsiveness. Finally, finally, finally - the iPhoto Library folder (in ~/Pictures/) organizes your images the way an application like this should. Basically, under a new "Originals" folder are folders dated by year, and in those are folders named by album, with images arranged accordingly. Thanks Apple! iPhoto 6 now joins Mail and iTunes with unified toolbar goodness. Full-screen viewing/editing is responsive and absolutely gorgeous, though I have one minor complaint: there's no way to get out the current album of images you're viewing unless you duck out of full-screen. Not a big deal, but a minor nuisance. There's a new Advanced preference pane with the option: "Copy files to iPhoto Library folder when adding to library." If this functions like the similar option in iTunes, I assume this means iPhoto doesn't necessarily need to move, copy and/or duplicate images you have sitting somewhere else on your Mac. The toolbar at the bottom of iPhoto's interface is now customizable, allowing you to toggle which buttons you actually have available down there. I haven't played with any of the photocasting or iWeb features yet, but we hope to have some demos, links and video examples ready for a vidcast by this weekend or early next week, so stay tuned!
Motion-controlled iPod interface
I don't think the ROKR, or iTunes phone, or video iPod, or even smaller mini's are coming September 7. Nope, I think it's this: a motion-based iPod remote control. Of course, I'm kidding. But such a product is under development by Peter Tyser. Why? Here's what Peter's thinking:"During the cold winter months in Wisconsin, avid iPod users find difficulty in comfortably controlling their MP3 player. In order to manipulate the touch-based iPod controls or Apple’s standard remote control, pockets must be opened and gloves or mittens removed, losing precious heat to the cold. One possible solution would be to use general body motion to control the iPod as opposed to touch. This would require no dexterous tasks, only general movements."Sounds good to me. This also works if your hands are busy (riding a bike) or have trouble with fine motor movement. If Peter's product ever makes it to market maybe he can hire some of those iPod dancers to market it? Imagine strapping a couple of controllers to your wrists, with two iPods, and a portable, battery-powered mixer. DJ Dance Machine!
Apple sued for iTunes interface
Lately it seems like filing suit against Apple is quite in fashion. Today I read that Contois Music Technology is seeking damages against Apple for alleged patent violations in the iTunes Music Store. The suit is seeking monetary compensation and requests that Apple stop distributing copies of iTunes. According to Apple Insider, Contois Music Technology claims that "...19 interface aspects of the iTunes software...are in direct violation of Contois' patent. These areas include iTunes' menu selection process to allow the user to select music to be played, the ability of the software to transfer music tracks to a portable music player, and search capabilities such as sorting music tracks by their genre, artist and album attributes."It feels like every time I turn around someone is suing Apple. What's going on?[Via AppleInsider]
