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Samsung Galaxy Tab comes in three sizes, ships this fall?
In the left corner, the 4-inch Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. In the right, the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. Not pictured: the tablets that will dwarf both. According to a South Korean newspaper, the Galaxy Tab is only one of three touchscreen tablet devices Sammy's got planned: while the 7-inch model is slated for August, 8-inch and 10-inch varieties are rumored to appear in November and December respectively. Though the "high-ranking industry official" who informed the publication sadly failed to mention a price, he or she did add that the devices will launch with SK Telecom -- the second time we've heard that -- meaning if any of this is true, they've almost certainly got cellular modems inside. All we need now is some official confirmation, and perhaps a nice, binding promise of OTA Froyo.
Samsung Galaxy Tab revealed
If only there were more tablets in the world, you know? Samsung has heard the call, and truth be told they might have a nice crack at creating something desirable. The 7-inch Galaxy Tab (previously referred to as the S-Pad), runs Android with Samsung's TouchWiz UI on top (similar to the Galaxy S sitting next to it). According to the Tweets by Samsung Blog South Africa -- an odd place indeed to make this sort of unveiling -- it has a "high resolution" screen, and it's supposed to be AMOLED if an earlier leak on the "S-Pad" is to be believed. That S-Pad info also mentioned a Samsung Apps store, which would make sense because as far as we know Google isn't letting "official" Android Market-equipped, Google-blessed tablets out of the gate just yet. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Mac 101: Use the tab key in more dialog boxes
TUAW reader Cody Rogers wrote in to say: "I'm fairly new to my iMac and Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard. One of my biggest annoyances from switching over from PC to Mac is when a dialogue box comes up and says 'cancel' or 'okay' I can't find the keyboard shortcut to go from cancel to okay. In Windows, I could just hit 'tab' to go to the other option. Is this possible on a Mac? I've been doing some searching on it and can't find anything!" I happened to have found the same thing when doing a clean reinstall of Snow Leopard over the weekend. The good news is that there is a way to do it, but it is not turned on by default and it does require a bit of hunting around. I didn't remember where it was either. Launch System Preferences, either by choosing it from the "Apple" menu or by going to your /Applications/ folder. In System Preferences, select the "Keyboard" preference pane (middle of the 2nd row) Then click "Keyboard Shortcuts" at the top of that window (see image above) At the bottom of that panel there is an option to use Tab to move between either "Text boxes and lists only" (default) or "All controls". Select the radio control next to "All controls" and you will now be able to use the tab to go between "Save" and "Cancel" or any other dialog boxes which appear. Also note that for most dialog boxes, the Enter/Return key will select "OK" and command+period (or the Escape key) will cancel. If you'd like to learn more about using keyboard shortcuts with Mac OS X, Apple has a really useful page which will come in handy, especially for those switching from Windows.
The sin of Tab targeting
I'm not a keyboard turner -- my steady diet of FPS games growing up made sure of that. And while I do occasionally point-and-click abilities, for the most part, I do use hotkeys. But, just like Tank Like a Girl, there is one control-scheme sin that I'm definitely guilty of: I am definitely a Tab-targeter. I guess the issue is that sometimes you do have to use Tab to choose your different targets -- sometimes, you can't quite click on the thing you need to target, so instead you hit Tab to flip through all the available targets until you get to the one you need. But that's a no-no. Flipping through the targets takes more time than you should (if you happen to miss your target, you need to flip through all of them yet again), and, as I know from personal experience, Tab targeting often ends you up on the wrong target. Not that CC is so much of an issue anymore, but let me tell you: the first time you happen to pull that one dragon your group has cast sleep on, it'll be embarassing.So how to get it right? TLaG suggests this post from TankingTips, which hints at using the mouse instead of the keyboard to target (you can choose friendly targets easier that way), but doesn't offer any real suggestions of how to make the switch. Moving the camera back is one, getting your positioning right is probably another. And learning to use focus and macro targets is probably the best tip you can have: anything that's more specific or direct than either Tab or click targeting is probably better. Addons like Promixo will help in the Arenas as well.No one's perfect, and no one way to do things is perfect either -- depending on your situation, Tab targeting might be better. But it's important to have as many tools as possible, so if you, like me, find yourself depending on the Tab key more often than not, it might be time to mix up your toolbag a bit.
Tabs in the title bar: a UI design trend that needs to go
Safari 4 Beta's new tab arrangement has me bothered. It seems to be largely lifted from Chrome's user interface that puts the tabs at the very top of the window. Not only is this a departure from Apple's typical UI choices, it presents problems for users with special needs. On your average Apple user interface, every object -- a title bar, menu, button, or handle -- has a single function. It can resize the window, move it, close it, or scroll it. Safari 4's tabs, however, have a dual purpose: They not only can be selected to move the entire Safari 4 window, but can be clicked individually to display their contents. In Safari 3, this was handled by two different objects -- the title bar to move the window, and tabs in the tab bar. Google chose to put tabs at the top of the window because it was an important part of the user metaphor for their web browser, Chrome. In Chrome, tabs are independent processes brought together in a kind of stack. This is all very well and good, but it poses the same problem of having the area at the top of the window do two things at once: move the window as a whole, and control each item in the stack.
Shiira 2.0 goes official
We've seen the betas for quite some time now, but Shiira v2.0 - the feature-packed open source browser based on the same WebKit that powers Apple's Safari - has gone official. As far as I can tell, the feature list hasn't changed wildly from beta into this full version, but check out some of the slick tricks Shiira has up its sleeve: Tab Exposé (yep: Exposé comes to browser tabs) Sharing bookmarks with Safari Side drawer showing bookmarks and history Search field with choice of search engine Cache control panel Window appearance switching (Aqua and Metal) Enable/disable favicon with bookmark Wheel button operation (open in new tab, and tab switching) Auto-tab for bookmark folder Displaying back-forward list on toolbar buttons Search text field for bookmark and history The feature list is far from over, however, so check out Shiira's official screenshot and features list for more details and even some movies of its features in action. Since Shiira is open source, it's available free from Shiira.jp.
Wiiminder: tabbed browsing courtesy of Warp Pipe
Warp Pipe Technologies, who you may remember as the only people ever to support the Gamecube modem, ever, have turned their attentions to a Nintendo console with an actual online strategy. Now they're helping to augment the existing Wii online experience with tabbed browsing. By making the Wii Opera browser work more like the real Opera browser, they've added tabbed browsing (with nice smoke-grey transparent tabs). Just navigate your browser over to here and your browser will be ready to party like it's 2001.We are so much happier about web-based Wii browser extensions (which are already great!) when they are accompanied by such lovely logos. It's the typography that does it. It's so handsome.... what were we saying? Oh yeah. There's a video demonstrating the service after the post break.[Via 4cr]
Ten apps you should know
Our friends at The Apple Blog (TAB for those in the know) have compiled a list of ten apps you might not know about but should. I am familiar with all the apps on the list, but there are only two that I use on a regular basis: Democracy and Paparazzi!, but they are all fine apps.Check out the list for yourself, and you might find an app or two worth adding to your Dock.
TAB looks at FTP clients
For anyone involved in the day-to-day running of a website, a good reliable FTP client is vital to getting anything done. But with so many options available for users to choose from, how is a person to decide which client is right for them? Mike over at The Apple Blog provides some assistance in the form of a roundup of the 5 most popular FTP clients for OS X. As many of you would expect, Panic's Transmit came out on top, followed by Interarchy. Personally, Transmit is my client of choice for most situations. However, every so often I'll come across a picky server which causes Transmit to start acting weird. In those rare instances, Interarchy comes in real handy.
Shiira v2 beta released
Remember that Shiira v2 beta preview that delusions of grandeur had at the end of July? Well instead of simply reading about it, now you can take your own copy for a spin, as a public, localized beta has been released. Shiira, if you haven't been following the coverage as of late, is an open source and uniquely feature-packed browser based on WebKit, the same web (and also open source) rendering engine that powers Apple's own Safari. Most of the new features that were previewed seem to be implemented, including the Shelf, Tab Exposé, a tab thumbnails option (instead of standard tabs found in Safari and Firefox), FullScreen Mode with a really slick and self-hiding navigation overlay, a palette replacement for the sidebar and more. When this first landed on digg, the download was only a PowerPC build, but it has since been replaced with a true Universal version. So what are you waiting for? Get downloading!
Opera 9 goes Universal
Opera, the little browser that could (and did - go free, that is), has finished its beta and reached version 9, going Universal in the process. New features include: a built-in BitTorrent client adding your favorite search engines to Opera's search bar simply by right-clicking them site-specific preferences for cookies, pop-ups, etc. thumbnail previews of tabs when hovering over them widgets (hey, at least they didn't call 'em 'gadgets') customizable content blocker and more This version definitely seems snappier now that it's Universal, and (say what you have to) these new enhancements like a built-in BitTorrent client show that Opera is blazing a trail faster than its competition. Give this version a whirl if you haven't touched Opera in a while but are still curious about it. If you need help with a browser transition, why not check out some of the del.icio.us tools (like my personal favorite: Delibar) we've blogged that take the 'bookmarks bar' out of the browser and into Mac OS X's menubar, removing the need for worrying about which browser you're using.
Details of upcoming Thunderbird 2.0 release
Hawk Wings has tracked down some details on a tantalizing v2.0 update to Thunderbird, Mozilla's email client. New features at the top of my list are message tagging, a tabbed message viewer and a built-in notification system. It's great to see more developers bringing the tagging paradigm to email, as Scott Morrison has done with his MailTags plug-in for Apple's Mail.Check out Mozilla's Thunderbird development blog for the full (and lengthy) post of what's coming in this major release for Thunderbird, including plenty of Mac-specific features and fixes.
Saft 8.3.0
PimpMySafari noticed that Saft, a vital Safari plug-in, has been updated to version 8.3.0. New and updated features include: New feature: AutoComplete always on New feature: Tab thumbnails (like Shiira’s Tab Expose, not Omniweb style) Improvement: Also restore tab history when undoing closing tab Improvement: Undo support for closing other tabs Saft is available from haoli and sells for $12 for either Panther or Tiger, though the Tiger version is the only one being updated. A demo is available, but if you're already an owner, you can snag the 8.3.0 upgrade from haoli's Saft for Tiger download page.
Tabbed Finder: What do you think?
Today I was forced to use Internet Explorer on a Mac running OS 9, and I immediately realized just how much I've come to rely on tabbed browsing. Opening several windows was a pain, not to mention trying to navigate through the "pile" of windows I eventually created. I spend a lot of time during my day job developing solutions in Filemaker Pro. We've been using tabbed interfaces in Filemaker for ages now, as it's a convenient way to store a lot of information when you've got limited space. So, while struggling with a "tabless" browser and thinking about just how much I like a tabbed interface, I thought, "What if the Mac Finder had tabs?"Above is a very crude (don't laugh) mock up that I quickly created. Similar to multiple desktops, you could hop between dynamically created tabs. Perhaps a "create a new tab" option, or "send this process to tab..." Just thinking out loud, really. So am I crazy? What do you think?
