UI
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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]
Add-On For Leaving Player Feedback
You know the feedback system on eBay? Where you can leave a scathing comment if the guy in Timbuktu who just sold you that life-size cut-out of Billy Dee Williams turns out to be a scam artist, and just sends you a 1/2 scale Billy Dee Williams instead? Well, a WoW player has apparently taken it upon himself to create just such a system as a UI add-on, so you can leave nasty feedback for that Human Warrior who bailed out on your group in the middle of Molten Core.The system is still in development, but I see a huge margin for abuse & error with a system like this, especially if anyone using the add-on can see comments left by others. There's not much to stop someone from doctoring up a bad rep for people they don't like for one reason or another. Then again, it is just an add-on...it's not like it will be mandatory.
Help the revolution: submit feedback
This is more of a public service announcement and reminder than anything, inspired by TUAW reader Jer's comment on my .Mac syncing UI silliness post. Jer asked whether we were submitting feedback to Apple concerning gripes like the one I blogged, and the answer is 'most definitely yes.' This brief dialog inspired me to take the opportunity to urge all Mac users everywhere to do the same.If you have a complaint, a feature request, or maybe you just found a bug in Mac OS X, or another piece of Apple's software, apple.com/feedback is a great place to go and tell them about it. Most of Apple's apps are categorized there, and it's a simple process for submitting your comment. While I don't believe it's in their policy to reply to anything submitted there, you can rest assured that it's one of the best places Apple uses to collect the information they use to keep tabs on how we like their software, especially when it comes to creating all those official bug reports you'll find sprinkled throughout their support and knowledgebase articles (besides, who wants to take bets that their engineers have TUAW in their newsreader?).So remember boys and girls, when it comes to feature requests, UI gripes and bug squashing: ask not what Apple can do for you... but submit some feedback so the world's best operating system can get even better.
.Mac syncing UI silliness
Today's "what were you thinking, Apple?" is brought to you by the .Mac System Preference pane, iSync and that "Sync Services wants to sync more than X% of your items" popup window.In case you can't figure out the silliness that is the image I've included with this post (and I don't blame you), it's a combination of the .Mac System Preference Pane (on left), the .Mac tab of iSync (bottom right), and iSync's preferences that allow me to chose the Data Change Alert percentage threshold (top left).I recently added about 200 notes to Yojimbo on my iMac that I exported out of an old copy of StickyBrain a while ago. On my PowerBook, this obviously triggered the .Mac Sync warning of "you're about to change more than 5% of your data, are you sure you want to do this?" dialog. I then thought to myself: "hmm, since I change a lot of my .Mac stuff on a regular basis, maybe I should increase that percentage so this dialog doesn't bother me again." I haven't done this in a while, but since I came up through Jaguar and Panther I was used to tweaking .Mac stuff in iSync. So I strolled on over to the .Mac tab in iSync to - oh but wait! As you can see in the bottom right of my screenshot, it sounds like iSync is no longer used to manage .Mac information. Woops, my mistake. Maybe I should open up the .Mac System Preference pane to - wait a minute... I don't see any place in that preference pane to tweak the Data Change Alert setting!By now you probably get where I'm going with this, so I'll just leave you with a question: how on earth did this happen, Apple? With Tiger, you said that you unified and improved the .Mac user experience... by sending me to three different locations and preference systems to get this figured out?Here's hoping Leopard brings with it the Mac-daddy (haha) of updates to one of your most-pimped features of OS X.
Updated Mods for 1.10
If you've logged into WoW since the new patch & found that your favorite add-on no longer works, head over to WoW Vault; they've posted a constantly-updating list of the latest UI add-ons to be updated for v1.10. Personally, I'm not a big user of add-ons & extras, but I do love my fishing buddy, and I'm glad to have him back!
Breakfast Topic: Favourite Addons
We've talked about addons before, and even invited you to show yours off in our flickr pool, but here's another chance to discuss an ever-changing topic. Given the problems upcoming in 1.10, now might be an especially appropriate time to reconsider your mod choices.So, what are your favourite mods and why? Anything you can't live without?My first foray into UI addons came fairly soon after I started playing WoW, with Cosmos. I then moved on to the Insomniax all-in-one package, and still use a custom variant on that, with Titan Bar and the Auctioneer set as must-haves. I'm also a big user of BibToolbars to keep my windows clean and organised, and MonkeyQuest to track those ever-important quests. [Suggested by Mark Sisley]
Stop manually maximizing your windows
This rant about Mac OS X, multitasking and usability is brought to you by the letter Q and a disgruntled design student:I heard something snap in my head today as I sat down at the back of an art history lecture hall (where outlets are, I follow) and got to peek over the shoulder of a girl using a 15" PowerBook in front of me.This girl was using Safari to browse MySpace and - arguments about that site's damage to civilization as we know it aside - the browser window was 100% maximized across her 1280 x 960 display, obliterating what I would estimate is at least 1/3 of useful screen real estate. Then, she switched over to Word to keep working on a paper - again, Word had been manually maximized across the entirety of her widescreen display which was throwing easily half of her usable screen space into the garbage. Unfortunately, she is just one of many I have witnessed throwing away all sorts of useful screen space while using Mac OS X.Men and women, boys and girls, please: Mac OS X more or less offers only one way to manually maximize windows across your entire display for a reason - because they don't have to be that large. "Multitasking" is defined as "the simultaneous execution of more than one program or task by a single computer processor." If we apply that definition to a person's ability to multitask, it means that you too are able to work on and look at more than one thing at once - which is why Mac OS X intentionally makes it difficult for one application to dominate the entirety of your display (Applications, such as Firefox, that don't obey the Mac OS X windowing rules I'm referring to are exempt from this post).While the various tricks and design ideals that Mac OS X uses to accomplish this fantastic feat of productivity-inducing magic are outside the scope of my rant, I just want the word to get out that it is actually safe to trust your operating system's judgments in these kinds of matters. Tell your parents, inform you friends. I'm especially looking at you, switchers. I know the way Mac OS X handles windows and changing their size is strange, but trust me - once you get used to it and wrap your head around why it works this way on Apple's side of the fence, you'll be overjoyed with all the extra screen space you just reclaimed.So go ahead, live on the edge: use that green "best fit" button and the Window > Zoom options, and be happy that you've taken a positive step towards getting just a little more done on your Mac.
Why doesn't the Front Row remote have a click wheel?
As I was writing up my previous post about a Designtechnica article praising the Front Row remote for its simplicity and iPod-like ease of use, a question came to mind: if the Front Row remote is another extension of Apple's easy-to-use ideals, why doesn't it posses a click wheel? That round white circle is one of the iPod's design fundamentals that has brought the device into so many households and pockets. More importantly, it's also just about the best darn UI for browsing through massive amounts of media - and isn't that what Front Row is designed to do? I see Front Row as Apple's "iPod for the living room." It is a really, really simple piece of software that wrangles all our content (just like the iPod) together for our viewing and listening pleasure in just about any room we want. From this perspective, I wonder if Apple dropped the ball on the remote's design. Don't get me wrong, I really like the remote (especially in comparison to its competitors) and I'm excited to one day afford a Mac mini for our living room. I just think it would be so much cooler if we could have a click wheel to control nearly all the media we have on our computers. Apple could easily have made the remote the size of something like the iPod nano which would still give it that "amazingly small" aura, as well as room to fit a click wheel and maybe even save some production costs. A click wheel Front Row remote would make it even easier to browse through the zillions of songs, videos and photos that people can now access from the comforts of their couch. Lastly, I think it would even help Apple to further the iPod brand, as users could now have the same UI on one of their home remotes as they have on the music player in their pockets.*Sigh* It's too bad Apple didn't give me a call when kicking around ideas for the remote. Maybe I'll get lucky with the 2.0 redesign version some day. Something tells me, however, that I shouldn't hold my breath.
Crazy UI: cute overload
From AFK Gamer comes this example of a UI that's gone one step too far. There's cute, and then there's... this. Fortunately, other players have no idea what UI you're using--it would be interesting seeing the reactions to this ingame if they did.The UI looks to be Discord Art with some custom artwork involved--if you're feeling brave, why not try creating your own?
Is the Mail.app look being copied too much?
Fraser Speirs, developer of apps like FlickrExport and Xjournal, posed an interesting issue on his blog the other day: is the general look and UI of Mail.app being duplicated by too many other developers? Fraser doesn't necessarily dislike the Mail.app look and feel, nor is he taking a jab at developers, but since he's running Mail.app, NetNewsWire and Yojimbo, he's making a few errors in Exposé simply because these three app windows (not to mention others like Ecto) look very similar.Fraser poses a valid point, and it's a good question I thought worthy of mentioning for you TUAW readers. What do you think? Are too many apps using the same (handy) UI and cluttering up your desktop and Exposé views? Sound off.[via Hawk Wings]
Patching blues?
Are you a heavy custom UI type of player? I know I am, and the day is patch is release is probably one of the most frustrating days. I usually end up with all the major addons needing new updates before they will work right. Here are a few things I found to be broken in some form: Bibmod (unusable), Titan Panel (now follows the UI scaling), and Discord Unit Frames (same). Oddly enough, auctioneer still seems to work, which really surprises me!Which UI mods do you use, and are they broken with the new patch? I will update this post with a running list of mods.
What would you change about the menu bar?
This time around the "What would you change" topic I thought I'd forgo an actual app and post on a part of OS X; the menu bar, in fact. While I really dig the menu bar and how it works, it leaves much to be desired in the customizability department. For example: I don't know of a way to increase its width or the font size, and it would be great if there was some kind of a power-user option to make it easier to hide the menu bar altogether, instead of only some apps (like Photoshop) being able to do it. Or how about the image I have here: a comparison to XP's system tray, which includes a crude icon management system of hiding 'inactive' system tray icons. Fellow TUAW blogger Scott is quick to point out, however, that this hiding of inactive icons on XP is a great way of allowing all sorts of unwanted software to install itself and run right under your nose. Nevertheless, if you have a lot of icons up in the menu bar, it would be great to have some way of managing all the clutter besides simply dragging them around manually with the command key.So what say you, TUAW readers? Since we can't even get Macworld press passes I'd say it's a safe bet that Apple won't be taking notes, but a good UI conversation might be a nice way to pass the slow-news holidays.
Freeway 4 Express/Pro - a new take on web design
If you've been looking for a new take on web design apps with a new, unique UI, Freeway 4 Express and Pro might be right up your alley. Freeway 4 sports features like a new dynamic property inspector, a birds-eye site panel, "master pages" for site templates and repeating objects, rich media, actions for automating tasks with simple clicks such as creating button rollovers, .Mac uploading and a whole lot more. The $249 Pro version edges ahead of the $89 Express with features like a link map for site-wide link management, importing Illustrator and Photoshop content and enhanced graphic effects. Check out the full list of Pro-only features to see everything that the extra $160 gets you, or fill out a form (lame, I know) to pick up full-featured demos of either version of Express or any other Softpress Systems Ltd. products.
John Gruber Obsessed with Weather Widget
It's official. John Gruber, of Daring Fireball fame, is completely and utterly obsessed with Dashboard's Weather Widget. Not that long ago, he was posting lengthy discussions of how to hack the weather widget, so that you could force it to refresh and eradicate all doubt that you may possibly be looking at an out-dated weather report.
