Archive for May, 2011:
Lost in Translation API
Editorial note: Here’s a guest post from Ultan O’Broin (@ultan) from the Oracle Applications User Experience Team in Dublin. You should read his blogs on translation and user experience. Enjoy. You may not have heard, but Google is deprecating a bunch of APIs. The most prominent of these is the Google Translate API. That’s right, no more [...]
Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen
So, this is pretty amazing. I’ve chatted about bendable displays here a few times with Gary (@syd_oracle) and with Joel (@joelgarry), and it seems we’re on the verge of seeing some really fantastic innovation in that area. Very cool stuff, check out the video. Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen
Competing Innovation in Credit Card Payments?
Two major developments, not surprises mind you, this week pertaining to credit card payments. First, Square announced Square Register, the next step in their quest to free merchants from expensive POS terminals. Square’s Disruptive New iPad Payments Service Will Replace Cash Registers I’m a big fan of Square and its conveniently tiny little doohickey, essentially a [...]
More Fun with Gesture Controls
Hot on the heels of the Imaginary Phone comes this gesture-controlled music player/workout tracker. Adrien Guenette Might Be Onto Something With His Gesture-Controlled Music Player Interesting. Gestures seem to be all the rage among smart designers, but will they catch mainstream attention? Probably not until Apple builds them into the next generation of iPhones, he [...]
Imaginary Phone
I saw this several times before I realized it wasn’t a joke. Hasso-Plattner-Institut: Imaginary Phone Apparently, you wear a camera that sends your gestures to the phone. I wonder how far from the device you need to be to make this work. With the mounting evidence that cell phone radiation is a bad thing, this [...]
All Games Are About Death
If you’ve read here long, you’ll know gamification is one of our hobbies. Like it or not, gaming is the future, and not just in consumer software. All Games Are About Death This post sounds morbid at first blush, but it makes some great points about death as a game mechanic, namely that death isn’t [...]
Verizon MiFi Shines
As with last year’s Google IO, Google sent us home with several cool gifts this year. All attendees received the Limited Edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a Verizon LTE MiFi, as well as the promise of a Samsung Chromebook when they are released in June. Unlike last year, several goodies were given to the attendees [...]
Looking into Mobile’s Future
Rich (@rmanalan) pointed me to a post called Why Mobile Apps Will Soon Be Dead. This is, and has been, a hot topic for quite some time, as developers move to mobile and are faced with learning new skills on new platforms and face new deployment and distribution hurdles. The announcement of Angry Birds for [...]
A Dropbox-Like Experience on Top of UCM
Thanks to John Sim (@JRSim_UX) and his work with Fishbowl (@FishbowlE20), I found this interesting proof of concept video done by John Brunswick (@johnbrunswick) showing a Dropbox experience on top of Oracle UCM. E2.0 Workbench Podcast 3 – HTML5, UCM and WebCenter “QuickBox” | John Brunswick Pretty cool stuff. We’ve been in love with Dropbox [...]
Welcome Noel
I’m happy to announce that AppsLab has grown by one, and we’re pleased to welcome Noel Portugal (@noelportugal) to our little family. If you read here, you’ll recognize Noel’s name. I first met Noel back in June 2008, when he reached out to me to show me OraTweet, his Twitter clone built with Oracle APEX. [...]
Mac Malware on the Rise
I considered making that a question, but let’s be honest. Macs have never been invulnerable to penetration; they’ve just been underserved. Crying wolf? Apple support forums confirm malware explosion | ZDNet When my parents finally decided it was time to get a computer, I recommended a Mac. One of the many reasons was that malware [...]
No File Transfer for Galaxy Tab 10.1 LE?
So, this is weird. The Galaxy Tabs all Google IO attendees were given last week aren’t recognized as file volumes when connected to a computer. Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition not seen in Android File Transfer, Windows usability is spotty — Engadget I heard about this first from Matt (@topperge), and initially thought it was [...]
Good and Bad Opinions on Chromebooks
Yesterday, I saw a post on five reasons why Chromebooks are a good idea. Then later, one on six why they’re not. These aren’t point-counter point posts, but they do seem to take enterprise vs. consumer perspectives. Last week, during the IO keynote, I remember thinking that although the chipper marketing targeted a consumer’s perspective, [...]
University of Chicago Shows off its Automated Library
This has me weirded out a bit. University of Chicago Shows Off its Automated Library | Geekosystem Check it out in action. Where to begin. It’s definitely an intelligent and economical use of space, like vertical or condensed bike parking. So, I admire the design. Still, it feels like someone set out to create Wikipedia IRL. [...]
The Most Useless Machine Upgraded
Maybe you remember the Most Useless Machine? It’s been upgraded and now takes offense at your insistent operation. Useless Machine Upgraded, Fights Back | Geekosystem Happy Friday.
Is Android Tracking Routers, Storing Wifi Credentials?
Update 3: The short answer is yes and yes, but not without your approval for each. Read on if you want the full story. By now, you may know that each attendee of Google IO (@googleio) received a limited edition Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is a great tablet, slimmer, lighter and seemingly better constructed [...]
Nothing But the Web
So yesterday at Google IO (@googleio), Chromebooks were officially announced, and we saw this video for the first time. Pretty smart advertising. Google’s push into enterprises and educational institutions is also smart, although you wonder why Google Apps weren’t bundled. Give it time. This feels like Take X at the good old NC, maybe with [...]
Designing for the Device
Here’s an interesting story Chris (@cbales) sent me about why tablets can’t be treated as small desktops. What Enterprise Software Firms Can Learn From Angry Birds – CIO Central – CIO Network – Forbes Seems obvious, but when you’re in the development weeds, it’s an easy assumption to make. Save time, get something out to [...]
Twitter and Facebook Both Quietly Kill RSS
Interesting follow-on to the discussion from last week about the impending demise of feeds. Stay N Alive: Twitter and Facebook Both Quietly Kill RSS, Completely I briefly tried the feeds on both Facebook and Twitter years ago, but neither really worked for me, too noisy and too many. There’s an interesting nugget in this post [...]
What reCAPTCHA Really Does
Another interesting item came from Ultan (@ultan), our sometime contributing author and UX dude. This TEDxCMU talk by Luis von Ahn explains reCAPTCHA. Before you pass because you (and everyone else) hate captchas, reCAPTCHA is different. When you complete a reCAPTHCA, you’re helping Google (who acquired them in September 2009) to digitize the World’s printed [...]
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