Archive for January, 2007

iTunes 8

Published by christian on January 22, 2007 in Technology. 13 Comments

Part IV of iTunes 8 mock ups is now available. Its development has evolved into a full blown next generation graphical user interface so it includes music management but extends for reasons explained in the new post to all forms of data management. Check out the next level in this evolution here.

iTunes 8

Part III

iTunes 8 itunes 8 Part III itunes 8

My aim is to bring existing functionality and new functionality into iTunes without adding additional complexity to its aesthetic design. This is a problem, because with each incarnation of iTunes Apple has added complexity (presumably at the users request). My answer to keeping the design clean and simple, whilst adding complexity to the product, involves using a 3D cube as part of the programs main window. I’m aware it still need to be intuitive, so I’m keeping that in mind whilst building the mock ups.

Also I don’t expect to get this right straight away. I’ve very little time to devote to this as an ongoing project, so i will publish small updates often, rather than wait for the final version before publishing. That way any feedback I get along the way, can be absorbed into the next mockup.

As of Today 8th February 2007 i still need to do the following;

1) clear up the volume control (not great).
2) Add to the iTunes dock additional icons.

Part II

iTunes8a

I went back to work and created a second draft of my proposal for the GUI of iTunes 8. The above image hasn’t changed much from the original. I’ve intergrated the previous, play/pause, next song buttons in the dock at the bottom. I realise the icons aren’t much to look at but i’ve no time to create decent ones. If i find the time i will change all the dock icons.

iTunes8b
This image gives you an idea of how i’d like iTunes 8 to behave when switching between the album view and the text view. The center area of the screen would rotate back like a 3D rectangle. Pottentially you could have images, and movies on two spare sides of the rectangle. If you need more than four sides, you’d move to a 3D hexagon etc. The button to switch views, would also be in the dock. I did create one, but i was awful, so i took it out. As before if i get the time, i will change the icons on the dock.

Part I
iTunes 8

|DOWNLOAD|

I think the new view in iTunes 7 is fantastic, although memory hungry, my PC is not new AMD Athlon 1800 1GB RAM GFX 5200, and seems to cope well with it. The one thing i do want is to be able to view the album covers full screen, which unless i’m missing something i can’t. Therefore i thought i come up with this mock up of what i would like in iTunes 8. The File, edit, controls, view options are at the top, giving you access to all the options iTunes 7 does now, but i’ve got rid of all those annoying frames and buttons, and simply used the idea of a Mac Dock at the bottom. Any menu or submenu can be added to the dock. Most of your screen can then be devoted to showing your album art, as seen on the top mock up image. The bottom mockup is a view of your albums in text view. You can right click and save the image for a larger view. I did not create the icons, but found them on google images. I do not know whom they belong to.

Marrakech

Published by christian on January 14, 2007 in My Travels. 0 Comments
Our Journey started with high winds delaying the flight out of Heathrow. We were scheduled to stop in Casablanca but desert fog made landing impossible and after two aborted attempts, the pilot made the decision to keep going to Marrakech. We had ordered a taxi to pick us up from the airport to take us to our Riad. The driver, dressed in clothes that hadn’t seen water and soap for.. well ever greeted us with a friendly smile and led us to the car park where he told us to wait. A minute later his clapped out fiat from the 1970s was chugging us all on our way to the Medina where our Riad was based.

Arriving in the dead of night in a narrow road near the Royal Palace, the driver started escorting us and our luggage down an even narrower dimly lit street, through the pile of rubbish, and round this corner and the next. Suddenly i got the feeling that if he was leading us into a group of his fiends waiting to mug us then here in this place, there wouldn’t be a damb thing i could do about it. My wife and i shared a look that spoke a thousand words.. but to summarize.. where the hell is he leading us and this isn’t at all what we expected!

At the end of another alley he stops and knocks on a wooden door, it opens and suddenly we were looking at a beautiful inner quad of our Riad. My fear began to fall away, and were replaced by shame that i had thought such horrible things of our driver. From that moment on i decided to keep an open mind. We were led to our room which was spartan (no TV, no phone, no fridge) but clean, and very comfortable. We dropped our bags and although we were tired we needed a walk to stretch our legs after the 3 and a half hour flight. With the help of the very kind and friendly staff we set on our way through the dark streets to the main square.

The Main square was pulsing with life, food stalls, merchants of all kinds, performers including snake charmers, and musicians were spread out over the square, with restaurants surounding the square itself. From a distance all you could see was the bright lights of the food stalls and the smoke from the cooking rising above the crowd. I felt as if i’d stepped back in time.

The next day we walked to the Gardens of Majorelle. We almost died on the way due to the thick pollution, i don’t think the’ve heard of catalytic converters yet, although i read in the guide the the King was trying to clean the air up. The smog from the cars is unbearable once you leave the medina, you get to the main roads and your nostrils start to burn. But in the garden we were fine, sealed of from the outside world. 

We took a taxi back to the medina, entering on the eastern side of the city walls, we went to see the tanners and then on to the museum of Marrakech. Thankfully we found our way simply by asking every five minutes which way to turn. The museum itself was architechturally more impressive that its artwork hanging from the walls, so we didn’t spend to long. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the medina, and then in the evening we went to Chez Ali, a fantasia show on the outskirts of Marrakech. You eat in a tent, typical lamb and couscous, with dancers and later in the evening they put a show on for you including mock battles, dancing and fireworks… to be continued.

for photos of the trip click here.

Apple iPhone

Published by christian on January 9, 2007 in Technology. 0 Comments

iPhone

Wow what a product Apple have launched! (http://www.apple.com/iphone/) !! From the specs of the phone only the camera resolution bothers me. 2.0 mega pixels is very 2005, my current phone (a Nokia N73) has 3.2 mega pixels and i’m already chomping at the bit for the Nokia N95. Having said that i love everything else i’ve seen and read about it.. except that i have to wait till 2008 to realistically get my hands on it, and by then i will be wanting a 7-8 Mega Pixel camera phone. (yes i love my photography!). I hope this will have a positive effect on the industry in re-thinking how we can interact with a portable device, rather than sticking in the safe zone and rolling out higher spec’s but same interface. I love the touch sensitive screen, i hope its not difficult to use if you have large fingers, but i can’t be worse than most phones these days, (actually a cool afterthought would be to be able to re-size on-screen keyboard!). The way the photo application allows you to pinch photos reminds me of video i saw on UTUBE called Multitouch. Star trek never had it so cool.

HP Photosmart C4180 Photo Printer, Scanner & Copier

Published by christian on January 8, 2007 in Technology. 0 Comments

Suffer in Silence

I’m usually quite careful when it comes to buying technology. However this time i was in desperate need of a Scanner, and being that standalone scanners offer little improvement in resolution, to the multi-functional-devices, i chose the latter. So far i’m very happy with the results. This is my first MFD and i find it very useful. To praise its abilities i’ve created this frankenstein photocopy of my plastering my face to the scanner, Enjoy.. or not.