Tabbed applications work great in many instances. They revolutionized the way many of us browse the web, and for the most part I like them in my editors. One place I don’t have time for them is in Photoshop, and in Adobe Photosohp CS4 tabbed viewing of documents is the default setting. Usually when I’m working in Photoshop I have several documents open at once. I may be comparing designs, sampling colours or any other number of tasks that require multiple documents displaying at the same time. It’s one of the reasons designers usually have large displays and sometimes multiple screens. If you are like me, you don’t like the default setting, but it’s a snap to return Photoshop to it’s old self.
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I recently started developing an application on Facebook. It’s actually quite interesting although the Facebook developer interface leaves a lot to be desired. If a chat program operated the way Facebook does it would go something like this. To add a user you must first add the addUser application. Once this is completed you can add the first use through the addUser applications, but after that you must go to the first added user to add an additional user, it’s really a… but I digress. This post is about Facebook’s application canvas and specifically developing applications with the iframe option enabled.
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Adium is a fantastic instant messaging program for the Mac that allows you to connect to many different chat clients like Yahoo, MSN and Google Talk just to name a few. Unfortunately if you have an MSN / Windows Live Messenger account on Adium you may be bombarded by the parasitic individuals of the web also known as spammers. I’m not sure why this only seems to happen to my MSN account, but there is a simple fix.
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I was playing around with Photoshop CS4 and came across an odd setting. I’m not even sure what the default setting usually is, but for me it was my first time dealing with non-pixel perfect blurry rectangles in Photosohp and it really threw me for a loop. Below you can see two 60 pixel boxes created with the rectangle tool. Both boxes look the same, but upon further inspection you will see that the right box has blurry edges and the left box is pixel perfect and sharp.
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Big faceless corporations are never fun to deal with, but with a litter perseverance and a lot of patience you can usually get what you paid for. Whether it’s trying to buy a laptop without an extended warranty, or waiting on hold while you ask for a box to return your second malfunctioning Xbox 360, in the end things usually work out. The frustration and time wasted is generally outweighed by your desire for the product. Sometimes though, there is no hope; sometimes you have to throw your hands up in the air, surrender and yell at the top of your lungs “Bell Canada, I give up, you suck and you suck bad”. You could also write it down and share it with others.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that the best iPhone games are the ones that meet two criteria. First they are extremely simple to learn and second they lend themselves well or are specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Case in point, Flight Control by Firemint. This game meets both these criteria and it’s super addictive. With a price point of 1 dollar (soon to be 3 dollars) you really can’t go wrong.
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Google reader is a fantastic RSS reader and I use both the full web version and the iPhone mobile version daily. It’s simple to use, fast, and it’s a web app, and I’m a big supporter of web based applications. The only real thing it needs now is some fancy HTML 5 database storage, then we could use it offline and there would be no need for standalone apps while on the subway.
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Mozilla Labs released a really exciting Open Source project this month called Bespin. It’s still in an extremely early alpha stage right now, but it looks promising and really gets the imagination going. There’s a great video by the developers about what Bespin is all about, but the real highlight is near the end when they talk about different scenarios in which Bespin could be used.
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There are many things that web designers do (or are forced to do) that are just plain wrong or annoying and should be avoided if possible. Some items listed here are subjective and will of course depend on your demographic, but over all if these practices are avoided it will make your website better. If you disagree feel free to post in the comments section. Top sites like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter etc, tend to avoid most of these practices.
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Some seriously cool technology was shown at CES 2009, but one that really popped for me was wireless charging. This looks like it’s going to be the future of how we charge things.
It’s a new technology that could be dropped into our counter tops, end tables and dressers. Drop your cell phone on your dresser and it starts charging. What about wireless blenders, coffee makers, toasters, you name it. Someday your whole counter top may be a giant charging terminal. Think of what this could do for laptops. Maybe even public areas will have charging surfaces in the future. It really gets you thinking, but the real key is getting manufacturers to build this technology into our devices and have it work seamlessly anywhere. I nominate Apple first.
Check out some of these technologies on Wired and and watch an iPhone get charged wirelessly on Gizmodo.
