http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:44:31 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/22385/The_Book_of_Inkscape/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22385/The_Book_of_Inkscape/ NoStarchPress sent us in the newly released "Book of Inkscape", written by Dmitry Kirsanov, who is also one of the core developers of Inkscape. Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:20:35 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Graphics, User Interfaces 12 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/22365/Touchscreen_Tech_Windows_7_Tablet_PCs/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22365/Touchscreen_Tech_Windows_7_Tablet_PCs/ OSNews takes a look at the technology powering the latest generation of touchscreen personal computers. Have the stars finally aligned to give the touch interface the combination of price, precision, sensitivity, and software support to make it attractive to the mainstream PC buyer? And if so, what does that mean for the elusive Tablet PC? We take a look at a Dell Studio One, which is powered by NextWindow's optical touch screen technology. (With video) Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:39:23 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Graphics, User Interfaces 14 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/22325/Apple_vs_Microsoft_Top_20_Stolen_OS_Ideas/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22325/Apple_vs_Microsoft_Top_20_Stolen_OS_Ideas/ InfoWorld's John Rizzo chronicles the 20 most significant ideas and features Microsoft and Apple have stolen from each other in the lead up to Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. 'Some features were stolen so long ago that they've become part of the computing landscape, and it's difficult to remember who invented what.' Windows 7's Task Bar and Aero Peek come to mind as clear appropriations of Mac OS X's Dock and Expose. Apple's cloning of the Windows address bar in 2007's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as the path bar is another obvious 'inspiration.' But the borrowing goes deeper, Rizzo writes, providing a screenshot tour of Microsoft's biggest grabs from Mac OS X and Apple's most significant appropriations of Windows OS ideas and functionality. Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:24:53 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Graphics, User Interfaces 115 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News snydeq http://www.osnews.com/story/22230/Gimp_2_8_To_Get_Single_Window_Mode/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22230/Gimp_2_8_To_Get_Single_Window_Mode/ Gimp critics will have one less thing to complain about when Gimp 2.8 is released later this year. Single window mode is coming with the next major release along with some other interesting UI enhancements. Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:52:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 23 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News abraxas http://www.osnews.com/story/22124/Comparing_Windows_7_Snow_Leopard_Icons/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22124/Comparing_Windows_7_Snow_Leopard_Icons/ Last week, Culf of Mac published an article showing off some of Snow Leopard's beautiful 512x512 icons, revealing some interesting tidbits about them you could only see when the icons are fully maximised. In this article, I compare some of Snow Leopard's icons to those of Windows 7, and you'll see while both operating systems have beautiful icons, there are some key differences between the styles of these icons. Note that this article contains some large images, so if you're on dial-up, you've been warned. Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:43:49 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 68 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/22112/IKEA_s_Switch_to_Verdana_Causes_Stir_Among_Typography_Geeks/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22112/IKEA_s_Switch_to_Verdana_Causes_Stir_Among_Typography_Geeks/ You probably missed this earth-shattering news, but Ikea IKEA, the Swedish furniture and other assorted home decoration products company, has switched fonts. The company always used the Futura font for its catalogues, but the latest edition has ditched it in favour of Verdana. This has caused quite the stir among typography geeks. Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:10:01 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 76 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21987/Next_Version_Adobe_s_Creative_Suite_for_the_Mac_To_Be_Intel-only/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21987/Next_Version_Adobe_s_Creative_Suite_for_the_Mac_To_Be_Intel-only/ Adobe has announced it is dropping PowerPC support from its next version of the Creative Suite for the Mac. "By the time the next version of the Suite ships, the very youngest PPC-based Macs will be roughly four years old. They're still great systems, but if you haven't upgraded your workstation in four years, you're probably not in a rush to upgrade your software, either. Bottom line: Time & resources are finite, and with big transitions underway (going 64-bit-native, switching from Carbon to Cocoa), you want Adobe building for the future, not for the past." Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:57:16 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 23 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21978/Managing_User_Interface_Complexity/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21978/Managing_User_Interface_Complexity/ Brandon Walkin has just published a fascinating article on the topic of managing user interface complexity. "I've spent the past year redesigning a particularly complex application with my primary focus being on reducing complexity. In this article, I'll go over some of the issues surrounding complexity and techniques that can be used to manage it." Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:30:21 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 9 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21713/Screen_Fonts_Shape_Accuracy_or_On-Screen_Readability_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21713/Screen_Fonts_Shape_Accuracy_or_On-Screen_Readability_/ The Engineering 7 weblog has an item about the improvements made in the ClearType font rendering technology which has been included in Windows since Windows XP. While I won't go too deeply into that post, I did figure it was a good opportunity to talk about font antialiasing in general; which type do you prefer? Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:40:03 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 96 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21355/OSNews_Asks_Uses_for_Multitouch_on_Desktops_Laptops_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21355/OSNews_Asks_Uses_for_Multitouch_on_Desktops_Laptops_/ I's time for another "OSNews Asks", a blatant rip-off of just about every other website in existence. Anyway, today we want to focus on multitouch. The technology behind it has existed for a long time, but only recently have companies like Apple (iPhone, trackpads) and Microsoft (Surface, Windows 7) begun promoting it. We have a question for you, about multitouch in desktops and laptops. Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:37:24 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 39 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/21323/Grape_Impresses_OSNews_Gives_Away_Beta_Access_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21323/Grape_Impresses_OSNews_Gives_Away_Beta_Access_/ About a year ago, OSNews reported on Grape, a new way to manage your desktop. Back then, Grape was only a concept, a set of ideas without an implementation. This is different now: Grape has been turned into an actual piece of working software, and the people behind the project, Yann Le Coroller and Dockland Software's Stephane, gave us early access by means of a beta release. We are also giving away beta access, se be sure to read on to the end of the article to find out how you can get beta access (hint: post a comment). Update: The response has been more substantial than I anticipated, so the cut-off point is 50 comments. Twelve comments left, guys and girls, so hurry up! Update II: Sorry guys, we're full already (that was quick)! Thanks for the enormous interest from everyone. I'll send the invites out today! Update III: All invites have been sent out. Enjoy testing Grape, and be sure to post your findings here on OSNews. Also, report any bugs here. Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:39:23 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 63 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/21288/BumpTop_1_0_Released_Useful_or_Gimmick_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21288/BumpTop_1_0_Released_Useful_or_Gimmick_/ We've all seen the early demos of something called "BumpTop", a sort of 3D desktop where files are presented as 3D objects with physical properties. Recently, the project moved from concept to product with the release of BumpTop 1.0. The big question now is: are we dealing with the next big thing in desktop computing, or just a gimmick? Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:33:59 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 21 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21276/Unemployed_Developer_Learn_Flex_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21276/Unemployed_Developer_Learn_Flex_/ Adobe has a promotion that states that if you will attest that you're unemployed, they'll give you a free license to Flex Builder 3 that you can use to burnish your skills. Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:32:55 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) Graphics, User Interfaces 22 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21247/pt_XI_Bling_and_Compositing/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21247/pt_XI_Bling_and_Compositing/ This is the eleventh article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. After a rather long hiatus, this eleventh instalment will focus on bling, desktop effects, and compositing, and what they can contribute to the desktop experience. Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:16:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 34 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/21147/Scalable_Vector_Graphics_and_Bitmap_Rendering_Using_Flex/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21147/Scalable_Vector_Graphics_and_Bitmap_Rendering_Using_Flex/ SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is one of the most important technologies in the graphics arena. Since Flex inherits most of its features from Flash, it has very good support for vector drawing. This article introduces you to the fascinating world of SVG in Flex. It teaches you how to create custom graphics and build appealing flashy components just by vector drawing. Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:22:17 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Graphics, User Interfaces 1 http://www.osnews.com/topics/47 News