Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 24th May 2012 21:32 UTC
"Touchscreens, zoomable maps, page swiping, and more, all integrated into one Eames-chair-equipped media room." MIT, late '70s, and noted by Andy Hertzfeld as a direct influence for the original Macintosh. Fantastic story by The Verge. Favourite part: even back then, there was concern among the scientists that the touch screen page flipping animation was frivolous.
Thread beginning with comment 519321
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-07-14
Member since:2005-07-06
There's still a good technical reason for flipping, with e-ink based e-book readers... they don't really do any sort of scrolling UI well.
(and while one might argue they're a dead end vs. more "universal" tablets - they are still quite popular, and the supposed future improvements in durability and cost reduction, together with their low power requirements, could keep them desirable ...especially for billions of people with, say, unreliable electricity; maybe we should make general usage UI for e-ink devices)
PS. Some of the folklore stories linked from the Busy_Being_Born,_Part_2 are fascinating 
...for example:
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Realit...
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Are_Yo...
Edited 2012-05-31 23:45 UTC
Member since:2009-06-20
I don't do eBooks, so I guess I can't comment further, but I have a feeling there are as many people that love page flipping as hate it.
A lot of people have been educated through the use of internet to scroll through a continuous single page, a choice done for technical reasons (reduce requests to the web server - that was before the search for pay-per-click that leeads many websites to split articles in several pages).
But given we are not using any more papyrus or parchment rolls, but switched to multi-paged books (even though the spine is difficult to make), I guess the best form factor has already been determined by a few centuries of experience by book printers.
Member since:2009-10-23
But given we are not using any more papyrus or parchment rolls, but switched to multi-paged books (even though the spine is difficult to make), I guess the best form factor has already been determined by a few centuries of experience by book printers.
The only reasons for the switch from scrolls to books was that the former was less easy to search through and more susceptable to damage due to constant rolling and unrolling. Neither applies today, so maybe scrolling is the way forward.
Personally, I hope not. I can never help but fiddle to keep the current paragraph in the centre of the screen, given the option. Please still my twitching finger; gimmee fixed pages.
Member since:2008-08-27
Page flipping only works on physical books, where you get the progress feedback of the pile of pages on the right shrinking and the one on the left growing as you advance through a book.
You don't get that kind of feedback flipping pages on an e book and you're stuck relying on progress bar or a popup "Page 42 of 231", so I don't see the point in using page-flipping over scrolling on e books.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2006-12-15
Your favorite part: "even back then, there was concern among the scientists that the touch screen page flipping animation was frivolous.'
And their conclusion: "He goes on to say continuous scrolling doesn't give readers a good sense of reading progress, and page-flipping provides effective, direct feedback."
I don't do eBooks, so I guess I can't comment further, but I have a feeling there are as many people that love page flipping as hate it.