Ocell.blog

This Week’s Shared Items – March 15, 2010

2010-03-15T14:00:47Z

Beamon XL Chair by Matti Klenell and Peter Andersson for Miljöexpo

- Beauuuutiful.

Wireblooms by Laliv Shalev

Blood Sugar: Beware the Starbucks “Trenta”

Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo?

- Man, the photo of the Sony Clie NZ90 really threw me back into the tech past. It also has me lusting after the UX50 again. Can I get a UX50 with Android, Sony?

hereish

Tomas Kral – amazing designer!

This Week’s Shared Items – March 8, 2010

2010-03-09T02:51:07Z

Panasonic TZ10 (ZS7) review at Quesabesde

- I’ve been waiting for a nice camera with GPS built in! Maybe I’m glad I held off from getting the Canon S9.

Microsoft’s Courier ‘digital journal’: exclusive pictures and details (update: video!)
Unusual biomimetics: The Bacon Cheeseturtle

- I hope that all of my veggie friends will look away.

Steam and Valve Games Headed to the Mac

- This is great!

10 Steps to Create Multi-Version Product Design Concepts in SolidWorks
Impression Chair by Julian Mayor
Bullitt Cargo Bike by Larry vs. Harry
I Can’t Sleep Journal

Meet in the Middle

2010-03-07T00:22:41Z

My third try at roasting coffee is in the middle. On the right is my first try, and on the left is my second. I won’t be able to taste the results until the beans sit around for a day or so, but I have high expectations based on the color of the roast.

Expanding Pastebot Sync

2010-03-06T19:22:20Z

I have grown to like having a clipboard manager on my computer. It’s an application that lives in the background of your system, copying a history of whatever you copy into your clipboard, so you can go back and recall these items later. There are quite a few out, and while I’ve been using PTHPasteboard for a while, I recently started trying out ClipMenu (thanks for the tip Alan!) on my Mac.

Back in December, Tapbots released Pastebot for the iPhone, which does the exact same thing in the mobile space. Though, because you can’t “officially” run background processes on the iPhone, the application grabs whatever is in your clipboard when you launch the app. I’ve been using Pastebot on my iPhone for a little while now, and I love it. TUAW has a great writeup on what Pastebot is.

One of the killer reasons to use Pastebot is that it allows for two-way clipboard synchronization between your iPhone and your Mac when you install Pastebot Sync on your desktop system. When your phone and computer are active on the same network you can move items between your clipboards instantly. This is a GREAT way to move images and notes between systems.

However, I realized that I’m running a clipboard manager on my Mac, a clipboard manager on my iPhone, and a third tool to sync. I wonder if the developers behind Pastebot can turn Pastebot Sync into a full-fledged desktop clipboard history tool. I’d throw another $10 their way if they could deliver the complete solution: clipboard management for the desktop AND mobile phone while providing the integration to move data between the two. I basically have that functionality now, but I also feel like there’s some redundancy in the software I’m running.

This Week’s Shared Items – March 1, 2010

2010-03-01T14:03:53Z

Leda Seating by Jon Goulder

The Missile Defense Agency Logo Conspiracy Theory

- This is too funny.

Honda shows off three-wheeled 3R-C concept vehicle

- Finally, a three-wheeled vehicle that actually looks pretty badass!

Pursuader by James Piatt

- Worth it for the name alone.

Typing 'cadence' used to identify authorized database users, lock everyone else out

- I completely see the validity in this. I know I type a specific rhythm when I type my different passwords. A rhythm I certainly wouldn’t match if I was reading the password while typing. This puts a big dent in the prospect of using tools like 1Password to create impossibly long random passwords that are different for every account, though.

cook

Deconstruction: David van Alphen’s Modern Shed

- If I ever get a backyard, I’d love to do something like this.

Large Circles Coffee Table

2010-02-27T23:44:41Z

Check out this beautiful coffee table available from Michael Arra on Etsy. Considering it’s hand crafted and very unique, I think the price is very reasonable. Thanks to Ashley Vercoe for the heads up on it.

New Roast

2010-02-26T02:01:19Z

Roasted a new batch of beans tonight. Much lighter than my first try.

Happy Fung Bokeh

2010-02-25T23:22:02Z

In a photo with many unfocused points of light in the background, the points blow up into large circles. This happens because of the physics of how light focuses through a camera lens, and the round shape of your aperture. If you look at these points from pictures taken with different lenses, and the aperture isn’t wide open, you can count the hard edges of these circles and tell how many aperture blades the lens has.

Flickr user goodbybysunday has posted a fantastic guide to modifying the shape of these out of focus points using something as simple as card stock! I can’t wait to try this out… and I’m sure that I’ll have a stack of these floating around in my camera bag before long. Pair these with a fast 50mm prime lens and you’ve got a very fun night photography setup.

Via The Flickr Blog

POV Parking Garage Signage

2010-02-25T04:25:04Z

I’m sure you’ve seen the 3D sidewalk art photos that have hit every inbox at least three times in the last couple years. Axel Peemoeller has taken the concept of point-of-view dependent imagery and applied it to provide directional guidance in a parking garage. Check out all of the photos on his page documenting the Eureka Carpark he designed while at Emery Studio. I’d totally park here. Actually, I’d just drive in and out of it all day.

Via @quidquid

Roasting Coffee at Home

2010-02-23T04:32:13Z

I just tried roasting my first batch of green coffee beans at home using a heat gun and a mixing bowl.

One guide on how to do it is here: http://www.homeroaster.com/heatgun.html

Overall, I roasted the beans way too dark, but it was my first time. I’m very excited about the future. With the help of my buddy Carlos, I was able to document the process. Check out the photos on my Flickr account below.

Coffee roasting photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/archives/date-posted/2010/02/22/

This Week’s Shared Items – February 22, 2010

2010-02-22T14:01:55Z

Design quotes visualized

Aspiral Clocks

- File this away in, “I wish I had thought of that”.

Aspiral Clocks

Before & After: Incase

Grow One For The Republic

Myriad Dalvik Turbo hands-on: Android apps just got fast

Great Examples Of Negative Space In Logo Design

Photosynth creator walks us through Bing Maps, gives us a taste of augmented reality’s future (video)

HTC Legend takes the Hero to new heights of aluminum

Flaunt, our Book on Portfolio Design, is now Available

This Week’s Shared Items – February 15, 2010

2010-02-15T14:01:01Z

2011 Audi A1

- Is this off of an existing VW chassis, or are we going to see a similar VW come out too?

Dell Mini 5: we have it (update: new pics and video!)

Presentation Zen Design (the book)

- This looks like an invaluable book!

Portside Flask

- I don’t own a flask. I don’t feel like I need a flask. But if this is using high quality materials, this looks really beautiful.

WineSide Trial-Sized Wine

Comcast! You’ve got some Xplainin’ to do!

This Week’s Shared Items – February 8, 2010

2010-02-08T14:00:44Z

Why My Mom’s Next Computer Is Going To Be An iPad

- This is EXACTLY what I’ve been thinking about the iPad, and other “internet appliance” tablets like it.

swissmiss: Social Media Mullet

The redesign of the Texas Observer

This Week’s Shared Items – February 1, 2010

2010-02-01T14:02:58Z

Sikuli uses screen shots to run scripts, is amazing

OS X Hidden Gems

Weekly Vector Inspiration #54

Dell ‘Mini 5′ tablet prototype shows up as M01M in Shenzhen black market

Gold Future

Dirty Harry

ANDREA Air Filter

Uncommon

This Week’s Shared Items – January 25, 2010

2010-01-25T14:04:23Z

Sony Bravia NX Series

This Week’s Shared Items – January 18, 2010

2010-01-18T18:38:12Z

Frame Sofa by Cho Hyung Suk

Dimensional Analysis

See-Through Vision Toaster from Magimix

This Week’s Shared Items – January 11, 2010

2010-01-11T14:00:55Z

swissmiss: everything I have

Klipsch LightSpeaker makes whole home audio as simple as screwing in a light bulb (hands-on)

- This is one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” deals! Wireless speakers that use existing light fixtures for power. Duh!!

Skype HD: 720p videocalling from PCs or directly through LG & Panasonic HDTVs

- So what do you think? 2 years before this is built into every new TV on the market? If they can make it dead simple, Grandma will love it.

Switch Entry Caddy

THE NEW RESIDENCE AT THE SWISS EMBASSY

- I love the patches of glowing light from the lit interiors.

Coupon Carvertising

Sit. Stay. Bench Press!

Behind The New York Times Magazine's Redesign with DD Arem Duplessis

- Too many beautiful layouts in this post to mention one at a time.

House 6 in California by Fu-Tung Cheng

- The color combinations here are stunning.

MUJI & LEGO

Evolution Watch

2010-01-11T01:32:20Z

I was looking up design reference images of watch faces the other day, and I ran across this great Evolution watch at Tom’s Shed at Cabanon Press.

This Week’s Shared Items – January 4, 2010

2010-01-04T14:00:28Z

The Best and Worst Identities of 2009

Monospace Theatre

Big Packaging…Mini Cooper

Hu2 Wall Stickers

25 years of Apple mice

Picturing The Past 10 Years

New Years Revolution…buy local?

A Waterproof Drip-Dry Cabinet

- I am in love with this.

2010 Calendars Roundup

Pimp your MacBook (Pro) with custom vinyl decals

LinkedIn Proximity Linking

2009-12-29T05:29:50Z

LinkedIn recently pushed out version 3.0 of their mobile iPhone/Touch app [iTunes link]. It is a complete rework of the mobile LinkedIn experience. I’ve only had a brief glance, but it already looks more useful.

What I’m really excited about, though, is the inclusion of a new mechanism for connecting accounts with other LinkedIn users. Now if two people are using the iPhone app and want to connect, they can take advantage of the nearfield communication of Bluetooth to provide a handshake between the accounts, instantly connected on LinkedIn after an in-app verification. No more searching for names and e-mail addresses while you try to hunt down the account of the person standing in front of you. Now, standing in front of someone is all the context needed to establish a connection. This is how it should be.

I know that this isn’t the first mobile app to use the context of proximity to exchange information. Bump and Handshake are two notable examples of applications that have done this well already. There was even IR beaming of business cards in the Palm days. However, I believe this may be the first time that a social network as large as LinkedIn has made it so easy to establish a connection with another user.

I wonder how long it will be before the rest of the social media networks integrate this type of connection mechanism into their mobile experiences. I’d love to be able to follow someone on Twitter by launching Tweetie and seeing that they are close to me. If Facebook added this to their app, it would make a friend request that much more intimate and personal. For most instances of my own “social networking” I typically don’t add someone unless I have met them in person. To me, establishing a virtual connection “in real life” makes that connection that much more valuable and pertinent. I’m a fan of anything to ease the transition of an in-person meeting to an online connection.

This Week’s Shared Items – December 28, 2009

2009-12-28T14:01:06Z

December 25th

BTstack Keyboard jailbreak app provides iPhone text entry

Yamaha YHT-S400 sound system packs ultraslim soundbar, sub-infused receiver

- This actually makes sense to me. It seems like most small TV stands would act as a box for the sub and amplify the bass.

Pastebot, another useful and beautiful bot from Tapbots

RIM’s optical trackpads: they weren’t joking about the ‘optical’ part

Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 running on iPhone / iPod touch

Bark4Beer Collar

Cutting Your TV Watching in Half Burns Calories Equivalent to Walking Eight Miles Per Week [Television]

The Dieline Awards: The Trophy Concepts by Established

5 Things I Wish for in 2010?

Architecture Pocket Guide for iPhone Released

The Wood Block Residence in Washington

This Week’s Shared Items – December 21, 2009

2009-12-21T16:57:38Z

Grenade Christmas Tree Ornaments

This Week’s Shared Items – December 14, 2009

2009-12-14T14:00:35Z

Where To? updated with Navigon integration

Modder creates dual-screen Courier from Dell Mini 9, calls it Harlequin, Joker unavailable for comment

As you may know, every checkin on foursquare generates points…

Light In A Pinch

Clock in the Wall

Tea Making is So Steampunk

Coffee Cup Carry

This Week’s Shared Items – December 7, 2009

2009-12-07T14:01:30Z

Dell Planning Mobile Phone Unit

Making Coffee

2009-12-05T22:55:04Z

This morning I went to the Post Office and picked up an Amazon.com box with my new AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker. I’ve had a lot of fun with my Bialetti Mukka Express for the last year or so. All of these coffee producing gizmos are at the intersection of my gadget geekness and coffee obsessions. There is also something purely delightful to me about manual production and simple tools. I feel like it puts me closer to the process, and more in control of the results.

I also have a couple burr grinders for grinding coffee. One is electric and quick to use, but I really love taking the time to hand grind my beans with the Tre Spade grinder I have from this site. There’s just something about feeling the blades shaving down the beans, and doing it without plugging something into the wall, that I really savor.

Back to the Aeropress. Over time I have kept running across mentions of the product. I’ve heard that it is similar in principle to the Clover Coffee Machine, but costs $26 instead of $11,000. While I have been enjoying my Mukka Express, it DOES require a range to use (unless you get the version with an electric hotplate) so I’ve been looking for something novel to produce coffee at my desk at work. I finally found a way to justify my curiosity and pulled the trigger on the Aeropress this week.

I’ve only brewed three cups from it so far, but I’m already impressed. The product has been very rich and strong while remaining smooth without bitterness. The great thing about such a manual process is that there are plenty of elements to tweak and experiment with. Over time I know I’ll find all of the tweaks that work best for me. When I mentioned that I had ordered the product on Twitter I got a great link from Lawrence Ingraham (@lawpower) pointing me to some alternative brewing methods for the Aeropress. I’ll certainly be giving them a shot soon.

Of course, as much as I love what I’ve mentioned already, I would be completely lost in joy if I could get a setup like Tom Metcalfe’s beautiful coffee roaster, grinder, brewer product concept.

What kitchen gadgets are you in love with? What tasks do you prefer to accomplish manually instead of plugging something in to do it for you?

“Curvy Stuff” Solidworks Tutorials

2009-12-03T04:11:03Z

I just started up a new job as an industrial designer at a consumer good company. I’ve been using Rhino3D for surface modeling as my primary tool for the last few years, so jumping back to the solids world after a break has felt a bit like turning my brain around in my skull. I’ve been scouring the internet for good solids modeling resources the past few days to try to get back in the game.

Today I found a set of great presentations from Ed Eaton at DiMonte Group. Ed has been giving a series of “Curvy Stuff” instructional talks at Solidworks World over the past few years, and lucky for us, the presentations and example files are all archived on DiMonte Group’s website!

So if you spend time in Solidworks and you haven’t seen these presentations, grab the RAW files and brew a new pot of coffee.

Incase Perforated Snap Case for the iPhone 3G

2009-12-03T03:59:46Z

I’m not sure why this case intrigues me as much as it does. It must be the novelty. At any rate… check it out at incase.com.

This Week’s Shared Items – November 30, 2009

2009-11-30T14:00:17Z

A Tale of Two Hard Drives: Apple’s Secret Weapon?

Navigon briefly cutting price on its popular Nav app

Dare to be Creative announces Parachute backup utility for Mac OS X

Landmine Ketchup

Bacon Pop

Pogoplug

2009-11-26T16:04:33Z

Where do you store your data, and how do you get it there? This problem has been approached with many solutions. Personally I use a combination of local USB hard drives, Dropbox, and a thumbdrive. It’s not the worst situation, but the local hard drives are always a point of frustration. If I have my laptop away from the house and I need someone that’s stored on those drives I’m out of luck.

Pogoplug is a $130 product that has potential to bridge the gap between data storage and mobility. It connects your external hard drives to your network, for NAS goodness. Where it takes the extra step, though, is in how it connects this storage space to the web. You can connect to this storage from any outside connection thanks to a service from Pogoplug that handles all of the dynamicDNS type issues for you. If you buy the Pogoplug unit the service is free for the lifetime of the product.

I haven’t had a ton of time to look into the details of the product, but at first glance it looks like it would be a great link between my laptop and my bank of USB hard drives I keep in my office at home. It should be shipping in mid-December, but all of the images I can find on the website so far are Hypershot renders.

This Week’s Shared Items – November 23, 2009

2009-11-23T14:02:43Z

Holiday Lighting Win

The cones of shame!

This Week’s Shared Items – November 16, 2009

2009-11-16T14:00:58Z

Apple’s New iPod touch-Based EasyPay System Explained

Facebook app developer is through with the iPhone, blames App Store approval process

Boxee boxes available in 2010

Designer Spotlight: Sha-Do

FLO TV

Small, Lovable, Jumping Robot Boy Runs Into Your Nightmares {Pics/Video}

FreshFiber’s 3D Printed iPhone Case Puts the Fancy in Your Pants

The Ken Block Subaru TRAX STI Shreds Snow, Mountain, Your Face

3DVia Hawks Big 3D Loogie Into Photo-Editing. 3DVia for Photoshop

Photo

Photo

26 Gallery

Movie Narrative Charts

Munkii Vintage Bookshelf

Quoteskines by Lee Crutchley

SmartSpace Dry Food Dispenser by Zevro

via Woodtec’s Etsy Shop

InPulse Blackberry Smartwatch

Ninite

I Be Au Sm T-Shirt

Google Maps Navigation

2009-11-10T01:15:02Z

We all saw this coming… but I didn’t think it would be this feature rich right out of the gate. Google has launched a beta of Google Maps Navigation on the new Verizon Droid Android phone. It has a ton of great features, like using streetview to show you what turns look like as well as what your destination looks like. It is only on the Droid right now, and will be released for other Android handsets in time. Whether it makes its way to other platforms like the iPhone, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry… I don’t know. It is certainly a strong selling point for the Android platform if it stays exclusive.

This Week’s Shared Items – November 9, 2009

2009-11-09T14:25:41Z

thing i did, sorta for an iffy client who never actually paid….

GriP – Growl for the iPhone

2009-10-31T01:13:28Z

I am very excited about this.

The notification system on the iPhone mostly gets the job done, but it’s intrusive and gets annoying quickly if you have many system notifications going on at once. Users have been pining for a solution like Google Android’s system of a drop down list of notifications that do not interrupt what you’re doing on the device.

GriP moves to solve this problem by emulating the functionality of Growl on the iPhone. System notifications come up in a transparent alert box that does not keep you from interacting with whatever application you’re using. You can expand the alert box to see alert content, or close the alert box. The developer is also providing information for developers to hook in to the system from their own applications.

Here is a video posted by www.iphoneblog.de showing several of the features of GriP.

It hasn’t been out for long. I can’t find any alternative themes besides what comes built in. I’m hoping to look at the documentation and see if I can make a more finger-friendly theme soon.

But as I said, I’m very excited about this. I hope Apple is paying attention. You can find GriP in Cydia if you have Jailbroken your iPhone or Touch.

More info: The iPhone Blog

This Week’s Shared Items – October 21, 2009

2009-10-21T14:00:09Z

Devs Hack iPhone API for True Augmented Reality

- Forget the iPhone for a moment, can I get this app for the desktop?

This Week’s Shared Items – October 14, 2009

2009-10-14T14:00:59Z

3DVIA launches community app for iPhone

TUAW and Scosche are giving away a tapSTICK for 3rd gen iPod shuffle

iida Ply and Prismoid phones strut their stuff at CEATEC (video)

This Week’s Shared Items – October 7, 2009

2009-10-07T14:00:15Z

Turn your Flash into iPhone apps with Flash Professional CS5

Das Keyboard Ultimate S unleashed for the tactile experience-loving typist

Microsoft Research shows off multitouch mouse prototypes

I Didn’t Know You Could Sue For That

Thermaltake’s brain-melting Level 10 PC chassis gets real, unboxed

Dell’s Latitude Z 600 is a 16-inch thin-and-light, makes overcompensated CEOs out of us all (update: video!)

Apple rejects iSinglePayer iPhone app for being ‘politically charged’

LaCie’s Sound2 PC speakers look good… real good

Dell’s sensual Latitude Z now on sale, starts at $1,799

Android-based ODROID handheld shows off its SNES emulation skills on video

- Hey, it’s the Zodiac 2!

Change the behavior of the iTunes zoom button in 9

Clever iPhone app prevents calculator pR0n

Tweetie 2: The Complete iPhone Preview

Multitouch Mouse Prototypes from Microsoft Research

2009-10-05T22:11:19Z

I love the fact that Microsoft is making this research public. These aren’t ready for store shelves, but some of the concepts being explored here are very interesting.

I’ve felt like my laptop trackpad surpassed the functionality of a desktop mouse a while ago. It looks like the mouse, or some other type of input device, will catch up soon and take advantage of all of these new multitouch mechanisms that are being built into modern operating systems.

This Week’s Shared Items – September 30, 2009

2009-09-30T14:02:40Z

HTC Leo’s TouchFLO 3D build demoed on video

Wacom's Bamboo Pen & Touch unboxed and previewed

Found footage: Dashboard for iPhone on your lock screen

- Apple… please hire these guys and do this.

This Week’s Shared Items – September 23, 2009

2009-09-23T14:00:17Z

Snow Leopard tip: Minimize to icon

Google says Phil Schiller himself rejected Google Voice from the App Store

OMA Residential Complex

Daft Punk : Dj Hero

Audi R8 Spyder

Pong iPhone case reduces antenna radiation exposure to users

- They say it’s good for protecting your brain from cellphone radiation, but I think the case is much more useful for keeping Apple from reading your mind. I’m calling this the “tin foil case.”

Garmin's nuLink! service powered by AT&T — more connected nuvis to come?

Autodesk Brings Sketchbook Product Line to the iPhone

Free iPhone Keynote and PowerPoint templates help get you from thought to finish

Live Traffic comes to Mobile Navigator

HP relaunches ENVY brand with ENVY 13 and ENVY 15 notebooks

Remember The Milk released for Android (if you’re a Pro subscriber)

Android on the HTC Wizard

2009-09-19T19:06:52Z

Today I’m messing around with running Android 1.5 on my old HTC 8125 (Wizard). I don’t have the data network working yet, but I can place a call (but no audio) and send text messages. WiFi is also broken. Whenever the screen should go to sleep, instead of a blank screen, you get scrolled terminal text about the screen sleep function. It’s not practical at all, but it sure is fun.

The Wing Linux project makes it all possible.

Having a semi-functional Android phone in my hands is making me want one though. If even just for a functional Google Voice application (which I can’t get on my iPhone… thanks Apple.)

ocell.net Mobile

2009-09-19T05:46:03Z

Lately I’ve been working on making my websites more accessible for advanced mobile devices. I started with an iPhone theme for my blog, then got my industrial design portfolio mobile. Last weekend I sat down and tried to tie it all together.

Now my main www.ocell.net landing page is very mobile friendly thanks to the iWebKit development package. This links to my design and photography portfolios which are mobile thanks to iShowPro. I used to use iWPhone to format my Wordpress blog (what you’re reading now) for the iPhone, but when I realized it wasn’t testing for the Palm Pre and Android browser user agents I went out in search of an alternative. Now I am finally on the WPtouch bandwagon, and I have to say, I’m extremely impressed. In fact, the WPtouch version of this blog has more functionality than the desktop version… something I hope to address in the future.

Also, thanks to @vara411 for confirming that the mobile version of www.ocell.net does load properly on a Palm Pre. The phone call link even launches the Pre’s phone app. You have to love when standards are honored across platforms.

Part of my focus on getting the loose ends tied on my mobile interface is because of the 2009 IDSA National Conference in Miami next week. I’m hoping that having a viable mobile site will give people an easy way to see my work and interests from their mobile devices, on location.

This Week’s Shared Items – September 16, 2009

2009-09-16T14:00:14Z

Archos phone tablet teased: Android, 4.3-inch touschscreen, 1GHz ARM processor

- Do want.

Wacom Bamboo multitouch pen tablet spotted by Mr. Blurrycam

YouTube Auto Buffer: how did I ever watch YouTube without it?

Nokia Erdos: a shiny specter, or an OLED-equipped reality?

LG officially announces GW620, its first Android phone

Video: Sony’s Vision Library for PlayStation Eye recognizes faces, creates nightmarish human-cow hybrids

Third-party Google Voice client hits the webOS App Catalog

Video: The unsettling truth about our augmented reality future, starring Brad Pitt

Power Bridge flips the strip upside-down, instantly kills ugly

Wacom Bamboo Touch

2009-09-15T23:56:48Z

In the past few months I have transitioned from mainly using a desktop computer to being a full time notebook user (outside of work.) When I picked up a late 2008 Macbook Pro with the new extra-large multi-touch trackpad I knew I liked the gesture features, but I didn’t realize that I’d come to depend on them so much. It’s now second nature for me to use gestures to navigate webpages, switch tabs in my browser and iChat, activate Exposé (my most critical use for gestures actually,) and even switch between iTunes UI modes. Trackpad gestures have become a great compliment to all of the quick keyboard shortcuts that exist in software. (And you should check out KeyCue if you don’t know what shortcuts your applications have.)

Now, whenever I use a desktop, I find myself feeling like a technological amputee. I know what I want to do, but the second-nature link between my mind and the computer is missing. Customizable buttons on a mouse solve a lot of this, but there’s a limit to how many buttons you can cram onto a mouse before it starts to become cumbersome. Keyboard shortcuts are useful, but aren’t a direct replacement for many of the analog gestures you can accomplish on a trackpad like zooming, rotating, and axis-free panning.

Engadget is reporting, and readers are confirming, that Wacom has started shipping the Bambo Touch input device, which can potentially bring the gesture based input I’ve become so dependent on to the desktop space. For $70, you get a capacitive touch tablet that recognizes multi-touch input. Engadget reader Adam reported that $100 and $200 gets you tablets that accept touch and digitizer pen input in two different tablet sizes. A larger tablet that can be used for gesture input full time and provide accurate digitizer input for creative applications use is a no-brainer to me. I also hope we see this functionality make its way into the Intuos line of tablets soon.

I haven’t seen any reports of operating system requirements yet, and oddly, any mention of the product is absent from Wacom’s own website. The Bamboo Touch is being launched at a great time, with Windows 7 supporting multi-touch input. I’m hoping, hoping very-very hard, that the Bambo Touch also supports OS X. I’ve wanted a Macbook style trackpad on a desktop for use with OS X’s gestures for a long time, and I’m hoping that this product can be the answer. I think it could even replace a mouse for most casual computer use.

Via Engadget

iTunes 9 Mini Player is a Swipe Away

2009-09-14T05:09:22Z

iTunes has two modes, the full window mode where you get full functionality, and a “Mini Player” mode that shrinks the program down into a small rectangle that still serves basic controls. On the Mac, switching between these two modes was accomplished with the green (unless you use the graphite color scheme in OS X) + button next to close and minimize. For any other window in the system though, this button toggles the size of the window to go full or fit content. iTunes broke the UI conventions, but it was serving a pretty nice purpose so most everyone forgave it. Hitting the + button to toggle between the full and mini players certainly became second nature to me.

Installing iTunes 9 brought along a nasty surprise. Apple had changed the behavior of a standard click on the + button to resize the window, just like every other application window. Getting to the mini player required holding down the Option key while clicking the + button. Not a huge deal, but it certainly interrupted the established behaviors of users.

With the loss of a single click for the mini player, we gained a new shortcut combination: Command Shift M. (Thanks for the heads up @cesart) With the discovery of a shortcut I did what I do with any other shortcut I use frequently. I threw it into Multiclutch. I assigned Command Shift M to the up and down three-finger swipe gesture for iTunes. Now I can switch between full and mini player modes in iTunes with a quick swipe on the trackpad. It’s actually even better than clicking on the + button like we had to do before iTunes 9. This doesn’t help desktop users any, though, and I’m hoping a simple utility or command line hack will pop up letting users switch the + button’s behavior back to toggling the mini player.

This Week’s Shared Items – September 9, 2009

2009-09-09T14:00:44Z

PS3’s new 3D mode captured on video, coming in 2010 to all existing games

Loopt strikes deal with AT&T for background monitoring on iPhone

Sony Ericsson Pureness caught in the wild

Breaking News: September 25 for MMS on the iPhone

Video: Xperia Pureness (codename Kiki) announced

HTC Hero heading to Sprint October 11th for $179.99, no chin in sight (update: exclusive to Sprint)

Ladies and gents, foursquare is now available on Android devices…

This Week’s Shared Items – September 2, 2009

2009-09-02T14:01:11Z

SendStation’s latest PocketDock is slightly larger than a penny, has much better audio quality than a dime

Researchers developing OLEDs as cheap as newspapers?

Yelp Update Brings Augmented Reality As an Easter Egg

Wikitude: Geo-tag the World Using Your Facebook or Twitter Account

Slay Sync Services Dragons with Spanning Tools

iPhone App Automatically Picks the News You’ll Like

Google Traffic Aggregates User Data

2009-08-27T02:10:19Z

A couple years ago a new dedicated GPS device hit the market called the Dash Express. Dash planned to crowdsource their traffic data. Each Dash Express GPS unit reported location and speed back to the service. Dash then aggregated this data and pushed the results back to every Dash unit. In theory, users would get extremely current and accurate traffic data. In reality, the concept requires a large install base in your area to be effective. If I remember correctly, the Dash unit was nearly $400 at launch, and required a $14/month service plan. In November of 2008 Dash must have seen the writing on the wall, because they quit being a hardware company and started focusing on pushing their system of aggregating traffic data to other platforms and devices.

The concept has been revisited from time to time, and rightfully so, because it’s a solid concept. There is currently a mobile application called Waze that combines geolocation of friends/family, driving directions, maps, traffic data, and accident reporting into one app. The company claims to have a healthy install base in Europe but adoption in the US is still very low. Waze has taken a step in the right direction by being a cross platform application, so the potential install base is much higher than software tied to a single piece of hardware like the Dash Express. As far as execution though, Waze doesn’t cut it for me. At least on the iPhone, the UI is poorly implimented, service is slow, and the previously mentioned small install base keeps the true benefits of crowdsourced traffic from being realized.

This is where Google comes in. They have reached this space from the opposite direction. Google Maps for mobile devices already has an overwhelmingly large install base… a perfect source of information to build traffic data. The Google Blog recently laid out how they are using location data from mobile devices using Google services to build real-time data information for Google Maps users. Google Maps traffic data was recently expanded to secondary roads thanks to the abundance of information gathered from user data. The software that makes this happen comes bundled on Android devices and the Palm Pre, and is an easy download for Blackberry and Windows Mobile. I’m sure most people didn’t even realize they were contributing to the project. The Google Maps application on the iPhone doesn’t have the location reporting feature unfortunately, but I hope it will get added in a firmware update soon. Fortunately for iPhone users though, you don’t have to report data to benefit from it. iPhone users and desktop browser users alike will see the results of crowdsourced traffic data when they use Google Maps.

I know one of the big concerns you’re probably having right now: privacy. Of course there’s always a conversation about how much you should trust a large corporation like Google, but Dave Barth goes to great length to explain how Google is protecting user privacy in the Google Blog post, so please read through the last two paragraphs for sure.

If it’s not obvious by how much I’ve rambled about the subject in this blog post, I’ve had crowdsourced traffic data on my mind for years now, and I’m extremely excited to see it reaching the point where it can benefit a ton of users whether they’re aware of what’s going on behind the scenes or not. And really, I think the best applications of technology are those that don’t require attention or effort from the users in order for them to see the benefits.

Links: The Official Google Blog – The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data, Waze, Dash

This Week’s Shared Items – August 26, 2009

2009-08-26T14:00:03Z

Sony announces Reader Daily Edition, free library ebook checkouts

- Sony just took the wind out of my Kindle’s sail. I’ve been hoping for electronic library e-book checkouts for a while now, and it looks like Sony is delivering.