Several iPhone to do apps compared
Update 2009-10-26
—————————————————-
It appears that Zenbe is now charging $2.99 for the iPhone app.
I just discovered a new free contender out there that seems very much like the Zenbe lists
Doris
They have a Mac Dashboard widget, a website and an iPhone app. I haven’t given this a full test, but it looks very promising. It has drag and drop reordering, groups, and a history for the data-obsessed.
Original post 2008-10-02
—————————————————-
So I’m a big fan of to-do lists – enough to put “research and review to-do lists” on my to-do list. I was looking for one for the iphone, so I read some reviews and spent some time using each. Here is my take on the following free iphone apps from an interaction and usability point of view.
Bottom line? Jott wins on features, Zenbe wins with their easier to use interface.
I’m still using both for now to see which one wins after extended use.
Jott
http://jott.com
So this app is more for note taking, but also operates nicely
as a to-do list. What makes Jott different is that it has a voice
recorder, which records locally, then uploads to the online service for
transcription. The transcription then appears in your list as text,
and can also be played back as audio. I really like the speed and
convenience of entering things while walking down the street. The paid
version of Jott will create calendar entries and send emails.
- voice recording and transcription
- automatic syncing
- good online app, web version, and mini desktop app available (Adobe Air framework)
- customizable bottom icon set for quick access to lists (limit 4 visible at once)
- sorted by date entered, or a simple “priority!” flag, no other options.
- can move items from list to list on both iphone and web
- sharing with others, and integration with 3rd party email and calendar programs (paid upgrade)
Issues:
- Since this is a slightly different animal, it is somewhat unfair to
compare the features to dedicated to-do lists, but I will anyway since
that’s how I use it. I miss the ability to reorder things.
- This is more of a bug, but recorded items will randomly stay in the pending state only on the phone, but appear transcribed online (using
2G iphone firmware 2.1).
- The web version is feature rich, but a little clunky when editing or moving items.
- On the iphone, you mark items complete by very deliberately swiping your finger, which animates a strikethrough of the text. I found this hard to do while walking down the street, the slight angle of my swipe would scroll the page instead. A simple checkbox is easier to use.
- Completed items stay in their original order, adding visual noise when scanning the list. You can ‘clean up’ all items at once or delete each one individually, but this becomes repetitive. The web version allows sorting by ‘done’ all at once.
Zenbe Lists
http://lists.zenbe.com/
Zenbe is an email aggregator, but also has a nice, free simple iphone to-do list app. The to-do application is really elegant to use and the web version is the best I’ve used so far. It also supports sharing with others. That is a feature I have not tested.
- auto sync on launch with manual sync button
- drag n’ drop reordering within lists on the iphone and across all lists on the web version
- sharing lists with others
- due dates
Issues
- You can only move items from list to list on the web version. I’ve found myself accidentally entering a bunch of items in the wrong list and then unable to put them into the right place until I got to the computer.
EasyTask
http://www.easytaskmanager.net/
Summary:
- Getting Things Done format, with project and context views
- nice dashboard with today’s tasks, next 7 days, etc.
- online sync (manual), but the web version seems mainly for viewing, not task entry
- saves completed items, but does not support reuse or undo if accidentally marked complete
- Tasks ordered by date, no other sort options
- can move items from list to list on phone only
Issues:
- When you drill into a project and add a new task, the form is blank, forcing you to re-select the project instead of defaulting to the one you just selected.
- Being GTD oriented, it helps if you follow a strict David Allen methodology. Although I like the ‘tagging’ aspect of GTD theory, I am not so strict with my categorization and date sequencing, so I find the extra steps of selecting a project, context, and due date, a bit more cumbersome. This app is most useful if you enter due dates for everything, a step I often disregard for items that are dependent upon previous steps.
- When entering tasks, there is an enter key on the keypad which is useless since it doesn’t support multiple lines of text. It’d be nice if that enter key said ’save’ or ‘done’.
DoBot
http://dobot.us/
- Nice and simple.
- Supports, dates, priority, and big notes
- Sorting options
- Ability to hide old task for later reuse (essential for grocery lists)
Issues:
There is an interaction disconnect here – the ‘done’ trigger button should always be in the same location, however it is in the upper right for entering notes, dates, priority, and saving the whole task, but is
inexplicably in the bottom right of the keypad when you are entering the task title. It requires 2 steps – on opposite sides of the screen. I still find myself constantly tapping the blue, but slightly grey-out ’save’button several times before correctly typing ‘done’.
FYI, I sent an email letting them know about this and they responded saying this would be addressed in the next version.
To Do
from AustinBull Software – Demo: http://www.austinbull.com/
Thank you for the demo. You just saved me money. I have not used this app, but from the demo, it looks like an interaction nightmare. This app does not follow any of the typical iphone conventions or style, nor simple Fitt’s Law proximity heuristics. It isn’t internally consistent either; click the title text (?) to save in one place and a button in a different place… And it assumes you will always want to add notes to a task, adding the extra step. Yikes.
And at the time of this post, Toodledo, Nozbe, and Remember The Milk only had a web app, so they were not considered.
The “whole” expierience – twittering for business 101
Twitter, and other third-party communication channels are increasingly being used by brands and businesses to help connect with customers in a purely opt in, semi-personal way. This can be done in a good way, and a horribly bad way. To give you some guidance, Chris Brogan has set up a list of things to keep in mind…
My faves:
- Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
- Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
- Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
- When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
- Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
- You don’t have to read every tweet.
- You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
- Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
- Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business
Electronic Voting Machine UI leads to voter fraud
Eight Clay County, Kentucky election officials were charged last week with conspiring to alter ballots cast on electronic voting machines in several recent elections. …
The Kentucky officials are accused of taking advantage of a somewhat confusing aspect of the way the iVotronic interface was implemented. In particular, the behavior (as described in the indictment) of the version of the iVotronic used in Clay County apparently differs a bit from the behavior described in ES&S’s standard instruction sheet for voters [pdf - see page 2]. A flash-based iVotronic demo available from ES&S here shows the same procedure, with the VOTE button as the last step. But evidently there’s another version of the iVotronic interface in which pressing the VOTE button is only the second to last step. So the iVotronic VOTE button doesn’t necessarily work the way a voter who read the standard instructions might expect it to.
The indictment describes a conspiracy to exploit this ambiguity in the iVotronic user interface by having pollworkers systematically (and incorrectly) tell voters that pressing the VOTE button is the last step. When a misled voter would leave the machine with the extra “confirm vote” screen still displayed, a pollworker would quietly “correct” the not-yet-finalized ballot before casting it.
from:
http://www.crypto.com/blog/vote_fraud_in_kentucky/
It remains to be seen if there was intentional wrongdoing, but looking at the demos I see quite a few disconnects between the hardware and software affordances. That is of course, if the demo is accurate to the actual device. The takeaway is that one should use standard conventions used in modern touch kiosk systems where green means go/ok/enter, is at the bottom right of the page, and the interaction stays within the one mode (e.g. touch on the screen).
Notice the RED button, the YELLOW navigation arrows, and the GREEN buttons on the outer frame.
Not shown here, but there is a lengthy onscreen instruction page, two voting pages with standard checkboxes to place your votes, the confirm screen.
During the ‘final’ voting stage there is a flashing RED button on top of the frame and outside of the interface, a flashing GREEN button on screen, and then another GREEN button on the bottom of the frame.
The RED vote button looks like an indicator light (“alarm activated!”), and is not part of the touch screen experience. The greeen ‘vote’ button is getting close, but is above the items I am supposed to read and confirm. Then there is the green outer frame button on the bottom, but no idea what that does.
<sigh> I think it’s time to take this one back into the shop for a look-see…
Opera Fingertouch proposes a solution for the ‘fat finger’
This is an interesting solution to the problems of small form elements and pages with lists of text links. Instead of clicking to select or accidentally clicking a link when trying to zoom or pan, clicking zooms into the specific area controls, making them larger targets. Currently, it adds an extra click even if you DID hit the right thing and could get confusing with device-specific controls which attempt to accomplish the same. But add a little more evolution – as in finger-hover detection – this fish might walk on land.
The video demo below.
Augmented Reality
Looks like this technology is moving beyond proof of concepts and into the advertising world. Very cool stuff. And of course the applications for everyone’s pocket viewport (i.e. mobile phone) are endless.
An ad (and instructions) from GE:
http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality
On a mobile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL2ByYozGOI
And a news feature on the technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKw_Mp5YkaE
The Nokia Ovi Store is official
Hazaah! So the project I’ve been working on for quite some time has gone public at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona – and so far is getting some pretty good buzz. Reaching this point makes the months of synthesizing complicated requirements, tight deadlines, and multiple visions into one experience all seem worth it. My completely biased hope is that when people compare it to the Apple App Store – as they will – they take into account that the App store is only for one type of content (applications) and only works on one device (as UX is concerned). The Ovi Store serves up everything from games to music videos, creating a “many to many to many” relationship that exponentially complicates the process of creating a coherent interface. In addition, we had to consider designing for an enormous range of languages, devices, screen resolutions, input methods, legacy systems, and carrier specifics. None of this could have been done without the collaboration from some stellar and very open-minded technical folks.
The Nokia press release:
http://conversations.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/ovi-store-landscape.jpg
Other people’s takes:
http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/2009/02/19/ovi-store-raises-bar-a-lot/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/nokia-unveils-ovi-store-application-sales-to-debut-in-may/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021600631.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/16/nokia-ovi-store-unveiled-launches-in-may/
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/02/ovi-store.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10164838-78.html
The $300 Million Button
A short article explaining the virtues of usability testing. Forcing new users to register to complete a purchase resulted in an astounding abandonment rate. Great quote: “I’m not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.”. From the article:
The designers fixed the problem simply. They took away the Register button. In its place, they put a Continue button with a simple message: “You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.”
The results: The number of customers purchasing went up by 45%. The extra purchases resulted in an extra $15 million the first month. For the first year, the site saw an additional $300,000,000.
repost from:
http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button
5 Best Data Visualization Projects of the Year
Data visualization continues to grow online and in the real world. It
exists as masterful art pieces and amazingly useful analysis tools. In
both cases though it brings data — which is oftentimes cryptic — to
the masses and shows that data is more than a bucket of numbers. Data
is interesting. As we collect more and more data about ourselves and
our surroundings, the data and the visualization will only get more interesting. On that note, I give you FlowingData’s picks for the top 5
data visualization projects of 2008. Visualizations were judged based
on the use of data, aesthetics, overall effect on the visualization
arena, and how well they told a story.
http://flowingdata.com/2008/12/19/5-best-data-visualization-projects-of-the-year/
Del.icio.us Bookmarks for December 20th through January 6th
- diller scofidio + renfro – 3D card navigation scheme
- 3D card navigation scheme
- Inference Group: Dasher Project: – Zooming predictive text input system Zooming predictive text input system
- How to Use a Gmail Account with Multiple Email Addresses in iPhone Mail – About Email
- Welcome to Avego – iphone transportation / ride sharing app
- iClarified – iPhone – How to Use Your iPhone as a Wireless Modem
Basics: Disable or Hide?
Back to the basics here. I found this topic on a recent email thread a
great reminder as to why one would disable tools or menu options versus hide them. Of course
it always comes down to context, but the bottom line…
Disable controls that are dependent upon the currently selected tool, mode, or other selection.
Hide options that are dependent upon their permission level (E.g. administrative controls).
Of course use smart grouping and other indicators to make the reasons obvious.
Why? Disabling…
- Indicates that the options are possible, but not during the current system state. So therefore the user knows they need to do something else to access those tools, if that is their goal.
- Keeps all controls always visible in the same position within the same list. This leverages visual/spatial memory and clues them that they are in the correct menu or tool set.
- Tech Support will love you, because that helps them identify the system state. Imagine if they instruct the user to look for ‘copy’ under the ‘edit’ menu and the user says it is not there. Tech support now does not know if the user is even in the correct screen, let alone correct state.
Del.icio.us Bookmarks for December 2nd through December 9th
- Microsoft – Going Beyond – interactive timeline good, except for the sound
- hcdtoolkit – toolkit for mobile UX design oriented toward emerging markets
- iPhone PSD Vector Kit | Freebies | Smashing Magazine
- Yahoo! Design Stencil Kit v1.0 (Yahoo! Developer Network Blog)
- teehan+lax » Blog Archive » iPhone GUI PSD
Del.icio.us Bookmarks for October 27th through December 1st
- Feedback Army – super cheap, fast usability testing – using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk distributed labor platform
- RapidRabb.it – Online, sharable, rapid prototyping tool
- Latest Interfaces | Konigi – lots of design patterns and examples of web interactions
- The Knowledge Navigator concept piece by Apple (1987) after Alan Kay
- NuevaSync – Over the Air Synchronization
Mozilla’s Fennec – Firefox for mobile devices
Built on an open platform like Firefox, Mozilla’s Fennec alpha release became available last week for download. It is very touch-optimized and contains a smattering of Mobile Safari stylings. You swipe left and right to access other pages, history controls, and settings.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/fennec/1.0a1/releasenotes/
Below are some screenshots running on the emulator for the Mac.
| normal | swipe to the right | swipe to the left |
 |
 |
 |
Del.icio.us Bookmarks for September 12th through October 23rd
- Balsamiq Studios, makers of plugins for Web Office applications | Balsamiq
- Fitbit – Automatically Track Your Fitness and Sleep
- How to Sync iPhone with multiple computers « tinyfish
- “social networking” Job Trends | Indeed.com
- MegaPhone | Making Digital Signage Interactive
Mircosoft Reasearch UK and SideSight
Alex Butler, Shahram Izadi, and Steve Hodges, all with Microsoft Research UK have been prototyping gestural interactions outside the device itself. This will take some work to get it right and get it right in the proper contexts, but a creative approach for ever-shrinking devices.
By twisting one’s hands appropriately on either side of the phone, objects could be rotated in place. Pages could be panned and scrolled by moving a hand up and down, and Microsoft also proved that text could be entered and edited on the main screen through a stylus while the other hand scrolled the page — a movement that would be akin to the motions a user’s hands would make if he or she were writing on a sheet of paper.
A quick motion toward the device could also be interpreted as a “click,” according to Microsoft.
http://www.gearlog.com/2008/10/microsofts_sidesight_something.php
Several iPhone to do apps compared
So I’m a big fan of to-do lists – enough to put “research and review to-do lists” on my to-do list. I was looking for one for the iphone, so I read some reviews and spent some time using each. Here is my take on the following free iphone apps from an interaction and usability point of view.
Bottom line? Jott wins on features, Zenbe wins with their easier to use interface.
I’m still using both for now to see which one wins after extended use.
Jott
http://jott.com
So this app is more for note taking, but also operates nicely
as a to-do list. What makes Jott different is that it has a voice
recorder, which records locally, then uploads to the online service for
transcription. The transcription then appears in your list as text,
and can also be played back as audio. I really like the speed and
convenience of entering things while walking down the street. The paid
version of Jott will create calendar entries and send emails.
- voice recording and transcription
- automatic syncing
- good online app, web version, and mini desktop app available (Adobe Air framework)
- customizable bottom icon set for quick access to lists (limit 4 visible at once)
- sorted by date entered, or a simple “priority!” flag, no other options.
- can move items from list to list on both iphone and web
- sharing with others, and integration with 3rd party email and calendar programs (paid upgrade)
Issues:
- Since this is a slightly different animal, it is somewhat unfair to
compare the features to dedicated to-do lists, but I will anyway since
that’s how I use it. I miss the ability to reorder things.
- This is more of a bug, but recorded items will randomly stay in the pending state only on the phone, but appear transcribed online (using
2G iphone firmware 2.1).
- The web version is feature rich, but a little clunky when editing or moving items.
- On the iphone, you mark items complete by very deliberately swiping your finger, which animates a strikethrough of the text. I found this hard to do while walking down the street, the slight angle of my swipe would scroll the page instead. A simple checkbox is easier to use.
- Completed items stay in their original order, adding visual noise when scanning the list. You can ‘clean up’ all items at once or delete each one individually, but this becomes repetitive. The web version allows sorting by ‘done’ all at once.
Zenbe Lists
http://lists.zenbe.com/
Zenbe is an email aggregator, but also has a nice, free simple iphone to-do list app. The to-do application is really elegant to use and the web version is the best I’ve used so far. It also supports sharing with others. That is a feature I have not tested.
- auto sync on launch with manual sync button
- drag n’ drop reordering within lists on the iphone and across all lists on the web version
- sharing lists with others
- due dates
Issues
- You can only move items from list to list on the web version. I’ve found myself accidentally entering a bunch of items in the wrong list and then unable to put them into the right place until I got to the computer.
EasyTask
http://www.easytaskmanager.net/
Summary:
- Getting Things Done format, with project and context views
- nice dashboard with today’s tasks, next 7 days, etc.
- online sync (manual), but the web version seems mainly for viewing, not task entry
- saves completed items, but does not support reuse or undo if accidentally marked complete
- Tasks ordered by date, no other sort options
- can move items from list to list on phone only
Issues:
- When you drill into a project and add a new task, the form is blank, forcing you to re-select the project instead of defaulting to the one you just selected.
- Being GTD oriented, it helps if you follow a strict David Allen methodology. Although I like the ‘tagging’ aspect of GTD theory, I am not so strict with my categorization and date sequencing, so I find the extra steps of selecting a project, context, and due date, a bit more cumbersome. This app is most useful if you enter due dates for everything, a step I often disregard for items that are dependent upon previous steps.
- When entering tasks, there is an enter key on the keypad which is useless since it doesn’t support multiple lines of text. It’d be nice if that enter key said ’save’ or ‘done’.
DoBot
http://dobot.us/
- Nice and simple.
- Supports, dates, priority, and big notes
- Sorting options
- Ability to hide old task for later reuse (essential for grocery lists)
Issues:
There is an interaction disconnect here – the ‘done’ trigger button should always be in the same location, however it is in the upper right for entering notes, dates, priority, and saving the whole task, but is
inexplicably in the bottom right of the keypad when you are entering the task title. It requires 2 steps – on opposite sides of the screen. I still find myself constantly tapping the blue, but slightly grey-out ’save’button several times before correctly typing ‘done’.
FYI, I sent an email letting them know about this and they responded saying this would be addressed in the next version.
To Do
from AustinBull Software – Demo: http://www.austinbull.com/
Thank you for the demo. You just saved me money. I have not used this app, but from the demo, it looks like an interaction nightmare. This app does not follow any of the typical iphone conventions or style, nor simple Fitt’s Law proximity heuristics. It isn’t internally consistent either; click the title text (?) to save in one place and a button in a different place… And it assumes you will always want to add notes to a task, adding the extra step. Yikes.
And at the time of this post, Toodledo, Nozbe, and Remember The Milk only had a web app, so they were not considered.
8 hacks to make Firefox ridiculously fast
So I’ve come across a few tips for speeding up firefox. I’ve included the ones I feel should be the most valuable or stable. These can be added by tweaking the about:config file or creating a user.js file in your user profile folder. Be careful and use at your own risk!
Enable pipelining
Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received, often reducing page download times.To enable it, type about:config in the address bar, double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining so their values are set to true, then double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set this to 8.
Keep in mind that some servers don’t support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. Set network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining to false again if you have any problems.
Render quickly
Large, complex web pages can take a while to download. Firefox doesn’t want to keep you waiting, so by default will display what it’s received so far every 0.12 seconds (the “content notify interval”). While this helps the browser feel snappy, frequent redraws increase the total page load time, so a longer content notify interval will improve performance.Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) somewhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type content.notify.interval as your preference name, click OK, enter [250000] and click OK again [default is 120000, this quote=500000, another site uses 750000]. Right-click again in the window and select New > Boolean. This time create a value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to True to finish the job.
Increase the cache size
As you browse the web so Firefox stores site images and scripts in a local memory cache, where they can be speedily retrieved if you revisit the same page. If you have plenty of RAM (2 GB of more), leave Firefox running all the time and regularly return to pages then you can improve performance by increasing this cache size.Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click anywhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type browser.cache.memory.capacity, click OK, enter 65536 and click OK, then restart your browser to get the new, larger cache.
from:
and for a more situation-specific lists of tweaks:
http://codebetter.com/blogs/darrell.norton/archive/2005/01/28/48720.aspx
Marshall McLuhan on the Global Village
I recently came across this famous forecast from Marshall McLuhan on what he coined the “Global Village”:
“The global village is a world in which you don’t necessarily have harmony, you have extreme concern with everybody else’s business. And much involvement in everybody else’s life. [...] And so the global village is as big as a planet, and as small as a village post office.”
What is interesting is how the increasingly connected culture McLuhan was concerned about in the 1960s is even moreso with respect to the blogosphere and modern communication channels. The ‘big brother’ fears aside, his predictions of the shift toward audience interaction and location-independent tribalism was spot on.
This was from Peter Hirschberg’s TED talk, starting about 14:10 in.
Touch screen predictive text entry – Swype & Shapewriter
2 companies have recently released software that aims to speed text entry on touch-screen devices. The prospect of this very promising, especially for mobile devices. Hopefully the accuracy is improved since a wrong suggestion can wipe away the perceived benefits of several right ones.
ShapeWriter™ makes mobile phones, tablet computers, game pads, and all other touch-screen devices more useful – and user friendly.
The next step in the evolution of touch-screen
technology has arrived. ShapeWriter makes using touch-screen devices
easier, faster and more enjoyable than ever before. Ideally suited for
touch-screen devices such as mobile phones, handhelds and tablet
computers, ShapeWriter’s cutting-edge text input technology helps
manufacturers of these devices create the most innovative new products
for consumers.
Here’s a demo of their iphone app:
And similarly,
Swype provides a faster and easier way to input text on any screen.
With one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard,
the patented technology enables users to input words faster and easier
than other data input methods—at over 50 words per minute. The
application is designed to work across a variety of devices such as
phones, tablets, game consoles, kiosks, televisions, virtual screens
and more.
Simply Trace a Path
The word “quick” was generated from tracing the path shown above in
a fraction of a second, by roughly aiming to pass through the letters
of the word. A key advantage to Swype is that there is no need to be
very accurate, enabling very rapid text entry.
Del.icio.us Bookmarks for August 6th through September 12th
- Instapaper
- Axure Design Pattern Library v1.0 at A Clean Design
- Gestalt Psychology theory – visual laws: Proximity, Similarity, etc.
- Welcome to CellSpin – mobile blog posting aggregator
- Welcome to CellSpin – mobile blog posting aggregator
SenseSurface
This is a great example of augmenting virtual environments with real physical controls. I am really interested to see computing technologies augment metaphors for real-world interaction with actual real-world interaction.
http://girtonlabs.googlepages.com/sensesurface
(those are real knobs magnetically attached to the screen)
The return of the Command Line – Mozilla Labs’ Ubiquity
The command line interface is making a comeback! Some say it never left. I never liked them, since they required you to memorize a strict lexicon of cryptic commands, but for certain tasks, they are efficient and powerful. Enter the new generation which eschew formalist structure in favor of “natural language” commands.
For desktop integration, there is Enso for the PC and Quicksilver for the Mac. Enter Mozilla Labs’ Ubiquity for the browser. It leverages existing open APIs to allow quick access to disparate web services through semi-structured text input. I can see this easily melding with the now very multi-functioned address bar in FireFox 3.x
As one who has fully embraced cmd-spacing to launch apps on the Mac (Spotlight), I welcome this interaction. It will be interesting to see how this slips into the mainstream.
Quote:
Ubiquity 0.1
* Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more. Ubiquity “command list” to see them all.
* Find and install new commands to extend your browser’s vocabulary through a simple subscription mechanism.
http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/
ok let’s cancel
So, which one is the right choice?
I got this alert dialog today while installing the Firefox 3.0 add-in “Foxmarks”. Nice one…
Del.icio.us Bookmarks for July 10th through July 30th
- WHERE » Widgets, meet GPS. WHERE GPS Widgets.
- Nokia – Beta Labs – free mobile software
- openmoko.com | Products – open source linux mobile touchscreen phone
- design QR codes – embed logos and pictured into a QR code –
- QR Code and semacode/Data Matrix barcode generator –
OpenMoko UX Design
OpenMoko has recently released the Neo FreeRunner, an open source mobile phone platform geared towards the DIY developer set. Who else would want a terminal app on the homepage? The initiative is great, but this incarnation has a long way to go towards delivering an enjoyable (and dare we say even usable?) experience.
Unless I’ve misinterpreted, “home” apparently is a blank screen and the “plus sign” is this list of applications…
Great to know that the “Contacts” area is the “Address Book”. I would have never guessed. These redundant descriptions are apparently just the beginning.
The horror, the horror…
OpenMoko Train Wreck from Dave Fayram on Vimeo.