arts & science

Why Safari for Windows - An Independent Take...

2007-06-17T01:17:00.000+02:00

At WWDC'07 last week, Apple Inc. surprisingly announced the Safari browser for Windows. Why would Apple spend time developing another web browser for the Windows platform while at the same time delaying Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X to late fall this year?

Some say this will allow Windows developers to test iPhone web applications before its release, others that Apple want in on the share on search revenue from Google and Yahoo!, which are implemented in the browser itself. All are possible reasons but is it worth the effort?

Here's another take on why Apple is going into the browser war as strongly as they are. First, a short background:

One of the new features in Mac OS X Leopard is something called resolution independence, which allows an end-user to scale the user interface to a factor of her choice. This will be increasingly important as screen definition will go up, while the physical screen size remains the same, resulting in elements on the screen becoming smaller and smaller, and at a certain point in-usable. Apple have recently upped the maximum resolution of their Macbook Pro 17" model to 133 pixels per inch (PPI) from around 100 before. Upcoming Macs will likely follow this race and ship with high definition screens that require the OS to scale accordingly. The iPhone will for example sport a 166 PPI screen.

So, the OS will handle the adaptation for applications and its own interface, but what about the web? There is no real web standard for resolution independence, and for sure no one that works together with the OS and hardware it's running. If Apple can take the lead and develop the first multi-platform browser with built-in resolution independence, they will have a huge advantage as high definition, high PPI screens becomes widely available. Given that Apple implemented it own sub pixel rendering engine into Safari for Windows also hints that things are going in this direction.

Of course, this will also require designers to take screen definition into account when designing web applications, but with a browser that takes care of scaling, this will be limited to supplying high resolution graphics that still looks good when scaled up to a certain factor.

Is the web ready to go from pixels to flexible scalability?

Apple's Safari

New Sony Bravia ad premiers Tuesday

2006-10-17T13:54:00.000+02:00

Sony will start airing the new Bravia ad as of Tuesday this week. The ad, created by Fallon London, took 10 days and 250 people to film.

Final result can be seen on the link below
(also available in HD 720p):
http://www.bravia-advert.com/

Wireless spot icon contest winner announced!

2006-09-22T19:15:00.000+02:00

Today the winner of the wireless icon design contest was announced at the One Web Day in New York. The main concept behind the proposed design is "the depiction of planet earth offering a wireless connection to those who need one".

The icon in eps format can be downloaded here.

Read more:

www.nextfest.net/promotions/wireless/
Arts+Science post

Apple previews iTV, wireless media hub

2006-09-12T22:49:00.000+02:00

Apple Computer today previewed their upcoming media hub, a device looking like a thinner version of the Mac mini, cabable of streaming video and audio from a computer to a TV. The device, with working name iTV, will connect through a wireless network to computers and connects to a TV using HDMI/component video and optical audio cables.

Together with the launch of the new iTunes Store, with full length movie downloads in DVD quality (full VGA resolution, up from 320x240), Apple takes one step further into the living room, something we will see more of next year according to analysts.

At the same time, Apple also introduced the second generation iPod nano, upgrading the top model to 8 GB storage and adding color options, increased battery time to 24h, all in an even thinner anodized aluminum casing.

Other updates include a newly designed and much smaller iPod shuffle 1GB, and updates of the flagship iPod model with more storage and brighter screens.

www.apple.com

Wireless hot spot icon design contest

2006-09-10T14:50:00.000+02:00

Wired magazine and Nextfest.net have created a contest for the first ever universal icon representing a wireless Internet hot spot. The idea is to create a standard sign that will make it easy to find a place to connect your laptop or wireless device wherever you might be.

The winning design will be produced and distributed throughout New York during the "NY is Wired" [sic] week in end of September.

I decided to give it a try myself, the result can be seen above. Going for simplicity and recognition, I choose the old and badly reputed at sign combined with stylized radio waves, presented here in a glossy web 2.0-ish package. Now I only need to make place for the obligatory "beta" text somewhere...

www.wired.com
www.nextfest.net/promotions/wireless

(note: submission period ended September 6th)

Google unveils new beta release for Blogger

2006-09-10T14:23:00.000+02:00

Google has release a new set of fetaures for their blog service Blogger, hosting thousands of weblogs including this one. Blogger is now linkd to a gmail account, and uses the same login for posting and editing.

New featuers inlude databased driven dynamic serving which speed up the publish process, access control, visual template design within dashboard and labels to tag posts. Other minor improvments includes cascading archive as seen in the side panel to the right of this blog.

Google also hints more features are on the way.

Life's too short...

2006-09-09T21:27:00.000+02:00

This outdoor ad series, seen on all sorts of vending machines, was created by an agency in Berlin for Jobsintown.com, a german job search site. A smart campaign that got viral fast.

Full story at:
http://blog.coolz0r.com/2006/09/04/jobs-in-town/

Sony Ericsson to launch mobile music store

2006-09-07T11:52:00.000+02:00

Sony's online music store service Connect have been available for some time, and now sister company Sony Ericsson officially plans to go mobile with the store, according to an article in Wall Street Journal. Mobile phones have alredy been equiped with a download service for ring tones, Play Now, but so far no downloads of real music have been present.

Sony's music business and record labels combined with Sony Ericssons market share in music enabled walkman phones could give the mobile store a boost from start. At the same time, Nokia who recently bought out the joint music proposition Loudeye, and Apple, rumored to release a mobile phone enabled iPod device this fall, will likely add to the competition. The questions is now who gets first?

www.connect.com
www.sonyericsson.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115692781762949338.html (requires login)

Nike+iPod makes running fun (well, less boring)

2006-08-29T21:50:00.000+02:00

Trying to get myself to run a couple of times a week, I needed a pair of new trainers and decided to go for the recently announced Nike+ shoes together with the iPod sport kit. The shoes are great, very lightweight and it feels like running on cottons but the most exciting part is the little device that goes into the shoes and sends running data to your iPod while burning calories.

As you run, the display shows the distance, time and speed, a voice tells you the current state when pressing the center button. You can also set a predefined distance or time and the iPod will regularly tell you the remaining minutes or km/miles.

To measure speed and distance, the device uses a piezoelectric accelerometer that can sense for how long your foot stays on the ground for each step, this gives over 90% accuracy for most people according to Apple and can also be calibrated for better precision.

When the training session is over, all you need to do is to synchronize the iPod with iTunes and it will send the running data to nikeplus.com where all the runs are visible as graphs for monitoring. From here, you can set up training goals and even create challenges with your friends, for instance who will run the longest distance in 30 days and keep track of it.

It's really a great innovation put together in a sleek way, that makes one of the most boring things in life a bit more fun and interactive.

nikeplus.com
apple.com/ipod/nike

Sony continues Bravia color ad campaign

2006-08-06T12:32:00.000+02:00

The by far most talked about commercial for the last 12 month has been Sony's hundreds of thousands of colorful rubber balls bouncing in slow-motion down the streets of San Francisco for their Bravia LCD TV series.

Now, agency Fallon London is finalizing the follow up to the success with the help of 70,000 liters of paint and loads of explosives to completely cover a skyscraper in vivid colors.

Chances are this sequel will become the next hyped commercial to spread through the web just like the first one did. Viral marketing 'like no other'...

The spot will air in September, the creation of the new add can be seen here:

http://www.bravia-advert.com/

Apple to launch mobile phone this fall?

2006-08-05T14:27:00.000+02:00

Rumors are that Apple might finally launch its first own-branded mobile phone this fall. During the last couple of years, buzz on such device have been spreading rapidly through the web and hundreds of (likely fake) concept images of Apple's forthcoming mobile device have been seen around the rumor sites covering Apple products.

There is no doubt that Apple is working hard to get on the battle to take shares in the hot mobile phone consumer segment, where Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and various Asian brands such as Samsung and LG are making big bucks. Mobile music stores like Sony Connect, will not be left alone by Apple.

After the failure with the Motorola ROKR phone (with integrated iTunes) due to bad interface design, storage limitations, legacy formfactor and the lack of a mobile iTunes music store integration, Steve Jobs is not likely to release anything but perfection this time.

Look out for the two upcoming Apple events this fall, the WWDC in San Francisco on August 7, and the Apple Expo in Paris beginning of September.