Remembering Digital Image Suite

Microsoft is discontinuing one of its products...

Microsoft has decided to halt development of its Digital Image Suite line of consumer photo-editing software. Here are some of the artistic effects it made possible, as seen on photos from a trip to the San Diego Zoo.

Here are two polar bears at play, with a cutout filter applied...check out the image
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Ask.com Unveils Dramatic New Interface

Fourth place search engine Ask.com unveiled on June 5 a dramatically redesigned interface aimed at distinguishing both its appearance and results from competitors Google, Yahoo and Live.com.

The new interface, dubbed Ask3D, presents query answers in a three-panel screen that includes standard links to content as well as lists of related results from blogs, video, news, photo and shopping sites.

"You used to have to visit three different pages or Web sites to see and search through each dimension," said Daniel Read, vice president of products and user experience. "With Ask3D, you can now get everything you need on one page ... in many cases above the fold."

According to Read, Ask3D stands for the three dimensions of searching—query expression, investigating results and digging deeply into content.

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The Myth of the Genius Designer?

This article was published in Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox which says:

Having a good designer doesn't eliminate the need for a systematic usability process. Risk reduction and quality improvement both require user testing and other usability methods.

The most common example given is Steve Jobs. Granted, Jobs has been in charge of some great products. He's also produced many duds as well, the most famous being the NeXT machine and the Mac Cube. Even the Macintosh was very nearly a failure, being saved in the nick of time by Adobe and the advent of desktop publishing. (And, of course, the Mac's usability is more properly credited to Jef Raskin and Larry Tesler's user studies in the Lisa group than to Jobs himself.)

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NEW!!! Microsoft Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.

Compelling cross-platform user experiences

* Deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces.
* Seamless, fast installation for users, thanks to a small, on-demand, easy-to-install plug-in that is under 2 megabyte (MB) in size and works with all leading browsers.
* Consistent experiences between Windows-based and Macintosh computers without any additional installation requirements.
* Create richer, more compelling Web experiences that take greater advantage of the client for increased performance.
* Stunning vector-based graphics, media, text, animation, and overlays that enable seamless integration of graphics and effects into any existing Web application.
* Enhance existing standards/AJAX-based applications with richer graphics and media and improve their performance and capabilities by using Silverlight.

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Three Little Quibbles About the IPod???

For all IPod fans, here are some "quibbles" about the IPod:

Menus scroll the wrong way
The onscreen menus scroll the wrong way. They scroll sideways, when they should scroll up and down.

No menu wrapping
Talking of menus, why aren't they wrapped in a never-ending loop?

No Autofill for bigger iPods
Why is there no Autofill feature for iPods bigger than the Shuffle?

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EyeMove PC??

The EyeMove PC is a new approach to home entertainment and computer user interfaces. EyeMove is a small oval shapped computer with built-in projection lens controlled by a multi-function wirelless controller. Place it vertically on a wall or horizontally on your desk and project your programs, movies, games anywhere you like. With the wireless controller you can forget the old mouse, your keyboard, joystick, you have it all in one with a touch screen wireless controller..

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Crazy Multi-Input Touch Screen

While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops...

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