Exposé Like Multitasking Coming to iPhone/Tablet OS.

There has been much speculation about how an interface might change should Apple release a ten inch tablet that sits somewhere between an iPod/phone and a Macbook (or replaces the Macbook all together).

The operating system for the new device will take advantage of Apple’s Exposé task switching application to allow for side-by side multitasking applications.    The tablet will leverage true resolution independence features to allow for up to 4 applications to be open on the same screen simultaneously.  Hitting a home button on the device will zoom out to show all currently running applications.  When zoomed out you’ll be able to drop as many as four applications into a focus tray that will after being tapped display those applications simultaneously on the screen.  The applications will fill the space sharing equal proportions.  Each at independent resolutions relative to the native resolutions of the system.

This is an exciting step forward, one of the heaviest complaints leveraged against the iPhone/iPod system is the lack of true multitasking functionality.  Essential applications like text to speech systems, have to work in their own separate environment not allowing interaction between applications.  It’s not clear whether or not this will actually be implemented for iPhone/iPod systems.

Update: 1/28 In what was probably one of the biggest disappointments of the iPad announcement, multitasking did not show itself.  That being said, it appears the software isn’t complete, or if it is it is awful and ill conceived.  There were some amazing applications, but the system itself was unbelievably ugly and clunky.

Apple Tablet Getting Screen Sharing, Collaboration Features

Apple couldn’t just release a tablet, it’s got to offer something more, that’s just how the company works.  As a part of the tablet launch the company is has built a new collaboration tool.

Two tablet holders will be able to share a project screen.  This isn’t screen sharing, this is two separate machines manipulating the same application together. The new creative tool will be the first app to support this with iWork applications being updated as well.

This will work across the internet as well as in the same room.

Update: 1/28  With an uncharacteristic lack of vision it appears Apple was content with pasting pretty much the existing iPhone/iPod OS into a larger form factor.  While this was an opportunity to really wow people, they chose a less adventurous route.  It looks like it’s going to take another stakeholder with bigger visions to bring this one about.

Apple Releasing Creative Software to Coincide With Tablet

Apple is releasing new creative software to coincide with their product update announcement on January 27.  As a part of showing off the new interface capabilities of their new device Apple is releasing new software in a similar vein to Corel Paint/Adobe Photoshop.

It is not clear whether or not this will be a part of the iLife or iWork Suites, or if it will be a stand alone application.  What is known is that the software was developed to show off a revolutionary way to work with design tools on a computer.  Apparently it will take advantage of ‘unique’ attributes of the tablet that ‘extend the touch interface beyond the screen.’ The software will not be as robust as the professional applications in it’s genre, but will rather be a high end consumer product offering capabilities a lot of professionals will find helpful.

It will be included with all Apple Touch devices, but weather iPhone, iPod will have the same version or if it will be more akin to Apple’s movie editor for the iPhone is not known.

Update: Holy crap, the thing (tablet) is going to be finger-pressure sensitive! The new paint software will take advantage of it.

Journler Development Ceased Today

Jourlner is a terrific program that does a lot fo things.  It an be used for note taking, including many types of media.  It’s really awesome for brainstorming.

Everything is auto-saved, dated, and searchable.  The program provides folders to organize your notes, including smart folders, there’s even a cool lexicon function.

Which is why it was sad to hear today when I went to check in on the status of Journler development and found a post from Philip Dow, the developer that he was ceasing development on the project.

It sounds like development was to consuming, without enough financial return.  I could be wrong about this, but I wish Philip had considered a lower price for the program when he first priced it.  It’s listed at 35$ right now, which, while it’s a useful product, seems like a lot for the niché it fills.  Then again perhaps that wouldn’t have been sustainable either.  I would have thought something around $10 would be more appropriate.

Regardless the program is wonderful, and I think a version is still available for download.  If you have a chance I’d really suggest you check it out.

Ubiquity: Web 2.0′s ClipBoard App

Ubiquity from Mozilla Labs that promises to introduce a terrific new concept in, I hesitate to say, web browsing.

Similar to how files are handled in Quicksilver, Ubiquity takes it’s cue from web services, bringing them together as functions accessible immediately within your browser.

Want to add a map to the message your sending?  select the location text, activate Ubiquity with an “option+space” and type “map.” 

Like Quicksilver most anything can be accessed just typing in a few intuitive commands.  Ubiquity has the potential to tie in any number of services including Google Maps, Amazon, Ask.com, Yelp, Digg, Ebay, Flickr, Weather.com.  Considering this is a beta, many more products could be integrated.  

This extends and brings sites together in a way that goes beyond just browsing and almost creates a new “clipboard” or some would say “Quicksilver-like” functionality to the Web.

I think it has a lot of potential if it can be simple and intuitive enough to gain some adoption traction.  I also think it’s potentially a huge money maker for a company like Mozilla as companies will want to rank higher as default solutions tied into Ubiquity, similar to how Google currently pays Mozilla for add revenue generated through the Mozilla browser, these other services will want a piece of the action if this technology takes off.

In some ways this application also has a potential to supplement and in some cases supplant “search” as a frequently utilized tool for getting things done.

I’m looking forward to seeing what form this may take going further, and what type of adoption we’ll see.

Ubiquity is working great on my Mac, and it’s supposed to do well on MS Windows as well, Linux requires some extra setup at this early development stage if you want to try it out.

Check out the video here:
Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Thanks to bytemonkey for the tip.

Firefox 3.0 Beta 5

The Firefox team says that the current Firefox 3.0 beta 5 is ready for the average user.

I’m one usually to begin testing a beta much earlier but I jumped in on beta 4.  This may sound completely irrelevant but as a Mac user I very much welcome the new theme default for ff 3.  It fits in much better with the rest of OSX.

•  Zoom: The new zooming tool is awesome and actually zooms in on a page and scales (bigger, or smaller) everything instead of just enlarging text as in previous versions.
• Better downloading tools: Now if your connection gets reset for whatever reason it’s easier to go back and resume the download.
• Save your place: Instead of just bookmarking a group of tabs, you can “save” the pages you have open, to reopen them next time you start Firefox.
• Find bookmarks quickly:  The address bar has been converted to a search tool that searches your history and bookmarks as you type.  It even searches your tags and descriptions.
• Speed: While it may not be as fast as Safari 3.1, this new version of Firefox is seeing speed improvements over previous versions.
• Memory: I’ve always been frustrated by Firefox’s memory issues.  It used to, after some time, take over a lot of system memory and all I could do was to quit and restart.  I haven’t seen those problems yet with this new beta.

I’m currently mostly enjoying browsing my RSS feeds in the bookmarks sidebar.  I’m one of those people who would rather read a post on directly from the site it was published on.  I want to have a good sense of the context (ads and all) it was published in.  Depending upon the feed when I’m looking in Google Reader, Thunderbird, or another RSS reader, I’m left often with incomplete posts.  I realize this isn’t nearly as portable of a solution as GoogleReader is, and I appreciate beging able to loging to GR with my cell phone, but on my computer I want to see the full post, and Firefox Livebook marks makes that easier.  When bookmarking an RSS feed, Firefox considers it a live bookmark, and puts new posts into a folder under the name of the feed.  I can then browse through the different feed folders reading posts one by one.

One thing I’m missing with this that I enjoy through other sources is the ability to go through and read only read unread posts sorted by time posted for all the feeds I subscribe to.  As far as I know with FF 3.0 I’m stuck browsing feed by feed.  Another feature I miss that I enjoy in Thunderbird, is the ability to drag particular posts to a folder to save, or read later.  I could make some kind of bookmark folder to do this I suppose, but it’s not nearly as easy to manage as Thunderbird makes it as if it was just another mail message.

RSS fetish aside, Firefox 3.0 has many changes over the previous version, and really the new theme default is a huge improvement for OSX users.   I’d suggest checking it out.