Touch-free interaction is emerging 

That’s the first one. Second thing from Apple, which started to push (indirectly) for touch-free interaction, the almighty voice assistant in the iPhone 4S – Siri. With Siri, you can talk to the device, asking for assistance in scheduling, setting alarm etc. with natural language, though it obviously cannot fully replace the existing touch interface due to the limitation in terms of functionality and practicality, but it’s well on track for initiating the next thing in Human-Computer Interaction – a Touch-free Interaction.

Of course, in the game console world, there are already a few commercialized devices (such as Microsoft Kinect, PlayStation Eye) that promoting touch-free interaction – gesture-based interaction and/or facial recognition – they works well in living room distance, however, they might be not ideal for shorter range, for example in front of your PC or mobile devices (though the recent new SDK of Microsoft Kinect that includes Near Mode can open up new possibilities).

Touch-free interactive products are growing in numbers

Samsung Smart TVs

Recently there are already quite a number of products that starting to build this next future. Take a look on Samsung Smart TVs, which includes a touch-free interaction feature (Gesture control and Voice Control) for the user to interact with the TV set.

The Leap

Here’s another very interesting product (with a very impressive size and scalability) – The Leap, claimed that the future is on your hand, and indeed, they have the right to say so. This device has a by impressive tracking functionality (that can track even a tip of the pencil) and awesome precision. I am totally blown away when it is used to play a FPS game with hands.

S-Voice

S-Voice, a slightly less-impressive but still able to get the basic job done, released by Samsung exclusively on the Samsung Galaxy S3, is a sign that touch-free interaction is the upcoming trend. Heavily inspired by Siri, the user of S-Voice can ask to do certain tasks that can be accomplished using the fingers. Demo at 2:30 in the video below.

Virtual Presenter/Assistant

While this technology most probably doesn’t fit in the category of touch-free interaction, but I believe soon enough this virtual manikin made using 3M Vikuiti Rear Projection Film that has been pretty widespread now in some airports around the world will have their interaction part very soon (voice recognition like Siri, for example).

What’s next?

With tons of rumors going around (for example the new Apple TV with Siri functionality), it’s definitely not crazy to think that in the upcoming future, more things around us that requires physical interaction will be slowly replaced with touch-free interaction, though I believe definitely not in the very near future. It is also natural that the next generation of AI will definitely getting their emotional parts, as well as understanding more things that a human exhibits – gestures, facial emotion, voice etc., and respond accordingly (Sounds a bit scary no?).

Are we getting lazy? Yes, but human are always lazy. We keep on innovating to create things that help us accomplish tasks in a better, faster, efficient way, and that’s the reason technology is important. Of course, user experience is still the number one thing in touch-free interaction – human will be the one that interact with computers nevertheless, and things changed when the technology is shifting from touch experience to touch-free experience, but it will be an awesome experience. So, welcome to the future!

While it seems to be a pretty simple question, but if you are using Adobe Reader AND you are filling a fillable PDF form (with the above warning), most probably that you are scratching your head and ask yourself ‘How do I save this darn thing?‘. Of course, if the fillable PDF is created in an appropriate way, Adobe Reader user will be able to save a copy of the filled form.

What if that is not the case? You have the option to go back to the author and ask for a proper version, but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. Solution? You will still be able to save the form, only in other PDF readers. Here’s some PDF reader alternatives that can be used to save any fillable form:

• Nitro Reader - A pretty new PDF reader and it is impressive since first release. You can save fillable form as normal form or flattened version.
• PDF-XChange Viewer - A long time third party PDF reader with a lot of features – saving a fillable form is one of them.

What are the alternative if a new PDF reader is not a preferred solution? You can try any PDF printer. Fill the form, print the form using PDF printer, and you will have a PDF filled with your information. My recommendation for PDF printers:

• PrimoPDF - Highly recommended. Easy to install and easy to use.
• CutePDF - Simple and easy application.

So that’s it! Happy form filling!

Image source

It’s been a wonderful day that Microsoft decided to release the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Build to the public to taste the new features.

I install it on top of my Windows 7 and everything went so well until I restarted my PC – I can’t login to my Windows 8 and I confirmed that I have my login details right. So what’s the problem here?

16-Character Only Password Bug

The problem is – a bug that I wouldn’t expect from a Microsoft product – the password bug in the entire system. For some reason, it seems to have a 16-character limitation to the password for Windows Live ID, so if you have a password that contains more than 16 characters, you won’t be able to login to your Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and all other services offered that use your Windows Live ID. For me, I not really sure why this is implemented in the first place.

But this isn’t the worse. The worse is that you will still able to login – by using the first 16 characters of your Windows Live ID password. So for example, if you have a password of abcdefghijk1234567890, enter only abcdefghijk12345 (16-character) and you will be able to login. This applies to the Windows login, and all other services like Messenger, Marketplace etc.

I hope this can help for some people as it seems to be a really strange (and careless) bug for me. Indeed, you can argue that it just a Consumer Preview Build and it can contains bugs, but for me, this is a very unusual bug that I have ever encountered.

Do you have an Apple iPhone? If you do, allow me to ask another question: Do you know there is a feature called ‘Shake to Undo’ on the iPhone which allows you to undo/redo your last actions during typing?

If you are aware of this feature, do you still recall how do you know about it? If you doesn’t know about it, you are not alone, and it’s not your fault.

I owned an Apple iPad for more than a year before I got myself an iPhone 4S, therefore I am aware that there is an undo/redo feature for typing in iOS. When I got my iPhone, I am pretty excited and start taking notes using Pages while reading Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things, and I started looking for a clue to undo my wrong Paste action. As you would expect, I failed to find any single clue until I searched on the internet for the activation method.

So, what’s the problem here? It’s a cool feature, right? Allow me to quote a few sentences from Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things:

The user needs help. Just the right things have to be visible: to indicate what parts operate and how, to indicate how the user is to interact with the device. Visibility indicates the mapping between actions and actual operations. 

Whenever the number of possible actions exceeds the number of controls, there is apt to be difficulty.

Shake the device to activate the Undo/Redo feature sounds really cool (and lesser button on the virtual keyboard?), but is it a good design? In my opinion, it is a bad design. Unlike Android where you might have the menu button (which is actually gave up by Android Team) to house the Undo/Redo feature, there is only one hardware button on the iPhone, and it is so natural that people will start looking into the possibility of undo/redo by searching through the keyboard layout. Below screenshot shows the iPhone virtual keyboard (at Advanced Symbols layout) which I really expect the Undo/Redo button should be placed:

So my suggestion to this design issue? Make it visible! Just one Undo button at the Advanced Symbols layout will really helps a lot. Long press it to access the Redo option (if applicable).

Why this solution can be a much better option compared to the ‘Shake to Undo’ feature? It’s because even though now I already know shaking the device can activate this Undo/Redo feature, but I just doesn’t want to do it in public and look stupid.

What do you think?

Click the image above for full-size view.

I loved the Holo theme in Ice Cream Sandwich. That’s the reason I made the Android ICS GUI Design Kit in PSD for Android Designer to design high quality app with stock UI elements in mind. But I am also curious how well can the UI elements in Holo theme for ICS can be applied to the currently available apps, so I decided to start with the official Twitter Android app, which is an easy one I think.

I have tried to apply stock UI elements as many as possible to show that they can be used to design high quality app and preserve the user experience (UX) that is consistent and predictable with the stock ICS. During the design, I also try to improve the UX of the app for better usability.

• Stacked Tabs - For the main tabs, I have decided to use Stacked Tabs instead of Scrollable Tabs. Scrollable Tabs can work well in this case, however, for 4 tabs, Stacked Tabs is suitable. This will allow the user to tap on the wanted tab, and also allow the user to scroll through the tabs using horizontal gesture. You will notice that the selected tab will have a highlighted effect at the bottom of that tab (which is a stock tab behavior). For the unselected tabs, the grey indicates that it is not selected and there is no update for that tab. The blue highlight for unselected tabs indicates that there is some unchecked updates.

• Refresh button – To be honest, I am not a fan of ‘Pull down to refresh…’ feature in the Twitter app. Call me old school, but I still prefer a Refresh button on the Action Bar.

• Search button - I have also added a Search button on the Action Bar. In the official Twitter app, a Search button (but looks like a text field) is placed on top of the content (both in Connect and Discover tab), so if you scrolled down to the very bottom of the page, you will have to scroll all the way back to the top to access it. I am aware that we have a hardware Search button, but I think it will still be easier if the user can initiate the search within the app.

• Grid Lists – The Discover tab is a good example to show how the Grid Lists can be used in the app, other than the stock Gallery app.

• Mentions Only switch at Connect tab – In the official Twitter app, the bottom bar consists of two tabs, Interaction and Mentions, which in my opinion, is redundant and confusing. So instead I have made it a switch to turn on/off Mentions Only mode for the Connect tab.

It is really interesting to see how well an app can be enhanced only with the stock UI elements in ICS and of course, well in-line with the Android Design Guideline. Let’s hope with the released Android Design guideline meant for ICS, there will be more good quality app in the Android Market.

Don’t hesitate to comment/criticize my UI concept, this is where we can learn our mistake and do better for the next one.

Details

Update 30-06-2012: Version 2.0 includes the new Nexus 7 in Portrait and Landscape!

Besides the Android ICS GUI Design Kit that can be used in Adobe Photoshop, I also think (and love!) that sketching is a big part of UI/UX designing, while it can be messy, but it definitely help in quick idea visualization and aid in brainstorming.

So here I come up with two sketch templates for Android App, using the Samsung Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy Nexus as the sample devices, and put them on an A4-sized PDF with almost real-life size so designers can sketch the app with the size as close as the real device (don’t blame me if there is one or two pixels off! /jk/).

Android app designer, go create some awesome apps with the GUI Design Kit and GUI Sketching Kit!

Download

Android GUI Sketching Kit – Nexus S

Android GUI Sketching Kit – Galaxy Nexus

Android GUI Sketching Kit – Nexus 7 Tablet – Portrait

Android GUI Sketching Kit – Nexus 7 Tablet – Landscape

Android GUI Sketching Kit – Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 Tablet

29FEB2012: Android Team have officially provided the Android Design Stencils in Adobe Photoshop format! Awesome!

26FEB2012: Android ICS GUI Design Kits updated to 2.0.1!

19JAN2012: Android ICS GUI Design Kits updated to 2.0!

Update

1.1: Added more stock ICS GUI elements. Refer below for details.

2.0: Based on the official Android Design by Android Team, most of the ICS GUI stock elements have been added. Below image shows a summary of the content.

2.0.1: Added the Back Arrow for the top action bar. Thanks Andy!

Details

I have been designing mock up of Android app in Adobe Photoshop and I find that a GUI Design Kit is extremely important, and I thought there isn’t any good (and simple) one in the wild, so I have decided to make this Android ICS GUI Design Kit for two different resolutions and dpi:

• 720×1280 320dpi – Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• 480×800 240 dpi – Samsung Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy S II

The main idea of this GUI Design Kit is not making everything scalable to the unfortunate fragmentation occurs in Android, but just provide some stock elements of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in one .psd file so app designer can really focus on creating awesome mock up to show developers/clients. Some of the elements are just single layer of image from ICS, but I thought they are pretty adequate for mock up purpose.

So what’s in it (1.0):

Gmail allows you to automatically forward incoming emails to the other email address, but unfortunately, it is limited to only one address at a time in Mail Settings.

However, a trick on the filtering feature in Gmail can be applied to automatically forward incoming emails to multiple recipients at once. Here’s how:

1. Go to Mail Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Forwarding. Click Add a forwarding address button to add an email address that you want to forward the incoming mails.

2. The inbox of that email address should have an incoming mail from Gmail Team, asking for permission to allow the forwarding. Approve for the permission so that the email address is selectable for forwarding address in Gmail.

3. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 for the other email addresses. Note that there will be a limitation of 20 email addresses that can be used for forwarding using this tricks, but it should be adequate for normal use.

4. To configure the first forwarding, go to Mail Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Forwarding. Click on the radio button Forward a copy of incoming mail to, then select one of the email addresses that you wish to forward. Then click Save Changes button.

5. For the other email addresses, a filter is required to be created, so that the incoming emails can be forwarded to those addresses. Go to Mail Settings > Filters > Create a New Filter.

6. Put a asterisk (*) at the To field, then click Create filter with this search.

7. Check the checkbox for Forward it to:, then select the other email address from the list.

8. Click Create Filter button and you are done! Simply repeat Step 5 to Step 8 for the rest of the email addresses, and now whenever there is a new incoming mail, it will be forwarded to all of the email address that you have configured. Congratulation!

There has been quite some rumors saying that Apple is already designed and produced the next iPad with Retina Display, the display technology that has been used on the iPhone 4 and the recent 4S, and there are already a few manufacturers have named for the production of the display, in rumors that is.

Before the iPad 2 getting announced (the second last keynote by Steve Jobs), early adopters of original iPad were anticipating Retina Display on the new iPad as there are some findings in the iOS codes lead to that belief. However, even though iPad 2 has a slightly new design and generally thinner and lighter, the display is exactly the same as in the original iPad. Disappointed, but it’s right not to have it on iPad 2. 

It’s right for not having Retina Display on iPad 2…

It is certainly disappointing that the iPad 2 has no Retina Display, but it is a right thing to do by Apple Inc. in my opinion. Why?

Weight reduction is important

While the original iPad is so much lighter than the conventional laptop, but let’s face it, it still have a quite significant weight (1.5 lb or 680 g for WiFi-only version), especially if the user holding it with one hand which is pretty normal (I have an original iPad, so yeah, I know it). Getting the same IPS display at 1024×768 on the iPad 2 is so natural in manufacturer point of view – the production technology has matured which contributed to the cheaper price and thus lighter weight since more cost can be pushed to other components. Getting the tablet device weight reduced is so much important than having a high-resolution display but heavy weight.

Digital reading contents for Apple is still growing

Even though iPad is advertised to be a multimedia devices, it also changes the way people consuming reading materials. Of course, Kindle is already there for quite some time, but frankly, I do not find the e-ink display equipped tablet interesting, especially the ugly screen flashing during the page turn, for example (The new color e-ink and mirasol display, however, look interesting). Though eBook industry is still pretty new to Apple, and only recently that the Newsstand is released in the new iOS 5, so it will take some time for it to grow. With the IPS display that iPad has, it is already adequate to become a good reading device.        

Lack of multimedia content production

Lacking the push in multimedia content production in both Apple and Third Party App developers also one of the reason that iPad 2 doesn’t need a high-resolution display, in my opinion. While there are already a few highly rated apps made by Apple such as Garage Band and iMovies available alongside with the launch of iPad 2, they are still not enough making the iPad a multimedia production house. However, there are already several apps from Adobe in the work, such as Photoshop Touch, for example, which I think can help in defining the iPad as a producer, rather than a consumer.

Retina display could make it more expensive

If the Retina Display for iPad is in the similar trend to that of in iPhone 4, which is a double of the resolution and double of the ppi, that would result in a whooping 2048×1536 @ 264 ppi. That is a massive move in terms of screen resolution, and I would presume even the latest A5 Dual Core processor in the iPad 2 doesn’t have enough juice to drive this resolution, especially in 3D gaming scene. The current mainstream screen resolution would be 1920×1080 (according to Wikipedia) and for gaming at this resolution natively, it would require a set of impressive hardware which I couldn’t imagine all of these to be packed in a tablet device. So double the screen resolution, probably a double/quadruple of the processing power is needed and thus – higher price point.

…But it’s time for Retina Display in the next iPad

Despite all of possible reasons for not having Retina Display on the iPad 2, the next iPad (most probably named iPad 3 or iPad HD) must have the high-resolution display. Here’s my take on it:

Next generation hardware

I doesn’t born early enough to witness the history of Apple Inc., but ever since Apple have their first iPhone released, they seems to have adapted to a trend in their product life cycle – hardware and technology improvement on every new product. So, it is definitely not surprising for the next iPad to have a huge upgrade in the specification, at least on the processor (probably Apple A6 quad-core?) that can possibly handle that huge resolution at ease. The current Apple A5 chipset is already pretty good, and I think the next will be really great. Retina Display? Most likely won’t be a problem.

iPad is getting mature

The original iPad starts shipping around April 2010, and I still remember it is not an OK when it starts shipping with iOS 3. But now with the released iOS 5, the iPad becomes more usable and started to be inline with the Post-PC era that is always mentioned by Steve Jobs. So with all the lessons learned in the first two iPads and the platform is getting matured, it’s time for better iPad.

Pixelated texts doesn’t help in reading

I must admit that the current texts display on the iPad isn’t that bad, but it isn’t that great either. Ever since I have an iPad, I have done most of the readings on it and it does the job fantastically, except the pixelated texts which is pretty annoying sometimes (I am a pixel-perfect guy, so yeah). So, Retina Display on the iPad can definitely help in pushing it becoming a great reading device that feels natural.

Making it a tool for Professionals

With the higher resolution display, there are a lot more things can be done with high precision using it by professionals, such as Photographer, Drawing Artist, Film Maker, Surgeon, just to name a few. There will be more third-party apps that can make full use of the high-resolution display and create wonder.

So…

There are already tons of rumors talking about such display in the next iPad (though there are also similar rumors for iPad 2), but I am keeping my finger crossed for this one. I don’t mind if the design is the same as iPad 2 (similar in iPhone 4S if you know what I mean), but a Retina Display (and some other improvements) is a must in the next iPad – in my opinion.

]]> http://techietalkz.com/2011/11/29/why-the-next-ipad-must-have-retina-display-and-why-its-right-not-to-have-it-on-ipad-2/feed/ 1 GhOsT_301 Retina Display http://techietalkz.com/2011/11/03/android-first-impression-of-unofficial-ice-cream-sandwich-on-google-nexus-s/ http://techietalkz.com/2011/11/03/android-first-impression-of-unofficial-ice-cream-sandwich-on-google-nexus-s/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:20:34 +0000 Taylor Ling https://ghost301tech.wordpress.com/?p=1688 ]]>

The announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) and the new Galaxy Nexus certainly are exciting news for Android supporter, though it is a little bit sad to know that Nexus One won’t get the sweetness that Ice Cream Sandwich offers (at least officially).

There has been a promise of Nexus S getting Ice Cream Sandwich few weeks after the release of Galaxy Nexus, however, I am sure most of the Nexus S (and other Android device that is eligible for the update) user couldn’t wait any longer for the release. Good news is that Google already released the SDK of Android 4.0, so while waiting for the official release, we can have a go on the sweetness via the emulator on the computer.

How about a real ROM on the device now? If you are adventurous enough to try an unstable ROM (and by unstable, I really meant it) which is not meant for daily normal usage – you got it. Drew Garen from drewgaren.com has put in some efforts to convert the available SDK into a working ROM for Nexus S and it is working surprisingly well (not entirely stable but it is surprise to see this stability from a ROM built from an SDK).

If you are interested and ready to take some risk, you can refer to the guide here on how to get it install (even if you haven’t root your Nexus S), however, if you would like to see what’s new and how does it run on Nexus S, keep reading. 

First Impression

I have been running the famous MIUI custom ROM for quite some time, therefore I definitely have it in mind when it comes to comparison, though I am aware that this is an unfinished and unofficial stock Android 4.0, so I won’t be harsh on it.

Clean and Simple UI design. Similar to the recent UI transformation of Google Services which aimed for clean, simple and spacious design, you can definitely felt the changes on the UI. Looks a lot similar to the UI in Honeycomb (Android 3.0), but now they are well optimized for the phone. And I love it.

Bored but easy-to-the-eye colour scheme. You can expect most of the UI element are built from the dull black, grey, and white, but they all played their roles pretty well in categorizing the information on the screen.

Sharp corner and no more outdated border. Most of the menu/window are now border-less, and with sharp edges. Clean and direct.

Smooth (really) animation and transition effects. If I am not mistaken, hardware acceleration is turned on by default for the UI animation/transition in Ice Cream Sandwich. Setting a live wallpaper has less impact on the launcher animation now, and the new transition effects during the switching between window are really some eye candies. Rotation between horizontal and landscape is smoother than previous version.

Beautiful, resizeable widgets and drag-and-drop grouping. Widget is now sitting side by side with the app launcher and user can easily add them by drag-and-drop to the homescreen. Some of them are resizeable, and there are some nice new widgets, like the new Email and Calender widget. Similar to iOS, dragging a shortcut and place on top of another shortcut will create a group.

Data usage is more manageable. In Android 4.0, they have also included a data usage manager by default (finally!), so you can monitor you data usage right out of the box.

New Email client, Browser, Gallery etc. Of course, with the new Android, those stock app will have a facelift and provide better functionality, if any. The most noticeable changes would be on the stock browser – it is now cleaner and have some extra features such as Save for Offline Reading.

New lockscreen – Unlock or Camera. The new lockscreen is no longer meant for unlocking the screen, in Ice Cream Sandwich, you can immediately slide to the left to run the camera app to snap photo right away (I know, iOS 5 have this, but user friendly features are always welcomed).

New font – Roboto. After using the same font for quite some time, Android team have decided to give it a total change. The Roboto font is now used in Ice Cream Sandwich, which is pretty good on the readability on the mobile screen.

So, those above basically are my first impressions of Ice Cream Sandwich running on Nexus S. You might find that I didn’t mention any bad on it, but as I mentioned, this is not an official version of the ROM, so I won’t make the judge at the moment. Enough of reading, how about some screen shots of Android 4.0?

Ice Cream Sandwich Gallery