Ex-Nokia employees posted the first video of what appears to be a completely revamped Meego mobile OS. It looks a little bit like a mix of Android and Windows Phone, taking good elements from both. I think the fact that it will run Android apps (emulated) out of the box may help the system gain a userbase. Exciting.
Video:
Even though the revolutionary UI of Windows8 wasn’t publicly seen untill 2011, apparently it has been in the works for over a year before. In Fact they started working on it in 2009, even before the first iPad came out. Of course iOS was available back then, as was Android. As you can see from the screenshots the live tiles weren’t as minimal and looked a lot messier in general. There was some more info (wifi, time and battery) on the top right and the charms bar (which I think is the biggest flaw of current windows) had more items and what looks like a start menu (?) on the top.
Since designs like that are always iterative, it’s possible that it simply was a start menu incorporated into that design. All in all I believe that it does look better and cleaner now, than it looked back then. It almost seemed as if MS was trying to make something in between it’s minimal approach and Apple’s skeumorphism. But in the video below Jensen Harris (Windows design team) makes fun of stitched leather quite a bit. He also points out that there’s always sunny and 23 degrees Celsius on the iPhone, but on the Calendar you see the current date. So not only there’s inconsistency, but also false information. And that brings me to another realisation – should icons go towards a tile-like style on iOS and Android? The Calendar on iOS sort-of already does that, but weather and clock are pretty obvious examples. The Photos app could have the latest photo there. I’m gonna try and create a mockup of how it could look like soon.
The also made really nice templates for the first and third party apps to be consistent which may crush creativity sometimes but is actually really cool in use.
Too bad we don’t see many videos like that from Jony Ive, but still worth a watch!
You can see the full video after the break:
Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but we’re working hard on rebuilding CM to be a better and more resourceful place. We’re also redesigning the layout! New additions will include app reviews, app comparisons, more tutorials and free designer content added monthly. Come back soon for the redesign!
We are making the next episode of the podcast and it is almost done. This time it’ll be abut facebook, since we all know and love/hate it ;)
Also we’re making another series to be announced very, very soon (not animated, but also short) you’ll see it pretty soon so stay tuned.
There will be more and longer articles and tutorials in the near future too. We’re reorganizing our ranks currently to come back bigger, faster, stronger oh and better too.
The funny thing is that it’s usually all in the OS documentation. But who reads this stuff? Why do they even make “instructions” if nobody reads them ? ;) Well we don’t read them and sometimes we find out about some stuff either by accident or in some web article (this is what you’re doing right now, ha!). First of all let’s take the dock. The dock (in my case it’s a custom Onyx dock but it works just as your regular “shelf” in Leopard…) you have a bunch of icons and a couple of stacks probably like your Documents, your Downloads, some people (like me) also have their applications in a stack for easy access. The trick is :
That takes you to a finder window with the file selected. You can easily find where exactly is that app, that file dragged to the dock, or any element in stacks because if you open a stack and Command + click on an item in it it will open a finder window with that item highlited. Pretty cool huh ?
We will expand pretty soon with new authors and new ideas. There will be more tutorials, more insight and a lot more studies of various subjects such as facebook and it’s influence, viral marketing, web 2.0 and 3.0 and of course design.
Grunge, bricks and some abstract ones. Keep in mind that those are free for ANY type of use, both personal and commercial. I’d appreciate a paypal donation, but it’s not mandatory. Enjoy!
Finally we’re almost at where we want to be. That being “everywhere” :) Another change in the layout and the top site menu. Around the world is our “move the little guy around the world” concept, that has already put him in many places. There’s a map of his journeys as well. Remember that you can send in your picturs.
Podcast is currently under construction but will be ready pretty soon, so stay tuned for that.
Also soon you’ll see all the authors of Creation Machine with some details about them.
First of all – thanks to all who are here every day to hear what we have to say. It makes it the more worthwhile. Of course we constantly want to improve, so ideas are appreciated! If you think we should do more tutorials tell us, or more of the viral analysis stuff.
We do have some new things planned, one sometime during this week, and it’s nice to see that our creation machine monster has already traveled a pretty long way and he has photos to prove it! Cool. We will make a special page just for him tomorrow and post the new pictures there along with a google maps with pins of his locations.
Have a good sunday!
We have started a Flickr account for all our images, along with a group that you can join if you’re on flickr. Check the group out at :
http://www.flickr.com/groups/creationmachine/
There will be a summary of what’s going on here over there as well.
+ feel free to propose your work for our “found on the web” posts series, where we will put your designs in along with a link to your flickr page.
Enjoy!
Also there’s a flickr photostream built into the right sidebar of this page.
Here’s a little tutorial for pixelmator, since I’m working on some new visuals for the upcoming second promo EP from Krop. So let’s start shall we ? All you need for this tutorial are basic pixelmator or photoshop skills, a copy of pixelmator, about 20 minutes and a photo of a person. I used one of the promo pics from Krop. Read more for the tutorial itself. If any of the images is too small for you, you can right click on it, and choose view image opening it in it’s full. This release is an upcoming one, but if you like electronic dance music with an alternative twist check out the last cd at kropband.com . It’s a free download.
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So here’s the deal. I’m not really a microsoft person, but I checked out their “isometric view” of the maps (here’s New York) and I instantly thought of one thing – Sim City! First of all the idea itself is pretty awesome to show it this way, the perspective makes the cities more memorable as a landscape, rather than just a top-view photo. But what can be done with it ?
Well for once – using the API which I think would be given out anyway – a new type of social sim-city style game could be created. Let’s for one moment think that we can “destroy it all” and put nice, green grass everywhere. Then we’ll have a few types of buildings, some roads, other elements, and combine it to create a district of our own, based on the natural landscape of our city, with it’s rivers, islands, whatever. Other people can of course join the fun and start building a district of their own in the same city. Maybe even a better city-planner could be found that way (choosing the best guy for the job while working on a semi-real thing would probably make more sense than choosing him based on just promises). Possibilities are endless.
And yes – of course google is doing something similar as well – letting people build their own buildings and all. So a bunch of free API’s from both of the big fish could actually give someone with the guts to do such project, plenty of choices.
Amazing subway photography. Too bad most of the subways are so dull and boring, but as we can see here it doesn’t have to be this way. More photos after the break, and on this Link Continue reading
Hello, this is the first post of a series on design, cool, creative stuff, technology and internet.
There will also be a FREE photo stock here as well.
Stay tuned for loads of content.