Find: How might technology improve city life? Citycamp raleigh June 4

Find: Apple drops secrecy, confirms iOS 5, iCloud on tap at WWDC 2011

Why'd they tell early? To put a musical stake in the ground?

Apple drops secrecy, confirms iOS 5, iCloud on tap at WWDC 2011






Find: WHO declares cellphones "possibly carcinogenic"

Mau and Hargrove - Sonya

Hargrove

Future of Graphic Design section - The University of Kentucky was redesigning their curriculum and focusing mainly on the bookends of their program. They felt those were the most important parts of their program & they wanted to help with the student transitions that occur in those phases. Also, they felt it necessary to find ways to close the divide between education & the professional world.

Mau

"Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day". I liked that sentence. None of us are perfect so we need to allow ourselves to fail & be OK with it. Too many people, including myself, are bent on being right or perfectionism.

"The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it." - I don't know that I agree with that statement. Success is good & should be embraced, not resisted. It is good to succeed. That doesn't mean that failure is bad. There are great things about failure too (like the learning from your mistakes) & we should embrace those things as well.

Reaction to Design #1 - Jack

Mau

Although I agree with Mau's that "growth is not necessarily good", I disagree that growth cannot be made with it. I think that while growing and developing ideas, periodic analysis of ones ideas and a goal of creating something "good" is preferable. The reading went a little over my head as I don't really know the context of his growth. It seems that this was written in stream of conscienceness and there is no real structure to his thoughts. Certain rules seem arbitrary (e.g. Dont join awards).


Hargrove

I found it particularily interesting that there were multiple depictions of the woman helping her child and that by simply using a different medium can convey a completely different experience. I also found the hammer analogy useful to see that design must be focused to an end goal for it to be effective. I found that the quote "Solve the problem and beauty will take care of itself" resonated with me. It could be that I can see a similarity between that quote and the Unix philosophy of "Do one thing and do it well". There is beauty in sumplicity.

Lecture: devices

Folks,

For Thursday, we will have a lecture on mobile device basics. You can find the lecture notes here. Many of the sources for these notes are available through our mobile wiki. Here are some images, though I hope to update these.

Please read the following paper in preparation, and react :
  • Lewis, James R.; Commarford, Patrick M.; Kennedy, Peter J.; Sadowski, Wallace J. 2008. Handheld Electronic Devices. Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 4, 105-148.
Best,

Ben

Announcement: meet tomorrow at EBII, after lunch, at Design

Folks,

We'll meet tomorrow at EBII for the Flash intro (don't forget to sign up, if you haven't already).

That should be over at 1230. We'll break for lunch then, and resume at 130 over in Design.

If I hear from one or more of you by 6p today (and if I have time to check, later as well) I'll stop by at Design at say 1015 to pick (up to 3) folks up, if you don't want to ride the WolfLine -- I could take some back too. I encourage y'all to use our discussion facility or good old email if you would like to arrange your own carpools.

Best,

Ben

Crit: Tuesday May 31

I've put up my quick notes here.

Best,

Ben

Find: Apps for communities competition

Is here. Submit your apps if you think they would have a shot!

Best,

Ben

Lecture: creative process (with readings)

Hey folks,

Today Pat talked about creative process. He drew from two sources:
He also talked about Charles and Ray Eames:
For your writing assignment, read the following and react:

Best,

Ben.

ToDo: for Thursday's crit

Ideas project:
  • Peak of our ideas generation phase, more brainstorming, more concepts
Concrete project, more detailed, with three focuses, goal is to choose for implementation:
  • Technical
  • Functional
  • Aesthetic
  • To let us know that posting your reactions etc in public is okay. You can print, scan, sign and email; just insert your signature electronically; or just copy the text to email, fill in the blanks, and send us the result via email. If public posting is not okay with you, let us know and we'll accept your assignments by email.
Also: do the readings you'll find in our recent lecture posts.

Find: Android Ice Cream Sandwich will merge phone and tablet OSes

Catchin up: icsand version of android will merge forked tablet phone android versions. 

Google announces Android Ice Cream Sandwich will merge phone and tablet OSes




Find: Labyrinth -- Google reinvents a classic toy with Android accessory kit

Android for phones, android for anything (running arduino), eg, play a pool sized labyrinth with your phone! Smart.

Labyrinth: Google reinvents a classic toy with Android accessory kit





Find: The post-PC era is happening, but not yet at the expense of PCs

As pc tech cheapens, pcs will specialize to fill more of our lives (and look more like mobiles than pcs). It's already started...

The post-PC era is happening, but not yet at the expense of PCs




Find: ntel defends PC, goes all-in on ULV

Intel going low power to compete with arm. All its chips will have laptop power profiles.

Intel defends PC, goes all-in on ULV, and speeds up Moore's Law








Find: Microsoft kills off consumer-focused Pioneer Studios

Ms shuts down the independent studio responsible for xbox and metro (the wp7 ui). Bad idea. Since consumer is the new business, ms is turning away from future. 

Microsoft kills off consumer-focused Pioneer Studios






Find: Windows Phone "Mango"

Looks very good. Good enough to ignite? Soon enough?

Microsoft gives us a taste of Windows Phone "Mango"






Find: Content-focused iPad apps value form over function, study finds

Most tablet apps have bad ui. Still a long way to go. Note moleskine's app reviewed here.

Content-focused iPad apps value form over function, study finds








Find: ps4 coming, will look more like a pc

Smart move, given all sony's trouble lately

Work on PlayStation 4 underway, may include fewer custom parts






Find: Apple music cloud service to auto-add iTunes Store tracks

Apple may not need to copy your music to the cloud, meaning its cloud player will set up faster ((minutes not days)), and be higher quality. 

Music labels are shooting themselves in the other foot, giving apple the licenses to gain market lead on cloud too. 

Report: Apple music cloud service to auto-add iTunes Store tracks




Find: California regulators may scrutinize AT&T/T-Mobile merger

So Cali may throw its wrench in. Didn't think they could overrule the FTC?

California regulators may scrutinize AT&T/T-Mobile merger








Find: the "Intel to fab Apple chips" rumor

Would be smart for apple and intel. 22nm is a big advantage. 

Intel exec throws fuel on the "Intel to fab Apple chips" rumor fire




Find: HTC Announces That Future Phones Will Be More Root-Friendly

Find: SwiftKey X Beta Keyboard Has Improved Word Prediction, Autocorrect, and Interface

Alternative text entry seems to learn your idiosyncratic language. Is sending all your typing to the cloud worth the speedup?

SwiftKey X Beta Keyboard Has Improved Word Prediction, Autocorrect, and Interface [Updates]

SwiftKey X Beta Keyboard Has Improved Word Prediction, Autocorrect, and Interface

Find: The 10 Best Android Apps that Make Rooting Your Phone Worth the Hassle

Stuff u can do if u "root" your android phone, or obtain root permission. Eg automatic running of apps in certain times 

The 10 Best Android Apps that Make Rooting Your Phone Worth the Hassle [Android]

The 10 Best Android Apps that Make Rooting Your Phone Worth the Hassle


Find: kinetic typography

Hey folks,

Here's the dynamic text stuff I mentioned. It's by Johnny Lee, of WiiMote hack fame. See the following videos:
Best,

Ben

ToDo: broad descriptions, focused pitches, tool dive

Hey folks,

Today we asked you to prepare the following for Tuesday afternoon's crit:
  • Wide open design: 
    • Prepare a three sentence description for each idea you want to float.
    • Write down all your ideas in an electronic form, to allow them to ferment
  • Focused design:
    • Prepare an elevator pitch (< 5 minutes) for each of your ideas
    • Develop some wireframes for the frontend interfaces of your ideas
    • Do some thinking about the feasibility of your ideas, including technical constraints
    • You should probably use scenarios in your pitches
    • If you haven't already, dig up some related apps
Also, you should begin learning about your tools (Flash, Unity, native platforms)

Best,

Ben

Find: ShakeCall Answers and Disconnects Calls on Your Android with the Flick of Your Wrist

Nifty, but do I really want to shake my pricy phone around often?

Find: Google Wallet: How Google’s Going to Eat Your Real Wallet

Chapter - I Reactions Sneka

Paper -I
It stresses the importance on human computer interation and whole topic circulates on how the mobile devices have evolved over time. The layout is in the form of rhetorical questions stressing the importance of mobile phone not just as an appliance but as tool for effective communication and connectivity to the world. The paper discusses on the interface and highlight two concepts namely fast tap keypad and peep hole displays. It also talks about the auditory, haptic and gestural interfaces to overcome human limitations.
Paper -II
It describes the technical parts of the mobile phone. There are two processors baseband and application processor. The baseband processor is the one that is available on all basic phones and feature phones while the application processor is predominantly used in the smart phones. To play the 3-D games the graphics processor has been inbuilt and it offers better performance than the CPU performing all the tasks. The paper also provides an introduction on the standards for mobile graphics design. It provides a brief summary on the design principles.
One question I have is how do we develop applications that incorporate all the design principles?
Do we have any priority / ranking for these principles?

Apps: Casper

Yelp
www.yelp.com/yelpmobile
As somebody who travels a lot, Yelp is a great boon to me when looking for a place to kill some time or grab some grub. It accesses a user-maintained database containing reviews, GPS location, and more, as well as provides directions from your current location to the destination of your choice. It is an extremely useful and easy-to-use application.

AR.Drone
ardrone.parrot.com
This is not an easy app to get a hold of - I have never personally used it - but it looks awesome! The vehicle is based on MIT's famous quadrocopter, capable of insane stunts and maneuvers, but being able to purchase one and control it with the gyroscope on an iPhone, whoa! Count me in (as soon as I'm rich!).

HTC Flashlight
(no link)
This is probably the most-used app on my phone. It simply turns the camera flash on, enabling it to act as a flashlight. On my phone, the camera flash is quite bright, so it is an intense flashlight always available in my pocket. It's not very advanced or spiffy, but since it is my most used app, I figured it was worth a mention.

Reading Reviews -Katie

Reading I

2005: 180 million phone vs. 3 million hand-held comp.


-Comparison to architecture -building spaces for people to co-exist and communicate like a well

used building. They need to be workable and function formost but also inspire, excite, comfort


-Mobiles are as addictive as smoking/kicking weed


-Are Implants the goal of the future, do we want to become one with the computer

-I think is human nature to be curious, not to know everything immediately


-Swiss army knife: Should a mobile device be a jack of all trades or a one trick pony?


-Aromatic: smelling the time


Reading II

Very technical, lots of questions

-open gles

-m3g

-mobile java


-Evolution of mobile phone coincides with digital photography

-Combining all of the positive attributes of varying devices

-camera

-organizer

-internet

-phone

-Things to overcome

-small screens

-heat

-battery life

Ch 1 Reactions - Brendan

Mobile Interaction Design
This chapter surveys how people use their mobile devices as part of daily life. It suggests that as hardware innovations are made to give greater processing abilities, there is a struggle for the software to keep up. Since this was written several years ago, we can observe how phones have changed so that most devices are purely touch screen based with multitouch/gesture support for interacting with the mobile interface. It's also interesting because predicting how these types of user interactions in the future will progress is anyone's best guess. Will the QWERTY keyboard become obsolete on touch screens? This keyboard format is great for making use of 10 fingers. Mobile devices typically use only one. Voice interaction has become much more usable however the lack of privacy and processing the voice queue over the internet are barriers to using voice interactions.

Mobile 3D Graphics
This chapter details some of the technologies older phones made us of for displaying graphics. Most phones still use some version of java, with games and content moving away from closed SDKs to open formats. However, there are now enough different coding platforms that can be used to develop smartphone apps today, that learning to develop for these platforms can be a somewhat daunting task.

Chapter 1 Reaction - Jack

Paper 1-

This chapter seems to be a basic introduction to mobile devices. The book seems to be heavily focused on the graphics portion of mobile devices. It also appears to be focused on the low level programming. It seems that the authors are enamored w/ Java 3d Graphics. It seems that the major difference between mobile programming and traditional programming is an increased focus on minimizing the applications' impact on the mobile resources. Overall this chapter was quite easy to understand and I had no issues.


Paper 2-

This book seems to be more focused on the User Interface of mobile devices. There seems to be a paradigm shift of mobile devices being used as communication devices to information devices. I thought it was interesting to consider the possibility that mobile devices perhaps are acting as an all purpose tool instead of as an appliance. I believe this question can be seen clearly w/ people replacing their personal computers w/ tablets. This book seems to be a much more openminded and theoretical w/ concepts of aromatic I/O. The chapter is pretty straight forward and i have no confusion w/ it.

Lecture: introduction to mobiles

Hi folks,

Our first lecture is tomorrow, it'll be an introduction to mobiles. Here are a couple readings -- Please read them and react to them with posts on our site:


Our site has a bit of instruction on what we're looking for in reactions to readings. Make sure you tag your post "reads".

You can find my lecture notes and images here and here, but I will be updating these before tomorrow's course.

Best,

Ben
Finds: Three mobile apps (Michael Matthews)
Google Voice:
https://www.google.com/voice/
Records voice mails and emails them to you so you get them instantly without having to dial into some service. Also dictates the voice to text so that you can read the content directly in your email, or as an SMS text message. You need SMS service, or an email account to use.

Netflix:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/netflix/id363590051?mt=8
Stream movies from anywhere with a fast enough connection. Large library of streaming content. Netflix recently became the highest trafficked site on the internet. All it needs is a video player and a fast internet connection. I definitely prefer streaming to my iPad over any other device (iPhone, laptop, desktop, anything). I don't have a way to stream to my TV though.

Trainyard:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id348719156
Excellent time killing game. Easy to learn (excellent tutorial), hard to master. Easy, straightforward controls (touch/click and drag on the touch screen). Visually appealing colors. Enough of a puzzle/problem solving aspect to keep you captivated.

Mobile App Reviews - Sneka


Pages:

The pages is a word processor. It tracks what we type, so we get suggestions on the go.It has the style, list and layout tools that help us to format the document. The most interesting part is we can add pictures, tables,charts and flowcharts. Having such capabilities on a mobile device is just too cool. It has 16 predefined templates and styles. We can also customise the templates in accordance to our needs. We can convert the pages document to any standard style like .pdf or .doc. Once the email services are configured on the ipad, sharing the document is just one tap away.

Source: http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/pages.html

Adobe Ideas:

The adobe ideas is an app that has been very useful to me as it helps me sketch doodles and pictures whenever I wish to. The interface has two layers the draw layer and the photo layer. With the help of the photo layer,we can embed the photos that are saved in the albums to enhance the drawings. The drawings that I create has a mix of graphic and the traditional paper based look associated with it. The opacity of the colours that we use can be adjusted and we can also create our own colour themes based on the images that are available in the photo album.


Source: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeideas/


Amazon kindle:

The amazon kindle app is a ebook reader that helps to download, shop and browse books. We can bookmark, highlight and look up contents. There are various viewing options with the aid of which we can adjust the brightness, background and font size. The track bar enables easy navigation. There is also the dictionary that is inbuilt as a part of the app.

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8##








Cool Mobile Apps - David

1. Trapster
http://www.trapster.com/

This app is pretty cool because it alerts registered users about potential road hazards in the area. It takes advantage of the mobile phone's embedded GPS system. Some examples of the alerts include red-light cameras, speed cameras, and cops waiting for a speeding culprit. Though I hope everyone obeys traffic laws...(right? :P) I can see this app being very useful on the road, especially in large cities.

2. iNap
http://www.moop.me/inap.php
This nifty app will let you pinpoint on Google map your destination, and will trigger an alarm when you are reaching your stop. This may be useful for buses, trains, carpools, etc. What is better about this app than just setting a regular alarm is it will take into consideration the traffic. If there is traffic, that means you will just end up taking a longer nap until you reach closer to your stop.

3. ShopSavvy
http://shopsavvy.mobi/
This cool app will allow you to scan a barcode of an item in a store and it checks the local area for better deals. It also will check online on the popular shopping sites and will allow you to compare prices so you can get the best bang for your buck.

I wish I had a smartphone...I would definitely get all these apps. They all utilize the GPS system in the phone. I found info on all these apps on this article (http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-02/lp_10coolapps).

App Reviews - Brendan

Google Voice
http://www.google.com/mobile/voice/
I think this one doesn’t get enough attention. It gives you a google phone number that you can use either to make calls over data or just for voicemail.

XBMC
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Install_XBMC_on_iPhone/iPad
A media center app that can be installed on a jail broken iOS device. This is ideal for apple tv which also uses iOS, particularly when streaming videos from a media server.

iDroid
http://www.idroidproject.org/wiki/Bootlace
Dual boot your iphone with android. Still under development with no support for recent devices.

Galaxy on Fire 2
http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/galaxy-on-fire-2/id397127539?mt=8
Galaxy on Fire 2. An iOS space game that uses the phone's accelerometer for steering.

App Reviews - Jack

Jukefox (aka Museek)
Music Player on Android

Claims to be a Pandora for MP3s. It is basically a music space which has been created through analyzing social tags of LastFM. The music space is based on the concept that similar songs will share similar tags (among other things). From the music space, relationships between songs can be determined and different play modes can be used. There is a "Play Similar" mode, where the user inputs a seed song and then the application plays song which are similar to the seed song. The idea of this is that the user may want to listen to a specific type of song. There is also a play mode which is more of a discovery type mode. The discovery mode will move through the audio space determining the user's preferences based on skipping habits. Other features exist and can be explored in the following website and pdf.

Website- www.jukefox.org/


Google Sky App
Android

This app uses the gps, compas, and time to create a virtual sky. This sky includes information such as constellations and names of stars (and more). It is a cool little app that is educational, entertaining, and visually aesthetic.




Google Goggles
Android

This app is a visual search app. The input is an image taken by the user and the app then returns data related to the image. For example, if you are shopping and you see a stereo that you want to buy, you can take a picture of it and look at reviews of that product. It can also be useful if you want to get a review of a restaurant by taking a picture of it. The app also seems to use GPS to help narrow down the search results so the app would be able to determine which restaurant you are viewing and give you a recommendation.



By Jack Gresset

Mobile App Reviews - Sonya

Errands To-Do List

http://www.yoctoville.com/

I have been using this app for about a year. It allows me to keep up with all of my to-do items in any category. Folders can be created to house and organize the different tasks. Each task has a description, a priority, and the date you added it to your list. Optionally, they can have an associated image, extra notes about the task, a due date and time, an alert, and a schedule for repeating the task. The user can view the tasks by folder, all the tasks at once, or a list of tasks that are currently due/past due (focus items).

Docs To Go

http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/iphone/

Docs To Go is a mobile version of Microsoft Office. I use a lot of Word and PowerPoint documents and it is nice to have those accessible on my iPhone as well. It would be easy to use Google Docs for this purpose, but that requires cell data if I’m not in a WiFi hotspot. Since my data plan is not unlimited, I prefer to create, view, and edit my documents locally. If I need to share them, I can always copy them over to Google Docs or something similar.

PocketBible

http://www.laridian.com/content/platform_iphone.asp

I always like to have my Bible with me and this app is perfect for that. Not only does it include the Bible and reader, but it allows you to take notes as well as highlight verses or chapters and even copy the text to other apps/documents. Several settings are customizable such as font and size as well as margins, highlight color, and display settings for the find option. You can also choose to use a variety of accompanying applications or books such as commentaries, devotionals, and study notes.

Announcement: invitations are out!

Hi folks,

You will not be able to post until you're added to the blog as an author. I've sent invitations to your ncsu addresses, which you should receive no problem. Not sure if they will work well since they are apps, not personal Google IDs... let me know if you run into any problems, and send me a Google ID if you do.

Best,

Ben

Find: AT&T sideloading officially a go

Att android phones under contract can finally have apps from anywhere. Bout time!

AT&T sideloading officially a go, designed to allow Amazon Appstore downloads


Find: HTC Flyer review

Interesting 7 inch tab with stylus

HTC Flyer review



Find: Android Features iPhone Doesn't Have

Nice list of stuff that differentiates Android from iOS.

Find: Sony S1 and dual-screen S2 Honeycomb tablets with PlayStation Suite coming this fall

Sony finally in the game. 

Find: Sony, it’s time to act like Sony again

Find: Carriers: act swiftly if you want to save the low-end smartphone

In subsidized us markets, feature phones are gone, and smartphones are beginning to disappear. Changes in pricing (eg paying people to use phones) could change that. 

Sent to you via Google Reader

Carriers: act swiftly if you want to save the low-end smartphone

Find: The New Features of Android 3.1 and Ice Cream Sandwich

New tablet os version soon, integration with mobile version later.

Sent to you via Google Reader

The New Features of Android 3.1 and Ice Cream Sandwich [Android]

The New Features of Android 3.1 and Ice Cream Sandwich

Find: Google and Hardware Manufacturers Promise Android Software Upgrades For 18 Months ((finds: google, android))

Goog addresses fragmentation. Better, but not iOS uniformity (which has it's own probs). 

Find: First Look at Google Music

Gmusic seems cool. A major iOS weak point is cloud like this. Another is notifications. The fall announcement?

Find: Llama Automates Nearly Any Setting on Your Android Phone

Find: Ahem! Are You Talking to Me? (Or Texting?)

On the socialization of mobile tech. Some insights here have design implications.

Sent to you via Google Reader

Ahem! Are You Talking to Me? (Or Texting?) - NYTimes.com

In the digital revolution, it’s become fashionable to be rude.
Sent from my iPhone

Find: The Story of the Ribbon - Office Labs

Nice window into ms office design process. 

The Story of the Ribbon - Office Labs

Sent from my iPhone

Find: The ‘Facebook Class’ Built Apps, and Fortunes

Several lessons here. Just put it out there. Choose a new platform. Code bare bones first.

Sent to you via Google Reader

The ‘Facebook Class’ Built Apps, and Fortunes - NYTimes.com

In 2007, the “Facebook Class” at Stanford created free apps for millions of users. But it also fired up the careers of many students and pioneered a new model of entrepreneurship.
Sent from my iPhone

Find: Rogers announces 150Mbps LTE launch in four Canadian cities

Wow, even 10% of max would be 5x better than wimax max. Oh, Canada...

Rogers announces 150Mbps LTE launch in four Canadian cities this year


Find: RIM to launch 6.1 update as BlackBerry 7 OS

Find: Stephen Elop: Nokia won't build just another tablet

Sounds smart. Bodes well for win 8. Maybe we will get it sooner.

Stephen Elop: Nokia won't build just another tablet


iPhone turntable concept brings dropped calls to your record collection

Fond: Motorola promises more Atrix-like laptop docks for future phones

Mobitops r a good idea, worth a second go. Goodonya, Sanjay.

Motorola promises more Atrix-like laptop docks for future phones


Find: NPD credits Verizon iPhone with stemming the Android tide in Q1 smartphone sales

Growth of android quarterly share finally ends. Smartphones finally make up more than half of all us sales.

NPD credits Verizon iPhone with stemming the Android tide in Q1 smartphone sales


Xoom Camera Connection Kit makes us lust for Photoshop on Honeycomb

Find: Microsoft launches API Mapping tool to help devs point iPhone apps at WP7 libs

API for turning your iOS app into a wp7 one.