Posts tagged computers
Susan Kare designed the original Macintosh Control Panel “with no text whatsoever.”
We needed a way to control various system parameters like the sound volume, or the mouse scaling parameters. We decided that a desk accessory would be perfect for that, since it would be easy to access no matter what application you were in. So the last desk accessory that I worked on before shipping, in November 1983, was the Control Panel. Susan Kare came up with a beautiful, highly graphical design (with no text whatsoever) that I implemented using a separate purgable resource for each section, so they didn’t have to be in memory at once. It had a little rabbit and tortoise to represent a range of speeds, and lots of other graphical embellishments; after the Mac was released, one review described it as a crib toy, which I took more or less as a compliment.
— Andy Hertzfeld
“Le Roi Soleil, Louis XIV” (1997)
By Sandra Serra with PC Paintbrush, Windows 3.11
“ Apple isn’t going to make a new form factor just for the sake of newness itself — they make changes only if the changes make things decidedly better. … Apple pursues timeless style, not fleeting trendiness. This iPhone design might be like that of the Porsche 911 — a distinctive, iconic, timeless, instantly-recognizable representation of the product’s brand itself.”
Daring Fireball on why the new iPhone (4S) doesn’t have a new exterior.
No one explains Apple strategy as well as Gruber.
Farewell, Steve Jobs.
(Photo by my cousin, Bill Dunford)
Steve Jobs, Unscripted
Most of us (especially the younger ones) are accustomed to “Keynote” Steve Jobs, the Steve Jobs that presents a carefully prepared introduction of new products to a room full of fans and press. That’s a different Steve Jobs from the guy we see in the video above.
It is 1997. He hasn’t yet been named CEO, but Jobs has just returned to the company that he would later save from collapse. Here, he hosts an open forum of Mac developers, candidly answering a barrage of very difficult questions from an Apple-dedicated community whose confidence is shaken. More than any other speech or interview, this off-the-cuff hour demonstrates Jobs’ personality, carisma, and vision. It also hints at some of the moves Jobs and Apple would make in proceeding years, even ideas as recent as iCloud.
Has your MacBook keyboard ever suddenly ceased to function, requiring a restart before it would work again? This happened to me from time to time, with such irregularity I couldn’t diagnose the problem. It was maddening. The only pattern that seemed semi-consistent is that it happened during or after using an Adobe CS app. I blamed Adobe for a bug in their software, but diving into their support forums got me nowhere.
Today, while browsing the System Preferences to see what’s new in OS X Lion I found an option in the Universal Access panel that has been there all along (at least for several years): Mouse Keys. This lets you use the numeric keypad on your keyboard in place of the mouse. Useful for those who have difficulty with motor skills or as a temporary fix when your mouse is broken, but not so useful with keyboards — such as those on MacBooks — that have no numeric keypad. It was here that I found the keyboard-disabling culprit: “Press the Option key five times to turn Mouse Keys on or off”. I was inadvertently activating Mouse Keys and deactivating the keyboard by rapidly punching that Option key in Illustrator or Photoshop. Simply uncheck this option and you’re free to Option as you please.
Wireless electricity. Yes, wireless — for charging your devices. Stick it in your floor and plug ’em in no more! The world-of-the-future technology I dreamed about four years ago is rumbling in the news again.
Microsoft’s Metro UI owns the square. Apple has a corner on the roundrect, from the Springboard launcher to the iPhone hardware itself. Nokia, despite its late entry with MeeGo’s Harmattan UI, found the squircle unclaimed and ran with it beautifully. Palm has used the circle from the early days of PalmOS, and in WebOS, HP continues the tradition with care (one might even note that both Palm and HP structure their wordmarks around the circle). — Interuserface | Own a shapeIf you showed me this graphic five years ago I’d have guessed Apple would take the square, not the roundrect.
Tip: iChat “Messages” Prefs
Here are two of the most overlooked preferences in iChat. When they became available they changed the way I use the app.
- In new chat windows, show: the last 100 messages
This retains your previous chats so every time you launch iChat or open a new chat window, you can see the most recent conversation with that buddy. Very helpful if you use iChat to share work files, such as images, like I do. Keeps an easily accessible record. I don’t jack up the menu selection to “The last 250 messages” because this feature tends to slow down iChat’s launch time the more messages you save.- Collect chats in a single window
One single window for all chats, with tabs for each chat/buddy. This is something Apple picked up from other chat clients and it’s a true life/screensaver. Now if only they would do the same with accounts (AIM, Bonjour, and Jabber all get separate windows).Stephen Coles
1978 Levi’s deadstock shirt from Goodbye Heart, tags still attached, including an old-school computer punch card. This is pre-barcodes, baby.
Thanks for the tip, Svpply.
DisplayPad is another one in the “Wholly Carp! I can’t believe it’s only a dollar.” category:
DisplayPad is a cutting edge app that allows you to use your iPad as a second display for your Mac. You can extend your desktop with a wireless display that you can carry around with you!
It’s really impressive. Very smooth. Set it up and it just plain works.
(via Chris Thomson)
Definitely the best $1 I’ve spent on the iPad. Uses I’ve already discovered:
- Running Flash on iPad.
- Using iPad as touch tablet in Photoshop and other drawing apps.
- Accessing Mac from other end of house.
