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Category application
An application is a client that runs on the device of the user. This device can be a PC, a mobile, a game console, whatever. With an application all processing is done locally on the device and in principle no online connection is needed. Some functions do however depend on such a connection.
24 Jun 2008
Mail Photo Browser
The Photo Browser Window shows the images that can be found in the iPhoto-database. The window is limited to a Lists-pane (at the top) and an Items-pane (at the bottom). The size of the window can be changed to view more or les images in the Items-pane.
The Lists-pane shows all Lists, handpicked and smart, Events, etc that are also found and defined in iPhoto (no Albums though). The Events-list even changes the content of the Items-pane to mimic iPhoto’s behaviour. Thus moving the mouse over an events image will present the images pertaining to that event.
And finally there is a search facility (title, description, keywords and rating) for quickly finding images. The window also supports videos, but these have to be in the iPhoto supported format.
The only thing that I miss is access to the Pictures folder and the image scaling.
Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • application • mashing ,
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23 Jun 2008
Firefox 3 bookmark management
With the introduction of the lasted release of Firefox 3, a new approach to managing bookmarks has been introduced. In order to test this feature I imported my 3000 some bookmarks from WebNoteHappy. This did not make Firefox very happy, I had a crash, but in the end I could access these bookmarks. Unfortunately all this bookmarks were added to my Bookmarks Menu. This really brought Firefox to a temporary halt when I accessed the bookmarks menu item. I missed the cross-application exchange of folders and tags from WebNoteHappy (a lack of standards?).
The Items-pane shows the bookmarks of a selected list in table format. The user can determine which fields must be shown. In addition to the bookmark fields, the user can also show the visit date, the visit count, the added date or the last visited date.
The most interesting part is the Lists-pane, as this is not totally compatible with other MicroContent Clients. The History-list is a folder with the recent browsing behaviour, so not really a bookmark thing. The Tags-List is really a group that contains preprogrammed smart folders for each tag. Each tag-folder contains the bookmarks that have been tagged as such. The All Bookmarks group is really the entire library of bookmarks. This group contains three other lists/groups: the Bookmarks Toolbar group, the Bookmarks Menu group and the Unsorted Bookmarks group. These three groups are fixed and one can not add other groups on this level.
When adding a bookmark one can chose on of these groups or any folder in these groups. One can also drag&drop bookmarks from one group to another. The Bookmarks Menu group has two predefined Smart Lists: Recently Bookmarked and Recent Tags. I assume that ‘recent’ means the last 10. These Lists can be d&d’d to other groups.
The Bookmarks Toolbar group has smart lists for Most Visited and Latest Headlines. It is again unclear what Most Visited means. Latest Headlines refer to Items in a RSS-feed. This seems to be part of the Live Bookmarks feature of Firefox.
All in all a pretty reasonable implementation of a MicroContent Client, but it is not match for WebNoteHappy. The tag-feature is nice, but the approach will break down with hundred of tags. I miss XBEL-support. And I can not create my own smart lists. And it is just to slow for many bookmarks.
On the other hand the integration with the browsers allows to create smart folders such as ‘most visited’. I do not like the split between Toolbar, Menu and the rest. In this way there is no entire library. I understand why it was done in this way, it seems simpler. The integration of the URI-bar with the bookmarks library is very nice. This allows to make very clever URL-suggestions and can indicate whether the URL has been bookmarked yet.
Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • application • type • bookmark ,
firefox
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02 Jun 2008
Times application
The user can create multiple ‘newspaper pages’, add feeds and assign a feed to a pane. The location of the panes and the format for each pane is set and can not be changed.
At this stage of the application I have mixed feelings. I appreciate the possibility to see multiple headline in one glance, so I can quickly scan news. Depending on how interesting a feed is I can increase of decrease the amount I see. So it should be much quicker scanning and reading. If there is something interesting I can drag it to a shelf for later reading.
I however miss some control. How can I see whether I read an article or not? Why can I not edit my RSS-URLS? My RSS-feed did not show anything, I was not able to figure out what went wrong. The import feeds from NetNewsWire is nice, but with hundreds of feeds imported shows that tthe current feed management solution is not the right one.
However the application shows an interesting new visual apporach to MicroContent. And one that I do not yet have fully my head around.
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MicroContent •
client •
application •
type •
blog
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13 Apr 2008
Desktop Web Apps
I have very mixed feelings after reading this post on ReadWriteWeb. I agree with the conclusions, but not with the reasons.
Web Apps do not yet have the required trust in order to become mainstream. You only trust what you have in your hands, on your computer. A good point. There is a lack of transparency. With a browser based web app, you know your data is in the cloud. With a desktop based web app it is much unclearer where your data is stored. There is no need to know, location is transparent.
One of the reason mentioned is that Web Apps are not ubiquitous yet. We do not have access everywhere yet. a very good argument. I loven reading blog-posts, listening to music, looking at vidcasts, creating blog-posts, when I am forced to be offline.
I agree with the comment that ‘the browser is no place for multitasking’. Josh Catone wants to replace it with multiple browser applications, each application for a single web app, as is the intention with Mozilla Prism. As indicated in the post: ‘a browser is not for hosting applications’. Adobe AIR is already a much better approach, but it is not good enough. Real desktop apps are just much better. Just have a look at MarsEdit, WebNoteHappy, etc. Unfortunately there are now also bad MacOSX examples, such as net4mac, which is just a dedicated browser. Real Desktop Web Apps are based on API’s and not on parroting the corresponding web-pages.
For me it is all about the integrated experience between all the applications.
[Inspiration ReadWriteWeb]
Categories/tags:
MicroContent •
client •
application •
web 2.0
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16 Mar 2008
TimeLine application
The TimeLine application by Bee Docs is an interesting application. It reminded me of the role of time in MicroContent, but hat should be a future post.
In TimeLine one can either import MicroContent Items or create one’s own. A TimeLine Item consists of a title, a date (or a date range), notes (optional), an image (optional) and a link (optional).
On creating a new TimeLine it is possible to import Items from the AddressBook (birthdays), iCal (a selected calendar), iPhoto (creation dates), iTunes (recently playes songs/albums), RSS/Atom feeds, System Profiler (recent Apple updates), Skitch and NetNewsWire (publish dates). And when Images are available they are shown on the timeline.
The timeline is one of the presentation modes for MicroContent. The other are the table, the grid and location.
All in all very interestying. Unfortunately I did not have a need yet for such visualisation. The application si a bit rough at times. I had a few stalls that required me to force quit the app. I would like to see the possibility to import events at a later stage and on the secondary timeline. And I guess there other Items that could be imported as well, a Framework to do this would be in place, although the generic RSS/Atom helps a lot. And I woulk like to see a zoom possibility, so that I can see the entire timeline in a single screen.
Categories/tags:
MicroContent •
client •
application •
type •
event
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09 Mar 2008
eBay and MicroContent
Lately , I started playing with eBay. Can you imagine that I never did anything with. In the mean time I already bought my first item. Naturally as I am not very fond of heavy web-pages, I started looking for clients that can support me in following auctions. I found GarageBuy and JBidWatcher. The first is a real MacOSX application and the latter is a Java app that has been ported.
First of all we have to look where we can find the MicroContent in auctions. The MicroContent Item is the auction itself, with the auction ID, current price, auction closing time, Item title, seller-namer and seller-location. And there are probably some other fields as well. Each auction has a permalink at eBay, such as this one. I wonder how long these permalinks stay around.
The information on the auctioned Item is a MicroContent type in itself. I get the impression that eBay does not offer to much structure for this, but I have look a bit more into that, when I use a sell client, such as GarageSale or iSale. These two MicroContent Types (auction and auction-Item) are a bit merged. I am not sure whether this a good or bad thing and whether we have in fact two different MicroContent types. In contrast to normal shops, where the Item refers to a product-category, in the case of an auction one points to a single product, with all its defects.
Interestingly an auction MicroContent Item, is dynamic as buyings can place bis on Items and thus influencing one of the fields on that Item. In fact each bid can be seen as a MicroContent Item itself. The clients I looked at have no support for following bids and one has to refer to the corresponding web-page.
JBidWatcher presents a single window with a single pane. This pane (Items-pane) contains a list of all auctions that are followed in table format. The table contains fields such as auction number, auction title, seller-name, etc. It is not possible to add or remove fields.
GarageBuy is a bit more complex with a three pane setup. This reminds a lot of a standard MicroContent Client. There is View-pane with information on the auctioned Item (details-view). This contains either a description of the Item or the corresponding web-page at eBay. The Items-pane shows either a set of auctions or the details of a single auction. And finally there is a Lists-pane showing categories of auctions based on searches. Or auctions that are followed. One can sort these auctions into folders.
Unfortunately the mixing of searches and individual auctions breaks the logic a bit. I would have preferred to have a fourth pane for all the details.
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MicroContent •
client •
application
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23 Dec 2007
iRemember story line support
I just came across this application, which works with photos as well. This is a application for scrapbooking. This implies that emphasis lies on the things around the photos, although these form the basic content. The application supports a large library of clip art, with which one can embellish the album pages. There is no integration with iPhoto, apart from the drag&drop function.
Categories/tags:
MicroContent •
client •
application
, macosx, iremember
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22 Dec 2007
RapidWeaver storyline support
Another web-site development client on the Mac is RapidWeaver. It offers the same story line capabilities as Sandvox. However the integration with iPhoto is better. By selecting an album within iPhoto, one can import all associated images. And thus populate all required web-pages. The application uses the captions of the images to create the context. The ordering of the map in iPhoto is used as storyline for the web-pages.
RapidWeaver also allows the possibility to create a flash-based slideshow.
Categories/tags:
MicroContent •
client •
application
, rapidweaver
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22 Dec 2007
Sandvox storyline support
The support in Sandvox for creating story lines with photos is rudimentary. One can either create a Photo Album or a Photo Blog. Both are collections of Image web-pages. The Image web-page contains the photo, a text taken(!) from the photo and a title (not taken from the photo). The photo album page contains a list of thumbnails with the photos on a rectangular grid. One has also other presentation possibilities.
The difference between the Photo Album and Photo Blog seems to be the ordering of the photos. In a Photo Album the user choses his own ordering. And in the case of a Photo Blog the ordering is defined by the creation dates of the web-pages with the most recent at the top.
A change of theme does not change the way one peruse images, all themes follow the same model.
In comparison with iWeb this application misses the fancy stuff.
Categories/tags:
MicroContent •
client •
application
, sandvox
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21 Dec 2007
iWeb story line support
iWeb is Apple's application for creating web-sites. It is not an application that I use, I am a Sandvox user. I had a look at it, to see how they support story lines in photos. Using iPhoto one has the possibility to export a set of photos to iWeb, where the photos turn up as photo album.
As usual in web publishing applications the photo album in iWeb is pretty straightforward. The main web-page shows all the thumbnails in an album. Clicking on a photo opens a new page with that photo and optionally a thumbnail list of the next ten photos in the album. The user has then the possibility to click on the next (or previous) button for the next photo. Or he can click on a thumbnail to go to another photo.
The story line is that of the original sequence of imported photos. The user can re-arrange photos on the album page in order to adjust the story line.
The context of the album comes from the titles of the original photos and from text that a user can add to each web-page.
It is also possible to view the album as a slideshow. The photos are then show in turn for a short time. Each photo is shown with the title. The viewer has the ability to stop the show, select another photo or go to the next photo. This is a quite neat web implementation.
It might be possible that other web-sites themes offer other story line possibilities. I just checked the
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MicroContent •
client •
application •
mashing
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20 Dec 2007
iPhoto story line support
The first application to look at, is the image/photo management application by Apple. The selection of suitable photos can be done in two ways. First the user can create a hand-picked photo album. Then the user has drag&drop each (or set of) photo onto the album icon. Secondly can create a smart album and define a rule to have photos added to that album. Such a rule can be based on the existence of a certain keyword. Drawback is that the user has to assign that keyword to each photo that needs to be included. Unfortunately there is no way to set keywords to multiple photos'.
Next the user must think about the order of the photos. In a smart album the user can not fiddle with the order of the photos. In a normal album he can. What can be done depends on the format. This implies that a smart album is no use in creating story lines.
The slideshow format is the premier way of viewing photos in iPhoto. Each photo will be shown sequentially in full screen mode. Optionally the photo title can be shown as context. It is possible to randomise the presentation on photos. An underlying audio track can be added for additional context or just atmosphere. Due to a lack of context, the slideshow does not provide much story line possibilities. A slideshow can be based on selected items in a normal and smart album. The slideshow options allows for changing the order of the photos. There are many possibilities to adapt the presentation of and transitions between photos in the show itself.
The book format within iPhoto allows the user to create a classic photo album. This looks very much like a classic photo album. How much context one can add depends on the album theme. Not all page layouts offer the possibility to add text. Unfortunately the information entered for each photo can not be used as context for the album pages.
iPhoto also has the possibility to create a calendar. This format is a pretty standard monthly flip over calendar, with on one page the monthly calendar and on the other page 1-3 photos. It does not seem possible to add context through text in all themes. however the monthly calendar does add some context. This monthly calendar can be filled through events from iCal (nice for birthdays).
There also exists a Web Gallery format, where a set of images are exported to the web. Unfortunately that requires a .Mac account, which I do not have at the moment.
iPhoto also has the possibility to export to other applications, such as iDVD and iWeb. The story line creation must be done in those applications.
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application
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20 Dec 2007
Photo Album Storylines
Inspired by Memory Miner I started thinking about story lines in Photo Albums. How are story lines created in Photo Albums. How do we go from the big pile of digital photos to a story. I am not aware of any work in this field, so I will start looking at some applications and services and see how these can create story lines.
I see several aspects to the story:
- Selection - not all available photos will fit the story line. So a selection must be made. This selection can be automatic or done by hand;
- Ordering - for a story the order of the photos is important. The story line goes from one photo to the next. This story line could follow the the stamp of the photos, but that is by no means required;
- Context - usually a photo needs a context. This context can be given through associated text or audio. A single context might apply to multiple photos;
- Format - one should no longer think of photo albums in the classic format, the books. Photo albums can also have digital formats, such as a DVD, a presentation (video), web-pages, etc. Each of these formats might have other story line possibilities;
I will I add some conclusion to this post when needed.
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MicroContent •
client •
application
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16 Oct 2007
Application management and MicroContent
For a while I have been pondering the relation between user application management, the application Appfresh and the service iusethis.com. It is all about the applications one is using. For a while now there was a habit of publishing the things one is using. I did as well and created a blog dedicated to this. This blog lists the apps I am using, put on my dock and have been testing. (I really should work on this blog a bit more, though)
The iusethis service does something similar. Here is my profile. This service is somewhat similar to my own blog in that it lists the apps that I am using and have docked. The interesting thing about this service is that it also shows relations between applications, so that one can discover interesting new ones.
And then there is the desktop app AppFresh. This applications scans the hard-drive for existing applications, thus creating an application list. Subsequently this list is checked against a public list in order to check application updates. If there is an update, it can be downloaded and installed. This installation process is pretty transparent. If one takes a snapshot of an app, one can always rollback to that version. This is very useful, I already got bummed on an app. The problem is that the app is a bit to transparent and one does not always know the consequences of an update.
In addition AppFresh is integrated with iusethis. This means the apps found by AppFresh can be uploaded to iusethis, and if wanted flagged.
So where is the MicroContent in all of this. I see three parts: the application, the product information and the user input. The application can not be seen as MicroContent. The product information, i.e. the information on the application, can be seen as business MicroContent. Normally this information should be provided by the maker of the product, but in this case it is gathered by users.
And finally the user information. This information can be seen as a very simple review. Already the fact that an application appears on the list in the first place, can be seen as a review. At least the user took a look at the application. The user can only add a simple 3-level rating to this information: favorite, iusethis and is_installed (appears on the list).
I have not yet decided whether I find all of this useful for myself. Att the moment it is just fun to play with. And for applications that I really use, I will detect whether there are any updates available or not.
Categories/tags:
MicroContent •
client •
application •
service •
type •
review
, appfresh, apple, macosx, apps, iusethis
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27 Aug 2007
Tagging in Yep
My second post on Yep looks more closer at the tagging support in this application. The fundamental idea of this application is that it allows a user to more easily manage his PDF documents. In order to help this management the application uses tags.
These tags must be set by the user. There is an auto-tag feature, but that does not work well for me. It might change when I tagged more documents. However one can define a set of tags taken from the file location, which works nice. I see a folder structure as basic tagging, just as using categories.
The user can type his tags into the tag field. The application helps here through auto-completion and a showing a set of popular tags. I noticed that I should follow a common set of rules for setting tags: no uppercase, no plural. But this also applies to the naming of my folders. I wonder whether I can change that. Or will that trouble my backup procedure?
Using tags for discovery of Items works quite nice. In order to use this one has to set the List-pane into tags-mode. This will show all tags as a tag-clous, which is presented as a list. The size of a tag indicates the popularity of the tag. Hovering over a tag shows that tag also on relevant Items in the Items-pane, which is nice. Clicking on a tag, changes the the Items in the Items-pane to only the Items with that tag. Thus this works similar to a pre-programmed smart-list. However also the content of the list-pane changes to show only the relevant tags for the new set of documents. This is similar to the browser approach of WebnoteHappy, but I prefer the latter. Interestingly I found documents that I did not place yet in the right categories (i.e. folders).
I think I like the application. I would like to see this approach for all files, or better for all printable files. I say here printable files, as these can be presented as PDF's. So I have to use the application a bit longer.