Ringo: Holographic User Interface

See this and many other unusual and interesting user interfaces on Smashing Magazines blog "10 Futuristic User Interfaces."


Holographic Interface - round interface - Ringo from Ivan Tihienko on Vimeo.

faceAPI : 3-D Face Tracking

Reuters Polo Ralph Lauren to launch shopping by cell phone

Polo is the first luxury retailer to launch a mobile commerce site, hoping to stay ahead of a trend that is making its way from Asia to the United States, said David Lauren, senior vice president of advertising and son of designer and Chief Executive Ralph Lauren.

Using phones to buy items such as train tickets or products in vending machines is commonplace in Japan, but the trend has yet to catch on in the United States.

"We recognize that in America this is going after somebody who is more comfortable with technology," Lauren told Reuters. "The truth is that in other countries, it's becoming a part of their culture. The trend is coming, and as a fashion company it's very important to identify trends and get ahead of them."

While early adopters of new technologies are often young, Lauren said the move is not aimed at a specific age group.

"This is about someone who's interested in our brand and interested in technology, and wherever the two meet, that's what's appropriate," Lauren said.

Polo, with its higher-end customers, has used cautious inventory management to outperform other apparel makers that have been hurt by a deteriorating U.S. economy.

The apparel maker will begin placing special codes in print ads, mailings and store windows along with its sponsorship of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which begins later this month.

Shoppers can download special software to camera-phones to scan the codes and be directed to a phone-friendly version of a Ralph Lauren website, where they can shop, watch tennis videos and read company content.

Polo Ralph Lauren to launch shopping by cell phone - Yahoo! News

Vizualising the future of web browsing

Interesting look into the future and how we may be interacting with data and collaborating with others on the web -- from Mozilla Labs.

"What will browsing the web be like a decade from now? Leading design and UI company Adaptive Path offers one possible answer in a new concept video series called Aurora."

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Via: Lifehacker

It’s the Software, Not You

So true... Why can't software be easier to use?

Maybe it's a laziness thing, or a cost-saving thing. After all, it's less effort to make the end user jump through a bunch of hoops than to make your own software more intelligent.

All of these thoughts go through my mind every time I see the standard Windows software-installation wizard, seven screens long.

You don't really need seven screens of options to install a program, do you? Why can't it assume that you want the standard setup and get on with it?

Surely 90 percent of the time, people, YES, want the program in their Start menus; YES, want the typical installation; NO, don't want icons on the desktop; YES, agree to the legalese. And to accommodate the weirdos who wants something different, provide one single Installation Options button. And then get on with it. One screen, not seven.

Why do software designers want their work to appear more complex instead of less? I just don't get why they don't get it.

So the next time you're frustrated by software complexity, take heart; much of the time, it's not you. It's them. It's designers who have something on their mind other than software intelligence.

From the Desk of David Pogue - It’s the Software, Not You

Macworld Video: A look at VirtualBox

A very good virtualization program for the Mac, developed by SUN, available for free as Open Source software.

Adobe launches Acrobat.com

Adobe has just launched Acrobat.com which is their response to Google Docs. It's good to see some solid competition going on among online "Office" applications, MS Office may be relegated to the back as more and more people adopt these inexpensive and free offerings.

The URL Is Dead, Long Live Search

This article makes a good argument for making websites search engine friendly and the importance of being findable on the net.

Of the 10 fastest rising search terms on Google last year, 7 were for searches where adding a ".com" would have brought the user to the correct site. These are called "navigational" searches -- searches done when the user already knows exactly where he or she wants to end up -- and they make up a surprising large number of total seaches.

According to Compete last fall, navigational searches make up about 17% of all searches on average, more on Yahoo! and Live than on Google. For well-known web sites, Compete found that about 9 out of the top 10 search terms for that site tend to be some sort of variation on the domain. Surprisingly, people actually often search for entire domain names rather than type them into their browser's address bar.

Either way, search over URL seems to be a trend we're likely to see more of. Advertising search boxes rather than .com names is already all the rage in Japan. Mac developer Cabel Sasser pointed out in March that search boxes with suggested terms are pretty much all you see on ads in Japan, but he wondered if search marketers and spammers might ruin that strategy in the US.