Shiira Web Browser 2.0 Released

I was looking forward to testing the Shiira browser, because the demo video featured these really nice functions:

1. Select and open multiple links in new tabs
2. Tabs Exposé feature.

Use the cursor to highlight any part of the web page, - right click and choose the "Open all Links in new Tabs" command. The drowdown menu tells you how many links you have selected, so you can gage how many tabs will open up at once.



To me that seems more useful then Safari's "Open in Tabs" bookmarks feature. Together with the new Tabs Exposé you get a key feature: quickly scan the open tabs in Exposé mode and find your information faster.



Shiira desperately needs a "close all tabs" (but the first one) command. I tried to open 40 tabs "by mistake". My hard core test could not be corrected. Closing the entire window made the browser crash - repeatedly. It does not appear to be completely stable yet.

Shiira's shelf is well organized. All bookmarks from all browsers on my machine were thoughtfully added. Unlike Firefox you don't have to choose between a bookmark or a history side panel.




download the application here.

Adobe CS 3, OS X Installation Problems

I bought CS 3 yesterday, excited to finally use the power of my new Mac-Intel CPUs. Bad hickup: Adobe forgot to mention to their Macintosh clientele that they needed to use the UNINSTALLER to remove the Photoshop Beta Version. If you don't remove it before the installation or trash it by hand, you'll get a conflict.
Customer service told me that their little oversight kept them extreeeemly busy with the Mac customers...Still, customer service guy "Aron"was patient and knowledgeable and took me through the manual uninstall process. After that everything was peachy:)

Twitter, Dodgeball, Mashups, Web 2.0 and the Ecstacy of Communication

Until I read the post "Map-O-Mania" by Erhard Wimmmer I had no idea what on earth "twitter" meant as far as Web 2.0 goes. I had missed this!



The oxford dictionary defines it as follows:



• verb

1 (of a bird) make a series of light tremulous sounds.

2 talk rapidly in a nervous or trivial way.









Twitter.com concerns itself with one question: What are you doing right now? You can use the phone, IM or the web to submit SMS-length messages that will be broadcasted to your "friends" (all friend receive the twitter SMS). In additional - if I understand correctly - these messages go public on the twitter site. It's like a constant stream of disembodied ramblings that people can chose to contact. What gives?



It gets interesting when Twitter is being used in mashups sites like twittervision.com. The human need to communicate is relentless and we are right smack in the middle of a giant exstacy of communication.



In 2001 Han Gene Paik and I embarked on a project called "Guerillofitti". The concept was different, but the method was the same. This is from our original project proposal:



["...Using cell phones and other handheld devices that are meant to enhance "private" communications, participants instead publicize their opinions (read: twitter) on a censor free message board installed in a "public" space. This conversion of a "private-to-private" communication to a "private-to-public"..."]



We intended to have a projection or video wall installed in public that would display the messages. It seems now that Web 2.0 and our devices have become the public board. We are public with absolutely everything. I can only presume that anonymity and privacy don't concern people. On twittervision.com you even get to see where people are located, since it is mashed with google maps. Other services like Google's Dodgeball also function to locate your friends, - if they happen to be in your vicinity. The purpose is once again social interaction. Personally I find it alarming to be so locatable, but it might be naive to think that I couldn't be found, only because I don't "twitter" or "dodgeball".

ZUIs: Archy, Zenzui, iPhone and Deepfish

When I wrote the post about the Zenzui interface I wasn't aware of the fact that efforts have been made for a long time to develop ZUIs - Zooming User Interfaces. The idea is a desktop that is infinitely expandable in all directions, as well as zoomable to get an overview or to show detail. To my knowledge the Zooming User Interface is one part of "ARCHY", a proposed system for interacting with computers designed by Jef Raskin. He first described these ideas in his book The Humane Interface which was published in 2000.





Apple is making efforts in that direction with the introduction of virtual desktops called "Spaces" in the upcoming release of Leopard. The upcoming iPhone also uses a stylized form of ZUI. Since the iPhone will use Safari and the full web experience, Apple needed a way to pan through the information on a small screen and came up with double tapping to zoom in and out, as well as pushing/panning of the page with swipes of your finger.
Apparently Apple has beat Microsoft efforts in that area to the punch. Look at Microsoft's Deepfish (see Demo) technology. The similarities are obvious, although the navigation of the interface by joystick seems a bit clutsy.

It is always so interesting to me, that all these concepts have been around for a long while. Some companies - usually Apple - just implement them better. Then they are called innovators, but their ideas were never produced out of thin air. It's a process and many smart people have contributed.