Do you remember earlier this year a web application called 280Slides?
Let's refresh our memory a little bit - 280Slides was a stunning piece of work both on the beautiful UI that felt like a native OS X app, right through to the core that was an entirely new framework that promised to make developing web applications just the same as building desktop ones. Well today that framework has been launched to the public (with a suitably beautiful icon) as open source, and it's called Cappuccino.
There's not much I can say about Cappuccino right now that isn't on their site, other than give my full support for this truly advanced framework. What sets it apart from other javascript frameworks such as MooTools (which we love and use extensively by the way), script.aculo.us, and jquery is that Cappuccino is built specifically for developing full blow web applications, not just sprucing up existing web pages and adding a little dynamism. Cappuccino, in fact, is so far removed from existing ways* of building web applications that they claim you won't need to know very much about web development at all:
"With Cappuccino, you don't need to know HTML. You'll never write a line of CSS. You don't ever have to interact with DOM. We only ask developers to learn one technology, Objective-J, and one set of APIs."
This is a massive step in the right direction for existing desktop application developers (especially those already developing for OS X) as they can relatively easily start building similar applications "for the cloud" and harness the power of the web to push the boundaries of their application design.
We are really looking forward to having a play around with Cappuccino, and we highly recommend you popping over to their site simply to check it out and learn more.
* Sprout Core also takes a similar view to building web applications (rather than adding AJAX to HTML pages), but it's a different framework that still requires you to learn web based languages. Sprout Core was covered extensively (around the same time as 280Slides) when Apple released MobileMe which is built using Sprout Core.
This Beijing Olympic Village replica was created by the Hong Kong LEGO Users Group in under 100 hours. These photos are a few days old but I only just came across them. Seems like an appropriate time to display an amazing model of such a breathtaking Olympic Village.
Anyone who saw the opening ceremony to Beijing 08 will be aware of how much attention China is putting into the beautiful details of these Games. The Birds Nest Stadium is one of my favourite stadium designs ever, and at night it becomes even more stunning with the most powerful and colourful lighting to transform it into a glowing ball of intertwining steel frames.
Written by G · July 7, 2008
· Filed under Adverts, Design
We've been looking a lot at magazine design lately, and we thought it was about time to share a few of our thoughts on the subject with a few posts.
Here's one of the sneakiest forms of advertising I have seen in a while. Advertisers commonly pay a high price to get on the second page, and even more for the back cover... But there's one place that's always been the haven of no advertising - the front cover. Until now.
We found this ad in (on) Vice Magazine the other day while browsing around, and as it's not a UK magazine, we weren't too fast on the uptake. However, the ingenious creativity behind the idea can't be ignored - the ad for BMW overlays the standard front cover with glow in the dark paint. To anyone buying the magazine, and for 90% of reading time, the cover looks like a standard cover, yet when the lights go down, your eyes are drawn to the subtle glow in the dark image of an iconic BMW 1 Series.
Even more subtle is the placement of typography. The "1" of "1 Series" is positioned exactly where the "I" in "Vice" is. That's planning for you. Ensuring both the creative teams, copywriters, advertising agency, and printers are on the same page is not an easy feat of team management.
Despite the gradual decline in the print industry, everyone still likes to own a magazine or two, and the continued emergence of unique and smart ideas for the medium is reassuring.
We think this is the best icon set we've ever made. In ourpreviousiconsetswe kept things simple, to one or 2 colours. This time we've gone all out on the colour, and the detail.
If you need any icons for anything vaguely image related, we think you'll find them here.
We've got something for everyone's needs - some smiling lips, a camera lens, some vortex colour, a crop tool, a TV icon, and plenty more.
This one's a big file - all that juicy detail in vector form is bandwidth hungry.
We hope you enjoy them, and as always, they're free to download and use as you wish!
Thanks,
GoSquared
P.S. We always love a mention or a link back if you use our precious, hand made icons. We put our blood sweat and tears into producing them. Cheers!
Being in London, this year we haven't been lucky enough to attend the Apple World Wide Developer Conference at Moscone West in San Francisco. We'll be following Twitter along with the rest of the world's Apple fans, but just in case Twitter goes down (not that that's ever happened before... oh wait) we'll be keeping you posted on developments throughout the day.
Good work Gernot Poetsch on snapping the first shots of the Moscone West building in San Francisco where the WWDC keynote will take place on Monday.
Every year, these banners leave a few hints as to what will be revealed on the big day, and this year is no exception.
As mentioned in our earlier article "Thoughts on WWDC", the focus on OS X as much as iPhone here seems to suggest we will be seeing something about the next version of Apple's desktop operating system.
Interestingly, this is the first time we have seen Apple marketing their operating system without the term "Mac". Some people have noted this down as possibly meaning OS X could become available on PCs, but I sincerely doubt that. Instead, I see it as Apple strengthening the definition of each of their brands, so that they fall into the following categories:
Mac: The computer hardware (Desktop and Notebook)
iPhone: The mobile hardware (Perhaps a range of iPhones, gradually replacing the iPod)
OS X: The firmware (One operating system that developers can build for using the same tools and services, while making it even easier for consumers to move from iPod > iPhone > Mac)
It is also interesting to see Apple reviving the idea of OS X on the iPhone, as until now it had seemed Apple had been making the firmware update seem more like the "iPhone OS" as opposed to a mobile version of the desktop operating system.
So the new iPhone is only days away, and there are tons of rumours flying around all over the place. Let's have a look at what's being said, and what could be said at WWDC...
I've been thinking about how the keynote could go, and here's a little idea of how the show could pan out:
< -- Begin thinking like Steve -- >
Intro
Hi folks, thanks for coming. We've got some great stuff for you this morning.
This is the most popular WWDC EVER. We've got 100s of Apple Developers on hand to help you out and chat over the week. First time we have sold out in the history of WWDC.
Today, I'd like to talk to you about our two core platforms: OS X and the iPhone.
iPhone
* A few slides about how iPhone market share has been growing (conveniently ignoring the last few months where it's been falling).
Yes, it's true. Today, we're introducing the new iPhone. And yes, it's 3G.
New iPhone, runs iPhone 2.0 firmware from the box.
I'll be honest, I hadn't heard of this guy until today, but I thought it would be important to share just how (for want of a better word) STUPID he appears in this video.
When asked on what Apple needs to do to really improve its chances in the corporate sector, Mr Krakow suggested that Apple should "Bite the bullet, and either get Blackberry or Windows Mobile on the iPhone"
His reasons for Apple doing so were very vague, and mainly focused on people "being happy" with what they currently have. How can an industry ever evolve if they're always happy with what they have?
Gary's comments on "moving to the Apple system" made him sound as if he really didn't have a clue about what he was talking about. Also, on a side note, you don't tend to hear people in the industry calling anything a system these days - it's more "platforms" and "devices". His comments were as if Apple hadn't got ANY plans to bring out a whole host of enterprise features in the coming weeks.
All I can say is, it's hard to believe this isn't a joke.
Relating back to our posts on the DreamBrowser, we found a great demo of a much improved technique for scrolling windows at Thorwil's Blog.
The concept of scrolling using scroll bars in a GUI has not altered for over a decade, and an improvement like this makes a lot of sense. It may not aesthetically be the most attractive solution right now, but as time goes by it's highly likely this could end up in desktop software and operating systems.
It's going to be interesting seeing how this concept develops and whether it will make it into the wider world of mainstream software.
Want to advertise on liquidicity? Get your square up in as little as five minutes flat. With thousands of views daily at your disposal get seen the GoSquared way and best of all, only:
€2 for 1 Day €12 for 1 Week €25 for 1 Month €75 for 1 Year
Get the Adobe Illustrator CS2 File [10.1 MB]
