Tag: INTERFACE

While we've still yet to see anything truly Earth-shattering, the tandem of Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott continues to churn out insight about interesting new features they've discovered in Windows 8 milestone 3. The latest discovery is that Aero in Windows 8 will be able to automatically adapt itself to match your current wallpaper image. It's a bit like what Windows 7 already does with your ...

Citing a "source at Microsoft," Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Microsoft plans on showing off Windows 8 in just a few short months. Insider's Matt Rosoff notes that Microsoft's fiscal year wraps up in June, so it just might make sense to demo the upcoming OS on a tablet to whet investor appetites for the coming year. As WinRumors points out, that's also right around the time of the All ...

Google has begun rolling out a new version of its cross-site navigation bar. Google's search tools still get top billing, with Gmail sliding in just before the more menu -- which is where you'll have to go to find your Reader link. Elements have a bit more padding now as well, which will make them more finger-friendly on your Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet (or other touchscreen device). Another ...

It's a little hard to describe what Firefox Home Dash is -- beyond the basics, anyway. It's an experimental add-on born from Mozilla's Prospector project which replaces (or removes) nearly all of the Firefox UI. You're left with a title bar, scrollbar, the big orange button, and not much else. The goal is to get the browser out of the way and just give you the Web. Hover over the Firefox logo ...

Microsoft knows who uses Internet Explorer -- and understands that those people aren't always keen on big changes. Internet Explorer 9's updated interface could come as quite a shock to some users, with its compact address bar and in-line tabs. It seems, however, that Microsoft will add in an optional switch to impart a more IE8-style appearance. The Internet Explorer 9 RC build is set to ...

When Google made the decision to introduce an in-tab bookmark manager for Chrome, it only made sense that other personal pages -- like your settings -- would move to tabs as well. A tabbed options page for Chrome began taking shape in July 2010, when we shared a video of the feature working in Chromium. Now, it's become the default in Chrome Canary. It's just as easy to get around in the ...

Mozy is an easy, inexpensive way to back up your important data to the cloud -- and that component of the service has always been quite good. Restoring data, however, has been a little bit more of a chore. Thankfully, Mozy has been working hard to improve the restore experience, and the updated interface is now live. Apart from an improved UI, Mozy now offers one-click downloading of all your ...

At $1.99 in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, SurfCube is hard to pass up. The app takes the stock WP7 browser and builds a 3D cube interface around it. The main browser window is front and center and you can shake or flick to rotate the cube and display SurfCube's other screens -- like settings, tabs, and favorites. SurfCube can also be set to run under your lockscreen, which makes it easier to ...

So much for Firefox 4 already being feature-frozen! It now looks as though several additional changes may land before the final release of Firefox 4 lands in early 2011. Among them: tabs in the title bar. As with Google Chrome, your tabs will only move to the topmost area of the window when maximized. The feature has yet to be delivered to the Firefox 4 nightly builds, but you can download ...

If the recent demonstrations of the Kinect's potential have you all hot and bothered, brace yourself: official drivers are now available for both Windows and Ubuntu. It's all thanks to the OpenNI (Natural Interaction) initiative, where PrimeSense -- the company behind the Kinect -- happens to be one of the founding members. OpenNI aims "to accelerate the introduction of Natural Interaction ...

With the release of OpenKinect, an open-source library that lets PC users interact with Microsoft's depth-sensing and environment-recognizing Kinect, crazy-cool applications of the technology are beginning to emerge. In this video (embedded after the break), one creative hacker mashes together a bunch of open-source libraries to create... well, a modern-day equivalent of HAL 9000. Using ...

Lest you think blogger Long Zheng is all about Microsoft apps, our Australian friend has a keen eye on all kinds of bleeding-edge software. -- including Firefox 4. Today he noticed a change in the Firefox 4 nightly build -- sexier, semi-translucent alert dialogs, complete with a blur effect to obscure the webpage content in the background. The new alerts fit well with Firefox 4's default ...

Yahoo! Mail's upcoming interface refresh made its first public appearance today, and it's surprisingly good. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but to me, the overall layout is much more appealing than the Gmail default I've grown accustomed to. The first thing I noticed was that, unlike Gmail, there are tabs provided to switch between inbox and contacts views -- instead of ...

Remember that leaked image of the Internet Explorer 9 interface we saw last month? As it turns out, that's pretty much exactly what the beta looks like. As you can see in Ed Bott's screenshot, Microsoft has gone with a more subdued, minimal look for IE9. Tabs are positioned to the right of the address bar, and home, favorites, and settings buttons appear at the far right. Also like Chrome, ...

I've asked about this before, and I'll pose the question one more time: if you're not going to put Chrome themes where the other Chrome themes go, shouldn't you at least create a category, Google? Google has introduced half a dozen new official Chrome themes, but you won't find them if you click the get themes link on your Personal Stuff menu. No, like the scores of user-created themes out ...