Tag: UX

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 ...

Over the last few days, Mozilla's lovely Are We Pretty Yet? has been steadily accumulating Firefox 5 interface mock-ups. If you haven't visited AWPY before, its primary purpose is for listing and fixing bugs in the Firefox 4 UI -- but it seems it will now also be used to showcase potential interfaces for Firefox 5. The mock-ups include concepts for 'desktop apps', which are Firefox's answer to ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Microsoft Kinect hacks just keep on coming, and we'll probably be seeing even more cool apps released now that first-party drivers are available for download. Today, we've got a glimpse at a new open source project called KinEmote in action. It's designed to take advantage of your Kinect in its natural habitat: the living room. KinEmote is a -- you guessed it -- remote control app which ...

Google Chrome extensions can be truly handy, but there's at least one feature power users have been clamoring for since the beginning: the ability to hide an extension's browser action button. Good news, Chrome Geeks: the Canary build now lets you hide extension buttons. Just right-click the icon you want to disappear and select hide button, and it's gone. If you should happen to get removal ...

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 ...

Clearly, the status bar's days are numbered. Even Internet Explorer 9 has removed the bottom-dwelling bar in favor of inline tooltips. Now, in the latest updates to Firefox 4, Mozilla's browser has moved status bar link previews to the right-hand side of the Awesome Bar. Hover a link, and the destination URL appears in soft, gray text. Sure, it looks OK when you're currently viewing a page ...

Mozilla continues to refine the Firefox 4 interface as they soldier on through the beta testing process. Yesterday, nightly builds of Firefox 4 received a new menu layout (which you can see on the right side of the header image). More options are now available within two-click reach -- including bookmarks, downloads, add-ons, and private browsing. The new iteration adds visual cues to private ...

While the spate of upcoming Windows 7 tablets may never get your engine running the way the Courier did, a company called UI Centric is hoping that their slick, touch-friendly interface might pique your interest. Dubbed Macallan, UI Centric plans to license the interface to OEMs for use on devices running Windows 7 or Windows 7 embedded. Based on the images UIC has shared, there will at least ...

Proving yet again that Mozilla is a cut above the rest, its Metrics team has just published a fantastic interactive Firefox heat map that illustrates exactly how we interact with the main browser window. The Mozilla Metrics blog has some background info on the project and some basic analysis of the figures. I'm going to try and dig a bit deeper, however. Let's start with Windows versus Mac OS ...

Curious about what the upcoming Meego OS will look like on a smartphone? Well, wonder no more! A handful of images have been posted on the official website for all to see. Above are the home screen, launcher, and task switcher interface (from left to right). I can't help but think that Meego's UI has taken cues from its current mobile OS rivals -- which isn't really a surprise since Intel and ...