Data Detectors in Browsers

I didn’t see anything on the Snow Leopard Enhancements and Refinements page about Detectors being added anywhere but TextEdit.


I didn’t see anything on the Snow Leopard Enhancements and Refinements page about Detectors being added anywhere but TextEdit.
I finally redeemed two iTunes gift cards last night, finding the process generally straightforward. That said, many Macs now have iSight cameras built-in. As proven by Delicious Library, an iSight can also function as a barcode scanner, moving the bulk of the input burden from the user to the computer.
A second barcode (which creates a bit of confusion) would not have to be added if the scratch-off alphanumeric code could be recognized as such using OCR. With foreknowledge of the typeface and the processing power of modern Macs, this seems technically feasible.
In case the camera is in use by another application, the Scan via iSight button is disabled and the application name is displayed.
There would have to be some conditional rules to hide the mention of optical scanning and the attendant button on Macs without a compatible camera.
Being annoyed with having to constantly open and close Fireworks’ modal Numeric Transform dialog, I thought would be particularly useful in design applications to scale and reposition objects based on relative calculations like “this box should be 25 percent taller”.
Assuming this had been implemented somehow, I found the current method available in Mac applications described by Dave Mark, who learned of it from Mike Ash. The process is as follows:
Easy enough, but totally invisible unless you know it’s there (not necessarily a bad thing) and yet another keyboard shortcut to remember. The fact that Script Editor pops open is also mildly surprising and irritating.
Keeping the existing method (though not requiring Scrip Editor to perform the calculations) is fine for free-form text, but a design specific to number boxes would be very helpful in many applications. It reduces input repetition (a starting value is always available), application switching, and would be a great help to me as I have trouble doing math in my head. As Dan Saffer stated in his Designing Smart and Clever Applications presentation: “Do what humans have trouble doing but computers can do easily.”
At most parties I’ve been to in the last several years, the music source was one or more iPods. For this reason, a Party Mode would be of some use. Locking your iPod while it is being used for playback prevents other people from playing DJ, which might make sense if you’ve carefully constructed a playlist, but if you are open to letting others choose music from your library there should be a middle ground.
In my experience, iPhones users don’t offer up their devices for party music, which is understandable given that you might need your phone to take calls from guests, etc. Were a Party Mode offered on the iPhone, options to silence the ringer and send calls directly to voicemail would be useful.
I find myself wasting a lot of time creating calendar events that share a lot of properties, but differ in time of occurrence and duration. Auto-complete still requires per-field interaction.
For example, a band may rehearse regularly, but not on a fixed, repeating schedule that can be cleanly accommodated by a calendaring app’s recurring event interface. You want to be able to easily create an event involving the same people (your bandmates), usually at the same place (your rehearsal studio), with a varying date and duration.
Templates to the rescue.
Templates would not work cleanly in Contactizer’s All events list view. What happens when you drop a template event to the list? A title field and date/time picker could appear at the drop point. It’s still likely to be less input than creating the event from scratch.
David Weiss (The Security Implications of URL Shortening Services) and Joshua Schachter (on url shorteners) both wrote about URL shortening services recently, focusing mostly on security. I began drafting this post a while ago because of the negative impacts of such services on link usability.
How about fixing the problem of needless character limitations instead of providing a crutch? I’ve heard the “it is a constraint that inspires creativity” line to defend the limitation. Bullshit. If you want to write succinctly, being able to write a lot does not stop you from doing so. The inverse is not true.
Given the discomfort of typing on any phone keyboard for an extended period and the burst usage patterns of mobile devices, I really don’t think there is a significant risk that removing the SMS character limit will result in people writing and sending novels via text message, thereby gobbling up carrier bandwidth and bringing down networks worldwide.
Evolution is generally a good app, so the e-mail account configuration assistant sticks out. Unfortunately, it is the first thing users encounter after first launching Evolution.
Rescheduling an event to another day using the mobile Calendar app on the iPhone requires at least six taps across four screens. The method depicted below reduces the minimum taps to two with the number of screens depending on how many days the event is moved.
Mac OS X’s DVD Player allows users to set the title and a jacket picture for each disc. Some DVDs specify the jacket picture already, as in the case of Samurai Rebellion. These two pieces could be used to better present the DVD on the desktop.