I think what would be really useful is a 'skip to content' link right at the very top of the page. This could be hidden using the css 'display: none' property but would show up for text browsers. Obviously it would just be an in-page link targeting the most recent news story.
Yes I too find the 'note-taking' ability of a camera phone to be the best thing about it. Remembering shop opening times, gig info from posters etc etc; it's all made a lot easier when you can just snap a photo of it and take it with you on your phone.
The problem arrises in the phone's screen resolution & size - 2 megapixels is plenty to capture info from a poster but a tiny screen can often render it unreadable. And having to upload the images to a PC does negate half the convenience. I'm sure we'll continue to see a steady progession in this area though (my first camera phone could only display 256 colours!)
Paul Thurrott actually makes a very similar argument to this in his recent review of Boot Camp.
One might wonder why Apple would create such a thing. After all, with barely 2 percent of the market for computer operating systems, should Apple be trying to win market share for Mac OS X and not offer a way for Mac users to run Windows? Not exactly. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn't actually make a lot of money directly from sales of its OS. Instead, Apple makes most of its money--even now, in the heady days of iPod supremacy--by selling computer hardware.
...
Now that Apple's operating system runs on Intel hardware, what's to stop the company from letting users install Mac OS X on any PC? As noted above, Apple actually makes much more money from hardware than it does from software, and given the rampant piracy in the PC market, it's likely that any move to open up Mac OS X like that would do little to help Apple's cause. Overall, Apple did the right thing: Under the current plan, it's likely that its hardware sales will go up. And as people discover Mac hardware, they could very well be tempted to consider using OS X as well.
Assuming that Thurrott is right with his loose facts regarding where Apple makes its profit, it's hard to argue really.
Paul Thurrott has a fairly comprehensive (and probably quite rose-tinted) review of the Vista beta over at his SuperSite for Windows.
It goes through the vast majority of new features, although doesn't go into a great deal of depth at this early stage. Seems there are no great surprises here - Vista is still very much watered down from initial promises - but apparently things are at least moving along noticably now.
personally (aside from just talking to friends etc) i've usually found it best to browse around other peoples collections on P2P apps... you can instantly tell if they have similar tastes to you and you can always message them and ask if an album is really that good before downloading/buying it.
perhaps i'm just biased by my musical tastes, but i'd recommend soulseek for this... not least 'cause it preserves the directory structure when you're browsing someone's files.
oh and amazon's recommendations aren't bad either, but that's been mentioned already =)
as impressed as i am by what ive read & heard of ogg vorbis (that'll be very)... one thing prevents me from getting over excited
see i have all my music in mp3... yet the majority of it is either downloaded or ripped form friends collections - hey im a student without a job, live with it =P
and of course that means i'm not going to gain anything except a few megs of storage space when i decide the time is right to convert my collection. as clever as the ogg compression is... it cant magically generate quality. which is a shame.
also there lies the problem of what to do with my current mp3 player... hopefully a software update will appear once ogg goes final though
so... until i get broadband (and a job) and re-download all my music i dont see life changing much. perhaps the streaming will be cool though. or rather would be on the aforementioned broadband.
anyway this is all just random thoughts... not that im complaining about ogg or anything. so yeah... stuff.
another thing i probably should have mentioned is racing games like gt - everyone wants to drive they're favourite car so getting 'em licensed properly is great for everybody.
though this was never gonna work in gta im afraid - car companies dont seem to like the idea of their latest model being pictured with a grannie bouncing off the windscreen for some reason...
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like a slice of toast gaffer taped to a cat
i have to say i've been really rather impressed recently by the adverts in gta3... they really do help to build up that living city feel. and the radio ads blatently rock.
though i think the best use of product placement in a game has to go to wipeout 2097 and its use of red bull... that just fitted so perfectly to me... am i right in saying that was done with no cash changing hands too?
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like a slice of toast gaffer taped to a cat
Slashdot Mirror
I think what would be really useful is a 'skip to content' link right at the very top of the page. This could be hidden using the css 'display: none' property but would show up for text browsers. Obviously it would just be an in-page link targeting the most recent news story.
Yes I too find the 'note-taking' ability of a camera phone to be the best thing about it. Remembering shop opening times, gig info from posters etc etc; it's all made a lot easier when you can just snap a photo of it and take it with you on your phone.
The problem arrises in the phone's screen resolution & size - 2 megapixels is plenty to capture info from a poster but a tiny screen can often render it unreadable. And having to upload the images to a PC does negate half the convenience. I'm sure we'll continue to see a steady progession in this area though (my first camera phone could only display 256 colours!)
Paul Thurrott actually makes a very similar argument to this in his recent review of Boot Camp.
Assuming that Thurrott is right with his loose facts regarding where Apple makes its profit, it's hard to argue really.
Paul Thurrott has a fairly comprehensive (and probably quite rose-tinted) review of the Vista beta over at his SuperSite for Windows.
It goes through the vast majority of new features, although doesn't go into a great deal of depth at this early stage. Seems there are no great surprises here - Vista is still very much watered down from initial promises - but apparently things are at least moving along noticably now.
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www.markwheeler.net
personally (aside from just talking to friends etc) i've usually found it best to browse around other peoples collections on P2P apps... you can instantly tell if they have similar tastes to you and you can always message them and ask if an album is really that good before downloading/buying it.
perhaps i'm just biased by my musical tastes, but i'd recommend soulseek for this... not least 'cause it preserves the directory structure when you're browsing someone's files.
oh and amazon's recommendations aren't bad either, but that's been mentioned already =)
avatar
mesmerized.org/teki
as impressed as i am by what ive read & heard of ogg vorbis (that'll be very)... one thing prevents me from getting over excited
see i have all my music in mp3... yet the majority of it is either downloaded or ripped form friends collections - hey im a student without a job, live with it =P
and of course that means i'm not going to gain anything except a few megs of storage space when i decide the time is right to convert my collection. as clever as the ogg compression is... it cant magically generate quality. which is a shame.
also there lies the problem of what to do with my current mp3 player... hopefully a software update will appear once ogg goes final though
so... until i get broadband (and a job) and re-download all my music i dont see life changing much. perhaps the streaming will be cool though. or rather would be on the aforementioned broadband.
anyway this is all just random thoughts... not that im complaining about ogg or anything. so yeah... stuff.
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another thing i probably should have mentioned is racing games like gt - everyone wants to drive they're favourite car so getting 'em licensed properly is great for everybody.
though this was never gonna work in gta im afraid - car companies dont seem to like the idea of their latest model being pictured with a grannie bouncing off the windscreen for some reason...
avatar
-----------
like a slice of toast gaffer taped to a cat
i have to say i've been really rather impressed recently by the adverts in gta3... they really do help to build up that living city feel. and the radio ads blatently rock.
though i think the best use of product placement in a game has to go to wipeout 2097 and its use of red bull... that just fitted so perfectly to me... am i right in saying that was done with no cash changing hands too?
avatar
-----------
like a slice of toast gaffer taped to a cat