Apple has also gone in this direction for some of their Mac apps. The latest iMovie, for example, is "always saving", and doesn't prompt the user at all when the application is closed. At first, I found this a little disturbing, as I'm conditioned to either save then close, or close then be prompted to save.
The only reason a developer might not want to use this kind of behaviour is if they are not confident that the number of undo steps they can save will be sufficient to cover one scenario many users are used to: they save the document, then make a lot of very messy and difficult-to-undo changes, to the point where they just want to start over, so they just close without saving and revert to their last-saved version. Even if the system is storing a lot of undo steps, it may not be able to bring you back to the point you want because you haven't saved manually to establish a version of the document that you're definitely somewhat happy with.
Perhaps instead of either "the user is in charge of saving" or "the system keeps track and the user can't manually save at all", a solution would be "the system keeps track and the user can also save to indicate ideal rollback points for the document", something like OS rollbacks.
In theory, yes, but if the extensible functions are written using natural language commands like the examples of "map these" and "twitter this" then there should be a near-negligible learning curve.
Also, Japanese keyboards (at least on Macs) swap the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys, which is a layout I find very useful, especially for chording with Cmd, Option and Shift for shortcuts. The functions of the Control, Caps Lock, Option and Command keys can be switched around or disabled entirely by clicking "Modifier Keys..." in the Keyboard section of the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane in System Preferences. You can set these preferences for all keyboards or specific ones only, but I'm not sure if this is the case for 10.4 or lower.
Unfortunately the OOo team have made a huge mistake regarding Mac usability. They have taken the default Mac OS X keyboard shortcut for switching between language input methods (Cmd-Space) and assigned to the non-breaking space character. Re-assigning the shortcut in the Keyboard preference pane didn't fix the problem either.
Looks like multilingual Mac users may want to wait for a later version.
There's a new tag in the Track Info pane -- "Album Artist". Anyone got any ideas on why this was added and how it can be used? It seems like it might help with the situation whereby if you have, for example, an album on which several tracks are collaborations with other artists, then in the Artist list you end up with one entry for Artist 1, one for Artist 1/Artist 2, one for Artist 2/Artist 3...
One thing that instantly jumped out at me -- they seem to have removed the option to keep an iPod in the Source list while it's not plugged in. I used this feature constantly, to check what I had added to my Shuffle and put Podcasts and new songs on that I wanted to update when I next Synced it. Now I have to go and get it and plug it in just to see what's on it. Bummer.
But I love the new interface, and I'm glad that they seem to have bought or somehow included the CoverFlow tech demo that was floating around a few months ago, rather than creating another Konfabulator kerfuffle.
You're luckier than I am. I bought a 900MHz G3 iBook in June 2003 with the same problem. It has failed six or seven times now, with the exact same problem, and I have been told that I am not entitled to a replacement, only to free repairs every time.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have been living in Japan since the month after I bought the machine. I told Apple Japan about Apple Australia's three-strikes policy on this matter, and they said that each country's Apple is a separate entity.
So I just keep regular backups and occasionally have to send it off to them when the logic board fails yet again. Oh well. Rather this than a Windows machine.
When the DS was announced people thought Nintendo were insane. Two screens? What a stupid gimmick! I read an particularly scathing piece in Edge by Mr Biffo, who seemed to think the console would be a failure or Rise of the Robots proportions.
A lot of the argument was based on the fact that the DS had graphical muscle roughly equivalent to the N64, while the PSP was more like a PS1.75 or something. All this kerfuffle took place before the touch screen was revealed.
(On a side note, people who claim the DS is gimmicky with its touch and dual screens seem to be missing an obvious point: Nintendo must have originally decided to use touch-sensitive control on its new handheld. At some point in the development process it would have become clear that the hand being used to hold the stylus will cover up some part of the screen. A second, non-touch screen is the obvious solution.)
Look where we are now: killer titles released regularly on DS, with the system outselling PSP worldwide. Despite its relative lack of power and absolute lack of built-in media convergence features, the DS has, for now, won the next-gen handheld war.
And now we find ourselves in this situation: XBox 360 and PS3 have or will have graphical power far and above that of current generation consoles, the 360 can manage all your media, etc. And the Revolution will be "only" several times more powerful than the GameCube. Sound familiar? But, bearing in mind Nintendo's announcement that they will not be making public the exact specifications of the Revolution, remember what Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said:
"Tech specs don't matter. The time when horsepower alone made an important difference is over, and from this time forward we must create unprecedented experiences."
Sorry to nitpick, but it's not a gbaDS or a Game Boy DS. It's the Nintendo DS.
Nintendo specifically wanted to create a "third pillar" in their lineup, separate from the GBA.
Timesplitters 2 is the only worthy "successor" to GoldenEye in my opinion.
(The GameCube version of course, as I find the analogue/C-stick combination much smoother than the PS2's dual analogues.)
Slashdot Mirror
Apple has also gone in this direction for some of their Mac apps. The latest iMovie, for example, is "always saving", and doesn't prompt the user at all when the application is closed. At first, I found this a little disturbing, as I'm conditioned to either save then close, or close then be prompted to save.
The only reason a developer might not want to use this kind of behaviour is if they are not confident that the number of undo steps they can save will be sufficient to cover one scenario many users are used to: they save the document, then make a lot of very messy and difficult-to-undo changes, to the point where they just want to start over, so they just close without saving and revert to their last-saved version. Even if the system is storing a lot of undo steps, it may not be able to bring you back to the point you want because you haven't saved manually to establish a version of the document that you're definitely somewhat happy with.
Perhaps instead of either "the user is in charge of saving" or "the system keeps track and the user can't manually save at all", a solution would be "the system keeps track and the user can also save to indicate ideal rollback points for the document", something like OS rollbacks.
In Europe?
In theory, yes, but if the extensible functions are written using natural language commands like the examples of "map these" and "twitter this" then there should be a near-negligible learning curve.
CAPSoff - others share your pain.
Also, Japanese keyboards (at least on Macs) swap the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys, which is a layout I find very useful, especially for chording with Cmd, Option and Shift for shortcuts. The functions of the Control, Caps Lock, Option and Command keys can be switched around or disabled entirely by clicking "Modifier Keys..." in the Keyboard section of the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane in System Preferences. You can set these preferences for all keyboards or specific ones only, but I'm not sure if this is the case for 10.4 or lower.
Unfortunately the OOo team have made a huge mistake regarding Mac usability. They have taken the default Mac OS X keyboard shortcut for switching between language input methods (Cmd-Space) and assigned to the non-breaking space character. Re-assigning the shortcut in the Keyboard preference pane didn't fix the problem either.
Looks like multilingual Mac users may want to wait for a later version.
Preview for Mac OS X can view PSD files natively.
There's a new tag in the Track Info pane -- "Album Artist". Anyone got any ideas on why this was added and how it can be used? It seems like it might help with the situation whereby if you have, for example, an album on which several tracks are collaborations with other artists, then in the Artist list you end up with one entry for Artist 1, one for Artist 1/Artist 2, one for Artist 2/Artist 3... One thing that instantly jumped out at me -- they seem to have removed the option to keep an iPod in the Source list while it's not plugged in. I used this feature constantly, to check what I had added to my Shuffle and put Podcasts and new songs on that I wanted to update when I next Synced it. Now I have to go and get it and plug it in just to see what's on it. Bummer. But I love the new interface, and I'm glad that they seem to have bought or somehow included the CoverFlow tech demo that was floating around a few months ago, rather than creating another Konfabulator kerfuffle.
I hope no-one who happens to check my browser history is too alarmed that I visited a site ending in the_world_of_sm.html.
You're luckier than I am. I bought a 900MHz G3 iBook in June 2003 with the same problem. It has failed six or seven times now, with the exact same problem, and I have been told that I am not entitled to a replacement, only to free repairs every time. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have been living in Japan since the month after I bought the machine. I told Apple Japan about Apple Australia's three-strikes policy on this matter, and they said that each country's Apple is a separate entity. So I just keep regular backups and occasionally have to send it off to them when the logic board fails yet again. Oh well. Rather this than a Windows machine.
A lot of the argument was based on the fact that the DS had graphical muscle roughly equivalent to the N64, while the PSP was more like a PS1.75 or something. All this kerfuffle took place before the touch screen was revealed.
(On a side note, people who claim the DS is gimmicky with its touch and dual screens seem to be missing an obvious point: Nintendo must have originally decided to use touch-sensitive control on its new handheld. At some point in the development process it would have become clear that the hand being used to hold the stylus will cover up some part of the screen. A second, non-touch screen is the obvious solution.)
Look where we are now: killer titles released regularly on DS, with the system outselling PSP worldwide. Despite its relative lack of power and absolute lack of built-in media convergence features, the DS has, for now, won the next-gen handheld war.
And now we find ourselves in this situation: XBox 360 and PS3 have or will have graphical power far and above that of current generation consoles, the 360 can manage all your media, etc. And the Revolution will be "only" several times more powerful than the GameCube. Sound familiar? But, bearing in mind Nintendo's announcement that they will not be making public the exact specifications of the Revolution, remember what Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said:
"Tech specs don't matter. The time when horsepower alone made an important difference is over, and from this time forward we must create unprecedented experiences."
You know, I think he may just be on to something.
Sorry to nitpick, but it's not a gbaDS or a Game Boy DS. It's the Nintendo DS. Nintendo specifically wanted to create a "third pillar" in their lineup, separate from the GBA.
Timesplitters 2 is the only worthy "successor" to GoldenEye in my opinion. (The GameCube version of course, as I find the analogue/C-stick combination much smoother than the PS2's dual analogues.)