Jason Cranford Teague's Blogs

I am sooooo tired of my mouse. Move-click-move-click-move-click-move-click-click-move. We've been using mice for almost 25 years now while movies like Minority Report have shown us a glimpse of a future where all you have to do is wave your hands around a bit to get the job done (OK, you also have to live with Tom Cruze in a distopian future (OK, some might argue that we already are living with Tom Cruze in a distopian future)). Yes, there are some extremely big expensive systems thate promise to do some cool things, but we need something cheap and portable.

The portfolio for Publicis & Hal Riney are taking us into the future with a Flash site that allows you to navigate with hand gestures using your Web cam. Just move your hand over certain "hot spots" in front of your computer (shown in a handy mini-window on the bottom right of the screen) and you can move around their portfolio to see their ideas, news, and examples of their work. It may not be replacing your mouse anytime soon, but it's still pretty cool.

I'm going to be setting the new standards for typography on the Web, and I want your help.

A few weeks back, while at the W3C CSS Work Group Face-To-Face meeting in San Diego, I volunteered, to be the advocate for several of the CSS 3 Modules. A while back, the Work Group decided that, rather than trying to release one big document, they would release the CSS 3 specification in smaller modular chunks. As an advocate for parts of the overall CSS 3 specifications, I work to push my chosen modules through from a working draft to a full blown recommendation. It's kind of like taking a bill through the US Congress, only with more transparency. I decided to take on the four issues which I believe will have the most effect on the work we do here at AOL: CSS Basic UI, CSS Hyperlink Presentation, CSS Fonts, and CSS Web Fonts. It's a lot of work, so I'll be concentrating on the Font Modules first.

Next June (sometime between June 10th and June 13th to be more precise) I will be presenting a session on Web Typography at the Voices the Matter Conference to be held in Nashville, TN. The conference, run by the book publisher New Riders, brings together some of their top authors for a four day lovefest of everything Web design. This is my first time at the conference (of course, this is only the second VTM conference) but it looks pretty exciting, with some authors I know well and others I'm looking forward to meeting.

If you want to attend, you can register before May 2nd and save $200 and (just because I'm a sweet guy) you can use my special promo code at ANY time to save another $200. Use the priority code WDDSPKR during registration to save $200 on any of the packages.

I hope to see you there.

Are you tired of the limited fonts at your disposal as a Web designer? I know I am. But, that changed yesterday when Apple released Safari 3.1 which includes the ability to download common Open Type and True Type fonts to be used in your Web designs without having to install them on the users computer first. Make no mistake, this is the beginning of a revolution in Web design. And I mean an actual revolution-not like the way the word "revolution" is used in TV commercials to make you think you are doing something new when you actually are doing the exact same thing only paying for it-since Apple is openly revolting against the status-quo established by the dominant player in the browser market.

I saw this demoed at the W3C conference last fall, so I wasn't too surprised that Apple could do it, but I am surprised that they are willing to throw down the glove to Microsoft who is opposed to allowing fonts to be used without a strict DRM system in place to not only prevent fonts from being misused either in sites they are not licensed for or stolen by the end user.

CSS has included all of the syntax needed to download fonts for years, the only thing holding typography on the Web back was that the browser makers could not agree on a common font file format to support. Microsoft recently offered to open their proprietary .eot format, but many considered it too little too late. With Safari 3.1, you can now add any True Type (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf) fonts that you have at your disposal.

Ask any typographer and they will tell you: the font-family you choose can say as much as the actual words you print. When you are running to be the President of the United states of America, you can not afford to say the wrong thing. One of my favorite NPR shows, On the Media, just ran an interesting little piece on the typography of the 2008 presidential candidate's signs and stickers. They talked to Sam Berlow of The Font Bureau Inc. about his recent article in the Boston Globe about what the candidates' fonts say about them. My favorite comment is where he compares Clinton's logo to a poorly fitting Talbot's suit with the pants hiked up too high.

You can listen to the interview or read a transcript at the On The Media Web site.

Ian Hickson, who I sat next to at the W3C CSS Work Group meeting last November in Boston, has just completed work on the next generation browser test Acid3. Now ready for prime time on acidtest.org, the test includes 100 new tests of HTTP, HTML, CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), SVG, and XML. Hickson, who is also the primary author of the new HTML5 specification, wrote most of the tests with others coming from the Web design community.

So far, I've tested IE6, Safari 3, and Firefox 2. All of them failed the test spectacularly. I recently reported that the upcoming IE8 passes Acid2, but learned that it only works if the originating server is reconfigured and it is unlikly it will be passing Acid3 anytime soon.

Sorry about the delay in getting the promised software round-up from Macworld out, but not only did I comeback from the conference with a suitcase full of new goodies, I also came back with a head full of a nasty virus that kept me in bed asleep most of last week.

The first product I want to talk about has already started to change the way I'm sharing design comps for feedback. On the face of it, Skitch is just another very cool screen capture tool for the Mac. It lets you capture all or part of the screen, as well as click on interface elements (such as a window or the Dock) to capture them isolated from all other elements on the screen. Once the screen is captured, the image is brought into the Skitch interface, where you have some simple drawing tools that allow you to add labels and then save the final results to your desktop.

And if that were all Skitch did, it would still rank as one of the best screen capture apps I have tried. However, Skitch goes one step further, by giving you single button publishing of the image either to your own .Mac account or to the Skitch.com, which works a lot like a YouTube for still images. You can email out the link to your screen capture and get feedback directly on the page or the viewer, if they have the Skitch application on their own machine, can download the image, add their own comments directly and then (with the press of a single button) put their changes back into the originating Skitch.com page.

The up-shot of this is that, rather than passing around screenshots in emails with bulleted lists of vague comments underneath, we can use the image to enter a running dialog with each other with the image being the focus and, hopefully, provide more accurate and meaningful feedback during during development. I've only just started working with Skitch and it is still in beta (although seems perfectly stable), so there may be some bumps ahead as I try to integrate this app into my work flow, but I invite everyone on the Blog to download Skitch and give it a try.

I'm back from Macworld and I am officially Macworlded out. The presentation went great. I had about 100 people in my audience, mostly teachers, who seemed to respond to what I was talking about and I got a lot of excellent feedback afterwards.

I've seen a lot of exciting new Mac software, which I'll be talking about in my next several posts, but one of the most surprising entries in that category is the new AOL client for the Mac. Built from scratch as a native Coco application, meaning that it runs smoothly in OS X, this is not the Mac AOL client of yesterday. It includes a full featured Web browser--using on the same technology as Apple's Safari--a new AIM client that rivals Apple's iChat, and integrated email that keeps both it's own address book, but also ties into the Apple Address Book software. It also includes the excellent Mac implementation of AOL Radio which has been out for a while.

If you are a Mac user, check it out on the AOL Beta Site.

I spent yesterday afternoon and part of this morning walking the expo floor at Macworld, and I've seen a lot of great new products, and I'll be posting about the best of these throughout the week as I get a chance to play with them first-hand. However, I did want to tell you about the MacBook Air, which I got play with in the Apple booth. I can say two things about it: It is staggeringly light, and it is unbelievably thin. I mean staggeringly light because you go to pick the thing up and you stagger forward because you are expecting to pick up something much heavier. I mean unbelievably thin because you have a hard time believing that the thing could actually have a computer inside of it. I will say, though that the price point is a bit hefty. The basic configuration is cheaper than the Pro model, but once you start adding some of the features like the SSM (Solid State Memory) then you start to run into some real money.

Note: all times AM PST

9:13

Starts with new I'm a Mac ad. "2008: The YEar of the PC" Just gonna' copy everything you did in 2007.

9:14

Steve walks on the stage "There's something in the Air today". Look back to 2007.

9:15

2007 Review. Steve says a big "Thank you".

5 million copies of Leopard. 20% of install base

4 things to report.

9:16

Press quotes on how great Leopard is.

9:17

Office for Mac being released native on Intel.

9:18

Item 1 - Time capsule. Back up device for laptops (and desktops).

Harddrive with wireless networking built in. 500GB drive ($299) and 1TB drive ($499).

ships Feb.

9:20

Time Machine ad "I'm a Mac" ad. Very funny. Also shows a new Keynote transition.

9:21

Item 2- iPhone - 4mill sold. 19.5% market share of smartphone in first 90 days, second only to RIM (39%).

9:23

SDK for iPhone

new features on iPhone: Maps with location. Webclips (make widgettes from parts of a Web page), Customize multiple home screens. Multiple SMS. Chaptering of videos. Lyrics support.

9:24

Demos new iPhone features.

9:28

Demos Web Clips.

Can add Web links directly to main iPhone screen.

Can auto zoom to a part of the Web page.

9:30

Can repositions icons on main screen(s). icons start to "jiggle" letting you know they are ready to be moved. Can create up to 9 different pages for storing Web pages.

Free iphone software update.

9:33

iPod Touch - Adding apps Mail, Maps, stocks, notes and weather PLUS the new iPhone features.

Comes on all new Touches or $20 update cost for current.

9:35

iTunes - Sold 4 billionth song. sold 20 million on christmas day. 125 Million TV shows.

9:36

Item 3 - iTunes move rentals - new section in iTunes. Touchstone, Mirmax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline Ciniema PLUS Fox WB Walt Diney Paramount, Universal , and SOny. every major studio.

9:38

Will have all of the first run films plus large library.

Launch with 1000 films by end of February.

New films avail. 30 days after DVD release.

Can watch on Computers and iphones.

Starts within 30 seconds of pushing button.

30 days to watch MUST watch within 24 hours of first starting.

9:40

New movies $3.99 Library Movies $2.99.

Can move movie around between devices during watch period.

9:41

Launches today.

New iTunes update.

9:42

But, how to get movies on to your HD TV.

Steve admits that everyone has missed (even apple).

9:43

Apple TV Take 2 - NO COMPUTER REQUIRED.

9:44

Can rent movies in DVD quality or HD quality Dolby 5.1. Can view Podcasts. Can view photos directly from Flickr and .MAC

9:45

Can view all YouTube videos.

9:46

HD rental costs $1 more ($4.99 and $3.99).

100 titles to start with.

All streaming so does not take up harddrive space.

9:47

New interface centered around the movie experience.

9:48

free previews.

9:49

Shows HD Movie of "Live Free or Die Harder"

9:52

Buy Movies, TV, Music on Apple TV and will automatically synch with Mac or PC computer.

Can rent movies.

9:53

Podcasts also available streaming.

9:55

Photos from .Mac. Not saved on harddrive so not taking up space.

9:56

Photos from Flickr. Can surf around photos and friends photos.

9:58

Glitch in showing Flickr friends photos.

Steve tells us Flickr not serving up the photos.

10:00

Free software upgrade for existing owners. $299 price current -

NEW price $229 ($70 less).

Ships in two weeks.

10:02

Steve Introduces Jim Gianopulos, Chaiarman & CEO of 20th Century fox.

Talks about people wanting easy access to good movies.

Shows Homer iPod hybrid ad (silhouette homer with donut instead of iPod).

10:06

From Jim - BlueRay disks will now include digital version for playing on iPods.

10:07

Item 4 - There's something in the air. New note book.

MacBook Air

10:08

MacBook Air - The worlds thinest notebook.

10:10

Reviews current laptops and their problesm.

Need to be thinner larger display, faster, and full keyboard.

Air will be .76 inches to .16 inches. Very thin. So thin it fits in an inter office envelope.

Pulls out interoffice envelope with a Air inside.

10:11

it's very thin.

Magnetic latch. 13.3 inch widescreen. LED backlit. Instant on. Built in iSight. Full size keyboard Bakcklit.

Trackpad has multi-touch gestures similar to iPhone.

10:15

1.8" hardrive - 80GB OR 64GB SSD

10:16

Intel Core 2 Duo - 1.6 Ghz or 1.8 Ghz. 60% smaller than standard 2 Duo on PCs

10:17

Steve Introduces Paul Otellini, CEO of intel.

Didn't think it was possible to shrink the Duo 2, but Apple challenged them.

10:19

Smaller power adaptor. Flip down door for jacks. Built in 802.11n Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

10:20

NO OPTICAL DRIVE.

Can buy external drive.

Steve thinks most people will not miss.

How to install software?

10:21

Remote Disc feature allows you to use any optical drive on other Macs or PCS to install software.

Can install wirelessly.

10:23

5 hours of Battery life!

10:24

Review 3lbs, 0.16 to 0.76" 13.3" display, Fullsize backlit keyboard, multi-touch gestures, iSight, 1.6 GHz Core Duo, 2GB memory, 80 GB HD or 64 GB SSD

$1799 - in two weeks

10:25

Shows new ad

10:26

New feature in demos - Environmental impact - Aluminum case, Mercury and arsenic free display glass, circuit boards BRC and PVC free. Retail packaging 56% less volume.

10:27

Reviews show and other 2008 announcements including NEW Mac Pro.

10:30

"Special Treat" Randy Newman performs. New song for Europeans about America and the theme song to Toy Story.

10:41

Steve says Thanks.