Interface

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Interface:

Google ‘borrows’ from iPhone X for Android P design

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iPhone X Notch
How's battery life on your iPhone with iOS 11.4?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

New screenshots reveal Google took inspiration from iPhone X when designing its upcoming Android P update.

The operating system’s refreshed user interface features a multitasking interface that looks like it was pulled straight from iOS — as well as a familiar virtual Home button.

iPhone 8’s radical redesign could bring awesome UI change

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iPhone 8
A mockup of iPhone 8 with its edge-to-edge display.
Photo: Benjamin Geskin

Thanks to secrets hidden inside Apple’s firmware, we’ve discovered a lot about the iPhone 8 this week. One of its biggest features — quite literally — will be a significantly larger display that leaves no room for a physical Home button or bulky bezels.

Here’s how iOS could change to take advantage of it with a sweet new user interface.

Android’s design guru says iPhone interface is ‘heavy and burdensome’

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iPhone 6
Damn that easy-to-use grid of apps!
Photo: Apple
Damn that easy-to-use grid of apps. Photo: Apple
Damn that easy-to-use grid of apps. Photo: Apple

The iPhone may have fundamentally changed Google’s plans for its Android smartphone platform, but according to Google’s design chief, the iOS homescreen layout — consisting of grids of apps icons — is disappointingly stagnant.

“[The iPhone] crystallised a lot of other things that were kind of stayed even by that point, like the rows of icons, which don’t scale very well,” Matias Duarte, Google’s vice president of design, told Wired. “This idea of a tiny grid that you manually curate starts to feel very heavy and burdensome.”

Apple Seeks Software Engineers Who Will ‘Re-Imagine’ iLife Interfaces

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apple-ilife-11

Apple is on the hunt for two senior software engineers that will join its iLife development team to “re-imagine how user interfaces should be built and work.” Both positions, which were posted to the vacancies page of Apple’s website, are based at the company’s Cupertino headquarters, and indicate Apple is working to overhaul the iLife software suite, which consists of GarageBand, iMovie, and iPhoto.

Apple Granted “Dynamically Changing Cursor for User Interface” Patent, Originally Filed in 2003

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Today, the US Patent and Trademark office awarded Apple a utility patent that covers the use of the mouse cursor that changes according to the context of the task it is engaged in. Called a “Dynamically Changing Cursor for User Interface,” patent number 8,230,366 describes the functionality of the on-screen mouse cursor when it changes to the familiar spinning beach ball, the green plus symbol when copying files, or the red number of items being moved from one disk to another.

The Behringer Guitar Link Is A No-Frills Way To Connect Your Guitar To Your Mac [Review]

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Behringer's teensy Guitar Link
Behringer's teensy Guitar Link

There are a lot of guitar interfaces out there for the Mac, but at about $32, the Behringer Guitar Link UCG102 (just rolls off the tongue, no?) is one of the cheapest you’ll find. Even more surprising? This little duder sounds good.

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The Apogee Jam Transforms Your iPad Into Your Guitar’s Best Friend [Review]

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The Apogee Jam. Get Ready To Shred.

Described simply, the Apogee Jam ($99) is a just little gadget that lets you plug your guitar into your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. But in this pairing of instrument and iDevice, the Jam unlocks a wonderful world of musical possibility that is nothing short of magical.

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Learn How To Design A User Experience That Apple Would Admire [Deals.CultofMac]

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UXcourse

 

 

There are only 16 hours left to purchase our deal on the UX Course for Founders from Udemy. 

Steve Jobs held the belief that great design and user experience provide a significant competitive advantage. Apple’s products reflect this mantra and I think we’d all agree – it’s working. We’ve recently brought you some amazing instructional courses on how to build your dream startup ideas. Much of what those courses teach are the core mechanics or the “back-end” of projects.

Our newest deal is an instructional video course that focuses on the art of moving from the idea stage through the various steps of designing the user experience. But it doesn’t stop there, it goes on to provide you with specific actions to follow at the end of each stage. No creative skills needed, and no design tools required. Just a pen and paper or a whiteboard and markers, and you’re all set to go. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and this course put that on display for me personally.

Raskin For Mac Will Change The Way You Use The Desktop [Review]

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Raskin for Mac is an intuitive Finder replacement for Mac OS, and is the single best reason to go out and buy Apple’s new Magic Trackpad: it totally transforms the desktop experience.

Raskin for Mac uses a visual interface to present all your files on a single page, allowing you to view, arrange and open documents, applications, files and images without opening the Finder. It’s like a giant zoomable photo contact sheet, and makes navigating files and applications very easy and fast. It is inspired by the work of Jef Raskin — the legendary computer interface designer and father of the Mac computing experience.