gui

Apple explores 3D GUI in new patent application

Last year Apple managed to get 676 patents awarded to it by the U.S. Patent Office, and 2012 is showing no signs of Apple slowing down. In its latest application, Apple is proposing technology that would control a 3D interface using touch-free motion-based gestures on your iOS device.

The concept of controlling a device with motion is, of course, not a new one. Microsoft's Kinect has proven the technology to not only be practical and applicable, but popular as well. But that technology is for a gaming console connected to your television in the comfort of your home.… Read more

Futuristic touch screen puts the desk in desktop

editor's notebook The future just keeps getting closer and closer these days. Not only do we have iPhones with FaceTime--which, when combined with the iPod Nano (as I'm sure they will be before too long) will come pretty close to creating a mass-market version of Dick Tracy's two-way wrist TV--we've also got robot cars and, ahem, robot journalists (which I'm trying to keep at bay by way of this terribly sophisticated and never-ending sentence--apparently the roboscribes have trouble with such Proustian gymnastics: Quick! They're coming for our jobs! Hand me another semicolon and an … Read more

Quick and easy unicode

If you've ever had to insert multiple Unicode characters while typing, you know what a pain it is to have to go back and forth inserting characters into your text. Character Map (Java) is a simple--but helpful--program that lets you select the Unicode characters you want to insert and copy them to your clipboard for quick pasting.

We have to admit, we were a bit stumped by the program at first glance. Character Map (Java) runs as an executable file, so no installation is needed; however, it comes in a ZIP file filled with more than 20 different files. … Read more

Video maker

AVI-Mux GUI creates new audio and video files from multiple existing audio and video files.

This program has a minimal interface with no supporting drop-down windows or other helpful controls. The top window instructs you to open files via dragging and dropping them into it, so we tried this with two MP3 files and were able to transfer them with no problems. Clicking the Start button at the bottom of the interface prompts the program to create the new file. The program's default format for saving files is the AVI file type, but when our test file finished, AVI-Mux … Read more

Samsung signs deal to use Rovi's EPG

Last month, we reported that Macrovision changed its name to Rovi , and now Samsung has made a deal to use the company's electronic programming guide in its future products. According to Video Business, it's a multiyear contract, and Rovi has previously stated it doesn't expect its guide to hit the marketplace until early 2010.

We could see Rovi's EPG being useful in several types of home theater products, but the most logical place would be Samsung's HDTVs. While many already have EPG functionality through an attached cable or satellite box, Rovi's guide could be … Read more

Rovi, formerly Macrovision, announces Liquid media guide

Macrovision, best known for its digital rights management software, officially changed its name today to Rovi. To celebrate, the company announced a new media guide, code named "Liquid." According to the press release, Liquid will merge television, Internet, and personal multimedia content into a single, sleek graphical interface. Rovi plans on releasing the guide to consumer electronics manufacturers in early 2010.

The media guide is broken up into three basic areas. First off is a FiOS-like interactive guide to broadcast TV, which appears to offer extensive information and playback options. The second major component will offer broadband services … Read more

Plain Black improves site management tools

Note: This article originally incorrectly stated the pricing for Rockstar support and the version number that has been released. Rockstar Support is actually a one-year agreement and starts at $850 per month. (or $10,200 a year). These changes are reflected below.

There are thousands of open-source content management systems, from Alfresco to Drupal to Joomla, but one that gets less attention yet still delivers great functionality for Intranets and other smaller Web sites is WebGUI, developed by Plain Black.

Plain Black just released WebGUI 7.6 with a host of new functionality, including:

An enhanced survey engine that allows … Read more

40th Anniversary of "Mother of all demos"

Today is the 40th anniversary of what came to be known as "The Mother of All Demos", Doug Engelbart's presentation to the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. In this one 90 minute presentation he showed, in working form, for the very first time all of the following technologies:

The mouse Graphical user interface with point and click and menus Intermingling of text and graphics within a document, styling of text in a document Hypertext and linking between documents Remote collaboration plus videoconferencing

That's a pretty astonishing list. It basically described the landscape of computing … Read more

US-CERT warns of SAP vulnerability

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team has warned of a vulnerability in SAP GUI, the graphical user interface client in the German company's enterprise resource-planning software.

The unspecified flaw can cause Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to crash in an exploitable manner. The flaw lies in an ActiveX control called MDrmSap, a component of SAP GUI.

US-CERT warned in an advisory, updated on Monday, that if users are fooled into viewing a specially crafted HTML document, external attackers might be able to gain control of their system, with their privileges.

A patch is available from SAP, through SAP … Read more