Friday, November 27, 2009

Experimental Maemo 5 UI: Alternative Portrait Mode

The usual way to do rotation to portrait mode in Maemo 5 is to set special flags on a window and let the window manager rotate our window and relayout after the switch. It's not as fast as it could be, and task switching (even between two portrait mode apps) is only possible by switching to landscape mode. Apart from that, things like the system menu don't work in portrait mode.

For some applications, an alternative could be to stay in landscape mode and simply rotate widgets without the window manager even knowing...

It's probably best described in a short demo video of how a simple media player could look like (sorry for the sloppy video, forgot my digital camera, so the webcam had to act as a replacement) - have a look, and tell me what you think. (For comparison, have a look at the older Panucci rotation video that uses the "normal" way of going into and leaving portrait mode.)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

New Posters for NINE

Have you seen any commercials for the movie Nine? It looks incredible. Kate Hudson! Penelope Cruz! Fergie! Nicole Kidman! A MUSICAL!!! I can't wait! Check out the three new posters just released ... Nine opens nationwide on Dec. 25.

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5 Thanksgiving Films We're Thankful For

Thanksgiving is about family, food, fun parades, and fabulous heartwarming films! This holiday, celebrate the season with our five favorite Thanksgiving flicks.

Miracle on 34th Street, 1947
Miracle on 34th Street is a true holiday classic. Beginning with NYC’s famous Thanksgiving Day Parade, the film takes us through an old man’s struggle to make six-year-old Susan Walker believe in the spirit of Christmas. As he plays the role of Macy’s very own Santa Claus, Kris Kringle tries to convince everyone that he is the real deal. Whether you choose the original film or the contemporary version, there’s no doubt that you'll be thankful for this holiday film.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, 1987
In this hysterical comedy, Neal Page (Steve Martin) is desperately trying to get home for Thanksgiving. His only travel companion for the holidays ends up being a blabbermouth slob of a man, Del Griffith (John Candy), who tells bad jokes and is never short of advice. Wishing he could be with his family, we relish watching Page spend the holidays with his new friend. This film just goes to show you should be grateful for all your friends -- new and old!

Home for the Holidays, 1995
Claudia (Holly Hunter) is already having a rough holiday season. She has lost her job, found herself in a compromising situation with her soon-to-be ex-boss, and discovered that her daughter won’t be home for Thanksgiving. Now, on top of everything else, she has to deal with the lunatic antics of her crazy extended family. How will she survive? We love watching this group of misfits come together to celebrate the happiest time of the year. Home for the Holidays also stars Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, and Claire Danes.

The House of Yes, 1997
Parker Posey stars as Jackie, a mentally unbalanced young woman who wants to be Jackie-O. When her brother comes home from college for Thanksgiving with a new fiancé, Jackie goes into a rage. After disastrous events and unusual comedic antics, we realize that this whole family is off its rocker. Have a laugh with this very indie holiday film, and give thanks that this family does not belong to you!

Pieces of April, 2003
April Burns (Katie Holmes) is hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her New York apartment for her estranged family, which includes her dying mother. She struggles to fit in and give her family a delicious, flawless holiday meal. As they travel from Pennsylvania to April's Lower East Side neighborhood, we learn more about the unique, strained dynamic between black-sheep April shares with her whole family. Desite a broken oven and many comedic errors, this imperfect family bonds during a special holiday evening spent together.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Experimental Maemo 5 UI: gPodder Episode Actions

With the Long Weekend just a little more than one week away, I though about doing some experiments with gPodder's UI. Some users want a quicker way to play/download/delete episodes instead of opening the shownotes window and using its application menu. Here's one approach I tried out today (I know the icons are pixellated and ugly - please consider them as placeholders):

The idea is that you click on an episode, and instead of opening the shownotes view, you get this selection screen where you can choose to play/download/delete the episode or view the shownotes. Of course there have to be some fancy animations, because that's what all the cool kids do today. Just watch the video on YouTube and tell me what you think in the comments here (especially in terms of non-standard UI and annying animations - seriously ;).

In unrelated news, headphoned 1.4 for N800/N810 has been released and pushed to Maemo Extras with support for Panucci and MPlayer for all your "public transport situation" avoidance needs.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Search-as-you-type in gPodder and a tag cloud

The uni semester is in full swing again, so development has slowed down a bit again compared to September. At least we are able to work on the my.gpodder.org webservice as a project in one of the courses (so expect some new development there soon). Anyway, here are some thing I've been working on recently:

gPodder has gained search-as-you-type filtering for both the podcast list and the episodes list. This allows you to make good use of the hardware keyboard, and text searches temporarily override the current view mode (e.g. only podcasts with unplayed epiosdes or hide deleted episodes), so you will always find the podcast or episode you are searching for (independent of the current view mode). This will obviously also be available for Maemo 4:

In non-gPodder news, I have been working on a tag cloud widget. It will allow developers to provide a set of tags and a weight for each one, and the tag cloud will display something like this:

The tags displayed act as buttons and can be used as an alternative to long lists of items (depending on the kind of data that is to be displayed and selected). This tag cloud might come in handy in a future project..

Thursday, November 5, 2009

And the Oscar Co-Hosts Are ...

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The producers of the Academy Awards have announced that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will serve as co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards.

“I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” said Martin. “I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars – it’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Baldwin.

Martin hosted the 73rd and 75th Academy Awards shows, earning an Emmy nomination for the first stint. He has also served as a presenter on the show several times, most recently at the ceremony in February when he appeared with Tina Fey. He is currently touring with the bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers in support of his latest album The Crow: New Songs for the Five String Banjo. In 1977 and 1978 Martin won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording. He earned a third Grammy in 2001 in the Best Country Instrumental Performance category. In 2007 Martin earned a Kennedy Center Honor.

Baldwin was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 for his supporting role in The Cooler. That year also marked his most recent appearance as a presenter on the show. Baldwin currently stars as Jack Donaghy on the comedy 30 Rock, a role for which he has won two Emmys (in 2008 and 2009).

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC .

*Getty Images

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Paris and Hayden Love Jimmy Choo and H&M

Last night Hollywood rolled out the red carpet as Paris & Nicky Hilton, Hayden Panettiere, Kate Walsh, Olivia Wilde, Sheryl Crow, Cat Deeley, Angela Lindvall, Maggie Grace, Mini Anden, among others came out to celebrate the collaboration and the launch of the Jimmy Choo for H&M collection. The star-studded party hosted by Tamara Mellon and Jeffrey Katzenberg, in support of The Motion Picture & Television Fund, was held at a private residence high above the famous Sunset Strip in the Hollywood Hills and featured a Grammy-worthy performance by M.I.A. who dazzled the guests in front of the L.A. skyline. Hollywood’s stars were given an exclusive sneak peak at the glamorous collection that will be unveiled in approximately 200 H&M stores globally on November 14th. The collection includes the most coveted shoes and accessories. For the first time Jimmy Choo has also designed women’s clothing to complement the accessories as well as men’s clothing, shoes, bags and accessories.

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"I love H&M already but the fact that they are doing Jimmy Choo as well I think is amazing - the purses, everything, the shoes. The clothes are so cute. They have so many fabulous things and I can't wait to get the whole collection,” said Paris Hilton who coveted everything from the highly anticipated collection.

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"Tamara is so brilliant and such a wonderful designer. Her shoes are incredible. I do my shopping sprees at H&M. I was recently in Italy and instead of going to other stores, I went to H&M," said Hayden Panettiere. She also wore Jimmy Choo for H&M leather pants to the event. "I am in love with these pants!"

*Getty Images