I’m trying a little experiment called HomeShelf. It’s basically a Tumblog that is dedicated to sharing images you can use for your iPhone’s Homescreen wallpaper that makes it look like shelves. I’ve made the first one based on the iBooks shelves, but there’s plenty of room for more creativity. Check it out won’t you? HomeShelf
WWDC 10 is over. I’m at Starbuck’s waiting to grab a cab to the airport and am reflecting on the last week. It was great learning about the new technology that was just skimmed at the keynote, but one thing is missing. It’s something a lot of people were hoping to hear about; an update to AppleTV. However, I think to a certain degree we’ve seen the components that could make Apple TV an entirely new TV experience. In the end, the TV may be the last screen Apple attempts to dominate and they may succeed. Let me explain.
Think about your current television. What’s great about it? Well, a great thing about it is that it can provide an awesome viewing experience. You can be instantly immersed in that experience with very minimal distraction.
Now, what sucks about? For me, it’s finding content. Endless scrolling lists, crazy remote controls and complicated set-top boxes. Granted, I only look forward to a few shows a week, but still, when I’m looking to watch something and tune in I immediately get overwhelmed. I just want to view stuff that’s relevant as quickly as possible.
Some solutions I’ve seen try to solve this by allowing you to search. Which may be part of the solution, but I really don’t want to have a keyboard on my lap to go with any remote controls. I’d rather just get rid of all that.
So, what’s the solution? As I mentioned, some of the technology we may have heard about may already be prepping us for a solution, beginning with the apps on your phone. Think about it? The apps you choose to download already begin to create a profile of your interests. Imagine if there was a way for those apps to display their content on a TV as easy as going into landscape mode or taking a picture.
We browse a ton of content on our iPhones, iPads and iPods. Wouldn’t it be cool, for example, if I were in the ABC Player app and while I’m watching a show I could tap a “Play on AppleTV” button, which would immediately detect my AppleTV device and start playing that content right on the TV? Better yet, what if I’m playing Real Racing and want to switch my view to play on the TV? Simple, tap the “View on AppleTV” button and now my iDevice turns into a controller and my view is now on the TV!
How would this work? We’ve already seen something like this on the iPad when you connect it to an external display. When you do, a completely different viewing version of the app is shown on the external display, while you go into a different mode of the app on the iDevice. This same thing would be great for TV because the iDevice could turn into the most appropriate thing for the way it’s being used. The iPad becomes the game controller or the iPad becomes the remote.
There’s one thing missing though; the hardware/software that connects the iDevice to the TV. How about that UI-less device people are buzzing about that is supposedly priced for $99? That device could sync what apps you have (wirelessly I hope) and when you trigger a bit of content you want to engage with on the TV, that triggers the AppleTV hardware with the app and you’re instantly in game/viewing mode, whether it’s content from the device or streaming.
Throw in GameCenter, iAds, an awesome OS, the ability for publishers to dictate content, a ton of devices ready to go and you may have that go-to-market strategy Steve mentioned. With it, there’s an opportunity to bring a whole new level of engagement to the TV. Would you pay $99 to get that? I would.
If you have an iPad you know that on the lockscreen there’s a button you can tap to turn your iPad into a digital picture frame. I was thinking, why limit it to just pictures? What if you could turn the iPad into a jukebox, clock display, etc. right from the lockscreen? Here’s a mock up:
Menu to select iPad Lockscreen Options.
Basically, instead of tapping the picture icon, there would be a more universal icon. When you tap on that you would see a popover with options for apps that support the lockscreen. These would be optimized views that did very specific things. For example, selecting “iPod” would shuffle songs like a jukebox, like this:
The iPod App as a Lockscreen
Any app could be packaged with the optimized lockscreen view. These views would do one thing and provide no options besides switching to another lockscreen version of an app (and unlocking your iPad). Here’s some other examples:
QlockTwo – This is a typographic clock app. It would be awesome to be able to have this as an option and run as a clock on my desk while I’m not using my iPad.
Twitterific – This could show your tweet stream, but I think that might be a little extreme. It could show a single tweet from your tweet stream or maybe display your tweet stream in a different way that didn’t feel overwhelming.
This Day in History – Display a single view with a list of things that happened this day in history or maybe cycle through different events for that occurred on that day.
Dictionary.com – Could show the word of the day or cycle through a different word every hour.
Sure, something like this shortens the life of your monitor cause your screen would be on a lot more. Still, I thought it was worth mocking up.
You can see the images in higher resolution on my Flickr page.
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knowledge games: games designed to help you get more innovative, creative results in your work. We’ll show you not only how to play knowledge games but how to design them so they fit your own specific work goals.
Pantone colors aren’t just for printing anymore. See more concepts on the Dieline.
via the Dieline
This looks like an awesome journal for capturing beer experiences. It would be even better as an iPhone app.
via Scoutbooks
If only cooking could be this easy. All that’s missing is a USB oven. File > Cook
via Papierkrieg on Vimeo.
Really great seeing an evolution in the way people might interact with media that was originally created for print. I wonder if at some point print will be phased out and offered at a premium price.
via Introducing a New Digital Magazine Experience – Adobe Digital Publishing.