MacBook is a great piece of hardware.
As you all now, I moved to Italy, with my MacBook as only computer.
Now imagine…
For last two weeks it had a Random Shutdown issue. It’s getting more and more frequent - for last two days I couldn’t run my MacBook at all. Additionally, today, a hard drive failed - the MacBook was not running at all, it was loading and then showing a blue screen with a spinning circle. Fortunately, I was wise enough to run it from the Rescue CD and - while the HDD was working for a second (it still works, though) - copy all files on external HDD.
To make it more worse (and do not even give a word on a case that is getting more and more brownish), my roommate spilled a cup of hot soup on my desk. I won’t count my chemistry homework (and the chemistry book), but I’ll count not working right Shift key in MB’s keyboard (mostly furthest left block is not working properly).
I cannot rely on this machine anymore.
And I pray for your help, I need help in making mockups.
I’ve got guidelines (and fast mockups, sketches rather) ready, also I can send PSD files to any volunteer.
In case of winning, I’ll give person that made mockups twenty percent of mine royalties.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Hello Folks,
First mockup just arrived.
It’s preview of full screen mode.
It’s still missing clipper (scrapbook actually, it’ll resemble notebook filled with fragments sticked with scotch tape) and crayons (for scribbles). I thought also about “widget like” radio/iTunes controller for this desk.
I think, that desk interface will be quite pleasant way of showing you newspaper in fullscreen mode. Always, you’ll be able to get it by hotkey (or place Newspaper straight on Dashboard-like layer - or even Dashboard).
Weather is not filled as well. But I hope that it gives you at least idea of newspaper (this part was almost completely created by myself; tomorrow I’ll upload part with interface - if I’ll have enough time), and it’s functionality :-)
As you can see, you’ll be able to rate articles. There will be also tagging feature, but it’ll be more hidden. Thanks to this and sharing network, you’ll able to get the best news and essays in town, straight to your newspaper.
Unfortunately I’m not Bogumil Almighty, my free time is very limited, and I had to resign from studying Italian for tommorow’s test to create this mockup (and it’s quater past one a.m. here) :(
And to cheer you up - it’s not yet Table, new RSS interface. It’ll arrive soon, preferably tommorow.
Enjoy.
…too bad, that in this round only bloggers were commenting on me.
And too bad, that they are group of users, that certainly urge to use classical RSS readers - as they are fetching literally tens of dozens of feeds… They also weren’t reading my blog entries close enough - or maybe I used too much of technobabble. And high-profile bloggers are NOT average users (e.g. typical users of iLife and iWork). They usually know what Terminal is (and that it’s not hidden in cupboard).
Herald, in its idea, is not only newspaper-like reader with printing ability - it’s of course important part of Herald, but it’s not it’s heart.
Heart of Herald is social experience - unique ability of sharing your newspapers, feeds, fancy comments for them, no matter how you’ll name. Tearing pages or columns and hiding them in your scrapbook. Sharing scrapbook. Everything in beautiful layout.
If I’ll be lucky enough, I even hope for DRMed feeds for big titles like NYT or Macworld. Thanks to this, Herald can become new Zinio - but not as bad as it’s predecessor.
Additionally, you can export your newspapers to PDFs and send them to your friends, export as HTML to Herald’s (or your LAN’s) servers for archive and sharing, print and hang as daily bulletin in your school - there is really no limits for this functionality.
Second most important feature is ability to create feeds for sites that do not possess such functionality (or only available feeds are shorts), based e.g. on HTML-diffing. Too many websites do not “mirror” themselves in RSS feeds - because of this, Herald will be helpful.
As most of people are used to use newspaper, as for now it’s most convenient way of serving news - but Herald will also feature new interface for serving ONLY news, not in newspaper form, in news form. Everything for everyone.
I made suggestion about this in previous news (do you remember sledgehammer?) , and I hoped, that I’ll be able to use it as secret weapon near to finals, but I see, that I’ll have to show it soon, with it’s mockup on which I was working independently for past days.
Busy businessman or commuting student? Export to PDA or print and read in underground.
Geek or blogger, feel new way of getting news in front of you.
What is more important, both interfaces will be switchable (immediately from newspaper to feeder) - you won’t loose time for setting (except initial setting), especially when Herald will be able to import feeds from another readers.
But this can come true only with your help. Your votes.
Because it will be really hard to get Herald done without help of MDA crew - and as for me, it’s the app that is really missing - on every platform - Windows, Mac OS X, Linux.
Herald will be not only app, that will let you to read news in exact way you want (as newspaper, modern RSS reader, translucent layer of your desktop) but will be first RSS reader with social experience.
Kiosk will certainly become new digg (or even will be merged with digg) - ability to exchange newspapers, scrolls and even Scribbles.
Thanks to Scribbles, you can exchange virtually every comment to article (even with drawings of flowers, sun and birds). Friendly Scrolls help in publishing your own articles.
Herald will also feature voting and rankings - your own voting for every article will be submitted to main database, and then - according to your preferences, your next articles will be chosen with basis in users voting database or built-in contextual analysis system. Or even both.
Thanks to this, your news won’t be dry anymore, they will be exactly as you want them.
This time entry is short, as I’m running out of time.
I promised you mock-ups. Unfortunately, Darrell (man behind PassIt! mockups and idea) who was working with me on it, had horrible accident in family - and he couldn’t finish his job for exact date.
Because of this, today you’ll see only part of first mockup (there are four in pipeline).
But I hope, that it’ll be enjoyable for you :-)
If anyone is willing to help with finishing it, please drop me a line (I’ve got main guidelines ready, so it’s matter of one e-mail).
Whoa! It was a big surprise for me - I was expecting popularity, but this overcame me - 6th place (until last twenty four hours, I was even in tie with three other apps for second place!) is big success - especially, with not-so-optimistic judges reviews and very detailed - and a bit confusing for reader - blog entries from my side. Thanks for your voices!
So, now came time for explaining, arguing with judges and making things simple ;-)
First thing. Expected user market.
I’m not expecting Herald as app for computer geeks.
Of course, it’ll be very elastic - and if you’ll want to, you’ll be able to use only built-in RSS reader (which will be manager for manual choosing posts from RSS too - if you want to do it manually of course)
But it’s an app like an iLife suite - for everyone, for people that do not even want to know what the RSS syndication is. They just want drag-and-drop. And eye-candies. They do not really care if hamsters are choosing their articles, they want them GOOD (and it’s the reason of proposed article-rating function ;-)).
Second thing. Usefulness.
I consider myself as computer geek. But I’m also a college student with VERY FILLED schedule (150% of usual workload, I almost forgot how to sleep ;-)).
Today, I got a few spare hours. So I finally opened my RSS Reader (no advertising here ;-)) and got hammered by over 3000 of news. I found my favorite Polish newspaper (over 400 unread news) and started reading, clicking through every single article.
And guess what? I found it quite unpleasant experience. Not only because of actual political horror in my country, but because of user experience: clicking, chaos in articles and feeds, simple because of everything that is now defining RSS reader.
It was a place for Herald. If an app like this would exist, I could read news between classes (with my cellphone) or at least read it eating breakfast in nice form.
If Herald will be ever created, the basis of this app will be ability of creation your dream newspaper within 30 seconds from double-clicking icon - so time-consumption will be hard to notice.
Third thing. Paper use.
It was rather a metaphor.
Of course, you can print it, why not?
But you can export it to PDF and read it in your Tablet PC, Tablet Mac or PDA With Really Big Screen.
Or to iPod. Or cellphone.
And, to be honest, could anyone tell me if (s)he’s reading all pages in New York Times?
Really?
Me neither.
You read a front page, maybe a few more… And then your underground just arrived to destination station. Or there is no more toasts with jam left on your plate (hint: you finished breakfast).
And most of you just throw whole 100-pages to wastebasket. Or use it in cat’s toilet at home.
This is why personalized newspaper is so important - you’re choosing all things you want, you fill a few pages with it - and then you export it to PDA or print.
It’s sure that there is also “translation problem”. But until we’ll find better way of getting news straight in front of you, newspapers will be a lot better than any tech-savvy app. Especially for busy people. And average users.
That’s all actually.
No mock-ups today. Fortunately, thanks to cooperation with Darrell (known for PassIt! idea), beautiful mockups will arrive soon to please your eye and give you better idea of Herald.
Do not really care so much about Friendly, lost, found scrolls things. It’s only temporary, untidy naming, just to categorize things. Features are unchanged, but certain naming may be changed (and surely in many cases - it’ll be changed).
Thanks once more time for your votes! :-)
