Harmony is a new drawing tool, a HTML5/Canvas experiment with great potential. It provides some unique brush styles, and can produce some great-looking charcoal pencil style sketches, among other things. Better to try it out than explain it in words.

Creator Mr. Doob (Richard Cabello) explains how he used Canvas to make it darker the more you draw over it:

The whole thing is quite modular so I can keep adding more brush styles whenever I get inspired. During the process I found out that, for some reason (apparently lack of hardware acceleration), Firefox and Opera do not support context.globalCompositeOperation = ‘darker’. This was on the HTML5 spec before but got removed. Just so you know what I’m talking about, this is like the “multiply” blending in Photoshop. Webkit does support it tho. I hope they put it back on the specs and all browsers support it.

You can also save images using data URI encoding.

As it works on webkit, he made sure it worked on the mobile Android and iPhone browsers. No multi-touch as yet, but the touch UI still makes a nice input mechanism.

(Thanks FND)

The Airstash looks much like a regular card reader, with a USB plug on one end and an SD card-shaped hole in the other. In between you can find a tiny, battery powered 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi router. Slot in a card and it can be reached wirelessly through the web browser of any Wi-Fi enabled computer or phone.

The design is simple, but the uses are manifold. You could use this to wirelessly copy photos from card to computer, but that, apart from saving you a USB port, is a little boring. What about carrying an extra 32GB of movies and music that can be streamed from the built-in server direct to your iPhone? Or creating a fully functional wireless network for sharing, well, anything? Because it uses vanilla Wi-Fi, it works with anything. And because it uses USB, it charges when you plug it into a spare port.

The product was shown last week at CES, and right now has neither a price or a shipping date (”available soon” is the only hint on the product page). If it is cheap, and if the battery in such a tiny case can last long enough to be useful, then this could be a very useful toy. And if it is given away at next
year’s CES in the same fashion as pen drives were at this year’s show, we’ll be very happy indeed.

Airstash product page [Airstash via Oh Gizmo!]

If you are an unlocker, “It is super important that people who need the unlock to understand they can keep it only by starting at 3.0 (or earlier) and updating solely to custom IPSWs that don’t update the baseband. For those who have been onboard the “unlock train”, simply install ultrasn0w via Cydia once you’ve restored to your custom IPSW. Don’t forget to turn off the “3G” setting in Settings->General->Network if you use T-Mobile in the U.S.A.”

Below is a snippet from the Dev-Team’s website. However, you will want to check out their blog for full information and the download.

Be sure to read everything carefully before you begin your jailbreak.

Pwnage Pie

Here are some details on our latest version of PwnageTool 3.1.4 for Mac OS X which supports the 3.1.2 release of the iPhone software for iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and iPod Touch 1G/2G.

If you’re already jailbroken (by whatever means), you don’t need to mess around with DFU mode at all. Just create (or get from a friend) your custom IPSW and Option-Restore (Shift-Restore on Windows) to it via iTunes. Don’t enter DFU mode at all. Please make sure you are restoring to the custom IPSW, not the stock one from Apple! For best results, use the latest iTunes (9.0.1) — which includes a nice new application organizer.

This release allows your baseband to remain unlocked at 3.1.2, but it does not unlock a new baseband put there by restoring to official 3.1.x. It is super important that people who need the unlock to understand they can keep it only by starting at 3.0 (or earlier) and updating solely to custom IPSWs that don’t update the baseband. For those who have been onboard the “unlock train”, simply install ultrasn0w via Cydia once you’ve restored to your custom IPSW. Don’t forget to turn off the “3G” setting in Settings->General->Network if you use T-Mobile in the U.S.A.

Note for 3GS users not already jailbroken and stuck at 3.1.x: this version of PwnageTool has a side feature to jailbreak your 3GS. It uses a simple implementation of the usb control msg hole found by chronicdev, geohot, and our very own gray. Now that the hole is public and in use, we expect Apple to close it by the next major firmware update. That’s why 3GS users need to get their ECID hashes for 3.1.x now, and need to stay onboard the “jailbreak train” in all future updates. For more details on what this means, please see our earlier posts or ask in our comments section (moderated by the always helpful @angie and @confucious!).

For the early adopters who ran blackra1n and are having problems with mobilesubstrate, winterboard, diskaid, or ifunbox, you can install a custom .ipsw from PwnageTool to fix these issues. That’s because all jailbroken devices accept a custom .ipsw created by PwnageTool. (However, if you ran blackra1n on a 3G or 3GS that means you updated to stock 3.1.x, and the carrier unlock is now out of reach. We’ll continue to work on a carrier unlock for the latest basebands, but the timeframe for such an unlock is unknowable.)

Note: If you use internet tethering on a carrier that doesn’t officially support it, you’ll lose it by going to 3.1.x. Stay back at 3.0 until a hack for that is developed.

SUMMARY:

* The iPhone 3GS is now supported out of the box in PwnageTool 3.1.4 (or if you have upgraded to 3.1.x in iTunes)
* The iPod 2G is still supported in PwnageTool 3.1.4 but you must already be jailbroken (we’ll update this if there’s a big demand from non-jailbroken ipt2G owners)
* The iPod touch 3G is NOT supported

DETAILS:

1. GOLDEN RULE: If you are using a iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G(S) with ultrasn0w and rely on ultrasn0w to obtain cellular service then you should only update your device with an .ipsw that is made with the new PwnageTool. There are no second chances with this. You need to remember that PwnageTool will provide an upgrade path to newer versions of the iPhone software in the future.
2. Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
3. Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
4. At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the 3.1.4 capable version of PwnageTool.
5. PwnageTool will work for the iPhone 3GS
6. PwnageTool will work for the iPod touch 2G
7. PwnageTool WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G(S) and the iPod touch (1st Generation and 2nd Generation) but NOT the iPod touch 3rd generation.
8. For 3G and 3G(S) users who are Pwned, PwnageTool is your key to updating in the future, just remember to never install an update directly from Apple, always use an .ipsw that has been created with PwnageTool.
9. There is no Windows version of PwnageTool it is a Mac OS X tool only, we are not developing a Windows version of PwnageTool.

  

For the past two years, the elegant iPhone has housed some of the most poorly designed applications you could imagine. The hype surrounding iPhone has prompted many designers across the globe to try their skills with the new mobile medium. The result are literally thousands of various iPhone-applications that are often hardly usable and counter-intuitive. However, some designers invest a lot of time and efforts into creating usable and original user interfaces (yes, there are usable and creative UIs).

This article explores the ways in which designers use graphical elements and screen interactions to create iPhone-applications that are easy on the eyes and mind. The aim of this article is to display common trends and design approaches in iPhone app design – please notice that they are not necessarily optimal ones from the design or usability point of view.

1. Mirroring Native iPhone UI Elements

“Tell them what you’re gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.” Creating a whole new OS within your app can be fun, but when you’re dealing with the mobile medium, people just want to get stuff done. Getting stuff done means that the designer has to get into the flow of the OS and create an app that requires zero explanation for the end user to operate. Mirroring the layout and UI elements that the user is already familiar with saves time and energy. So it seems quite convenient to use this approach when designing iPhone-applications.

Facebook (iTunes Link)
In the new Facebook 3.0, you’ll find a grid layout that users can swipe left and right to access more categories. Because it mirrors Apple’s native UI, users do not have to “learn” how to use it all over again. A similar approach exists in Web design: users expect to see a logo in the top left, navigation along the top, etc. Facebook has taken this concept mobile, using large buttons that are easily distinguishable and tap-able.

Where (iTunes link)
Where has a similar concept, allowing users to swipe left and right to access more data.

Tweetdeck [iTunes link]
Tweetdeck is a good example of user interface design on many levels. Notice how the design highlights recent updates. The application could display the updates in a new window, with a categorized or tabbed list. But it doesn’t. Instead, a more familiar dialogue menu is displayed — it serves as a springboard to jump to a specific category or to clear the messages altogether.

2. Simplifying The Interface

Simplifying user interfaces may sound like a mechanical task, but what lies beneath the surface of user interface design? The answer is simple: users. And what do users want? What makes them all warm and fuzzy? How do you deliver what they want so that they don’t even notice how they are consuming information?

Facebook’s first release did a great job of fitting a lot of core functionality into a small space. The problem, of course, is in laying out all that data and creating an intuitive interface. Compare 3.0 with the first release, and you’ll see how they took a “springboard” approach to streamlining the interface, keeping it intuitive and maintaining functionality.

Flickr [iTunes link]
Flickr is another example of how to achieve a good balance between functionality, visual design and the small display area on mobile devices. Think about it: what is at the core of Flickr? Photos. Its users probably do not want to look at big clunky navigational elements; instead, they are looking for pictures. Flickr has managed to fit all of its core functionality without heading down the highway to navigational hell. In fact, most elements in the navigation are handled by interacting with the photos themselves. Simple and smart.

3. Hardware-ish Look

Many utilities are breaking out of the conventional iPhone UI to take advantage of the device’s unique ability to respond to finger gestures. Many of these have hardware-ish interfaces that users are familiar with but come with perpetually shiny exteriors and clicks and pops that maintain their newness from the first to one-thousandth click. Next up, though: an app that gets dirtier the more you play with it.

Convertbot (iTunes link)
Convertbot reminds us of the proportion wheel we all used in grade school, except it’s more distinctive, original and creative.

Little Snapper (iTunes Link)
Little Snapper mimics the wheel that you turn on a typical digital SLR.

iHandy Level (iTunes Link)
iHandy Level simulates the look and functionality of a real, well-used leveler.

Where To? [iTunes Link]
This application looks like it belongs in a Mercedes. Plush leather, matte-finish tactile buttons: quality craftsmanship. We can just imagine how each button press feels solid, requiring the perfect amount of pressure.

4. Rich, Padded And Pretty List Views

You know that you are a geek designer when you get excited about the latest trends in list view design. And what do people do when they encounter a list view? Of course, they skim. And how do we make it easier for people to decide what interests them? That’s right: more visual cues!

Essentially, users are asking for a snapshot of what’s next, and then decide if they want more information. One way to do this is with big pretty buttons. Large and in charge, elegantly designed big buttons give the user a lot of information through their color, icons and typography.

Delivery Status Touch (iTunes Link)
Check out how Delivery Status uses appropriate colors on its big buttons to identify each brand. And it uses typography well to establish a hierarchy of information.

Be Happy Now (iTunes Link)
Be Happy Now’s big buttons convey the “be happy” mantra through a mellow color scheme and light, calm and clear typeface.

Next Read [iTunes link]
The Next Read application allows friends to share books. Here all books about a particular topic are presented, including the title, cover image, review rating and number of people who have recommended it. Notice the padding and a lot of white space for each navigation option; this makes the areas easily clickable and easier to navigate.

Nike [iTunes link]
Nike’s workout application for women includes a nice visual treatment and illustrations that match the brand. It breaks out of the traditional UI just enough to communicate the brand without making it difficult for users to understand the interface and how to use it.

Borange [iTunes link]
Borange is a “social availability” application that helps you coordinate meetings with friends. The list view presents a lot of information: friends you want to hang out with, the meeting location and a nice visualization of friends who are available.

5. Layered Interface

Several applications take advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities by layering the interface and making some elements stationary and others vertically or horizontally scrollable. This approach has several benefits:

1. It reduces the number of traditional navigation elements that are necessary (i.e. fewer buttons help to avoid a cluttered interface).
2. It gives users a faster route to the information they want.
3. More screen space is available for information.

Tweetie (iTunes Link)
Tweetie uses layers to organize information specific to each of your Twitter friends. Just look at all of the information packed into this one screen!

Barnes & Noble [iTunes link]
Barnes & Noble has a layered interface that allows you to quickly slide through new releases at the top or dive into more categories below.

USA Today [iTunes link]
USA Today takes a slightly different approach to layering the interface in its “Pictures” section: it uses sliding panels to display blocks of information. While the interface may look cluttered at the first glance, one can easily get around it. The interesting part is that within each panel you can slide thumbnails left and right to view more images.

myPantone [iTunes link]
Would we expect any less from Pantone? The color picker shown above is a layered interface that lets you pick from a range of colors, sort and scroll as well as open and close detail screens, all without too driving you crazy.

6. Icons For The List View

Icons aren’t just for springboard-loving folks. On small screens, icons can give a huge boost to an application’s usability and navigation. Let’s now take a look at some examples of applications that use icons to their advantage.

iStudiez (iTunes Link)
This application uses various educational metaphors as icons to clearly communicate the purpose of the application. Excellent visual cues tell the student what’s happening today at a glance.

Top Floor (iTunes Link)
Top Floor uses simple and easily recognizable icons to quickly guide users to their category of choice.

New York Times
Isn’t it great when applications just let you do whatever you want to do? For an app with as much information as the New York Times’, users are bound to have their favorite sections. Well, guess what? The New York Times cares: it lets you customize the tab bar’s navigation to include only your favorite sections of the paper. Drag an icon down the tab bar and you are set. The downside of the design is, of course, its lack of visual appeal.

Filemaker [iTunes link]
Here is another example of beautiful icons that aren’t obscure or confusing. Designers should never use icons just for the sake of having icons. As designers, we want icons that illustrate what users are actually going to get when they choose a particular path. Nicely done, Filemaker.

7. Illustrations in use

Applications that rely on graphics not found in the standard user interfaces are increasing in popularity, as developers try to set their apps apart from the crowd. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn’t. The more unconventional a design is, the more likely it is to have usability problems. Please always conduct usability testing before releasing a product with a “creative” user interface.

Magnetic Personalities (iTunes link)
An excellent example of how buttons don’t have to look like standard buttons.

SugarSync [iTunes link]
This interface could have easily followed the traditional list-view route. Instead, the designers played with the concept of “connectivity” to create a visual treatment that communicates the purpose of the app. It is unusual and requires some time to get used to.

Mom Maps [iTunes link]
Another example of how illustrations do a great job of pulling together the whole concept of an application.

8. Using Gestures

Classic linear navigation may look boring: a button that links to other buttons, which leads you to a list of something, which leads you to such-and-such an interaction. Not really spectacular. The possibilities for creative interaction in utility apps are huge and largely untapped (no pun intended).

Mover (iTunes link)
Mover exemplifies how to use gestures for sharing contacts, photos and bookmarks. Open two devices, and flick the shared files from one handset to the other.

ABC Animals [iTunes link]
This application teaches while it entertains. Being able to trace a letter with your finger is another example of how the iPhone responds to touch and movement.

All Recipes [iTunes link]
This applications allows you to mix in various elements to create your next meal using gestures.

Something is missing?

We missed some common design approach or trend? Please let us know in the comments to this post!

About the Author

Jen Gordon is the owner of Atlanta-based iPhone app design studio Clever Twist, which will release its latest app Farm Friends in just a few days. She specializes in usable interfaces, beautiful design and straight talk. She loves her family and the iPhone and periodically dreams that she’s close friends with Dolly Parton. Follow her on Twitter or drop her a line to say “Hi!”.

(al)

© Jen Gordon for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: iphone, showcases, trends

Download Pwnage Tool 3.1.3 for the Mac

Details from the Dev Team:

The iPhone 3GS is now supported in PwnageTool 3.1.3, assuming the phone was pwned at 3.0 or 3.0.1 – PwnageTool does not support the 3GS out of the box. If your iPhone 3GS has 3.1 preinstalled and is not Pwned then there is no tested jailbreak solution at the moment.

The iPod 2G is now supported in PwnageTool 3.1.3, assuming the iPod 2G was pwned at 3.0 or 3.0.1 – PwnageTool does not support the iPod 2G with 3.1 software out of the box.

GOLDEN RULE: If you are using a iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G(S) with ultrasn0w and rely on ultrasn0w to obtain cellular service then you should only update your device with an .ipsw that is made with the new PwnageTool. There are no second chances with this. You need to remember that PwnageTool will provide an upgrade path to newer versions of the iPhone software in the future.
Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the 3.1 capable version of PwnageTool.
PwnageTool will work for the iPhone 3GS assuming you have already Pwned it at 3.0 or 3.0.1
PwnageTool will work for the iPod touch 2G assuming you have already Pwned it at 3.0 or 3.0.1
PwnageTool WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G(S) and the iPod touch (1st Generation and 2nd Generation) but NOT the iPod touch 3rd generation.
For 3G and 3G(S) users who are Pwned, PwnageTool is your key to updating in the future, just remember to never install an update directly from Apple, always use an .ipsw that has been created with PwnageTool.
There is no Windows version of PwnageTool it is a Mac OS X tool only, we are not developing a Windows version of PwnageTool.

Read the full release info from the Dev Team.

This is the low down on our tools for use with the 3.1 firmware from Apple, please read the whole post in full before attempting anything. Because of changes with Apple’s update techniques this will be a multipart release, starting with the initial release of PwnageTool for Mac OS X – this application supports the iPhone 1st Generation (2G), The iPhone 3G and the iPod touch 1G. NB: THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT THE 3GS OR NEW IPOD TOUCH. redsn0w for Mac OS X and Windows will follow sometime in the near future, please don’t bug us about it – we’ll release when we have something ready.

1.GOLDEN RULE: If you are using a 3G iPhone with ultrasn0w and rely on ultrasn0w to obtain cellular service, then you should only upgrade to 3.1 with a PwnageTool created .ipsw. – Stay away from Apple’s direct updates as described here and here please get up to speed on the whole subject by reading the information contained in these posts.
2.If you have an original iPhone (1st generation) then 3.1 unlock works with this PwnageTool release. iPhone 3G users upgrading to 3.1 will need to continue using ultrasn0w with a PwnageTool created 3.1 .ipsw
3.Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
4.Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
5.At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the 3.1 capable version of PwnageTool.
6.This app is suitable for the recent 3.1 release.
7.This version of PwnageTool will NOT work for the iPhone 3GS.
8.PwnageTool WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), Original iPod touch (1st Generation) and the iPhone 3G.

Full article HERE.

To this end, I have constructed a server that duplicates the functionality exposed by Apple’s signature server, except using “on file” results rather than live requests.

All we need, then, is to make iTunes use it. Luckily, most operating systems also have the ability to locally define bypasses on specific hostnames through a file called hosts. Using this, we can redirect requests to Apple’s signature server to Cydia.

So, open the file C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (Windows) or /etc/hosts (Mac OS X) and add the following entry to the bottom of the file.

74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com

Now, when iTunes thinks it is talking to Apple, it is talking to Cydia instead. Doing this will allow iTunes to access signatures already stored by Cydia’s “on file” feature.

This server will also act as a cache for any SHSH blobs it hasn’t seen, acting as an intermediary to Apple’s server. This effectively registers your device with the “on file” mechanism, which means you can now enjoy the protections of being able to downgrade your firmware in the future even if you aren’t jailbroken.

This point should be stressed: even if you don’t jailbreak, and even if you never intend to jailbreak, you should consider using the new “on file” service.

Let’s say that Apple releases an OS upgrade in the future, you take it, and they break something important. Maybe they break your e-mail account, or your todo list. Your business is now crippled.

If only you could downgrade, right? Alas, Apple won’t let you anymore. That’s where the new signature cache server comes in: by doing your restores through this server you secure your ability to not accept upgrades from Apple if the need is dire.

Check out the full article HERE.

Short version:

You can re-use redsn0w v0.8 we released a few weeks ago to jailbreak today’s 3.0.1 update. Just let iTunes update or restore you to official 3.0.1 then run redsn0w. The only “trick” is that when redsn0w asks you to identify the IPSW used, point it at the 3.0 IPSW instead of the 3.0.1 one. After the jailbreak, reinstall ultrasn0w 0.9 if you need the unlock.

More details:

The 3.0.1 release is a “branch” from 3.0 that occurs (code-wise) before all the 3.1 betas. The programs redsn0w needs to change for the jailbreak are identical when you compare the 3.0 and 3.0.1 versions. It seems pretty much the only changes Apple made were for the SMS bug, which affects programs that redsn0w doesn’t touch. That’s why you can re-use redsn0w 0.8 on 3.0.1 even though it was written for 3.0.

And since 3.0.1 doesn’t touch the baseband either, ultrasn0w 0.9 works for those needing the soft unlock. Just install it from the repo666.ultrasn0w.com repository using Cydia as usual.

We’ll at some point fix redsn0w to recognize both 3.0 and 3.0.1 IPSW’s, but really that’s the only change that would be made to it. Everything else would be identical, so there’s no need to wait for the “proper” version that recognizes the 3.0.1 IPSW as valid.