This is the first mag I have received from Adobe (but it’s Volume 4 apparently),
and I was surprised by their choice of technology to distribute and implement a digital magazine.

The Adobe Magazine is:

1. Distributed via email to Adobe’s design marketing list (see the online version)

2. The email links to a downloadable ZIP file (10Mb in size)

3. Then extract the ZIP file and open the PDF file

4. And view from your desktop (I recommend viewing in Full Screen mode)

Adobe also makes Flash, which is a popular way of delivering online magazines with rich interactivity. So why have they decided to go old-skool and use PDF?

From what I can guess, it’s probably to showcase some of the nice new features of PDF that people seldom use (chaptering, hyperlinks, some interactivity, embedded video, image switching, etc). It’s also nice that from one big initial download you have a seamless experience, can view offline and PDF is naturally very printer friendly.

But you lose a lot. By using PDF you compromise interactivity, as compared to a Flash-based online magazine. And by being offline you lose even basic social-networking options such as the ability to make comment (Adobe have a very crude way of doing this: email the editor), social bookmarks, personalisation, tagging etc.

I think the format works for this particular magazine, but I also expect a lot of Adobe users would object to a 10Mb ZIP download on principle, it seems like a dated approach from a company that prides itself on technical innovation.

What do you think?

Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology

Welcome to iPhone article number 154,000,001 and counting.

Actually, this is not just about the iPhone, but about some interesting recent developments in the mobile space.

I’ve been using the iPhone for about three months now, as have 3 other Reactive staff. It is without a doubt the coolest consumer electronics device ever made, people who say otherwise are just jealous (let the debate begin).

Ok, so the iPhone is not perfect, but as far as I can tell the only real problems are; lack of Flash support in Safari; the poor email support (for business users) and no 3G. Other than that, it’s clearly superior to other phones in all other aspects. If this is Apple’s first attempt at a mobile communications device, after say 2 years of development, then one can only imagine how awesome they’re going to be in another 2 years.

A 3G iPhone is just around the corner with analysts predicting a release by mid-2008, as I’m sure is Flash support. Flash is processor intensive, so Adobe will either release a Flash ‘light’ version or Apple will simply implement better mobile chips – both are likely to happen.

Interestingly, Nokia is getting ‘multimedia’ support with the recent announcement that Silverlight is coming to the Symbian OS. So that means that you’ll also be seeing more integrated .NET 3.5 / Windows Live applications getting pushed by Microsoft and their partners to mobile platforms.

We at Reactive are excited about the imminent iPhone SDK (software developer kit) which will allow developers to build their own applications to run on the iPhone. Until now the only ‘applications’ you could develop were Web-apps, but even the best ones are pretty lame. So developers will be able to build cool applications like the iTunes mobile store, which is a light version of the iTunes store. The iTunes mobile store makes it so easy to preview and purchase songs, and so well integrated (syncing purchased music over to your desktop computer when you plug your phone in) that this application alone offers a clear view into the future of mobile eCommerce, and a good lesson in how to make this business model work through robust development and ease of use. It won’t be long before we see other iPhone eCommerce applications, like eBay or Amazon jumping on-board.


Developing iPhone versions of websites is also cool, and pretty easy if you follow the developer documentation provided by Apple. We’re working on a couple at the moment at Reactive for our clients. Essentially customising existing websites so they look and feel really nice on the iPhone. It doesn’t have to mean a massive investment for our clients, especially if the original website is developed properly in the first place, according to web-standards and user-centric design principles.

It’s been my experience that the iPhone can actually replace a laptop in the home, I recently sold my laptop intending to upgrade to the MacBook Air, but because I have my iPhone, I don’t actually find that I need a laptop anymore. I can check the news, weather, buy stuff and check email (both Gmail and Exchange) all through the iPhone.

It also integrates seamlessly with Outlook at work, so I can easily sync up my address book and calendar. In fact it’s way better at this than my Nokia E65 (Symbian).

Google have Android, Microsoft have Windows Mobile, Nokia/Sony Ericsson have Symbian and Apple have the iPhone/OSX. It’s going to be an interesting 10 years as these players battle it out for mobile operating system supremacy. My prediction is this: Android will become the Linux of the mobile world (i.e. for scientists and Über-geeks), Symbian will fade away, Apple will grow its market share through the successful delivery of seamless hardware/software integration, whilst Microsoft will continue to do what it does best and provide productivity software to those of us that just need to ‘get stuff done’.

As a side note, I got it to work by following the instructions on this site:
http://www.hackint0sh.org/


So bring on the iPhone, it’s definitely the mobile consumer product of the future


Carl Panczak, General Manager Sydney

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Over the weekend I came across a great Web site called Map Channels, which allows you to take your Google “My Maps”, customise and embed them into your own site.

For those unfamiliar with Google My Maps, this is a feature launched in April 2007 that enables you to quickly and easily create custom maps. Gone are the days of needing programmers to create mash-ups, all you need is a Google account and a good sense of direction.

However, a major drawback of any Google My Maps creation is that they appear within the Google Maps site, and cannot be customised to any great extent. This is where Map Channels comes in, it creates a bridge between Google My Maps and your own site, allowing you to customise and embed your map into your site or blog.

Here is an example:

Last weekend our London office moved to 85 Strand, along with our partners Cedar. As a magazine publisher, the Cedar staff naturally has a wealth of knowledge of good London bars & restaurants. As we settled into the new space, these recommendations were emailed around, and I decided to create a map showing the locations. Google My Maps is a create free tool, and easy to use, so I started here. The result is an interactive map, but within the confines of the Google Maps site.

Next, I wanted to a) have this hosted on the new Cedar Web site, and b) design it within Cedar’s branding. Google, why don’t you let us do this?!

Up steps Map Channels. After creating a (free) account, I simply copied the KML URL, and then was presented with an array of options for customising My Map. It then presented me with a snipped of HTML to embed into a Cedar-branded template. Done! The result is a customised map that fits with the Cedar branding, without any coding required whatsoever.

I think that Google are missing a trick by not providing this functionality themselves, but hopefully it’s only a matter of time.

Your thoughts? Please make your comments below…

Tim O' Neill, Managing Director UK

Labels: Reactive, Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Last week Warners announced that they will discontinue support of the HD DVD format, and this week Toshiba officially abandoned their HD disc format. Blu-Ray has won the High Definition format war.

It was much sooner than expected, with many analysts predicting the battle to last for many years, and dual format players to become common. I’m glad it wasn’t a long and painful death.

So why did Blu-Ray win? Both formats provided the same quality picture.

HD DVD players were cheaper. So that would suggest HD DVD should have had the advantage? Toshiba believed that they would sell more players because they were cheaper, and that by having more players in living rooms their format would win.


I think there were three key things that helped Blu-Ray win:

1) Content.
Blu-Ray started out with a good advantage by having more Hollywood studios on their format from the outset. This meant that they always had a potentially bigger library to release on their format.

2) Sony bundled the Blu-Ray drive into the Playstation 3.
This was probably a key move by Sony. With the PS3 these early adopters were getting a machine that played both HD games and HD movies. If Blu Ray lost the format war, the PS3 would still be useful for playing games. A standalone HD movie player had the potential to become useless if that format lost the war.

3) Marketing and Branding.

• 'Blu-Ray'- the name itself makes the consumer feel that it is a leap in technology.
• Blu-Ray has a logo. I'm not even sure if HD DVD has a logo.
• Blu-Ray is sold in blue coloured boxes.
• From my observations in Australia, and Asia, Blu-Ray discs were more available and presented better in stores. It was quite rare to see HD DVD players, and discs were always less in number when on display.

So the lesson for Toshiba is that it isn’t just a case of “build it and they will come”. You need to have a good marketing strategy for your product.

Now that the format war is over, some pundits are suggesting that Blu-Ray is still going to lose out to HD movie content online (streaming or download). However, I don' t think the technology to support this is really available in the medium term.

Matt Watson, Technical Director

Labels: Technology

A lot of people have asked me lately what Podcasts I am currently listening to (or watching to be more specific). So for all of you time-poor information sponges out there I have compiled a list of my favorite ones in no particular order. I didn't include everything but hopefully there are a few there that you haven't heard of.

There are a few towards the end of the list which are not strictly work related either so beware. Please leave a comment if there are any others that you think need to go on the list.

SVA MFA Design as Author
Guest Lectures Lectures by renowned critical graphic design writer Stephen Heller. Always very well prepared and incredibly insightful. Topics cover a broad range of historical topics.
http://design.schoolofvisualarts.edu/weblog/guestlecture/

SVA MFA Design as Author
Paul Rand Lecture series This is a truley amazing podcast. Visiting designers and critics talk with MFA Designer As Author students. Guests include such greats as: Milton Glaser, RIck Poyner, Jessica Helfand and many more...
http://design.schoolofvisualarts.edu/weblog/paulrand/

Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Debbie has kept me company on many long dog walks and I feel much better for it. She always have great guests on her show; Stefen Sagmeister, Chip Kidd, Barbara Kruger, David Carson, Malcom Gladwell, Art Chantry, Hillman Curtis, Rich Valicenti, Michael Bierut ... the list goes on. Great format, always time there for a few laughs in-between hard hitting questions and contemplative observations.
http://www.sterlingbrands.com/ListenLive.html

Tweed Museum of Art
Graphic Design Lectures The Tweed Museum of Art hosts numerous special events and artist lectures, including the Art + Design Lecture Series, a joint venture of the Department of Art + Design and the Tweed Museum of Art that brings artists and designers to UMD to speak about their work and experience. Events are held in the Tweed Lecture Gallery unless otherwise noted.
http://www.designernetwork.org/?q=node/46

Typeradio Podcast
This is a very entertaining podcast with lots of international guests - most of which are designers I should have heard of but usually haven't. One of the guys is from Underware.nl http://www.typeradio.org/loudblog/

Idents.tv
This is a great one to subscribe to. Particularily for those of you with a short attention span. As the name suggests it is just a record of all the latest television identity sequences (idents).
http://idents.tv/blog/

NGV Podcast and online audio
This is a great audio podcast for those of you who live in Melbourne and often frequent the National Gallery of Victoria. My only comments would be that I would like to see more frequent updates but otherwise good.
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/podcasts/

MoMA Think modern lectures
The Museum of Modern Art NY also provides a similar service which is great:
http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/audio/2006/pub_prog/downloadAAPAA_2006.html

Not quite art
Host Marcus Westbury, founder of the This is Not Art Festival in Newcastle and the former director of Next Wave Festival in Melbourne, takes on a tour of how the art world looks from the other side.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/notquiteart/

Cool Hunting Video
For anyone who cares anything about design and design culture needs to subscribe to this. And for those of you who are dads like me and don't have time to find cool stuff yourself this serves it to you on a silver platter.
http://www.coolhunting.com/

WFMU's Music to Spazz by with Dave the Spazz
This is literally what I'm listening to as I write this list. Maybe not everyone has the same musical tastes that I do but give this a go if you are open minded. A broad range of obscure, 50's, rockabilly, country, punk etc. Nothing quite like it.
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/MS

Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir
This is a fantastic audio podcast which analyses Films Noir in order to better establish the definition of Film Noir. Covering early movies like 'Double Indemnity' (my favorite) and "The Maltese Falcon" and much more recent Neo-Noir movies like "Blade Runner" and "Brick". It's just great knowing there are people out there that love Fm Noir this much.
http://outofthepast.libsyn.com/

Tim Kotsiakos, Creative Director

Labels: Design and Usability, Reactive, Technology

For all of those of you interested who haven’t had a chance to get into Actionscript 3 (AS3), Colin Moock, one of the gurus of Flash who wrote Actionscript 2 Definitive Guide and the new AS3 Definitive Guide, is being flown around the world to present an overview of AS3.

http://www.adobeas3tour.com/

The dates are

• Feb. 20 - Munich
• Feb. 27 - Amsterdam
• Mar. 3 - London
• Apr. 29 - Bangalore
• May. 5 - Sydney

Here is an overview of what he covers

http://moock.org/lectures/groundUpAS3/

For those who can’t make it I would suggest watching the video of a presentation he made at FITC.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2468935003205486599&hl=en


Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology

As a bit of a music freak, I’ve recently started to think about the role of technology and software in the proliferation of electronic music in the past ten years.

Electronic music has always appealed to me due to the way in which even an ‘unmusical’ individual can make good music. With an understanding of rhythm and the ability to find a good groove, anyone can spend some time learning one of the many programs available and make a track. Some of the top producers out there at the moment wouldn’t be able to play a tune on a piano, but what they can do is manipulate sounds into a way that works in a sweaty club at 4am. This doesn’t mean it’s easy in any way, it just removes the old fashioned, and in some ways classist, system of learning your music theory and spending most of your youth forced into piano or violin lessons (yuk, flash back alert).

Punk may have started this in the 70s, but the tools needed for making techno are in pretty much every home – all you need is a half decent PC and a pair of headphones, and you’re off.

In the past 4 years things have become even more accessible, with intuitive programs being launched that have flattened the learning curve.
Ableton is leading the pack currently, with their Ableton Live software (www.ableton.com). A piece of software designed as much for the bedroom set-up as the high spec pro studio, or even the club. Based around one window, this integrates the production process (be it synthesis, sampling or loops) with the performance - allowing a budding producer to write a track, and then ‘perform’ that track with live edits, without having to use another program.

What this program also includes is probably the best ‘Help’ options I’ve ever seen. It can run through mock-ups of each section, meaning a complete beginner can be guided through any process they wish – even on your first session with the software you can be editing loops and creating synth patterns. Programmers should reference this ‘Help’ service, as it seems that this is often an afterthought, a searchable online manual simply isn’t enough anymore. We as web developers should be including this in large online projects– well planned Information Architecture can aid this – as users should be guided through any complex parts of a site.

Apple is also in the running with the new Logic 8 (www.apple.com/logicstudio/logicpro/). A massively powerful piece of software that is close to an industry standard (along with Pro Tools). This new version is both user friendly, but customisable enough for even the most complex projects. It is used by producers writing techno for sweaty Berlin clubs as much as it is by composers for Hollywood film scores.

Apple have made some enemies with Logic though, locking it as a Mac only program, but with the new iMacs dropping in price their gamble may have paid off, with many Windows fans making the big leap over.

There are a number of alternatives, and much cheaper alternatives at that. These are great for playing around, with many using drag-and-drop as a tool to build loops. You can even write tunes on your PlayStation these days…

Digital technology has become widespread in the DJ world also, with a huge number of performers leaving behind the chore of dragging a massive bag of vinyl to gigs, and instead opting for playing CDs or using on the impressive vinyl emulators – check out www.serato.com to be blown away for some digital/analogue integration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_Emulation_Software).

This technology is also adaptable for mixing videos (‘VJing’ – clever eh?) and allows a number of acts (check Diplo and DJ Yoda for some fine examples) to control the music and the visuals at an event – and who says digital technology is killing the DJ?!

On that note, all this digital talk doesn’t mean performance is dead, far from it. There’s a wealth of control surfaces in production, in small runs, that mean the digital performer is no longer sitting behind their laptop, clicking with a mouse (or checking their email).

This technology is allowing producers to be more creative, edit and add to the bones of a track in response to the crowd. It’s a very exciting time in this arena, just check out some of these links:

www.monome.net or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJwxbTKwONc
http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/ or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-RhyopUmc (Microsoft Surface anyone?)



And even the big boys are getting involved… http://www.tenori-on.co.uk/



Matt Bachle-Morris, Web Producer

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Well now it is 2008 I thought I would start the year by giving you an update of a few things that are frying my noodle over the last little while.

First is the work by the guys over at Vizoo with their Cheoptics360 video projection system. It doesn’t relate entirely to the online space but I can see it being used with camera detection software to create 3D interactive kiosks etc, and just imagine the art installations you could create, amazing!

Check out one of the most unique fashion shows I’ve seen in a while:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phe82y69hG0&feature=related

The official showreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZId2nywp6HQ&feature=related

For more info check out the official site:
http://www.vizoo.com/main.html

As a post script I would recommend checking out the live motion tracking video installation work by Frieder Weiss & Chunky Moves et al to start to get an idea of what you could do with this technology http://www.frieder-weiss.de/video/projects.htm

Watch this space for more...

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

In my recent travels I have noticed a quiet revolution in the sky, with the roll-out of redesigned Inflight Entertainment (IFE) systems by some of the major airlines.

BA and Singapore Airlines are clearly investing heavily in IFE, no doubt to further differentiate themselves from the low-cost operators. From a customer’s perspective, it’s pleasing to see that the user-interface design has improved to a very high standard.

On a recent flight from London to New York with British Airways, I had the pleasure of using their new Audio and Visual on Demand (AVOD) system. Designed by UK agency GT, and powered by Rockwell Collins' Total Entertainment System, the touch-screen interface is clean, simple and very easy to use.

However, in my opinion the design lacks personality (or charm), as a result of being too clean and simple. That said, BA carry over 2.5 million passengers each month, so it’s hard to argue against a utilitarian design.

Regretfully, BA couldn’t resist the temptation of banner advertising (in this case a BA Holidays promotion), not to mention the pre-roll video advertising that is now standard before each movie.


On a (much longer) flight from London to Melbourne with Singapore Airlines, I was able to experience and contrast their old vs new inflight entertainment systems. I have always liked the old system, which boasts a clean (inoffensive) design, nicely consistent with the Singapore Airline branding. Think flowery flourishes and orchards aplenty. However the new system is the best I’ve seen…

First impressions help. On boarding the sparkling-new 777, I marveled at the lovely new high resolution, wide (10.6 inch) LCD screens, set within the newly designed seat-back. The seat panel includes a USB port and (surprisingly) Microsoft Office software is built into the system.

The hardware is a great start, and the next thing I noticed was the IFE was available immediately. Yes, I could start watching Underdog while other passengers were still boarding! Furthermore, the user-interface design is outstanding. Carefully crafted icons and nicely designed backdrops are a treat. It’s no longer traditionally Singaporean (the interface could just as easily work for BA), but it perfectly matches the contemporary cabin design.

I am unsure who designed the user-interface (if you know, please add a Comment below), but the system is powered by Panasonic Avionics eX2 system.

On long-haul flights, a good IFE really does make the difference, and in my case will heavily influence my choice of airline. It’s great to see that BA and Singapore Airlines (my two favorite carriers) are getting it right; unfortunately the same cannot be said for Thai Airways.

On my return flight from Melbourne to London with Thai, the second leg of the journey (from Bangkok) was like a step back in time. In a bad way. It’s practically inhumane to endure a 13 hour flight without seat-back IFE, especially when the only entertainment (on the projector) was; an old episode of ‘Everybody Hates Chris’, a BBC documentary and the movie Hairspray!

Rest assured, I won’t be flying Thai again. But I’m already looking forward to my next flight with Singapore. I would love to see the Business Class seat-back design, so if you’re reading this SIA, please contact me about that free upgrade!


If you know of any other examples of great IFE user-interface design, please let us know by adding your comments below…

Footnote: I have to mention the fantastic Bose Noise Cancelling headphones, which I find make every flight more enjoyable, regardless of how good or bad the IFE. Expensive, but a great investment if you travel often. Ask for them this xmas!


Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology

According to our Systems Admin, Mark Moynihan, the hounds are barking at Apple's door.

Okay, so I’m going incur the wrath of all those devoted Apple fans out there...Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPod Nano and I’m over my Zune, but if Apple continues heading along its current path of non-interoperability with hardware and software, it is going to attract the attention of those who have been attacking Microsoft for doing the same thing!

For example, the new Apple iPhone; to use it you have to sign a two year contract with AT&T, you can’t change the battery yourself, you can’t sync the phone with Microsoft Exchange, in general if it ain’t Apple it won’t talk to it. Subsequently the iPhone has been hacked so you can use it as an iPod without having to sign up with AT&T. People just don’t put up with this kind of forced usage - it's more like a challenge to buck big greedy business.

As the iPhone garners unwanted attention from unsavoury characters out there, further security flaws are revealed. Recently it was reported in The Australian’s IT section that the iPhone’s browser, Safari had been hacked. This security hole allows the hacker to make calls, send text messages, access emails, use the address book and interact with practically any application running on the phone. The security firm that discovered this flaw also went on to mention that the flaw could be found on their desktop version of the Browser.

What, a security flaw in OS X? Could this be true? Of course, it’s very hard to have something as complex as an operating system completely bug and exploit free.

If Apple continues to develop products in exclusivity (and does not consider interoperability) they will draw unfavoured attention. And mark my words; this will lead to a rise in attacks against the Mac!

P.S. I love my Nano ;)

P.P.S. Still puzzled about this blog title? Check it out at YouTube...

Mark Moynihan, Systems Administrator

Labels: Technology

Over the past year there have been a barrage of new technology announcements, especially from the big four (Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Yahoo). You might’ve missed some announcements, or maybe you’re getting confused with all the names.

So to help you out we’ve made a quick list of some of the new web related technologies, with quick summaries. Some of the summaries are a bit controversial, don’t take it too seriously!

• Expression Studio – Microsoft’s products for designers. Think Adobe Creative Suite.

• Web – Used to create html and css for the web (competitor Dreamweaver).

• Blend – Used to build create WPF and in version 2 create Silverlight content (competitor Flash/ Flex).

• Design – Design tool which integrates with expression suite (Flash).

• Media – Media manager which allows users to edit and encode various formats for use with the expression suite of products (competitor: Adobe Bridge?).

• Silverlight – Microsoft’s competitor to Flash. Combines numerous technologies including Ajax, XAML, .NET, LINQ, and multimedia.

• .NET 3.0 –(formerly named WinFX) .NET 3.0 isn’t a rewrite of .NET 2.0, it’s more like a expansion kit. You get a stack of additional powerful libraries in the form of (WPF, WWF, and WCF).

• WPF – (Windows Presentation Foundation) This is the visual side of .NET 3.0. It’s built into Vista and can be used for local and connected applications.

• WWF – (Windows Workflow Foundation) Libraries, Functions and Tools for developing any type of workflow/transaction in .NET.

• WCF – (Windows Communication Foundation) Libraries, Functions and Tools for Data Exchange within Windows, or to/from Windows.

• WPF/E – (Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere) Microsoft dumped that stupid name, and renamed this product Silverlight.

• Vista – The latest version of Windows OS, it includes .NET 3.0. and IE 7.0.

• IE 7.0 – The long delayed update to the highly popular, highly flawed IE 6.0 browser. Now supports Tabbed browsing, with many bugs fixed, but still has some issues.

• Ajax.NET – Microsoft’s AJAX libraries. Previously named Atlas. Microsoft must stop renaming products.

• Adobe CS3 – The new suite of integrated macromedia and adobe software.

• Flex – A development environment for Adobe Flash. It provides a lot more structure for developing applications and doing server-side integration with databases.

• Apollo – A client-side cross OS application environment for running desktop applications developed in Flash, Ajax, Flex, HTML.

• SPRY framework – Used by Dreamweaver to provide AJAX functionality.

• PopFly – An online application that uses Silverlight to allow users to easily create their own mash-ups (see yahoo pipes).

• GoogleGears – A client-side cross OS tool which provides a database engine for online applications to sync and run offline.

• Yahoo Pipes – An online application that allows users to easily create their own mash-ups (see PopFly).

• Photosynth – A combination of fast image scaling technology and 3D environments constructed from images of a location.

What is the biggest battle?

From the web development perspective there is going to be an exciting battle between Flash/Flex/Apollo VERSUS Silverlight/WPF/.NET.

Who will win?

Well, we don’t have the crystal ball answer. The success of most technologies depends largely on the acceptance and use by the global community. Flash currently has the advantage due to the ubiquity of the player and it’s utilisation on some major sites such as YouTube, MySpace etc. However Microsoft’s automatic update functionality will help with speed to market and they are targeting the advertising and media industries to directly tackle Flash’s hold on the industry.

There are some clear patterns in the aims of most of these technologies:

• Improving the user experience
• Improving the ease of development
• Improving the reach of applications

So, the end-user is going to be the real winner in all of this (cheesy by true).

Links worth checking out:

Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/
http://silverlight.net/
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Presentation_Foundation
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/apollo/
http://labs.adobe.com/

Other:
http://www.popfly.com/
http://gears.google.com/
http://pipes.yahoo.com/

Matthew Watson, Technical Director

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Alright so this little thing has absolutely fried my noodle this morning!

A company in America called SeaDragon (recently acquired by Microsoft) have a written a piece of software which has a unique rendering engine to display images. Instead of loading an image and rendering all the information (or attempting to), the software appears to resample the image so that it only renders as much information as it can display (i.e pixels) at one time. This means you can have a very highly detailed image and you can interact with that image very very quickly and smoothly.

Now that unto itself is not that amazing however, they have combined this technology with a 3D rendering engine which is able to take a photos and using some pretty tricky algorithms determine similarities between the 3D model and the photo and display them in such a way that you can virtually walk through the space and view everything at an almost infinite level of detail.

As far as I am concerned if you need a way to explain the semantic web and how user generated content is going to revolutionise how we interact and access information then this is it!

Check it out at:

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/
(Internet Explorer, Windows XP SP2 or Vista only)


For more info check out:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynth

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Labels: Technology

Recently Apple boss Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates shared a live interview onstage at a web conference. Amongst the shared platitudes (BILL: you da man Steve. STEVE: no no Bill, YOU da man – I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the idea) a question was raised about the future of the personal computer, given the increasing power and flexibility of web applications.

Jobs fielded it, pointing out that the death of the PC has been predicted numerous times over recent years, and it has never eventuated... something he put down to the fact that offline
applications by their nature are more powerful than web applications.


While this may be true, desktop applications cannot compete with the flexibility and availability of an web application which enables data to be accessed from anywhere around the world.

Up until now, this has been the web application's greatest strength, yet also its biggest weakness – its Samson's hair and Achilles’ heel all rolled into one, if you will. As useful as web applications are when they are online and you have a functioning and responsive network, they are rendered useless without a connection.

Google is the latest company to announce a product that attempts to address this issue. Google Gears sits alongside Adobe's Apollo platform, and Microsoft's WPF framework in providing tools focused on developing applications that can seamlessly bridge the gap between the web and the desktop.

Launched (with not an insignificant amount of fanfare) as part of Google Developer Day, a Google technology showcase event held in 10 locations around the world, this is a big announcement for Google in a number of ways.


So what is the big deal?

Firstly for Google themselves, Gears will allow them to offer offline versions of their popular GMail, Spreadsheets, and Docs applications. Gears launched with an offline version of Google Reader, Google's RSS viewer, and one imagines Gears integration for the others cannot be far away, a move that will see the Microsoft Office suite of programs firmly
in Google's sights.

For us web developers though, enabling web apps to work offline is the big drawcard.

Anyone who has lost an internet connection mid-way through updating some important data online will know the pain that this can cause. Up until now there has been no easy solution, the updated data disappears somewhere between your computer and the server you are trying to access.


An application utilising Google Gears however, could allow you to keep working in this situation, with the data safely stored on your PC, waiting for the moment when you reconnect and it can sync up with your online database. This means you could work with an online application anywhere, connected or not, at a time that suits you.

With three of the biggest online players (Microsoft, Google, and Adobe) all releasing platforms that focus on achieving this outcome, it is fair to speculate that the offline web may be the next major technology battleground.

So while Steve Jobs may well be right - that iPod you have on your desk is evidence that he has a knack for predicting trends – there is no doubt that there has been a shift in the role of the desktop PC in recent times.

A few years ago everyone was rushing to web-enable desktop applications, and now it’s all about desktop-enabling web applications.

Simon Stefanoff, Developer

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Like most people you’re probably using Google Maps these days. So you may not have noticed that Whereis.com have released high-definition photographic images of the metropolitan centres across Australia. It’s impressive and considerably better quality than what Google Maps currently offer. Below is example in the difference in resolution:

Fitzroy Pool: Google Maps - Maximum Zoom













Fitzroy Pool: Whereis.com (beta)













Fitzroy Pool: Whereis.com (beta) Maximum Zoom













Whereis.com still have a few issues to iron out before the final release. Not surprisingly it’s much slower than Google maps, and it often produces JavaScript errors and then totally shuts down.

Worth checking it out at: www.whereis.com

Tim Fouhy, Managing Director

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Watching this excellent Vodcast from Cool Hunting a few weeks back revealed an amazingly talented artist/storyteller Jonathan Harris who uses primarily Web technologies and the internet as his medium of expression.

His most accomplished interactive work (in my opinion) is the 2007 Webby nominated ‘We Feel Fine’. Described by the artist as ‘an exploration of human emotion’, it’s a Java Web Application which searches weblogs on the internet for postings that relate to feelings and emotions, and harvests the words and images. You can then search or filter the information to narrow the results, by type of emotion, for example ‘happy’ or ‘sad’, location, sex, age and time, and then view the snippet of the weblog.

Not only is it an excellent concept, but it’s beautifully executed both from an interface design perspective and from a code perspective.

A similar concept, with a specific focus on depicting the romantic lives of American teenagers is called the Dumpster. It also visualises content harvested from the internet, but more specifically ‘a fixed collection of 20,000 romantic breakups that occurred during 2005’. It’s also interesting in that it uses a playful and interactive visual interface to access the content, making for a fun and engaging experience.

Jonathan Harris’ most recent work, called Universe, is also a Web application and described as “a system that supports the exploration of personal mythology, allowing each of us to find our own constellations, based on our own interests and curiosities….Using the metaphor of an interactive night sky, Universe presents an immersive environment for navigating the world's contemporary mythology, as found online in global news and information from Daylife”.

Wow, super-cool. I hope by exploring these sites you’ll also be left inspired and encouraged to share your stories with the world.

Actually, all this reminds me of a project we did a few years ago for the Australian Drug Foundation, called Somazone, which gives young people a space to share their stories with others, dealing with issues such as sexuality, health and drugs.

Carl Panczak, General Manager, Sydney

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology, Web Culture and Trends

I came across a pretty cool search engine the other day called PodZinger. It’s a searching engine that scours the web looking for podcasts and then transcribes the file so it’s searchable by keyword.

BBN Technologies developed PodZinger capitalising on their 30-year history of speech recognition technology. Apparently this is the same technology used by the CIA and special agent Jack Bauer.

Even if you’re not trying foil terrorist plans, PodZinger is still useful to search podcasts that mention specific words or phrases i.e. searching for “digital convergence”. When you select a search result, PodZinger dynamically creates markers cued up to where that search phrase was mentioned.

PodZinger also allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds, so you can automatically download new podcasts that contain your search phrase.

And finally, PodZinger can now search the contents of YouTube videos.

Check it out at: http://www.podzinger.com/

Tim Fouhy, Managing Director

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

As most people in the world should know by now, Microsoft has finally released their latest operating system, Vista. So is it worth the hype, has anything really changed and is there any point in upgrading?

Vista definitely needs higher spec hardware. When you install Vista, it gives your PC a Windows Experience rating out of 5.9. Scores are given to Processor speed, Memory (RAM), Graphics card (A rating for Aero and a rating for gaming), and Hard disk. Your PC is awarded the lowest score of each of these. My PC gets a 2.

The culprit contributing to my PC's low score is the graphics card and how it displays the Aero effect. This is the fancy transparency or mac (as some are quick to point out!) effect. I have just noticed that Vista has turned Aero off on my PC. I’m not sure when as I’ve only just noticed. I did notice that when Aero was active it was a lot slower to switch between windows.

So is it any different to use? Well yes and no, a lot of the things you are used to doing in XP are there and look very similar, however it can be a bit tiresome to find their new locations.

Some of the features I do like are:

• The breadcrumbs in windows explorer which enable you to jump back a directory easily.

• Vista seems a bit more proactive in detecting and fixing problems.
  

• You can have multiple clocks set up in different time zones.

• The ‘All Programs’ menu in the start menu now only opens in one vertical list which you can navigate with a vertical scroll bar.

• A whole array of new and equally meaningless error messages!

• I also have Office 2007 installed. The new ‘ribbon’ tool bars which change to suit what you are doing are really handy.

• There is no need for Google desktop anymore, when you click on the start menu there is a search box at bottom. When you type into the search box, the start menu is then replaced with the search results... from files you’ve opened, from your emails... you name it, just like Google desktop search.

A side note on drivers... apparently there were to be anticipated problems with hardware without drivers but so far I haven’t found that to be the case. Although I am yet to plug in my dodgy $5 bluetooth adapter...

All in all, I like Vista and the overall experience has been positive. If you’re a techno geek and love new toys, then upgrade. If you are okay with the status quo, then there is no compelling reason to spend the money, just wait till you have to buy a new PC.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to go back.

Mark Moynihan, Systems Administrator

Labels: Technology

One of the main tenets of software development is that the developer must aim to keep the application structure and code simple. What may seem like an ingenious solution at the time could in fact become the costly problem later on if it is difficult to read, understand, and modify. Reducing the complexity of the application makes it easier to understand, manage, support, and change. So decreasing the complexity reduces the total costs.

This approach of minimising complexity is not only important for developers, but also critical for business owners. I am often surprised by just how complex some businesses make their product rules or business rules. The first web project that I led (many years ago now!) had a client with what I expected to be a straightforward product offering. However, when we got to the details of the product rules (e.g. only the curved products can be brown, and only products 1, 5, 22, 45 can have special coating “x”), we encountered a can of worms. When I questioned the client about simplifying the rules, they admitted that although there was no clear rationale behind the rule, they couldn’t change them!

Businesses should be aware of the cost of complexity. Complex business rules will result in increased costs due to the IT applications that require the implementation of these rules. If your business could be managed with an out-of-the-box application, then your modification costs will be negligible, and upgrades will be simple.

Complexity extends much further than just your IT costs. There are the associated costs in getting your staff to understand the complicated product offering, and the costs when customers abandon a purchase because they are confused or frustrated with the complexity.

Businesses should have good reasons to justify making complex business rules.

At this point we could even start talking about Information Architecture and Usability. Both of these disciplines focus on making things easier for your users: easier to find something; easier to use something; easier to buy something. Just like the costs, the benefits are realised to further than the Web site. Good Information Architecture within a business can save a lot of administrative time, and enable staff to concentrate on value-added activities. Well thought out Information Architecture in a shop quite simply helps shoppers find the product they’re looking for in turn increasing sales.

Matt Watson, Technical Director

Labels: Process and Methodology, Technology

The start of a new year seems like a good time to try and predict the future!

I was recently asked by a student my thoughts on the future of travel and tourism online. Good question. Although I find it difficult to predict the future (difficult, but not impossible), this is a topic I have a lot of interest in so I’ll give it a shot.

As described in our recent whitepaper ‘Web 2.0 for the Travel and Tourism industry’, as more Web site operators provide their functionality as Open API’s, the opportunities for interesting new mash-ups grows exponentially. Currently it’s hard to find a mash-up that doesn’t include either Google Maps or Flickr, this will change!

I believe this will start to overlap into hardware (it is already), providing interesting combinations of software, hardware and data. In my opinion, one big opportunity for Web travel is the ability for a traveller to find any information in any format on any device they choose.

For example, if Apple released an API for some of the cool aspects of the new iPhone interface, you could then use this on other devices (like my XDA Orbit Windows mobile). Then imagine having an iPhone interface on my Orbit displaying data from Kayak to search flights… this might be someone’s idea of the perfect flight-finding interface. Instead, Apple is sending Cease & Desist letters to anyone even putting a screen-grab of potential iPhone mash-ups on their site!

A more practical example is an online flight booking. Currently you are restricted to the search and display interface provided by the Web site operator (e.g. Kayak, STA Travel, Flight Centre etc), and you can only personalise this to a certain extent. It might be possible in the future to say “I prefer the Kayak flight search interface, but want to display flight data from STA Travel, and bundle it with Hotel listings from Expedia”. And I want it on my TV. I could choose this as a user, rather than needing a Web developer to create a mash-up of this particular combination.

This will be extremely complicated to achieve, and would require great strides in the standardisation and interoperability of systems (such is the goal of the OpenTravel Alliance).

Naturally this is only one aspect of what the future of online travel might hold, but as someone who books travel online frequently, I hope it becomes reality.

Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Our popular whitepaper "Web 2.0 for the Travel and Tourism Industry" has had a 2007 refresh, and now includes a foreword from Craig Hepburn, Global Webmaster of STA Travel Group.

There is no ignoring, and certainly no denying, the current hype around Web 2.0, in particular here in the UK. Recently, The Guardian (a mainstream UK newspaper) published an interesting feature on Web 2.0 with interviews (and podcasts naturally) with the founders of Wikipedia, Flickr, Technorati, Blogger and other Web 2.0 rock-stars.

Reactive work with a lot of clients in the tourism and travel industries, a sector which has always been at the forefront of Internet technology, and so it is no surprise to see Web 2.0 features rapidly appearing in travel Web sites of well-known brands such as Contiki, STA Travel, Starwood, Lonely Planet and Eurostar.

However, many travel and tourism marketers don’t have the time to sit down and consider how these new horizons relate to their brand, so we thought we’d give you some help!

Our popular whitepaper (or is guidebook a better word?) titled “Web 2.0 for the Travel and Tourism Industry”. With it we aim to demystify some of the more common elements of Web 2.0, and show practical examples of how travel and tourism brands are using these to attract new customers, improve customer loyalty, and drive sales.

The whitepaper covers the following topics (with real-world examples):

• Blogging (Starwood, Eurostar and STA Travel)
  
• Podcasting (Lonely Planet, Orbitz, Virgin Atlantic, The Independent and Heartbeat guides)
  
• Social networking and user generated content (TripAdvisor, Yahoo, Contiki and Sheraton)
  
• Online video (YouTube, Travelistic and MGM Grand Las Vegas)
  
• RSS (Expedia, STA Travel, Virgin Holidays, Orbitz, and Conde Nast)
  
• Tagging (del.icio.us, Flickr and Travbuddy)
  
• Mash-ups and Open API’s (Locale, Virtual Tourism, Blogabond, 43 Places and TripAdvisor)
  
• Wikis (Wikitravel, World66 and TripAdvisor)
  
• AJAX (Kayak, Sidestep, Farecast and Google Maps)

If you are responsible for a tourism Web site or travel Web site, and interested in learning more about how 'Travel 2.0' could relate to you, please complete this form. The whitepaper is 15 pages, and will be emailed to you in PDF format.

Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Google maps are certainly pretty cool and everyday people are dreaming up of more creative ways to use them!

But do they help or hinder us when finding directions? If you wanted an office or store location map on your Web site, is a Google map the right option?

Well I think that depends. If you want to pack your location map with interactive features like zooming, panning, satellite and hybrid image modes, then a Google map is a pretty nifty option.

But if you want to help people find your office as easily as possible, then it might be better to invest in a well crafted map by a graphic designer.

An advantage of commissioning your own map is it provides an opportunity to include colour, graphic and typographic cues from other aspects of your branding. This helps to maintain a visual consistency between the map and your Web site.

A good location map shouldn’t be too detailed. It’s probably not necessary to show every side street in 4km radius. Likewise, it’s probably not much use for a visitor to know the colour of the rooftops on surrounding buildings (i.e. Google satellite maps).

The user is more likely wanting to know where you are situated in relation to major landmarks, what major streets you’re off, and where’s the best place to park. By focusing on key bits of information and removing irrelevant detail, you are enabling the user to orientate faster and hopefully reduce any frustration trying to locate your office or store.

Another good idea is to provide a printable version of your location map that fits nicely on an A4 printout.

Tim Fouhy, Managing Director Australia

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology

For those who aren't already aware Microsoft is about to "push" Internet Explorer 7 onto 10's of millions of desktops this month. The statistics are already showing that the developer community has started using it quite extensively in beta format, accounting for around 2-3% of current internet users (just short of IE5 usage).

There are two primary issues Reactive have come across so far. The first of these is that the often used CSS hacks to target IE rendering differences no longer work. Secondly a security change has meant formerly "safe" ActiveX controls are now deprecated, triggering a security alert when detecting QuickTime and Windows Media player.

To resolve the CSS issue Reactive have started using Conditional commenting

Unfortunately there is no complete resolution to the plug-in detection issues however if you would like to find out more you can read the Security brief from Microsoft

To find out more check out the following links:

* Release notes on the IEBlog

* Support notes on the Microsoft site

* 'Internet Explorer 7 looms — be prepared' , by Woody Leonhard

* 'IE7 Imminent: Plug-in detection woes', by Lewis Francis

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Labels: Technology, Web Culture and Trends

Reactive have noticed some websites coming to market that are primarily text based that have been developed entirely in Adobe Flash which led some of our team pose the question: Why would you do that, aren’t you creating a lot more work for yourself?As the Interaction Director at Reactive my first reaction is, 'why not?' For starters Flash works on all platforms in all browsers and will remain absolutely pixel perfect no matter what. As opposed to HTML/CSS sites which currently need to be tested, tweaked and retested in a minimum of 6 browsers across two operating systems. If you need more reasons see my entry: Tackling the thorny issues with Adobe Flash.

The example cited is http://www.pierinc.com/ a company that develops online applications using Adobe Flex and there in lies the primary reason for delivering their entire website in this manner: If you aren’t using the technology then you are going to have a tough time selling it to clients.With the latest release of Adobe Flex companies have the ability to quickly and efficiently deliver these applications on an enterprise level utilising the agile development model with a Flash front-end which will not have any of the issues prevalent in CSS.

Flex is a server side code based on xml which allows you to write and deploy flash based applications like pier in a very short timeframe. It is specifically designed for use with modular/component based systems/sites where you write the component; let's say the "news module" and then you just have to write something like this for your home page
Code for Pier site (very simplified):

This would grab the components and build them on the fly on the server and the deliver them to the client making it more efficient.

Find out more about Adobe Flex here

Yahoo maps using Flex

And the hard sell

The primary reasons Reactive does not utilise Flex is the current license cost of $20,000USD per CPU and the extensive use of component based development process which does deliver a more robust solution but the ramification is an increase in the time lines a decrease in flexibility and of course an increase on the bottom line.

The advantage of Flash sites in general however is that they can deliver a much more seamless user experience with a higher degree of feedback and a quicker delivery of specific requests, currently known as Rich Internet Applications. A couple of great examples developed by Reactive using Flash include, Global Corporate Challenge and Ferguson Plarre's Design-a-Cake.

With cManager, the new Reactive Content Management System (CMS), Web-Services and good use of Object Orientated coding practices we have developed a quick way of rolling out data driven flash websites.

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Labels: Design and Usability, Technology

A couple of quick thoughts on what I see as the three thorny issues when it comes to Adobe Flash websites: Accessibility, Search-ability and the back button.

Accessibility
In my experience making Flash websites accessible is not because you can’t it is because of the cost implication for the client of pursuing this process. (According to WebAim you can make them (flash sites) more accessible than html )

Search-ability
Reactive have ad