12 Apr
   Filed Under: Apple, Interface Design, Personal, Popular   

I have been noticing a disturbing trend in custom interface design of third party applications for Mac OS X. As it is no longer an exception for software developers to build interface elements that are entirely unique to their application, the threshold for customizing other, system-standard interface elements is also lowered significantly. The ghastly trend I am about to describe is in existence due to this lowered threshold. In fact, I think this particular deviation off the beaten interface path would have been far more frowned upon a few years ago, when Mac interface designers were more conservative in using custom UI elements in general, and Apple disapproved of it more fiercely. Today, however, it won’t even stand in the way of scoring a design award runner-up, as my examples will go to prove.

Continue reading…

21 Nov

( Go to icon set directly)

For the last month, I have been working on a freeware icon set to supersede all my older work. I was interested in how much I could learn by attracting critique from the most valued artists and criticasters I have in my buddy lists and address book, and I took it all to the heart. I decided to make a folder set that would find the middle ground between the flat front-on perspective of Mac OS X Leopard and the old, spatial perspective of folders in Tiger.

Continue reading…

27 Jul
   Filed Under: Design, Icon Design, Personal Work, Popular   

So, apparently the latest seed of Leopard has a revamped System Preferences icon. Don’t go requesting the ADC members to upload it, that would be wrong. I have gone through the hassle of making a new icon based on the design. A little present, if you will!

sysprefspreview.jpg

Download it here.

Edit: TUAW hit :). Hello visitors, don’t forget to check out the other freeware icons for OS X at Icon Designer. Also, if you are interested in icons for use in Leopard applications, I have released a Leopard-ready stock icon set at the Icon Store.

11 Jun
   Filed Under: Apple, Design, Popular   

Just a treat. Enjoy this Leopard wallpaper as a gift from Icon Designer ;).

leopreview.jpg

Thanks for the downloads! This image has seen about 6000 downloads since it’s inception two days ago, and I’ll make a version without the ‘mess’ behind it for release soon.

04 May
   Filed Under: Personal Work, Popular   

I thought, go download your own and see if it works out for you. I got mail from Nano users willing to test too, so hey.

The beta of Cocoia Timezones is now public. Be sure to read the readme and follow installer instructions. It allows you to choose a different directory to install to (recommended).

release.jpg

Features excluded in this BETA version:

  • Personalised timezone overlay,
  • New 1.0 themes,
  • Map smooth motion.
  • This is not feature complete. Please test this for me, and give me feedback about bugs, inconsistencies, and suggestions at this address.

    Download now.

    18 Mar
       Filed Under: Announcement, Popular   

    isightexpert.jpg

    digg this!

    It’s a mobile world, and your Macbook goes just about anywhere. Sometimes, you just leave it on the desk at your workplace, or at home. Sometimes, you leave it on. Sometimes you don’t. There is always some chance that your attention isn’t on your portable. Theft could easily occur.

    iSight Expert isn’t a countermeasure for theft. It’s a range of tools anyone can use to their advantage. Many Macs come with a built-in iSight, but lack tools to use it in a more unorthodox way.

    Want to use your iMac as a motion alarm?
    Want to keep a timelapse of how you look?
    Do you want to know where your employees are?
    Do you want a picture taken at a failed login?

    iSight Expert can not only do all those things, but also export a customized application for you that you can install on any iSight-equipped Mac, and will function as you have defined it;

    * Send Emails with it’s Geographic location and images.
    * Securely upload recent images and data to a web server
    * Make a movie of a month’s or week’s images
    * Take images at startup, login, logout, wakeup, failed passwords, or motion.
    * Act on a change of images or a face in the camera (e.g. run a script, play a song)

    And there is much more. iSight Expert can organise the sent images of all your equipped Macs, put them online automatically for you, or print them. In it’s slick interface, you can see at what date, and at what location the image was taken. It’s Growl enabled, meaning you can get nifty little dialogues when you get a new image.

    A beta-test is opening soon. Leave a comment, or email me to enter consideration. edit; I have had a lot of replies. I still need beta testers who have access to, and are able to test, a different application on OS X server. If you have both, be sure to email.