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May 13, 08 - 09:59 am Comment from: Lazy European

It might work.
It sure as hell is dead ugly.

Made for Windows...?!

Quicksilver, thanks.

May 13, 08 - 10:09 am Comment from: OBill-Wan Kenobi

That's REALLY unattractive. Interesting concept though.

Is it me or does this have a distinct BOB feel about it?

I doubt this is faster than Quicksilver or spotlight...

May 13, 08 - 10:15 am Comment from: Davidlow

I see 3-D perspective, but that's a far cry from true 3-D visualization.

Everything is still on one plane, which is 2-D. Just because that one plane is tilted with respect to the screen that doesn't make it 3-D.

HotSauce reborn.

Unattractive? AND totally useless! How can someone get ALL his apps and stuff ready to be found and used on that... thing?

A "few" of the others including Spectasia's implementation:
http://desktopvr.wordpress.com/applications/3d-desktops/

May 13, 08 - 10:27 am Comment from: MacSheikh

What is this? Fisher Price OS?

May 13, 08 - 10:28 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

Fugly. It looks like a board game.

With a horrific name like Spectasia, how could it possibly be any good.

I'll stick with LaunchBar, thanks.

LUI, LUI, Oh no, we gotta go now, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

uhhh, no thanks.

May 13, 08 - 10:46 am Comment from: ron

3D-Space VFS has been around for years and does this effect much better IMHO. It's by Marc Moini, the very same expert who gave us Smart Scroll - the app no-one should be without.

May 13, 08 - 10:53 am Comment from: eMax

And the point is?

This would be good if there was a holographic display with hand motion actions.

not a mouse and keyboard and a single 2D screen.

Gosh! That's got to be the ugliest thing I ever saw. May be good enuf for the PC world, but I think I'll pass dude.

This is an insult. That is the worst gui I've ever seen in my life.

This is insulting to mac users, a developer thinking that this is something people want to use?

Somebody please pass me my gun.

May 13, 08 - 11:16 am Comment from: shen

OMG its OS X Bob........

I think I might try it out... though it looks damn ugly. Maybe skins can be applied or the whole look can be modified

I can see a use for it. On a giant touch screen. you can spin the palette with your fingers and touch the app you want to run.

better than a hierarchy menu system, or tapping through folders.

But as such it would only work on touch interfaces, and only on large touch interfaces(ie the iTouch is too small)

@ OBill-Wan
What is BOB? Bombs Over Bagdad? -Major Outkast Fan here...

This looks like a college programming assignment...it's ugly as ell. Besides, it only seems to let you browse your apps...what about documents? I'll pass.

purpose? Not sure why i would want this... seems like a really clunky implementation too, not very "apple" looking.

May 13, 08 - 12:20 pm Comment from: Cubert

@Mac_ATTY,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_bob

If somebody can come up with something like that, it really shows how outdated the Finder is. Maybe I'll try it for giggles, u never know.

been reading MDN for years and this was the most enjoyable. i must admit you guys win the prize for the funniest posts... i nearly died laughing!!!

This is a classic example of a solution in search of a problem. It's interesting technology though, I suppose.

But they really should have hired a couple of hours of consulting time with a Visual Interface designer. Come on, a cream-colored surface on a bird's-egg blue background? Did they use a random color generator to come up with that scheme?

Also... how is that a 3D interface? It just looks like 2D parameterized coordinates. To have 3D, you need, well, a third dimension.

I think you guys are being too hard on this little environment. It looks cool, easy to use, and unconventional -- all very Mac-like traits. Would I pay for it, or advise others to buy it? Not at US$35 anyway... But still, it looks nice. Feel free to flame.

May 13, 08 - 03:07 pm Comment from: MrMcLargeHuge

Reminds me of Jurassic Park.

You know, at the end when the girl is on the computer going through the Unix system trying to turn the door locks on.

How is this better than the Dock?

May 13, 08 - 10:31 pm Comment from: Anim8me2

This is both hideous AND useless. But it did come from Windows first so that isn't surprising.

May 13, 08 - 10:50 pm Comment from: LordRobin

A "few" of the others including Spectasia's implementation:
http://desktopvr.wordpress.com/applications/3d-desktops/

I checked these out. They all looked fascinating... and utterly useless.

Why, oh why, are all these desktop visionaries obsessed with taking us backward by implementing the physical world on our computer screens? The beauty of organizing information on a computer is that you're not bound by dimensions, or physical space.

To put it bluntly: Why would I want to search through a 3-D space for something when I can just type a few letters into Spotlight and it finds it for me??

Spotlight is elegant and useful. These 3-D interfaces are worthless eye-candy that will actually make you less productive.

------RM

May 15, 08 - 10:12 am Comment from: Kevin Jaques

I mostly agree with Lord Robin, who said that any metaphor is a step away from using the real utility of computers, which is to locate things with searches. But at the same time, for commonly used items, or items whose name you don't know or can't recall, then a fast intuitive metaphor is great. And as they showed in Johnny Mnemonic, a 3d interface can be excellent for exactly that kind of searching/exploring.

I also recall seeing an exciting demo of a 3d metaphor long ago at a Mac User's meeting. I'm pretty sure it was on a Mac Plus and in the 80s. The concept just hasn't caught on, good idea or not. Maybe if, instead of trying to replace the Finder, which we love, they just added a 'view' to it, we users would be more keen.