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The Mobile User Interface Blog has moved to http://www.tat.se/blog. It is new, improved, and just downright pleasant.

We hope to see you there!

Free TAT Live Wallpapers for Android

That’s right! This is a unique opportunity to try out three Live Wallpapers from TAT. Normally, TAT only creates these kinds of wallpapers for device manufacturers and network operators. Now we’re releasing three TAT-designed, interactive wallpapers for free, to show off some of the cool things we can do with our powerful TAT Cascades™ UI framework. Our three promotional wallpapers are:

Artemia: a soothing, yet spectacular undersea wallpaper

Artemia is the beautiful home of glowing creatures. Poke them to make them swim a bit faster or tap on the water to see bubbles. Try catching a glimpse of the largest creature in the ocean! Artemia changes dynamically throughout the day, and it even responds when you charge your Android device.

Blue Range: a fun, isometric and living landscape

This fun loving live wallpaper is full of animals with great personalities. Poke them and see what happens! You can affect land elevation and tilt trees and flowers by moving the phone. Watch darkness fall during the nighttime and don’t miss the cool sunbeam effect while charging your device…

Retro Pixels: a game-like wallpaper with old school aesthetics

Explore a retro-style pixelated world. Flowers bloom when you receive text messages and calls, leaves fall when you shake the phone, and at night the moon rises. This wallpaper also has four hidden secrets. Will you be able to find them all? And can you really trust the duck?

Check out the trailer below, then go get the live wallpapers for free from Android Market!

Artemia QR code or download directly from your Android phone

Artemia needs access to the accelerometer.
The world in Artemia will rotate when the device is tilted. Bubbles will appear when the device is shaken.

Blue Range QR code or download directly from your Android phone

Blue Range needs access to the accelerometer.
The trees in Blue Range will lean with the device when tilted.

Retro Pixels QR code or download directly from your Android phone

Retro Pixels needs access to sms/contact data and accelerometer.
The flowers in Retro Pixels will bloom when texts and calls are received. Leaves will fall off the tree when the device is shaken.

Supported Devices

Samsung Galaxy S

HTC Desire

HTC Nexus One

Motorola Milestone/Droid

Abracadabra (UIST 2009)

You could try this out on a regular mobile device. Most of the iPhones and Android phones have a compass.

/SLincoln

Beautiful Modeler

This looks fascinating. There's something about these half finished prototypes that captures me. I've certainly never seen anything like this before. But I don't know what the heck I would use it for. It seems like a brilliant, useless idea. Unless...

There is potential here. I can sense it.

Anyway. Thanks Karl D.D. Willis. I hope I may one day stand on your shoulders and do awesome things with these techniques.

Does the Ford UI Destroy Night Vision?

The first rule of designing for night time use is: Do NOT use blue, because it destroys your night vision. Red is much better.

Ford's been making cars for longer than anyone. Certainly they have people who know about this. Why then?

Or is the difference between colors on night vision overstated?

AlphaUi Back Type

I don't really know what to make of this one. It's fun that people are breaking with tradition. Real buttons perform better than touch screens and I'm sure expert users can write faster with fewer errors on this device, than say a touch screen with the same size. So, if you're a secretary taking notes for a boss that walks around a lot, maybe this is something for you.

For the rest of us, having to learn a new keyboard layout is just too much to ask. Most of us know the alphabet as one long row, and when you break it up into three rows we have genuine difficulties finding characters. That's why alphabetic layouts fail.

Frequency based layouts, where you have the most common characters in the middle fail for another reason. Coming from Sweden, I typically switch a lot between writing in Swedish and English. If I had two different layouts I would make mistakes all the time. The same is increasingly true in many other places as english is becoming the de facto world standard language.


AlphaUi

Your vital signs, on camera

Amazing!

Put this in a car, and then customize the interface to minimize interruptions while I'm stressed out. Hold all calls. And flash a hush sign to silence passengers. This could make driving a bit safer.

More at MIT.