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Apple Hiring Sr. Web UI Designer and Video Editor Product Designer

Aviv — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:52:19 +0000

Apple is looking to hire a Senior Web User Interface Designer to help the company focus on further innovating its online store front, as well as a Video Editor Product Designer who can primarily focus on their pro apps.

The company has posted the available positions on numerous job boards such as 37 Signals’ and Smashing Magazine’s. Here are some specifics for both positions:

Sr. Web UI Engineer at Apple Inc.

Type: Full-time Job
Location: Cupertino, CA
Apple is seeking a Senior Web Front-End Engineer to help create and define the interactivity of Apple’s Online Store. This senior front end engineer will be responsible for architectural oversight of front-end technologies as well as collaborating on ideas with other Senior Engineers in other disciplines.

Responsibilities:
- Lead development efforts on large scale projects, ensuring robust & lasting solutions are implemented.
- Maintain JavaScript libraries: Adding and pruning them as necessary and providing documentation to be leveraged by other engineers.
- Mentor team members: Educate on software development best practices and new technologies.
- Innovate: Design things that people will blog and Twitter about.

Minimum of 7 years of professional software development experience with front end web development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, AJAX)

- Comfortable with source version control software (CVS, SVN, Git)
- Well-versed in fundamental visual and interactive design discipline
- Strive to use web standards to build solutions using semantic markup and CSS.
- Understanding of all major browsers and the special coding required for all various quirks.
- Competent JavaScript programmer who doesn’t need to rely on libraries to accomplish innovative interactions.
- Aware of the interplay between JavaScript and HTML & CSS, and can dynamically create, modify, and style elements on a page with ease.
- Able to communicate front-end issues with back-end developers.

Video Editor Product Designer, Pro Apps

Apple’s Pro Apps Design Group is seeking a passionate video editor who understands the complexity of software product design. This person must possess a relentless attention to detail, a gifted eye for aesthetics and the ability to quickly grasp and distill highly complex matters.

The candidate will work closely with all designers, producers, engineers, and other editors to design the future of Pro Apps; high-visibility applications that are used daily by creative professionals working in post-production (examples include Final Cut Pro, Motion and Soundtrack Pro).

The designer will be responsible for researching, designing and prototyping new user experiences and features, creating design mockups, producing visual assets and writing behavioral documentation (required for proper design implementation).

The candidate must be a natural collaborator who prefers being creative in a team environment, a passionate customer advocate and be capable of crafting and designing simple solutions to complex design problems.

Qualifications:
-Minimum 5 years of experience as a video editor, with sound design/production, motion graphics, photography, and videography skills.
-Experienced creating or designing innovative and visually stunning user experiences for software, games, DVDs, video, or the web.
-Degree in film production, interaction design, human factors and/or visual design (or equivalent).
-An outstanding body of work demonstrated as a reel (film, TV, web examples) or design portfolio demonstrating the successful delivery of innovative video, motion graphics, and/or design.
-Understanding of Apple’s human interface design language and the ability to translate it into future designs of Apple’s professional applications.
-Exceptional understanding of fundamental design disciplines (typography, composition, information architecture, color and animation) and principals (affordance, clustering, consistency, usability, etc.).
-The ideal candidate is not afraid of a blank white board or blank screen.

Software Skills:
-Expert-level knowledge of editing, motion graphics, and finishing suites like FCP, Avid, Smoke, Luster, etc.
-Highly versed in graphic design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Omnigraffle, etc.
-Complete mastery of the Mac OS X platform.
-Advanced knowledge of interaction prototyping tools such as Flash, Director and/or AfterEffects is a big plus.

Interestingly, in relation to the pro apps video editing position, we recently covered an interesting Apple patent (Apple Patent Shows Interest in Film Production, Script-Integrated Storyboards) that may possibly relates to this position.

Safari 4: Three Steps Forward, One Step Back

Aviv — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:03:56 +0000

With the new Safari 4 release, Apple aims to increase its web browser market share while innovating new features and cool new enhancements to what it calls “the fastest browser on the planet.” Indeed the new browser is speedy, but with every step forward Apple takes towards open-standards and accelerating its javascript engine, the more it misses out on global market share with a need for a plugin directory.

If you missed the opening animation that Safari 4 played when you first opened the new beta, most of it was done with HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards. Apple has always been on the forefront when it comes to pushing for open web standards. Mobile Me and iWork.com both use a heavy dose of Ajax, coupled with frameworks like Sproutcore and high level data-interchange formats such as JSON. As Adobe spends its time fruitlessly developing and trying to further the necessity of Flash, Apple seems to shun the idea altogether. Out of all the platforms and all the web browsers available today, Flash arguably performs the worst in Safari on Mac OS X. With Safari 4, Apple has once again made it clear that open standards are where their intentions lie, and the necessity of Flash remains solely in the ubiquity of its video format, which Apple seems poised to take over as well with its own H.264 format.

Safari 4 brings in a host of new features and visual enhancements. The Top Sites feature was ripped straight from Google Chrome in which a user can see his most visited sites “at-a-glance” – and the same goes for the new “tabs on top” feature in which users can tear off tabs into new pages, or click the “+” sign to open up a new tab, which conveniently displays your “top sites.”

Cover Flow is a new addition to Safari which lets users navigate their site history through a visual slideshow of images. As Apple puts it, “Cover Flow offers a highly visual way of reviewing your site history and bookmarked sites, presenting full-page previews of the websites that look exactly as they did when you last visited them.” Even though this feature is nice and provides some slick eye candy, it’s not very useful, and barely performs on Windows machines with the new Safari 4 running, at least not fast enough to be enjoyable. It seems that even though the addition of Cover Flow was most likely cakewalk for Safari’s developers, the resources could have been spent on more important additions to the browser. Like the diversification of plugins available that can extend Safari’s usefulness.

Safari is built upon Apple’s WebKit browser engine, and at this point it’s safe to say that Apple’s javascript engine (newly renamed to Nitro instead of SquirrelFish) is the fastest around. As Apple claims in the Press Release, Safari is the “first browser to support advanced CSS Effects that enable highly polished web graphics using reflections, gradients and precision masks. Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG web standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.” And in terms of speed, Safari blows away Firefox on OS X. The sheer snappiness and accelerated load times remain the sole reason we religiously use both Firefox and Safari together.

Overall, Safari 4 is a good step forward on the visual side of things, and the newly crowned “Nitro” javascript engine is incredibly speedy. But the lack of extendible plugins and cross-platform stability make it a bit too shaky for most to use as a primary browser, even if were not in beta. Additionally, the developer plugin Firebug remains a daily necessity for us, so it looks like while Safari got a little bit faster, sadly we still have to use both.

Apple Releases Safari 4 Public Beta for Mac and Windows Users

Aviv — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:12:55 +0000

Apple has announced that a new version of Safari is available for download. Powered by the “Nitro” engine, Apple claims this version of Safari should render web-pages and run JavaScript 4.2 times faster than its predecessor, Safari 3.

Alongside the new version of Safari, Apple has visually detailed some of the bigger more substantial upgrades or enhancemenets to the browser on a “What’s new is Safari 4” web-page.

Top Sites

Cover Flow

“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”

Tabs

Developer Tools

Innovative new features in Safari 4 include:
• Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click;
• Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they’ve seen before;
• Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes®;
• Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones;
• Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history;
• Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches;
• Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text;
• built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and
• a new Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

As MacRumors helpfully points out, if you download the new Safari 4 beta, and after some use want to revert back to Safari 3, simply follow any of these links to grab the older version. (Leopard, Tiger, Windows)

Apple Loosens Up 3rd Party Web Browser Restrictions in App Store [U]

Aviv — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:35:31 +0000

MacRumors has noticed that over the past 24 hours Apple has allegedly begun loosening up its restrictions that prevent third party web browsers from residing in the App Store.

Apple has already made it publicly known that applications duplicating original iPhone functionality will most likely not make it through the iPhone App Store approval process. Third party web browsers like Opera Mini and Mozilla Fennec have been given no shot at being distributed in the app store, let alone run on Apple’s iPhone.

Here’s a list of recently accepted browsers:
- Edge Browser (Free) – No loss of screen real estate to the address or navigation bars.
- Incognito ($1.99) – Now you can browse without leaving a history of any kind.
- WebMate:Tabbed Browser ($0.99) – Web Mate simplifies browsing by queuing up all the links you click on, then allowing you to view them one by one when you’re ready.
- Shaking Web ($1.99) – adds a sophisticated algorithm to compensate for small hand shaking to allow for easier reading.

First of all, the browsers that are being allowed aren’t as full fledged, or feature packed as Opera’s or Mozilla’s, but it may be a step in the right direction. Any loosening up of app store restrictions being done on Apple’s side is surely welcomed given it applies to real-world scenarios. Still, some fundamental SDK issues and restrictions arise when referring to such predominant browsers like Opera Mini and Fennec.

Updates: As expected, all of these browsers are based on Safari’s WebKit, so the predominant competing browsers still have no chance.

Apple Acknowledges Fairly Serious Safari RSS Vulnerability

Aviv — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:40:25 +0000

Apple has acknowledge a moderately frightening Safari RSS vulnerability than makes the browser vulnerable to attack without user intervention.

Brian Mastenbrook, a computer scientist using Apple’s Safari browser discovered the bug and reported it to Apple.

“I have discovered that Apple’s Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention. This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites. The vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple,” Masterbook explains. “All users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard who have not changed their feed reader application preference from the system default are affected, regardless of whether they use RSS feeds or use a different web browser (such as Firefox).”

The vulnerability can give malicious users access to most information that is stored within browser cookies such as e-mails, passwords, visited websites, and so forth. As Ars Technica notes, this vulnerability affects any Mac OS X user that has Safari set to the default RSS feed reader. Even if you don’t regularly read RSS feeds through Safari, your settings may be set in Safari’s preferences, so make sure and check.

In regards to a specific exploit out in the wild, Masterbook explains that he hasn’t found or hear of one yet. However, as Ars points out, someone with enough free time and creativity may feel inclined to make that happen. Luckily, a person like Masterbook found this exploit instead of someone on the other side of internet security. As expected, he’s not revealing the exploit details as he has reported the bug to Apple and will most likely communicate with them to patch things up.

For now, the workaround is simple and if you haven’t already, follow these simple steps:

1. Open Safari and select Preferences… from the Safari menu.
2. Choose the RSS tab from the top of the Preferences window.
3. Click on the Default RSS reader pop-up and select an application other than Safari.

New Firefox Build Adds Support for Multi-Touch Gestures

Christina — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:53:48 +0000

As MacRumors notes, this Monday Mozilla released its latest beta version of Firefox 3.1. Across all supported platforms, the “Beta 2″ version of the popular web browser will include:

-Private Browsing Mode
-Faster JavaScript engine
-Improved rendering
-Support for new web technologies

Users of Apple’s newest line of laptops, with built in multi-touch trackpad support, will also be pleased to find out that this version of Firefox will support even more gestures than Apple’s Safari. Experimental Firefox support for multi-touch track pad was first introduced in a pre-Beta build back in October of this year, by Mozilla’s Edward Lee. If Mozilla’s beta testing goes as planned, we can expect these changes, and more, to make the final 3.1 version of Firefox, which has yet to announce a release date.

Supported gestures include (with “swipe” referring to a 3-finger swipe:) (via MacRumors)

• Swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Cmd to open it in a tab)
• Swipe Right: Go forward in history
• Swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
• Swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
• Pinch Together: Zoom out
• Pinch Apart: Zoom in
• Twist Right: Next tab
• Twist Left: Previous tab

Please note that this version of Firefox is intended for developer testing and community feedback only.

Mobile Optimized Websites, More Harm Than Good? 7 Sites Compared

Casey — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:16:53 +0000

Many websites automatically redirect iPhones to mobile versions of their sites. These mobile sites often deliver limited content, wasted space, and eliminate zooming. Below are mobile versions and the real version as seen on the iPhone.

Amazon

As you can see, a lot of content has been removed for Amazon’s mobile site, and the navigation has been tremendously cut down. Instead of being able to browse through Amazon’s offerings, the user is taken to a landing page focused on a few book covers instead.

ESPN

While most users may appreciate one headline instead of the option to read many, ESPN automatically directs you to the mobile site instead of the classic version.

eBay

The mobile site takes away categories completely.

CNN

All of the world’s headlines have managed to be shrunk into four headlines.

Check out the next three sites »

Mac Web Share Hits Record 8.82%, Windows Dips Below 90%

Christina — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:11:47 +0000

According to a Net Applications web survey issued overnight Monday, Apple’s (AAPL) cut of the “Internet pie” increased in November as the Mac and iPhone hit record numbers in Internet share.

Naturally, this comes at the cost of Microsoft’s web presence, with Windows’ Internet share dropping below 90% for the first time ever and Internet Explorer’s market share coming in at less than 70%. After losing traction in October, Mac computers share of Web hits grew 7.43% in the month of November to a record breaking 8.82%. Additionally, the iPhone gained ground with an increase of 12.12% to 0.37%, on the heels of Linux.

“Reaching 20 percent worldwide market share is a significant milestone for Firefox and Mozilla,” Mozilla CEO John Lilly told Net Applications. “It’s a huge achievement by the global Mozilla community, one that just a few years ago most would have considered impossible.”

As Fortune.com points out, Net Applications’ monthly surveys are conducted by sampling browser data from some 160 million visits to Web sites operated by firm’s clients. Although the describes the results as “market shares,” Net Applications does not actually measure share of market in the traditional sense of sales revenue or unit sales. It does, however, provide a consistent methodology by which to measure browser and operating system trends.

Apple Is Investigating Gaming, Browser Related Graphics Errors

Aviv — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:49:23 +0000

Apple is investigating two different issues customers are having with their new unibody Macbooks. Some digging around the Apple discussion threads shows that the issues are in fact fairly widespread.

As Macnn explains, the first issue is strictly plaguing Macbook Pros. It involves a “hard lockup”, where the screen will suddenly turn black, during games such as Call of Duty 4, World of Warcraft and Company of Heroes. An Apple support thread commenter has contacted Apple UK and explains they are aware of the issue.

Just spoke to AppleCare UK and they also confirm “Apple are aware of the issue and are investigating. At present we do not know if this is a hardware or software issue and have been advised not to offer customers exchanges until the issue is better understood.” — I’ve also read the posts suggesting this is a thermal issue but I got screen noise/distortion when just waking the machine from sleep and also monitored the fans while playing WoW and they were running at 6000+ rpm consistently.

In order to circumvent the hard lockup, some owners have gone as far as installing alternate NVIDIA drivers, and a utility for controlling fan speed manually. This is assuming that the Mac is overheating due to a driver or cooling issue. However, other Macbook Pro owners have had to swap out their logic boards, or even get a replacement system.

The second issue is more widespread, affecting both unibody Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Owners are reporting various problems with scrolling in web browsers and video playback. The issue seems to cause “scrolling distortion” while web browsing and “tearing” of HD video playback on the web. Strangely, this issue is only affecting Mac OS X and not Windows. Early speculation leads users to believe that the cause is directly related to NVIDIA drives as well as the open source WebKit browser engine, which Safari uses. The Opera browser, which doesn’t use the WebKit engine, appears unaffected. AppleInsider points out that Apple is aware of the issue and already working on a software fix.

After discovering this problem on the MacBook Pro I purchased a few weeks ago, I visited the Apple Store in Regent Street to check whether the problem was common to all the new MacBook Pro’s. I checked five MacBook Pro’s they had on display and they all had exactly the same wave distortion on the screen, when scrolling in Safari using the side bar. There was no distortion when the up/down keys were used. I showed this screen distortion to an Apple salesperson, who seemed genuinely surprised. He disappeared to the back office in the store for a discussion with a ’senior Apple Engineer’ and after five minutes he returned with the statement that this was a known problem and there will be a software fix for it sometime…

Apple Releases Safari Version 3.2.1 Update

Aviv — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:02:13 +0000

Apple has release an update to its Safari web browser.

The update is said to include stability improvements. Some users are reporting back the update has made Safari much snappier and more responsive as well. The update can be accessed via Software Update and is recommended for all users. [via MacDailyNews]