Month: March 2008

Early "Solace" for Bond fansReuters UK, UK – 19 minutes agoLOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – James Bond will be back in cinemas a little sooner than expected. Sony Pictures said Wednesday that its "Quantum of …

Welcome to another “in memoriam” posting. Damn. Arthur C. Clarke, the great SF author, died today at the age of 90. Actually, since his home in Sri Lanka is a day ahead, he passed away – appropriately enough – tomorrow.…

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Details here.

LOVE the original Robert Wise film of The Andromeda Strain, based on the Michael Crichton novel. Well. as Hollywood is prone to do these days, we have a remake. Click here for the site/trailer of the miniseries that will be…

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New 'Star Trek XI' Spy PhotosTrek Today, Netherlands – 1 hour agoBy T'Bonz New pictures taken from the Star Trek XI set have appeared today, showing Starfleet cadets and a vehicle. As reported by Ain't It Cool News, …

DailyTechApple computer takes 14 percent Retail SalesLaptop Logic, CA – 1 hour agoApple's MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and MacBook notebooks are selling well, according to analyst Andy Hargreaves. 60 percent unit growth and 67 percent revenue…

Meet the Cast of GI JoeIGN, CA – 11 minutes agoby Todd Gilchrist March 18, 2008 – As a cartoon, action figure and comic book property second perhaps only to Transformers, GI Joe has endured for decades …

Toy Story Mania to surge in "late May" at Disney's Hollywood StudiosOrlando Sentinel, FL – 5 minutes agoThis just in from our friends at Walt Disney World. The opening date for the upcoming attraction Toy Story Mania has been mo…

'Battlestar Galactica' stars visit Letterman; Joss Whedon bows out …Chicago Tribune, United States – 1 hour agoFinally, Moore, who worked as a writer for many years on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Spac…

MoviesOnlineJoseph Gordon Levitt Talks GI JoeMoviesOnline, Canada – 1 hour agoThis weekend we caught up with Joseph Gordon Levitt and talked to him about his upcoming project GI Joe. We asked him what got him involved with the project …

Up until two days ago, I was coveting the AppleTV, especially after the new upgrade and features they recently added, but thrift and frugality has prevented that particular splurge… again, up until two days ago. Well, I bit the bullet,…

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Wow, I love script reviews on the Internet. You can get the early word on the source material that the studios green-light and put millions of dollars into (and quite often see that the studio bosses are hopped up on…

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Product ReviewsRevisiting Apple's iPhone strategyCNET News.com, CA – 7 hours agoThe general consensus is that Apple is the BMW of the personal computer industry and is the standard for innovation that its competitors, with far more …Goo…

Online retailers and other website owners still have plenty of room for improvement, as some are still guilty of some avoidable usability problems. Jakob Nielsen recently said that terrible websites are less common now, but an investment in improving user experience can still pay off, with average ROI around 83%. We list ten common usability problems found on all kinds of websites…

SLOW LOADING PAGES

Slow loading pages are a killer – incredibly frustrating for the user and virtually guaranteed to have them clicking the back button. Webpages should load within a second ideally, or users will start to wonder what is going on, and think about finding a competitor with a better site. Most well known sites are pretty quick to load, but I have encountered a few problems with National Express’s site, which was slow to load, while Currys can be a bit too leisurely at times – getting from the homepage to the LCD TV section took more than eight seconds.

POOR NAVIGATION

Navigation should be intuitive and easy to use, and should follow convention, especially on e-commerce sites. There should be no room for confusion. In the example, a site which has been set up to ‘promote usability and user-centred design’ has committed the sin of using Flash-based navigation.

DROPDOWN MENUS

Dropdown menus are useful for web designers as, by hiding navigation options in this way they save space. However, they are likely to get on users’ nerves. Users have to point the mouse precisely to get to the section they want and, if the cursor leaves the menu, they have to start all over again. Very frustrating.

POOR CHECKOUT DESIGN

Having got them this far in the process, a poorly designed checkout can cause customers to abandon their purchase. Sources of frustration for users include an overlong registration procedure, unclear checkout buttons, and any unnecessary distractions.

Apple's iPhone Enjoys Own Halo Effect?CNBC, NJ – 3 hours agoiPod customers who never thought they'd want an Apple computer would go in, buy an iPod, see a Mac, fall in love and buy one of those too? …

Various reports say Disney World planning 5th theme parkBizjournals.com, NC – 1 hour agoThere has been growing buzz that Walt Disney World may be planning a new theme park that would be aimed at adults, according to Orlando Business Journal ….