Flash 'Piles' Demo

[zarathustra]

Originally posted by From Win to Mac
What's the freakin difference between a pile and folder ?!?
The feature will be more of an eye-candy thing.

Marc

A folder you have to double click - a window opens and you see files within.

With a pile, you can have MP3s dumping on your desktop (or other folder), and defined by a script, they would be sorted (by size, date, etc.). To view a pile you just click, hold, select release (you just opened the document), and the pile returns to it's previous state.

Right now I have PDFs piling on my desktop, because I am too lazy to file them right away. Instead of 10 different documents, I would see a pile: "PDFs".

 

[Trekkie]

You see, just when you think there is nothing we could do to make the interface less cluttered, more easier to use, or anything like that someone comes along and comes up with something quite good and quite different.

I like it.

 

[gbojim]

Originally posted by pivo6
I agree. I can't see how this would be useful for me. I organize my folders and name my docs in a way that makes sense and that I can tell what it is. If someone can explain to me how this would be useful, I'll listen.

Well for me, I work on a lot of projects where I have the files neatly organized and stored in different folders. Many of these files are used on multiple projects. The problem is, I either have to create a bunch of aliases in a sinlge folder, have a bunch of finder windows open, or constantly change between folders in a window to work on the project files. Any of those methods is quite time consuming and a PITA.

It would be great to be able to temprorarily store the required files together in a "pile" and just kill the pile when it is no longer needed without affecting the actual files. Having that ability would probably save me 15-30 min per day.

I don't know if that is the way it will work, but makes sense to me.

 

[StuPid QPid]

Nice Demo, but what happens if, like me, you have folders with loads of files in them. I'm not sure how this could work for piles with anything more than about 10-20 individual documents/files. Otherwise it'd go off the top of the screen?

PS. Also I'm not sure about the name - "piles" are haemorrhoids! Perhaps "heaps" or "stacks"? (the latter name was used in Hypercard, so I guess Apple have the rights to that). Any other suggestions?

 

[Cowboy Dan]

Originally posted by StuPid QPid
PS. Also I'm not sure about the name - "piles" are haemorrhoids! Perhaps "heaps" or "stacks"?

Um...I think pile, heap and stack are all synonymous enough for most people. I have lots of hemorrhoids and I've never called them piles...I'm assuming you are from a strange land based on your spelling "haemorrhoids" so maybe Apple will have market things a little differently where you are. It's that damn globalization you know...Chevrolet tried to sell a car called the Nova in latin-america back in the 70's or 80's...yeah, in spanish No Va means "doesn't go." I'm digressing. Piles sounds good to me.

word!

go to my site: http://homepage.mac.com/jedsundwall/mp3

 

[joelc]

My mother mentioned the other meaning of the word "piles," too. I hadn't made the association, but it apparantly does mean hemorrhoids. Otherwise, I like the name fine. Heaps is no good - it reminds me of a heap of ****. Stack is OK. In fact, stack sounds more organized than pile. You can throw something in a pile, but you stack things to organize them. A terribly messy desktop can already look like a pile, so it needs to have organized stacks of things instead.

 

[dabirdwell]

Preview Background

It would be sweet if the previewed item could be, while highlighted, temporarily displayed as the desktop background. So you could actually read a text document or see detail in a photo as you peruse a pile..

 

[huckleup]

"haemorrhoids"

That's the British spelling. Remember, they did invent the English language, so cut 'em some slack for not 'Americanizing' all their words.

Besides, it's dorky to complain about spelling errors in posts...

 

[Kid Red]

Great demo, does answer a few questions while creating additional ones. I, like a few mentioned above, have folders with 100's of images, so how BIG would this pile be? Also, how much a drag on the system would it be to animate 100's of jpg files and then give me the preview data if not an actual preview of the file?

It sounds like a cool idea for a folder with 6 text documents, but my PILES are mostly images in the 100's.

 

[Doctor Q]

Re: Preview Background

Originally posted by dabirdwell
It would be sweet if the previewed item could be, while highlighted, temporarily displayed as the desktop background. So you could actually read a text document or see detail in a photo as you peruse a pile..

That's a brilliant idea. Are you listening, Apple? I don't live in Oklahoma, but if you are really an aspiring politician dabirdwell then I'll write you in on my ballot.

Other thoughts:

* If I have two monitors, maybe the preview should scale to fill one monitor while I mouseover each item in the pile on the other monitor.

* Maybe the longer you hold the mouse over an icon, the bigger or more detailed the preview information becomes, e.g., the quicktime movie preview loads after 3 seconds.

* If the name Piles is awkward, it's time to pick another word, e.g., bank, group, heap, hill, mound, mountain, pyramid, stack, store. Better yet, Apple should make up an entirely new word. iFolder? Or how 'bout Coaster (collection of apple stuff that exhibits relationships)?

 

[cubist]

Very nice demo.

It does look better than I expected.

How do I pull something out of the pile?

("Heap" is no good, because that has some computer-scientist definition about partial ordering, as does "stack". But "stack" has a library-science definition that might prove an interesting connection.)

 

[dabirdwell]

iStacks?

 

[GUIduct]

Piles are the (near) future

My Apple OSX spidey-sense tells me that piles will be very important to the new DB-driven file system.

Think about piles that are self-generating. Think about how this will Change Your Life.

 

[pivo6]

I'm convinced...somewhat

After reading some more posts after my original one, I see where piles can be beneficial. Since I use my iMac for at home stuff, I don't think it would be that helpful at this time, but maybe in the future.

I agree with everyone about the name *piles*. There has got to be a better name than that. I like the name stack, but that's just me.

 

[rdas7]

Originally posted by cubist
Very nice demo.

How do I pull something out of the pile?

I was about to say: you don't need to pull anything out of the pile, to open it you just hover over and release.

But then I realised you mean, how do you remove something from being in a pile, once you put it in.

Good question.

Up there with, what happens if you make a pile that's bigger than your screen? Does it stack up off the screen?

Perhaps piles will only be used for certain things? ie. maybe you will not be able to stack individual documents. Maybe they will only be able to be made by the OS automatically according to some scripts (like smart playlists in iTunes). Maybe there's a limit and if you try and add too many items to a pile, it'll tell you "Piles can only contain 10 documents. Please remove something from the pile before you add any further items". Maybe the pile get so tall it will collapse and the files will be strewn haphazardly all over your desktop. Hey, it happens.

 

[arn]

remember, this is only one person's interpretation

if you really want to know how it was described to work, read through the patent description.

arn

 

[wwworry]

nice demo. I think it demostrates nicely what we know about piles. It raises some questions though.

The mouse always ends up at the bottom of the pile, what if you want something at the top of the pile? And what if you have too many things in a pile? Does it file up the entire screen? Maybe Apple should open up the graphical representation of files on a computer to developers so that more people could have a shot at representing file data on the screen (though they probably would not do this).

It is nice to think that there are no such things as folders really, nor is there a desktop. How else can you make organization simple for the user?

 

[rainman::|:|]

I would imagine a pile's icon would be limited to the same 128x128 as other icons, so i wouldn't worry about it going off your screen. But I too wonder how one takes a file out of a pile... perhaps instead of clicking/holding on a pile to open it, you click and it explodes, then you can manipulate the files individually...

pnw

 

[rdas7]

Just thinking about it... two things:

1. either piles will be implemented in the dock only (which would be cool, since you would then open up space in the dock - pile your iMovie/iPhoto apps together into one "media" pile). On the document side (by the trash), you could put your own document piles. Restricting piles to the dock would resolve the issue (somewhat) of things going off the top of the screen. But then again, not everyone's got the dock at the bottom of the screen.

2. perhaps my perspective of the pile was wrong. What if instead of expanding UP, the pile expanded TOWARDS you (ie. along the Z axis?). Then we truly move towards a 3D interface and solve the question of "flowing off the screen"...

 

[arn]

Originally posted by rdas7
On the document side (by the trash), you could put your own document piles. Restricting piles to the dock would resolve the issue (somewhat) of things going off the top of the screen.

I don't see why the pile even needs to expand up at all... if you have a representation of the icon that is current selected next to it.

arn

 

[scem0]

wow! That is interesting. I look forward to Apple's version.

And for the person saying he wished the previews were of the
actual document, or web page, that slows down older computers
by a lot - so that isn't always the best thing. You gotta remember
us older-mac peeps.

 

[sXe]

wow! that would be pretty cool to implement! i think that it would actually work well!

 

[MacQuest]

Originally posted by rdas7
2. perhaps my perspective of the pile was wrong. What if instead of expanding UP, the pile expanded TOWARDS you (ie. along the Z axis?). Then we truly move towards a 3D interface and solve the question of "flowing off the screen"...

WOW!! Now that is exciting!!

By expanding along the Z [depth] axis, it really would be like Apple's Project X [Hot Sauce] from the mid-late 90's. It would be like a fly through experience with the images coming at you in a 3-D like environment instead of simply being displayed along the typical 2-dimensional X or Y axis'.

The possibilities are ENDLESS!!

 

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by MOM
To those who find it hard imagine how this would be useful:

I think most computer savey folks have a very organized method of filing their stuff. They know their way around the hard drive and they may not see why piles (as demoed-I don't know any more about this) would help them out. However, I know many people who turn on their Mac and work off the desktop for everything. My Father for instance. He has me install software and all he want to know is what button to hit to start it. As for his files, they're all over the desktop where he can see them. I work at a University around a lot of medical doctors. Many are not that computer savy. They know how to start MS word etc. I've seen desktops that give me the chills. I commented to one recently (he had about 50 items scattered on his desktop) on his "mess." He said thats how he remembers the things he needs to work on. Just like the "piles" of paper on his desk. I can very easily imagine that piles technology as I understand it would fit perfectly with this method of visual/location on desktop filing. Its just the "desktop" metaphore taken further.

Good night all, MOM

You know, my dad was an Apple VAR for a long time (a real VAR, who would set up and service what he sold) and would also troubleshoot Macs for people -- he gave up doing PCs cuz he was sick of it, which is probably why he doesn't have much business around here anymore...this is kinda hicksville to sell people on Macs...anyway...

His desktop is and has always been a horrible mess too. He would probably use this feature. As a note, he was always in awe of how really well organized my HD was...I mean, he had his desktop COVERED with Icons, I would have maybe a handful (if I had been on the internet) and on top of that he has like 30-40+ folders at his root level, while I had nine (eight in an orbit around the system folder...pretty).

MOM does bring up a good point. This may not be a feature aimed at the power user -- or, in my dad's case (as I would consider him a power user) the organized power user...or, in my case (since I don't consider myself a power user, unless you're talking about PHOTOSHOP, BABY!) the organized user, period.

This is a feature aimed at the people who don't have time to learn where everything goes, or organize, whichever.

I mean, isn't that what Apple's always been about? Simple to learn. Accessible to everyone.

Considering this, I have decided I am now in favor of this feature. However, Apple still needs to throw a bone to the rest of us, and corporate america, for those interested in the welfare of the company. If they have spent time developing this feature but havn't addressed more functional organizational needs I would say they still need to get their priorities straight -- it is the corporations of this world who will change the market share of Macs, not the dishevelled, froed-out, brainwaves-pushing-at-thier-hair-folicles, no-time-to-think-about-my-computer scientist types.

Oh, and thanks to Mr. Das for the demo (is that a devotee name?). I think it will have more previewing than shown, but it's more work than I would have put in.

 

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by wwworry
The mouse always ends up at the bottom of the pile, what if you want something at the top of the pile? And what if you have too many things in a pile? Does it file up the entire screen? Maybe Apple should open up the graphical representation of files on a computer to developers so that more people could have a shot at representing file data on the screen (though they probably would not do this).

Personally I think the pile will shuffle, and in sort of an arc, mostly horizontal. If it worked exactly as shown large piles wouldn't be practical...maybe it will do this a few documents at a time, so you can shuffle through quickly and have a chance to see what you're looking for, but not expand to gargantuan heights.

As far as the Z-Axis goes, if it gave you more detail as you got closer that would be quite totally awesome...what a hog though!!!