Apple News: Apple Watch website updated with new product details and UI information
Apple last week provided a bit of a makeover to its Apple Watch webpage, adding a number of interesting tidbits regarding the device’s UI and functionality. Specifically, three new sections were added: Timekeeping, New Ways to Connect, and Health & Fitness. Under the Timekeeping section, Apple highlights the myriad of ways in which users can customize their chosen watchface. Of particular interest are small pieces of information called Complications. As detailed by Apple, complications are lightweight data points that are consistently displayed on the watch. Per Apple’s website, user’s can choose from a selection of 10 complications.
Read full story => TUAW
Technology News: Europe’s next privacy war is with websites silently tracking users
The pan-European data regulator group Article 29 has issued new opinion on how websites and advertisers can track users and the permissions they require. The new opinion dictates that “device fingerprinting” – a process of silently collecting information about a user – requires the same level of consent as cookies that are used to track users across the internet. “Parties who wish to process device fingerprints which are generated through the gaining of access to, or the storing of, information on the user’s terminal device must first obtain the valid consent of the user (unless an exemption applies),” the Article 29 Working Party wrote. It means that some websites, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft, that have used alternative technical processes to try to bypass the need for a “cookie policy notice” will have to show a notification after all.
Read full story => TheGuardian
Programming News: Web Development with Java and JSF: Bean Validation
As stated before, Books is an application, maintained by just one author, who should know about the expected data. Thus, there is no user interface with immediate response after each input or lots of hints. Of course, those features are essential for an application for potentially “unknown” users. Later on, when developing Alumni, we will cover those features in detail. However, a validation is useful to prevent the user from entering data which might not fit the database. Remember the JSF lifecycle: During phase 3, the input values will be converted and validated.Within the HTML page, every input is just treated as simple text. By the aid of the EL, these inputs are bound by value expressions to the data model. Usually this is done by the usage of properties of a Java bean. Within Java, all properties are strongly typed. Thus, conversations are needed, from text (String) to the target type and vice versa. This job is done by converters. JSF offers standard converters for a wide range of build in Java types. Later on, we will discuss custom converters. If a conversion fails, JSF throws an exception. According to this, converters perform a raw validation.
Read full story => Mueller-Bruehl
Photography News: Simple Post-Processing Tips For Minimalists
Are you a minimalist in terms of your photography? Do you crave simple composition and clean lines in your images? There are many wonderful articles on minimalist photography and simple imagery. In fact Valerie Jardin has a fantastic article on Minimalist Photography – 4 Tips To Keep It Simple right here on Digital Photography School. This article encourages you to take that approach a step further into post-processing to achieve a clean, timeless look to your imagery. A clean, crisp image always stands the test of time. You don’t have to look very far, just dig into your own image archives from prior years and see which images appeal to you the most.
Read full story => DigitalPhotographySchool.
