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Wikipedia , the online user-created encyclopedia and the number six website on the Internet today, is about to get a makeover. And it's a big one. According to a blog post from the Wikimedia Foundation User Experience team detailing the changes, the upcoming Wikipedia redesign, due to launch April 5, aims to make the site easier to navigate, easier to search and, perhaps most importantly, easier to edit. Sponsor Easier is Better The upcoming design, code-named "Vector," has been in use over the past six months by a group of 500,000 beta testers. Included in the update are changes like simplified navigation, a relocated search box, clutter reduction and even an updated Wikipedia logo. Also, all English Wikipedia users will soon be able to create PDFs and printed books from Wikipedia articles, a service previously available only to logged-in users. However, the most interesting change is how Wikipedia is making the page edit functions easier. A new toolbar will be provided which lets editors more easily insert links and tables, and an included cheatsheet will help users access the most commonly used functions. These editing changes launching next month are only the beginning, notes Naoko Komura on the Wikimedia blog . Later this year, the site will see even more radical revamps to the editing process. This includes the following: Reducing the amount of wiki code users see in the edit system and making it possible to change data in tables and information boxes through simple forms. Cleaning up the edit page itself, to use more understandable language and get rid of confusing clutter. Providing a new outline tool to navigate a long article while you're editing it. Wikipedia Needs More Editors Now the question is whether or not these changes will encourage more people to actually edit the online encyclopedia because, surprisingly, few users actually do. Wikipedia is often heralded as a shining example of how there's power in the "wisdom of the crowds," a phrase that implies how a diverse collection of individuals can be more accurate than individuals or even experts. However, the dirty little secret about the supposedly "crowd-edited" online encyclopedia is that, even though anyone and everyone can edit it, few do so. In fact, only 1% of Wikipedia users are responsible for half of the site's edits . Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, has even been quoted as saying that the site is really written by a community, "a dedicated group of a few hundred volunteers." Given these statistics, it's no surprise that Wikipedia wants to make some changes. Recent reports point to slowed growth , a downward trend that may be partly to blame on the increasingly complex editing process, according to some experts. Dr. Ed H Chi, a scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center in California, told the Telegraph that the site had become a "more exclusive place", where only a handful of the most experienced editors were responsible for editing and maintaining the site. In other words, Wikipedia became a site that wasn't representing the "wisdom of the crowds" anymore, but the "wisdom of an elite group." That in, turn, may have caused the slowdown. Over the past several years, the number of new articles per day has dropped from 2,200 in July of 2007 to 1,300 today. Is It Too Late? Or Just in Time? By simplifying the editing process, Wikipedia could potentially reverse this trend -
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AppleInsider is reporting this morning that some trusted sources are predicting a "full-on solution" to multitasking in the iPhone 4.0 OS, which is set to be released this summer. Already, the iPhone shows that it is capable of multitasking with bundled apps like iPod and Nike+, but the update is said to handle a number of security and interface issues. Sponsor Already, jailbreaking the iPhone shows how the device is fully capable of multitasking, but opens up the device to malware and poorly designed third-party apps that can make a full restore necessary. As AppleInsider points out, the real benefit of closing off the iPhone to multitasking is that there are no malicious apps running in the background, hijacking your phone. You are, after all, carrying a constantly GPS enabled multimedia recording device with you. At the same time, it would be absolutely wonderful to be able to listen to Pandora while using the MapMyRide app to track your bike ride across town, or any other number of combinations currently unavailable. But beyond security, AppleInsider discusses the issues of user interface that we might not think of right off the bat. In other operating systems, switching between apps is simple, by way of a taskbar or system dock. On the iPhone, multitasking is often handled by a small strip added at the top of the screen, but this would become messy for multiple applications. Perhaps we'll see a new hardware solution to accompany this issue with the next iPhone "4GS" this summer. And, as Gizmodo points out, if we get multitasking for iPhone, can we really be expected to accept an iPad that can't do the same? While AppleInsider says that its sources have predicted this "full-on solution", it notes that the much called-for feature has been falsely rumored, by their own articles nonetheless, on three separate occassions over the past year. In addition to this, it says that two of the biggest problems - resource conservation and battery life - were not addressed by their sources. Would we really want these features if it meant a bogged down device we had to charge every hour on the hour? And is this just another case of the boy who cried wolf? Let's hope not. Discuss
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Potential Summer Blockbuster: iPhone 4.0 Multitasking
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Today Appcelerator is launching version 1.0 of their Titanium app-building system which allows developers to build mobile and desktop applications using standard web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. In addition to supporting desktop platforms like PC, Mac, and Linux, the new version of Titanium now supports both iPhone and Android with RIM Blackberry and Apple iPad support just around the corner. Unlike other DIY toolkits that promise mobile apps without needing to know code, Titanium lets web developers leverage their existing skills to build native mobile applications that do anything any app built using that platform's specific technologies could, like access the phone's camera or stream video, for example. Sponsor What's New Titanium's code base has been improved over the past few months resulting in a number of upgrades to performance. Notes the company, "load times are under 3 seconds, down from 10-20 seconds, transitions between pages are instantaneous and processing speed has improved five-fold." They've additionally added more features to offer over 100 native UI controls, native 2D/3D animation capabilities and data and media presentation capabilities. With these new improvements, developers can now build branded apps, casual games and augmented reality applications that run on any of the supported platforms. Why Titanium? When asked to explain what really made Titanium different than the other app-building services out there, the company's VP of Marketing, Scott Schwarzhoff explained that many of its competitors were simply offering web apps disguised as native apps as opposed to offering the real deal. Every other offering is not even close, he says. "Native user interface (over *100* native APIs)? We're the only provider. Push notifications? We're it. Native maps? Same thing. Facebook Connect? We're the only one. Application analytics? That's us. Augmented reality? Ditto. The list goes on and on." Since June of last year, the Titanium platform has attracted over 27,000 developers thanks to what the company has dubbed their "native advantage." Described here on the company's website, this includes support for things like native controls, location-based services, social sharing, HTML5, online or on-device databases, integrated analytics, rich multimedia and more. With the launch of the iPad only weeks away, Appcelerator is promising support for Apple's new slate device by the third week of March. Blackberry support will follow in May/June. Appcelerator is available now in three editions: "Community," an ad-supported version, "Indie," an ad-free version for a single developer ($499) and "Professional," which includes premium support and analytics ($199 per developer per month). Discuss
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Titanium 1.0 Launches: Build Native Apps for Desktop, Mobile & iPad
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