Vidit Bhargava - Pixel Posts (Page 3)

The Laziness of the Home Tab

If you use apps and websites like I do, you’ve probably seen a “Home” tab on many them. It’s usually meant to tell the user that it’s the first screen in a number of screens. It’s where you start your navigational journey. I’ve been thinking

typography

Variable Fonts

Variable Fonts This is a really cool resource to play around with Variable Fonts. Not only can you adjust the font weight and width, but you can also adjust the ascenders, descenders, x-height and other more advanced settings in some of these fonts. To me the difference between Variable Fonts

pixelquiz

Pixel Quiz July 2018

Q1.When you plug your phone into a car stereo, the phone starts playing music alphabetically, this usually means that there’s one song that you’ll hear whether you want to or not. Many songs starting with the letter A have probably been ruined thanks to this quirk, but

automation

Getting Started with iOS Automation

Vidit Bhargava I’ve been using the workflow app since it came out back in 2014, and over the years, I’ve been able to amass a few nifty workflows that help me increase my productivity. With Shortcuts (a successor to Workflow, which was acquired by Apple about an year

marzipan

What I want Marzipan apps to be

I’ve been observing the Marzipan* apps on Mojave for a couple of days now and there’s something that’s been nagging me.  Design paradigms on iOS are very different from that on macOS. On iOS there’s a lot of direct manipulation involved, and so it makes sense

hardware

Oppo’s Find X ditches the notch for pop-up cameras

Oppo’s Find X ditches the notch for pop-up cameras A unique design choice. I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea a little bit. It seems as though, On one hand, I’m not a fan of a dynamic chin being added to the phone, but on

markdown

Why I prefer Markdown over Word Processing Software

Last month I completed my undergraduate engineering studies, with the submission of my Bachelors of Engineering Project, the Project was supposed to be accompanied with a 50 page report of how the project was made and what methodologies were followed. I wrote my entire draft on an iPad app called

hardware

How does Over the Air Charging work (Truly Wireless Charging)

Vidit Bhargava With the number of smart gadgets increasing by the day, Charging them has become a hassle. You need to charge your phones, your computers, watches, et all. at regular time intervals. And the number of wires can be staggering. One solution to this problem is Wireless Charging. Well,

font

San Francisco: Understanding the Features

Dealing with Numerals in San Francisco The SF Pro font family provides a wide variety of adjustments and features for using numerals. Proportional and Tabular Numbers When numbers are used along with static text. They need to blend in with the text by following a similar baseline and having the

apps

Best Apps from 2017

Halide Professional Photographers have forever gloated on tweaking ISO, Exporsure, white balance etc, giving their photos more flexibility to look better. But what if an app were to bring these complex tools to the iPhone and make them easier to use? Halide does just that. True, there have been many

topstories

Pixel Quiz: December 2017

Q1. “During those bubble years while the stock price was going up 30 per cent a month, we would have all-hands meetings, and I would ask employees, ‘Please do not feel 30 per cent smarter because the stock went up 30 per cent, because when it goes down 30 per

apple

Things I learnt from the coverage on the performance downgrade issue on older iPhones

Vidit Bhargava These last couple of weeks have been riddled with angst and reactions over the internet about iPhone’s being throttled to avoid power surge issues that need to be mitigated in order to avoid unexpected shut downs and other battery related issues. There have been interesting arguments both

pixelquiz

Pixel Quiz: November 2017

Q1. In early 1993, Charlie Jackson and Jonathan Gay, founded FutureWave Software. The intention was to create a graphic design tool that would enable pen-input for users. And so, they released SmartSketch. However, SmartSketch was a little ahead of its time and just as pen-computing didn’t take off. However,

iphone x

(no title)

iPhone X First Impressions I had the opportunity to goto an Apple Reseller Store (Sadly no Apple Stores in India yet) this week and I played around with the new iPhone X. Here are a few things that I got answers answers for: 1. The Top of the Screen isn’

cricketgames

Don Bradman Cricket 17

The quality of a sports game can be determined by its ability to create realistically tense scenarios which provide thrilling experiences. For cricket games, winning in nail biting run chases, forming crucial partnerships by rotating the strike, successfully defending matches by picking the right fields and bowling strategies, these are

design

Michael Tsai - Blog - Unreliable MacBook Pro Keyboards

Michael Tsai – Blog – Unreliable MacBook Pro Keyboards This is a lesson in Design for Repairability. While Repairability isn’t a term often associated with modern day consumer electronics, over here repairable keyboards would have done a good deal of good to the users who would otherwise need to

apple

Designing for iPhone X

Vidit Bhargava Over the ten years of iPhone’s existence, Apple’s star product has gone through many iterations and has changed it’s screen size and aspect ratio at least of couple of times. Each time the iPhone’s screen changed, it opened up possibilities for newer interactions and

iOS11

Temporarily disconnect WiFi and Bluetooth from iOS 11 Control Centre

Over this week, I’ve been constantly asked by a couple of friends over why the iOS 11 Control Centre doesn’t “turn off the radios”. So here’s the thing: iOS 11 puts WiFi and Bluetooth to sleep mode when the little blue dots turn grey on the control

hardware

Pi wants to extend the reach of wireless charging | TechCrunch

Pi wants to extend the reach of wireless charging | TechCrunch I’ve been hoping for a truly ‘wireless’ charging experience to surface, and Pi looks like an exciting product. I’m concerned about a couple of things though: Charging the device requires plugging it into a case first. This is

apple

Apple’s needless cult of secrecy

Apple’s needless cult of secrecy This is a very shallow argument. It’s not just about ‘surprise and delight’. It’s also about keeping new products under the wraps until the last moment. If it’s Apple who is controlling the narrative about the expectations for future products, they’

smartwatches

Here’s the Ionic, Fitbit’s long-awaited answer to the Apple Watch

Here’s the Ionic, Fitbit’s long-awaited answer to the Apple Watch 4 days of Battery Life is impressive and much better than Apple Watch’s double day battery life. But ‘smartwatches’ aren’t just about battery life alone. Much like any other wearable, there’s a strong influence on

apple

WSJ: ‘Apple Readies $1 Billion War Chest for Hollywood Programming’

WSJ: ‘Apple Readies $1 Billion War Chest for Hollywood Programming’ It’s an interesting route that Apple’s taking with its purported movie streaming service. I’m not sure the world needs another “Originals” service, there are already too many of them. I’d like Apple to instead be the

design

How Venice Beach influences Snapchat’s design

Vidit Bhargava On a recent vacation to Venice, California, I had stumbled upon Snapchat’s old headquarters on Venice Beach. It was a white house with a blue rooftop that just blended in with the rest of the neighbourhood’s building. Also, I found the unique vibe and culture of

iPhone

Going home with the an edge to edge phone

Vidit Bhargava The home button offers a clear exit path for the user to exit an app. It’s a comforting experience, a case of clear of navigation, that the iPhone has always had. Last week’s accidental firmware leak all but confirms an edge to edge phone, with a