Introduction

SkinStudio is a program that allows users to create visual styles for Windows XP and Windows Vista. These visual styles are applied by the popular GUI skinning program, WindowBlinds.  A fully complete visual style will change the title bars, borders, push buttons, scrollbars, Start bar, Start menu, and virtually every other part of the Windows GUI.

SkinStudio 6 represents a complete rewrite of previous versions of SkinStudio.  The new version is designed to make it much easier for new users to get into skinning. Skinners can change as much or little of the GUI as they choose and SkinStudio will fill in the rest for them. A new skin can take a matter of minutes or weeks depending on how sophisticated the skin is.

The new interface of SkinStudio

The old interface of SkinStudio

A Tour of SkinStudio 6

SkinStudio 6 takes on a much more task-oriented design.  Rather than the user being overwhelmed with information by seeing all elements of the visual style at once, SkinStudio 6 instead takes the user step by step through the skin.

Editing controls

Each element shows either (or both) a Windows XP logo or a Windows Vista logo to let the skin author know which features are supported under which operating system.  Moreover, when editing a particular element, the interface is clean and to the point.

What can and can't be changed is very straight forward.

Moreover, each section will be tied to a particular part of the SkinStudio portion of the Customization Wiki. In this way, users can instantly get help making skins from not just Stardock but the entire skinning community.

Editing the IE7 tabs & Vista Controls

SkinStudio 6 is being designed with the upcoming WindowBlinds 6 in mind. All the new Windows Vista controls, Internet Explorer 7 controls and more will be easily editable. No more trying to figure out how to support the latest/greatest features.

Elements available to be skinned are now easily accessible

One of the most common complaints about WindowBlinds skins is that many skins didn't support many of the features.  This was often because the previous SkinStudio was designed at at time when WindowBlinds was much simpler and as more features were added, the newer features began to get buried in the UI.  The new SkinStudio design makes these new features much more accessible.

We're going to need your help

Because SkinStudio 6 is such a radical departure from the existing SkinStudio design, we are going to need a lot of feedback on this.  SkinStudio 6 will be available in beta form on Object Desktop on July 18th (2007).

Friday is always a good time of the week, not because the weekend is near (well maybe), but today is the today for "This Week in Skinning". Last week was a great week with several featured skins including an icon pack, a dream, a suite, WB skin, and more.

While you are browsing through skins this week, be sure to check the articles section as well. I put up a feature tour of ObjectDock Plus that shows some of the best reasons to upgrade, along with a new video demo.

Now for the picks!

SD Desktop (cx) for CursorXP By Vad_M I'm usually used to featured Vad_M's fantastic DesktopX creations, so it was great to see a cursor from him. Check this one out.

ImageMagick Object demo for DesktopX By Skarnivorous This object demo shows some of the cool things you can do with DesktopX. It generates a mirror image from a source image, and I can see some really cool widgets using something like this.

Approaching Storm for DesktopX By sViz This is a very cool widget that puts a "thunderstorm" on your desktop complete with lightning and thunder. Great job.

Ruby IP for IconPackager By pinchecl It's great to see icon packs being submitted again. Great set by pinchecl so be sure to download these.

Over the hills and far away in Wallpapers By webby85 A really beautiful wallpaper that goes great with a variety of skins. I would like to see more resolutions though. Great work.

XP Professional III in WindowBlinds By adni18 Not a new skin, but adni18 has given this skin a really nice update, and it's definitely worth checking out again.

Knot Vista for XP in WindowBlinds By I.R. Brainiac Another great Master skin has made its presence, and it's definitely a great piece of work. There are plenty of matching skins to go with this as well, so be sure to put this one on your list.

Not of this Earth for Xion in Xion By I.R. Brainiac Two in a row for I.R. Brainiac, but well deserved. This is a very cool looking skin for Xion. Nice work.

Looks like this edition had a few more than usual, so another great week it is for submissions. Be sure to check out the artists personal sites for more work, and be sure to leave comments on what you think of their works. See you next week!

Well it has been a little over a week since I purchased my iPhone, or should I say the iPhone my wife purchased for me.  Either way I have been trying to use all the features and find any issues or problems that are worth noting.  In this review you are are not going to get any scientific numbers or data, but you are going to get an honest review from someone who tested the iPhone with real use everyday. 

I picked up the iPhone on it's release day, and only had to wait in line for 2-3 minutes before I was able to get in.  The Apple Store in Orlando that I went to seemed to have more than enough on hand, even though there were over 100 people waiting in line since the early morning.  Upon getting home I was very excited to get it activated, and to activate you need to use the latest version of iTunes which after having to deal with countless phone sales reps in the past, seemed like a great idea.  No hassles, no sales pressure, just enter my info, select my plan and options, and be on my way.

It couldn't be that easy, well not for me it wasn't.  There was a wide variety of reports of people having trouble activating their phones which probably had something to do with hundreds of thousands of people trying to activate their phones.  I could not get my phone activated on Friday night and I actually had to make a trip to the AT&T store the next day.  I'm still not sure what exactly happened, but I was happy to get it finally activated and working.

My first impressions is that is was much smaller and lighter than I first predicted.  The only buttons are the volume controls, silence button, and the "lock button" all which are around the edges of the iPhone.  There is also a headphone port, mic, speakers, and data/charging port.  The black face of the iPhone has just one button which is the "home" button which allows you return to the home screen no matter what screen you are currently in.

This will be part 1 of a 2 part review.

Interface:  The touch screen interface lives up to the hype.  It's very clear and responsive, and I haven't had any trouble with the screen itself.  The home screen is where you find access to just about everything on the iPhone including Safari, e-mail, weather, camera, phone, and more.  I was very nervous about the screen getting dirty or scratched, so this past weekend I made another trip to pick up some screen protectors.  Simply tapping the icon will take you to your selection and all the applications are very intuitive and didn't require much thinking to figure out how to use and configure them.

Camera/Photos:  The iPhone includes a 2 megapixel camera.  I would have expected at least 3 megapixel or more, but that's the way it is.  You also cannot record video and there aren't any type of adjustments or settings for taking pictures.  The camera really isn't a big issue for me, as I only use it to take quick photos, and the quality isn't bad at all for what it is.  Clicking the Photos icon will take you to your photo albums on the iPhone which lists all your albums and give you basic information like how many pictures are in the albums, and a preview picture. 

Clicking any of the photo albums will take you to the pictures where you can view them individually or as a slideshow.  Turning the iPhone to the side will give you a landscape view and you can quickly scroll through pictures by swiping your finger to either side.  Selecting an individual picture will give you options to delete, or you can e-mail the photo, assign it to a contact, or use it as wallpaper.  All these functions worked without problem and I even setup my Flickr account so I can e-mail photos directly to my Flickr account and blog.

SMS:  I was never a big user of text messaging, probably because I never had it as an included option on my plans, but the AT&T plan includes 200 messages, so I intend on using them.  The times I did use them they were just basic text messages, but the iPhone goes about this just a little different.  The iPhone uses text "bubbles" to list your messages into conversations, so you can easily view past text messages without having to search through an inbox.  Being somewhat new to text messaging, this definitely is an advantage over typical text messages.

 
Calendar:  A calendar on my phone is something I use very often, and I have been very disappointed with this feature with other phones, especially with Windows Mobile 5.  The iPhone calendar has a simple interface that will display your calendar and appointments in either list, day, or month view.  Clicking your appointment will give you the detailed view of times, notes, and any other relevant information.  You can also set alerts for your appointments and create new ones which will sync with your PC or Mac calendar.  I have been very impressed with the calendar feature, and it's definitely the best out of the phones I have used in the past.

YouTube:  I have been getting more and more into YouTube lately, and I was curious of how this application would work and so far I have been pleased.  YouTube is still in the process of converting video over for use on the iPhone, but during my searches I found most of the popular videos were available.  You can search for videos, view a featured and most viewed list, and add any videos you have viewed to a bookmarks list.  Videos load up fairly quickly and the audio/video quality is excellent, I'm just now waiting for more videos to view.

Widgets:  The iPhone includes several widgets including stocks, weather, clock, and calculator.  The weather is probably my favorite as with one tap I can see the current and upcoming forecast not, and it supports multiple locations, so I can move my finger across the screen and view the other locations I have set.  I'm not a big user of the stocks widget, but it does what it does in an easy to read manner.  The same goes for the calculator. 

Notes:  The notes feature has gotten some flack lately becuase it doesn't sync, which is a valid issue to raise, but I didn't expect much from notes in the first place.  Notes lets me simply add a quick list to the my iPhone which is great when making a trip to the store.  For example I was at the store this weekend and found an item I needed to remember the size of, so I simply created a new note, and e-mailed it to myself to view on my PC at home. 

iPod:  I guess it wouldn't be an iPhone without an iPod, so how does it stack up?  For all purposes the iPod in the iPhone isn't much different than what a stand-alone iPod does.  The interface is very similar only improved for use with the touch screen, but something it does have over a regular iPod is the Cover Flow feature.  Cover flow allows you to browse your music gallery by the album artwork, much in the same way it's displayed in iTunes.  Moving your finger across the screen moves through the album covers and you just tap to select the songs you want to hear. 

I don't have a video iPod so I can't really compare it, but watching music videos was done without problems and once again the audio/video was just about perfect.  Listening to both my iPod and iPhone I didn't detect any noticeable difference in sound quality, although the volume on the iPhone is just a bit lower than my iPod. 

I have used ObjectDock for several years, and when ObjectDock Plus was released, I pretty much jumped to get the upgrade.  I would say that ObjectDock Plus is best know for it's addition of tabbed docks, which is a great feature to organize dock shortcuts into categories as I do, but there are some other great features in OD+ that are sometimes overlooked.

I frequently see questions asking about the advantages of upgrading to ObjectDock Plus, so here is a quick tour of some of features you will find in OD+.
 

Tabbed Docks

Lets start with the most recognized feature which is the tabbed docks.  The tabs make it much easier and convenient to organize your docks by having individual tabs for whatever type of category you would like.  For instance, I have a tab for "Graphics" which contains shortcuts to applications like Photoshop, Vue 6, etc.  I also have one for "Office" which contains all the shortcuts for Office 2007.
 

The tabs and backgrounds are skinnable as well, and you can even assign each tab its own style.  The tabbed docks can contain the same shortcuts, urls, and docklets as the standard version of ObjectDock.  OD+ also has taskbar and system tray support so you can add a tab which will show the contents of each.  This is very handy if you want to use ObjectDock to replace your taskbar.

Multiple Docks

Why settle for just one dock, when you can have two, three, or as many as you want?  You can create several docks for your desktop, and you can even have both tabbed and regular docks on the desktop together. 

You can set each dock to have its own configurations, and even its own background.  Each dock can be set as a drawer, to auto-hide, or any of the other configurations that are available in ObjectDock.

Fly-Out Menus

This is a really cool feature, and can make your desktop way more productive as well.  You can create a fly-out menu the dock and have it display locations such as My Computer, Documents, Pictures, and more.  When you click the icon a "fly-out" menu will appear that will show the contents of that location and allow you to browse through with quick and smooth animation.
 

Task Grouping / Taskbar Options

As mentioned above, ObjectDock Plus can display your taskbar in the dock, but this is also configurable as you can choose which windows to display.  You can choose to see all windows, minimized windows, or non-animated windows only.  If you have several of the same windows open, you can reduce clutter by using task grouping.  Task grouping will "group" similar windows together and make it easy to access them in the docks.

Colorize Backgrounds

There are hundreds of docks, including tabbed docks, available on WinCustomize and many of them are made to match specific WindowBlinds skins for a perfect desktop match.  Maybe you want to add your color though, and with OD+ that is possible.  You can change the dock background to the color you desire with just a few clicks of the mouse.  It makes it real easy to match your dock with the huge amount of skins available for your Windows desktop.

There are just a few of the features available in ObjectDock Plus I wanted to highlight for you.  You can find more information, screenshots, and video at the ObjectDock home page.  If you are a subscriber to Object Desktop, you can purchase ObjectDock Plus with a discount.

• ObjectDock Plus Video Tour

• ObjectDock Plus

It's a holiday week but no worries, this weeks edition of "This Week in Skinning" is here, and quite a good one I might say.  Just for a quick recap of this weeks skinning articles, don't forget to check out the Independence Day Skin Guide and This Month in Dreams. 

I was assuming this week was going to be pretty slow, but going through the galleries I see we have quite a few submissions this week, so I might just have to add another one or two to the list.

Now for the picks!

USA Flag for CursorXP by GH33DA GH33DA created a .dream and wallpaper of the flag, now he brings us an animated cursor to match.  Great job.

Wolfie's RSS News Junkie for DesktopX by woWolves A clean and simple RSS reader for DesktopX that is animated and resizable.  Be sure to check this one out.

Lava Lamp in Dreams by TheMasterBaron Reminds me more of a glowing lava flow than it does a lava lamp, but a nice and bright dream regardless.

Mack. for IconPackager by Skinhit Icon packs have been scarce lately, so I was happy to see a new pack from Skinhit.  Be sure do download this one.

Xion Xtreme Color Pack in ObjectDock by J. Aroche Xion has been popular lately, and J.Aroche has created a color pack of icons so you can make the Xion icon really stand out in ObjectDock.  Nice work.

Intrigue in Suites by SKoriginals This Master skin suite includes a WB skin (Vista sub-style), IconPackage, cursor, and much more.  There are also plenty of other matching skins on WC, so be sure to find them as well.  Great job.

VX1 in WindowBlinds by LightStar Lightstar brings us a very clean and usable WindowBlinds skin.  I'm using it on Vista now and it works great on there too.

This was really a great week, and there was so much more I wanted to feature.  Take the time this weekend and take a browse through the galleries and the personal sites of the artists featured here this week.  See you next week!

Some of the great people in the #stardock IRC channel suggested that since the 4th of July is approaching, that a feature of Independence Day inspired skins should be made.  What a great idea!

So today I browsed and searched through the galleries on WinCustomize and found a variety of skins that will fit perfect for anyone wanting to create a holiday theme on their desktop.

If you have any questions about using these downloads you can take a look at the "Changing your desktop" guides, and the WinCustomize Download Guide for more information about the files that you download.

• Changing your Desktop Theme
• WinCustomize Download Guide

July is finally here and a holiday is also approaching.  With a new month comes another edition of "This Month in Dreams" where I highlight some .dreams that were submitted to WinCustomize throughout the month of June.  We had quite a few less than last month, but still some great ones that deserve to be featured. 

Lets get those submissions coming in and make July another great month for Dreams.

If you would like to download the .dreams you seen featured in this video, the download links are below.  You need to have Vista Ultimate, DreamScene, and Stardock DeskScapes (free) to use these animated wallpapers.

USA Flag by GH33DA
Aurorix 1440 by NGTV
The Moon by Gonerelly
Island Oasis by PaulG2
Grimstad Grassfield 1 by dEEPZoNE
RED by KnowTheFuture
Lava Lamp by TheMasterBaron
Liquid Dream by Stardock Design
 

Ok, Friday the iPhone went on sale. Apple stores around the country had lines overnight as eager gadget junkies waiting to get the latest and greatest shiny toy from the fine folks in Cupertino, CA. According to all accounts so far [David Pogue] [Walt Mossberg] [Robert Scoble] the iPhone is a fantastic piece of hardware that shows us exactly why Apple always gets so much hype for a new product. With minor quibbles aside (AT&T's EDGE Network) it appears to be a piece of hardware that really delivers on its promises.

Do I have one? No. Do I want one? Hell yes. Will I get one? In a few years.

Ultimately, Apple kills itself for me on the same point as always: Price. I can't reasonably justify spending $400 - $600 on a phone. Add in accessories, activation, and calling plan and you suddenly have a small limited-function device that costs as much as a fully-featured personal computer.

• It's an iPod!
  Yes, it's an iPod, but a pretty limited one. It has as much space as an iPod Nano, which costs a fraction of the price. (4GB Nano: $150)
  
• It's a phone!
  Mmm-hmm... My phone cost me $50 after service rebates. It places/receives calls. Does text messaging. It can even take photos and video.
  
• It's a revolutionary Internet communication device!
  Ok Steve, you got me there. Outside the world of Palm Treos and Blackberry handhelds, this is new territory. On this point I'll give the iPhone a few serious kudos. Any handheld device that handles Internet and email in any serious way also tends to be pretty expensive. I feel this is where they are able to justify a large portion of their price.

The iPhone isn't really a phone. Sure you can do the whole phone "thing" with one, but that's just a minor point on the overall bullet list of features Apple is touting. The iPhone really represents one of the first serious efforts at a portable communications device that isn't hobbled by poorly conceived notions of how a user should interact with the device.

On top of that, it's also a platform. If the iPhone manages to be a genuine success, which I think it will if the price on hardware drops to something more reasonable, my bet is that we'll see Apple become the early dominant player in the true pocket computer revolution. My hope though is that they don't make the same mistakes with this fledgling market that they did with the personal computer.

But in the end, despite its promise, despite its current capabilities, is this another case of marketing buzz causing people's common sense to shut down and take a holiday? A lot of coverage has been given comparing total cost of ownership for the phone with other similar devices (Blackberry, Treo etc.) and the iPhone is a ridiculously expensive proposition. On top of price, you also have to contend with the fact that this is a first generation Apple device. History shows us that the first gen of any Apple gizmo comes plagued with little problems here or there, and that just waiting one or two generations will result in a much better device with improved features and a reduced price over the original. Compare current iPod prices with prices when the device launched, and then look at how quickly it improved from generation to generation.

On Friday, the folks who bought the iPhone were the classic early-adopters. The folks that will plop down a crazy amount of money for whatever is the latest/greatest. But the question now is that all of the extremely excited folks have their iPhone, how will the demand be from now on? Will all of the marketing and press hype and the glitz and glamour of a brand new Apple product overcome people's common sense? The iPhone really represents a luxury item, delivering functionality that very few people honestly need in their lives. Will the ooh and ahh trump the concern over bank balance? Time will tell on that one.

Me? I'll have one in 1 year 8 months when my current Verizon contract runs out.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for shiny gadgets. At least by then there may be a second generation device out and the price might have dropped.

I hope...

Possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen on my desktop is the new dynamic dream known as "Liquid Dream".  For users of Windows Vista Ultimate who have DeskScapes, Liquid Dream lets users combine their existing wallpaper with a water effect on top of it. Your wallpaper then appears to be under water with dripping effects and a reflection from above (that users can choose). And best of all, it does all this with hardly any impact on system resources thanks to the compositor in Windows Vista.

And it's very customizable by the user as they can pick:

• Time between water drops
• Size of water drops (bigger drops mean larger ripples)
• How reflective/transparent the water surface is
• Choose a sky to see reflected in the water (fluffy white clouds, or a starry night sky)
• Choose the background image that sits below the water. Pick from one of 3 provided images, or supply your own.

To users pick their wallpaper and then can control how the water flows over the wallpaper. The visual impact of it is incredibly cool. Here are some screenshots.

You can get Liquid Dream here.

It is getting towards the last few days of the month, and soon July will be upon us. In case you missed it earlier in the week, I put together a summer theme guide that features some summer-inspired skins, wallpapers, cursors, and more. Be sure to check it out and feel free to add any skins you think should be included.

Browsing through the galleries this past week I saw some really great submissions, so I couldn't wait to start putting this weeks feature together.

Now for the picks!

Knot Vista for CursorXP By J. Aroche Made to match the Knot Vista WB skin by I.R. Brainiac, this cursor has some fantastic animations. Great work.

Aurorix 1440 in Dreams By NGTV This .dream is available in a few different resolutions, so check his gallery for the others. It's hard to describe this .dream, but it's definitely worthy of a download.

Minimalistic Three (m3) for ObjectDock By messiah1 I have really enjoyed the Minimalistic themes from messiash1, so another edition is welcomed. Great job.

Fusion in Wallpapers By Kavel This wallpaper is full of bright colors, and will no doubt add some brightness to your desktop.

NoiX in WindowBlinds By PurrBall PurrBall has updated this skin to make use of Vista shadows now available in WB 5.51. It was always a favorite skin, but this update makes it even better.

Gloss for Xion By BoXXi BoXXi has been pushing out these Xion skins lately, and this is another excellent skin based off a DesktopX theme.

Keep your eyes open for the next edition of "This Month in Dreams" which should be out in a few days. Great work from all the artists this week, and we always look forward to seeing more. See you next week!