What about actual 3 dimensional icons. The technology is there and you think of bumptop as a link to the real world desktop. But most people have several cluttered toys and trinkets that will enhance their work environment.
Imagine when the new spore game is out and they load one of their iconic characters as the "bumptop icon" but it moves around the desk or remains in one place and occasionally hops or just remains stationary like a doll.
Or for minesweep you could just make a 3D iconic landmine that if you allow the company to customize the loading animation, it explodes when you click on it.
Most of this is speculative and I realize is probably not going to be possible for the first release but hopefully will be implemented some time in the future.
I have been looking for the documentation on Bumptop and I can't seem to find it. Usually these type of things are right in front of me and I overlook them some how. This causes me to take the difficult route in more cases than not.
So since I couldn't find the keyboard shortcuts, I tried to document what I found through experimentation here:
ctrl-. show selected files right-click menu
ctrl-a Select all
ctrl-g grow selected
ctrl-s shrink selected
ctrl-w Close Bumptop
ctrl-p enable/disable debug keys.
-- Debug keys are below --
ctrl-/ enable/disable box texture rendering
ctrl-, clear the desktop !!! bad
ctrl-m windowed/full screen
ctrl-n repositions on/off
ctrl-' filenames on/off
ctrl-l Infinite Bumptop Mode
ctrl-h name selected item
ctrl-\ Optimizations on/off
ctrl-] VSynch on/off
ctrl-[ changes Bumptop background to the grid-view background??
ctrl-5,6 switch between top-down and angled views
ctrl-8,9 Previous and Next photo Frame.
ctrl-0 start Tests.
We all know BumpTop is the future of User Interfaces, but to make it more ergonomic, user friendly, and more "eye candy-ish" with the cool animations, design and pen flicks, some community ideas and input can inspire designers to add more.
List them here, be as creative as you want for it might spark something; I'll begin with mine:
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1. Option for low or zero gravity for the icons, and maybe a subject "planet" they can obit around; for example, maybe I can create a Word Documents planet that all the Word Documents I would have out orbit around the planet.
2. Folders, Cabinets etc on the 3D canvas that would act the same way as a real file cabinet would (maybe multiple for different types of documents) (pretty much; office furniture and supplies that would be used normally in real life in the 3D desktop)
3. A toolbar on one of the walls showing open browsers that can be minimized or maximized with an animation
4. Quick search
5. Hangars on walls; maybe a quick launch or a favorites panel so that documents or files can be easily accessed without having the search through
6. Maybe an underwater effect; as if the 3D canvas was a fishbowl, and the files would float to the floor.
7. House of cards effect; files can be building blocks
8. External devices appear on the 3D canvas and can be dragged etc as well as files dragged to it
9. Maybe if the 3D canvas is square, each face of the square can be used to contain a certain type of file; for example, PDFs on Face 1, Word Documents on Face 2, Music on Face 3, Photos on Face 4, Videos on Face 5, and Games on Face 6.
10. Pens, pencils etc to make notes on the Canvas.
11. Widgets and a widget hotkey
12. Minimize and maximize animations
Feel free to list any of yours and be as creative as you want!