The Telegraph: HP talks up forthcoming Touchpad tablet
Speaking at a press conference in Cannes, Mr Cador said that “In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP’s products from our competitors, we became number one; in the tablet world we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus.” Apple’s iPad is currently the best-selling tablet around the world.
One plus?
What are we, five years old?
Just put something on shelves already.
via Daring Fireball
May you live in interesting times, often referred to as the Chinese curse, is reputed to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese proverb and curse, although it may have originated among the English themselves (or Americans). It is reported that it was the first of three curses of increasing severity, the other two being:
May you come to the attention of those in authority (sometimes rendered May the government be aware of you). This is sometimes quoted as May you come to the attention of powerful people. (Alternately important people.)
May you find what you are looking for. This is sometimes quoted as May your wishes be granted.
Scott Jensen over a frog design talks our current obsession with seeing every possible solution in the mobile space as an app, he calls it app myopia:
Default Thinking comes up frequently when discussing technology, but a particularly virulent form of it has taken hold in mobile: App Myopia. This is a paradigm that sees every possible mobile opportunity only as an exercise in creating an app. This is a rather useful myopia, to be sure, as some people are making lots of money selling apps, but it is beginning to feel like a local maximum and a paradigm that can only get us so far. As Thomas Kuhn might say, we are in need of a revolution.
Scott has a great point. Sure it’s wonderful if everyone is using an iPhone, because that means they can all talk to each other because they share a common platform, but we don’t live in that kind of world. There’s many different phones with different operating systems, and in the ideal world they would all be able to talk to each other and their surroundings.
Neven Mrgan’s astute observation of all the incorrectly created icons in the Apple App Store.
A must-read if you call yourself a designer.
Ars Technica on the unified design and code view in XCode:
Apple’s developer tools used to consist of two separate applications–Interface Builder for designing user interfaces, and Xcode for writing, debugging, and compiling code. With Xcode 4, Apple has essentially integrated Interface Builder into Xcode itself. Along with the integration, Apple has morphed Xcode into a single window app, using tabs to switch between design, code, and debugging views. Separate panes allow access to various source files, error logs, code templates, interface objects, and other media.
I’m an amateur programmer at best, but the idea of a unified view for code and design is beautiful and poetic.
This post by Seth Godin struck a nerve with me and I was compelled to frame it up as a bigger image for emphasis.
Hemmings Blog on the history of New York City and automobiles:
The pairing of the automobile and the narrow, teeming, crowded canyons of New York City is endlessly fascinating. The Standard Catalog lists 334 different manufacturers based in New York City (most of which, surely, built no more than one or two cars, if any), but beyond that, the Big Apple has a history of dealerships, driving, navigation, cab riding, and automotive legislation all its own.
As Just A Car Guy mentions, 334 is a lot of manufacturers.
I love New York.
Bill Gates was interviewed on the BBC last week to talk about everything he’s up to, as well as what Ballmer is making a mess of at his old company:
When the interviewer suggested that we’re in a post-PC era, with most of the innovation happening today on smartphones and tablets, Gates replied:
“The PC is the tablet….You’ll see devices and say ‘is that a PC, is that a phone?’ The words will change because innovation is happening so fast.”
Bill, you can cut with the semantics bullshit. When someone says PC, there’s no confusion they’re talking about their personal computer sitting on their desk with a monitor, hard drive and keyboard and not their phone, tablet, alarm clock or television. We get it, everything has a computer in it nowadays, but the fact remains that Microsoft is way behind in mobile and tablet computing.
Nice evasive maneuvering.
The 8813 was built with you, the professional, in mind. It quickly and easily processes cost estimates, payrolls, accounts, inventory, patient/client records and much more. You can write reports, briefs, and proposals on the 8813′s typewriter keyboard, see them on the video screen, and instantly correct, revise, or print them.
Using the 8813, one person can process what would normally require many secretaries, several bookkeepers, and a great deal of time. And data storage takes a small fraction of the space used by previous methods.
You don’t need to learn complicated computer languages. The 8813 understands commands in English. If you want to write your own programs, the 8813 includes a simple computer language, BASIC, that you can master in a few days. The 8813 slashes the professional’s overhead. It’s a powerful time and money-saving ally. Prices for complete systems including printer start at less than $8,000.
Classic.
via Modern Mechanix
Arrested Motion on the beautiful paintings of Pakayla Rae Biehn:
As a technique derived from and almost solely reserved for photographic applications, her ability to so gracefully achieve this signature optic feel with paint and brush could be attributed to her affinity for math, her use of computer applications to break down photographic reference images, as well as her eye disorder strabismus, which imparts a double vision like effect to her sight, all touched on during a recent interview with our friend at Erratic Phenomena. The resulting work is nothing short of majestic, a whimsical mixture of soft colors, delicate focus, enchanting imagery, idiosyncratic composition, and emotional intimacy that is evocative of a nostalgic summer daydream. Illustrating an ability to overcome, if not ingeniously integrate, her visual obstacles into the creative process itself, and with painterly expertise at the core of it all, Pakayla has produced a visceral and emotive experience both distinctive and rewarding.
Michael Wolff wrote a great piece on the sad state of publishing on tablets (read: the iPad).
Here’s a few choice nuggets I loved:
But, back to Rupert. The Daily is a pure I-don’t-get-it-but-I’ll-be-damned-if-that-stops-me play (and who can stop me, anyway?). It was conceived by Murdoch himself, willed into being by Murdoch, and executed by him. A man who has an absolute belief in the medium of newspapers and almost no firsthand experience or interest in digital media–save for having sometimes to awkwardly pose next to a computer to suggest he might use one, although he doesn’t–decided to address the problem of old ways and new technology with the greatest certainty and resolve. The Daily is the result–a hopeless misreading of the form.
And:
There’s a loud, jarring, jumpy, desperate, look-at-me sense of tablet publishing–it tries too hard. It’s not just that tablet design invites people to look over your shoulder and enter your space–but it makes the reader self-conscious too. So much design, so little function. So much brand, so little purpose. Vulgar.
via FishbowlNY
I never knew this, but the term “thinking outside the box” came from the puzzle below (which I did years ago). The goal is to connect all nine dots with just 4 straight lines:
Spoiler alert: you have to think outside the box to solve this.
via PysBlog: The Creative Power of Thinking Outside Yourself
