Materials

I’d always found great satisfaction in taking something older that was crafted using superb materials and technique and bringing it back to life–like the three-story Queen Anne Victorian my wife and I bought in 1979. When I started working on the house, I couldn’t find the hardware, moldings, and fittings I needed. You couldn’t get things like brass cabinet knobs in hardware stores. I eventually found obscure sources, but I had a “duh” moment when I realized I didn’t have the money to buy those things even if I had found them.
—Stephen Gordon, founder of Restoration Hardware in a Fortune interview
via ParisLemon

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Moto Flat Tire

Every time I see the Moto 360 Watch I’m reminded how bad a Fail it is.
The fact that the screen isn’t even 360 degrees is beyond comical.
It’s like they tried to design a beautiful car and released it to the public with no paint on one door.

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The Stylus Sucks

What’s the stylus good for? According to Microsoft’s TV ads, it’s good for circling things. I know because I made the positive life decision of watching every advertisement Microsoft’s made for the Surface, from the ones that aired on TV, to the multi-minute-long ones the company uses to pitch businesses.

The Verge: Microsoft can’t explain why its Surface tablet needs a pen

Styluses are bullshit.

I’ve never seen a compelling use for a stylus, save for actually drawing and making art with it. If I had to get a stylus, I’d get the Pencil from FiftyThree.

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Baby Steps

MIT Technology Review headline:
Apple Issues Strict Rules for the First Watch Apps
Starting out small and conservative is a smart way to develop a product. It’s just as valid for a company like Apple as it is for a someone in his/her apartment launching a Kickstarter project. Your vision can still be grand, just don’t try to do everything right from the beginning.
Developers building Apple Watch apps might be frustrated by this, but tough shit. Patience is a virtue.

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It’s Expensive Poop, It Should Have Been Cheap Poop

JP Mangalindan from Fortune on the Amazon Fire Phone:

In an interview with Fortune, Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices David Limp acknowledged Amazon bumbled the phone’s pricing. Traditionally, Amazon AMZN 1.30% undercuts the competition on hardware, pairing lower prices and solid features. But with the Fire phone, Amazon stuck to standard industry pricing, asking $199 for the 32 gigabyte model and $299 for the 64 gigabyte. On that front, Amazon, well, misfired.
Right, it was the price. Couldn’t have had anything to do with being a gimmicky turd.

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Some Bumps Are Better Than Others

There’s at least one guy going to extreme measures to remove the bump in the iPhone 6 caused by the protruding camera lens, but I’ll tell you this: I’d rather have a deliberate lens bump:

…than whatever this shit is that Samsung did with their Galaxy Alpha:

[iPhone image taken from Apple.com, Galaxy Alpha image taken from The Verge]

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Samsung: 2012’s Copied Designs

I love that Samsung’s new phone is not only a rip-off of the iPhone 5, but now it’s also dated with the new iPhone 6 out:

I give Samsung maybe 6 months before they drop the chamfered edges for the rounded edges of the iPhone 6.
Image taken from Phandroid.com

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Fact: Microsoft Loves MacBook Airs

Today, during the recording of this week’s Weekly Exhaust we were talking about how NFL commentators were referring to the Surface tablets as “iPad-like devices” (that Microsoft paid $400 million for teams to use on the sidelines), so after the show I decided to check out Microsoft.com.
What did I find?
I found a MacBook Air as the most prominent product on the Microsoft homepage:

Sometimes I really wonder what they’re thinking at Microsoft.
Actually I always wonder what they’re thinking.

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