A new book from A Book Apart by Mike Monteiro.
Yes, that Mike Monteiro.

via buamai

To wash out the Corvair taste in my mouth, here’s one of the most beautifully designed cars I’ve ever seen.
via Good Old Valves

Motorola is launching an Android-based TV controller and it’s called the … Corvair?
As in the rear-engined, proned-to-spinout, Chevrolet model that Time magazine voted one of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time?
As in the car Ralph Nader included in his book, Unsafe at Any Speed?
The Verge says this is the codename, implying they’ll launch with a different name. Let’s hope so.
*Next thing you know, Samsung will be launching a new Android tablet called the Pinto.

via designedmemory

The recently released biography of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs isn’t the only thing that’s selling well in recent weeks. Apparently shoppers are snatching up the tech icon’s favorite eyeglasses too.

via news.cnet.com

via IWDRM

At this point I’ve read and seen enough about the Winklevii to last me a few lifetimes, but this article in Vanity Fair was (another) interesting look into their minds.
Like why they won’t let up:

In my opinion, it’s all about how much pain you can make the other guy feel,” said Dan Walsh, another Olympic rower, when asked to explain the lure of a sport that offers neither fame nor fortune, and why two highly advantaged individuals would spend their 20s pursuing it–the Winklevosses were then weeks away from their 30th birthday. “It’s about trying to break him.”

And the power of this new strategy is that it requires only modest success to get the Winklevosses what they want, which is not control of Facebook, but rather to cause Mark Zuckerberg pain measurable in pride and money, and through this pain to avenge their own ideal selves by asserting their will over his.

Bringing analogue back to the movies with a bang in the 21st century, the LomoKino is a Lomography movie camera that shoots short, creative movies on 35mm film

Available on Etsy from GreenTape.
From the creator:

The wood in this dock is cherry from the Black Cherry Tree, Prunus serotina Ehrh., which has been prized by woodworkers for centuries due to its beauty and woodworking qualitites. Cherry trees are widespread in the eastern half of the United States and the wood is considered by many to be the premier furniture wood in North America. The leaves in the picture are from a cherry tree. The wood insert is finished with several coats of orange oil and beeswax.

The actual wood used here is from small pieces a cabinet maker gave me about 20 years ago. I knew I would use it one day!

It takes me several hours, a dozen tools and over 30 steps to create these docks. Did I already say they were painstakingly made?

via The Next Web

Last week M83 released their latest album. As a child growing up in the 80’s, the sound of M83 really resonates with me. It has that 80’s feel—but at the same time—a sense of timelessness.
I was fortunate to take in an M83 show a few years back:

Dan Frommer asks the key ‘why’ questions about Windows Mobile phones from Nokia:

• Why should any person buy this instead of an iPhone or the preferred Android phone du jour?
• Why should carriers favor Windows phones over Android or Apple phones, in either their in-store sales techniques and marketing?
• Why should carriers or consumers favor Nokia Windows phones over similar Windows phones from Samsung, HTC, etc.?
• Why should developers make apps for Windows or Nokia phones?

Windows Mobile phones are swimming a red ocean. So what is a ‘red ocean’ you ask? From Wikipedia:

Red Oceans are all the industries in existence today–the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. Hence, the term red oceans.
Red oceans are the opposite of blue oceans:

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today–the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

Apple established the new smartphone paradigm (full touchscreen, no keyboard, multitouch UI) with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 that Google subsequently copied with Android. Apple’s modus operandi since Jobs returned has been about focusing on blue oceans. Untapped markets.

Now Microsoft and Nokia are entering the market with the Windows Phone 7 platform, a platform that introduces a unique approach to the user interface.

Despite their fresh approach, they’re still in a red ocean. Boundaries and known and rules are understood and as Frommer notes, they’re going to continue to have a hard time distinguishing themselves in this already crowded market.

Randy Murray thinks about cloud computing and the end of updates:

We’ve already gone past the point where we have to go out and buy updates on discs. Now we download and update. And soon your device will update itself as it sits unused.

For some this may be frightening. We need to think long and hard about trusting all of our data to others. We need to think seriously about maintaining our own media and backups.

While he expresses caution, overall he’s excited about the freedom such a move to the cloud affords us.
I too am pro-cloud, and currently use iCloud and DropBox on a regular basis, but I’m also cognizant of what I sync. I’m also not a criminal, so I don’t worry about being caught doing something.
As I’ve written about before, though, I’m also I strong believer in keeping things on the Ground as well as in the Cloud. My music files, my photos, my videos, my documents, my designs — all my stuff is in my possession on my own external hard drives. On the ground.