If You Can Look Past That

Abdel Ibrahim reviews the HTC One X for The TechBlock:

When it comes to Android, though, my second in-depth experience wasn’t any less jarring than the first. Despite my time in the trenches with ICS on the Galaxy Nexus, HTC has slapped on so much paint with Sense that I often struggled to find my way. And what I recognized I still didn’t like. Granted, I cut my teeth on iOS devices, which pride themselves on simplicity, but I refuse to believe Android couldn’t be more user friendly. For all its options, there’s too much clutter. But if you can look past that or are accustomed to Android, I have little doubt you’d love the HTC One X.

Translation: If you’re cool with messy, shitty experiences you should love this phone.
Talk about Android apologists.

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Human Experience

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I still need a truck.

Shawn Blanc says his iPad is now is laptop. Patrick Rhone of Minimal Mac agrees and even wrote his latest book all on an iPad.
To be clear, Blanc used to be a print designer and now writes full-time on his own site. I understand how it’s possible to be a writer and use just an iPad for work.
For me, I’m a web designer and rely heavily on my laptop to be productive. When I travel, it’s with 3 devices – my iPhone, my iPad and my MacBook Pro. While I am more senior at this point in my career and don’t find myself doing as much heavy lifting in Photoshop and Illustrator, I still need to use them.
I would love to reach a point where I just need to carry my iPad, but I still work on the farm and I need a truck (see also here).

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Technology

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Manhattan Extended

Apparently in 1911 Dr. T. Kennard Thomson proposed to expand New York into its adjacent waters for a grand total of 50 square miles.
From Big Think:

By Dr Thomson’s estimates, enlarging New York according to his plans would cost more than digging the Panama Canal – but the returns would quickly repay the debt incurred and make New York the richest city in the world. He then goes on to describe how he would reclaim all that land. The plan’s larger outlines: move the East River east, and build coffer dams from the Battery at Manhattan’s southern tip to within a mile of Staten Island, on the other side of the Upper Bay, and the area in between them filled up with sand. This would enlarge Manhattan to an island several times its present size.

Here is one of his proposed expansion maps:
Manhattan_extended_1922.gif
via thisisnthappiness

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History

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Made By Hand

I might have left New York City, but it doesn’t mean I can’t still enjoy it from the left coast.
From the Bureau of Common Goods in Brooklyn comes Made By Hand (via arainert):

A project from the Bureau of Common Goods, Made by Hand was created out of the belief that the things we collect, consume, use, and share are part of who we are as individuals. For example, the food that we eat says something about each of us, as do the tools we use and the chairs we rest on. Objects that surround the space we dwell in tell stories, and not just about us. Where did they come from? Who made them? How were they made?

Each film aims to promote that which is made locally, sustainably, and with a love for craft. Based in Brooklyn, the project takes its influence from the handmade movement here and elsewhere. We hope you find the spirit of it inspiring.

I just watched their film on writer turned knife maker, Joel Bukiewicz. Pretty awesome – both the film and the knives Joel makes by hand (obviously).
I’m seeing more and more examples of a return to the analogue in our digital, multi-touch world. It’s the resurgence in letterpress printing in the last 10 years. It’s the Edison light bulbs I see in boutiques and restaurants and homes. It’s services providing locally produced and chemical-free foods. I see it in everything on Etsy. I see it on Kickstarter. I see in the the wooden iPhone and iPad cases made by Karvt.
People are craving all things hand made more than ever.
The Internet continues both reinvent and dismantled entire industries, but there’s one thing it can’t do – make things by hand.

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Materials

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Hillman

Hillman Curtis died on April 18th. He was a talented, passionate creator.
Here’s a 4-minute documentary he did on himself a few months ago.
The funny thing about Hillman is I never thought much of his web design work. It wasn’t great. It was clean, and organized and a lot of work went into it. But there wasn’t passion.
His passion came out when he stepped behind the camera and began making his short films and documentaries on other talented creators like Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Lawrence Weiner and Joshua Davis.
It was when he started making his films that I started paying attention to him.
I’m happy he found his true calling before he died.

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Film

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Backlog

Daily Exhaust is not my full-time job. This means many of the links I find daily I stash away in my Instapaper account and either take a while to get posted or sit around too long and go obsolete. Technology links are the most time-sensitive and usually go stale the quickest. Links focused on creativity, innovation and design usual stay fresh — or get better with age, like wine.
The good news is at this point, I have a whole wine cellar of tasty links and time to start posting them.
Instead of dumping them on this site all at once, I’ll be queueing them up to be posted in the coming weeks.

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Miscellaneous

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A step backwards

Jason Giddings came up with an idea for a multitouch, glass keyboard and mouse and launched a Kickstarter project late in 2011 to get it funded. I remember coming across it when I was launching my Kickstarter. He was aiming for $50K in funding but ended up getting over $143K. Amazing.
My thoughts now are the same as my thoughts then – while the project is gorgeous, it’s a step backwards in usability. A desktop keyboard with no haptic feedback (translation: you don’t know where the keys are unless you look at the screen)?
If I have any smack to talk about my iPhone and iPad, it’s that it’s a pain in the ass typing on a glass keyboard, because, well, there’s no haptic feedback.
I don’t intentionally seek out projects to trash, but Mr. Giddings has taken the main interface to computers and made it less usable.
In addition to function following form on this Kickstarter, Mr. Giddings’ project also shows how hard it can be to turn a 3-D rendering into a real product. Have a looks as his project updates to see what I mean. In short, things have gotten complicated.
It’s exciting to fund projects on Kickstarter, but be wary when you do. My Kickstarter was a screen-printed poster series and I thought that was more than enough to handle. I can’t imagine what goes into product design, with machining, protyping and software/hardware integration.

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Business

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