Drove by The Moscone Center yesterday dropping my mother-in-law off at work.
Looks like Apple’s ready.

Drugs and children’s television. A winning combination since at least 1969.

Dan Ariely has a new book out called The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. I loved his book from 2010, Predictably Irrational.
From Ariely (via Brain Pickings):

Creativity can help us tell better stories — stories that allow us to be even more dishonest but still think of ourselves as wonderfully honest people.

Reminds me of how documentary filmmaker Ken Burns believes all storytelling is manipulation and lies.

Tecnabob: BMW Patent Shows Manual Transmission That Won’t Let You Pick the Wrong Gear
Where the hell is the fun in driving a stick-shift car where there’s no danger in hitting the wrong gear?
If you’re someone who doesn’t know how to shift gears, maybe you shouldn’t be driving a manual transmission car.
People interested in fool-proof car shifting are also skydiving into huge piles of marshmallows and paving their own roads so there’s no danger in crashing into other cars.
BMW’s tagline is ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’.
A little less so now.

Suck on it, Michael Dell.
via thisisnthappiness

Ian King over at Bloomberg is reporting HTC is being shut out of Windows 8:

Microsoft locked out HTC from the development of products using the newest version of its operating system on concern that HTC doesn’t sell enough devices or have ample experience making tablets, said the people, who asked not to be named because negotiations between HTC and other companies are private.

See, this is why the forecasting done by analysts is so fucking pointless. Like the shit from IDC saying Windows Phone will surpass iPhone’s marketshare by 2016.
The tech world is so volatile, huge changes can and do happen overnight. This is a digital world people. One second Apple is using Google Maps, the next, boom, they’re (probably going to be) using their own (I’m not saying the development is instant, just the decision and execution).
If you work closely with or in technology, never get comfortable.
Stay on your toes. Stay vigilant.

via my Instagram

Kevin Tofel over at GigaOm wonders if it matters that Window Phone has over 100,000 apps.
The answer: It doesn’t.
It might help to think of the smartphone market as a poker game. When the iPhone launched 5 years ago, there was no blind needed to play the game. Apple had created a new game, they were making up the new rules of what a smartphone was and anyone could play. RIM jumped in with the Storm, Palm with the Pre and Google with Android.
Fast forward to 2009. RIM has folded, Palm and Google are still playing but Apple has changed the blind. Now in order to play you need 100,000 applications for your mobile OS. Google and Palm still have a lot of catching up to do, but they’ve both convinced the house to let them continue to play as they hustle to hit the six-figure mark for apps (spoiler: Google doesn’t hit it until 2010).
2010. Microsoft shows up late to the game with Windows Phone. Everyone is expecting them to show up hungover and in last night’s tux, but they’re looking surprisingly crisp. Like Google in 2009, they don’t have the required 100,000 apps, but they have a ton of cash, so they’re allowed to play.
2011. HP (Palm) folds.
Fast forward to now. 2012. Apple still has the biggest pile of chips and a ton of applications (I don’t know who has the most now). Both Google and Microsoft have the money and the apps. But there’s a problem. Now it’s no longer enough to just have a mobile OS, a lot cash and over 100,000 apps. Now the smartphone game is being played on television and the viewing audience gets to vote on who gets to stay, American Idol style.
And no one is voting for Windows Phone.

Update your RSS Readers.
Jonah Lehrer just announced he’s taking his blog, Frontal Cortex, from Wired over to The New Yorker.
I’ve been following Jonah’s brain musing for a while now. He’s a great read.
I’ve also started reading his new book, Imagine. It’s along the lines of Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From (FYI – if you use these links I get a small kickback from Amazon).

via Motoriginal

From MG Siegler:

Google will announce the next version of their OS before 10% of their users are on the last version. Think about how insane that is for a second.

Hmmm. Thought about it.
Pretty insane.

Last month Time Warner’s CEO admitted he didn’t know what Airplay was.
Now this month, DirecTV chairman Michael White says Apple TV won’t obsolete their technology.
I wouldn’t bet against Apple, just saying.

This post over at Print Magazine’s Imprint blog is full of great advice on dealing with yourself and your clients.
There’s dozens of quote-worthy parts, like this one:

It’s frustrating when feedback makes no sense. But you have to take the high road. The double-standard of designer-client relationships is that your clients get to be emotional, irrational, and reactive, but you don’t. You get to absorb all of that energy and gently guide the process. That doesn’t mean you don’t push back at times, it just means that you do so respectfully, carefully, and calmly.

Emotional maturity is one of the top 3 skills you need as a designer (talent and strong work ethic are the other two). As I get older and get better at handling my emotions with clients, I notice this as one of the main areas younger, junior designers need work with.
You should read the whole post, but even if you don’t, jump around until see a section header that catches your eye.

A few of my shots from the past month or so here in LA.