“MapQuest It”

There was a time I can remember when the common term for mapping a route on the computer was to “MapQuest it.”

I’m talking about the mid 1990’s until a few years after Google Maps came out in 2005. At some point after Google Maps had been around the ‘switch’ happened, and everyone started to gradually migrate over from MapQuest. Google Maps started out as the Student, and had become the Master.

Now, here we are in September of 2012 and Apple has ditched Google Maps for it’s own solution. The problem is, for some people in some parts of the world, this “solution” isn’t a solution at all.

In response to the backlash to the new Maps application in iOS, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has issued an apology and has recommended we look to some third-party applications for help as they fix their maps. One of the services Cook recommends? MapQuest (via The Loop).

I find that so surreal.

Is that the Backstreet Boys I hear on the radio?

Categories:

Human Experience

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Watch It Again

People wonder how I know every line from some movies. It’s because I’ve watched them over and over and over again.

To me, a great movie is the same as a great music album.

My question is, why would you not want to watch a great movie again?

Kubrick_Movie_Seen_Once.jpg

via parislemon

Categories:

Film

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Weber-Fechner Law

Seth Godin brings our attention to the Weber-Fechner law:

The more stimulus you’re getting (light, sound, pressure, delight, sadness) the less easily you can notice a small change. That seems obvious, but it’s worth saying.

If you’re entering a market filled with loudness, it’s harder to be noticed, even if the incremental benefit you offer seems large to you. If you’re trying to delight existing customers, the more delighted they already are, the more new delight you need to offer to turn heads.

This brings to mind the Blue Ocean Strategy.

Categories:

Business

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Naked

Joshua Irish practices the same philosophy of iPhone cases as I do—he goes naked.

At my desk next to me sits a 1.5-year-old iPhone 4. I have not had a case since I bought it. It’s been dropped a bunch of times, it has some scratches, but it still works and looks great.

I wrote about this back in 2008 and used a car analogy (big surprise):

As useful as a bra is to protect a car’s front end from oncoming debris, it also does something inversely damaging – It masks the beautiful craft and design of the car.

The same goes for all this crap people use to protect their iPhones.

Take it off people! Unless you’re going rock climbing, your iPhone doesn’t need all that protection. It’s not the delicate flower you think it is. It can handle everyday use. I know mine can.

Or as Jerry Seinfeld says, “Why don’t you walk around with a helmet on too?”

Categories:

Materials

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Cooked?

I’ve wondered if Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface are half-baked.

Now I’m wondering if they’ve even been put in the oven.

People are seduced by Apple’s products, partly because they can touch them. I’m not sure Microsoft knows seduction.

Categories:

Technology

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MySpace

Back in March 2007 I shut down my MySpace account. It was the end of a social media era for me and a lot of other people too. A year earlier I had joined Facebook and it was clear Facebook had a much better understanding and social media than MySpace did.

As everyone has seen, MySpace is back and they posted a beautiful demo video of it. And as far as I know, it is just that, a demo. Justin Timberlake owns a controlling share of the company (hence his strong presence in the demo video) and he seems intent on bringing it back to glory.

It brings to mind the current state of Windows 8. Despite it’s fresh Human Experience in mobile computing and non-skeuomorphized GUI, Microsoft is having a bitch of a time getting traction in the market. At the end of the day, Windows 8 isn’t ‘changing the game’. At the end of the day, they have a fullscreen, multi-touch display smartphone with cellular functions, video/music playback, mapping and texting. Just like everyone else.

Will a fresh, new interface be enough to convince people to go (back) over to MySpace? Are they changing the game?

I wouldn’t be doing my job as a multimedia designer if I didn’t at least test drive it.

Categories:

Human Experience

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Macintosh, mackintosh, McIntosh

From Grammarist:

A Macintosh (now usually just Mac) is one of a series of computers made by the Apple company. A mackintosh is a style of waterproof raincoat invented in the 1820s by Charles Macintosh (the k was added to the raincoat name almost immediately). A McIntosh is a type of red apple grown primarily in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S.

Macintosh and McIntosh are proper nouns, meaning the first letter (along with the I in McIntosh) is capitalized. Mackintosh is a common noun, so it is not capitalized. The plurals are Macintoshes, mackintoshes, and McIntoshes.

Now you know.

Categories:

Words

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