Wil Gieseler’s spot-on observation on iOS 7:

On previous versions of iOS, it was extremely difficult for a developer to implement a blurred background. On iOS 7, this effect is everywhere.On previous versions, using the accelerometer burned through the battery, so using parallax effects was a big energy trade-off. On iOS 7, this has been promoted to a system-level feature, and they’ve optimized the entire OS stack around making this particular feature as battery-efficient as possible.

That’s dedication to skeumorphism.
It’s funny how many of the people bitching about the superiority of “flat” design aren’t arguing it as a design methodology, but as a style.
In iOS 6, UI elements merely look like cartoon-y, physical objects. In iOS 7, Ive has made them behave like elements inhabiting a three dimensional space.
It’s the difference between modifying a Honda to look like Ferrari and building an actual Ferrari.
I’ll take the latter.

via Brand New

This was my takeaway from Man of Steel.
Superman is totally cool with collateral damage.
Early in the movie Superman’s father, Jor-el, tells him, “You can save them all.”
Right, except for the millions Superman killed while he was smashing General Zod through buildings in Manhattan.
Which reminds me, can we lay off destroying New York in movies for a few years? Shit.

Powerful track and I’m really digging those gritty background graphics:

I find it humorous HTC is calling this normal-sized phone their One Mini.
It reminds me of how American fast food joints and movie theaters call enormous soft drink cups small.
I guess when you have more and more people inhaling huge cups of Coca Cola and getting obese in America, the HTC One Mini is a small phone.

Farhad Manjoo says you won’t finish reading his article on Slate (via The Verge):

I’m going to keep this brief, because you’re not going to stick around for long. I’ve already lost a bunch of you. For every 161 people who landed on this page, about 61 of you–38 percent–are already gone. You “bounced” in Web traffic jargon, meaning you spent no time “engaging” with this page at all.

So now there are 100 of you left. Nice round number. But not for long! We’re at the point in the page where you have to scroll to see more. Of the 100 of you who didn’t bounce, five are never going to scroll. Bye!
Still there?

Cap Watkins smartly observes iOS 7 is unpolished by design.
Matt Mullenweg’s 2010 post on this topic keeps getting better with age:

Many entrepreneurs idolize Steve Jobs. He’s such a perfectionist, they say. Nothing leaves the doors of 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino without a polish and finish that makes geeks everywhere drool. No compromise!

I like Apple for the opposite reason: they’re not afraid of getting a rudimentary 1.0 out into the world.
Most of the noise you see right now surrounding iOS 7 is in reaction to veneer, to styling, not to design. If you watch the demo videos of iOS 7 on Apple’s site, you’ll see there’s been fundamental human interface changes to the operating system beyond the Helvetica 45 light and semi-transparent panels.
I haven’t even brought up the most obvious point: Most people complaining about iOS 7 haven’t even used it yet.
Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

Mike Rundle says iOS 7 Went Too Far In The Other Direction
People weren’t happy with the over-indulgent skeuomorphism in iOS and and now people still aren’t happy.
I’m with John Gruber that the skeuomorphic training wheels needed to come off, iOS 7 looks beautiful.
If you create anything—music, art, writing, computers, whatever—listen to criticism (if you want, good criticism does exist), but trust your gut and do what you think is best.
Like Andy Warhol says:

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.
Remember, Rolling Stone magazine trashed Led Zeppelin’s first album when it came out.
Screw what people think.

“One of the finest protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.”
—Alain de Botton (via swissmiss)
This is one of the reasons I’m not going to be bummed when my Kickstarter project misses it’s funding goal next Friday.
I have a lot of creative things cooking right now.

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.
Is coming back.
*I love that he drives Dave Letterman in a 750 Volvo wagon. Ha.

—Bo Dahlbom

Talks At Google recently had Daniel Dennett come in to speak about some of the topics in his book, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (via The Verge).
It’s really interesting even though a good chunk of it was over my head. It’s about 35 minutes long with about 25 minutes of Q&A.
I love this quote by Dennett’s student Bo Dahlbom on thinking tools:

Just as you cannot do very much carpentry with your bare hands, there is not much thinking you can do with your bare brain.
Sounds eerily similar to the Steve Jobs quote that fueled my Kickstarter from last year:
A computer is like a bicycle for our minds.
Brains are cool.
Brains using tools are even cooler.

Like recipes being passed down through generations in a family, Microsoft is determined to continue to confuse the shit of out consumers:

Upcoming Windows 8 devices with small displays (under 10 inches) will come bundled with Office 2013 Home & Student, a version of Office that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. If you walk into a store later this month and purchase Acer’s 8-inch Windows 8 device you’ll get the free version of Office, but if you opt for a 10-inch Windows 8 Acer tablet you won’t. Alternatively, if you opt for a 10-inch Windows RT device, like the Surface RT, you will get a copy of Office that also includes Outlook RT. If you purchase a 7- or 8-inch Windows RT device when they’re available you’ll also get a free version of Office. If it all sounds confusing, that’s because it is.
I was naively optimistic to see Microsoft start fresh with Surface and Windows 8.
Oh well.

Interesting theorizing by Dustin Rowles on Mad Men:

Look, I’m not saying you should put much stock in this theory (unless it pans out), because I’ve clearly lost perspective. I’m officially giving Matthew Weiner way too much credit. But then again, in all the reading about Mad Men I do, I’ve also noticed that a lot of critics are coming around to the theory I had after the season’s opening episode that Don Draper may die at the end of this season, although I still maintain that it will be a death of the Draper identity, and not of the body; he’ll reclaim his Dick Whitman identity after Megan dies.

But what if Megan is already dead? Is it possible? Let’s examine the compelling evidence.
via Flavorwire