I’ve been binging on display typefaces lately. I think it has to do with having jumped back into print design over the last few years.
My latest find? Sahara Bodoni.
I spotted it on this old Barbara Walters book cover (see below) posted over at Brain Pickings. What a gorgeous typeface. Barbara didn’t look too shabby back in the day either.
Reminds me of Anne Bancroft from The Graduate.
This week Michael and Bryan discuss how age affects HRT (Hangover Recovery Time), LeBron James, Microsoft’s lack of strategy, Windows 7, GIF having a hard “g” and the fact that Bryan’s computer gremlins have been with him since college. F!ck those gremlins.
Weekly Exhaust, Episode 8
Apple and IBM Forge Global Partnership to Transform Enterprise Mobility
Microsoft, you can move forward with those layoffs. Keep up the innovation.
[For you kids who didn’t know, that guy in the picture is Steve Jobs, the founder and former CEO of Apple computer. He’s giving IBM a big fuck you.]
I’m loving this analysis of Microsoft by John Kirk on Microsoft.
His premise is Microsoft ignores every rule of warfare in how they decide to compete with products made by other companies.
Like when Microsoft took on the iPod with the Zune:
From a strategic standpoint, Microsoft’s move to create the Zune was inane and bordering on the insane. Its strategy:
– 1) Obliged Microsoft to betray its existing allies (hardware manufacturing partners);
– 2) Required Microsoft to abandon its greatest and most powerful weapon (licensing software to hardware manufacturers);
– 3) Compelled Microsoft to fight with unfamiliar weapons (hardware);
– 4) Forced Microsoft to fight on the battlefield of its opponent’s choosing and where its opponent could could leverage its strongest assets (integrated software and hardware).
And then again with Bing:
Google was founded in 1998 and soon became a very real threat to Microsoft. A response by Microsoft was appropriate and called for…but not the response Microsoft made. As usual, Microsoft went right at ’em by challenging Google where Google was strongest and where Microsoft was nonexistent — in search.Let’s examine this from a strategic perspective:
1) Attack opponent where opponent is strongest. Check.
2) Attack opponent with a weapon with which you have little or no expertise (search engine/machine language). Check.
3) Attack opponent where they live, thus guaranteeing that they will they will be inspired to fight with desperation in order to ensure their very survival. Check.
4) Attack where even success gains you little or nothing. Check.
For too long, Microsoft has been in reaction mode to every other company doing something innovative (and profitable).
It begs the question, what do they really love to create? What are they good at?
Ultrasonic Gesture Recognizer developed by Chirp Microsystems
hat tip @HelenSitu
When factoring in smartphones, tablets and other gadgets along with traditional PCs, Turner estimated that Windows is only on around 14% of them, which is obviously a vastly different reality from the one that Microsoft faced 10 years ago when Apple was mostly known for producing the iPod and when Google was just a very popular search engine.
—Brad Reed, Reality sinks in for Microsoft
Adjust uses the term “zombie app” to describe an app that doesn’t get measurable attention to regularly receive rankings in the top lists on the App Store. In June, 953,387 apps out of the 1,197,087 available ones (or 80%) were zombie apps, up from 75% in December 2013 and 70% in June 2013.
These percentages may seem high, but the low number of downloads is driven by the fact that app discovery is still a major issue for developers. With 60,000 apps added to the App Store every month, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for apps to stand out. With 60,000 apps added to the App Store every month, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for apps to stand out. According to Adjust, only one-fifth of apps were sufficiently visible in June.
—Samantha Murphy Kelly, Report: Nearly 80% of Apps in Apple’s App Store Are Basically Lifeless
George Carlin said, “Kids are like any other group of people: a few winners…a whole lot of losers.”
Same goes for apps.
*The 80/20 Rule aka the Pareto Principle
I’m still on Instagram.
These are awesome.
BGR.com headline: Motorola explains why it made the Moto 360 so sexy
The Moto 360 is a sharp looking hardware/software combination, but I can’t get past the fact the display is not actually a circle. No, you see that sliver of black at the bottom of the display? Yeah, that’s where the display ends:
Tell me this: How does a company release a product, where the whole premise is the fact that it’s display is a circle but not actually make the display a complete circle?
That sliver of non-screen is an eyesore, like Christian Bale’s eye wart. Oh, you didn’t know about his eye wart? Now you’ll never not see it.
