“I actually have two computers: I have the computer that I browse the Internet with that I get my email on, that I do my taxes on,” he said, trailing off. “And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine not connected to the Internet.”
—George R.R. Martin, creator of Game of Thrones
For those of you bitching you don’t have the latest and greatest [insert tool you use to make your art], keep stories like this in mind.

—Seth Godin in conversation with Debbie Millman, How Design Conference

Google’s ad ambitious may reach further than you think. In a newly revealed letter to the SEC, the company said it could someday be serving ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities,” as part of a larger point about breaking out mobile ad revenue.
—Russell Brandom, The Verge
No fucking way. Not in my house.

Dieter Bohn at the Verge on the Surface 3:

Even with these design improvements, the Surface’s core design is simply physically more complicated than a laptop’s single hinge. You will find yourself mucking about with setting the kickstand in the right place on your knees and dealing with that cover flapping about. Microsoft may have needed two years of design iterations before it could honestly make the case that the Surface can be used on your lap like a, well, a laptop, but it’s finally gotten close enough to make it. It’s just strange to think of so much design effort going into what other companies solve with a hinge. The simplicity of a clamshell is easier, but it’s also not the end-all-be-all of “getting stuff done” computing. If you buy into the benefits of a tablet computer — and there are many — the tradeoff could well be worth it.
Let’s borrow Steve Jobs’ analogy of PCs (including laptops) being “trucks.” In this world this makes tablets small coupes and/or motorcycles. The motorcycle Apple built is the iPad: more fun to use and easier to carry around. It can solve most problems, most of the time.
Microsoft tried to build a motorcycle with sidecar and a roof and small trunk to keep a spare tire. To top it off, they’ve decided they’re not going to race against other motorcycles like the iPad and the Nexus 7, but other cars like Macbook Airs and Lenovo Thinkpads and the more I read about the Surface 3 the more I’m convinced it’s not equipped to race against anyone now.
Microsoft has painted themselves into a flat, Windows 8 tile.
Microsoft wants badly to take down the iPad and they went after laptops. To be clear, this is not a pivot. This can be more accurately described as a retreat.

via Bees & Bombs

Will Oremus at Slate asks us if Microsoft’s new tablet could replace your laptop?
Luckily, he answers it:

It’s hard to know how much of this is my unfamiliarity and how much is Microsoft’s poor design, but this article took me significantly longer to write on the Surface than it would on either my Macbook or my old Windows XP desktop machine. That’s partly because Word crashed and had to restart for no apparent reason, and partly because simple tasks like copying a URL from Internet Explorer and pasting it as a hyperlink in Word took multiple rounds of trial and error.
Sounds pretty awesome.

One of the things that I am most passionate about is showing respect for the ingenuity of others. Working in an ecosystem where I am often competing very closely, it is inevitable that I will be confronted with situations where the easy thing is to match/copy/remix someone else’s ideas into my own app.

What I have found very frustrating is that I haven’t been able to define what is acceptable in a manner that comes anywhere close to the importance I think this topic demands. Too often I am left with just an I’ll know it when I see it definition.

—David Smith provides a great example of the art of remixing

I call it not being a lazy ass and using your brain to make something that resonates with you.

Microsoft, you’re killing me. You’ve just announced what looks like a killer new tablet that you’re hyping as “the tablet that can replace your laptop.” It looks like a big improvement over the Surface 2 in just about every possible way, from the display quality to the super-thin build. But for some reason, you are still insisting on selling the keyboard cover separately for $130 a pop. To use an old science fiction cliché, this does not compute.

This bothers me for no other reason than because it seems like an assault on basic logic. You are selling a tablet that is, by your own admission, meant to be a laptop replacement. You compared it to the MacBook Air repeatedly during your presentation. And yet you’re still telling customers that having a keyboard is optional for something that’s supposed to be a laptop replacement… why?
—Brad Reed, BGR
If Microsoft opened a car dealership, they’d be selling the cars without wheels.
If Microsoft were a clothing retailer, they’d be selling shirts without buttons, and pants without zippers.
I have more, should I go on?
Seriously, Microsoft, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Brilliant.

via Twitter

via Digiday

Is that not the caption to this photo? My bad.

Give it up, Microsoft. You have derailed.

From Jacob Miller:

Until I switch to a new program like Sketch, I’d like to see Photoshop improve.

Gabby Manotoc on the new Netflix logo and the rise of the flat design trend:

This flat design is in trend with many logo redesigns. Its approach is an attempt on minimalism. The Helvetica-esque typeface disregards the personality of Netflix. The company doesn’t need to be a wayfinding system; its users want it to be fun. Cinema is a form of entertainment that contains boundless levels of energy. The old logotype was reminiscent of the old Blockbuster signs–which was incredibly appropriate considering the service the company provides. The new approach is not only sterile, but it appears to have no rhyme or reason behind it.
I find it interested that at the same time as we’re seeing a surge in flat visual treatments on everything—logos, mobile user interfaces, web sites—we’re also seeing a surge in copying the old, naive type treatments from 100+ years ago. Talented designers like Jon Contino, who imprefectly draw their work out by hand, are more popular than ever (a Contino logo pairs well with a ring made from a coin from Etsy).
It’s also important to note that the fact that the new Netflix logo is flat isn’t the problem. The problem with the Netflix logo is that it isn’t better than the original. It’s not telling a story.
The same goes for the not-flat UPS logo:

The question we need to ask ourselves isn’t whether a logo is flat or not, but whether it’s good or it’s shit.

—Stan Rizzo, Mad Men, S7E6