I know the tension in the air is so thick you could cut a knife with it regarding the iPhone launch next week (at least it is in Manhattan), but I have one more thing I have to ask:
Is typing on the iPhone’s on-screen QWERTY keyboard going to be THAT much more difficult than what it takes to squeeze out a message on a standard 12-digit cell phone?

I don’t know if its because I’ve had a Treo for 3 years, but I just HATE having to type out text messages on a keyboardless mobile phone like Motorola RAZR. The whole process of shuffling through three letters per number digit is torturous.
I bring this topic because of these headlines I’ve seen:
Will the iPhone be undone by its keyboard?
Apple iPhone: All Eyes on the Keyboard (Or Lack Thereof)
Keyboard iPhone not good enough
The iPhone will flop because of the keyboard
Ok I’m done. Enough of this speculation.

l.v.10, originally uploaded by stoptimephotos.

I’ve discovered a Flickr Group made just for me – Art of Classic Cars (DETAIL SHOTS ONLY!). Love it.

Touch-Screen Phones Poised for Growth – Wow. Ya think? You figure Apple would have thought of something like that already.
Gates, Pace Say More Casualties Ahead in Iraq – But Bush doesn’t like using stem cells. Let’s em get killed fighting a bullshit war. Makes so much sense.
EMI sales climb on iTunes Plus plan – See you pea-brain, old fart, music execs?
Yang replaces Semel as Yahoo CEO – Bout time.
Microsoft claims faster patches than Apple – I hope so Microsoft, WIndows has more holes than a spaghetti strainer, and more susceptible to viruses than a whore. … You ‘win’, ok?
Since we’re talking about MS, this is great:

Things Fall Apart – by Devoid of Yesterday. (via k10k)

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Ladies – you’re not allowed to wear sandals or any other fashionable, toe-exposing footwear if you haven’t had a pedicure. If you have nasty feet, keep em covered.
This holds true for the guys too. If your feet look like Godzilla’s … I don’t want to see them.

A Really Big Show | The New York Times – “Vincent Laforet describes the process of making a series of tilt-shift photographs at sporting events. The feature allows users to view images at a significantly larger size.” (thanks Larrick)

Photo by Vincent Laforet

Studio Output – nice transitions, clear, very readable.

Screengrab: Studio Output website

After a long lapse in shooting photos, I got back out on the streets of New York with my Canon Rebel and shot some photos. I brought along with me my telephoto and 50mm lenses (like the one we used to have on our Pentax K1000’s in college, damn that sounded old).

A beautiful, shiny Cutlass in the East Village.

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Most of the articles I’ve come across regarding AT&T’s stipulation that an iTunes account is required for iPhone setup are pretty negative. People seem to be under the impression that Apple has some sort of evil intention, or trying to lock them into something.
From Engadget:

This should come as no surprise to those familiar with the practices of Apple, who regularly confines its users to fairly enclosed systems out of “ease of use” or “privacy” concerns, but anyone who was hoping to manage the iPhone and its contents with open and free (as in speech) software should probably give up hope now.

Despite all the outcries from haters, this is actually a good move, and particularly beneficial to the owner of the iPhone, regardless if they buy anything from the iTunes Store.

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Comment overheard between 2 Human Experience people today:
“Did you decide on radio buttons or check boxes?”

Looks like CNN, has started posting links to its new Beta site. The new site has definitely been simplified and is much less cluttered, but doesn’t seem to have eliminated those ‘Latest News’ short absurd news headlines, like “Tests show zilch about dead whale shark”.
Guess I can’t have it all.
Check out screengrabs after the jump below.

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The Mill – Showreel 2007 (via theFWA) – Like, wow. Nice stuff.

iPods to blame for total eclipse of the art, says Hockney (via Engadget)

Speaking on the eve of his 70th birthday, Britain’s best-loved living painter said the proliferation of iPods – Apple has sold more than 100 million worldwide – and other digital music players has combined with a decline in art education to create a “fallow period of painting”.
“We are not in a very visual age,” Hockney said. “I think it’s all about sound. People plug in their ears and don’t look much, whereas for me my eyes are the biggest pleasure.

Dude, Hockney, what are you talking about? Not a very visual age? I guess Hockney has only been watching the proliferation of iPods and hasn’t been observing plasma/LCD television sales. Or computer displays, or time spent playing video games by people 13 to 40.
The reason we’re in a ‘fallow period of painting’ is because everything has been done in visual arts. Occasionally I’ll see a contemporary artist doing a good rehashing of abstract expressionism or minimalism, or something faintly resembling the collages of Robert Rauschenberg.
We might be in a fallow period of painting but I’ll bet you sales from painting retrospectives are high. The great art exhibits I can recall recently are all retrospectives the most recent being Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years and Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967-2005 .
It’s the end of an era for painting. What will be interesting is to see what comes to fill the void.

USA Networks has some nice typography and design/grid consistency going on across all their sites and series. Thanks for the heads up Dalematic.

The New Disruptors (via Business 2.0)
The Minister of Information (via Kottke)

Microsoft’s PowerPoint software is an all-conquering monster of crumminess, a threat to life as we know it. Most of all, if you are making a presentation, you can probably say everything you need to on a single folded sheet of eleven-by-seventeen copy paper, and you ought to.

IA’s are History (via Design View) – true?

Information Architects are often put on the defensive by spears flung by peers and brethren in elated disciplines. In taking the accusations seriously and accepting the truths within them, Grant Campbell reveals our greatest strengths – shallowness, insularity, and being “relegated” to history.

Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos

On professional behavior:
“You don’t think. You disrespect this place. That’s the reason why you were passed the fuck over.”