True designers understand the design isn’t about how something looks, but how it works.
Every product that is designed is usually intended to be built and when it’s built, the look and style usually follow from the design. Of course this doesn’t always happen, as some companies merely apply a style to a product without thinking about the design.
The screenshots below are a great example of being able to tell how much design – not engineering – went into the software on each mobile operating system.
Android’s default media player:

iPhone OS’s media player:

Man do love the Beastie Boys and I always will (It’s like what Chris Rock said – whatever music you were listening to when you started getting laid, you’re gonna love that music for the rest of your life). I was sad when I heard Adam Yauch (MCA) has cancer.
Then I got pissed when I found out his moron plan to beat it:

“We are visualizing taking the energy away from the cancer, and then sending it back at the cancer as lightning bolts that will break apart the DNA and RNA of the cells,” he added. “If you have the time, please join us in whipping up this lightening storm. Mind over matter …”

Seriously MCA, what the fuck. I got news for you, meditation is not going to kill your cancer. Regardless, I wish you the best and I hope you prove me wrong.

From the Telegraph:

They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behavior and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.

And:

After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.

Via Analogue

From the NY Post:

The term “walled gardens” refers to a service or technology that restricts access only to those using that service, as is the case with Apple’s iTunes, in which music can only be played on Apple devices or through iTunes itself.

What the hell are they talking about? Apple has been selling music as DRM-free MP3’s since April 2009. I can play my tracks on any computer I want.
A more accurate slam would have been Apple’s DRM-protected video content.

via Good Old Valves

I couldn’t pass this up (via SciFi Wire):

From Electronista:

Microsoft on Thursday said it might cut the price of its Zune Pass subscription service. Senior product lead Terry Farrell wouldn’t say how certain this was or how much it might drop, but recognized that the Zune’s $15 monthly, unlimited downloads weren’t necessarily competing well. Music is a “challenging business,” he told BusinessWeek in a chat.

Because nothing is better than a shitty service, than a shitty, cheap service.

The name was suggested by Ginn’s brother, artist Raymond Pettibon, who also designed the band’s logo: a stylized black flag represented as four black bars. Pettibon stated “If a white flag means surrender, a black flag represents anarchy.” Their new name was reminiscent of the anarchist symbol, the insect spray of the same name, and of the British heavy metal group Black Sabbath, one of Ginn’s favorite bands. Ginn suggested that he was “comfortable with all the implications of the name.” The band spray painted the simple, striking logo all over Los Angeles, gaining attention from potential supporters, and thoroughly irritating police. Pettibon also created much of their cover artwork.

via Wikipedia

Here’s some events that happened on April 27th:

• 1124 – David I becomes King of Scots.
• 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 1810 – Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
• 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
• 1977 – Designer Michael Mulvey emerges from his mother’s womb after a 24-hour labor
• 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

The trouble with easy listening:

In other words, I considered listening to an album an activity in and of itself. It was not something I did while working on homework, let alone while checking e-mail or thumbing out text messages.

Remember when compact discs cost upwards of $20 each? I’m talking back in the early ninties days of long boxes.
Well, Universal Music has some news (vis iPodNN):

Universal Music Group on Thursday said it would cut the prices on most CDs to $10 or less. Known as the Velocity program, it would see album prices range between $6 and $10. The label would count on sales volume, as well as costlier deluxe versions, to make up for the lower 25 percent profit margin.

The irony is that CDs should have cost between $6-$10 dollars twenty years ago.
We were squeezed for years by the record labels with their enormous profit margins.
Now they can get the squeeze.

There’s something I’ve had swirling around my head for a while regarding Apple “fanboys” – a group I consider myself part of and most my friends would agree.
The thought is, the sales of the iPhones far outnumber how many supposed fanboys there are. Mac owners have always been a minority in the world of personal computers, but Apple ceased to be just a computer maker a decade ago. The iPod is best selling MP3 player in history. While the iPhone doesn’t have those bragging rights, as of Q4 2009 it sold over 33 million units.
People besides Apple fanboys are buying iPhones.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

• Miles Davis

Sherlock Holmes was a really good movie. It helps that I’m a fan of Robert Downey and ‘bad good guys’ that he plays (and happens to be off camera). I’m also happy to see that Guy Richie (Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) might be back on his A-game now that he’s ditched Madonna.
Film aside, one of my favorite parts was the closing credits, done by Prologue Films. They were comprised of sort cuts from the movie that transitioned into beautiful sketches on parchment paper, complete with stains, smudges and ink blotches.
Simply gorgeous.







Check the video on YouTube.