Good lord, this stuff is beautiful. (via Just A Car Guy)

So Microsoft dropped their new phone/phone OS today. Their press release has a fair share of bullshit biz-speak, but it also has some honest words.
For one, it’s one of first times they acknowledge Android and iPhone by name, but the clincher is the last sentence of the last paragraph (my emphasis):

Microsoft is so committed to the new phone that it has arranged for every full-time employee worldwide to be able to switch to the new phone as soon as it launches in their market. And while executives say they are thrilled with the final product, they also acknowledge there is a lot more to be done. When the phone is released, they plan to enjoy the moment – but not for long. “There’s so much more of Microsoft we’ve got to bring out in the phone,” says Myerson. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

You’re over 3 years late to the smartphone game, damn straight you have a lot of work to do.

Most people are reasonable, that’s why they only do reasonably well.

–Paul Arden, Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite

Finally we’re getting around to rethinking the shape of cameras.

If you’re still using film cameras, great. Some of my friends still do and the results are awesome.

But if you’re using a digital camera, there’s no film, so the camera can be any shape you want.

Canon’s 4K concept camera is pretty interesting (via Gizmodo):

I’ve been noticing a trend, or should I say, a resurgence in both actual and virtual products that are gritty, worn, vintage, retro and authentic. It’s always been around, but much more pronounced these days.
Perhaps I’m more in tune with this than other people because I’ve always been attracted to the aesthetic. My personal brand, The Combustion Chamber – and by extenstion, Daily Exhaust, are both inspired by vintage cars, car parts, manuals and ads. We are all programmed to perceive the world through pattern recognition. It’s like when you buy a car, you start to see that model everywhere you go. It doesn’t matter if it’s popular or rare, you’re now tuned to see it more because it’s more important to you.
Even acknowledging my weakness for said aesthetic, I still think this renewed interest in things that look and are analogue is real and it’s bubbling up into popular culture. I see it in everything from clothing, to TV shows, to web design, to advertising to mobile application design.
Is it not expected, though? We’re at a point in history where the United States doesn’t make anything anymore. We import goods from China and export our jobs to India. Fewer things are real these days. People break up with their partners via text message. We have hundreds of Facebook ‘friends’ but few real ones. We’ve tossed aside the pencil and paper for an iPad ‘Notes’ app – complete with virtual yellow lined background.
People long for things that have history.
They reminisce of the days when things where real and made by hand.
Below are examples, some big names, some unknown to most, but all have passed through my radar:

Mad Men

Obvious, but can’t be overlooked. Mad Men has renewed interest in everything that made 1960’s New York what it was – The Old Fashioned, men who wore suits, women who wore dresses (and had the curves to fill them) and simple, purposeful product design. Matthew Weiner‘s attention to detail is incredible.

Levi’s – We Are All Workers

Levi’s kicked off a campaign in 2009 entitled ‘Go Forth’ that featured a 1800’s inspired typographic style that tried to appeal to that good ol’ American spirit. They transformed this campaign into ‘We Are All Workers’ for 2010.
From their press release:

Amid today’s widespread need for revitalization and recovery, a new generation of “real workers” has emerged, those who see challenges around them and are inspired to drive positive, meaningful change. This fall, with the introduction of Go Forth ‘Ready to Work’, the Levi’s® brand will empower and inspire workers everywhere through Levi’s® crafted product and stories of the new American worker.

*also see Coolhunting: Levi’s Workwear x Billy Reid

Gilt Manual

The popular ‘flash’ sale retailer launched this site recently with the aim to be ‘The Daily Guide to Permanent Style’. As of this writing (1 Oct 2010) headlines include: Broken in Denim You Bought Raw and How to Stock You Bar for Fall.
*also of note:
Barking Irons on the Bowery
AllSaints Spitalfields
Cool Hunting: Levi’s Workwear
Hostem (via Cool Hunting)
Put This On
Modern Anthology

From their about page:

Modern Anthology is a creative studio and retail store specializing in original deign, one story at a time.

The DUMBO outpost of Modern Anthology hosts a retail store that curates a unique selection of vintage furniture, home and personal accessories and well-crafted clothing that reflects an experienced and masculine lifestyle.

found via FastCoDesign

So Blackberry announced their foray into the tablet market with their PlayBook.
John Gruber wonders if it even exists (via Singularity Hacker).
Sounds very similar to what I wrote about last year with the LG Chocolate Phone. I had a feeling it was vaporware, and that the real product would let me down.
I was right.
Let’s see if RIM can prove me wrong with the PlayBook.

From Digital Kitchen for BMW:

“Do you want a car story or a life story?” Murray is first in a series of documentary shorts we created telling the stories of real people and their connection to the BMW brand.

Beautiful.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong.

–Author C. Clarke (via Seth Godin)

WSJ: RIM Readies Its Answer to iPad

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. could unveil its new tablet computer–as well as the operating system that will power it–as early as next week at a developers’ conference in San Francisco, said people familiar with RIM’s plans.

The tablet, which some inside RIM are calling the BlackPad, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year, these people said. It will feature a seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras, they said.

Sorry, but how are they going to ready their answer to the iPad when they can’t even answer the iPhone?
And I truly hope ‘BlackPad’ is an internal name.

Exposition Monet 2010 – All I have to say is wow.

Simply poetic – the execution, transitions, music and obviously Monet’s work.

As my good friend Jory says, try doing this with HTML5 and Javascript.

(via Forgotten Hopes)

Paul Krugman on the Angry Rich:

These are terrible times for many people in this country. Poverty, especially acute poverty, has soared in the economic slump; millions of people have lost their homes. Young people can’t find jobs; laid-off 50-somethings fear that they’ll never work again.

Yet if you want to find real political rage — the kind of rage that makes people compare President Obama to Hitler, or accuse him of treason — you won’t find it among these suffering Americans. You’ll find it instead among the very privileged, people who don’t have to worry about losing their jobs, their homes, or their health insurance, but who are outraged, outraged, at the thought of paying modestly higher taxes.

NYTimes: The Evolution of Classroom Technology

All of the devices they feature are beautiful, but I was particularly interested in how similar the shape of the school slate is to the iPad:

And I always find, yeah, I always find somethin’ wrong
You been puttin’ up wit’ my shit just way too long
I’m so gifted at findin’ what I don’t like the most
So I think it’s time for us to have a toast

Let’s have a toast for the douchebags,
Let’s have a toast for the assholes,
Let’s have a toast for the scumbags,
Every one of them that I know
Let’s have a toast to the jerkoffs
That’ll never take work off
Baby, I got a plan
Run away fast as you can

–Kanye West, “Runaway”
I watched the MTV Video Music Awards on my DVR the other night. It was the normal MTV crap that reminds me of why I don’t watch MTV (I’ll spare you the standard, 30-something guy tirade of MTV-doesn’t-play-music-anymore).
But something came at the very end that hit me in the brain. It was Kanye West’s performance of his new track, “Runaway”. Somehow he performed magic, at least on me. I started singing along to the song around the second chorus. I work with a ‘jerkoff that’ll never take work off’ and by toasting this guy, I experienced a pop-infused, fleeting catharsis.
Why the hell am I toasting the douchebags, assholes, scumbags and jerkoffs while I chuckle and smile?
This post isn’t about me trying to put Kayne on a pedestal, but whether you like him or hate him doesn’t matter – the dude is smart. Mark my words, but you’re not just going to find me singing this song. You’re going to be seeing people sing this all over the place.
If you’ll indulge me a bit more, I’ll give you the backstory. At last year’s VMAs, Kanye jumped up on stage in the middle of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video. This created a good meaty meme, a meme my friend and I were more than happy to run with.
So now 2010 rolls around and everyone’s speculating what will go down. Will Taylor fire back? What will Kanye do?
Not only did he admit fault, but he also admitted, ‘we’ve been putting up with his shit way too long’ AND made a great track out of it. Did I mention the performance and stage design was off the chain too? From the lonely piano key dings to the red suit and red sneakers to the white stage, it was hip-hop meets Kubrick.
As Richard Dreyfus told us in Apple’s “Crazy Ones” commercial:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things…

Again, I’m hardly saying Kanye is up there with Gandhi and Jim Henson, I’m just saying he’s crazy, a troublemaker and you can’t ignore him.