Everybody is getting their panties in one, big, collective bunch over the icons in Apple’s beta version of iOS 7.
What about Sony?

What the fuck is on that little screen?
I can tell you what isn’t on that screen: consistency, sophistication and any semblance of a design system.

Micro advertising. Yay!
(title refers to this scene)

Samsung, June 2013 (via The Loop):

Samsung Electronics has decided to ditch its unprofitable desktop PC business and devote itself to tablet computers and all-in-one laptops, company officials said Monday.

“Demand for conventional desktop PCs is going down,” said a Samsung Electronics official. “We will allocate our resources to popular connected and portable devices.”
Steve Jobs, 2010:
…and this transformation is going to make some people uneasy. People from the PC world, like you and me. It’s going to make us uneasy because the PC has taken us a long ways. It’s brilliant. And we like to talk about the post-PC era but when it really started to happen I think it’s uncomfortable for a lot of people because it’s change and a lot of vested interested are going to change and it’s going to be different.
That Steve was full of shit, huh?

I’ve posted some new prints for sale up at Society6.
I have to say, I’m really digging how the illustrations look on the iPhone cases.

Wil Gieseler’s spot-on observation on iOS 7:

On previous versions of iOS, it was extremely difficult for a developer to implement a blurred background. On iOS 7, this effect is everywhere.On previous versions, using the accelerometer burned through the battery, so using parallax effects was a big energy trade-off. On iOS 7, this has been promoted to a system-level feature, and they’ve optimized the entire OS stack around making this particular feature as battery-efficient as possible.

That’s dedication to skeumorphism.
It’s funny how many of the people bitching about the superiority of “flat” design aren’t arguing it as a design methodology, but as a style.
In iOS 6, UI elements merely look like cartoon-y, physical objects. In iOS 7, Ive has made them behave like elements inhabiting a three dimensional space.
It’s the difference between modifying a Honda to look like Ferrari and building an actual Ferrari.
I’ll take the latter.

via Brand New

This was my takeaway from Man of Steel.
Superman is totally cool with collateral damage.
Early in the movie Superman’s father, Jor-el, tells him, “You can save them all.”
Right, except for the millions Superman killed while he was smashing General Zod through buildings in Manhattan.
Which reminds me, can we lay off destroying New York in movies for a few years? Shit.

Powerful track and I’m really digging those gritty background graphics:

I find it humorous HTC is calling this normal-sized phone their One Mini.
It reminds me of how American fast food joints and movie theaters call enormous soft drink cups small.
I guess when you have more and more people inhaling huge cups of Coca Cola and getting obese in America, the HTC One Mini is a small phone.

Farhad Manjoo says you won’t finish reading his article on Slate (via The Verge):

I’m going to keep this brief, because you’re not going to stick around for long. I’ve already lost a bunch of you. For every 161 people who landed on this page, about 61 of you–38 percent–are already gone. You “bounced” in Web traffic jargon, meaning you spent no time “engaging” with this page at all.

So now there are 100 of you left. Nice round number. But not for long! We’re at the point in the page where you have to scroll to see more. Of the 100 of you who didn’t bounce, five are never going to scroll. Bye!
Still there?

Cap Watkins smartly observes iOS 7 is unpolished by design.
Matt Mullenweg’s 2010 post on this topic keeps getting better with age:

Many entrepreneurs idolize Steve Jobs. He’s such a perfectionist, they say. Nothing leaves the doors of 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino without a polish and finish that makes geeks everywhere drool. No compromise!

I like Apple for the opposite reason: they’re not afraid of getting a rudimentary 1.0 out into the world.
Most of the noise you see right now surrounding iOS 7 is in reaction to veneer, to styling, not to design. If you watch the demo videos of iOS 7 on Apple’s site, you’ll see there’s been fundamental human interface changes to the operating system beyond the Helvetica 45 light and semi-transparent panels.
I haven’t even brought up the most obvious point: Most people complaining about iOS 7 haven’t even used it yet.
Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

Mike Rundle says iOS 7 Went Too Far In The Other Direction
People weren’t happy with the over-indulgent skeuomorphism in iOS and and now people still aren’t happy.
I’m with John Gruber that the skeuomorphic training wheels needed to come off, iOS 7 looks beautiful.
If you create anything—music, art, writing, computers, whatever—listen to criticism (if you want, good criticism does exist), but trust your gut and do what you think is best.
Like Andy Warhol says:

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.
Remember, Rolling Stone magazine trashed Led Zeppelin’s first album when it came out.
Screw what people think.

“One of the finest protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.”
—Alain de Botton (via swissmiss)
This is one of the reasons I’m not going to be bummed when my Kickstarter project misses it’s funding goal next Friday.
I have a lot of creative things cooking right now.

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.
Is coming back.
*I love that he drives Dave Letterman in a 750 Volvo wagon. Ha.