Back in March 2007 I shut down my MySpace account. It was the end of a social media era for me and a lot of other people too. A year earlier I had joined Facebook and it was clear Facebook had a much better understanding and social media than MySpace did.

As everyone has seen, MySpace is back and they posted a beautiful demo video of it. And as far as I know, it is just that, a demo. Justin Timberlake owns a controlling share of the company (hence his strong presence in the demo video) and he seems intent on bringing it back to glory.

It brings to mind the current state of Windows 8. Despite it’s fresh Human Experience in mobile computing and non-skeuomorphized GUI, Microsoft is having a bitch of a time getting traction in the market. At the end of the day, Windows 8 isn’t ‘changing the game’. At the end of the day, they have a fullscreen, multi-touch display smartphone with cellular functions, video/music playback, mapping and texting. Just like everyone else.

Will a fresh, new interface be enough to convince people to go (back) over to MySpace? Are they changing the game?

I wouldn’t be doing my job as a multimedia designer if I didn’t at least test drive it.

Influencer: Swiss Railway Clock, designed by Hans Hilfiker, 1944

Influenced: Apple World Clock (iPad), introduced with iOS6, September 19, 2012

From Grammarist:

A Macintosh (now usually just Mac) is one of a series of computers made by the Apple company. A mackintosh is a style of waterproof raincoat invented in the 1820s by Charles Macintosh (the k was added to the raincoat name almost immediately). A McIntosh is a type of red apple grown primarily in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S.

Macintosh and McIntosh are proper nouns, meaning the first letter (along with the I in McIntosh) is capitalized. Mackintosh is a common noun, so it is not capitalized. The plurals are Macintoshes, mackintoshes, and McIntoshes.

Now you know.

via FBU

Last year filmmaker Nirvan Mullick made a film about a 9-year-old boy, Caine, who had made a cardboard arcade in his dad’s auto body shop in LA. The film was called, Caine’s Arcade.

The film’s goal was to raise $25,000 for Caine’s college fund. He ended up getting well over 4 times that amount.

The non-profit Imagination Foundation was spawned from the film:

The Imagination Foundation is launching the first ever Global Cardboard Challenge, inviting the world to play while raising funds to foster creativity and entrepreneurship in kids.

September will be the month to organize and build, then on October 6th (the one-year anniversary of the flashmob that came out to make Caine’s day) friends, family, co-workers and community members can come out to play at local events, celebrating the creativity and imagination of kids around the world.

Pretty awesome.

On a related note, my wife and I moved to LA in April and I’m embarrassed to say I still have not been to Caine’s Arcade.

It’s been 6 years since I’ve updated my portfolio. I decided to do it on Behance.net.

It’s been long overdue.

I decided to go ahead and install iOS 6, despite my decision a few days ago to wait (Who the hell am I kidding? I’m a huge geek and I’ve been using computers since I was 4 years old).
The reason? The more I read about mapping technology and listened to podcasts where people were discussed it, the more I realized I wouldn’t be helping the situation if I just sat out of the game.
As many people reminded me, some technologies, including mapping, can only get better when people are allowed to use it. Break it. Point out flaws in it. Mapping is one of those technologies. Google has been doing maps for 7 years (that’s 2 years before the iPhone launched). They’ve had a big head start in collecting data, improving it, adding amazing features like StreetView I’ve come to rely on. But they didn’t launch with StreetView, or transit directions or the high(er) fidelity satellite images they have today.
Now, for better or for worse, Apple has decided to build their own mapping service (At this point all we know is Apple had a 5 year licensing contract with Google for their Maps data and they didn’t renew the contract). It might not be as bare bones as Google Maps was in 2005, but it needs a lot of work.
I discovered the link in Apple’s Maps app you need to click on to ‘Report a Problem’. It’s too subtle in my opinion:

So far, from the few routes I’ve plotting between places here in Los Angeles, nothing looks wrong, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled.

The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.

—William Gibson

Interior of a 1966 Berlinetta Willys Interlagos

via asaucerfullofwheels