Dan Frommer asks the key ‘why’ questions about Windows Mobile phones from Nokia:

• Why should any person buy this instead of an iPhone or the preferred Android phone du jour?
• Why should carriers favor Windows phones over Android or Apple phones, in either their in-store sales techniques and marketing?
• Why should carriers or consumers favor Nokia Windows phones over similar Windows phones from Samsung, HTC, etc.?
• Why should developers make apps for Windows or Nokia phones?

Windows Mobile phones are swimming a red ocean. So what is a ‘red ocean’ you ask? From Wikipedia:

Red Oceans are all the industries in existence today–the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. Hence, the term red oceans.
Red oceans are the opposite of blue oceans:

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today–the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

Apple established the new smartphone paradigm (full touchscreen, no keyboard, multitouch UI) with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 that Google subsequently copied with Android. Apple’s modus operandi since Jobs returned has been about focusing on blue oceans. Untapped markets.

Now Microsoft and Nokia are entering the market with the Windows Phone 7 platform, a platform that introduces a unique approach to the user interface.

Despite their fresh approach, they’re still in a red ocean. Boundaries and known and rules are understood and as Frommer notes, they’re going to continue to have a hard time distinguishing themselves in this already crowded market.

Randy Murray thinks about cloud computing and the end of updates:

We’ve already gone past the point where we have to go out and buy updates on discs. Now we download and update. And soon your device will update itself as it sits unused.

For some this may be frightening. We need to think long and hard about trusting all of our data to others. We need to think seriously about maintaining our own media and backups.

While he expresses caution, overall he’s excited about the freedom such a move to the cloud affords us.
I too am pro-cloud, and currently use iCloud and DropBox on a regular basis, but I’m also cognizant of what I sync. I’m also not a criminal, so I don’t worry about being caught doing something.
As I’ve written about before, though, I’m also I strong believer in keeping things on the Ground as well as in the Cloud. My music files, my photos, my videos, my documents, my designs — all my stuff is in my possession on my own external hard drives. On the ground.

Co.Exist is a Fast Company initiative that focuses in on ideas and innovation that are changing the world.
The editor of the site describes it like this:

This site is focused on groundbreaking innovation, innovation that’s going to change the way we live and the resources we use. We’re for brash and creative solutions, that make everyone rich while helping the people of the world lead lovely, clean, and fulfilling lives.

We look forward to making this a Daily reading at the Exhaust.

Wax seals and letterpressed identities via Graphic Exchange

Microsoft is a company run by engineers. Engineers love science fiction, right? (ok, I do too)
So instead of focusing on the technology issues of today they make movies about possible tomorrows.
It’s fun, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
No, that ugly, bloated non-future-y Office and Windows pay the bills.
* see also Daring Fireball, here, here and here.

(image via thisisnthappiness.com)

For over half a century now Hasselblad has been proud to offer the world’s most comprehensive system for medium format photography. The basic idea behind our system – combining a love of photography with a mastery of technology – is as valid today as it was in 1948 when the first Hasselblad camera was introduced. And we intend to keep it that way.

We as designers strive for our solutions to be elegant, so what’s interesting about this story is how it seems to suggest that the most elegant solution, in certain situations, might not be creating anything new at all. Lightness is to be found in substitution or recomposing, not in rote addition.

• Frank Chimero

A new documentary on Charles and Ray Eames is already making it’s way around the States.

via kottke

Simon Garfield was recently interviewed on the CBC about his new book Just My Type: A Book about Fonts.
Conversations about Typography have usually lurked in the shadows. This is the first interview I have come across that takes the talk into the mainstream.
Here is the interview:

or
Here

Fortune shows us just how much more productive Apple is than the rest of the tech industry:

In the quarter that ended in September — not its best, mind you — the company generated sales of $28.3 billion and net income of $6.62 billion, or nearly $110,000 profit per employee.

Yes, Apple’s products are great, but that’s just part of the story. They’re also extremely efficient at how they go about creating those products.
Good design is efficient (this should really be in Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles for Good Design).

When I come across links I want to comment on and post to this site, sometimes I’ll email them to myself from my iPhone. It’s not the most elegant process, but it’s simple and it works.
The problem comes when I open said link on my laptop.
This is what I see.
I was listening to an episode of The Talk Show with John Gruber and Dan Benjamin earlier this year and Gruber made a great suggestion. He said in the same way a regular webpage knows to serve you the mobile-optimized version when you’re on your phone, the opposite should also be true – when you open a mobile-optimized version of a web page on your desktop computer, it should know to redirect you to the regular version.

This is why I always wait to buy my latest gadgets, even from Apple:

Today, my iPhone died after about 8 hours–not even enough to get me through a full day without recharging (and this is typical). This was not 8 hours of constant use (unless you count the constant pinging of notifications, which may be the culprit). It was 8 hours total from the time I unplugged it in the morning and took it with me until the screen went black at around 4 PM. According to the specs, the iPhone 4S is supposed to get 200 hours of standby time, 8 hours of talk time, and “up to 6 hours” of Internet use on 3g. During the day, I made half a dozen calls less than 5 minutes each, used the Internet for an hour on the train (email, Twitter, light Web browsing), and then maybe another 90 minutes throughout the day.

My rule of thumb when upgrading operating systems for my desktop Mac and my iPhone and when buying new hardware is to just wait. There’s no correct number, but most of the time this means waiting 3-6 months.
Usually in that timeframe bugs have been fixed software patches have been released.
Most of my non-techie friends automatically assume I’m first to get any new Apple product. While I’m aware of the latest developments in the tech industry on a daily basis, I wouldn’t call myself bleeding edge when it comes to purchasing gadgets.

I’d like to welcome my good friend Jory Kruspe to Daily Exhaust. He’ll be contributing posts on design, film, music … who knows!

What I do know is he’s a passionate designer and he’ll be bringing a unique perspective to this site.