Apple Inc. Closes At $775 Billion Market Cap via Twitter

This week Michael and Bryan discuss Bryan’s computer woes (again), Palm V’s and Dope Wars, dirty snow in NYC, Apple’s supposed plans to make a car, self-driving cars, subways, Bill Murray, and the Oscars. The episode opens with the exhaust from a 1970 Ford Gran Torino King Cobra Boss 429.

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Taken from the awesome movie, Birdman.

The Verge: Former GM CEO warns Apple against making cars

Dan Akerson, who ran General Motors for less than three and a half years, issued a stern warning to Apple this week against making a car. In an interview with Bloomberg, he noted that making cars was hard. “A lot of people who don’t ever operate in it don’t understand and have a tendency to underestimate,” said Akerson, who has held no other executive positions in the automotive industry. “They’d better think carefully if they want to get into the hard-core manufacturing,” he said of Apple. “We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into car. They have no idea what they’re getting into if they get into that.”

This sounds very similar to what former Palm CEO Ed Colligan said about Apple’s entry into the phone market in 2006:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.’

Is Apple going make it’s own car? Are they going to buy Tesla?

I don’t know.

I just know I’d love to be a fly on the wall in Apple’s labs because they’re working on some awesome stuff. Guaranteed.

Image taken from Twitter

via Next Draft

Portrait of a Letterpress Printer from • of two lands • on Vimeo.

Last week BGR posted this infographic of where all of Apple’s revenue comes from:

It’s important to emphasize the story that isn’t being told in the above image:

All the revenue from the Mac, iPad and iPhone are inextricably linked to the “minuscule” revenue from Services. The ‘Services’ category includes the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and the OS X App Store.

If you remove Apples services, everything else evaporates.

Canalys on Android Wear devices:

Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands. Though the Moto 360 remained supply constrained through Q4, Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. LG’s round G Watch R performed significantly better than its original G Watch, while Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. Pebble meanwhile shipped a total of 1 million units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014. Continual software updates, more apps in its app store and price cuts in the fall helped maintain strong sales in the second half of the year. ‘Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables.’ said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones.

Language is important.

Shipped does not mean sold.

I’d love it if some of these Android Wear vendors strapped on some balls and bragged about how many devices they sold.

—R. Buckminster Fuller via Form & Construct

See last post.

As I get older I catch myself having more and more jaded and cynical reactions to things around me. It’s just what happens to certain people when they get older. This doesn’t make being jaded and cynical a good thing. Case-in-point: Co.Design’s headline and review for Cooklyn’s identity system:

Is This The Most Brooklyn Branding Ever? Aruliden’s Visual Identity For The New Restaurant Cooklyn Is Almost So Trendy It Hurts.

Perhaps nothing captures brand Brooklyn more completely than aruliden’s communication design for Cooklyn (that name!), with thick stationary watermarked by an old-timey map, copper accents, and a logo reminiscent of a cattle brand. The business cards are embossed with an elegant art deco copper overlay on one side and historical cartography on the other side. The minimalist logo features the sans serif letters CKLN clustered together as if they’re attached to the business end of a branding iron. Even the clipboards on display have precious copper accents. Aruliden arranges every component of the visual identity together with wooden blocks and cylindrical copper paperweights that look like they fell out of a general store from 1889. It’s the kind of pure, artisanal wood-and-metal-and-marble aesthetic that pairs well with a thick slab of bacon and tufts of ironic facial hair.

Lazy and corny name aside (Cooklyn, really?)—what beautiful gold foil, watermarks and typography. Those trendy assholes at aruliden created a top notch identity system, how lame! Shame on you!

If beautiful design systems like this are what we think warrant negative reviews, we have problems. There’s more businesses than not that would be lucky to have an identity system this thought out.

Update: Over at Designer News, Matt Legrand reminds me of Co.Design’s track record of click-bait-bullshit articles.

This week Michael and Bryan discuss John Wick, Guardians of the Galaxy, synthetic diamonds, car racing season, Bryan’s bricked PS4, developers & designers working together, accurately estimating freelance jobs, restaurant websites, miscreant Wikipedia editors, global warming, the shortsightedness of humans and rental cars. The episode opens with the exhaust from a Porsche 356 Sebring.

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Regarding the last post on antiwork.