'The Art of the iOS Icon'

A good app icon can make all the difference. These take that to the next level.

Entrepreneurial Slumber Party

Entertaining story of a young entrepreneur who set up camp inside AOL's Palo Alto headquarters and refused to fail:

This was his routine: He'd work until midnight or later, and then fall asleep around 2 a.m. on one of the couches. At 7 a.m. -- and no later than 8 a.m. so he'd be safely out of his field bed before anyone else arrived -- he'd wake up, go down to the gym for a workout and a shower, and then go back upstairs and scarf a breakfast of cereal and water or Coke. Then he'd work all day, finally waiting until everyone else in the building had gone home before returning to one of his three favored couches.

'Who uses Digitimes as a source?'

Stephen Hackett did some digging to see just how often Digitimes gets referenced as a source.

Turns out a lot.

His finding aren't scientific but it's interesting none the less. I have to wonder why he stopped after only 10 sites? (Not counting The Loop for obvious reasons.)

The first interesting article from Paul Miller since he quit the internet

Paul Miller and 40,000 ultra-Orthadox Jews gathered at Citi Field for a rally about the internet:

And this leads us to the most unsettling part of this event. For all the talk of holiness, it’s hard to not hear a call to ignorance as well. The ultra-Orthodox community’s rejection of the internet might be voluntarily, but it’s also being heavily promoted by its leaders, who dictate through their encouragement and admonishment much of an ultra-Orthodox Jew’s daily life. Some equate this to China or Iran or North Korea, who limit the internet to keep their people ignorant of freedom.

Religion has to be the most powerful, interesting invention of mankind. 

MacSparky on how to deal

David Sparks with some advice for dealing with Apple Rumors:

Sadly, the Apple rumors just magnify everything that is wrong with the Internet’s busted click to pay advertising model and Apple rumors will continue as long as people can make a few pieces of silver on it. What we can do, however, as a community, is not click, not cover, and generally ignore this fictitious digital vomit.

'This isn't Fun Anymore'

Harry Marks nails it:

This isn’t fun speculation anymore. This has mutated from harmless wondering and hoping for something new from Apple into “reports” and “confirmations” and other false truths about a product no one has even seen yet.
[…]
I’m tired of this and I know I’m not the only one. I don’t care what everyone is saying the screen size is going to be - they don’t know and neither do their rarely-accurate sources. What I do know is that Apple isn’t going to disappoint. It hasn’t with the past five iPhones and it won’t with the sixth.

As I’ve said before, all these rumors do is ruin the magic of Christmas morning.

Apple and 80s Fashion

Apple’s 1986 collection of clothing is absolutely awesome:

Before Steve Jobs opted to give himself a minimalist uniform of jeans and a turtleneck, before the lowercase “i” nomenclature became standard at the computing company, Apple had a line of clothing for its staff to peruse. […] The ad copy is about as hilarious as the imagery, for instance, one description of a sweatshirt begins with, “After a rough day windsurfing…”

About those new Macs

The Mac refreshes are coming. Thanks to the Apple rumor mill, we all know it. But what the hell is taking so long? At first I thought Apple was waiting on new chips from Intel. But now those are ready and still, no new Macs.

Then an internet pal mentioned on Twitter that maybe Apple is holding off on the hardware refresh until Mountain Lion ships, which isn’t until sometime late this summer. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen Apple hold the release of hardware due to software. The iPhone 4S was three months late and it certainly wasn’t because of difficulties with the 15-month-old hardware design. iOS 5 and Siri simply weren’t ready in time.

If Apple were to release new MacBooks and iMacs next week, every one would have an outdated OS in just a few months. I don’t think even Apple could get away with milking another $29.99 out of customers for an OS update weeks after they’ve forked over $1000+ for a new Mac.

I feel we’re going to see updates across Apple’s entire hardware line-up; new Mac Pro, new iMac, new Mac Mini, new MacBook Air, new MacBook Pro. It only makes sense for Apple to ship all that shiny new hardware with new software, too.¹

1. That is unless Apple plans to take the iOS route and give away major OS X updates for free. I see that as the direction Apple is headed, but I don’t think it’s going to happen this year. ↩

Google Acquires Motorola

After nine months of regulatory scrutiny, the Motorola deal finally closes. 

I for one hope Google goes against everything it said about putting a firewall between the two companies. Motorola is in desperate need of some special treatment and customers are in desperate need of some kick-ass stock Android phones.

The Samsung Galaxy Huge

Watch David Beckham hold a Samsung Galaxy Note up to his face:

What, they couldn’t get Zach Morris?

Motorola still doesn't get it

Motorola chooses to not upgrade its less-than-a-year-old phones to Android 4.0 because it won't improve them.

This is why Android is losing. It has nothing to do with market share or profitability or device sales and everything to do with the experience.

Lego Art

You really can build anything.

Version 2.0

I used some much needed downtime last week to give this place a design I can be happy with. There's still a few big things I have planned, but it's a start.

For those reading this in their favorite feed reader, take a minute to visit the site. Let me know if there is anything you don't like, or if you just want to say, hi.

Signal to Noise

Joshua Topolsky writing for The Washington Post:

While news sources have grown exponentially more varied over the past 10 years, knowing and trusting those sources has become a more difficult. Sites such as the Huffington Post can produce astounding journalism, but they also can produce a lot of, well . . . junk. And noise.

I would say Topolsky's very own The Verge is just as guilty of this. They are capable of some seriously in-depth features with thorough original reporting. But they also reblog and rehash the tabloid-like rumors with the best of them.

The Scamworld piece I linked to last week was great, shit like this however, not so much.

The thing is, Topolsky is in a unique position to do something about this, but is he really? As I said the other day, The Verge publishes close to 500 articles a week; are they really worth anyone's time?

More on Kids and Code

Gabe at Macdrifter penned another good response to the previously linked Jeff Atwood article on (not) learning to code:

The presumption has been that teaching these basic topics also provides basic problem solving and critical thinking skills necessary to participate in society in a constructive way. Language provides communication skills. Math teaches us rules based problem solving. History teaches a sense of place. Science teaches general problem solving. By gaining a basic understanding of each area, a new graduate could competently perform a number of basic jobs.

Our social needs have out grown our educational curriculum.

The times they are a-changin’.

'Please Learn to Write'

Rands in Repose has a good response to Jeff Atwood’s article arguing that not everyone needs to learn code:

However, there is a language you could master that teaches many of the same lessons, appears far more forgiving in terms of syntax, and has immediate broader appeal.

The language you can learn is your own.

Any class I took outside my journalism major reminded me just how much people suck at writing. “Oh, I suck at writing,” is almost a catch phrase.

Writing, like anything worth learning, is far from easy. But even so, I couldn’t believe how many college level students were utterly incapable of stringing together a coherent thought.

Teaching kids computer science is great; teaching kids how to write is vital.

Digital Analogs

Seth Godin on parking meters:

Why do I have to guess how long I’m going to be parking? Why pay a penalty if I underguess, or waste community resources on patrolling for compliance?

Of course, I don’t care much about parking meters. I care a lot about using digital shadows of real world devices because we don’t have the imagination to reinvent them.

Things don’t have to be the way they are just because that’s how they’ve always been. Once we realize that we can change the world.

iPad and Education

Frederico Viticci at MacStories on the iPad and education:

People like Fraser Speirs are proving that, beyond analysts and blog posts, a better education for our kids is possible, today, every day, with a device that’s making kids eager to learn.

The iPad is an amazing tool that can enhance any learning environment, but I don’t think it’s yet a viable replacement for traditional desktops and laptops in schools. It poses a great opportunity for the future of teaching, but at the same time it’s scary to think of an entire generation of kids growing up on iPads only. (I’d say tablets but why bother.)

Only the most affluent schools have the ability to support fleets of both iPads and desktops, so for most it’s going to be one or the other. I’m not sure if the iPad is the right choice just yet. But I have no doubt that someday it will be.

Also watch the video Apple made on Frasier Speirs school wide iPad deployment

I wrote some thoughts on the iPad and education after the Apple textbook announcement in January.

War and Peace

People are weird. And for no real apparent reason, some of those people have power. Some are born into it; some take it. But they're people, no different or smarter than you and I.

Jason Kottke linked to an interesting video today showing a time-lapse of the ever changing national borders in Europe over the last 1000 years.

The lines between these imaginary territories people created are in a constant tug-of-war, passed around from one powerful man to the next, fought for and won with the lives of common men.

It reminds me of Game of Thrones. When a certain lord gets shortened by a head, his son and entire nation rise up against the crown. Blood for blood. War, all because one guy with some power killed another guy with power. Thousands die now because when the high lords play their game of thrones, the realm bleeds.

Real life isn't much different. People are always at war and always have been. Religion, land, love; there's always something to fight for. So much so that war is the norm and peace the unusual. Individuals may be peaceful and kind, but nations are unforgiving and destructive. When people get together in large groups strange shit starts to happen and we can't play nice.

Usually because the ones in power want more, or don't want to give it up.

Those Pesky Facts

They'll get you every time. Dave Caolo on the 'quick as shit' to reblog tech media:

I can forgive HuffPo for this gaffe, as it appears to have been the starting point. Its writers simply got it wrong. But BGR parroted the story without hesitation (as did many others). Plus, as of this writing, BGR hasn’t updated its headline or story.

This happens all the time.

You could find a shining example of this every single day.