Tangible Life
Why you shouldn’t drive slowly in the left lane
As someone who commutes to work using some of Florida’s most glorious interstate highways, please share this link with anyone you know that drives slow in the left lane.
If they give you the the following justification… slash their tires.
Now, some people counter that as long as they’re going the speed limit, they don’t have to move over — and by slowing down would-be speeders, they’re making the roads safer.
New York Real Estate: Dirty Money
Many walk a fine line between showing off and staying on the down-low. Instead of putting property in their own names, they may arrange to put the names of their spouses, children, lawyers or other proxies on property deeds. Often, the buyer of record isn’t a flesh-and-blood person—it’s a limited liability company set up in a US state, or an offshore company established in the British Virgin Islands or some other overseas haven.
Not much different than the cocaine money that built the Miami skyline in the 1980s and 90s.
17 Surprising Facts Most People Don’t Know About Coffee
Just more reasons to enjoy the nectar of the gods.
End of the Rainbow
I’m certainly no “Apple insider” and I don’t have any sources to confirm or deny my theories, but that hasn’t ever stopped me from taking a few stabs in the dark a few days before an Apple announcement. I have read about the proposed “gold” or “champagne” iPhone 5S color option. I have heard it mentioned on several podcasts and I got curious enough to even go look at some of the “leaked” photos of supposed components. Based on nothing more than my gut feelings and trying to think about how Apple has operated in the past few years when it comes to supply chain management, here are my predictions when it comes to the iPhone 5S (should it carry this name).
The iPhone 5S will come in two color choices. Those choices will be “White & Gold” and “Black & Graphite”. Currently, the iPhone 5 comes in “White & Silver” and “Black & Slate”. All the articles I’ve read agree that the gold option would be paired with white components that mirror the existing “White & Silver” iPhone 5. I do not believe that Apple would offer both a “White & Silver” and a “White & Gold” option for the 5S. The majority of the articles that discuss a gold iPhone 5S propose the primary motivations are to offer customers more choices and appeal to a more global style or cultures. While I don’t disagree that the latter might be a valid benefit, I think it is more about differentiation than it is about an additional SKU for the 5S. The colors we’ll likely see with the iPhone 5C will provide enough choice for those that hold it above other core design elements.
Slightly altering the shade of the metal body and backing for the 5S makes sense for so many reasons. When the iPhone 4S launched, there was an overwhelming tone in the reviews from major media outlets that it was not different enough. This was based solely on the looks of the device. If you look at an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 4S, there is virtually no difference. The iPhone 5 launched with a larger screen that stretched the device’s overall height. The metal frame expanded to wrap around the back of the device. While many people said the design was still too similar, the iPhone 5 was a natural and beautiful progression in the industrial design that the iPhone 4/4S made famous.
When a smart and mature company has an iconic design that is as popular and striking as the iPhone has become starting with the 4, there is no reason to scrap it completely in an effort to reinvent itself. Ferrari and Lamborghini both have striking designs that are almost immediately distinguishable to even a novice car enthusiast. As new models have come and old models retired, there is a common design language that spans the brand dating back decades. Even with all badges removed, I’d be willing to bet that most people would be able to identify either of these brands from a line-up. Apple has accomplished the same thing with the iPhone. The color of the metal being different on the 5S vs. the 5 would, at a minimum, give reviewers a reason to pause and think twice about saying it looked too similar to its predecessor. By also adjusting the “slate” to a different tone and calling it “graphite”, the same occurs for both the black and white iPhone 5S options.
Lastly, Apple likes being a step ahead of the competition, especially when it comes to the design of their hardware. The iPhone 4 was the first phone to introduce a full glass front and back. A couple of years later, it was a design element that was “borrowed” by the Nexus 4 by LG. The iPhone 5 incorporated more metal into the unibody frame. HTC took notice of this trend and the HTC One was released with a full-body aluminum enclosure design. Apple will continue to push the envelope when it comes to industrial design of its products. They are running an ad in movie theaters that shows off nothing except the design of the new Mac Pro. I’d argue that the design of Apple products, and the constant refinement vs. redesign of those designs, is what makes the hardware sexy to the millions that choose it over the competition.
NSA Official Admits Agency’s Surveillance Covers Even More People Than Previously Indicated
Tim Cushing of Techdirt writing about the NSA’s testimony on data surveillance:
It’s heartening to see a few representatives stepping up to declare the NSA’s actions reprehensible.
I’d say it’s disheartening that it is only a few.
Thinking Now About Reading Later
I won’t take the time to detail each and every feature difference between Instapaper and Pocket. That information is readily available in countless reviews and comparisons on the web. They are both “read later” services which allow you to essentially bookmark articles on the web to read at some future point in time. They both strip out the ads and make the reading experience much cleaner and more enjoyable for the reader. Macro Arment recently sold a controlling stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. I hadn’t realized it until the sale, but a large part of why I used Instapaper exclusively was because I enjoyed the idea of supporting Marco’s work. With the sale, I decided to see what the other major player in the space had to offer. Along the way, I stumbled upon another option that I found worth consideration.
Pocket Change
Pocket has a lot to like. They have native Mac, Android and iOS app. Instapaper has no native Mac app, and the Instapaper web app leaves a bit to be desired visually. Pocket’s apps on all platforms are free, which most people would see as a benefit. During the last few years, I’ve come to believe that if you are going to invest your time and attention into integrating an app or service into your workflow, you should understand the relationship you have with the person or company that offers the app/service. With Pocket, the fact that the service and apps are free concerns me. They have no clear business model that I have been able to observe. This leads me to a healthy suspicion that if I put all my “read later” eggs in Pocket, I may be in the position to have to completely restructure my read later workflow again in the near future. This would likely be due to them being acquired by another company, or deciding that making any revenue in this space was not worth the effort and closing its doors.
The interface of the Pocket apps is very clean, which I enjoy. Pocket allows you to organize articles through tags, versus Instapaper’s folders. This took some getting used to for someone coming from Instapaper, but after a couple of days it was not a major issue. One annoyance is that the apps across the various platforms have slight differences in user experience that can sometimes cause confusion. Managing multiple articles at once, for example. The Android app offers a “bulk edit” feature that the Mac app does not. My brain has trouble accepting that a desktop application offers fewer features than a mobile variant.
Reading List
For a moment, I carefully considered using Safari’s Reading List feature instead of either Instapaper or Pocket. The advantages are pretty striking. It is baked into both the OS X and iOS operating systems since the Safari browser ships as the default browser on both. It is afforded system level integration that third-party services are not. Installing the “Read Later” bookmarklet for either Instapaper or Pocket is a pretty painstaking task compared to “Add to Reading List” in the share sheet in Safari. The bookmarklet installation in mobile Safari on iOS is even more of an Indiana Jones effort.
After much deliberation, there were three reasons I decided that Safari’s Reading List just wasn’t the right solution for me (though it would be a very viable one for many users):
- Reading List is only on Mac and iOS. I use an Android phone and a Windows computer at work. While about 85% of my reading happens on either my Mac or my iPad, I know I would miss the 15%.
- Reading List has no tag or folder organization methods. I archive very few of the articles that I read through any “read later” service, however, it is nice to have a method to organize the things that I feel have long-term value. The solution with Reading List would be to move any item to a bookmark service like Pinboard once it has been read. Pinboard has tags so it would not be a horrible work around, however, it seemed more complicated than either Instapaper or Pocket.
- Reading List does not format articles for “distraction-free” reading. Safari offers a feature called “Reader” that performs a similar function in this regard. What that means is that any time I would want to use Reading List + Reader to mimic the functionality of Instapaper/Pocket, I’d have to open the Reading List, click on the article, then move to the address bar and click the Reader button. That feels too much like work.
Back To The House That Marco Built
So, at the end of a month long journey to evaluate where my loyalties and preferences reside with regards to reading articles later, my choice is a return to Instapaper. I’ll be deleting the Pocket apps from my various devices and re-installing the Instapaper apps. I’ll miss the native app experience on my Mac (I’m aware of the Words app, but don’t care much for it). I’ll miss being able to put the same article in multiple categories via tags. What I will not miss is having the constant paranoia that Pocket is going to be sold or shut down tomorrow. I won’t miss the lack of font and theme options (Instapaper really shines here). I won’t miss wondering if Pocket is making money mining my reading habits and selling them to the highest bidder.
I don’t know what the future holds for Instapaper either. The service was recently sold and the company that now owns the control of Instapaper’s future, Betaworks, also bought Digg not all that long ago. They could decide to merge the two products or combine features across them that make Instapaper something different than what I want it to be. That’s the risk I’m willing to take.
(Re)building a simplified Firefox logo
Simplifying a style doesn’t always mean bringing it down to basic geometric shapes and solid colors. You can in fact bring simplicity to a visual by better balancing color, contrast, shape, and detail. To that last point, we removed quite a bit of detail in this latest revision but purposely added more detail where needed to accommodate today’s high resolution screens. The simplification process not only focused on the look but also the structure by making it SVG compatible and more accessible for the broader Mozilla community.
Great advice.
My lunch with Dieter Rams
Andrew Kim details his interactions with Dieter Rams. I couldn’t help but notice the design of his cane in the photographs.
Facebook’s Android App Vacuumed Up Your Phone Number Without Permission
Facebook just confirmed to ReadWrite that it did store the phone numbers of its app users as the result of a bug that it fixed in the latest version of the app, which it released today. (In beta, naturally.) Facebook said it has deleted the numbers it inadvertently logged.
Another reason I’m glad I ditched Facebook.
Why Coffee is Called “joe”
Say hello to Josephus Daniels, former secretary of the US Navy and namesake of the proverbial cup of joe.
Tech & Joe just didn’t feel right.
How Music Affects Productivity
I listen to music most of the time that I spend working. The playlist changes based on what type of work I’m doing. If I’m doing analysis or code writing, I usually elect for an instrumental set (movie scores by Hans Zimmer are especially awesome). If I’m writing or processing email, something with guitar is best for me (can range from The Beatles to Bon Iver). Going through tickets in our bug tracking system is Daft Punk or 2Pac time.
19 apps that already look perfect for iOS 7
But Apple certainly didn’t invent a completely new aesthetic on its own. Rather, designers seeking to differentiate themselves from the outdated Apple-defined aesthetic have been slowly moving towards a new global aesthetic consensus for some time. Here are 19 apps that were fully there before Apple showed iOS 7 to the world.
12 Obsolete Technologies Americans Still Use
- Pay Phones
When I see someone using a pay phone, I assume they’re doing something illegal.
The Sidebar in Your Blog is Hot Garbage
Eric E. Anderson having a frank discussion on blog sidebars over on Medium:
15 recent tweets. Blog archive sorted by year and month. Tag cloud with all the tags. Ads. Lots of ads. Search box. Social profiles with links to all your social networks. Pictures of all your friends. 9 recent Instagram and Flickr posts. Stop me when we reach something relevant to the article I’m reading in your blog.
I agree with the above excerpt. The same thoughts where the driving force behind the first T&C redesign. I continued to iterate on simplification with the current version. I want the content to be clean and not have other elements on the site competing for a reader’s attention.
I think the more interesting tidbit is that Eric is a template designer at Squarespace (where T&C is currently hosted). They make sidebars so simple to implement, but it is refreshing to know that the design team has their own sensibilities on the subject.
The Roastery of Cave Creek
Found this over at Those Who Make:
I can only imagine how inspiring it must be to make a product you truly believe in that brings others joy. Next time you have a cup, think of David Anderson and others like him.
How to Make a Vesper: Design
Dave Wiskus writing on the Vesper blog1:
Vesper is opinionated software. Every interaction, pixel, and line of code was carefully considered, and no work was too precious to throw away.
No matter what your opinion of Vesper is, this account of the painstaking attention to detail shows that the Q Branch team didn’t ship a single pixel that was not mindful of the product they set out to make.
Thanks to the Internet Wayback Machine for keeping this link alive.↩︎
History of Typography
The amount of time it took to make this shows how passionate the creator is about typography.
The next generation of Instapaper
Marco Arment announcing the acquisition of his Instapaper on his blog:
I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff, and develop it further.
Being upset that Marco is selling Instapaper would be the same as being upset that he ended his Build & Analyze podcast. The biggest difference is that Instapaper isn’t ending, at least not anytime soon if the contract is written with as much focus on the future as Marco indicates in the post. I’ve been a happy Instapaper user/subscriber for a long time and I don’t plan on jumping ship now.
I have noticed a growing interest around the competitor Pocket, mostly since their last redesign and the launch of their Mac desktop application. My concern with Pocket has always been that I didn’t need to pay to use their service. Lately I’ve started to seek out services and applications where I have a clear picture of the relationship. I pay for your application, I get to use the application and you get to feed your family. With someone like Pocket, I have to question why they’re giving me such an awesome service for free. Are the articles and videos that I save to read/watch later with Pocket being sold to for market analysis? Is that data being provided in an anonymous format or does it tie directly back to me? These are all reasons that I’ve stuck by Instapaper, even when something pretty like Pocket strolls by.
Congratulations to Marco and I look forward to his future efforts.
Sushi Etiquette
I knew most of these, but I’m guilty of the following every time I eat sushi:
Never mix wasabi in with the soy sauce. Sushi should be prepared with the proper amount of wasabi directly on this fish. If, however, you would like more, simply apply it directly to the fish.
How To React When Your Boss IMs You
Hilarious post from Tanner Ringerud over at BuzzFeed.
Pfft. Wasn’t even worried.
Design Tips For Developers
Developers shouldn’t feel like they need to get an arts degree to have a working understanding that gives designers a leg up with their work. All it takes is a general understanding to be able to cooperate in creating great web design.
The three tips that Luke Clum highlights are some of the most basic. They also represent what is lacking in many applications on mobile platforms. I’m often frustrated by an app that does everything but the design correctly.
Matt Groening’s Artwork for Apple
Jeff Miller, an engineer at Apple during that time, recalls that Groening did the poster in exchange for a LaserWriter, which retailed for many thousands of dollars back in the 80s.
Fun to think how much different Apple ads could have been had The Simpsons not taken off.