Often, I’ll flag a story for discussion or posting and then forget about the article. Here’s such an article. A couple months ago, The Unofficial Apple Weblog published a very interesting story detailing the timeline of the iPhone:
The only applications loaded in by default were SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Calculator, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Notes, Clock, Phone, Email, Safari, iPod and Settings. While the list may seem impressive typed out, there weren’t even enough applications to fill the whole screen. There certainly weren’t the 50,000 applications that are available today.
Steve Jobs and company told us from the beginning there wouldn’t be an SDK. Instead developers were encouraged to write web apps, taking advantage of the iPhone’s great mobile browser. Obviously people weren’t happy with this arrangement, and jailbreakers (including our own Erica Sadun) got to work shoehorning in native applications with no help or documentation from Apple.
I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us iPhone geeks next summer!
The New York Times last week released an awesome, and I do mean awesome, interactive graph of how people spend their day. You can break-down the graph by group (e.g. men, women, age, etc.) and isolate specific activities (e.g. work, sleep, computer use, etc.). I learned that at 11:10pm, 1% of Americans are using their computer and 66% are sleeping. I’m about to join the latter.
I heard about this a while back, but recently, I finally saw for myself the special summer packaging for Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies at Target. This packing is both retro and sparse. How fun!
Ritz crackers (regular packaging on left, special packaging on right):
Pizza Hut recently launched a free iPhone app. A really cool iPhone app:
I downloaded it and, after I had to sign up for an account on PizzaHut.com, played around with the app. Very impressive and fun to use. The ad says the app is a “revolution in mobile ordering.” I agree, and I’d love to see more of this.
I learned something new about my Mac tonight. While I was reading an article online, I wanted a quick way to look up the meaning of “fiat.” I knew that in Safari, if you highlight a word and right-click, an option in the resulting menu allows you to look that work up in the native dictionary app:
Also, with a highlighted word in Safari, you can choose Safari > Services> Look Up in Dictionary:
But I’m using Firefox, and in Firefox, neither of these options are available. I learned by experimenting, though, that I could highlight a word and then drag it to the dictionary app icon in my dock. The dictionary opens up and reveals the definition of my word. I love finding little usability gems. Put this one on the list.
Curiously, though, none of the store-brand items in either of the two Stop & Shop stores I stop and shop in adopted this new branding. I don’t know if other stores in more heavily-shopped areas adopted the new branding sooner, but finally this week, when I was milk shopping, I noticed the Stop & Shop milk jugs were rebranded (old design on the left, new on the right):
Here’s a closeup of the new label:
The cartons have been redesigned as well:
And:
A quick check on the other Stop & Shop items in the dairy case yielded one more find:
The new packaging finally makes use of the Stop & Shop rebrand, and the simplification and unification of the visual elements on the packaging offer a greater sense of visual unity and cohesion with the brand.
I hope this cohesion is extended to their line of shredded cheese because it’s a mess:
I was first introduced to someecards a couple years ago by a friend in grad school (thanks Gloo!), but I was recently reminded of them by a CNN article highlighting funny-haha websites. Someecards are like your normal ecards, but the sayings on their ecards are part-funny and part-biting-satire with a healthy dose of inappropriateness thrown in and an occasional sprinkle of political wit.
From their website:
Someecards.com is possibly to probably the best site on the Web for free, funny ecards. We have greeting cards for every occasion-from important to utterly pointless. Send greetings for apology, birthday, baby, breakup, congratulations, encouragement, farewell, flirting, friendship, get well, sympathy, thanks, thinking of you, wedding, workplace, and holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We suggest you e-mail them to friends, family, coworkers, loved ones, liked ones, and anyone else with fingers.
Recently, the Hall of Presidents attraction at Disney World was updated to include President Obama. Historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin was consulted by the Disney Imagineers for historical accuracy. Here’s a bit on the making of the updated attraction:
And here’s a behind-the-scenes video of recording Obama:
There are many more additions to the show to see. For one, now George Washington speaks, for the first-time ever at the Hall of Presidents, delivering a historic address inspired by a speech he gave on the occasion of his second inauguration, when he described his feelings about being elected by the people to be the first president. And the show now concludes with a choir singing “America the Beautiful”-a moment guaranteed to put a lump in the throats of Guests.
In addition, Pam [Fisher, the Senior Show Writer and Director for the Hall of Presidents] explains, Imagineers have taken the opportunity to give the show its first facelift and sprucing up since 1993. “All the costumes have been refreshed, and some beards and wigs have been replaced. We’re using new digital systems-including video projection, the lighting system, and the show control system. We even have new curtains!”
Gizmodo this weekend linked to a survey of Palm Pre users that shows they want a feature of the iPhone that perhaps drove many of them away from the iPhone:
Smartphone users just don’t know what they want. One of the biggest, loudest complaints about all-touchscreen phones like the iPhone is its lack of a hardware keyboard, and now a survey shows Pre users most want a soft keyboard.
The lack The beauty of not having a hardware keyboard on the iPhone is that it’s there when you need it and gone when you don’t without you needing to physically alter the device to get the keyboard as the OS on the iPhone hides and reveals the keyboard for you. No pesky sliding that you may or may not be able to do with one hand, no worries about switching the language on your device should you need to and not having the proper keyboard to match, no reason to manufacture separate devices with keyboards for specific languages, etc.
A coworker at lunch yesterday was opening a banana, and I mentioned to her banana opening is surprisingly easy when doing like monkeys to: from the bottom. Many years ago, I saw a primate at a zoo opening a banana not the way most humans do from the stem but from the opposite end, and since then I’ve adopted this more efficient method. I figured primates ought to know a thing or two about bananas.
Today, as I was looking through Lifehacker’s recent articles in Google Reader, I came across this video:
If you don’t already use this method, learn something from our primate cousins and try it out next time you’re eating a banana. Human see, human do.
If you love trivia and don’t mind wasting at least an hour of your time, check out Sporcle. The website’s tagline is “mentally stimulating diversions” and is 100% accurate. I take no responsibility for lost productivity if you click on that link. Please don’t be like me and waste almost two hours on the site! But let me know if you beat my score on any of these quizzes:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
To the men and women who made the American dream and the American way a possibility for us all, thank you. Your valor, your dedication, and your sacrifice to this country and its people is honored today and every day. Thank you for making it possible for the rest of us to enjoy hot dogs and fireworks today.
The updated Firefox icon is based on sketches and conceptual artwork by Jon Hicks and Stephen Horlander. It is also of course an evolution of the previous rendering of the Firefox icon which was created by Jon Hicks, based on a sketch by Stephen DesRoches and the creative direction of Daniel Burka and Steven Garrity.
This new logo was created by Anthony Piraino from the Iconfactory and is a marked improvement to the iconic logo. The old rendering was good, suitable, and memorable. The new logo retains the old logo’s feel and makes definite design improvements, rendering the fox smoother and with enhanced shading. Although not drastically different than the old logo, the new logo doesn’t have to be. The old logo worked; the new one works better.
New Firefox logo:
Old Firefox logo:
What I find more interesting about the updated Firefox logo is the transparent design process: Faaborg documented the process on his Mozilla blog giving readers updates and a peak into the behind-the-scenes back-and-forth of the process. On his blog, Faaborg shared the Firefox team’s Creative Brief in preparation of the logo update:
In addition, Faaborg shared several iterations of the design while Piraino worked with the Firefox team to update the logo:
As well as the final iteration in context:
Many thanks to Faaborg and the design team for posting these images for all the world to see. Allowing us to see this usually internal process is both enlightening and fascinating.
iPhone OS 3.0 is finally here today. Sometime today, that is. I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning whose parents told him he has to wait until after church to open his presents–the presents are there, I know they’re there, but I can’t have them yet. We know the upgrade happens today, but we have to wait until Apple deems us worthy. Ahh! The suspense!
Zagat has published their 2009 Fast Food survey, and the best fast food burger belongs to In-N-Out Burger. This comes as no surprise to me. I rarely eat fast food in fact, I eat it so infrequently, I might as well say I never eat it.
But there’s just something magical about In-N-Out. When I was visiting my sister in Arizona this past February, we made sure to grab a burger one night. Perhaps a good thing for me, In-N-Out Burger only has locations in four states: California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.
What makes In-N-Out special is they’re a no-nonsense fast food joint they do three things: burgers, fries, and shakes. That’s it. No pretend-healthy food, no chicken or fish. Just the basics.
My In-N-Out meal:
Mmm. I think I may have to open a franchise on the east coast!
I’ve been listening to Michael Giacchino’s score for Land of the Lost, and something I noticed on my very first listen was a curious quotation of a motif from another Giacchino score. Subtly included 19 seconds into the second track “The Lighter Side of Archaeology” is one statement of the island motif from the TV show Lost, also scored by Giacchino. Curious. And subtle. But the motif is definitely there. I wonder why.
How’s the rest of the score? More later, but the short answer is if I were making a movie, Giacchino would be scoring it.
MG Siegler at TechCrunch argued this weekend for a Genius feature for the iTunes App Store, similar to how the Genius feature for music and movies already works.
The problem is that while early on, it was pretty easy for small-time developers to make an app and get it noticed in the store, now with 50,000 apps, we’re getting to the point where you need to do something else to promote your apps. That’s good news for big time development studios like EA, which can throw marketing money at the problem. But for some smaller developers some of which are just one person that’s simply not an option. But there is one potential solution, and it’s one Apple already has built-in to iTunes: Genius recommendations.
So, like the music and movies Genius feature, the App Store Genius would give recommendations for other apps you might be interested in based on what you have as compared to other similar users.
What a terrific idea, and I find it hard to believe a) Apple hasn’t already thought of this or b) this isn’t in the works already if the Genius feature, originally only for the music store, was recently extended to the movie store. iPhone and iPod touch users knowing what other apps they might also like could open an additional stream of revenue, no? Hard to argue against instating a feature to bring more cash in.
I know I would find this helpful. I used to subscribe to a couple RSS feeds that listed new apps, but I quickly found I couldn’t keep up with the volume of new apps that came in. That volume is great for Apple, but bad for users who can’t keep track of the apps and bad for small-time developers who can’t get their apps noticed.
With a Genius feature, more apps will be exposed to more users, resulting in a win for users, a win for developers, and a win for Apple. Perhaps there’ll soon be an app for that, too.
Every morning, I receive dictionary.com’s word of the day in my inbox. Usually the word is something that I know I’ll never use, and I’m likely to forget the word ten minutes later. Sometimes, though, the word sticks, either because the definition is either useful or humorous, or because the word is just fun. Today’s word falls into the latter category because it’s just fun to say: prestidigitation. The word means the “skill in or performance of tricks; sleight of hand.” I’ve been repeating this word all day.
An example of part B of the former category (a word with a humorous definition) would be the word of the day from 19 June 2008: defenestrate, which means “to throw out of a window.” There’s actually a word in the English language for throwing something out of a window. How terrific. I now use this word at work when I want to throw my work computer out the window err, defenestrate my computer because it isn’t working properly. Look out below.
Google Maps recently made a huge usability improvement to their Street View technology. To “drive” along the street, you had to continuously click an arrow that moved them incrementally along the street. Now, you can double click an area on the street and fly to that location (or even double click on something along the street to zoom in). A huge usability improvement.
