America’s most beautiful college libraries
Wow. I want to visit all of these.
The importance of learning from your competition
Steven Sinofsky:
Gotcha. Traitor. Snicker. Those were some of the reactions when people discovered that I was using an iPhone. I stand before you accused of using a competitor’s [sic] product and I plead guilty.
Moving beyond the gotcha blogs, there’s an actual reason for using technology products and services other than the ones you make (or happen to be made by the company where you work/ed). I think everyone knows that, even a thousand tweets later. The approach in many industries to downplay or even become hostile to the competition are well-documented and studied, and generally conclude that experiencing the competition is a good thing.
Learning from the competition is not just required of all product development folks, but can also be somewhat of a skill worth honing.
A lot of great points in this post. Losing Sinofsky was definitely Microsoft’s loss.
“When it comes to torture, I trust the woman who spent three years married to James Cameron.”
Hilarious opening segment from last night’s Golden Globes.
My mini iPad mini review
Disclaimer: I haven’t bought an iPad mini, but I probably will in the coming weeks. This short review comes from reading all of the other reviews online and playing with the device in an Apple Store for a little while. I have also used all of the other tablets I mention.
Apple released the iPad mini this past Friday. Instead of a 10-inch Retina display like the current iPad, the iPad mini sports a 7.9-inch non-Retina display. This means that the display is smaller and the device can be held comfortably in one hand, but there’s a tradeoff in terms of screen quality. If you’re used to the incredibly detailed display quality of the third-generation iPad and newer iPhones, you’ll notice pixelation on the iPad mini. It’s especially apparent when reading text for long periods of time, so take that into consideration if you’re contemplating a purchase.
I am all for the idea of a smaller iPad, and Apple has executed its first miniaturized tablet very nicely. The iPad mini will get much better as its updated each year, and there’s no denying that Apple has put forth an admirable effort this first time around. The iPad mini feels rock solid in your hands. It’s scarily light, yet it also feels strangely durable.
Numbers Don't Lie
Wired:
About 11,000 people read our Microsoft liveblog coverage Monday morning in just over an hour. By contrast, our liveblog coverage of Apple’s iPhone 5 launch in September brought in nearly 360,000 visits in a hour, and an Apple gathering last week to announce the new iPad mini and other products (an event that Apple also livestreamed) drew just over 75,000 readers.
Microsoft has some catching up to do in more ways than one.
Battening down the hatches for Hurricane Sandy. Stay safe, NYC friends.
Love this design. It costs $22 + shipping.
Get Letterpress in the App Store if you haven’t already. It’s boatloads of wordy fun.
The Wachowskis and 'Cloud Atlas'
The main challenge was the novel’s convoluted structure: the chapters are ordered chronologically until the middle of the book, at which point the sequence reverses; the book thus begins and ends in the nineteenth century. This couldn’t work in a film. “It would be impossible to introduce a new story ninety minutes in,” Lana said. The filmmakers’ initial idea was to establish a connective trajectory between Dr. Goose, a devious physician who may be poisoning Ewing, in the earliest story line, and Zachry, the tribesman on whose moral choices the future of civilization hinges, after the Fall. They had no idea what to do with all the other story lines and characters. They broke the book down into hundreds of scenes, copied them onto colored index cards, and spread the cards on the floor, with each color representing a different character or time period. The house looked like “a Zen garden of index cards,” Lana said. At the end of the day, they’d pick up the cards in an order that they hoped would work as the arc of the film. Reading from the cards, Lana would then narrate the rearranged story. The next day, they’d do it again.
The New Yorker has a fantastic profile of the Wachowskis and Cloud Atlas, their upcoming film. After reading, I’m even more excited to see it.
Keyboard shortcuts sync via iCloud in iOS 6
Still one of the most underrated features in iOS. A great find by my buddy Jeff.
Kevin Rose And iPhone Nano
Buzzfeed has put together great history of iPhone rumors and how they panned out. I forgot how instrumental Kevin Rose was for spreading rumors in the early days. Also, that terrible iPhone Nano rumor just won’t die.
“This is the new unleashed iPhone 5 back plate, you should be honored having the chance to produce it”
They have a quite different experience with the iPhone over in China.
Q:Alex, Just wanted to get some advise on your views regarding which iOS photo editing app on the iPAD that you would prefer? Snapseed or iPhoto for iOS? Thanks for your input and time? -Jeremy, Colorado Springs
Anonymous
Snapseed all the way for editing. It’s hands down the best out there. iPhoto for management, especially if you also use iPhoto on the Mac.
