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Surfin’ Safari: Introducing CSS Gradients
WebKit now includes support for gradients specified in CSS. The syntax looks a bit confusing for us designerly types, but massive kudos to the WebKit team for continuing to embrace the “browser wars” mentality, offering exciting new toys for designers and developers to play with, while at the same time maintaing interoperability with other browsers. Now, if we could just get Opera, Mozilla, and Microsoft on board, we’d probably see some fast and furious innovation in the CSS arena.
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Twitter, no doubt.
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Apple releases Safari 3.1
The new Safari build includes several items of interest to cutting-edge web designers and developers: CSS animations, HTML 5 audio and video elements, and downloadable fonts.
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The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry
A nice story at Wired. Back when the iPhone was released, I said it was the most revolutionary device since 1984. I now believe that more than ever. It’s not because I believe in a couple years, everyone will have an iPhone (they might, but I doubt it) — it’s because of the way the iPhone has shaken up the mobile industry so much — already.
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Rumor: Jay-Z launching record label with Apple
If this is true, it’s both incredibly smart for Apple and incredibly huge for the music industry. Here’s hoping.
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Jonathan Ive set to succeed Jobs as Apple CEO?
While I’m not sure Ive has the charisma and “star power” of Steve Jobs, he certainly does have Jobs’ extraordinary vision and taste (Jony might even best Steve in these areas). I’m not 100% sure Ive is the man, but I can’t think of anyone better, either.
The bottom line is, there’s not going to be anyone who can fill Steve’s shoes. Ive has a better chance than most.
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Apple retail stores announced for fiscal ‘08
Apple’s adding several new stores, including one right in my old stomping grounds: 119th and Roe in Leawood, KS (a Kansas City suburb). This seems like a great location for an Apple retail store, as Johnson County is filled with the type of upper-middle class brand whores that probably loves them some Appley goodness (and I can say that, because I’m one of them, having grown up there). :)
According to Wikipedia, Leawood’s median incomes for males is $90,546.
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Leopard Stacks “overlays”
This is a freaking great idea. Sadly, it’s a pain in the ass to implement, so I won’t bother. But this is exactly the sort of thing Apple should have built-into Stacks to make them better. I love the concept of Stacks, but the implementation is definitely lacking. I’m sure it’ll get better over the next few releases of OS X — just like everything else has.
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Spotlight Strikes Back: In Leopard, It Works Great
Matt Nuberg on what makes Leopard’s Spotlight so great. I agree with every word: Spotlight in Leopard is freakin’ badass. Love it.
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ideasonideas: Microsoft repositions to kick ass
As someone who was there through the 90s — the time when the word “Apple” was always prefaced with the word “beleaguered” — my favorite part about this piece is the simple fact that people are talking about Microsoft as if they’re dead, much as they used to about Apple. Amusing.
And, it’s all very good insight that MS would be smart to think seriously about (but they won’t).
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Apple to release iPhone/iPod touch SDK in February
With an official SDK in place, mark my words: Mac OS X mobile (or whatever you want to call it) is about to become the most significant platform in a long, long time.
Here’s hoping it’s pretty “open” to lots of developers.
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I have a sound icon!
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Apple dropping price of DRM-free tracks to $.99.
You know what this means: we’re all getting $100 refunds to use at the Apple Store. Woohoo!
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Apple Store redesigned
Looks great! Congrats to Jina, Faruk, and all the others involved! :)
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Marc Cuban: Once you go Mac
NBA owner, dot-com millionaire, and all around crazy celebrity Marc Cuban has switched to Mac, and is quite happy. Nothing too special in here, but I’ve always loved Marc Cuban, so it’s kind of a cool read.
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Apple: iPhone apps to go unchallenged
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s VP of ipod marketing, has publicly stated that Apple is taking a neutral position on the subject of native third-party iPhone apps: Apple won’t support them at all, but it also won’t attempt to deter their development via legal means or via software updates that would break them.
This is terrific news. Apple took this stance with the Apple TV, and it worked wonderfully for them. This is what I needed to hear from Apple in order for me to consider installing third party apps on my iPhone. Now, all I need is a real killer app that gives me a reason to invest the time — I haven’t seen it, thus far.
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I, Cringely: The Pulpit . The Puppet Master
Cingely insists that Steve Jobs had the whole iPhone pricing thing planned from the start. That he intentionally over-priced the iPhone at launch, planned to drop it to the real price of $399, and planned to give users a $100 Apple Store credit if they complained. He notes that he has no inside info, so it’s all just speculation on his part.
I don’t really buy it, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless.
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The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: A boring rant
FSJ has it right (again). At this point, TV networks are almost completely useless. They used to serve the purpose of acting as a distribution network for content. Today, their distribution network (airwaves) is fading fast, with no possibility of survival. Today, the distribution network people care about is the Internet. Soon, there will be only two ways for a content producer to get their entertainment to consumers:
- Direct. Put your good online, and sell them straight to customers. This is probably the best possible scenario for all parties, but it has two significant downsides (for both consumers and content producers): content will probably be hard to discover, and maintaining the distribution over the Internet is complicated and expensive.
- Deal with a new media distributor. Who’s that? Well, Apple. And potentially Google, and Yahoo, and others. They have the experience and technology to set up the distribution network and the discovery method.
Today’s current iTunes model is pretty ludicrous. It looks like this: Content producers make video entertainment (tv shows, movies, etc.). They sell it to networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, etc.), who add no value at all, but take a slice of the margins. Apple makes arrangements with the networks to sell the content in iTunes. So the content producers bring the goods, and Apple brings the distribution network and the discovery process. What do the networks bring? Nothing at all, that’s what.
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Rick Rubin thinks subscription-based music is the future
I know it’s the unpopular choice amongst Apple fans, but I actually sort of agree with Rubin here. I do think people would flock to a subscription-based arrangement, if that arrangement met the following conditions:
- They could truly access their subscribed music anywhere. That means on their computer, on their phone, on their iPod, on their TV, in their car, at work, and so on. Anywhere.
- The DRM applied to the tracks was non-invasive. People claim to hate DRM, but they’ve also collectively proven (with iTunes’ success) that they’re willing to accept a DRM when that DRM doesn’t get in their way. iTunes’ DRM is non-restrictive enough that even hardcore music fans and gadget geeks rarely find it invasive. The only people who would object to iTunes’ DRM are heavy-duty pirates who are try to mass produce illegal copies of music — and who cares about them? A subscription service would have to have a similarly non-restrictive DRM (and that’s going to be a more tricky task to achieve with a subscription arrangement).
Someone will eventually figure out how to do subscriptions well, and I do think it’ll succeed. I see no reason to believe it won’t be Apple, though.
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NBC Universal Pulling the Plug on iTunes Content
This is great news! It means I’ll save the $100+ I spent on episodes of “The Office” and “Heroes” last year — since I’ll be getting the episodes for free off BitTorrent, instead.
Thanks, NBC! You’re the best!
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Mac Rumors: Volkswagen, Apple working on ‘iCar’
I’ll believe it when I see it, but that would certainly be interesting!
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Phill Ryu: Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. Or Aqua.
Phill discusses the (apparent) new direction for the visual design of OS X in Leopard — an outer space theme. Personally, I like the futuristic look in general, but I’m a bit dismayed by the outer space photography as backgrounds in time machine and on the desktop. It’s just too over-the-top for my tastes.
Then again, I usually roll with a solid color for my desktop background. So I guess I’m dull.
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Font rendering philosophies of Windows and Mac OS X
“…Windows looks sharper at the expense of not actually being a very accurate representation of the text. The Mac with it’s design/DTP background is a much more accurate representation and scales more naturally than Windows which consequently jumps around a lot vertically.”
The piece includes a great example of just how true this is. It also includes this great quotes:
Visit“The issue is reminiscent of the ‘I hate black bars on wide-screen films’ brigade who believe that the film should be chopped, panned, scaled and otherwise distorted from the artists original intention simply so that it fits better on their display.”
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iPhone Central: The iPhone Hacking Kit, step by step
If you’ve got the balls for it, this looks like the most complete iPhone hacking guide around.
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Django, running on an iPhone
Jacob Kaplan-Moss installed Django (and Python, obviously) on his iPhone. Then, he used Django’s database introspection tool to build Django models for the iPhone’s built-in call database. Then, he used DJango’s built-in admin tool to view/edit said call database. Then, he took a screenshot of it.
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Wired Blogs: The IPhone [sic] Is Internet Explorer 4 All Over Again
From the e-mail exchanges I’ve had with Scott Gilbertson, he seems like a great guy — but I couldn’t disagree with him more on this one. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: iPhone-optimized websites are nothing to worry about, so long as one of the following is true:
- There is a viable alternative version that works in all browsers.
- The iPhone-optimized site doesn’t lock other browsers out, preventing their use (at their own peril, of course).
For example, our Leaflets passes both tests with flying colors. Each Leaflet simply provides iPhone-optimized versions of content that exists elsewhere on the web (flickr, del.icio.us, upcoming.org, etc.) and the app is open to all browsers.
And here’s the thing: I’ve still yet to see an iPhone-optimized site that doesn’t pass at least one of these two tests. Everyone is complaining about iPhone-only sites, but as far as I know, not a single one exists. Every one I’ve seen either provides an alternative version for other browser, or allows other browsers into the iPhone-optimized version (if not both). So really, what is all the fuss about?
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AT&T crippling BlackBerry to appease Apple?
If AT&T; wasn’t already Steve Jobs’ bitch, they certainly are now.
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Apple Profiles: Joshua Davis
I’ve always been fascinated by Joshua’s work. Can’t wait to see him at The Future of Web Design New York in November.
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Video of incredible new graphics application
Brilliant video of amazing new digital artistic tools. A must-watch, really. Check it out.
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Garrett Murray on the new Apple keyboards
I was going to write this post, but my esteemed colleague from The Flava East beat me to it. I was really excited about the new Apple keyboards, since I love my MacBook keyboard, but I was really bummed when I saw the Bluetooth one was all lilliputian. The undernourished profile view is wonderful, but why must is be a paltry two-thirds size in length? Why, Apple…why!? I love wireless input devices on my desktops for the lack of cord mess, but I also don’t really want a infinitesimal keyboard with only a smattering of the keys it should have. I want my keyboards tail-less, but not stunted, dammit.
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110am. Context is Queen
My esteemed co-worker Tom Waston posts his thoughts on iPhone apps and the mobile context.
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frog design: iPhone App Development Raises Interesting Questions
Sean Madden over at frog design has a great blog post up about the controversy in the web standards community over iPhone apps. He brings up a good comparison I hadn’t thought of: OS X Dashboard widgets. Dashboard widgets are also created using HTML and CSS, and yet no one is complaining that they are targeted at one platform.
What’s the difference?
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17 powerful bookmarklets for your iPhone
Before anyone completely freaks out that this says “for your iPhone*, the bookmarklets should work fine in most browsers. But they are especially handy on an iPhone. If you’ve got a Jesus phone, check ‘em out.
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Leaflets home page on Sprint A900
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Flickr Leaflet on Sprint A900
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Search Leaflet on Sprint A900
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A question for those who think made-for-iPhone apps are a bad idea
The official, touted-by-Apple SDK for creating iPhone apps uses web-oriented languages like (X)HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Since Apple made this SDK public, some developers (including my employer) have jumped on board, creating iPhone apps that live at public URLs. Other have denounced this practice, suggesting that apps should not be targeted at one device, but rather be equally accessible from any phone, PDA, computer, or other web-browsing tool.
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The strange case of ‘Made for iPhone’ websites
Although I understand the reasoning here (“the iPhone can view full web sites, why make simplified ones for it”?), I can’t help but think anyone who doesn’t appreciate something like Leaflets hasn’t actually tried to use an iPhone over EDGE for serious browsing.
Just because the iPhone has a close-to-desktop-class browser doesn’t make the experience the same as a desktop computer. Consider:
- The iPhone has a tiny screen compared to desktop computers.
- The iPhone displays about one fourth the number of pixels most desktop computers display.
- The iPhone has no Flash.
- The iPhone has no Java.
- The iPhone’s browser doesn’t support hover or mouseover effects (this one is huge!).
- The pointing device on the iPhone (your finger) is probably five times fatter than the pointing device on your desktop computer (a mouse cursor).
- You constantly have to zoom in and out while using an iPhone’s browser.
The list goes on. And these don’t even begin to address the fact that EDGE is painfully slow most of the time. The iPhone may be the best browsing experience on a phone to date (by far), but a desktop experience it is not.
My personal feeling is that no site should use user agent sniffing to prevent iPhone (or other mobile device) users from seeing the full, desktop version of a site. Although they probably exist, I don’t know of any sites that do this.
On the other hand, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to provide iPhone (or other mobile device users) with an alternative version of a site that is optimized for that device.
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Fix your iPhone’s notes app: Die, Marker Felt, Die!
Jacob Kaplan-Moss: “Like everyone else, I got sick of looking at Marker Felt on my iPhone. So I did something about it.”
I’m not ballsy enough to do it on my new Jesus Phone, but if you’ve got an iPhone and gonads of steel, this one’s for you.
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Macworld: iPhone ‘Leaflets’ access Flickr, del.icio.us
MacWorld has picked up the story of our Leaflets launch.
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Jeff Croft
I’m a digital product designer and developer in Seattle, WA. I currently work with Simply Measured, and recently co-founded Lendle, a Kindle book sharing service.
Some of my past clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Copious, The New York Review of Books, Django, The Lawrence Journal-World, and the University of Washington.
I’ve authored two books on web and interactive design and spoken at dozens of conferences around the world.
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