Being a fairly prolific iPhone photographer, I?ve been interested in the meteoric rise of the Camera+ (C+) app over its competition like Camera Plus Pro (CPP). C+ has dominated the sales charts for weeks, the only photography app regularly in the top 10 of all paid apps in the App Store. Curious to learn more, I decided to give C+ a try.
After putting C+ through it?s paces for few weeks, I?d argue the app?s appeal is straightforward and instructive for almost any designer: the app adds less functionality than its competitors to avoid being overwhelming, yet throws in enough to feel like a noticeable upgrade coming from Apple?s default app. At the same time, C+ better identifies its audience than its competition, providing an appropriate, well thought out user interface in the process.
Admittedly at first glance C+?s pared down approach appears to be a losing proposition in a crowded and feature rich app market. The economics don?t help either; almost all apps trend in the $1-2 range and it?s hard to stand out with one killer feature.
For this month: The Egyptian revolution, alternative rock’s rise and fall in the 1990s, a nostalgic look back to adventure gaming’s golden era and Marc Jacobs up close.
Cairo?s recent democratic uprising rightfully received heavy news coverage from practically everyone, be it the Sunday talk shows, CNN or the New York Times. Nevertheless, to my surprise, for weeks an extended written chronology from the ground had been missing.
Leave it to The New Yorker to fill the void. Reporter Wendell Steavenson camped out in a hotel adjacent to Tahir Square, conducting interviews and reports both inside and around the historic area with everyone from low level military officers to anti-Mubarak protesters. Even with a 7000 plus word count (Steavenson reported for a full two week period leading up to Mubarak’s resignation) it?s a fast read given that much of the piece focuses on action (e.g. skirmishes, clashes with police) from within the square.
After months of planning, Gawker Media’s massive redesign was released to the public a week ago. Founder Nick Denton declared the changes to be “an evolution of the very blog form”, strong words from the influential entrepreneur.
In response I took a closer look, and after a week of heavy use across several of Gawker Media’s sites (Kotaku, Gizmodo and Lifehacker) I’ve concluded the redesign is a disaster: Gawker takes a shockingly old media approach to a very new media subject matter, largely ignoring the browse and scroll-heavy tendencies of web users in a desperate grab for page views and ad buys. If this is the solution, in Denton’s words, to “the bankruptcy of the classic blog column”, I shudder for web journalism’s future.
Below, a more thorough breakdown of my four largest problems with Gawker’s redesign. Continue reading…
An interesting paradox became apparent months ago at the office: As I got better organized and more focused on my projects, breaks between the action became increasingly messy and unsatisfying. While I’ve always liked to stay abreast of the latest news from RSS and Twitter, given the sheer volume of content available combined with little free time during the work day, it’s rare I ended up digesting anything of substance.
Yet, more recently, I had a revelation: Given the distractions and tribulations of the modern workplace, why bother with the rush? I now file everything away in a simple yet organized manner, going back to the content later in the day when I have time to process it at a more relaxed pace. It’s led to less stress in the office and I’m able to better enjoy the various articles, videos and other assorted content I find.
Below, the details on my workflow that I’ve broken down into two sections, gathering and processing.
I tend to be cynical when I hear journalists talk about how a new technology is a “glimpse of the future.” It’s often terminology synonymous with the overly ambitious, exotic and doomed to fail.
Real glimpses of the future for me instead come in surprisingly subtle forms, the most impressive being cloud syncing: Core bits of data are stored online in the “cloud”, in turn automatically referenced by different digital devices to keep media seamlessly in sync. Just as surprisingly? The usually innovative Apple has almost nothing to do with it.
Groove Armada’s “whatever works” approach to dance music can have decidedly mixed results; I often find much of their output (for the exception of their debut, Vertigo) unlistenable, yet one or two singles off each album are exceptional, the vessel of which often comes in the form of a massive, catchy hook. The 2010 single “Time and Space” follows the trend, grabbing the listener’s attention with the first chorus driven by swirling, fuzzed out guitars mixed together with high pitched electronic bleeps. It’s a rousing change from the more mellow intro and verse portion and loses little of its appeal with repeated listenings.
2010 was, from my perspective, a great year for music, not just in the electronic genres that comprise the bulk of my listening but also in a wide variety of other music sources: indie rock (The Walkmen, The National), 90s dark trip-hop bands morphing into melody driven dance and desert rock (Massive Attack, UNKLE), pop-fueled mixes of r&b, disco, and soul (Gorillaz, Groove Armada) and a genre I otherwise usually neglect, hip hop (Kanye West.)
In such a creatively strong year, what stood out? Many online have focused on top albums and singles; for something a bit different I’ve compiled below ten of my favorite musical moments from albums released in 2010. I’d emphasize these are moments and not songs, little bursts of creativity and sound that made the year so listenable. I’ve split the list into two posts, the first five moments detailed today, the remaining five for a post next week. Continue reading…
As I look back at what changed for me in 2010, Twitter grew in stature significantly. My followers doubled and I used the Twitter iPhone and iPad apps more during idle moments. In addition, the social media source largely overtook RSS to become my “go to” starting point to explore the latest news in tech, film and other subjects.
None of this would have been possible without having a great set of people to follow in the first place. Interestingly, while there’s a very smart population on Twitter, I find the majority tweet too infrequently or keep content strictly self promotional. Thus to make this list, it was important to be prolific and insightful with the 140 character limitations of the medium itself.
What follows below is a handful of Twitter users I’m happy to have started following in 2010, organized roughly by subject matter.
Since the Mac App Store opened yesterday and general online hysteria ensued (seemingly around 30% of my Twitter content focused on the App Store) I, like almost every other tech guy on the planet poured over the interface and content in depth. Now that I’ve had a day to get my hands dirty, I wanted to elaborate with a few thoughts and, in a sea of 1000 plus initial applications, a few download recommendations. Continue reading…
For this month, great reading for the holiday break, iOS vs. Android platforms for developers, paring down web design to the essentials, and Time’s nod to Mark Zuckerberg.
The yearly “best of” lists are endless this time of year, yet I’ve found music, film and gaming critics are mostly coalescing best of status around a smaller set of favorites like Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (best album), The Social Network (best film) and Red Dead Redemption (best game.) Overall, there are few surprises.
That leaves the choices for 2010’s best books – an increasingly relevant medium in wake of the Kindle, iPad and Instapaper’s rise – to be all over the place. Where’s a good place to start? I’d give my first recommendation to Slate’s compilation. In contrast to the bare bones New Yorker list, I found Slate’s explanation to be lengthy enough to generate interest, yet not going so far as to be unwieldily. I also found their selection among fiction and non fiction the most varied and interesting.