Topics

My good friend Cam Todd has started a new podcast, called Topics. The premise is simple: each episode, Cam speaks with a different guest about a different topic. Cam is a great conversationalist and the episodes so far have been a lot of fun.

I had the distinct privilege of being a guest on the third episode. The topic for the episode is something near and dear to my heart: Back to the Future. 

You can stream the episode from the website, or download directly from iTunes. Give it a try!

San Francisco BART. Black sections on platform edge line up with where the train doors will be.

The Serif and The Ligature

Today, Studio Neat is proud to introduce two new products to the Glif line: the Serif and the Ligature. 

The Ligature is a small metal keyring loop. It screws into the tripod thread in the Glif, and allows you to always keep the Glif handy. I carry mine around on a keychain, but of course you could attach it to your bag, purse, etc. And the nice thing is, because it screws into the tripod thread, it’s easy to detach and re-attach without fussing with the keyring itself. 

The Serif is an additional attachment, used in conjunction with the Glif. When the iPhone is mounted on a tripod with the Glif, the Serif wraps around the top and tucks into the “F” nook of the Glif, keeping your iPhone incredibly secure. And, the Serif tucks nicely inside the Glif when not in use, so you’ll always have it with you. The Glif by itself is still ideal for casual shooting situations, but the Serif a perfect addition for more extreme scenarios.

We will continue to sell the Glif as is of course, but we are now offering a couple additional options. Glif+ is a deluxe Glif package, which contains the Glif, the Serif, and the Ligature. It comes packaged in a small box, which can transform into a little tripod. For those that already own a Glif, we are also offering the +Pack, which simply contains the Serif and the Ligature. 

We made a little demo video to show off the new stuff. Narration by the very gracious Adam Lisagor:

It has been a common “feature request” for a way to carry the Glif around on a keychain, so the Ligature was a no-brainer. The Serif, however, has a more interesting backstory. One day, out of the blue, a gentlemen named Will Mason emailed us about an idea he had for a Glif attachment for added security when mounted to a tripod. He even molded a prototype with Sugru. We really liked what he came up with, so Tom modeled it in 3D and we had it 3D printed at Shapeways. After playing with the prototype for some time, we realized it was a great addition to the product line. Even though Will had offered us the idea for free, we decided to pay him for the concept and move forward with production. We always knew our supporters were amazing, but we never thought they’d help us develop new products. Way to go Will!

We are taking per-orders for the new products today at studioneat.com, and they will ship in about 2 weeks, in time for the holidays. We really do think these will make great gifts. Of course, everything is compatible with the new iPhone 4S, which has an even better camera than the iPhone 4, and further legitimizes the need for a tripod mounting solution. 

Jony Ive on Simplicity

“Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it’s manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.”

(From Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson)

"Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end."

Steve Jobs

(via Bloomberg Businessweek)

Thank You, Steve

My life would undoubtably be very different if it were not for Steve Jobs.

I never met the man personally, but he was my design teacher. He taught me to value user experience and simplicity above all else. He inspired me to be a more thoughtful designer, to obsess over details. He showed me that technology does not have to be complicated and cumbersome; it should be fun and full of delight.  

I would probably not be a designer if not for Steve Jobs. And Studio Neat would certainly not exist. His influence on my life can not be understated.  

Fortunately, there is a simple way I can honor Steve. I can try as hard as I can every day to make something insanely great. Try to do something that will touch someone else’s life. Like he did. 

Thank you, Steve. You will be missed.

Thoughts on a Kindle Tablet

I was inspired by the discussion Marco Arment and Ryan Irelan had on the latest episode of Build and Analyze about the rumored “Kindle Tablet.” It got me thinking about the kind of device I would love for Amazon to make — one that I would actually consider buying over an iPad. 

Few consider the current iteration of the Kindle a tablet, and comparing it to an iPad is apples to oranges, but it does hold some clear advantages over the iPad:

• Battery life. The Kindle can last for days on a single charge.
• Background downloading. All content is delivered silently and wirelessly without any user intervention. 
• Screen. Although not better than the iPad screen in terms of versatility, it is better for what it was designed for: reading. 
• Unlimited and free 3G connectivity. 
• Size. The Kindle is smaller and lighter than the iPad. 
• Price. The Kindle is significantly cheaper than the iPad. 

Marco and Ryan speculated on the Kindle Tablet, and it seemed like a forgone conclusion that it would have an iPad style, full color display, and it would use a skinned version of Android as the OS. I think this would be a huge mistake for Amazon, and I’d imagine that tablet would suffer the same fate as every other competitor to the iPad. By switching to a screen-like display, it loses nearly every advantage it has over the iPad:

• Battery life. Would most certainly be worse with a full color, non e-ink screen. 
• Background downloading. Could be affected by using Android as the OS. 
• Screen. With a full color glass screen, Amazon would be competing directly with Apple, instead of offering something different, and for some uses, better.
• Unlimited and free 3G connectivity. This would in all likelihood be removed if they offered a full-fledged tablet experience.
• Size. The glass screen would make the device significantly heavier. 
• Price. The new screen would make the device more expensive. 

For the life of me, I can not think of one good reason why Amazon would ditch all of the benefits of their e-ink display in favor of competing directly with Apple with a full-fledged tablet device. It would seem destined to suffer the same fate as all other iPad competitors. Yes, Amazon has a leg up on these competitors by having digital media distribution platforms already in place (Amazon Cloud et al), but is it really enough to compete with Apple?

Shawn Blanc had an excellent write up on reading on the iPad, and his use of the iPad is nearly identical to mine: I use the iPad primarily for reading, with Instapaper and Reeder being my most frequently used apps. He points out three pros of using an iPad for reading: it carries all of his reading material, the battery lasts forever, and it is connected to the internet. He also lists three cons: it’s a bit heavy to hold for an extended period of time, you can’t read it outside on a sunny day, and the display is not print quality. Notice, the Kindle shares those pros, and has none of the cons. 

I want Amazon to build an improved Kindle device, optimized for reading. Something like this:

• A touch screen Kindle, with a color e-ink display. The touch screen would be like the new Nook, thus eliminating the need for a physical keyboard. The color e-ink would look similar to a color photograph printed in a traditional newspaper.
• Have a highly curated app store, with apps like Instapaper, Reeder, Flipboard, Economist, NY Times, etc. Have a coherent and simple subscription model already in place. 
• Aside from reading-centric apps, the app store could also have simple games, like Sudoku, Crosswords, or Scrabble.
• Ditch the web browser. It creates unnecessary expectations. 
• Keep all other current features of the Kindle (background downloading, free 3G connectivity, etc.)
• Priced between $200-300.

The above is a crude mock up of what that device could look like. It’s displaying the Flipboard app, as an example. 

This is by no means an “iPad Killer.” It wouldn’t play video, or graphically complex games. That’s not the point though. The point is to create a wonderful reading device, for ALL reading, not just books. It creates an interesting alternative for people who use an iPad primarily for reading. And I’d imagine many people would be happy to buy this new Kindle in addition to an iPad, as many already do with the current Kindle. 

Amazon has the opportunity to make an awesome device for reading. I see it as a natural evolution of the Kindle. Why throw the baby out with the bathwater? If they created a device like I am suggesting above, I would be first in line to buy one. 

The New Home Button on the iPhone 5 (Allegedly)

I was suspicious of the mocked-up design of the new iPhone 5 as seen on This Is My Next back in April, but recent rumors are making it hard to ignore. While several of the design changes are somewhat expected (thinner body, tapered edges, etc.), the new home button is utterly fascinating. 

Above image from This is My Next

This Is My Next describes the button as such: “the home button is doing double duty as a gesture area; this falls in line with testing we’ve seen for gestures on the iPad, and our sources say that gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS. The home button will likely be enlarged, but not scrapped altogether”.

John Gruber and Dan Benjamin briefly speculated on what a gesture sensitive button could be used for in iOS on the most recent episode of The Talk Show. Would it behave like the nub ball on Blackberries, used for scrolling? Likely not. What about the Palm Pre, where the gesture area can be used as a back button, with a right-to-left swipe? Again, probably not. 

I believe that if this new gesture region is in fact coming to the iPhone, it will be used for only one thing: switching between open apps. We can all agree that the current multitasking solution (double clicking the home button and then tapping the respective app) could stand to be improved. A left-to-right swipe would transition to the previously used app, while a right-to-left swipe would move the other way in the app history. This new gesture area would essentially mimic the function of the 4-fingered app switching gesture as seen in the iPad, which is cumbersome to perform on the iPad and nearly impossible to do on the iPhone. 

Some may argue that this gesture region could be used for other things as well. Swiping through the home screens, for example, or flicking through photos. Allowing that functionality would be a mistake. The key to iOS lies in its direct manipulation of objects on the screen. To page through photos, you literally touch the photo and slide it off the screen. Having a gesture region that performs this task would move further away from this feeling of direct manipulation.

The home button is special. In it’s purest form, it is not used to manipulate what is happening on the screen, but to manipulate the apps themselves (in most cases, closing them and returning to the home screen). Tying the gesture area to the home button makes sense; app switching is a “top level” function, in the same way that closing apps is. 

Porting the gesture region to the iPad would be tricky, namely because the device does not have a default orientation. The app switching functionality is already on the iPad (via the aforementioned 4-fingered swipe) but a gesture region would make that easier. I’m sure Apple will figure it out. 

"Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design."

Dieter Rams

(Spotted in his new book, As Little Design as Possible).

Apple Implements a Split Keyboard for iPad

Beautiful. Thanks Apple!

Windows 8 Keyboard

A preview demo of Windows 8 was released yesterday, and like others, I think it looks fantastic and has some innovative UI touches, but I believe it is ultimately a bad idea to built it as a “shell” on top of a traditional, non-touch OS. 

One specific thing caught my attention: the virtual keyboard.

Look familiar?

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