The Russians Used a Pencil

Frameographer 1.2

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:57:00 -0400

Frameographer version 1.2 is now available for download in the App Store, and it includes some pretty nifty updates:

1080p. The iPhone 4S (and iPad 3) now capture and export in glorious 1080p resolution. All other compatible devices will continue to capture and export at 720p. Basically, Frameographer will capture and export in the same resolution as the native video recording in the iOS Camera app.
Music! You can now add a soundtrack to your masterpiece, using any song from your iTunes library that is currently on your device.
Multiple Frame Deletion. This has been a popular feature request. This is especially useful if you record a long time lapse and want to delete a stretch of it. Simply tap the frame marker button, tap delete, and then swipe the timeline to select the frames you want to delete.
Frame Duplication. Also within the new frame marker button is the ability to duplicate frames. This is particularly useful if you’re trying to get the timing just right for a stop motion animation.
Bug Fixes.

Version 1.2 is a free update in the App Store. If you haven’t had a chance to download Frameographer yet, now is a great time! iTunes Link.

"Anything can be forced to converge, but the problem is about trade-offs, and you end up with..."

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:00:00 -0400

“Anything can be forced to converge, but the problem is about trade-offs, and you end up with trade-offs that don’t please anyone. You can converge a toaster and refrigerator, but the end result won’t be pleasing to the user.”

- Tim Cook

"The reason for designing new media is simple — to subtly and quietly change the world."

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:15:00 -0400

“The reason for designing new media is simple — to subtly and quietly change the world.”

- Hillman Curtis

The 4-inch iPhone

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:34:00 -0400

A couple weeks ago, a gentlemen named Timothy Collins called into the Vergecast podcast and sent the blogosphere into a tizzy by suggesting how Apple could increase the screen size in a new iPhone by simply elongating the screen to a 16:9 (ish) ratio, while keeping the same resolution (326 dpi). John Gruber pushed things over the edge when he essentially confirmed the rumor.

Here’s Marco Arment:

I don’t think the iPhone’s screen needs to be bigger, but if Apple’s going to make a change, I’d rather they keep the aspect ratio closer to 3:2.

I’m with Marco on this one, although I do think a bump in screen size would be nice. I don’t think increasing the height of the screen, while preserving the width, is the right way to go about it though. Rather, I think Apple should keep the 3:2 aspect ratio and increase the physical size until it reaches the 300dpi retina boiling point, maintaining the 960x640 pixel count.

First, let’s discuss why a 16:9 iPhone could be considered a good idea:

Bigger Screen

Crucially, bigger in the right direction. The majority of apps are used in portrait orientation, and the UI is anchored to the top and bottom of the screen, with a scrollable view in the middle. Stretching the screen vertically simply allows more real estate for the content to live. This is documented quite nicely in the Verge post that kicked off this whole discussion.

Easy to Manufacture

If the screen stays at a 326 dpi resolution, the screens are easy to produce, because Apple can use the same tools they currently have to produce 326 dpi screens, and just cut them at a different size. Easy peasy.

Better Notifications

While I like the banner style notifications that were introduced in iOS 5, I have noticed an annoying tendency. Whenever the banner flips, it obstructs a large percentage of the navigation at the top of the screen. It is still possible to tap buttons on the nav while the banner is present, but it takes dexterous fingers. I usually just wait until the banner dismisses itself before I resume use of the UI.

If Apple begins asking developers to make their apps have a “flexible” UI (to be compatible with 3:2 and 16:9 iPhones), when a notification banner appears the top navigation bar could simply nudge itself down. This would greatly improve the unobtrusive quality the banners strive for.

Possible iOS 6 Features

A taller iPhone opens up some interesting opportunities, especially with iOS 6. Perhaps the new iPhone would be able to have unique software features, a la Siri for the iPhone 4S. The increased screen height could open the door for widgets, revised home screens, multitasking improvements, etc. that may not be possible on the shorter screen.

Now, let’s dive into why a 16:9 is a bad idea:

Landscape Mode

I have designed apps for 16:9 mobile screens before. If the app needs to be designed for both portrait and landscape orientations (like Mail, Messages, most standard UI apps) it’s really, really hard to make the landscape orientation look good. Taking a list view and stretching it that far looks real stupid. It’s just an awkward ratio to work with. The virtual keyboard on a 16:9 screen is awkward as well; if scaled properly it takes up the majority of the screen. All of the (non game) examples in the Verge post look at the apps in portrait mode, and it works great. Rotate to landscape, not so much.

Reach

A few months ago a blog post by Dustin Curtis addressed a problem with the large screens on Android devices: they are impossible to comfortably use one handed. I think the same problem would occur with a tall 16:9 screen on the iPhone. Corners opposite of the hand holding the device would be difficult to reach.

Transitional Period

I would suspect that even if a developer uses all standard UI elements, there would need to be at least some minimal intervention to have the app function properly on a 16:9 screen. This means there is going to be a pretty awkward transitional period when the new iPhone is released, where apps are letterboxed or the UI is janky. This is a bigger problem for games, which will need to redo a bunch of the graphical assets to fill the new screen. Clearly though, Apple doesn’t seem to have a problem muscling through these periods, as seen previously with the release of the iPhone 4 (non-retina apps looked like crap) and iPad (iPhone apps running at 2X looked like crap).

Running on the iPad

Speaking of running iPhone apps at 2X on the iPad, if the screen increases in height, apps designed specifically for the new iPhone would not be able to fit on an iPad at 2X. Perhaps Apple doesn’t care anymore about that, as it was simply a stop gap until the App Store filled up with iPad specific apps. Even so, seems weird.

Personally, I think Apple nailed it out of the gate with the 3:2 ratio screen. It works well in both orientations. That said, I think the screen could definitely stand to increase in size, without becoming so large as to prevent easy one handed use, or greatly increase the physical size of the phone.

The image above shows the current iPhone, a mockup of the alleged 16:9 phone, and a mockup with a bigger 3:2 screen at 300dpi, which measures 3.84” diagonally. I estimated that the physical size of the phone would need to increase slightly, getting taller in the 16:9 version and wider in the 3:2 version. I don’t think either of these size increases are deal breakers. The 3:2 version is actually still narrower than the iPhone 3GS.

I see these as Apple’s three feasible options: keep the screen as is, bump to 16:9 but retain a 326dpi resolution, or increase the screen size while maintaing the 960x640 resolution. I hope they go with option 3, but chairman Gruber makes methinks option 2 is more likely.

The Making of Frameographer

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:02:00 -0400

Tom and I have been working on Frameographer on and off for about 6 months. Like our other products, it was created to scratch our own itch. We were dissatisfied with the current offerings in the market and we wanted to make something really great, something that we enjoyed using. I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had making little movies in Frameographer.

I’d thought it’d be interesting to walk through the design process for Frameographer. We decided on the general functionality early on, but went through several iterations to get the UX just right. The app has 3 main screens: Home, Capture, and Project. I’ll walk through each, one by one, showing the initial concept sketch all the way to the finished product.

Home

Of the three screens, the Home screen stayed pretty true to how we originally designed it.

Aside from the ability to Play from the Home Screen, everything else remained intact. Notice also the original title, Sequence.

We went straight from sketches to visual comps. If you’ve ever worked at a design firm it might seem bizarre to skip the wireframe stage, but that’s one of the advantages of making an app with just two people. We don’t have various stages of “approval,” so we get to skip some steps.

We started with a pretty heavy use of the linen texture, but ultimately phased it out of the design, for no reason other than wanting to create a unique look for the app.

We initially settled on the name “Frames” for the app, but as outlined in a previous blog post, we had to change the name shortly after launching, and went with “Frameographer.” The logo on the home screen uses the same typeface as the Glif logo (Estilo Script), with the same modified “f” that looks like a Glif.

In the final version, we flipped the + and (?) buttons, and enlarged the project thumbnails to make them a bit juicier.

Capture

The Capture screen was a tricky one. The first rough sketch imagined tucking all of the capture options in a pop-over.

We carried this idea into the mockups, where controls like Onion Skin and Manual Shutter were hidden in a menu.

It took a working prototype of this interface to realize how bad it was. It was frustrating to always have to open and close a menu just to toggle a simple control. Furthermore, the distinction between stop motion (manual shutter), and time-lapse (automatic shutter) was confusing at best.

At this point most of the iteration was happening in the code, so I don’t have any of the screenshots, but the screen below represents the final design of the Capture view. We were able to bring all of the controls to the forefront, so no menus are needed. We also implemented a big slider switch to make clear if you are in stop motion or time-lapse mode. Based on some feedback from user testers, we changed the (X) button to a [Done] button, as the (X) button was causing anxiety, thinking that tapping it would cancel all of the pictures you had just taken.

Project

The Project screen, arguably the most important screen, also saw quite a bit of iteration during the design process. This first sketch was simply a brain dump to get everything we thought was needed, functionality wise, on the screen. Clearly, it’s a mess.

This second sketch attempted to clean up the mess from the first sketch, and better organize the various functions.

This sketch was most useful in bringing to light a tricky problem: working with a 16x9 preview window. We knew we wanted to capture at this standard video ratio, but it is hard to fit nicely on a 3x2 screen. After some app exploration, we noticed that iMovie for iPhone solved the problem quite nicely, by putting the UI buttons to the left and right of the preview window, rather than above and below it.

I showed the above sketch to my wife, and she mentioned how it would be useful to see a “preview” of the previous and next frames in the sequence. A great idea, and what ultimately morphed into a full blown timeline.

We felt good about where the design was at this point, so we mocked it up in Photoshop. As you can see, aside from the linen texture and the pink (!) frame, everything stayed pretty much intact.

Another difficult aspect of the Project screen design was figuring out what happens to the timeline when the user taps the Play button. It would be distracting to simply have the timeline autoscroll, so we knew it either had to be hidden or changed in some way.

The above attempt was a simple scroll bar that would replace the timeline with a cross fade. We liked the idea of the entire timeline being accessible in one screen; this is especially useful for navigating projects with hundreds of frames. However, we thought the scroll bar was a little plain, and could stand to be improved.

One of the hardest things we had to figure out was the transition from the “zoomed out” timeline to the “zoomed in” timeline. It needed to feel elegant and natural, as the user would see it every time they pressed the play button. In the end result, there are several animations that occur simultaneously: 1) The frames shrink in size. 2) The frames fade out. 3) The “zoomed out” timeline fades in at a larger size. 4) The “zoomed out” timeline shrinks slightly. 5) The blue frame morphs into the playhead. 6) The translucent frame marker bubble fades out. 7) The frame marker slides up to the playhead. 8) The playhead moves horizontally to the correct position on the timeline. All of these transitions occur in 0.4 seconds, and the end result is (hopefully) a fluid animation that feels natural to the user.

Icon Design

The design of an app icon is one of the most important parts of the app. Not only does it occupy a prominent chunk of real estate on the users’ home screen, it is the primary way an app is represented in the App Store. The easiest way to signal to a potential customer, “hey, this app is high quality,” is to have a well designed, high quality icon.

We went through dozens of iterations before we finally arrived at a design we were happy with. It was the part of the app Tom and I were fussiest about, and nearly lead to the dissolving of Studio Neat (not really).

We started off by having a graphic designer friend take a pass at the icon. We didn’t give too much direction, other than showing her the UI of the app and giving her a few napkin sketches of icon ideas. We liked where we ultimately ended up (the bottom right icon in the above image), but after sitting with it for a few weeks we thought we might be able to improve upon it. Additionally, we were worried the blue frame looked too much like a picture frame, which could potentially confuse the function of the app to someone browsing the App Store.

Tom and I liked the idea of trying to incorporate the lowercase “f” from the Glif and Frameographer logo, which also resembles the silhouette of the Glif itself. We took a pass trying different variations. I really liked the brown kraft paper version, as it matched the packaging for our physical products, but in practice it seemed too random and did not match the look and feel of the UI. We ultimately settled on the version in the bottom right corner, but again, after sitting with it for a few weeks, it didn’t feel right.

We decided to pull out the big guns, and hired Iconfactory to take a crack at it.

We intentionally did not show Iconfactory any of our past iterations, as one of the reasons for hiring them was to gain a fresh perspective. We gave them a beta version of the app to play around with, and they responded with the above concept sketches. We liked the new directions, but felt that the page flip metaphor spoke more to traditional, hand drawn animation, rather than photography based animation like stop motion and time-lapse. This was an important realization though, as it sparked a new direction of incorporating a camera lens.

Although the use of a camera lens for a photography based app is somewhat overused, we felt it worked really well and at least hinted at the function of the app. We also really liked how Iconfactory incorporated the blue frame around the lens. After some back and forth, and tweaking of the details, we arrived at an icon we are very pleased with.

Onward and Upward

Hope you’ve enjoyed this peak behind the scenes. As with everything design related, it’s all about constant iteration until you get it right.

Tom and I are greatly looking forward to continue working on Frameographer. We stripped the app down to its essence for the 1.0 release, but plan to add some cool features in the future. Stay tuned.

What's in a Name?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:32:00 -0400

Naming products can be a fun exercise. New projects start to feel tangible and “real” when they are given a proper title. The importance of a good product name is obvious, but in time any meaning fades away and it simply becomes a symbol for the product. Take the iPad, for example. Remember how many people hated the name when it was introduced? Fast forward a couple years, and no one thinks twice about it.

For our new iPhone app, Tom and I settled on the name “Frames” quickly. It sounded nice, spoke equally to time-lapse and stop motion techniques, and had a style that fit nicely alongside other Apple apps (e.g. Numbers, Pages).

Two days after launching the app to the world, we received an email from the CEO of a company called Tech4Learning, who make software targeting the educational sector. Incidentally, they too have an app called Frames, which is for — surprise surprise — creating stop motion animations. It has been around since 2006.

Hearing about the existence of this app was a real punch in the gut. We were backed into a corner, and it was completely our fault. A simple trademark search would have revealed that “Frames” was already taken.

After some hemming and hawing, we realized that the only reasonable course of action was to change the app name. So, after even more deliberation, we picked “Frameographer.” Although we really loved “Frames,” we have grown to love “Frameographer” as well. The fact that it is a unique, invented word also offers some advantages, including our ability to “own” it, in a matter of speaking.

Usually it’s not a great idea to change the name of a product after it’s out in the wild, but in this case we didn’t have much of a choice. We suspect though, after a brief transitional period, customers will love the new name as much as we do. And then, after a bit more time, the name will simply become a symbol for the product.

Frameographer is available as a 1.1 update, which includes the name change as well as a few other minor improvements. Go get it!

Jonathan Ive Interview

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:20:23 -0400

Jonathan Ive Interview:

Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can’t imagine any other way. Simplicity is not the absence of clutter. Get it right, and you become closer and more focused on the object.

Well worth a read.

Frames, a new app from Studio Neat

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:03:36 -0500

For the past 6 months Tom and I have been working in secret on our new product, our first foray into the software space. It’s been an interesting change of pace from the very public process of using Kickstarter, and we’re so excited to finally show it to the world.

It’s called Frames, and it is an iPhone (and iPod Touch) app for creating time-lapse and stop motion movies. Ever since we created the Glif, we’ve been looking for an app like this, so we figured, why not make it?

Like our other products, Frames was created because we wanted it ourselves. We were dissatisfied with the current solutions in the App Store for making time-lapse and stop motion movies, and thought we could create something really great. We actually took a lot of inspiration from iMovie for iPhone. We wanted to create one of those “I can’t believe I am doing this on my phone” type of app.

We made a little demo to show off some of the things you can make with Frames. This demo was created entirely on an iPhone 4S; it never touched a PC. We shot all of the scenes in Frames, and put them together and added music in iMovie, and then uploaded to Vimeo directly from the phone.

If you’ve never made a time-lapse or stop motion movie before, we implore you to check out our app. There is something quite magical about making movies with it, and it’s very approachable. Even if you are an expert in this sort of thing, we think our app offers the most intuitive and delightful UI for this type of app.

Frames is available today in the App Store for $2.99. It requires iOS 5.0, and will run on an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and any iPod Touch with a front facing camera.

We hope you love it!

Download from the App Store

Give It Five Minutes

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:17:15 -0500

Give It Five Minutes:

Dismissing an idea is so easy because it doesn’t involve any work. You can scoff at it. You can ignore it. You can puff some smoke at it. That’s easy. The hard thing to do is protect it, think about it, let it marinate, explore it, riff on it, and try it. The right idea could start out life as the wrong idea.

So next time you hear something, or someone, talk about an idea, pitch an idea, or suggest an idea, give it five minutes. Think about it a little bit before pushing back, before saying it’s too hard or it’s too much work. Those things may be true, but there may be another truth in there too: It may be worth it.

Fantastic post from Jason Fried over at 37signals. I’ve always believed that the number one trait a designer should have is thoughtfulness. Don’t have a knee jerk reaction to things. Be considered, hear all sides, take a minute (or five) to formulate an opinion.

Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:19:47 -0500

Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success:

But here’s where you start asking a very pertinent question: JESSE, HOW DID YOU DO IT?

I achieved all of this through something I like to call my 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success.

Whether you want to build a show like mine, build your own media empire, or simply re-grow up to 50% of the hair you’ve lost due to male pattern baldness (especially at the temples and crown), my program is for you.

Here it is.

Required reading.

A thermostat. Just a thermostat.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:29:08 -0500

From the Nest blog:

Complexity is easy. It’s fun to come up with new ideas and it feels great to say yes to everything, to avoid making trade-offs.

It’s simplicity that’s hard. To make a great product, you have to define its core – a single challenge – and painfully, painstakingly eliminate creative features to stay true to the product and its purpose.

Via Jason Fried.

Insanely Simple

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:22:39 -0500

A new book coming April 26th from Ken Segall:

You can see Simplicity in everything Apple does: the way it organizes, innovates and communicates. In fact, one could argue that it was Steve’s unrelenting passion for Simplicity that helped Apple rise from near-death in 1997 to become the most valuable company on Earth in 2011.

[…]

To Steve Jobs, Simplicity was a religion. But it was also a weapon — one that he used to humble competitors once thought to be invincible.

Apple’s devotion to Simplicity is the one constant that can be traced from the first Apple II computer all the way to today’s iPad. Though the company’s success is built upon engineering and design skills, it’s the love of Simplicity that truly powers Apple, revolution after revolution.

Sign me up.

Topics

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:21:07 -0500

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...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:09:00 -0500

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

The Serif and The Ligature

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:23:36 -0500

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

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:25:15 -0400

“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..."

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:01:00 -0400

“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

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:40:41 -0400

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

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:38:00 -0400

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)

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:50:00 -0400

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.