At the intersection of design, tech, creativity and culture
Spotted a series of ads for Earthjustice in the Montgomery St. BART station here in SF. Check into the ads on Foursquare and Earthjustice donates $10 to various activist and environmental causes. The ads have been running since May. Great use of social media. Also funny, but not surprising to see my Twitter friend KyNam Doam is the mayor.
Along with millions of other geeks, I updated my iPhone 3G to Apple’s release of iOS 4 today (while others have already been playing with the jailbreak version). The update took a while and I’ve seen a few people in my Twitter stream say that it’s slowing down their 3G. Still others with 3GS are saying it’s faster after the update. I haven’t noticed a speed difference yet. I’ve made some folders to organize apps, played around with the improved Mail app, and will enjoy multitasking or “fast app switching” when I get iPhone 4. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes apps to update their versions with multitasking enabled. So far, there are only a few that are ready.
For a detailed review of features, see Ars reviews iOS 4: what’s new, notable, and what needs work.
Or, check out the iOS 4 walkthrough video from TiPb below:
Where I live
Playing around with Google Earth for iPad (iTunes link) tonight. Great fit for the iPad with touch and swipe and zoom controls. On the iPhone, it always felt too small, but the extra size of the iPad feels perfect. Now, if Google Earth had the ability to toggle to street view, we’d be all set.
Where I surf
The new media have caught on for a reason. Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.
Apple announced iPhone 4 and the newly named iOS at WWDC yesterday. Here are the highlights:
If you’re eligible for the upgrade from AT&T, you can get the 16GB for $199 and the 32 GB for $299. Otherwise, it’s $499 and $599 respectively, which Apple doesn’t publicize on their iPhone page. I’m disappointed that there aren’t multiple carriers yet. But, I’m glad I never upgraded to the 3GS and still have the 3G and can get the upgrade price. I’m super excited to finally have multitasking, folders for apps and an improved 5 megapixel camera. You can see the full list of features at Apple and watch Steve Jobs’ keynote.
Magbooth is the perfect event/party favor. Who doesn’t love a photo booth, complete with LCD video screen for previewing pictures, unlimited prints and web hosting (to view photos, order reprints, download files)? You can rent one from the Magnolia Photo Booth Company if you’re in SF/Bay Area, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Nashville, Chicago, Austin. Would love to have one at our Ideacodes studio ;)
View from our office/Ideacodes of downtown SF and the Moscone conference center two days before WWDC.
Interesting to see Apple putting up a section on their site to showcase HTML5 (although many of them aren’t HTML5, but CSS3). And yeah, they make you download Safari to view it there, but you can view on Chrome here.
From The Way We Design Now:
“Kids today don’t care about the big house, the big salary. At the heart of their value system is ‘I want to make a difference.’”
With an eye to contributing to the greater good, practitioners might design a game, a process, procedure or experience.