Tag Archives: apple

Bookmarks for September 13th

By Ed Fladung | September 13, 2009
  • Maureen Dowd – Boy, Oh, Boy – NYTimes.com
    This basically sums up my thoughts on the vast teabagger of this summer right up to Joe Wilson's douchbaggery – "But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it."
  • Mexico Now Enduring Worst Drought in Years – NYTimes.com
    we're definitely feeling the first signs of a drought, here in Nayarit, rain fall is way off. usually we're swimming in rain this time of year. Lately it's been sprinkling every 4 or 5 days. the winter is gonna be rough.
  • Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America' – Telegraph
    "…according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution." and ""It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules."
  • YouTube – Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper
    DJs, beatmakers and sound sampling peeps check this out before it disappears, a youtube clip that isolates all 4 tracks on the Sgt. Pepper intro. awesome for sampling and cool just to hear/see the tracks isolated.
  • Jordan : History of Flight
    beautifully done artwork and flash site for the Jordan/Nike brand. this site is awesome. as for Jordan sneaks the III, IV and V were my favorites. the rest became too gimmicky. great artwork on that timeline site.
  • Kid Vlogs From Apple Store, We Smell a New Commercial Campaign
    "Kids. They grow up so fast these days, with the Twitter and the MySpace and Tamagotchi and sports drinks. You've gotta hand it to them, though: they've got their technology and they know how to use it.

    Which is why the dense YouTube account of Nicholifavs, filled with a kid who vlogs exclusively from New York City's Fifth Avenue Apple Store, is merely a natural progression in the realm of Things Kids Do Now." via Beau Colburn

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Bookmarks for July 31st

By Ed Fladung | July 31, 2009
  • Nick Drake – River Man
    your inspiration for today. beautiful video by Tim Pope.
  • Apple: Secrecy Does Not Scale – Anil Dash
    is Apple slowly self-immolating when it screws over iphone developers with all this secrecy garbage? maven indie iphone devs are fleeing the platform in packs. is the iphone's golden years over?
  • Custom Letter — LetterCult
    holy crapola. so much juicy good typography here. loving it. inspiration for days. [via @Nybe]
  • Scientists Are Concerned About Cancer in Animals
    new nasty, virulent forms of cancer are being discovered in wild animals, that are the result of heavy carcinogenic environmental contamination. are human beings really the top of the evolutionary chain? How did cheap crap from Wal Mart become the thing we collectively care about most? [via @jimmoriarty]
  • Isolator
    my new favorite app. when you need to concentrate on something your doing in a particular application (like writing a blog post in Safari or designing something out in photoshop) just hit the command keys for this app and it hides all your other app windows and the dock and presents your current working window on a black background. hit it again to return the windows. should be built into Mac OS X.
  • Minimal Mac
    one my new favorite blogs. tons of tips on reducing the visual clutter on your desktop (both the virtual and analog ones). less is more.
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Bookmarks for June 14th

By Ed Fladung | June 14, 2009
  • Stop Smiling Magazine: VISUAL RESPONSE: GEOFF McFETRIDGE
    "We asked Geoff McFetridge — founder of the Los Angeles-based design studio Champion Graphics and a member of the Director’s Bureau — to offer his impressions on the differences between living in California and his native Calgary. Included here are several bonus questions that did not originally appear in Issue 36: Expatriate"
  • Daring Fireball: Simple Inbox Archiving Script for Apple Mail
    ok, You're using Apple's Mail app and you have 2 or 3 IMAP email addresses (dot mac, gmail, maybe your own domain) and your inbox is swamped with crap and you're having problems answering emails. This Apple Script created by John Gruber helps you stay organized. You just flag the messages that you know need to be responded to and once per day you run this script. It automatically moves all read inbox mail to archive folders, effectively cleaning up your inbox for you! awesome.
  • Jordy Smith's Rodeo Flip In The Mentawais
    pretty impressive
  • :: andy gilmore :: design ::
    damn! i'm loving this guy's design work. beautiful abstract geometric stuff. awesome.
  • Border Film Project
    Border Film Project is a collaborative art project giving disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the border: undocumented migrants crossing the desert into the United States, and American Minutemen trying to stop them. To date, we have received 73 cameras — 38 from migrants and 35 from Minutemen — with nearly 2,000 pictures in total. The pictures show the human face of immigration, and they challenge us to question our stereotypes and to see through new and personal lenses.
  • How AT&T Should Handle the Twitter iPhone Price Backlash – Advertising Age – News
    if yer not in the know, Apple introduced a new iPhone 3G [s] this past monday. Of course, when Apple releases a new product millions of people all rush out to buy it. But when you have to buy it with a contract from AT&T things get dicey. When people started seeing the how much it was going to cost them to upgrade all hell broke loose on twitter. This article explains the bru-ha and why AT&T is not doing the right thing. My two cents: AT&T and most telcos are zombie corporations just like GM and Citibank. They don't exist to serve their customers, they exist to serve the interests of their shareholders. and that's it.
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Bookmarks for April 25th

By Ed Fladung | April 25, 2009
  • How to: Make a Hand-Drawn Font | BittBox
    good little tutorial on getting your hand-drawn type into the computer. for all you hand-written script surf logotype peoples. hint hint.
  • Ryan Alaia Sequence | Nathan Oldfield
    how dope is this Alaia sequence? i haven't seen much Alaia sequences (film or video) so this is the first time I've seen what it takes to turn these finless wooden boards. You can see the wood flexing in his backside turn. amazing. I would love a 20×30 inch print of this sequence image from this post
  • MUJI
    Muji has some amazing products both residential and commercial (clothing, interior design, furniture, etc..). they seem to be all about dope, minimal user experience. beautiful stuff. and very playful. Marcia says the dresses look like extras from the compound on "Big Love".
  • Teehan+Lax UX Fund
    this is very interesting. these guys set up a fund of 50k and pick stocks whose companies excel at "user experience". Companies like Apple, Google, Nike and Jet Blue. I'm gonna plug these picks into google/finance and see what the charts say. Very interesting.
  • paul isakson: Hitting Reset
    "In this video, Emily Haines touches on one of the major themes felt around the world right now – a large cloud of uncertainty and doubt hangs over many people's heads. I know that on a personal level, I've never talked with so many people asking the "what do I want to do with my life" question before. People are questioning much of what they felt good about before. They are considering giving up on things they've been doing for years. They're not sure where to go or what to do next. They are searching for answers and help."
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Bookmarks for March 18th

By Ed Fladung | March 18, 2009
  • ad agency shop "Modernista" just launched their blog!
    i really dig Modernista's work. and their blog looks great and random and sprinkled with a cuss word or two. I have a soft spot for curmudgeonry.
  • Nathan Kensinger Photography: Coney Island – Under the Boardwalk
    gorgeous photos taken underneath the boardwalk at coney island. I especially dig the abandoned entrance and storefront ones.
  • Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky
    "The problem newspapers face isn’t that they didn’t see the internet coming. They not only saw it miles off, they figured out early on that they needed a plan to deal with it, and during the early 90s they came up with not just one plan but several."
  • doubleTwist
    "All your stuff, on all your devices, with
    all your friends — in seconds" – nice lifestream app. watch the demo.
  • TPM Photo Features | Talking Points Memo | Just Say No Yes to Earmarks
    "When the 2009 spending bill passed last week, Republicans on the Hill– and the stray Dem — were united in a chorus of earmark-bashing. In the words of Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY): "Cut 'em all out." But it turns out that while the senator from Kentucky voted against the bill, he had $10.6 million in earmarks — 13 separate earmarks, to be exact — in the bill. And he is by no means alone. Several members touted their opposition to the bill and then voted against it, even as they tucked in earmarks for their own districts (thanks to Taxpayers for Common Sense). Oh the shame." – I guess it's useless to question why we're getting stuff like this from TPM and not CNN or NBC?
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iPhone in Mexico: Dead-On-Arrival

By Ed Fladung | July 11, 2008

Update: Gente, vayanse a firmar la petición que demanda precios justos para el iPhone en Mexico: NelTelcel.com, go now!
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The moment all us peoples south of the er, um, the southern United States border have been waiting for: Apple’s iPhone is finally coming to Mexico. Telcel is the carrier. A quick click over to Telcel’s official iPhone rate plan page and the unbearable truth starts to sink in: we may have the iPhone but Telcel’s plans totally suck. Here’s what they look like, prices are in US dollars:

iPhone rates for Mexico1
entry plan middle plan high plan
$41 $62 $83
200 minutes 300 minutes 400 minutes
100 mbs data 150 mbs data 200 mbs data
100 sms 150 sms 200 sms
$4/extra mb of data $4/extra mb of data $4/extra mb of data
8gb iphone $310 8gb iphone $196 8gb iphone $80
16gb iphone $426 16gb iphone $310 16gb iphone $196

Most people outside of Mexico will be shocked by the paltry amount of minutes mexicans get for their money. Despite being a developing nation, mexicans pay more than three times what people in the states and Europe do (if you adjust for average income, it’s more like 20x). Unfortunately, Telcel enjoys a monopoly that’s well documented. High prices for talk minutes is a way of life here, most people shrug and bear it. The real kick in the pants isn’t the minutes, it’s the data.

Read More »

  1. Monthly plan price and subsidized iPhone price both include IVA (tax) ↩
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iPhone in Mexico: A Follow Up

By Ed Fladung | March 17, 2008

iphone in mexico: A Follow Up

I wrote this post last year about the iPhone coming to Mexico (if/when). The post still gets comments daily, most of which point out that indeed the iPhone is available in Mexico, albeit not officially supported by any of the major carriers.

I thought I’d follow up with some up-to-date facts:

  • Yes, if you’re coming from the US and want to use your iPhone in Mexico, it’ll work on the Telcel network (edge). You’ll get voice and data.
  • If you’re in Mexico, you can buy an iPhone, have it unlocked/chipped and use it on Telcel’s network and Movistar’s (assumably Movistar’s network is edge, also).

These are what 90% of the commenters seem to be saying. But no one is commenting on how the iPhone works once you actually get it up and on to the network. And more importantly, how much it costs to use the iPhone.

What I’m interested in are the following:
Read More »

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The Future of Reading

By Ed Fladung | November 20, 2007

kindle

Amazon totally b0rks the launch of their new ebook reader jackassingly called Kindle, by tying it to draconian 1984-inspired DRM and Terms-of-Service: The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts) by Mark Pilgrim. Brilliant and horrifying. And exactly the reason why Kindle will and should ultimately fail. John Gruber also breaks off some whup-ass for Kindle.

Three cursory things:

  1. All that white plastic is gonna get caked with mung, after a few months of greasy handprints (planned obsolescence?)
  2. what’s with all the buttons? these guys ain’t seen an iPhone?
  3. I’d love to see Apple come out with a similar tablet touch-screen device that kills the Kindle on usability, form+function and no DRM
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Improving Spaces in Leopard

By Ed Fladung | November 16, 2007

wickedly good proposal for improving Spaces in Leopard. I love Spaces, but it’s got serious issues. This would be a painless solve for a large portion of Spaces’ issues. Someone else needs to address the dual monitor to one monitor issues (spaces doesn’t like it when you go from two monitors to one and at the same time switching your primary display preference). [via DF]

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John Nack on Aperture vs. Lightroom

By Ed Fladung | October 31, 2007

jn

John Nack on Adobe: Aperture vs. Lightroom: What do the pros use? John has some dispiriting statistics for Aperture users, we’re in the 5.5% of users bracket. ouch! I can’t say I’m too surprised. To understand the derision in the photog community over these two apps, check out the comments. whoa. [via DF]

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Aperture 2.0: what’s next?

By Ed Fladung | October 31, 2007

aperture screenshot

The Apple Aperture community is abuzz. After watching Leopard hit the street, we’re all biting our fingers hoping Apple is not too far off from releasing Aperture 2.0. It’s been over two years since the initial release of the product and to say that we could use an update, well, I’d drag out the desert/water metaphor but I’m so tired of waiting I’m just too lazy to put the whole sentence together.

O’Reilly’s Inside Aperture blog chimes in with two musings on post-Leopard Aperture goings-ons. The first, gave rowdy Aperture users a chance to sound-off on the features they’re looking forward to and the features they want (or else). The second, a roundup of useful Aperture community resource links that includes several ways to give your feedback directly to Apple (Tim O’Reilly is appreciative, but even he doesn’t have a direct line to His Steveness). There have been no concrete answers on when Aperture 2.0 will hit the streets with nary a peep from Apple (as usual). I have a laundry list a mile long of features I’d like to see in the new version, I gave my 2 cents in the first article above, you can click on over to read my abbreviated list.

In the second article, a commenter suggests that we, Aperture faithfuls, huff it on over to Apple’s Final Cut Studio site to see what the new version (6.0) has to offer, the reasoning is that some of the technologies found in FCS could possibly make it into Aperture 2.0. I took the advice and checked out a bunch of the ‘new feature’ videos. I was absolutely amazed by what I saw. My biggest curiosity was with FCS’s new bundled color adjustment application, quaintly called Color. If only half of the underlying technology and features of Color made it into Aperture 2.0, I’d be a happy camper. It’s gorgeous, innovative and intuitive. Here are just a few of the features* of Color that I’m hoping will have some shared DNA with those of Aperture 2.0:

  • GPU accelerated action all over the place
  • Next Generation FxPlug Filter architecture – for internal and 3rd party filters
  • Filter presets and grouping of filters into one preset
  • Pre-built color effects and ability to create your own (think Xprocess, film stock simulation, etc…)
  • Drag and Drop filter application
  • Grab and lift on-photo filter manipulation
  • Signature looks that can by applied over an entire project (and controlled/adjusted from one place)
  • 3D color scope
  • Gorgeous curves implementation for Hue, Saturation and Luminosity
  • Selective filter application based on targeted Hue, Saturation and Luminosity
  • Vignetting – circle, square or custom shape (using b-splines)

I’m sure there are a million others, but this list is pretty impressive. The more I look at Color, the more I think that Apple should just do away with the Adjustments HUD concept all together. It works for a handful of limited-functionality filters, but what I’m seeing in Color is on a whole other level of image manipulation. I can’t see how the Adjustments HUD in its current configuration can possibly contain as much functionality as Color provides. I could be wrong.

One thing I gotta say though, is that even after two years of heavy usage, I still love the Aperture user interface. Looking at Final Cut Studio’s and even Color’s, they don’t quite match the polish and shine of Aperture. I’m assuming at some point FCS will inherit that particular part of Aperture’s DNA, as Logic Studio just has.

After seeing Color at work, two things strike me the heaviest: A. Color is so advanced it makes Aperture 1.0′s image adjustment capabilities look almost archaic. B. I have never been this excited and enthusiastic to see what the Aperture team brings to the table and I can only hope that they are sharing technologies with the team that worked on Color.
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* I’ve changed the features slightly to make more sense with regards to how they may be applied to Aperture 2.0

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Leopard Intro Video

By Ed Fladung | October 29, 2007

leopard intro vid

Ars Techinica has a huge copy of the Mac OS X Leopard intro video. nice. Is this the work of Logan? me not so sure.

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Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

By Ed Fladung | October 25, 2007

mac

Unless you’ve actually got a life or have been living under a rock, you know that the webosphere is abuzz with news of Apple’s impending delivery of their next operating system Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Everyone’s giving their 5 cents on the best and worst features of the new system. All in agreement that Leopard is packed with great new features and Apple once again has raised the bar on powerful, useful features packed into deceptively easy-to-use interfaces.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to Leopard. Time Machine alone is worth the upgrade price. Quick look and Stacks are gonna be super cool and Spaces will pretty much do away with the need for a second monitor (I think this will most likely be a consumer favorite). But for me, personally, my money is on iChat and screen sharing. Let me explain.

I go for Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field marketing gimmicks just like everyone else. The mac is easier to use, your IT department will need to look for new jobs, things just work, etc… etc…

This just isn’t reality. Sure Macs need 10x less tech support then PCs running Windows/Vista and when something software-related goes fubar on the latter, you don’t need tech support, you need a new computer. Apple has made the OS so simple that someone with a pretty good knowledge of the OS can solve 99% of the trouble-shooting questions your average user has*. This means that if you’re a recent switcher, a mac novice or a technophobe and your friend is a savvy mac user, chances are s/he can fix any little problems you have. For most of the mac-centric people in my little corner of Mexico, I’m that person (the nearest Mac Genius is 3000 miles away). In addition to the people close to me, I have several friends in far away places that hit me up on a near daily basis over iChat/email to get quick help with some of Mac OS X’s “undocumented features” (read: idiosyncrasies). And in turn, I have a friend or two who I rely on when I get stumped.

At home I use Apple Remote Desktop, which is a heavy-duty version of the screen sharing capabilities that are built into iChat and the Finder in Leopard. I troubleshoot my wife’s computer almost daily, usually having something to do with MS Word/Excel. We have a mac mini that acts as our “entertainment hub”. I administrate both using Remote Desktop, over our home network, the screen controlling features are insanely useful and once you try it, you’ll never understand how you did without it.

Years ago, my good friend Steve showed me a new feature of Windows (back when he was confused and walking the desert alone), where you could share and control the screens of your friends’ computers, over the internet. I nearly shat my pants. If I’m not mistaken, this feature has since been removed from Windows because it was a security nightmare. Well, this feature has finally come to the Mac (albeit with a better security implementation). iChat and the new Finder now have built-in screen sharing capabilities and I think this is one of the “creeper” features of Leopard. Once I’ve had my fill of the glossy, marquee features, this is the one that’s gonna be the most life-changing.

The screen sharing capabilities of iChat will allow me to dip into a friend’s computer 2 blocks away or 5000 miles away to fix problems, show someone how to properly use and dispose of dmg installers or just to set my grand dad’s desktop to change images randomly every once in a while. I’ll have the ability to help a friend in San Francisco with a kerning problem in Adobe InDesign or a friend in New York City with organizational problems in Apple Aperture. This kind of screen sharing will be commonplace inside of 6 months. Your computer will no longer be an isolated piece of machinery, connected by text/audio/video chat and email. You can now share your computer with friends. Troubleshooting and asking for advice/help will no longer happen over a text chat or lugging your iMac to a friend’s house or the nearest Apple store. I’m really super excited about this feature. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take a fiber connection to work properly.

For an example of iChat screen sharing, check out Apple’s Leopard guided tour video. What I’m referring to starts at the 24 minute mark. This video is like crack for mac nerds. As I watched it, I was hooting, hollering at the screen in giddy anticipation. Reality distortion field, you are my friend.

For an added bonus, totally awol from the 300+ features page is the .Mac feature called “Back To My Mac”. This feature is gonna be killer. It allows you access and control your home computer (or other computers), over the internet, through .Mac. For instance, if you’re traveling and a client needs a tweak to a certain file. Instead of having to jibe a workmate into doing the change, you can access and control your work computer, make the change and send it off, viola. This feature gets super interesting when you think about how it could be integrated with iPhone or what happens when someone stupidly steals your macbook and tries to use it. Again, not even on the 300+ features list. but why? Right about now, I’m glad I renewed my .Mac membership.

So, what’s your favorite feature?
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* hardware is another thing. Apple’s hardware quality control system is in the crapper and most tech savvy mac heads know it. As a tech support for friends, in the past year I’ve helped people deal with faulty screens, fried power bricks and internal hard drives, multiple cases of dead fans and one case of I don’t even tell what was wrong with the thing. Almost everyone of my friends has had a hardware based problem with their mac, that’s not a good percentage. Do you know what it’s like dealing with hardware issues in Mexico? holy crapola.

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iPhone Minutiae

By Ed Fladung | October 18, 2007

Ok, it’s official. I’m sick of hearing about the iPhone. Yes, it’s great, but sifting through 40 rss posts a day about total minutiae regarding the iPhone is way too damn much (has there ever been a device that better helps these sites sell text ads?). I’m gonna make a suggestion here: since the iPhone is in a completely different category then the mac, wouldn’t it be nice if mac rumor sites split their coverage of the Mac and iPhone into two separate sites, or the very least provide different rss feeds for the two product categories. This seems like the humane thing to do. anyone with me on that one?

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Business Week Hachets Steve Jobs

By Ed Fladung | October 13, 2007

Universal Music Takes on iTunes. Business Week does a hatchet job on Steve Jobs and iTunes. John Gruber ways in with a clear and lucid look at the Universal Music service called “Total Music” and the crack-pot writing methods of the article’s authors: Ronald Grover and Peter Burrows.

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