Modest HTC
Strapped to Android, HTC Takes a Dizzying Ride to the Top:
“We are the second or the third best design house in the world when it comes to mobile phones,” says Horace Luke, chief innovation officer at HTC. “The trick of design is it is not just styling but also great engineering.”
This statement seems remarkably modest and down to earth, especially compared to the overconfidence Redmond’s mobile division keeps bandying about.
I also found this interesting:
HTC’s R&D division has a “target failure rate” of 95 percent, says Luke. “A research lab has to come up with enough ideas that fail fast and fail early so you can learn and harvest the right ones,” he says.
Firefox 4.0 UI
Windows Theme/UI Update « Chromatic Pixel: Stephen Holander shares some of his recent work on possible UI changes for Firefox 4.0 (which isn’t due for another year or so).
Introducing NeighbourTweet
NeighbourTweet is a small, simple, experimental prototype that i built. It can show you a stream of tweets from around your current location (within ~25km). Despite its simplicity, i’ve found it quite nifty and captivating so far. I usually just put it in a new browser window on my secondary display and let the tweets roll by. I’ve also found that NeighbourTweet works much better and is far more interesting in densely populated, urban areas, but that’s probably just an obvious corollary of urban life in general. It’s a great way to find out about things that are going on around you and to find out about what people living nearby care about. You might also discover new people to follow, who even live nearby, which could lead to more interesting or involved connections in the future.
NeighbourTweet uses the W3C geolocation API to figure out your current location and then queries the Twitter search API using clientside javascript. All processing is handled on the client side and no location data whatsoever is transmitted to or collected by NeighbourTweet. Further details on how Firefox implements the geolocation API and where they get their location data from can be found in Mozilla’s location aware browsing FAQ. Obviously your current location will be transmitted to Twitter when querying their search API, but no identifying user information (such as your username) is sent as part of this request.
Unfortunately the geolocation API isn’t widely supported yet – to my knowledge, it’s currently only implemented in Firefox 3.5 (or later) and Safari for iPhone, so other browsers are out of luck for now. Fortunately, as other browsers gain geolocation support, NeighbourTweet will automatically support them.
One more thing in case you’re wondering about incorrect results: In my experience, the Twitter search API sometimes gets a little confused because apparently they rather err on being inclusive than omitting potentially relevant results.
Best New Blogs of 2009
The Bygone Bureau presents a selection of the best new blogs of 2009. Strangely quite a few of the ones that are mentioned weren’t actually new in 2009. I’d say my personal recommendations would be Kottke, BLDGBLOG, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Daring Fireball and Beyond the Beyond. None of these launched in 2009, but all were great this year.
The Future of Magazines
Over the last few weeks, several interesting concepts for reinventing print magazines for digital consumption have surfaced.
Mag+ was developed by BERG London and Bonnier R&D. Their concept video is beautifully realized and offers some insight into the thinking behind the project:
Time Inc. presented its own vision of a Sports Illustrated tablet version, developed in cooperation with The Wonderfactory. Their concept video is much flashier and marketing-oriented:
Sports Illustrated – Tablet Demo 1.5 from The Wonderfactory on Vimeo.
Finally there’s also Condé Nast’s Wired tablet concept. Unfortunately the only video i could find isn’t particularly rich in content or quality:
Tenants’ Rights Flashcards
The flash cards translate New York’s official Tenants’ Rights Guide into a fun and friendly format that covers everything from security deposits and subletting to paint and privacy so residents can enjoy good times while becoming empowered residents.
Tenants’ Rights Flashcards (via)
Kids Bug Out Over Nanoscale Monsters:
Mixing the most addictive elements of toys and online games, Nanovor has parents shelling out for both a handheld device and creepy-crawly virtual goods. You have Jordan Weisman, formerly a creator of alternate reality games for 42 Entertainment, to thank for that. The conceit of his invention is that there are tiny creatures living inside every computing device and kids can interact with them through many different mediums. “It shatters the fourth wall and becomes immersive,” Weisman says. “This is the kid’s version of ARGs.”
WSJ interviews Cormac McCarthy
This interview with Cormac Mccarthy is delightful:
WSJ: The last five years have seemed very productive for you. Have there been fallow periods in your writing?
CM: I don’t think there’s any rich period or fallow period. That’s just a perception you get from what’s published. Your busiest day might be watching some ants carrying bread crumbs. Someone asked Flannery O’Connor why she wrote, and she said, “Because I was good at it.” And I think that’s the right answer. If you’re good at something it’s very hard not to do it. In talking to older people who’ve had good lives, inevitably half of them will say, “The most significant thing in my life is that I’ve been extraordinarily lucky.” And when you hear that you know you’re hearing the truth. It doesn’t diminish their talent or industry. You can have all that and fail.
Cormac McCarthy on The Road – WSJ.com
Paradoxically, it seems it’s women, not men, who have unrealistic standards for the “average” member of the opposite sex.
(via)
What problems does Google Wave solve?
Google calls wave an “online tool for real-time communication and collaboration”. The way Google should have advertised Wave is: “it solves the problems with email”.