Author: Jake

This bit of observation put me in mind of the toughest challenge we face as software developers, i.e. how to convey failure. Toddlers get difference between faulty hardware, operator error Development focuses on how software works, not on how it doesn’t work. Therefore, error handling and messaging never get the attention they require. Add to… Read More

Today, Robert Scoble (@scobleizer), one of the big proponents for apps mattering, responded to DHH’s (@DHH) assertion that core experience, not ancillary apps, matters most. Scoble’s main point is that people don’t want to look stupid so they buy the phone with the most “app potential” even if they don’t use these apps themselves. This… Read More

Jason Grigsby (@grigs) put this seed in my head a couple weeks ago, and this post by DHH (@DHH) sums up the same essential point quite nicely, i.e. apps don’t matter. Ten apps is all I need – (37signals) Many pundits and bloggers like to point to apps as the main difference between iOS and… Read More

Sometimes things collide interestingly. I had just finished watching the latest installment of Kirby Ferguson’s awesome Everything is a Remix series when I ran into Ultan’s (@ultan) post about the iOS 5 Notification Center. The short version is that iOS 5 finally cleans up notifications, which have sucked from the get-go, by implementing a system… Read More

Check out this dude and his epic pinstriping. I’ve seen pinstriping done by hand on stationary objects, which prevents this technique, i.e. moving the object, not the hand, and it’s equally epic. The hand and pressure control required to do good pinstriping is insane. Peep the Technique: Pinstriping Done by Hand – Core77

Check out this MIT research project that transfers information between phone and laptop via the phone’s camera. MIT, Google Researchers Tap Cellphone Cameras To Grab Data From a PC – Ina Fried – Mobile – AllThingsD Similar in theory to the Chrome extension Chrome to Phone, this class of interactivity between devices is super useful… Read More

This is pretty fascinating. Back in the late 90s, I worked on a project at a metals reclamation plant in urban Detroit. They bought truckloads of shredded cars, sorted out the recyclable materials (aluminum, copper, etc.), and resold them to the automakers. The machine in this video must be the guts of that glorious machine that eats cars… Read More

Since its debut last year, I’ve watched Windows Phone 7 with some interest. Similar to IE 9, IE 10 and the preview of Windows 8, WP7 surprisingly doesn’t suck, and as a long Microsoft-hater, I’ve been curious to see how they evolve. After the Nokia news, WP7 seemed poised to make a serious dent in… Read More

At different points in my post-college life, I’ve carved out time to learn new technical skills, with mixed results. In addition to a general thirst to expand my skillset, ever since the dot-com Bubble burst, the importance of both breadth and depth of skills has driven me to scrape a few hours out of my… Read More

Another interesting bit of news coming out of WWDC was iTunes Match, the famous “one last thing” Steve Jobs dropped at the end of his keynote. Most of the coverage centers around creating amnesty for pirated music or monetizing it, depending on the perspective, all for $24.99 a year. Why Copyright Holders Love iTunes Match… Read More

I paid precisely zero attention to yesterday’s WWDC coverage, what with work and all, but today, catching up, I was pretty unimpressed with the announcements. A lot of the noteworthy iOS stuff reminded me of the South Park Simpsons Already Did It episode. I am more excited about OS X Lion, where iCloud will have a… Read More

Looks like our friends over in Marketing, Marius (@radu43) and Tim (@planspark) are running Suggest-a-Session for OpenWorld (@oracleopenworld) again on Oracle Mix (@oraclemix) this year. On Friday, I found out Rich’s (@rmanalan) session proposal, “Building Mobile Apps with Oracle” was not accepted. Rich immediately added its abstract to Suggest-a-Session, and I tweeted a call to… Read More

This is worth a read if you’re interested in the recent, rapid innovation in credit card purchasing. @chexton » Blog Archive » Why Square could be one of the greatest Trojan Horses in recent tech history My short-sighted question about the seemingly competing innovations of Square and NFC are succinctly addressed thusly: Firstly, although Square currently relies on… Read More

IM has been a fixture in the home and in enterprises for well over a decade. One of the nice, possibly underhyped, features of IM is presence, i.e. letting your contacts know when you’re free to chat and when you’re busy. I suppose invisible is also a presence state, but from the would-be chatter’s perspective,… Read More

Lately, there’s been a flood of interesting concepts, from touchless control, to gesture control, to foldable displays. Now, check out the micropointer. Interface Design: Ring-Based Controls – Core77 I love the video production. It feels like it’s been lifted directly from Robocop or Demolition Man, very “vision of the future”. I kept expecting Cyberdyne Systems or Omni Consumer… Read More

So, this is pretty amazing. I’ve chatted about bendable displays here a few times with Gary (@syd_oracle) and with Joel (@joelgarry), and it seems we’re on the verge of seeing some really fantastic innovation in that area. Very cool stuff, check out the video. Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen

Two major developments, not surprises mind you, this week pertaining to credit card payments. First, Square announced Square Register, the next step in their quest to free merchants from expensive POS terminals. Square’s Disruptive New iPad Payments Service Will Replace Cash Registers I’m a big fan of Square and its conveniently tiny little doohickey, essentially a… Read More

Hot on the heels of the Imaginary Phone comes this gesture-controlled music player/workout tracker. Adrien Guenette Might Be Onto Something With His Gesture-Controlled Music Player Interesting. Gestures seem to be all the rage among smart designers, but will they catch mainstream attention? Probably not until Apple builds them into the next generation of iPhones, he… Read More

I saw this several times before I realized it wasn’t a joke. Hasso-Plattner-Institut: Imaginary Phone Apparently, you wear a camera that sends your gestures to the phone. I wonder how far from the device you need to be to make this work. With the mounting evidence that cell phone radiation is a bad thing, this… Read More

If you’ve read here long, you’ll know gamification is one of our hobbies. Like it or not, gaming is the future, and not just in consumer software. All Games Are About Death This post sounds morbid at first blush, but it makes some great points about death as a game mechanic, namely that death isn’t… Read More