Archive for Hoverblog: February 2005 | Main >
Hair Bands, John Hughes & Apple
| 2.21.2005
I grew up in the 80s but I'm a product of the 90s. What I mean to say is that I retain almost no good memories about that decade. High school was herd mentality, something I dislike even more than frozen food, and the airwaves were dominated by XTC, Rockwell and Flock of %#*&. Special thanks to my dear wife, Joanne, "J", "Joe", "Babe" and "Hey" for having TIVOed MTVs 80s videos. Not all was a wash. I discovered design, had a cool motorcycle(s) (Check out my Life-graph and see how that all ends) and I bought my first MAC.
I remember these really innovative and strangly cool ads hitting TVs all over America. Some felt like car ads and others were like a visual commercial of Animal Farm. They were all about the approach of a new computer called Macintosh. I haven't seen the ads since the 80s and just came upon them a few days ago. If you didn't grow up in the 80s, you'll find them cheesy but cool. If you are a product of the 80s, you're likely to remember these ads and possibly a lot more you'll want to forget.
posted at 3:39 AM
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0 comments
Shuffling Along
| 2.20.2005
Since the arrival of the iPod Shuffle, I've been carefully analyzing both its niche in the market place and its overlap in functionality to the traditional iPod. I fully understand its appeal as a lower price point, lower-tech, MP3 player. Somehow, I think there is more to the picture than just another more affordable portable music player. Will it eat into the profits of the traditional iPod? Wasn't the iPod mini suppose to be the lower cost, smaller sized brother (or sister) player? Is this strategic or just a shotgun approach to saturate the market with Apple Mp3 players? It feels similar to the Audi-VW relationship.
I already have an iPod (white 40gb) and am pretty happy with it. It's the second one I've owned and I consider it required gear for anyone in the creative industry. While I drive most days to work, it's indespensible on the MBTA (Boston Subway) for listening to music or pretending to listen to music while catching up on a great new read. I also use my iPod as a hard drive for backing up and transporting files. Given all these accolades, I still have some practical problems with my iPod. First, I barely consider it portable. It's pretty heavy (almost a pound) and too bulky to work out with. It's not bad if you have somewhere to place it while you're on an exercise machine but what if you're running outside or on your bike? Not only is it awkward but it also has the potential to skip as it's basically one big hard drive. Also, at the office, I listen to my iPod constantly. When I have to ask someone a question, I take out my headphone and walk over leaving the iPod at my desk. It's just ergonomically not the type of product you would intuitively carry around with you. Finally, there is the infamous battery life or lack of. Having that hard drive spinning all the time eats up the battery in about 1.5 hours at best. Far too soon if you're thinking about traveling with it.
So given the low price point and that fact that my son Rider loves to dance to headphone music, I decided to use my holiday gift card and pick up the iPod Shuffle. I know what you're all thinking..."Why did it take Scout so long to buy this!" or "He needs another electronic device like a whole in the head." Well you're probably all right but to justify it, I really needed something light weight to work out with and if it did prove a huge overlap with my current player, I could always give it to my kids to play with right before they destroy it.
I bought the 1GB version if the iPod shuffle, which holds 240 songs (measured at 4 minutes each, in the 128 Kbps AAC format). There is also a 512 MB version that holds 120 songs and is the same size and weight. It really is amazing that such a small device can hold so much music. While the size and weight of the iPod shuffle is pretty incredible, the sound quality is even more impressive. The output is crystal clear, and has a smooth frequency response from 20 to 20,000 Hz. The shuffle also includes a lanyard that attaches conveniently to the device so you can wear it around your neck. To me, this small detail along with it's small size is what makes the biggest difference between the usability of the iPod and the Shuffle. The former is an MP3 player that you take with you. The latter is an MP3 player that's part of you and what you do. It's analogous to having a built-in car phone and having a small clam shell phone that uses BlueTooth to communicate with an BlueTooth ear piece. It's about real portability and intuitive integration.
It can also be used to transfer other files from your computer, making it function just like a USB "keychain drive." The battery lasts up to 12 hours, but expect a few hours less if you like to crank you music really loud. The interface of the iPod shuffle is different than the other iPods mainly because, well, there is no screen. The front of the shuffle includes the familiar play/pause, previous and next, and volume up and down buttons. The volume can be controlled in surprisingly small increments, allowing for a very specific output level. On the back of the iPod, there is a flat switch that can be shifted to Off, Linear, or Shuffle. Linear mode allows you to play back songs in the order they were put on the device. This is great if you want to listen to an album with songs in the correct order or if you are listening to chapters in an audio book. Shuffle mode, of course, plays back the songs in random order. While the switch on the back is useful, it is hard to push back and forth since there is no grip on it. Fortunately, you don't have to move the switch very often, but when you do, you better not have sweaty hands.
Overall, the iPod shuffle is a well-designed music player with impressive sound. It certainly sounds better than the other flash-based music players I've tried. There is no equalizer on the shuffle, but please, it weighs less than an ounce. The headphone jack can be used to connect to any speaker system or to a tape adapter in the car, meaning you can play your shuffle's music just about anywhere. If you want a good quality, extra small music player that you won't even notice you're carrying, the iPod shuffle is the clear choice.
posted at 2:31 AM
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0 comments
No More by the Seat of the Pants!
| 2.18.2005
OK. This is only design related by the fact that many creatives have to travel for pitches and presentations. For me, having the right seat on the plan is everything. Having a seat too small, non-reclinable or too close to the bathroom waif is an almost deal killer! Now when you're on the phone with your travel agent getting "yes, it's a great seat" to death, you can be checking out how good/bad the actual seat is with seatguru.com. Thanks to my dad, I'll no longer approach boarding time with trepidation.
posted at 11:24 PM
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2 comments
iPhoto 5
| 2.15.2005
I admit that navigating iPhoto or any photo archive program via calendar sounds a bit odd but once you take it out for a test drive, you'll never look back. The new upgrade as part of iLife will leave you wondering how you ever managed to trudge through version 4. Some of the new features I love are: 1. navigating by calendar 2. printing directly to Kodak's off-site printers and having them show up in the mail a few days later and 3. the ability to name your "roll" upon import. Check it out on the apple site.
posted at 12:36 AM
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1 comments
Let me Give You a Tip
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OK. Everyone knows about tipping. People usually leave 10%-20% as a standard. Maybe leave more if you’re really pleased or high maintenance such as myself. Most of us only have experience tipping waiters, taxis, barbers or delivery people. How about the postman (or women), sanitary engineers or valets? What about your auto mechanic who moves your car ahead in the queue? How much should you tip the chambermaid if you’ve only stayed one night at a hotel in a third world country? There are a whole host of people and services that we should be tipping. Remember, tipping doesn’t always have to be money. I once gave my primary care physician a gift certificate and I noticed my number of refills go up. I’m also a great tipper to my local sanitary engineers. During a pickup last year, I was getting a warning from the town for having too much garbage out at the curb. Most of it was demo from our house project. The garbage truck came down the street, picked up all the legal garbage while the inspector watched and then came back around 10 minutes later to pick up the rest once the inspector had moved on. As they threw the last bag in, they thanked me for the tip I left them the week prior. Lastly, poor service deserves nothing. I know that many of the below listed make a living off of tips, so receiving $0 for bad service is our way of providing some free important feedback on how they’re doing.
Waiter – 10%-20% (more if your kids leave a mess)
Sanitation Engineer – $25/yearly + $20/load (out of code pickup)
Chambermaid – one night domestic: $2-$3/night. Third world $5.00+/night
Auto Mechanic – $20 Starbucks gift certificate on every major visit
Post Person – $10/year
Valet – $3.00 if they take it to an offsite garage. $20+ if they leave it in front
Delivery Person – $20 for major appliance/furniture
Matrade – $5/for less of a wait, $20/for no chance in hell
posted at 12:33 AM
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1 comments
Color Conversions
| 2.04.2005
One of the most mundane tasks that face designers post-design, is picking the right screen colors (safe or not), hues and saturations quickly. I've spent many hours in PhotoShop and Illustrator. This virtual color wheel will cut down on hours while increasing accuracy and fun.
posted at 3:41 AM
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0 comments
Spellbound for Firefox and Mozilla
| 2.02.2005
This is a cool little application that enables spell checking in web forms such as html textarea / input elements (html input password elements are not checked by SpellBound) and rich text form elements. This allows you to spell check forms (e.g. message board posts, blog entries, wysiwyg, etc.) before submitting them when using your Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla Suite browser.
posted at 2:33 AM
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0 comments
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Hoverblog Archives August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 September 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 Latest Links Myallo - Uses an “interest profile” to find the most interesting Web pages on the Internet, and can actually learn over time. Acquisition - Probably the slickest P2P file sharing application on the web. Beautiful and intuitive OSX-like interface. iPod Music Liberator-Great little shareware for copying music directly from your ipod into ITunes and your finder...No Stealing Bad Music! MusicPublisher - For those of us who are not content just sharing the songs within ITunes, this little app lets you also share any iPod you have docked to your computer as well.
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