December 10 2012
Quick thoughts:
Why multiple animations? Pick one. And don't pick the cube one.
The pull over animation should not have transparency behind it— it makes it look messy and something you'd see in Windows 7. No.
Simply swiping away notifications is something that would be very inconsistent with iOS. In most apps, swiping left or right will bring up a delete button, but swiping alone won't delete it. No.
On the Mac, how would you remove notifications? Clicking and dragging? No.
October 29 2012
Ballmer on Tablets
My goodness, Steve Ballmer is an idiot. Ballmer claims the Microsoft Surface is the only usable tablet, yet it ships with a beta desktop version of it's most popular software, Office. It's perhaps the main reason why any Office-using PC guy would want to buy one of these things. I can't tell if he truly believes this or if he's just trying to push the device. They're trying to push their new app platform formally-named as Metro, yet they can't even ship the device with Metro Office.
Just look at how usable this thing is!
October 1 2012
In terms of traffic reporting, Google gets the nod. The iPhone doesn't highlight roads where traffic is flowing well... Because Google shows freely-flowing traffic with bold green lines
Perhaps it's because most of the time, on the majority of roads across the world, traffic is flowing as usual and "bold green lines" aren't neccessary for normal, expected levels of traffic. There's absolutely no need for the extra distraction.
August 25 2012
The Trial
Samsung's statement after the trial:
It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.
By the way Samsung simply thinks this is about rounded rectangles, it becomes even more clear why they lost.
It's not about multi-touch smartphones, or rounded-rectangles or a grid of icons, it's about the combination of numerous tiny details that add up. It's extremely unlikely that if Samsung truly worked independently on this project, they would have come to the same conclusion. How likely is it that the phones use a portrait display, with a tab bar on top, a main 4x4 grid of rounded square icons with white text for the app name beneath it and one additional row of four icons on a dock that persists regardless of the page, that can be changed by swiping horizontally through them? Extremely unlikely. That's only the surface, there are so many other details that make it so obvious that Samsung just blantantly ripped off the iPhone and iPad.
Some argue back with "good artists copy, great artists steal", a famous quote from the great Pablo Picasso. This does not apply here. Copying is just breathing down another one's neck and mindlessly copying in order to benefit oneself. To steal an idea, you run away with it. Samsung did not run away with the ideas, make them their own and improve upon them. They simply copied, and Samsung still does not understand this difference.
I'm very happy that Apple won this case. This win did not "stop innovation" because there was no clear innovation happening at Samsung.
July 31 2012
This list suggests that Apple buying RIM is not only a possibility, but a good idea.
Apple could ... even create an iPhone with BlackBerry's famous keyboard, which for many of us would create the ultimate smartphone.
That sounds like the worst idea ever. Why not throw in a stylus while you're at it?