Apple - Remembering Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Rest in peace.
Apple Finds ‘Ulysses Seen’ Comic a Little Too Graphic - NYTimes.com
Another example why all the dreams of digital media ‘liberating’ comics from the ‘constraints’ of print are not likely to be realised… it’s back to the 1950’s folks. Read your history…
From Webdesigner Depot, "The Evolution of Apple Ads"
This is fascinating in so many levels. A cultural history of technology (let alone interaction design) would have to look at this. It’s interesting as well how Apple gradually stopped advertising on printed magazines and newspapers, moving to television, billboards, their own website and online video. I remember many of the early adverts from magazines like Popular Mechanics and Discover, which my father subscribed to. I used to “collect” computer adverts as a kid (aged 10, 11) and place them in ring binders. I did not buy my first Mac until the year 2000, though.
"A fight over freedom at Apple’s core", by Jonathan Zittrain - Financial Times
Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law at Harvard Law School and a founder of its Berkman Center for Internet & Society, says it like it is.
"Palms, Kindles, Nooks, iPads – none are as cool as Gutenberg's gadget", by Simon Jenkins |Comment is free |The Guardian
This post from today (Friday 29 January 2010) addresses some of the points I am interested in discussing re: print and digital. Once again, I do not see them in competition: media and corporations seem really interested in us engaging with the question of books and ebooks (and the past, present and future of print, really) in terms of old versus new, this will kill that, etc. I believe those clichés need to be deconstructed. This is an interesting piece (the last paragraph is spot on in vernacular) and it is good to see it published on the Guardian.
"iPad - The best way to experience the web, email, & photos"
So yes, everyone has seen it. It is exciting. But it fills me with questions. In spite of the fantastic technology that allows you to feel the way one interacts with the device, the “device” (as it’s called by Apple) seems to me mostly passive. The promotional video shows people leisurely looking at their pictures, reading, with the “device” on their laps. What they are saying is: this is not something to work with. It’s a “device” to look at stuff, to buy stuff, perhaps to read, to watch movies, listen to music. But it is not a tool to do things, not more than perhaps emailing or I suppose writing and publishing online. (Does it have an built-in camera like the iPhone or the Macbooks? It doesn’t look like it does). On the other hand, the terrible name, resembling so obviously “iPod” and causing silly scatological jokes online, can only point out towards the eventual boxing of the iPod line and its final substitution by the iPhone… It is exciting, but it is also worrying. As I asked on Twitter, will this “device” (sorry, I will keep using the inverted commas, to emphasise it seems to put into question what is a personal computer and what is not) divide the world between those who create content and develop applications on proper computers and proper desks and those who simply, leisurely, consume content on flashy gadgets resting on their laps?
