One Plus One Equals Three

David Lynch on Films on Phones

Tufte on the iPhone, but Jobs wins on countback

Here's Edward Tufte on the design of the iPhone interface.

Immensely interesting and well-argued, but I'm not sure I'm with you 100% on this one Ed...

The logic of Tufte here is perhaps quite sound to a point (if a little condescending in tone in its presentation). But – paraphrasing Graphpaper: do I really need to see a radar image of a city's weather when I'm quickly checking the temperature whilst walking to a meeting down a busy street whilst dodging a skateboarder? Don't think so. But Tufte does. He's of the opinion that more information is better on the screens of our mobile devices – and it's an interesting point.

But – using a simple finger-click to jump to another level of a visually appealling, (and very easily understood) device interface to access more information – if you really need it – is no problem for most people. Many (especially 'young people') would wonder what to do with that finger if they're not actively clicking it someplace on their device (it burns calories too). I'm more than happy to click away to the radar image if I really (really?) need to see one. Ditto for any other layer of information that I really don't need to know immediately and/or at a glance whilst 'on the go'. I'm also content to click and explore within levels of the interface/information when time and availability of a comfy couch permits. It's fun.

And besides - examine the image above. I know which interface I'd prefer to use: (the existing Apple one on the left). It looks like Friday is going to be hotter than Thursday. Do I need the right interface's icons, numerals, text and radar to tell me that? Nope.

I concur with Graphpaper's solid criticism of Tufte here. "From all of this, I am not getting a strong feeling that Tufte is up to speed on how we do things on the Internets these days. If this is Tufte vs. Jobs, this one goes to Jobs hands-down".

Tufte's presentation is a 56MB movie file download (which neatly illustrates Graphpaper's point). It comes across a little like 'the old dog' not biting perhaps, but certainly nipping, 'the new dog'.

Via Information Aesthetics.

Adobe: Where's the Love?

Dear Adobe,

We've been friends a long time. I cut my teeth in the field of digital design with Illustrator 88 and have been with you ever since. I remember when I used my first PostScript printer, when fonts weren't all bitmapped anymore. 'Incredible!' we said at the time. Later, when colleagues around me were extolling the virtues of Freehand, I stayed true to Illustrator (even though you had to do that funny command-Y thing to see your work in colour). I learnt Photoshop and later was an early adopter of InDesign. I was quick to tell my friends who were still using Quark that InDesign was just like Quark, but created by the ever-reliable Adobe, and that the connectivity between Photoshop, Illustrator and the new InDesign worked really, really well. Besides, who could work with something that had only one 'undo' (as Quark did back then)?

I quickly purchased Adobe CS3 when it came out so that it would function nicely on my MacBook (CS2 had a few little hiccups). All was working very well until yesterday when I updated my Adobe software (via Adobe Updater) and – shock, horror – InDesign and Photoshop went completely beserk, quitting all over the place. It took hours of troubleshooting to fix this glitch (and most of the advice didn't come from the Adobe site).

Adobe, you were the software company I trusted above all others, but you sent me a dodgy bit of updating software. I don't know if I can love you anymore. Our relationship can't withstand much more of this sort of behaviour.

If you treat your loyal friends like this... why, I might have to, well... Quark does still keep in touch, you know.

Prometeus: A Future Forecast

Prometeus - The Media Revolution is an interesting meditation on communications and media 'in the future'. Acording to this video, all old media as we know it will be dead by 2015 and by 2022 we'll be having 'experiences' via our five senses being hooked up to virtual worlds. Also, "blogs (will) become more influential than the old media". Very interesting indeed. Via PSFK.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Mobile TV

Judging by what I saw on my trip to South Korea a couple of months back, mobile TV may well indeed be 'the next big thing'. Mobile TV is coming to a device near you. In fact it's on my mobile right now...

A research project by Jan Chipchase and a team of researchers from Nokia and Seoul's Yonsei University that examines mobile TV. Essay here.

"It's all about a personal experiences; home use is surprisingly popular; watching is a small part of the whole; up to 4 people can view a mobile TV at the same time but the act of sharing changes what it means to be a phone; why accessories are a struggle; design content for changing user postures"... and more

An Original

An original Apple 1 from 1977. The motherboard sold for $666.66 and owners supplied or made their own casing. Thanks Ian Haig.

Like to tinker? Make magazine has an Open Source gift guide online. Why not make the world's loudest iPod! (ouch). Via Boing Boing.

Photosynth: A Knockout Application

"What if your photo collection was an entry point into the world, like a wormhole that you could jump through and explore…"

I'm on PSFK's side. I'm not normally a fan of things Microsoft. But Photosynth may be changing all that. Devised by Microsoft Live Labs, Photosynth is an extraordinary application (in development) that stitches together photos from a database and enables you to journey through and around them. Imagine all the photos in Flickr linked via their subject matter so that you could search on a photographed subject (ie. Eiffel Tower) and explore it from every possible photographical viewpoint via everyone's photos. (Except that Flickr is not a Microsoft product/service). But you get the idea... Via PSFK.

View Photosynth on YouTube.

My 3G Love Experience

I'm a 'news nut'. I have to confess to rarely buying a newspaper – online news really works for me, it's more up-to-date, is more eco-friendly and the type on screen doesn't smudge onto my clothing. I occasionally buy the Saturday Age (print) newspaper, but have for years wondered why it's two and a half centimetres thick – I throw half of it into the recycling bin within minutes of purchasing. (And I shudder thinking about the energy and trees used in producing – and now recycling - the section I've just binned without barely reading). Whilst eating breakfast on weekdays I listen to the news on the radio or maybe watch the morning news/lifestyle shows on TV. At night I devote my only serious couch time to the ABC's 'news-stream' especially Lateline with Tony Jones. He is to interviewing what Jamie Oliver is to cooking. Or something like that. Repeat next day.

With my new 3G phone my relationship with news has changed forever. My phone can make video calls, browse 3G-enabled web sites and play video and MP3 files. Nothing particularly remarkable about that. But I have acquired a habit that I'm a little reluctant to mention to my friends. I love reading and watching the news in bed on my new 3G phone. And I mean L.O.V.E.

The River of Crime, the Blank CD Mystery & the Curse of Bad 3D

Anyone familiar with The Residents knows to expect the unexpected. "Over the course of a recording career spanning several decades, The Residents ... cloak their lives and music in a haze of wilful obscurity, the band's members never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise – usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks – and refusing to grant media interviews".

The format of their latest audio sojourn certainly isn't what one would normally expect. River of Crime is a two CD audio/visual exploration of crime and pulp literature with its roots in 1940's radio crime serials. But there's an interesting catch: inside the packaging, the two discs are completely blank CD-Rs.

Can You 'Photoshop' It?

By Brad J. Guigar, www.guigar.com. He also does some effective info-graphic design for the Philadelphia Daily News. Here's a particularly fine info-graphic piece on the Godzilla family tree. Thanks Ben Greig.