Tony Wilson

I only heard this week of Tony Wilson's illness so I'm especially saddened to wake this morning to the news of his death. I never met Tony, but his cultural and musical legacy altered my young life profoundly. Peter Saville's comment is just one of the tributes on the New Order site:

"Tony was an intellectual in popular culture and he brought greatness and importance to it and it was important," he told Newsnight. "He changed it and built it up."

Technorati Tags: Music

Does this surprise anyone?

How Apple's small things influence their big things - (37signals):

Take a look at the back of the iPhone. It’s silver on top, black on the bottom. Then take a look at the new iMac. It’s is black on top, silver on the bottom.

When the iMac G5 launched the design reference was the widescreen iPod: With all of the effort around the iPhone it was inevitable that the new iMac would reflect the industrial design aesthetic of Apple's latest showcase handheld to some extent. What's more surprising, but smart as hell, is how the new iMac bridges the consumer/pro divide in a completely natural way via its aesthetics. Apple is saying to Mac Pro users "This is what computers are meant to be like. You know you want one." And they're right.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computing, Design, iMac, iPhone, iPod, Macintosh, Product Design, technology

Cracking open the new aluminum iMac

This detail is lovely, but begs a question: How do you get inside?

With iMac, details make all the difference. For example, because it’s made from a single sheet of aluminum, you won’t see any seams or screws except for a single compartment on the bottom that provides easy access to the memory slots.

Well wonder no longer, design lovers. The lovely glass panel which sits over the screen (which BTW is a non-glossy panel under shiny glass, AFAIK) is secured by sixteen small magnets. Apple service engineers use a glazier-style suction pad to pull it away from aluminum frame. It's this kind of detail which makes Apple so special.

The one place you won't find a magnet however, is in the side of the case, where the Apple Remote used to hang. You'll need to find some other way of remembering where you put the old-fashioned glossy white plastic remote, which is begging for a shiny metal replacement now, natch.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computing, Design, iMac, Macintosh, Product Design, magnets, technology, Usability

Moving Office

With yesterday's announcement of Apple's extended iWork application, this is even more apposite a question. Macworld: Editors' Notes: Reassessing Office's space:

So is Thursday’s announcement of a delayed Office release bad news? Not for Mac users, that I can tell. Whether it’s bad news for Microsoft is another matter altogether.

All I know is that I stopped using Powerpoint on the very same day Keynote landed on my desk, and I was in a 2-presentations-a-day position. I'll be trying Numbers as soon as I can.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computing, Macintosh, Microsoft, Software, tools

Duly blogged.

Get your people to blog my people.

Done.

UPDATE: Stef's organising this design as an actual, non-virtual, shirt right now. Follow the link and leave a comment if you want to order one.

Technorati Tags: Birmingham UK, blogs, Design

The future in a tube.

I always knew AA batteries were the future, but I didn't realise how quickly they'd get us there:

Reportedly, the newly revamped Oxyride managed to maintain an average speed of just over 65mph and hit a top speed of 75.8mph, all while being powered by 192 AA batteries. Unsurprisingly, the promotional stunt rocketed Panasonic into the Guinness Book of World Records for speed attained with a vehicle solely driven by dry-cell AA batteries, but we still wouldn't look at purchasing 192 batteries (each way) as an efficient method of powering your commuter car.

Technorati Tags: Future, puppy, Science, technology

My Avatar appears to be drunk too

Thanks to WG. Very funny, and true: YouTube - second life

Technorati Tags: humour, second life, virtuality, virtualworlds