Wednesday: November 9, 2011
Bret Victor's not-so-brief rant on the future of interaction design.If you haven't seen Microsoft's video entailing what they think the future of technology holds, you should watch it (readily available on source URL as an embedded clip). So watch that video and then read Victor's thoughts on the matter. That being said, I do have a minor point of contention. I did get some hands-on time with a Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 this past weekend and it was a fun, dare I say, semi-magical experience. I highly reccomend Double Fine's Once Upon a Monster (even the demo is fun).
Friday: July 18, 2014
Airbnb's new brand identity seems to have a lot of people scratching their heads.If you hadn't seen it already, Airbnb has a brand new look and feel along with a brand new logo called The Bélo. The new mark, which is supposed to convey belonging, has instead become an Internet parody due to it's multiple similarities to certain obvious human anatomy. Personally, I see the planchette from a Ouiji board. The rest of you need to get your mind out of the gutter.
Tuesday: January 8, 2013
Netflix testing out personalized profiles for their streaming services.The test version showed separate viewing histories and recommendations for each profile. Users are able to fine-tune their profile by telling Netflix about their movie preferences, and profiles for kids under 12 are automatically based on the service’s Just for Kids UI. In addition, parents are able to restrict the type of content displayed on a kids profile based on movie ratings.
Monday: January 7, 2013
Apple would like you to know that they've had over 40 billion downloads from their app store.That's a lot of downloads. Apparently half of that number was just in 2012 alone.
Wednesday: January 2, 2013
New version of iOS starts appearing in developer logs.Developers have started noticing some curious entries in there log files regarding a new version of Apple's iOS operating system. The current version of iOS is six but references to iOS 7 are being found. Along with the new version of iOS a new iPhone hardware identifier has been unearthed as well. Look forward to iPhone 6 sometime in the near future.
Wednesday: December 19, 2012
Buy some video games while supporting charity via Humble Indie Bundle 7.Need some new games to play and want to help charity out at the same time? The seventh annual Humble Indie Bundle is here just in time for the holidays. Pay what you want and enjoy cross-platform DRM free games from some great gaming developers.
Tuesday: December 18, 2012
Why Google's GMail outage may be a sign of things to come.The answer is that most of the coders behind today’s popular websites and services are deploying their code when it’s ready—not at some pre-determined point when downtime may not be noticed. It’s called continuous code deployment, or some variation on that theme, and everyone from Facebook and Netflix to smaller services do it. While it may occasionally cause a few blips, those blips should be shorter and less catastrophic.
Thursday: December 13, 2012
Apple selects the Best of 2012 awards from notable iTunes Store apps and games.For the first time in two years, no photography apps made it in to the top listings. 2012 also marks the first year that an Entertainment app was given an editor’s choice award. As always, during the end of the year wrap up Apple highlights games and apps from a wide variety of categories, so it’s well worth skimming the list for hidden gems.
Wednesday: December 12, 2012
Merry Dukemas! Gog.com giving away Duke Nukem 3D for the holidays.I have fond memories of playing Duke Nukem 3D in college as it was my first real networked game with my fellow nerd-type college friends that we could all partake in. Mind you this was way before your traditional online multiplayer we know today, before the Halos and Call of Duties, and way before kids screaming obscenities at other adults through Xbox headsets were the norm. I'm surprised to see that the game still holds up well jaggy pixels and all. Hey, you can even snag a Mac port of the game - hurry offer ends while supplies last (you have until December 14 and supplies won't run out).
Want to know what the world searched for in 2012? There's a Google Zeitgeist for that.They even prepared a little video with inspirational music to go along with it. How very Google of them.
Monday: December 10, 2012
Upcoming Star Wars 1313 video game getting some helping hands from all facets of LucasFilms.Now that Disney has acquired LucasArts some interesting news is starting to trickle out regarding their games division. It seems that all of the different entities under LucasFilms such as Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, Lucas Animation, and LucasArts are all collobarating on this next generation title. Star Wars 1313 will take place in the seedy underbelly of Corsuscant which alone sounds like an interesting premise. Whatever does come out of this Disney/Lucas effort it will most likely be better than The Force Unleashed 2 by default (zing).