Introducing the Apple Gamepad, an intuitive wireless gaming accessory that works seamlessly with your Mac or iOS devices. The Core of the gamepad contains all the sophisticated orientation and velocity sensors found on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, a three-axis gyro and accelerometer, as well as a FaceTime HD compatible front-facing camera; this gaming accessory will truely immerse gamers in a new level of interaction and game play experience.
Wherever You Want To Go is a four-part documentary by BMW Documentaries that paints a unique picture of technology, culture, cities, our past, present and how it all relates to the future of mobility.
“If aliens were looking down on Los Angeles, they would come to the conclusion that the dominant life-form is the automobile.”
“One very interesting concept would be vehicles that are shared… you don’t want the insuring part, the maintaining part, the storing part, all these things that aren’t about getting from A to B, we don’t really want those things… it’s not to say these kinds of cars will go away because we all like to travel with our family and do things together with other people. This is not about taking things away from people, it’s about enabling a whole new level of freedom.”
“What we’re really beginning to envision… are three internets, three ways of information. The first one we’ve become all familiar with, that’s the internet of bits, information, and we use it everyday. The second one is right around the corner is what we call the internet of electricity, some people call that the smart grid. But now we’re gonna able to manage our electricity much more intelligently. The third one is what you might call the mobility internet. ”
Cellphone Networks and the Future of Traffic, a related article on Wired that may also be of interest.
“… some things just annoy me to the point of distraction. A case in point being companies selling products by proclaiming their materials are easily recyclable, especially when their own product does not include any of these very same materials… you are only recycling when you are buying recycled. For example, it is a cop-out for Apple to claim, as part of the green credentials for their new MacBook Air, that its (unibody) enclosure is “highly recyclable” aluminium. If they really wanted to make a definitive stand on recycling, then all they had to do… was ensure that it is made from post-consumer recycled drink cans or pre-loved laptops… recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy, and 95% in carbon dioxide emissions, compared to virgin production… (and) worldwide, the aluminium industry uses as much electric power as the entire continent of Africa.”
“The problem with recycling is that it’s not only the original material that gets recycled, it’s all the things that go into the recycling process with that material. So if an aluminum can has paint on it, that goes into the process and the paint degrades the quality of the recycled material. Therefore, recycling is not a loop, because it can only be recycled a finite amount of times. This means that recycling is really, just putting off how long the thing waits to go to the landfill.”
This device puts forth the notion of placing users remote from the computer, without reducing the Multi-Touch user/interface interaction. In fact it initiates the subtraction of the traditional keyboard and mouse, but not in the sense of restricting the user to be at close proximity of the display.
Bring together the large silky glass trackpad on the MacBook Pro, with the low-profile design of the Apple Remote, and you have a versatile Multi-Touch device the size of an iPod nano. But we’re just getting started, because when you flip the device over, you’ll discover a QWERTY keyboard like the one in the iPhone OS, but with the crisp, responsive keys of the Apple Keyboard. There’s an accelerometer built-in too, so the trackpad is turned off when you’re typing on it.
There’s absolutely no learning curve. All your familiar Multi-Touch gestures are there; the way you type on the keyboard feels the same as it is on the iPhone, the way it’s held feels like the iPod nano. In fact it feels so much more convenient because you just bring the Magic Remote anywhere; with Bluetooth there’s no pointing too, it doesn’t even require a surface. Place the Magic Remote in the dock at the end of the day and it’ll be charged ready to go the next time you need it.
Home is a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French photographer, reporter and journalist. The documentary chronicles the present day state of the Earth, its climate and how we as the dominant species have long-term repercussions on its future. A theme expressed throughout the documentary is that of linkage; how all organisms and the Earth are linked in a “delicate but crucial” balance with each other, and how no organism can be self-sufficient. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet. The film is entirely composed of aerial shots of various places around Earth, taken in over 50 countries in the process. The movie was released simultaneously on June 5 in cinemas all over the world, on BD, DVD, and on YouTube.
1. Quartier de Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
This is a feedback to Mozilla Lab’s default new tab page for the upcoming Firefox. The header should not only introduce the browser’s branding, but should also show tidbits about the browsing session, such as the time, date, important announcements and update notifications. The rest of the two columns serve as a unified source, the internet portal, composed of bookmarks and RSS feeds like an internet start-menu. It should not only replace the home page but the bookmarks toolbar, where users can immediately get on with their intended browsing. The user can progress to search by the in-line search box, through Google or any other search provider, or read RSS feeds directly on the page, cached and refreshed in the background on every page load. It should not be a page feeding usage statistics and browsing history like others tends to do, but be a personal platform to initiate the browsing experience, by bookmarks.
This page should not intervene with the experience of the linked content, so there are no direct actions for features to say, post on Twitter. Instead are notifications that indicate if there are relevant attention-cues to take care of, such as unread emails on Gmail, or notifications on Facebook, where then the user progress through onto the link. This should furthermore reduce page clutter and performance overheads. In order to change the structure of the modules the preference icon should be easily accessible, but subtle enough, in the space just below the header. Preferences for adding and subtracting bookmarks, dragging and re-locating these bookmarks, and individual settings for each bookmark module, are accessed through this icon. In the space below the bookmarks are for browser features, say in-line searching of browsing history, recently closed tabs, recovering previous sessions, or even for upcoming location-aware features.
1. Firefox new tab, Much ado about pixels.
The next-generation Apple Mouse, the world’s most advance mouse, and here’s why. Our Apple engineers were able to bring Multi-Touch technology right onto the large Apple Mouse surface. That’s right, you can now seamlessly scroll, pan, pinch, rotate and zoom, just like on our gorgeous Multi-Touch trackpads, right on the Apple Mouse. It is now a true multi-button mouse too, physically, thanks to its flexible top-shell. You can’t see it, but you can certainly feel every left, right and middle-click. But that’s not all. Activate Mac OS X Dashboard, Exposé or a whole host of other, customizable features instantly using the physical buttons on either side of the Apple Mouse, 4 in total. Form and function. And although this mouse is wireless, worry no more about replacing batteries either. The next-generation Apple Mouse connects through MagSafe at the front, so while it charges, you can keep using your Mac. With its secure, reliable Bluetooth technology, simply break the magnetic connector away, and you’re wireless. Not to mention its precision laser tracking technology. Talk about innovating.
This is not an official product of Apple Inc..
1. More Apple concepts available on Flickr.
Objectified, a design documentary by Gary Hustwit, the director of Helvetica. Screening at film festivals, cinemas, and special events worldwide.
1. Trailer, Objectified.
In just the beginning of 2009, there were 2 notable announcements in the motoring industry; the official unveil of the full-electric Tesla Model S sedan, and the corporate launch of the Indian city-car the Tata Nano. These products are in my opinion, the solutions to 2 fundamental set-backs with the world today; the lack of confidence in the economy, and increasing environmental and social pressure. Jeremy Clarkson on the other hand, being the motoring enthusiast that he is, is so confident about the potential of the hydrogen-fuelled Honda Clarity. It is a radical product yes, that however, alleviates neither of these contemporary problems.
Money is one thing the world does not have, nor time for that matter. It is ridiculous to approve research and funding into harvesting and distributing hydrogen when in the end, our dependency on fuel leads us back to large multi-nationals in control of supply and prices. If we need to get through quoting Jeremy Clarkson “… the entire old testament before you can buy and run such a thing, practically and for a reasonable price… ” then sorry but hydrogen is not a practical solution to the immediate crisis the world is facing. It is neither a solution to our social addiction as being passive, ill-advised consumers.
“I’ll let you into a little secret. In the real world, away from the wide open spaces of the Top Gear test track, a Fiat 500 is much more fun to drive than a Zonda. A Zonda will pull more men, but on a bumpy back road, you’ll be wearing a bigger smile in the Fiat, I promise, or a Mini… in the not too distant future, cars like this will become the norm for enthusiastic drivers… “
It is not, I would like to perceive this as, about toning down aspirations. It is about appreciating that smaller economy cars are just as, if not more fun to drive, and besides, in the middle of the urban chaos, there is no genuine need for anything else; the jam-packed urban roads are best traversed by nimble city-cars that are minute yet practical, economical and environmental, and beautiful. This is the Tata Nano; though not beautiful would I argue, it is an economical, and hence an appealing option. If only it could resemble a Fiat 500 in aesthetics.
I am certainly not the only one to think so. There should no longer be a need to restrict ourselves to only one item in the clipboard, and though there are a number of third-party applications out there, or even Microsoft Office, that enables a clipboard that is more useful, it would no doubt be best if it was native. It is interesting how even upcoming operating systems neglect the efficiency this easy feature could bring. Here is my take on how it should work.
The traditional method of copy through the keyboard shortcut is by Ctrl+C, this does not change. In order to access the clipboard overlay the user holds Ctrl, and tapping C would cycle through the items, just like using Alt+Tab in cycling through applications. The user selects a clipping slot, overriding previous clippings or into a new clipping, and releasing Ctrl initiates the action. The most recent clipping is moved to the top of the list, so intuitively Ctrl+C will feel and function no different than before. Pasting or cutting performs no different than what is described; holding Ctrl access the clipboard, tapping cycles, and releasing Ctrl initiates.
The clipboard overlay displays the clipped content in an orderly list. The application icon indicates the origin of the clipping, and the content of the clipping is previewed, including images whenever applicable. It may look minimal and feel very intuitive, but no operating system has bothered to improve the clipboard. It is a powerful and productive tool, it should not be neglected.
