Monthly Archive

Last week, Steve Jobs posted a "Thoughts on Flash" article to Apple's website discussing Apple's decision to not pursue Flash on iPhone.

Google VP Andy Rubin responded to this by saying, "sometimes being open means not being militant about the things consumer are actually enjoying." Jobs wants us all to use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, but despite the growing capabilities and support of those standards, Flash is still the right tool for some jobs, and despite Jobs' complaint that most Flash sites weren't designed for touch interfaces and will probably be broken, a lot of them will probably still be usable, or easily fixed by developers who care.

While I'm a happy Mac user — happy about everything, that is, except Flash video performance — Jobs' fourth point, on battery life, "The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained," and the implied conclusion "therefore you should not be allowed to watch software-decoded videos on the 45 minute bus ride between your charging station at home and your charging station at work" typifies what really irks me about Apple, why I tend to disagree with Apple's so many of Apple's technological policies, and why I'm happy there's a Droid in my pocket and not an iPhone.

read more...

In the industry, with all the excitement surrounding smart phones, I think we lose sight on just how many "dumb" phones there are out there. Yesterday, comScore released the results of a survey that is a stark reminder of the mobile landscape as a whole where nary an iPhone, iPad or Android is mentioned.

I came across an article today in the NY Times, titled -- We have met the enemy and he is powerpoint.

In it, they present this image:

Plan for Afghanistan: A failure in data visualization
which was meant to convey the complexity of the military strategy in Afghanistan. Complexity was conveyed, but to what end? The key to effective data visualization is not to "convey complexity" but is instead to wrest clarity, order, or at the very least, some insight.

The General's reaction to this slide? “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”

Highlights from the NY Times article:

“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” General McMaster read more...

Today, I have a greater appreciation for what Victor Frankenstein felt as he fled from his creation in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Victor Frankenstein had taken the act of creation too far and thus created a monster.

Today, our creation, the MyJoys Customizer, resulted in this:

Frankenstein's Monster: Green Base, Red Hibiscus Saddle, Yellow Toe and heel shoe Noonan, out in Truckee, California. All of us here at Outsight are deeply sorry. read more...

Lots of interesting links today:

Nice, simple presentation about experience design
The UX Driven Startup: Crafting an Experience

Google creates an application to teach developers how to prevent hacking
Google: Please Hack this Buggy Microblogging App

Wondering where Gowalla, Brightkite and Foursquare are leading?
Geomarketing: Ten Foursquare marketing campaigns

Ever wonder what the touch target size should be on a mobile? LukeW summarizes the current "standards"
LukeW on Touch Target Sizes read more...