People often falsely assume I advocate and use Apple products because I think they’re trendy or because I’m some kind of gadget freak.
The truth is our world is awash with badly designed, badly crafted things. Apple is one of the few havens in a sea of people and organisations that don’t give a fuck about the details. Attention to detail is why I use Apple products:
In July 2002, Apple filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” …They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”
The other day, I noticed that my friend’s Dell laptop had a similar feature but with a shorter fade-in-fade-out period. Its rate was around 40 blinks per second, or the average respiratory rate for adults during strenuous exercise — not very indicative of something in sleep-mode.
It’s interesting how a lot of companies try to copy Apple but never seem to get it right. This is yet another example of Apple’s obsessive attention to detail.
iPhonific. TUAW has the low-down:
The idea is that you shoot, edit and upload your photos entirely with the iPhone.
HungrySeacow Software has just released version 2 of YummySoup, my favourite recipe management software for the Mac.
With this version they’ve introduced a weekly meal planner and the ability to easily share recipes (subscribe to my favourite recipes).
They say they have an iPad and iPhone version in the works too.
iPad guided tour videos.
The Keynote, Pages and Numbers videos are particularly interesting as these are full blown productivity apps. Make no mistake about it, this is a replacement for the soon to be old school of Mac OS, Windows and GNU/Linux. And not a moment too soon.
I’ve been thinking about getting one of these Zepii electric scooters from The London Electric Scooter Company (they’ve just launched their website). You can watch a hands-on review here by Jason Bradbury of the UK’s Gadget Show, when they were first released a year ago. Relatively low carbon footprint. No emissions (if you’re electrical supply is renewable). No road tax. No congestion charges. Costs about £60 in electricity to run a year.
Great chart by Information is Beautiful:
It’s a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble. You might also see multiple bubbles for certain supplements. These is because some supplements affect a range of conditions, but the evidence quality varies from condition to condition. For example, there’s strong evidence that Green Tea is good for cholesterol levels. But evidence for its anti-cancer effects is conflicting.
A company called Bloom Energy and founded by K.R. Sridhar is set to launch a new energy device tomorrow that he says is a breakthrough in fuel cell technology — namely making it affordable (the Holy Grail of fuel cell research) and thus providing a localised and comparatively cleaner and cheaper form of electricity than that which we currently get from the grid.
There was a segment covering the topic on CBS’s 60 minutes Sunday night, including an interview with K.R. Sridhar, which can watch online here.
Demonstration by Blaise Aguera at TED of the impressive work they’ve been doing behind the scenes on Bing Maps. (click through for the video)
Chatroulette (chat roulette). A new website that randomly connects you to other people via webcam doing the same the thing. I just watched a couple having sex on their couch, amongst other things…