Google has a new logo. Fascinating how much love and hate this change is bringing out.
Design
Leo Laporte learns about Samsung’s elegant sense of design
This is just so very delicious. News of the amazing Galaxy Note 5 stylus design fail has been making its way around the blogosphere over the last few days. If you haven’t heard, Samsung’s latest and greatest, designed to take on the iPhone 6 (more on that in the next post), was released in the US on August 21st.
One slight problem, though. As you’ll see in the video below, if you insert the stylus wrong way in (and that appears to be pretty easy to do, as Leo demonstrates), the stylus gets stuck, held in place by a mechanism inside the phone. If you remove the stylus by force, you’ll permanently damage the sensor.
How the world of cars is about to change
Fantastic post. Take the time to read the whole thing. It makes me excited about the future of cars and helps me understand why Apple would and could get into this market.
In praise of Apple’s packaging
Kirk McElhearn touches on the care Apple puts in to its packaging. Amen, brother.
The perfect gift for the musician in your life
This is a pretty original idea.
Icon crafting inspiration
This is an homage to some great icon creation efforts of yesteryear and, if you’ve got an icon to create, a great source of inspiration.
The hand engraved Apple Watch
Pricy, but some exquisite craftwork. Well worth a look.
How a long time iOS accessibility feature is changing lives
Christopher Hills has Athetoid cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or use his hands. In a world filled more and more with touch screens, he needed a breakthrough or he’d be locked out of the tech world.
The history of icons
A beautiful scrolling time line showing the history of icons.
The Apple Watch is misunderstood
Will Gomez, writing for Mac360, addresses criticism of the Apple Watch in this thoughtful post.
Astonishing imagery of the Earth from space
This vivid, moving imagery is riveting, breathtaking.
This game is so small it fits inside a tweet
Crazy!
iOS 9 includes emergency space saving feature
A bit of a hack, made necessary by an OS update size that outgrew the smallest iOS device RAM size. But a terrific idea, nonetheless.
The value of the round smart watch face
This is an interesting read, good food for thought. Apple Watch is square, and that works really well. But there is one advantage to the circular watch. Read on.
Adobe updates most everything in Creative Cloud, folds in Adobe Stock service
This is a big deal for Creative Cloud users.
Apple, WWDC, and accessibility
This is a great read. Kudos to Steven Aquino for pulling together this tour and analysis.
Initial thoughts on iOS 9’s iPad multitasking
This is a great read, gets right to the heart of the matter.
Phenomenal conceptual images of Apple’s new spaceship HQ
These are great shots.
Designing icons
If you ever find yourself in the iOS app icon design business, even temporarily, this is a helpful read, especially if you are an Illustrator user.
The Apple Watch secretly gets you to exercise
Marco Arment captures the spirit behind the Apple Watch as an exercise driver. Love this.
Great design: Shoes that will grow with your kid
Take a look at these shoes. True, they are more sandals than shoes, but they are US$12 (in bulk) and are designed to last through many years of foot growth.
Force Touch is poised to rule all Apple devices
M.G. Siegler asks: if there was no Apple Watch, would Apple have come up with Force Touch at all?
My 2 cents: I don’t think Apple Watch was in anyone’s mind when Force Touch was patented.
On the Apple Watch interaction model and the Digital Crown
John Gruber digs into the digital crown interface, explaining how it works and why it’s not as complicated as it first seems. This is helpful if you are confused or, perhaps, intimidated by the Apple Watch interface.
How to customize your new Apple Watch
Once you’ve read Jason Snell’s piece about Apple Watch faces and complications (see the previous Loop post), spend some time with Walt Mossberg as he talks you through things like settings, apps, and notifications. Excellent complementary pieces.
A great way to learn about the Apple Watch face and complications
Jason Snell teaches you a lot about the Apple Watch face and complications. Well worth the read.
The Apple Watch joins the list of iconic Apple images
Rob Richman writes about being mugged wearing Apple’s iconic white headphones and now worrying about wearing his Apple Watch. Which leads me to think about Apple and iconic images.
Why I’m still wearing my Apple Watch
John Biggs, Tech Crunch’s resident (and self professed) watch nerd, talks about why the Apple Watch has convinced him to move on from the world of mechanical watches he’s worn and loved his whole life.
Taking apart Mike Bloomfield’s Telecaster
Get a detailed look at a guitar that played an important role in rock history, and learn a lot about guitars in the process.
Getting from failure plus failure plus failure to crushing success
Interesting piece from Guy English on getting from a series of failures to crushing success. The missing ingredient? Time.
An entertaining read, but also a thoughtful lesson in product evolution.
The Blade, a universal MacBook, iPad lock
When I first heard about the Blade, I was skeptical. It uses adhesive to attach to the underside of your MacBook, MacBook Pro, or iPad. That glued-on unit features a swing out arm that you can attach to most security cables. Read on for more details.