Sway. Swirl. Smile.
The Wirecutter
Great new site from Brian Lam of Gizmodo fame that highlights the best gadgets.
Brian has the following to say about the site:
Even though I will be blogging occasionally, The Wirecutter is not another tech blog. The Wirecutter is mostly a list of amazing gadgets.
He also had the following to say, and it made me smile:
Headlines like this: “Exclusive: Motorola Spyder (Droid RAZR for Verizon?) features industry-first qHD Super AMOLED display, LTE, dual-core processor.” Or “Why Not All Jurassic Park Characters Were Created Equal.” No offense meant, but I do not want to spend my remaining days writing stuff like this.via Daring Fireball
Catching Up to Apple
Yesterday was a big day for the mobile phone industry, and no I’m not talking about the unveiling of the Nokia Lumia 900, (even though I’m personally excited about that device).
Five year’s ago yesterday, Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone to the world. It was unlike anything we had every seen, almost like it was from the future. Then Steve said this:
Now, software on mobile phones is like baby software. It’s not so powerful. And today, we’re going to show you a software breakthrough. Software that’s at least 5 years ahead of what’s on any other phone.
So if five years have passed, do you think the other mobile operating systems have caught up? Dan Frommer say yes and no, but I really like what Shawn Blanc has to say on the topic:
You can use Apple’s ideas and you can copy their products, but you cannot copy the time and energy they put into those products, and you cannot copy their attention to detail. Those you have to do on your own. Five years later, some companies still haven’t figured that out.
It’s not the phone’s hardware or software that other companies have to catch up to; it’s the high-quality experience the Apple brand delivers on a very consistent basis. To me that’s where Apple is still ahead.
“When I write I make a conscious effort to generate a sense of enjoyment–to convey to my readers that I found the events I’m describing more than ordinarily interesting, or unusual, or amusing, or emotional, or bizarre. Otherwise why bother to describe them? I also try to convey the idea that I was feeling great when I did my writing–which I almost never was; writing well is hard work. But readers have a right to believe that you were having a good time taking them on your chosen voyage.”
“Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we’ve got to do (3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don’t like because other people read them. Things you ought to do are things like doing one’s school work or being nice to people. Things one has to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household shopping. Things one likes doing — but of course I don’t know what you like. Perhaps you’ll write and tell me one day.”
