Elegant Technology

Like many, I queued at my local Apple store to pickup a new iPhone 3 GS. This device is well worth the upgrade. The new features work well and the speed bump is terrific.

When you spend time and take in all the changes Apple makes you will notice what I call Incremental Beauty.

Look at the picture above. This is of the wall charger that now comes with the iPhone 3GS. If you were to compare this with the previous versions you would see how much more beautiful  it is. One piece instead of two. Smaller. Neater.

These are the changes that make Apple great.

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Like many Apple customers, what I find appealing is the limited choice of products.

Along with their refined design reduced to the essential I feel that by offering a limited product range I can clearly focus on what’s essential for me. Less choice = greater clarity.

So, at the WWDC ‘09 next week I hope that they mainly update existing products and not introduce too many new things.

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LAMY noto pen in grey

As a long standing fan of the Lamy pen company I regularly take a look at their web-site to see what new products are available.

I was recently taken with the new noto pen designed by Naoto Fukasawa. This pen is an exercise in restraint from the uniform colour, in this case matt grey, the discrete branding, through to the simple triangular body for easier grip.

I quickly looked into where I could get one and found a very reasonably priced version on eBay.

From the Lamy web-site;

LAMY noto

The LAMY noto is a design product from the Japanese star designer Naoto Fukasawa. The name Fukasawa stands for the reduction of form to the absolutely essential. The LAMY noto is a ballpoint pen whose design is restricted to the absolutely essential functions and good writing…
…Ballpoint pen in the new, functional design. With triangularbody and impressive clip solution.

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With Apple stating that its not interested in the Netbook market…

Netbooks have cramped keyboards, small screens, “junky” hardware and bad software, said Tim Cook, chief operating officer of Apple, during a fiscal second-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday 22 April 2009. They don’t offer the “consumer experience” that Apple wants to offer through its Macintosh hardware.

Via Macworld UK.

… I think they have forgotten that they already make the best Netbook available.

I am proposing that the MacBook Air is that machine.

For those who don’t already know the MacBook Air is designed as a wireless ultra-mobile computer. Like a Netbook, it does not have an internal DVD drive. Apart from that it functions like any other Laptop.

If you compare one Netbook; the Samsung NC10, with the Air you will see many similarities but the Air scores higher in the areas that count i.e. Screen size, RAM, and Aesthetics.

The only positive for the NC10 would be it’s cheap price, but then a Peugeot is cheaper than a Porsche.

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The other day I was watching the LUXE.TV channel here in the UK.

Along with the images a background soundtrack played. This sounded good and I wondered what it was. I had my iPhone to hand and launched the Shazam application.

After I had tagged the music (from about 4 feet away from the TV) I learned that the artist was Lux and the track name was Secret Fish.

Later, whilst at work, I looked up the track on iTunes (from within the Shazam application). Over a 3G connection I sampled the tracks and then I started to downloaded the album.

A few minutes later I had my earphones ‘in’ and was enjoying the Northern Nights album by LUX.

Years ago I imagined a time when I would hear music on TV and, by interacting in some way, would be able to download it. This is now a reality through the use of an iPhone.

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UPDATE
The playlist have been created and the sync is complete. As we have a pair of the high-end Apple ear-phones we used these and the sound quality is very good. On a par with an iPhone at least. The voice-over function also works well and after the remote has been used a couple of times we do not think the control scheme is that complex (as others claim). The most important features of the remote require the least ‘clicks’

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Finally we are back up. Our previous domain name registrar decided that they would not offer this service and so we had to migrate to another provider.

Although a few months have passed we wanted to start off with the Apple iPod 3rd Generation.

Recently announced, and despite having received mixed reviews, this iPod is very appealing to those who seek out the minimalist aesthetic in product design.

As soon as possible a visit to the Apple Store allowed us to procure one. After comparing the two options; anodised black or anodised silver, a black model was selected.

The iPod Shuffle was beautifully packaged, as usual with the minimum of waste.

The design itself is oft described as bland. To the minimalist this is ‘music to their ears’ (pardon the pun). We think the design is distilled to the essentials and with the remote now integral with the RH earphone cord the overall look is further refined.

This model introduces playlist support which, with the right combination of presses on the remote, speaks the playlist names to the user. We have decided that the following five playlists would support our listening requirements;

1. Ambient
2. Exercise
3. Hotel
4. Minimal
5. Techno

Suitably minimal - what do you think?

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Recently I purchased a copy of one of the most elegant and innovative games for PS3 that I have seen or played in a long time. The games title is Mirrors Edge.

Mirrors Edge is set in a city of the future complete with blue skies, clean streets, and stunningly realised modern (futuristic) environments.

The game play consists of running, jumping, climbing, and sliding through these visions of perfection as the story unfolds. You play the character Faith, who is a runner; a courier of sorts, who delivers packages around the city whilst avoiding police attention.

More details of the game can be found elsewhere. What I wanted to focus upon was the look of this game. Its stunning. Especially when high up and looking down onto the streets and buildings below.

The interiors (those I have seen so far) are, for me, what we should enjoy now in real life but seldom do.

Perhaps if I weren’t a fugative in the game I could move about this clean and bright city of the future and imagine what life could be like.

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In a couple of months I will have owned my MacBook Air for a year and I can honestly say that no other laptop (or desktop) has ever delighted me so much. Well perhaps the original 512k Mac and Cube I owned come close.

Why am I so satisfied? What is it that ‘delights’?

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Air is a thing of beauty. Beautiful to look at, beautiful to handle, and beautiful to use.

I use it at home. The furthest it travels is a few metres from a desk to the sofa or bed. Most of the time it rests in a white InCase sleeve. The single USB (lack of more) has never been an issue for me. I occaisionally transfer photos or sync my Nano or iPhone but never seem to do more than one thing at once. I use the headphone jack now and again but never the video out port. Even this could be removed as far as my usage goes.

The Air is so pure - so esential that everything else seems excessive.

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Spend a few hours with Apple Inc. products and you will really start to appreciate the thought that goes into the design.

Recently I purchased a white iPhone 3G and have been impressed with the quality and design of the hardware and the software.

I like the colour white so quite often I place my iPhone face down on the table in order to look at the back (BTW the back of this phone is “better than the front of other phones”).

As I looked at the phone’s back I considered the design and the shiny Apple logo. It then occurred to me that I could use this logo area to take a self portrait.

I could see my face in the logo and took a picture. When I checked the results my face was framed perfectly.

I reckon that Apple deliberately chose this design in order to support self-portraits.

What do you think?

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This post is a bit tenuous I know but here goes.

Based on the information relating to availability in the States from the web site…
http://www.topmuffin.com/3g-iphone-availability
… a quick analysis shows that, of the three models, the 16Gb Black iPhone is the most popular followed by the 8Gb Black model. In last place is the 16Gb White model.

The figures work out as follows;

• 8 GB Black - Available in 85 Apple stores.
• 16 GB White - Available in 97 stores.
• 16 GB Black - Available in 76 stores.

What conclusions can we draw from this?

• White is more exclusive (Less people own one).
• People have not realised that black iPhones show finger prints and scratches more than white.
• People do not appreciate the colour white.

The snob in me might say that when I see someone with a black iPhone to their ear I might think it’s an 8Gb version. However when I see a white one I know it’s a 16 Gig.

Of course it could also be because I own a White iPhone and that I am biased.

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