Elegant Technology

In the year 2000 I discovered Newsgroups. I came across a group called alt.lifestyle.simplicity and briefly posted and commented on the simple life. I thought I would share with you some of my posts here.

on the 18 Sep 2000, 08:00 I wrote;

minimalism is a type of life-simplicity based upon the aesthetic, but pared-down.

At its core is the precept of “A few good things”. In this way we can satisfy our human need to ‘own’ and at the same time appreciate true beauty, which is always simple and understated.

Because ‘things’ that are outwardly simple take additional effort to achieve and more consideration in execution they invariably cost more (in time, manpower, and materials used). The offshoot of all this is additional cost.

I think we should seek to live our lives discreetly. By that I mean live well, but simply. We should not promote wealth through tacky
ostentatiousness.

minimalism is about the lean use of resources, light construction, purity of form, clean lines, and appropriateness of materials. High quality = long lifecycles.

‘Out your face’ living.

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In the year 2000 I discovered Newsgroups. I came across a group called alt.lifestyle.simplicity and briefly posted and commented on the simple life. I thought I would share with you some of my posts here.

on the 15 Sep 2000, 08:00 I wrote;

I would like to propose a new kind of simplicity entitled ‘minimalism’.
Minimalism is a way of life, a pared-down existence, BUT with a difference.

Sure there is denial, but only of those items we neither need or want (long term). Minimalism, as a life-style, has as a basic precept: aesthetics.

Possessions are chosen because they function well and look good. Outwardly they are simple, elegant, free of clutter, and understated. This also applies to our environments, our food, our clothes etc.

The only problem: Expense.

This life-style is expensive, but because ‘things’ i.e quantity is pared down to a minimum, it becomes more affordable.

I would rather have one pair of Bang & Olufsen headphones that last a lifetime and cost a fortune, than buy many other pairs which are of poor quality and visually inept.

I would rather use the expensive Apple Cube computer than spend one minute in front of a noisy, ugly, cobbled together computer that offends my sensibilities.

To sit in a simple white room free of clutter; to sit on a simple but expensive maple wooden floor (at the expense of nearly all other furniture) is bliss. To a minimalist it is what is left out that makes life a pleasure.

The minimalist life does not compromise on quality. Indeed, because each item or space is pared down, what remains must be near perfect. The interior and exterior of a car should exude quality through the fit and finish of its constituent parts. Minimalism is an engineered lifestyle.

Only wear black but make the clothes the best you can afford and only have the minimum amount required to be clean and healthy.

So, live a plain and simple life, but what you do posses should be pure class. Minimalism means less items that are more expensive (discreet wealth).

Authors Infuences: Zen Buddism, Wabi-Sabi, Japanese interiors and gardens, Epicurus - Greek philosopher, John Pawson - Architect, Apple Computers, BBC - Programmes on minimalism and interior design, Various books on Smiplicity, the WEB, etc.

Interestingly, whilst I still aspire to the principles I outlined above, the Apple Cube and the B&O headphones are long gone.

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On Saturday 22 September 2007 Apple Inc. opened it’s eleventh store in the UK. The store is located in the Touchwood centre, Solihull.

Having never been to an opening before and living within 50 miles I decided to attend. I arrived at about 07:40 in the morning to find I was about eighth in the queue. I got myself a Latte from Costa’s, fired up my new Nano (3rd ed. Black), and prepared for the wait. Within a short time more people joined the queue.

The guy next to me started a conversation which led to him showing me a 16Gb iPod Touch. The Apple WiFi network was available and he really showed the device off well. So much so that I knew I would get one.

I noticed that Touches’ were on display in the store.

Over the next hour or so the queue grew, the atmosphere grew, the security detail grew, and my intent to get the Touch grew.

As soon as the shutters went up I dashed to the till and bought an 8Gb model.

The store was packed with people. Onlookers had signs of disbelief on their faces.

The Touch - True Elegance

Once back home I unpacked the Touch, charged it, and then came time to use it for the first time. This thing is so damn slick. Everything about it is beautiful. The hardware, the software, the interface, and even the packaging.

Of course I wanted to try out the new features. I purchased an album using iTunes WiFi and a TV show through iTunes. This is the easiest way to spend money I know and pleasurable to boot.

The only downside to the Touch is the fact that it picks up finger prints very easily but at least you get a nice cloth in the box.

All in all a great day. Excitement, freebies (T-Shirt), and the most elegant piece of technology this year.

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I have written about Lamy pens before.

Whilst shopping the other day I came across a limited edition version of the Lamy Safari Fountain Pen in White. Of course I had to get one (well it’s white isn’t it?). The writing action is a given for Lamy writing instruments. It uses a cartridge system to deliver the ink although an upgrade can be purchased to allow it to be filled manually. Personally I find the cartridge system to be the cleanest and most elegant way of filling an ink pen.

The detail via Lamy are;

The 2007 limited edition of the legendary LAMY safari fountain pen.

Barrel and cap made of shiny white ABS plastic. With chromium plated metal clip.

Also available in shiny black.

Fountain pen with cartridge filling system with ink cartridge T 10 blue (can be modified for use with converter Z 24). Steel nib.

Available nib grades: fine (F) and medium (M).

The pen also comes with a shiny white plastic case.

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After the refresh of the iPod line-up from Apple two weeks ago I thought about why each model could survive and sell without affecting the others. This led me to consider each iPods USP (Unique Selling Proposition). My take on this is shown in the chart below;

It seems to me that one iPod could be made that had all the above features. The functionality probably exists in all models from nano up but is either deactivated in some way or could be added like the ‘clip’ or more storage. Take the iPod Touch; this ships with functionality removed like the ability to add calendar entries.

I bet the upshot of this is that many people have more than one iPod (I do anyway). This leads to more sales for Apple (no bad thing for shareholders).

Whilst Apple sells more and more iPods in more and more form factors there isn’t any real pressure to offer an ultimate iPod.

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image via http://monsterfreecity.com/digg/

In my previous post here I tried to inform the reader of similarities between Apple’s product designs and those of others (especially Bang and Olufsen).

When I saw the calculator feature of the iPhone and iPod Touch it immediately reminded me of my Braun ET66 calculator I bought in the 80s.

This is recognised as a classic design by Dieter Rams.

My experience of product designers is that they take inspiration from many other sources often outside of their own field. Car designers, for instance, often use building interiors, fashion, and other forms of transport for inspiration.

Apple’s design team must be well aware of ‘classic’ designs and sometimes this influences their own ‘design decisions’.

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You know how it is, you sell something on eBay and your buyer uses PayPal. Then you have a few £s ($s) accumulated and think ‘What shall I do with this money?’.

I think I first read about insanely great tees on the Gizmodo web site. When I visited the ‘tees web site I thought how well it was designed.

I saw a couple of designs I liked; ‘I’m a mac’ and the ‘iPod’ T-Shirts and duly placed an order.

Although it look a couple of weeks for the ‘tees to arrive in the UK (not that bad really) I was more than satisfied.

The T-Shirts are of a very high quality and the printing clear and sharp.

If you want a T-Shirt with a Mac or iPod or Apple theme then I recommend you give them a try.

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Like many I am impressed with the iMac in it’s new 2007 form. Especially after seeing it at an Apple store. I like the 20″ version because the depth of the aluminium on the sides of the iMac are smaller than those of the 24″. You can never be too thin.

I also want to get Leopard when it comes out in October but because Apple have not made public any upgrade path for the OS for people who buy a Mac today I think I will wait until the end of October.

To help those of you like me who will get an iMac at the end of October (the earliest date when it will be available with Leopard) I include the following countdown timer…

UPDATE: Now that the general feeling is that Leopard will be release on October 26th I modified the countdown.

[UK Time]

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Like many, I waited with bated breath for the announcements that Apple made on the 07 August 2007. Based on what I had read on the web I was pretty sure that a new iMac would be amongst the announcements.

At about 19:00 UK time I got to see the first pictures of the iMac and a period of analysis ensued.

As a fan of the colour white (see many previous posts) I hoped for a new mac following on in this recent direction where consumer products were primarily white.

My first analysis was of the new aluminium keyboard which I judged to be a success. This keyboard also makes sense as if fits into and matches many of the other products that Apple sells like the Aluminium Pro Mac and the MacBook Pro (they also should sell quite a few of these to existing owners). I never liked the old keyboard and think the new design works much better aesthetically

Then I shifted my thoughts to the computer itself. Firstly I was disappointed that my favourite colour, white, had been dropped in favour of black. From the back the new iMac looked fine (baring the colour) as it is basically the same as the previous model. From the front however, I could not decide whether I liked it or not. That black bezel framing the screen. The black Apple logo. I started to imagine what the new design would be like with white accents and contrasts. In order to judge this further I quickly edited some pictures and placed them side by side for comparison. These pictures can be seen above.

My decision is that the design choices that Apple have made with the new iMac are better in black than white but I still think the overall form factor is better in solid white. The changes make the computer seem more serious in some way. I also think that Apple could add new models to the range by changing the back case and the logo to new colours like those found on iPod nanos. Alternatively they could anodize the aliminium with different colours (especially black).

What I hoped for was a mac with a light coloured case where the screen seems to float in space; ultra thin and with lots of transparency. Maybe next time.

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Whilst checking my Yahoo email this morning I noticed an RSS feed from Macworld UK …

As I am looking forward to the release of the iPhone in the UK, I clicked on the feed link only to get this …

Mmm … Wonder if Macworld were instructed to remove the article.

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