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Designers react to iOS 7
Yesterday's announcement of iOS 7 brought a number of responses -- many negative, some positive -- about the new look and feel of the mobile operating system. Om Malik of GigaOM decided to gauge reaction to the changes that are coming this fall by asking his Twitter friends. The negative side of the responses seemed to come mostly from designers: @jbrewer -- "You gotta wonder if they took their phones outside and looked at all that thin-lined icon + transparency stuff in the sunlight" @samin -- "An interesting observation: designers who have actually done any mobile OS design work really seem to dislike iOS 7." @mg -- "Am I alone in thinking the iOS 7 home screen icons look ugly, poorly balanced, and of an unattractive color palate (sic)?" Tom Coates of Product Club and formerly of both BBC and Yahoo's Brickhouse was the most vocal: At least in part because it looks so much like wireframes with placeholders for things. Bit like a webpage with Times New Roman....It's cramped in places, childish and garish in others, icons blend in with the background. And some of the design fetishes it has are as egregious if not worse than ios6 - frosted glass, fake depth, sliders with shadows. There are many good things about it too. Don't get me wrong. App switcher is nice, etc. Interaction wise it looks and feels solid. There were those designers who like the new look, and here is a sampling of their responses: @yocline -- "The good news: the new UX is a big improvement and the UI skin can be iterated and polished over time" @mike_FTW -- "I love it" and later: It's a breath of fresh air. Where was Apple going with the current crap? This opens up all manner of possibilities. I'm excited because it's new. And fresh. The Forstall crap went to its logical conclusion. Any design system that can no longer be extended is death. The new stuff is a fresh start. Eventually it'll die too. But right now I'm excited about how it can grow and be extended. It's not perfect. But, as a designer, that excites me. As a consumer? I dunno. There's more in the GigaOM post, and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more responses from developers as they get the beta OS loaded on their devices.
Zynga CEO: company building cross-platform cloud compatibility
We've already heard from Zynga how the company plans expand its scope a little bit from its very popular Facebook-only titles. Zynga founder Mark Pincus says in an interview with Om Malik that its policy extends to current tech being built to share saves across the cloud. "In other words, you can play a game on a computer and call it up on Xbox," Pincus says as an example, "and you resume from the point you left off, except the game play will now be customized for the Xbox controller." Game information will be shared, but the experience will be different.That's already the case for Zynga's games on iOS -- they have a very different feel when played on mobile devices, and have even found different audiences. "Words for Friends doesn't do as well on Facebook as it does on the iPhone," for instance, "because they are a mobile first experience. Our poker game does well on the mobile as well."This doesn't mean that Pincus is saying Zynga's working on Xbox ports of its titles. Instead, the company is building out the tech right now to extend these games out in various forms to even more platforms in the future.
Family, tech and the joy of Apple's iPad
Apple aficionados often struggle to describe just what makes them love the company's products. In the case of GigaOM founder Om Malik, a recent experience in which he handed over his iPad 2 to his mother in India was the basis for a wonderful heartfelt story about what makes Apple products so special. Malik describes watching his mother talking to her grandson via FaceTime (see photo at the top of this post), and I'll let his words explain how he feels about Apple: "It didn't matter how it was happening - just that she could talk to her grandson who was oceans apart from her. If there ever was a moment that captured the emotion in a piece technology, that was it. The look on her face made me realize how lucky I am to write about an industry that makes such things possible. I also thought to myself, maybe somewhere Steve Jobs is smiling too. Apple, clearly, is not for everyone. But for me that moment of joy experienced by my mother is enough of a reason why there will be no other computer company. Apple's competitors will do their own thing. Some, like Samsung, will do spectacularly well. But for me, Apple finds ways to delight people, pushing technology into the background." Malik goes on to quote a post he wrote at Steve Jobs's passing last October, saying that "Jobs put life and soul into inanimate objects," noting that "The smile on my mother's face captures what I wrote the best." It's a heartwarming story, and I'm glad Malik chose to share that personal family moment with the world.
Rumor: Skype for iPhone nearly ready
VOIP for iPhone is the dream of many a user, and Om Malik suggests that it might be days away. Citing a "...very reliable source," Om says that Skype is ready to launch their iPhone app, perhaps at next week's CTIA Wireless event.That's whole lot of "suggests" and "might" and "perhaps," is it not? Frankly, I don't see why Apple or AT&T would be keen on Skype for the iPhone or iPod touch. Of course, here are other VOIP options available, like fring and iCall (among others), so what do I know? It's an interesting rumor, but for now, that's all.
Cinemassively: GigaOm interviews Philip Rosedale
(Disclosure: Some of the raw footage in the background was commissioned by Linden Lab for news agencies. I was the machinimatographer on the project.)Before Philip Rosedale announced his intention to resign as CEO of Linden Lab, he sat down with Chris Albrecht, of the GigaOM Show. Chris starts off with other news, so to tune in to Hamlet Au and Philip Linden, skip ahead to about 2:45. The duo discuss what SL was like back in the day, how large it has grown, and whether there's a backlash.Proving that you can't believe everything you read on the internet, the show reports that, according to Wikipedia, Second Life has over 20 million accounts. However, if you check out the economic statistics page on the official site, SL is at just under 13 million. Again, they mention transparency. That word is starting to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard.[Thanks, Melissa!]
Checking in with the pundits on Android and the Open Handset Alliance
It already seems like an eternity ago, but Google's big Open Handset Alliance / Android announcement was arguably the biggest news of the week, and it inspired a number of tech pundits and bloggers to weigh in -- and Steve Ballmer to talk some major smack. Since no one really knows how any of this is going to play out, we thought we'd round up some of the more interesting viewpoints for easy reference -- and maybe some easy laughs -- when we get our hands on the first "GPhone" in late 2008.We gotta start with John Dvorak, who cut straight to the point and said "The Google phone is doomed." Additional money quotes include "Google is actually not a charismatic company that can make this new platform happen in a big way," and "When I see a bunch of joiners jumping on some unknown, unreleased unfinished pipe dream, I actually laugh." He even roped in the iPhone, calling it more of a "photo album than a phone." Actually, Dvorak's whole column is a great read even if just to experience the man's naked anger towards every phone ever made.Not to be outdone at the contrarian game, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came out swinging as well, saying "Their efforts are just some words on paper right now." Actually, he does have a point there -- although Google and HTC may have been developing that "Dream" prototype, the real news will come in late 2008 when Android devices start shipping. How does that compare to WinMo, Steve? "They have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they're welcome in our world."
