I live here. It’s really a spectacularly beautiful part of the world.
Everyone knows by now that Amazon is evil – except Amazon itself, it seems. That’s why I took the fight directly to amazon.co.uk, creating a fake book for sale called Living Wages for Amazon Workers.
Interesting way to get the word out.
I still remember being absolutely blown away by the movie and its special effects and wanting to turn right back around and watch it again.
The Guardian:
Before the live-music industry became a billion-dollar behemoth, being on the road was, for many bands, a wild west of sex, drugs and even some rock’n’roll. Hedonism was rife, and it wasn’t just the musicians who pillaged. Their road crews were right there with them, benefiting from a macho atmosphere where the expectation was that after they had unloaded the gear they would match their employers in debauchery.But that era has long passed, and with it the idea of roadies as folk legends. They have since osmosed into “techs” – low-key professionals who often have degrees and treat the job as a job.
I was a roadie for one weekend. Damn near killed me.
CNET:
Do you love noodles? Could you eat them every day? Well, it looks like you now can with the Philips Noodle Maker.As the name suggests, this kitchen appliance creates fresh noodles from scratch and takes about 15 minutes to make around 500g. All you need to do is toss in the egg, flour and water or more exotic ingredients such as carrot juice and the machine will take care of kneading the dough and then automatically extruding the noodles through a noodle-making cap.
OMG I would absolutely love this thing.
In another example of “Apple opening the kimono” (see what I did there?), here is a video that, while typical of many other “Grand Opening” videos, shows a little of the behind the scenes efforts that go into one of these store openings.
The Isle of Man TT is an insane motorcycle race held every year on a tiny island in the Irish Sea. It concluded last week. Last year, the record for the average speed was set at 131+mph. Average. On city streets and backroad country lanes. With spectators literally an arm’s length away.
“In its 104 years, 234 riders have died. In the week I was there, seven people lost their lives. Three riders and four members of the public.”
Scott Hurff:
If you build products for a living, there’s a lot to learn from iOS 8’s iMessage changes — both on the user interface side and on the customer development side. Let’s examine iOS 8’s changes, and let’s compare them to the status quo in iOS 7.
Some interesting info here from the POV of a designer who thinks about this stuff all day long.
Every four years, the world spins off its axis for this spot of fun. Brazil vs. Croatia. Let the games begin.
Amid criticisms that it has failed to innovate, Apple is increasingly taking marketing into its own hands. It’s madly building an internal agency that it’s telling recruits will eventually number 1,000.
It will be very interesting to see what comes out of this.
I love this song.
I’m a fan of this app.
There’s so much wrong and so much right with this video.
Matt Drance:
What we saw at WWDC 2014 was built by thousands of people. The leadership at the top empowered those people to not only proceed, but to succeed. The attitude behind WWDC 2014 was one of increased openness and increased confidence — an attitude that managed to depart from the worst of the past while staying true to the best. Apple is undeniably the new company it deserves to be, and Tim Cook’s stewardship is on full display. I’m as excited for the future we haven’t yet seen as I am for the one we were just shown in San Francisco.
Exactly.
LA Weekly:
The pun comeback has heightened visibility for the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships in Austin, Texas, where last year Ziek won both major events: In Punniest of Show, judges rate a contestant’s 90-second prepared routine. In the Punslingers tournament, contestants face off one-on-one to see who can come up with the most puns on words in a given category.
I had a girlfriend in college who loved puns. I had to break up with her.
The Verge:
Honeywell is rethinking the way it tackles home automation with Lyric. It’s a $279 Wi-Fi thermostat (available today to purchase through HVAC contractors; it’ll be available in Lowe’s stores by August) that is one of the most visually appealing products in the space, as well as an obvious response to the Nest Learning thermostat. But perhaps more importantly, Lyric is also a platform. The company’s ambition is to launch a full suite of Lyric products that can all be controlled your smartphone.
Good to see competition in the space and maybe an option for those of you who don’t like Nest’s new overlords.
Mac user Shaun McGill bought a Windows 8 laptop for his son. I laughed.
Many Tricks offers a number of apps to make using your Mac easier, more productive, and even more fun. Check out Moom, their impressive window moving and zooming tool; Name Mangler, which makes renaming tens of thousands of files a snap; Witch, a tool to let you quickly switch to any open window; or any of their other apps at Many Tricks.
Scott Hurff:
You don’t go and make drastic changes like this an app that’s responsible for billions of messages a day without good reason. This update shows that Apple is keenly aware of the changing habits of their customer base, and I think this is going to be the most important change in iOS since Apple added “swipe up” access to the Camera in iOS 6.
There were some big changes in Messages in iOS 8.
Re/code:
Information computation and visualization from a new company called Five uses academic word lists corresponding with psychologists’ established notion of the “big five” personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Based on the volume of words used from the lists, each person is assigned a warped pentagon that’s shaped around their own personal leanings.The people at Five are hoping you’ll be freaked out by how well they can describe you.
First of all, it’s based just on Facebook, not “the internet”. And the results didn’t freak me out at all. How about you?
Macworld:
Online retailer and distributor Dr. Bott, a fixture in the Apple-accessory market since the late 1990s, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in its home state of Oregon, according to public records and information provided to Macworld. The original petition was filed on May 1, with notices sent to creditors later in the month.Founded in 1999, Dr. Bott was originally a distributor providing accessories to independent Macintosh resellers.
Many of us will hope that Dr Bott can get on the other side of this bankruptcy mostly intact. They have been a long time Mac vendor and a great friend to many in the Mac Community.
HiddenCashYVR:
I’m hiding envelopes around town and tweeting clues about where to find them. Each envelope contains a $100 bill. It’s an opportunity to do something nice for others, and in due course encourage them to do something nice for someone else.
These twitter accounts have been popping up all over the US and Canada. There are even ones that are hiding beer and another here in Vancouver, marijuana.
Vox:
The monarch butterflies are disappearing. Over the past 20 years, fewer and fewer butterflies have been making the long journey down to Mexico to survive the winter.Scientists have proposed a few possible reasons for the decline, from habitat loss in Mexico to bouts of unusually severe weather. But a new paper this month in the Journal of Animal Ecology argues that the biggest culprit here is likely the decline of milkweed plants in the United States — the main food for monarch caterpillars before they turn into butterflies.
The story of how these beautiful delicate creatures make their way from as far as Canada to Mexico is amazing. It would be a tragedy to see their decline.
The Verge:
The Gumball 3000, an annual celebration of wealth, exotic machinery, and a casual disrespect for traffic laws — think Cannonball Run, but real — and this year, participants are driving from Miami to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, stopping briefly in New York to hop a plane across the Atlantic (yes, cars too).The Gumball, which raises money for charitable youth organizations, has a reputation for attracting celebrities. Hip hop artist Xzibit lost his license driving it in 2007. This year, Eve is involved. So is David Hasselhoff.
Every few minutes, a participating car would arrive, each more ridiculous than the one before it: I saw a completely chromed Aston Martin, Porsches of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé covered in what appeared to be velvet.
The Ferrari 458 Italia “Purrari” made me weep…
A really good article from Jonathan Hays.
This should be interesting.
It is absolutely incredible to me the quality of pictures people take with their iPhone.