What the iPad 2 and OS X Lion mean for the future of personal computing and user experience.

These two very good articles explain why the iPad 2 (along with the upcoming OS X Lion) is a move to a "post-PC" ecosystem that places user experience completely at the center of every part of personal computing.

From Engadget:

In this new world, Apple no longer has to compete on specs and features, nor does it want to. There is no Mac vs. PC here -- only "the future" versus "the past." It won't be a debate about displays, memory, wireless options -- it will be a debate about the quality of the experience. Apple is not just eschewing the spec conversation in favor of a different conversation -- it's rendering those former conversations useless. In a post-PC world, the experience of the product is central and significant above all else. It's not the RAM or CPU speed, screen resolution or number of ports which dictate whether a product is valuable; it becomes purely about the experience of using the device. What that means is that while Motorola and Verizon will spend millions of dollars advertising the Xoom's 4G upgrade options, CPU speed, and high-resolution cameras, Apple need only delight consumers and tell them that specs and and speed are the domain of a dinosaur called the PC.

But right now -- in the tablet space at least -- the problem for Motorola, Samsung, HP, RIM, and anyone else who is challenging Apple becomes infinitely more difficult. Almost any company could put together a more powerful or spec-heavy tablet, but all the horsepower in the world can't help you if you don't find a way to delight the average consumer. Those other tablet makers may have superior hardware (and in the case of the Xoom, some superior software as well), but without that key component of sheer delight, the road for them is long and hard. HP is getting close by touting features like Touch-to-Share, but against experiences like the new GarageBand for iOS and the 65,000 apps (and counting) that currently exist, it's hard to see a clear path to sizable competition. That goes for Google and RIM as well.

From Daring Fireball:

The biggest difference, though, was this: last year Apple didn’t yet understand the iPad. They knew it was good. They knew it had potential. But they didn’t know what it was. They had a sense that in the conceptual space between an iPhone and a MacBook there was uncharted, fertile territory. And they set for themselves a wise metric: the iPad would only succeed if it could do some of the same things a Mac can do, but do thembetter. If it wasn’t better in several important ways for several common tasks, it would not succeed.

What they didn’t know last year was how people would use it, for real. They know now.

In his conclusion, Jobs said, “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough.” That’s what separates Apple from everyone else, and the iPad epitomizes it. It’s better designed, has more developer support, and it’s cheaper. There are aspects of this that Apple’s competitors seemingly can’t copy — lower prices from economies of scale, amazing battery life, UI responsiveness, build quality.

But there are other things any competitor could copy, easily, but they seemingly don’t even understand that they should, because such things aren’t technical. Take that chair. The on-stage demos of the iPad aren’t conducted at a table or a lectern. They’re conducted sitting in an armchair. That conveys something about the feel of the iPad before its screen is even turned on. Comfortable, emotional, simple, elegant. How it feels is the entirety of the iPad’s appeal.

@MWEBguy Please help me understand this bizarre email.

I got this email from MWEB after requesting a transfer to a new address. So let me get this straight. I have to downgrade to dial-up in order to keep my ADSL line? I'm confused.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

We have submitted a request to have the ADSL on your old line cancelled.

If Mweb needs to apply for ADSL on your new landline number then you will have to downgrade your account to a Dial up account or one of our mailbox products.

We cannot apply for ADSL on a new landline without downgrading your existing product. We also cannot continue to bill you for your old ADSL line rental once it has been cancelled which is another reason you need to downgrade your account.

New Skype 5.0 for Mac continues to induce head-shaking everywhere it's downloaded.

As I've written before,  if your icons require users to hover over them to figure out what they mean, you’re dong it wrong. The new Skype 5.0 for Mac is a living testament to this. There are so many "what the?" moments in the update, it's hard to know where to begin (who needs to view their contacts in cover flow mode?).

Anyway, have a look at this. How do you add a new user / add a user to a chat / call a user. These icons really don't provide enough explanation and differentiation about what they're for.

Screen_shot_2011-02-28_at_4

I guess this is why I like @readability so much.

I've learned that the web has countless ways to say “no,” or to say “meh.” It has fewer ways to say “yes.” Readability looks like a way to say “yes” to people doing hard work—whether they're journalists, essay and fiction writers, publishers, editors, fact-checkers, illustrators, photographers, proofreaders, circulation specialists—or the people who write the checks. The web needs more “yes.” 

 

On moving, handymen, and our capacity for things.

I am a really bad handyman. Actually, can we please drop that term when my wife is around? I'm tired of her giggling when my name and "handyman" get used in the same sentence. But yes, it's true. I suck at it. And two days ago I took my remarkable lack of skills to a brand new low.

You see, we moved from Sea Point to West Beach a couple days ago. I know I don't have to explain the stress and exhaustion that goes into a move. Especially when you find yourself staring at your dining room table dangling in mid-air, legs in the opposite direction they're supposed to be:

Photo_feb_26_18_03_40
But one way or another, we made it. By 9pm my wife and I were both zombies: tired, irritated, and ready to eat each other's brains. Seems like a good time to start building furniture, right? About 10 minutes into building the desk for the study, I realised that this is going to be difficult for one person to do. But I was in no mood to (1) admit to my wife that I needed help and (2) ask her nicely for help (see previous reference to zombies).

Instead, I did something pretty stupid, even though it felt smart at the time. I decided to get on the floor and hold up a loose piece of table with my head, while also shifting it into the right place, and putting some screws in to fasten it to the main table. You need very, very basic math skills to ascertain that for this operation to work, a person would need at least two heads and three hands. Sadly, I don't have those numbers on my side, so things didn't go well. (Anyone know how to undo a giant chip in a wooden desk?)

Yesterday morning, with the clarity that sunrises usually bring, I decided to write off the whole episode as exhaustion-induced sanity. But it also got me thinking about our capacity for things.

I currently have 23 unread articles in my Instapaper queue. I have 5 Words with Friends games going on my iPhone, with that stupid red 5 in the icon staring me down every time I look at my phone. Many (including myself) have written about how Netflix movies would just sit on the entertainment centre for months on end, quietly judging you.

This isn't a story about the perils of multitasking, and it's not a story about how technology is bad for us. It's a story about recognizing that we have a certain capacity for consuming and disseminating information. As we train ourselves, just like in physical training, that capacity can increase over time. But at some point you hit a limit, and you need to be able to then stop, step back, regroup, and come back later.

For me, this means something like listening to the Bill Evans Trio album "Waltz for Debbie" on vinyl, so that you can hear every single sound, even ice clinking in glasses in the background:

Do you make time to regroup? What works for you?

Why blogging is difficult but important (and far from dead)

Blogging is hard because writing is hard. Writing is hard because finding the time to do real critical thinking and then to put those thoughts down in writing is even more complex. Reading, research, critical thinking, writing, editing and publishing isn't like posting a picture to tumblr or texting off a tweet. They're different beasts and they deserve different forms of metrics and comparison.

Couldn't agree more. It feels like writing gets harder the more I do it. I've almost given up on my blog so many times, but I know I have to stick with it. It challenges me, it forces me to order my thoughts about design and UX, and it encourages me to keep learning and growing.

Still. Sometimes I wish it were just a little bit easier.

Frank Chimero on travel

But when we travel, we move more rapidly than the rest of the world. We change faster, revise who we are quicker. I think when we travel our cells replace themselves with more rapidity. We may not be able to shed our skin, but through the sheer velocity of movement, we slough off our old selves.

I've always felt this way as well. You can tell when people have traveled. Their worlds are bigger, so daily problems seem smaller, and it shows in their demeanor.

We were meant to explore. When we do, our capacity for life increases. That's just how it works.

 

Moving House, or How To Make Your Head Explode.

So, I just tried to find out if there is a way to have the South African Post Office forward my mail to a new address once we move this weekend. It took me ages to find any trace of information about this on their web site, but I finally found a link in a dropdown at the top of the page. 

I was so excited. 

And then this happened:

Sapo-address

After shaking my head for 5 minutes, and with a little help from my friends, we found the page at www.sapo.co.za/NOCOD (they probably moved IP addresses but the address was hardcoded so it disappeared when the move happened). 

First, I got this:

Screen_shot_2011-02-22_at_1

Ok, no problem. No need to panic. I'll just refresh. 

Ah, wonderful. The page is loading. 

But then, this:

The Post Office also offers a Redirection of Mail service at a small fee. To have mail redirected to a new address or while on holiday, simply pop into your nearest Post Office and fill in a Redirection of Mail form. This will ensure ALL mail will be forwarded to the appointed address.

They'll redirect my mail for a fee. If I go into an office and fill out a form

And then I was all like,
Exploding_head

How 'OK' took over the world

Fascinating piece from the BBC on the origin of the word OK:

On 23 March 1839, OK was introduced to the world on the second page of the Boston Morning Post, in the midst of a long paragraph, as "o.k. (all correct)".

How this weak joke survived at all, instead of vanishing like its counterparts, is a matter of lucky coincidence involving the American presidential election of 1840.

One candidate was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and there was a false tale that a previous American president couldn't spell properly and thus would approve documents with an "OK", thinking it was the abbreviation for "all correct".

Within a decade, people began actually marking OK on documents and using OK on the telegraph to signal that all was well. So OK had found its niche, being easy to say or write and also distinctive enough to be clear.

from How 'OK' took over the world