Ant-iClimactic

What kind of design blog would we be without sharing the latest and greatest Apple creation? Well folks, if you haven't heard already Steve Jobs unveiled the highly anticipated tablet device, the iPad. Ever since the Kindle hit the market, tech geeks have been anxiously awaiting the Apple counterpart sure to blow the Kindle's socks off. So, ok, the announcement wasn't much of a surprise, but did the product live up to all the hype? Personally, I'm a little skeptical. Which is surprising since I recently got an iPhone, and let's be honest, it has revolutionized my life. But I think that's what is causing some of my skepticism – if you have already own a smartphone, why would you want to carry around a Giant iPhone? With laptops getting smaller and lighter, and smartphones getting faster and more efficient, I just don't know if there is a need for an "in-between" gadget. (Keep in mind I have NEVER had any desire to read a book on a screen, so maybe my opinion shouldn't count as much on this topic.) I suppose only time will tell and perhaps this is the future of technology...or perhaps this is just a lot of hype for a passing trend. And p.s. – what is the deal with the name? iPad??? There are too many inappropriate remarks I could make, but for the dignity of our blog I will refrain. ••••

For the Impatient

...like myself.

I love the idea of this new traffic light. The red light has a circular countdown according to the amount of time left for your stop. It works for cross walks so we might as well have a count down for the traffic lights too! Created by Damjan Stankovic. ••••

There's an App for that

Despite being the only Crew member with an iphone (ahemm), I think this post is relevant to the thousands of designers who have jumped on the iphone bandwagon. I haven't tried all of these yet, mostly because i am not ready to fork over the cash for an app. However a few of these seem to have potential. Via Designer Daily, the 11 essential iPhone apps:

1. Loupe ($1.99) With Loupe you can capture your color inspirations so you don't have to try and guess what that shade was when you are back at your computer.

2. Typography Manual ($4.99) The Typography Manual has several useful features and resources for designers, including a visual type anatomy glossary, a font size ruler, and an em calculator.


3. Ruler Phone ($3.99) This app can measure any ting your iphone takes a picture of. Very cool, but not sure its worth the price.

4. Sketches ($4.99) Jot down your notes, scribble your thoughts and annotate your pictures using only your fingers and your imagination! Illustrate your ideas with simple but colorful diagrams, notes and sketches.

5. Web Source Viewer (free) This app checks the source code of the pages you are browsing.

6. Cliq Cliq Colors ($2.99) Create color palettes from photos, convert them and send it to Adobe software.

7. CSS Cheat Sheet ($.99) Self explanatory. A useful reference of Cascading Style Sheets.

8. JQuery Cheat Sheet ($.99) The cheatsheet includes descriptions, examples, arguments and returns for jQuery Core, CSS, JavaScript, Events, Effects, Ajax, DOM Attributes, DOM Manipulation, DOM Traversing, Plugins (accordion, cookie, dimensions, form, interface, tabs, tooltips, and more)

9. HTML Cheat Sheet ($.99) A quick reference lists for Tags, Attributes, Events, Colors, Character Sets, ASCII, and more.

10. Font Shuffle (free) FontShuffle lets you choose from six major classifications of type: sans serif, serif, slab serif, script, blackletter, and display.

11. What The Font (free) This app is suppose to Identify the fonts in a photo or web graphic, but I have no such luck with this app. Good in theory, but not a fully functioning app yet. (My guess is when it does work properly, this app will not be free).

Illustrator?! No, I used my iphone to create this

TODAY is a piece of generative design for mobile phones.
It’s an application that visualizes personal mobile communication. It sits on the periphery of the machine, monitoring our connectivity through the number and type of calls we receive, subtly displaying them back to us, in the form of a generative graphic. Here, the visual result is a figurative and seemingly abstract picture – the story of your day. Some days will be really colourful and wired, others quieter and more reflective, either way the resulting visuals will always be personal, unrepeatable and unique. ••••

USB Mania

I swear it was only a few years ago that a portable USB memory stick was upwards around $200-$300. Now days they are practically free and come in a crazy assortment of designs. A few of my favorites below: ••••

The Google Phone

The T-Mobile G1, aka "The Google Phone" hits stores October 22.

The T-Mobile G1 with Google is the first commercially available phone to run on the 'Android' operating system, which empowers developers with tools to create and offer consumers applications that add value to their lives. This is one of many initiatives T-Mobile is working on to lead the industry in bringing real innovation to wireless customers.

Meh, the iphone is still cooler.••••

A Practical Post

Own a laptop? For those of you who do, I'm sure you are familiar with the pleasures and pitfalls of making your life portable. Perhaps one of the largest downfalls is security— it's terrific to be able to take your work with you wherever you go, but this is also what makes the laptop highly tempting to thieves! The Crew has seen it happen before to classmates and even professors, and there is no reason it should happen to you— introducing Adeona, the laptop tracker. It is a FREE program designed at the University of Washington that can track your stolen laptop— and even take a picture with your ICam of the thief in action. Read more and download it here to be worry free from now on! ••••

The BENTLEY

I can't afford a Bentley automobile, but maybe I can afford a Bentley branded laptop. Wait...$19.943! No, No I can't. Is it worth it? ••••