X-Rite, makers of color measurement technology, posted a color IQ test on their site. The goal is to arrange the blocks of color by their hue. It's harder than you'd think.
I scored a 7. Before you laugh, the perfect score is 0. Higher numbers are worse.
[via core77]
As has been reported all over today, the iPhone NDA has been dropped for released software and features. However, I'm pretty sure it will still cover rejected apps (specifically, rejection letters). Even so, it is great that developers now have the opportunity to share their code and techniques with one another.
Now, not to rain on the parade here, but now can they fix the issue with app rejections? IBM's Lotus Notes has been approved for sale in the App Store, despite apple rejecting a third party G-Mail app earlier for "duplicating funcionality and potential user confusion." Granted, Lotus Notes is a bit more complex than MailWrangler, but they both seem to provide "sufficient differentiation" than the built in Mail app.
Still, the NDA shows progress in the right direction.
Flash Magazine is reporting that Adobe is indeed developing Flash Player for the iPhone. It appears they have a team working on development, if the report is to be believed. I would note, however, the language used here: Flash Player, not Flash Plugin.
The Flash many have come to know and love (or hate) is embedded in websites and loaded with a browser plugin. As far as I know, Safari on the iPhone has no plugin architecture. I see three outcomes here:
First, Adobe is developing Flash Player as a separate browser, possibly based on Webkit. If you know you are going to a site that uses Flash, you launch the Adobe built browser. Obviously, this isn't the ideal situation as users would now have two different browsers to use depending on the site technologies.
Another option is to have Flash behave similar to QuickTime on the iPhone. When a user browses to a site with Flash, an icon is displayed which the user can click to launch the content in the Flash player. This might work, but there are two caveats: Only for sites built entirely in Flash or that use Flash for content purposes (think video and games) would benefit. Sites that just incorporate Flash into certain portions, like navigation or animated elements would either break or lose their intended design. Second, Adobe would have to be working closely with Apple for this implementation, which clearly isn't happening. If they were partnering with Apple in this way, they would be either definitive in ther colaboration, or completely tight-lipped. Not these in-between quotes which continually pop up.
The last outcome, and perhaps most probable: this just won't happen. I think Flash on the iPhone is the new Duke Nukem Forever.
[via lifehacker]
When working in a creative field, it is inevitable that you become attached to your work. Making something out of nothing (or just raw elements) requires us to put some of ourselves into it. Many times, it is impossible to maintain complete creative control over the process. This can be a good thing in the case of collaborative art forms such as film, or not quite so good such as the case of a single designer working to please a client.
Regardless of reason or degree of good-ness, it is important for those in the creative fields to have an outlet. When your creative vision is continually "compromised," — I use quotes because in general, I think we creatives take ourselves far too seriosuly — there needs to be a medium in which you can express yourself as you originally intended.
This all comes about because of a recent Screen Grabs post on Engadget regarding the new Fall Out Boy music video.The primary point of contention is the presence of several Nokia camera phones throughout the edit:
The version of the video that we worked on night after night is not the version that aired, yet somehow a cut full of glorious camera-phone shots did.
-Bassist, Peter Wentz
Now, I'm normally one to lambaste product placements. Sure, than can be subtle enough to leave the integrity of the piece relatively in-tact yet still effective. But they can also be over the top and turn something into a commercial. ((Take, for example, a recent Heroes episode. I am fine with the Sprint phones used as props; they are part of the story. But when a character doesn't get reception in Africa and another utters the line "You should've signed up with Sprint," I draw the line.)) So I can understand the frustration. However, this comes along with the territory, especially when your creative work (song/video) is a product which someone else sells (record labels). The video is hardly a provocative piece of art to be held in the highest regard, especially when the closing shots feature a rocker removing a mask (a-la Mission: Impossible) to reveal Sarah Palin. It's just something fun to watch and help sell your album (and now for some reason, Nokia phones).
I guess my point is this: Yes we get attached to our creative work, but when that work is for hire, we need to learn to let go and realize it is not a personal project. Especially when you ink deals with record companies and become the product yourself.
On their fourth attempt, SpaceX has successfully launched the Falcon 1 into space, marking the first for a privately funded rocket.
As you may or may not have heard, Adobe's Creative Suite 4 was released this week. Some new features in After Effects and Photoshop have my curiosity piqued, but it is doubtfull I'll take the plunge into this latest incarnation anytime soon. (That is, not until the post houses and clients I work with begin to use After Effects CS4. Hell, I still have After Effects 6 installed just in case someone still uses that version.)
Of all the posts I've read on the web regarding the new version, Andrew Cramer at VideoCopilot.net has the most solid advise I've seen:
If you look at the big picture, After Effects 6.5 has enough capability to create things that would stop time and newer versions regard this as well. After effects is a compositing application and it is up to us to build amazing things. No new feature is going to do that for us…
Though I'm waiting to see that in the feature list of CS5: "Amazing Builder™ — No designer needed!" Actually, scratch that.
We tend to get caught up in the latest featuresets and plugins ((Don't get me started on Trapcode plugins. Yes, I do use them. But for the love of God, Particular, 3D Stroke, and now Form do not instantly make your animations and designs 'teh awesomes.')) and can forget that they are just tools. And without us and our imaginations, they just sit idle.
Now I'm tempted to fire up that copy of After Effects 6.5... just because.
Apparently, Apple has heard the public complaints about their recent rejections from the App Store. Their solution? Cover the rejection letters under NDA:
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE
Nice. It's no secret that I can be considered an Apple fan boy and all, but this is getting ridiculous. I wonder how many rejected developers will break the NDA?
A direct rip from Daring Fireball, but it bears repeating:
For years now, they’ve told us that we can’t afford — that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can’t be done. We don’t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don’t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can’t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street.
– Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, Vermont)
SanDisk has unveiled a “new” music format for retail purchase, slotMusic. It has the backing of Universal Music Group, Sony BMG , Warner Music Group, and EMI on the label side; Wal-mart and Best Buy on the retail side. I say “new” because it is simply a collection of MP3 files on a microSD card.
The reason for introducing the new format:
[slotMedia] is meant to address two intertwined trends. Most albums are still sold in a physical format - 449 million were sold on CDs in 2007, while 50 million were sold digitally, according to Nielsen SoundScan - yet CDs are decreasingly popular. Albums sold on CD dropped almost 19 percent last year.
Reduced to: CD sales down (though still dominant), downloads up. I don’t think CD sales are dropping off simply because the music isn’t already in MP3 format. They are dropping off because of the ease and instant gratification of digital downloads. I still have to go to a brick & mortar store for slotMedia, and there-in lies the problem. Though, they see the release of the music on a physical medium, particularly microSD, as a plus:
“Particularly in this kind of economic climate, the idea of being able to use an electronic device you already own to enjoy music rather than going out and buying a dedicated player is pretty compelling,” said Daniel Schreiber, who heads the audio-video business unit at SanDisk, which created the microSD card format and is working on the technology behind slotMusic.
First of all, I, and many people, already own one or more devices that can play digital media without having to buy several microSD cards, or even step within a store. Secondly, the emphasized passage explains the real reasons for the “new” music format. SanDisk wants a new channel to sell their microSD cards. But I have to ask, “technology behind slotMusic?” It’s a microSD card with unencrypted MP3 files. I have this technology with me right now: a cardreader.
Now, in all honesty, I think music distribution on flash memory is a good thing. I also think it’s good that they’re using an established format and not something new and proprietary. The timing is just off. If prices were right, the ideal time would've been 3-5 years ago. But given the use of a microSD card, the packaging should be smaller, reducing waste, and prices should come down, right?
The cards and dongles will come in boxes similar to current CD packaging, and Schreiber expects the cost of slotMusic releases to be “in the ballpark” of current CD prices.
Damn. It was just a thought.
When my nerd side meets my design side: Typographunnies.
[via core77]
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