A last-minute prediction for the iPhone 7. As usual, the hardware specs for the upcoming iPhones have been well leaked while the software surprises are subject to a lot more speculation. The iPhone Plus has dual cameras, but to what end? Super-resolution? Hardware-supported zoom? Synthetic aperture control (‘bokeh on demand’)? The event invitation would seem to allude to the latter, though the…
Update: Based on feedback from readers, it looks like this may still be the earliest Apple home page, but is more likely from 1993 or early 1994. Last week I happened across a blog post showing the history of Apple.com over the past 17 years , complete with screenshots culled from the very earliest days of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It’s a serious trip down memory lane, but it didn’t go…
September is my favorite time of year. It’s my wedding anniversary, Summer gives way to Fall, and Apple releases its magic. As much hype as usually precedes an Apple Event, this year is special. This may quite simply be the most-hyped Apple Event since the announcement of the iPhone in January 2007, and just as notable is the fact that the excitement isn’t exclusively around a single product.…
Last week my mom sent me an email including scans from the folder my dad kept of various memorabilia from my life. Among them was the statement of purpose I wrote when applying to grad school back in 2001. I’ve often thought about that document but, even though I’m an assiduous information pack-rat, this piece of writing apparently slipped through the digital cracks. And so I was so happy to find…
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Lately I’ve been focusing more on observing more than expounding, breathing in more than breathing out. It’s all a cycle. My uncle Alan has a similar cycle, though offset from my own. An entrepreneur before it was cool, Alan’s been running a very successful real estate company for decades. In an industry that is all about people, he’s thrived by understanding…
As one of the dozens of talented people who made Google Reader a reality over the years, I would like to extend my gratitude to you, the millions of users who made it part of your routine and your lives. Looking on the bright side, closing down a site with an active user base gives us all the opportunity to celebrate the product’s 7.5 year run in a much richer way than the far more common ‘last…
It’s been over seven years since I did any design work on Google Calendar, and there are always parts that I wish I’d gotten to before I moved off the project. Rough edges get smoothed with time, and products get more refined and it’s best not to hold on too tight. That said, can we please advance the science of Google calendar from this, where it is today: to something more like this: That’s all,…
James Clapper, US Director of National Intelligence, released the following statement defending PRISM. Translation added: The Guardian and The Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They contain numerous inaccuracies. We need to spin this ASAP, and make two of the most respected news outlets in the world…
Rather than speculate on whether Apple is making a watch, when they might unveil such a product, and how much it would sell for, I’m going to take a few minutes to talk about how such a device would fit into the ecosystem of products and why you’ll want one. It wasn’t so long ago that most people wore watches and used them to tell time. Long after the majority of adults carried early-generation…
This week the University of California unveiled a striking new logo and brand for their network of campuses, and it hasn’t gone un-noticed. Following the trend of emotions and bright colors over words and nuance, several of the nation’s most prestigious centers of higher education scrambled to cement their own continued relevance in this new era. First to react was Harvard University: Steeped in…