+ Links from April 21st

Fresh Links

• Lessons in Innovation from Spore | Blog | design mind
  I love the idea of "Plant seeds, not forests". Well put.
• 7 Out of 10 People who Own a DVR Say They Can’t Live Without It According to NDS Survey
  People love love love their DVRs.
• Nokia To Debut Mobile Lifestreaming App - ReadWriteWeb
  Sounds interesting.
• Ten Questions About Google Chrome | Technologizer
  
• W3C finally publishes Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 - Engadget Mobile
  If you've done any designing for mobile, these should come as no surprise whatsoever.
• Add transactions to Wesabe through Twitter!
  Another nice example of leveraging Twitter to help you track something. Special bonus: actually integrating with another useful application. I'm still not crazy about all the loopy syntax needed though.
• Interesting article on why Microsoft should acquire Sony's gaming division | The Digital Home
  
• Nokia unveils pricing for Files On Ovi - MobileCrunch
  $80 for 10GB of remote storage a year? Excuse me?
• Hive Five: Five Best Note-Taking Tools
  
• Iphone Notification: iPhone Developers Get Push Notification API
  Exciting.
• IPhone: 10 Things We Want to See in the iPhone 2.1 Update
  Yes please.
• Chuqui 3.0: iPhone NDA: Doing more harm than good
  Let the developers talk, Apple!
• iPhone NDA: Doing more harm than good
  Great summary of how Apple is really dropping the ball in terms of doing everything to empower their developers in the interest of the platform.
• Objectified, a film about industrial design - kottke
  I am nerdily very excited for this.
• MEX - the strategy forum for mobile user experience - Moving from mobile capabilities to mobile compulsion
  Great read on why Apple has been succesful with the iPhone + App Store and how many focus on copying the wrong things.
• Nokia vs Apple in The Internet Mobile Device Market - ReadWriteWeb
  The iPhone is quickly chipping away from Nokia's lead in the "internet mobile device" market while Nokia's prowess remains unchecked in the non-smartphone market.
• 5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand
  
• Moments of connection - 90 Mobiles in 90 Days
  Rather than worry about how we can port all our web-based social networks to our phones, why not explore elegant ways to better utilize the existing social network on everyone's phone - the Address Book.
• On a Small Screen, Just the Salient Stuff - NYTimes.com
  Great piece in the Times about how mobile versions of websites are often better than the "full" versions because designers have to "be even more ruthless and focus on usability almost like a haiku...”
• Subtraction: Offending Experts and Pleasing Everybody
  Great post to read - particularly when you're facing the problem of showing someone how less is more.
• IPhone Apps: Why We Still Need the iPhone App Black Market
  Some great points on how Apple is really limiting developers' imagination. I can't tell you how much I pine for something like Intelliscreen. Apple, make it so!
• Extending your iPhone's battery - TUAW
  Here's hoping Frimware 2.1 offers some better system level battery management.
• QR Code Fences in Soho | PSFK
  Really neat public project in NYC. Now if we could only find an easy and consistent way to read these barcodes...




• iPhone 2.0: The glory wore off in wash - (37signals)
  Good post detailing why the iPhone 2.0 launch cannot be seen as a complete success.
• Story of a Peanut: The TiVo Remote's Untold Past, Present and Future
  It's articles like this that make me wish I had gone to school for Industrial Design.
• iPhone 2.0 Apps: The Social Networking App Comparison
  An exhaustive list of thoughts on all the current social networking apps on the iPhone. So far it seems like there are a lot of people doing some things right and a lot of things wrong.
• Exclusive Dashboard Walkthrough HD
  Comprehensive walkthrough of Microsoft's redesigned 360 user interface. Lots of Z-space going on here. Can you name all of the companies they rip off?
• Polite, Pertinent, and... Pretty: Designing for the New-wave of Personal Informatics
  Excelletn presentation.
• IDEA: Design Award Winners, 2008 - BusinessWeek
  Always a good and inspirational list of winners to flip through that cross over many different industries.
• Nokia's Haptikos tactile feedback tech revealed in patent application - Engadget Mobile
  
• Gmail Tries to Be Less Creepy, Fails - ReadWriteWeb
  Good post illustrating Google's often hamfisted and unecessarily obtuse approach to integrating social features into their products.
• Byline: Google Reader for your pocket - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Google Reader app for my iPhone? Offline reading of starred items? Yes PLEASE.
• Jawbone maker giving $20 off if you got a traffic ticket for not using a Bluetooth headset - Boing Boing Gadgets
  Clever.
• The Loopt SMS Mess - kung fu grippe
  Great piece from Merlin Mann detailing the Loopt privacy debacle.
• Google's Android platform: not so open after all
  
• Why it's time for Blockbuster to give up | The Digital Home
  Pesky startup: 1 | Old, slow moving behemoth: 0. Ouch.
• Intua - Beatmaker
  Really neat music sequencing app for the iPhone.
• Developer Interest in the iPhone, Android, and Symbian - O'Reilly Radar
  Interesting way of charting mobile developer's interest in different mobile platforms.
• News from The Associated Press
  Great that they’re starting to leverage the hardware people already have in their homes. This should get really interesting really fast, particularly if they start to get traction with other hardware makers. TiVo anyone?
• TUAW Review: MobileMe - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Extensive review of Apple's new service. So far I'm very happy with it.
• Nokia launches location-aware chat client : Boy Genius Report
  Nice to see them baking in location to their more native apps.
• FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Piper Jaffray analyzes first weekend iPhone sales «
  Some numbers on Apple's first weekend.
• 50+ Kick Ass Logos for Inspiration | Fuel Your Creativity
  Some real nice ones in here.
• My Top 10 iPhone Apps: Currently Using and Desired
  Great list here.
• Five ways the App Store will change the world - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  All great points.
• First Look: Exposure for the iPhone - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Loving the "Near Me" method of browsing photos.
• Loopt Brings Yelp Reviews to 3G iPhone - ReadWriteWeb
  
• Swurl: Your Lifestream, Made Beautiful - ReadWriteWeb
  Another lifestreaming app that does an elegant job of presenting items chronologically.
• Apple Remote: Remote Control Done Right!
  I am really excited for this app!
• Loopt iPhone 3G Release Better than its Blackberry App?
  Lookin forward to seeing how this works in practice.
• Integrating Social Media into a Web Content Strategy - Digital Web Magazine
  Great article on what social media is and is not. A must read for anyone tasked with helping a client socialize their content.
• Tabletop Football Goes Mobile | PSFK
  Foosball game for your N95. Nice use of the accelerometer.
• Adobe Makes Flash Searchable - The Holy Grail of Website Usability? - ReadWriteWeb
  This could be huge.
• Dopplr's profiles based on animal speeds is another great example of playful design.
  
• Friday Fun: Yahoo Mail Offers Random Subject Lines in a Click
  Great example of playful design.
• Nike+ gym equipment coming July -- iPhone integration imminent? - Engadget
  I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'd use Nike+ on my iPhone. I wonder if maybe I could save my v1 iPhone for that. Hmm...
• 90 Mobiles in 90 Days » Blog Archive » R.I.P. for Symbian?
  Good post speculating on the recent Symbian acquisition potentially also sounds=ing its death knell.
• [Design Decisions] Basecamp support request form - (37signals)
  Awesome breakdown of the process of refining their customer service forms. Love this stuff.