Here’s an example from the latest iPad ad

Is it just me or is the ad version slightly more interesting?

The Blue Van’s albums are available on Spotify.

Apart from carrying the best illustrations of their times, the magazine’s logo development is a showcase of the shifting trends in typography and graphic design.

And, as we’ll see here, even typography history repeats itself. It’s worth noting how the magazine is striving to preserve hints and styles over the years.

1929

The indented “Science” version would in a later iteration become the most non-perishable form. It returns in 1963 and survives – in various versions – on the cover until 1995.

1929

1931

The first real high-tech looking logo. And the first iteration of the style of today.

1931

1939

1939

1941

1943

1946

1952

1955

1957

1960

1963

1965

There’s something playful about this style. I guess that’s what the sixties was about. Enough with the rules, in comes the innocent quirkiness.

1965

1971

First occurrence of the “What’s new magazine” subtitle. The handwritten style challenges the years and years of stringent typography. The style itself hasn’t changed that much – and the price? Almost doubled in just six years.

1974

Note how the press quality improves. The colours are far more vivid. And the playful W’s just couldn’t be more 70ies.

1980

1983

Nothing says hi-fi more than this look. And what’s that in the headline? The announcement of the flat-screen TV. Took a while to get here. Also, this particular version, without alterations, is the version that stayed on the cover for the longest period: 13 years.

1995

1996

1997

2001

2002

2006

Think of it as a think aloud test without the sound.

My real-world problem
I wondered if people actually read the text paragraphs in my previous blog post comparing  iPhone and Windows Phone – or if they were just looking at the photos (they read it, thankfully).

A few highlights from this 21 mins session with a user from India, 5 timezones away follows after the video

• 0:03 The user quickly scans the full article
• 0:15 Goes on reading the second paragraph from the bottom
• 0:37 Finds it interesting enough to scroll to the top
• 0:46 Begins “reading” with with the mouse pointer. This is an interesting and very frequent pattern. I guess we all do this; use the mouse for no particular reason while reading text.
• 2:42 The user has now finished reading the article.
• 4:05 Begins clicking words. I’m not sure if this is in hoping they’re links, but I don’t think so rather than merely keeping the hands busy. Also, there’s a chance that this might be because they’re selecting and copying text.

And another surprising fact? This user didn’t even as much as take a glimpse of the comments. It’s as if the blog metadata section says “nothing more to see here”.

Giving away 100 invites
The good people at Mouseflow gave me 100 invites to give to whomever comes first. The invite is good for 10,000 free recordings, and you will be asked to complete an online survey at one point.

Create your account here and use this invite token: 3RUS4E

The lock screen is up first, and a first example of the elimination of what Tufte would call interface debris. No controls here.

To get unlock a Windows phone, simply slide the screensaver upwards with your thumb. The phone is in there, sitting behind the screensaver image.

I remember when I first saw the iPhone and thought “oh, finally, no more remembering obscure keyboard patterns to open a phone”. Seeing the Windows unlock mechanism, well, caused a similar response.

Then, there’s the home view. The WIndows phone is dynamic. Again, I remember seeing the iPhone grid for the first time back in 2007 and couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. “That’s it? A grid?”. The Live Tiles on the Windows Phone could have been a hint of what I may have expected to see three years ago.

Moving on to the people view. Yes, we’ve had some enthusiastic discussion on our team if we should show photos on a list view. My view has always been “no way, no one navigates by photo”. Seeing the Windows list may change my opinion (okay, it does, x10)

The contact details view is one of the really tough examples of just how much chrome we’ve gotten used to in the iPhone. I mean look at it. Lines. Backgrounds. Boxes!

Another thing worth noticing is that while the iPhone seems to think that the data (ie phone number, email) is more important than the type (mobile, home) whereas Windows thinks the action: Call mobile. Text mobile (okay, what else would you text..). Again, the Windows Phone steals a point from the old iPhone.

Appstore / Marketplace. I have no words (contrary to the iPhone, who reads that?)

The first view when entering the department of music and videos. The iPhone gains some power here by letting me in to where I can do stuff and not having to select a menu, then do stuff. Other than that the iPhone view feels overloaded with interface elements compared to the Windows view.

Once again Windows insists on a gateway menu rather than letting me right in to where the action is. Other than that, note how the showing-small-thumbnails-in-the-list has been turned around. Well, it is about images after all.

Single image view. Not completely fair showing the iPhone with the interface as it actually doesn’t appear until the user touches the photo.

But there’s still a point here. When did you last need to know exactly how many photos in the gallery? Or need a back and forward button (when you know you can swipe)? The most used control here must be the “Camera roll” (back) button.

The Winphone has a physical back button, a pattern of which I’m strongly against. Why would you want all your interactions happening on the screen, and then one of the most frequently used ones outside the screen? I really thought the Android had proven that this was off. Could be me.

The contextual menu is really similar. I know I’m repeating myself, but … there’s less interface on the Windows Phone. In this case, however, I’m not entirely sure that it’s a good thing. The iPhone buttons serve as strong indicators as to where I can hit and still achieve impact. On the Windows buttons, is it only the text that is linked up? To be sure I’ll aim at the text labels, and thus decreasing the hit area and violating the law of Mr. Paul Fitts.

That’s it for now. It’s really interesting seeing how dated the iPhone suddenly looks.

A thing to note, of course, is that the iPhone UI – and almost all the views – is three years old today. Another thing to note is that we don’t yet know two things about the Windows Phone: How responsive will it be on the two different handsets, and do the hubs and all the integrated stuff actually work in day to day use?

Judging from the iPad interface no big overhaul seems to be in the making for iPhone OS 4. So, finally, maybe even for the first time in this millenium, Microsoft could be one step ahead.

Yeah.. and just one more example of much (from Claus’ iPad post) and less (iCal 2009) interface:

UPDATE: Here’s a hands-on video on a prototype. Apart from loading the People hub in the beginning, the responsiveness looks great.

Okay, so one of the new things here is the concept of live tiles. They look like this:

Needless to say, they adopt to the user’s individual profile. You can make tiles sticky if you want to make sure they’ll stay on your phone’s start screen.

Here’s the presenter. He worked on Zune before he joined the phone team. He did a good job, actually. Not a Jobs good job if we have to compare. Comparing further he used twice the amount of words and built half the excitement. Also, no applauses were heard during the presentation. He didn’t make room for that.

He used a prototype hooked up to the big screen.

Moving around Live Tiles

The Calendar. See the red ones? They’re private. The blue ones are business. A main point about the system is that it works just as well with both work and private.

This is also the first time we see the otherwise hidden interface controls. They call it the app bar.

The month view looks good. I’m quite impressed with how all views look like signs or maybe printed matter. The black background helps a lot here.

But also the unnecessary clutter: Note how no interface controls are displayed in the main views. Direct manipulation of data (manipulating the items instead of touching buttons that manipulate the items), an important principle in interaction design, yet rarely exercised.

Next, we’re told that the phone is trying to eliminate copy and paste by providing links when finding text that contains data you want to do stuff with. An obvious example is addresses. It recognises addresses, and when clicked, opens them in the map view.

So, a detailed view of a calendar event. With the auto-linked up address.

Again, extremely simple interface. No other arbitrary controls than in the app bar.

An interesting detail about the map view is how they use sat photos vs. map tiles.

This is a map zoomed in…

… and zooming further in automatically switches to sat photo view. Nice touch. I guess this quite well mirrors how we use sat photos. If we ever do. The thought behind is that if you zoom in, it’s because you want more details. Sat photos definitely do that. No mention of street view though, which would be an obvious next zoom step (as seen on the iphone)

Bing search is next. Yes, Occam’s razor has done its job here, too. Initiated via a hardware button.

The search – or, as Microsoft wants to call it, the decision engine, offers various ways to pivot a search. It seems that it defaults to “local”, which makes sense for a phone.

Seamlessly integrated – reviews. Yelp was mentioned as one of the partners.

Following one of the links we get a first glimpse of the browser.

Not surprisingly, it’s a full featured IE browser, meaning it will render any page. Ehm, any page that IE will render, that is.

Here’s the URL mode view. The address field is the black top bar.

And here’s the title view. I love this. Why would I want to see the URL when on a page? The black top bar now only shows the title – the human readable version of the URL.

With a multitouch gesture, the screen is now zoomed in, and in, and in. This is to demonstrate the step beyond ClearType, something called Sub-pixel positioning. It’s supposed to make even small text readable.

Here’s the Outlook inbox. Note how the white background feels like fire in your eyes. Or something like that.

Apart from apparently melting the recent calls list with the emails (which makes sense) one thing that strikes me is how it is the name, and not the subject that is emphasised. For calls it makes sense. For emails, less so.

It has a single-mode bulk edit.

An important part of Windows Phone 7 Series is about avoiding going in and out of apps to do stuff.

One way of achieving this is by what Microsoft calls hubs. Here’s the People hub

The first screen is this. I’m a bit concerned about what will happen to my friends without profile photos, but I guess most have those on their Facebook account these days. The Windows phone of course integrates with Facebook.

Here’s everyone

… and swiping to the side gives me what everyone is up to. An activity stream of Facebook updates, Windows Live Photos updates and what have you.

Back to everyone. The letter headers look a bit bulky, and I’m not sure if they’re important enough to earn this much weight in the interface.

A specific contact’s activity stream can be viewed by swiping to the left while viewing a profile.

Commenting on activities is available.

… and so are smilies. A lot of them.

Here is the Pictures hub folded out.

And here is the initial view of the picture hub on the phone’s screen. This time with a little more text labels than on the other views.

Pictures are organised in albums.

A single photo is viewed without any metadata or controls

The app bar allows for sharing and uploading.

The Office hub is the productivity section. Here’s One Note. Syncing with those on the desktop.

The Music and video hub is also interesting as it boasts a just as simple interface for the desktop app. I understand this isn’t new for the US.

Again, the hub laid out

.. and the first screen.

Note how the ThinkPad lid sticker says iBing?

The said desktop interface. Looks like a webpage, no?

The device view.

The last hub is Games. X-Box and other stuff I know nothing about.

To see the latest version of the below tips, jump on this Wave.

First impressions

• It’s thin and light
• The screen is crispier than I hoped
• Page turns are quicker than on my Sony Reader
• The cursor’s ghost-like effect compensates for the display’s low responsiveness

Non-US issues

• Kindle store checks for country before completing purchase. Users who change their address to a US one, will not be able to purchase without contacting the Kindle customer service.
• There are more items in the US store.
• (the browser now works with a Danish account!)

Kindle-friendly websites

• Most mobile-optimized sites are Kindle-friendly.
• For a start page linking to longer, Kindle-friendly articles, try www.mortenjust.com/kindle
• To detect a kindle, look for “Kindle” in the user_agent (full string is Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Linux 2.6.22) NetFront/3.4 Kinde/2.1 (screen 600×800)

Feeds

• KRead accepts a feed URL and displays that feed, Kindle optimised
• Feedbooks creates an actual Kindle book with the contents of the feed(s), and even allows updating from within the book
• Instapaper offers sending directly by email to your Kindle when you add to Instapaper. Downside is that Amazon charges 1 USD for non-US transfers.

Desktop software

• Calibre converts almost everything to Kindle (and Sony, etc) format. It also transfers and enrich with meta data.
• Mobipocket Desktop 6.0 (and not older) also recognises the Kindle, however, Calibre is generally recommended
• Books can be transferred simply by dragging into the Documents folder when the Kindle is mounted.
• Rumors today (Oct 23) have it that Amazon is readying a desktop reader for the Mac

Free books

• Some books in the Kindle store are free. However, there’s a transfer fee outside of the US.
• Feedbooks offer a Kindle book with links to actually download and install free ebooks over the air.
• More free books to be found at Munseys
• Munseys also have a kindle-friendly mobile site with direct downloads

Paid books

• The amount of titles in Kindle store varies from country to country
• Users can download from other Mobipocket-compatible sites and read those books on Kindle. How and why.

Digitising paper books

• FineReader is quite impressive.
• An easy way to do this is with a digital camera, one spread at a time.
• Approximately 1 page per second.
• Some cameras can shoot in intervals.
• Combine that fact with a tripod and you’ll have a home digitising studio.

Amazon Web resources

• Media library. This is for all Amazon downloadable media, including Kindle
• kindle.amazon.com. Supposedly a place to manage bookmaks and notes (mine don’t show up)
• Manage my kindle. Lets users send media to other (owned) Kindles and iPhones.

iPhone app

• Not available yet in some countries, including Denmark
• Personal documents, magazines, newspapers and manually transferred books can not be sent to the iPhone app

Screensavers

• So far I haven’t seen two of the same. Are they stored online?
• Now I have. Don’t think they are.
• I’ve seen a custom screensaver extension

Emailing documents directly to the Kindle

• 1 USD. Emailing documents to (your.name)@kindle.com will send the converted document directly to the Kindle through Whispernet
• Free. Emailing them to (your.name)@free.kindle.com will reply to your email with the document. Use USB to transfer to Kindle.

Third party extensions

• Savory lets users convert from PDF to Kindle format on the device. It’s using the conversion engine from Calibre
• I read about one that allows changes tothe screensaver. URL?

Other web sites

• Kindle forums on Mobile Read
• Hacks and easter eggs
• Beginner’s guide to Kindle content

Speech

• I find the female voice sounds more natural

Troubleshooting

• If you get no connectivity bars, try resetting (switch and hold power slider until screen blanks, then turn on again)

I’ve had November’s US Wired for almost a week now. Here it is. I haven’t been able to find time to unwrap it.

However, I have been reading a lot on my Kindle. Obviously, it’s not about finding time more than finding convenience.

So maybe moving Wired into the Kindle would help? Strangely, Wired is not in the Kindle Store yet, so let’s take a look at their feed.

As expected, the magazine only provides excerpts in the feed. You’ll have to go to the site to see the full text. And the ads that pay for it.

But wait. I pay, too. There must be some way of getting the full articles into the feed, and then read that on the Kindle?

Yes. This is what the Pipe looks like.

Or, in short,

1. Take the feed

2. Change all links to point to the full article (instead of the paged ones)

3. Scrape the article

4. Add the full article to a new node in the feed

Voila:

With a feed holding all full articles, the only thing left is finding a convenient way to read it on the Kindle. I quickly hacked together a PHP script that parses the JSON from Pipes.

Not bad. But as with any digital body of text, I find myself thinking: “What am I looking at here? Two minutes? Twenty?”

This is where the magazine wins (again). By glancing, I get an impression of how long this article is. I can tell this one is long if they spend a full page on a portrait.

What would a size indicator look like on the Kindle?

The bar just below the headline gives a glance-friendly impression of how long this article is. The book overview on the Kindle’s home screen has something similar to this.

• Yahoo Pipes
• Wired Magazine, US
• Amazon Kindle, international edition (contains affiliate ID, so please buy!)

I just threw out several piles of letters, printouts, statements and bills. They’re now safe and searchable in the part of the cloud that is managed by Evernote

This means I can search, print and send them, from anywhere, from my Mac, my iPhone, or any computer with an internet connection.

It also means I got rid of the piles.

The printer

The “HP OfficeJet J4680 All-in-One Wireless Printer” is just 800 Danish Kroner (107 EUR or 160 USD, probably less in the US). It has fax (you know you want it), a brilliant inkjet printer and a scanner.

Scan to Evernote

When an organisation is old skool enough to send me something on paper, I remove the envelope, insert it into the printer depicted above, choose “Scan”, “Morten’s Mac Mini” (which is also serving as a media center, but that’s another story), then choose “Evernote”. It then eats the paper and adds it to my Evernote account. I didn’t touch a keyboard (unless I want to add tags or other meta data later on).

You can of course use your Macbook

The good

It’s easy and simple once set up. The device uses my wi-fi network, so I can hide it in a 220V equipped closet. It’s also a color printer. The feeder lets me scan multiple sheets in one go.

The bad

It can’t scan both sides at once. The feeder sometimes messes up. Evernote leaves the note open once added.

When adding a PDF, Evernote creates a new note for every page. I’m expecting Evernote to fix this bug anytime soon, and until then, I’m fine with just deleting the extra notes.

What you’ll need

a) An “HP OfficeJet J4680 All-in-One Wireless Printer”, but I guess most OfficeJets with scanners will come with the same software.

b) An Evernote account. You can make do with the free account, but if you want to search PDFs and get almost unlimited uploads, consider going premium .

c) A wireless network

d) A Mac, maybe your media server, but your laptop works, too. I read somewhere that this doesn’t work on Windows. If it does let me know.

How to set it up

1. Install the software and get the device up and running 2. launch the “HP Scan destinations” app3. untick any items you know you don’t want to skip through on your device4. Click the ‘+’ icon. Choose “Picture editing application”

6. The first entry we’ll create is for when you have a stack of individual sheets you want to add to Evernote in one go. Use the name “Evernote – Single sheets”, pick Evernote app from the Applications folder, and choose JPEG as your file type. Click Finish to save the item.

7. Add another for when you have a multi-page document you want to add to a single Evernote note. Name: Evernote – multiple sheets, Evernote.app, and choose PDF as the file type. Click Finish to save.
8. Drag your evernote items to the top of the list so they’ll appear as the first choices in your printer’s menu.

9. Click the Settings tab and choose the “Front panel”. This will change the settings for when you initiate scans from the printer. Choose Black and White, and a resolution of 200 for a setting that is sufficient for Evernote’s OCR to kick in, and still maintain a file size well below the 25 Mb maximum per note.

10. Close the dialog window.

That’s it. You’re ready to scan directly to Evernote.

Dispute settlement. Highest number wins.

Lotto. Print out, play.

Restaurant menu picker. Your VPN token has taste.

Drinking game.

Bingo.

When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don’t really understand the complexity of the problem.

Then you get into the problem, and you see that it’s really complicated, and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That’s sort of the middle, and that’s where most people stop…

But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem – and come up with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works. That’s what we wanted to do with Mac.

Steve Jobs, 1984, taken from Peter Merholz’ book “Subject to Change”