The defections continue

I know tons of people that have iPhones. It’s no stretch to say that the vast majority of people I associate with, friends, family and co-workers, have iPhones. I’ve even bought a couple of them as gifts. Ironically, many people probably would’ve guessed that I would’ve been one of the first people to have an iPhone, but I’m still holding out.

Originally I had some issues with the feature set. There was no instant messaging, no GPS, and the battery life was crap. But once Apple fixed those issues, an entirely different problem arose, AT&T. My disdain for their service is no secret. And as time goes on I’m becoming less of a hold-out, and more likely an all out opponent of the iPhone+AT&T partnership.

As time goes on, there are more and more notable iPhone users that are coming back to my side of the fence. First there was Om Malik, and more recently there has been Steven Frank and now Michael Arrington. I don’t mean to gloat, because the failure of this unholy marriage is not what I’ve been rooting for. And I don’t want to imply that people banishing their iPhones means that I’m right. I just see it as greater evidence that the only logical move for Apple is to move away from AT&T, or at least away from the exclusive agreement.

Until then, I think I’m going to find out of the Blackberry Tour can hold me over. I’ve got big plans for Apple and Verizon in the summer 2011, I hope they do too.

How not to make fruit salad

Graeme Stephenson over at Graphic Hug discovered this masterpiece.

Go to your Google and type this: “What are these stra” (you have to type it out and it should give you a list of options before you hit enter). See what comes up - it might seem someone over at Google has too much time on their hands.

You should follow me on twitter

Dustin Curtis has completed a very interesting exploration of click-through rates and how they can be effected by the language that is used for the respective link. While it may not be a scientific experiment, the results are nevertheless worth consideration.

Making the phrase more direct and personal by adding the words “you should” increased the clickthrough rate by 38% to 10.09%.

[Via Konigi]

Smart, simple packaging

The simplicity and wit of the elegantly designed packaging for the gourmet store Brooklyn Fare is fantastic. They vaguely remind me a little of the lines on the Taco Bell sauce packets.

The Setup

This site has a bunch of interviews with Internet standouts about the tools they use to get things done on a daily basis.

Go Mad Men Yourself

AMC has created a site that allows you to put yourself into the world of their award-winning television show Mad Men. There are tons of options, and when you’re done they allow you to download the final product in several different formats. The one downside is that some uses of this are strictly prohibited by Wired’s new rule “Cartoon profile pics went out with rickrolling.”

[Via TechCrunch]

Thank you Twitter

New Twitter home page

The new Twitter home page

Twitter has a newly redesigned home page, it’s looking nice. The big change is that they finally made the search form the focus of the page. I’ve never understood why this wasn’t at least one of the main focal points earlier, but at least it is now.

It’s a good example of the evolution of a product. In past iterations the site was more focused on educating visitors on what exactly Twitter was. Now that they’re a piece of American culture they can focus on just signing up new users and making the site more usable for existing users.

The old Twitter home page

The old Twitter home page

The new look and some new features have been implemented throughout the site. The styling and perfect and subtle use of color screams of Douglas Bowman, who no doubt played a big part in this redesign after his recent move from Google to Twitter.

Discovering the world

I make no apologies for my adoration of the Discovery Channel’s programming. And the new self-promotional ad they’re running is just another reminder why.

Wired has some new rules for the 21st century

The “How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans” package from the current issue of Wired magazine is easily one of the most amusing features Wired has ever put together. It covers some very poignant topics for our time, and answers questions that I think many people are curious about, like “Should I leave my Wi-Fi open?” Sprinkling in some amusing advice from Brad Pitt didn’t hurt their cause either. By far my favorite one is about posting photos to Twitter.

Ask a Basterd: Can I Post My Wife’s Butt on Twitter Without Asking?

Q: I want to post a picture of my wife’s butt on twitter á la Ashton Kutcher. Do I need to ask her first, or can I snap, post, and hope she’ll be flattered?

A: Don’t take a picture of your wife’s butt. That’s silly. Take pictures of other people’s wives’ butts.

Classic.

Most importantly, from my perspective, some of the articles take up the cause of calling out some of the doofuses out there that just can’t seem to get over themselves, and get with the times. Please, ditch the bluetooth headset.

Web type demystified

Pascal Klein has put together an insightful and expansive presentation on all things relating to typography on the web.

[Via Mark Boulton]

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