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26 May 2010 11:06

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Tech: Wired Magazine’s new iPad app: Adobe had to re-work it

     

  • What the app has: A five-dollar price tag, an innovative approach, and a really cool design.
  • What the app doesn’t have: Flash. Adobe had to recode the entire app for Conde Nast after Apple changed their rules. Probably not cheap at all. But worth it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

09 Apr 2010 20:55

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Biz: To: Media General, From: Us – Re: Your consolidation efforts

  • You know, people will notice this stuff eventually. Yesterday, newspaper chain Media General announced that it was combining the design and copy-editing efforts of its papers in Richmond, Va., Winston-Salem, N.C., and Tampa, Fla. – three papers that have nothing to do with one another geographically. They’re not the first papers to get treated this way, but they are the biggest. And it’s completely not fair to the communities. Here’s why:
  • These aren’t production jobs The nature of moves like these seems to assume that copy-editing and design functions aren’t really journalism – at least not in the same way as reporting. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the editorial process that puts distance between the journalism and the community.
  • Quality will suffer greatly The fact of the matter is, some dude copy-editing a story in Tampa will not understand the nature and nuance of a story in Winston-Salem. Nor will a designer in a similar position. While Media General is playing this as a move to maintain local focus, it won’t work. It’s a damn shame. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Feb 2010 13:58

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Offbeat: Death of an old design: Zappos.com has a funeral for its site

  • More sites need to have funerals for old designs when they retire them, much like Zappos.com (a shoe/clothing company) did when they killed their old-school design. Microsoft should also consider doing something like this for Internet Explorer 6. (hat tip @ohmykevin)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jan 2010 11:25

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Biz: Designers, photographers say creation’s a decimated market

  • Seemingly overnight, a publisher who wanted a picture of a sunset could choose from thousands on any number of databases. Why pay a photographer hundreds, or thousands, of dollars to go out and shoot a new one?
  • L.A. Times columnist James Rainey • Regarding the change in the graphic design and photography freelance market, which has led to people not being able to make a living wage in the business. With the rise of lower budgets and outsourcing and sites like iStockPhoto, it’s just not reasonable for many to make a career out of selling their content anymore. Which sucks for people who rely on the work. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jan 2010 20:29

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Tech: Faux-awesome: The guy who makes those fake movie GUIs speaks

Why do these things never look real? “The entire point of those things is to tell a story,” according to interface designer Mark Coleran. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jan 2010 12:18

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Tech: Digg founder on site redesign: “People are going to be shocked”

  • We’re making some drastic changes, but they’re much-needed drastic changes. People are going to be shocked at some of the directions we’re taking. You have to be comfortable with completely tearing down and throwing away a bunch of ideas.
  • Digg founder Kevin Rose • Regarding an upcoming redesign of his site. Rose claims the site will be more photo-driven and with a stronger real-time focus, and he claims that most people won’t even think of the site as being the same brand as before. Sound intriguing? Yeah, pretty much. But considering his site isn’t the innovation front-runner it was when it launched (thanks, Twitter), it may be what it needs. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Oct 2009 23:12

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Culture: Dustin Diamond’s “Behind the Bell” has the worst cover design ever

Behind the Bell cover
Do we even need to say why? Just look at this crap. It looks like Dustin Diamond designed it himself. Here's why:

1. Forced pose. Diamond looks like he's trying to be the next David Copperfield, or it's a really bad Zack Morris impression.

2. Stretched, generic font. People who have no clue about design won't notice it. But we do, and it kills us.

3. Ganking from Google Images. Dude, you were on the show. You should have six of those photos on your fridge.

4. Bad use of Photoshop stroking. Congratulations, Dustin. You've created a candidate for the Photoshop Disasters hall of fame. SOURCE

Posted by Ernie Smith • 6 Comments • Permalink
 

29 Sep 2009 21:50

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Tech: Like Web design but have no talent? Check out these templates.

Within minutes, you can look like a total pro without doing any of the work. Because these templates are all free. (hat tip @inspiredmag) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

28 Sep 2009 21:34

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Tech: Usability supergenius Jakob Nielsen: Don’t let fads suck you in

No matter your opinion of the controversial Nielsen – who wrote an early book on hypertext back in 1989 – he’s a fascinating interviewee. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Sep 2009 11:23

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Tech: Daily poll: Would you buy a tablet PC like the Microsoft Courier?

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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