So naturally this was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this:

Now these are exciting times. Technology is running like Usain Bolt is chasing her to sell her something and the world around us is moving deeper and deeper into the Matrix and to a digital life. Everybody wants to get a piece, or even better the whole pie, of that digitalization. Google is dominating the search but wants social digital media, Apple has mobile hardware and music but wants  social media and the cloud, amazon has online selling but silently wants more and so forth and so forth. This latest effort by Google, called Project Glass, is a product, even as a prototype, of that war and, sadly as many before it, this one looks really good. If nothing else it sets the path for another battle, that of interaction, display and augmented reality.
My hope is that the battles go on for ever, because the ones that will lay down wounded in the battlefield are big corporations, but the victors will always be us, the users, with all the new products and services that the battles produce.

Battle on.

P.S.: iPad? Really?
P.S.2: Sherlock Holmes was good fun and well made with an excellent Robert Downey Jr.

I finally managed to see the new James Cameron movie, which took 12 years in the making, Avatar. The movie it self, in terms of the scenario, was a well written script with real word allegories and, despite some heartfelt loses of main characters, with a happy ending. In terms of directing it is the work of a masterful director but not anything really matrix-slow-motion-mutlicamera like innovation. The alien word is really nicely done with lots of details and a good dose of dreamy assets. The actors were good with Sam Worthington standing out just a bit followed very closely by Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver and Jovanni Ribisi.
But the two strongholds of the movie were definitely the outstanding use of new technology. The 3d of both filming (and screening) and character building. There is no doubt about the fact that this movie is going to be a benchmark in terms of movies to come, that in some degree, are going to embrace this new way of filming in 3d. The experience, although you get use to it pretty fast, is mind-blowing  This dual layer 3D impersonator thing is really well done and in my opinion it won’t, and if it will it shouldn’t, be restricted to action movies. The second part of a technological breakthrough, in my opinion, is the seamlessly blend of 3d cgi with live action characters and especially the Avatar of Sigourney Weaver, Dr. Grace Augustine.
It’s an overall good movie but the thing that stroke me the most is that with this movie James Cameron made me realize that the most important thing is not doing it first but doing it right. Some form of 3D screening technology (if not the same) is being used in movies for quite some time now, as well as live characters going 3d (Benjamin Button and Beowolf being the ones that come to mind first), but this movie is the one that we are going to look back and say is the one that sealed the deal for 3D while making money at the same time. And I think this is true for all the pioneers, cause usually the ones that do something first are the ones that get overlooked for three reasons. First one is it’s usually a failure because although they might reach their goals (in this case make a 3D movie), it costs them too much and takes too much time. The second  reason is that due to the amount of effort required all attention/energy is put in the medium and not the message, which leads to the result being meaningless. But the third, and most important, reason is that, because it’s new, it’s usually received with negativity and skepticism which if nothing else limits its spread and popularity.

The perfection of the avatar word settings

The bottom line is that being movies, Internet, mobile or technology in general it is important to do it right than to do it first, and by that I don’t mean sit around and wait  for someone else to do it and then take it and make it better (not that there is anything wrong with that), but to take your time, energy and resources to equally bring all the aspects of what you want to do to the point that you produce the best result. Case in point is the iPhone where all stars aligned (multitouch, touchscreen, accelerometer, iTunes, apple sales, e.t.c) for it to be what it is today, which despite the novelties of multitouch and accelerometer its the combination of innovation with beauty and ease of use (thought among other things it’s supreme interface) that did the trick.

• consistent interface and functionality across platforms
• groups (tweet deck like)
• rss based syncing to overcome the 100 tweets twitter limit (I have that in google reader but it lacks the twitter app functionality)
• option to chronologically reverse the tweet display order
• last tweet read stamp, to remember where you left of
• easy retweet, mark as read (preferably by choice either when rolling over or by a button), favorite, reply
• search for user and ability to follow, unfollow and add to group
• shrink url
• upload image and add link
• upload video and add link
• add location link
• trends
• nearby tweets
• tweet shrink

I am not a programmer/developer but most of those features already exist in other apps and those that don’t i think are doable. Having said that, I am more than willing to help with the rest of the process (wireframes, UI, logos etc.) if anyone is interested in developing all this, but in any case I would pay for an app like that and i am surprised there isn’t one out there, taking the publicity twitter has gained.

one laptop per child with design by pentegram

read the wired article here

Scan and Draw Color Changing Pen

Any artist or designer who works with color knows that the best inspiration and perfect coloration can often be found in real-life objects all around us. What if you could take your trusty drawing pen and simply scan any color you want and then turn around and draw with it? This innovative pen design by Jin Sun Park allows you to do just that. Next step? A complete texture selector and replicator?

read more…