Again, we don’t make things this pretty these days. Everything is utilitarian. These tickets are just gorgeous, especially the 10¢ ones.

The presentation is a little dry, but it does give you a good feel of where Google is taking the project.

No doubt these board games are little intricate for modern times, but just notice the attention to detail. They’re just beautiful. Nowadays the only thing you need to make a board game is “ooh, shiny!”

(Via Badbanana)

Here is an animated map of the US recession at work.

I feel sorry for everyone having trouble in these times. The only upside I see in this chart, is my area of the world (southern Indiana), wasn’t hit hard immediately.

(via Daring Fireball)

Here is a collection of client horror stories from designers.

DigiTimes is claiming that Apple may delay the launch of the mythical tablet device, from the rumored launch of March of 2010 to the second half of 2010, due to final tweaking of the hardware.

DigiTimes sources claim Apple is working with Foxconn Electronics, Quanta Computer, and Pegatron Technology, in the manufacturing of two separate models of the device, one with a 10.6 TFT LCD screen and another with a 9.7 OLED screen. Reason for the delay? The sources claim the OLED device would cost somewhere near $2000, mainly due to the high prices of the OLED screen. As for the LDC version, it would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $800-$1000. Another reason for the price difference might be a 3G enabled subsidized version of the device, which of course, would be less expensive.

I’m with John Gruber on this one.
Gruber:

So the big news so far today is this report in DigiTimes stating that Apple has delayed its tablet from March until “the second half of 2010” because of significant changes to the display components. Keep in mind that Apple has never publicly said a damn thing, not a word, about any new tablet computer, let alone ever stated that it was due in March. This is one of those stories where what they really mean is that Apple has missed a rumored deadline.

and

This makes no sense to me. Why would Apple have two tablet models with entirely different displays that are only one inch different in size? We’re into the third year of the iPhone and there’s still just one single display type and form factor. Apple may well have placed orders for both these types of displays, but I say no way are both for tablet computers.

I’m not as amazed as I hoped I would be.

I think it is a novel idea, and really handy for people on the go, but I don’t think the “native app” will ever really die off.

Go from pretty to kitty!

Here is a nice piece by John Gruber, wherein he suggests computer manufacturers such as Sony and Dell should make their own Operating Systems, much like computer manufacturers did in the early days of the PC. I largely agree with him. The computer industry believes they have to rely on Microsoft to deliver an OS. Apple doesn’t and they’re at the top of their game for it.

The main downfall as I see it, and he addresses the issues very thoughtfully, are interoperability problems. Yes, we now have open standards on the web to help curb this, but there would still be issues that “non-technical” users wouldn’t enjoy dealing with.

Gruber even mentions, in his own words, how the interoperability mess of the 80s and 90s was “fun”. I was just coming into to existence at that time, but I can say that I too would have found it fun, just like the rest of the geeks. But that’s where the fun would end, with the geeks. No matter how streamlined this would be with the web as a central technology, there would still be hiccups that “non-technical” users couldn’t or wouldn’t want to handle.

God I hope I’m wrong, because Gruber is right, this would be fun.

John Gruber has started Fraidy Cats, which logs all of the political figures that appear to be afraid of terrorists.

Bloomberg is reporting that Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs has admitted that his company and Apple are in negotiations to bring Qualcomm chips to iPhone.

“We continue to discuss it, but haven’t made it yet,” Jacobs said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. “Hopefully, in the future, we will have the opportunity.”

This statement is very unclear, and may not indicate Apple will use Qualcomm chips, and it may just be Qualcomm fishing for any business they can drum up.

A fact worth noting is that Qualcomm is the company behind the CDMA2000 3G technologies used by Sprint and Verizon to run their wireless networks. This of course, spurs the notion that Apple is looking into brining the iPhone to Verizon. The catch here is, CDMA2000 is being phased out in favor of LTE 4G technologies, which makes it unlikely Apple will be able to create a CDMA2000 compatible iPhone before the technology reaches obsoleteness.

Great article by idsgn on the future of web design, and how it will be focused on the user experience.

MacRumors is reporting that they have uncovered certain evidence that may suggest Apple is already working on Mac OS X 10.7, only three months after the launch of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
MacRumors:

“The information comes from an entry posted earlier today in a database of changes to the open source “launched” framework, which oversees booting of Mac OS X and administers processes running on the system. In particular, today’s entry cites an error message containing the text string “11A47″, a reference to the Mac OS X build number being used.

< rdar://problem/7386864> 11A47: SecurityAgent no longer visible via Accessibility”

The report goes on to backup their claim by noting the numbering scheme used by Apple to identify developer builds of Mac OS X.

Apple’s build numbering scheme utilizes a numerical prefix indicating the major release version, followed by a letter code indicating the minor release version and a numerical suffix indicating iterations of that version throughout its development. For example, the initial shipping version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard was termed Build 10A432 while the 10.6.1 update carried a designation of Build 10B504 and the 10.6.2 update released last week was termed Build 10C540. Meanwhile, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) carried a build number of 9A571 when it first launched.

Based on this numbering scheme, the “11A47″ entry cited in the launched change database would refer to the initial version of Mac OS X 10.7, with the “47″ suffix indicating that, while still early in the development process, Apple has been working on builds of the next major operating system revision for at least the last month or two.

I find this news hardly shocking. Apple, on average, turns out a new major release of Mac OS X every two years. Give or take. So, it would make sense that Apple is already well underway on Mac OS X 10.7.

Story courtesy of MacRumors.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Chinese version of the App Store is beginning to take off, even though it faces serious challenges. Many of these challenges have been mentioned before, such as the Chinese iPhone lacking Wi-Fi capabilities, a preexisting installed base of jailbroken iPhones, and software piracy. With all of that, and slow launch sales staked against them, Apple has still managed to expand the App Store, quickly in China.

The market for legitimate Chinese iPhone apps is small but surging. Mr. Shi’s company estimates about $1 million worth of legitimate iPhone apps have been sold so far this year, though the market could reach $6 million by next year. By comparison, mobile advertising firm AdMob says about $200 million in apps are sold overall through Apple’s store each month.

Yet another hurdle Apple has to jump in China, is the fact that Chinese consumers must have a Chinese bank issued credit card to make purchases on the App Store.

The WSJ goes on to mention the certain kinds of Apps popular in China, such as news and blogging applications to games like Command & Conquer.

“Localization is most important. Products should be as much in line with Chinese lifestyles as possible,” says Mr. Shi, who noted Texas Hold ‘Em games likely wouldn’t go over well.

Although no numbers are supplied, it might be safe to say that Apple may yet create a market foothold in China.

Nice promotional poster for Taming Light, the group art exhibition inspired by Stanley Kubrick.

(via Daring Fireball)

How tacky.

But then again, copying Apple’s entire store is a pretty tacky move

This is an interesting New York Times post, but the most fantastic part of it is the chart showing Franklin’s day.

Dare I say it, I’m getting pretty proficient at this.

Proficient, not necessarily good. I’m trying to be humble here folks.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple had approached the mobile advertising company, AdMob regarding an acquisition of the company by Apple. These talks reportedly took place just prior to Google’s acquisition of AdMob for $750 million in stock options.

AdMob Inc. was approached by Apple Inc. about an acquisition before the company agreed to a $750 million offer from Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple contacted AdMob a few weeks before Google made its bid, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations weren’t public.

It is unknown how serious Apple was about acquiring AdMob, but if true, and Apple had acquired AdMob, this would be yet another encroachment by Apple into Google’s business.

Buying AdMob would have allowed Apple to expand into online advertising, a strategy that Nokia Oyj is pursuing, Weide said.

“If a lot of traffic goes through my devices, why can’t I become the middleman that serves ads against that inventory?” Weide said. “AdMob would have allowed them to do that quickly.”

I think this is an area definitely worth watching. Things are beginning to heat up between Apple and Google. If this does rupture into corporate war, it will be a mess. Remember the Microsoft/Apple feud of the early 1990’s? Yeah, imagine that, but far worse.

Here is a nice comparison of Google Wave scrollbars to standard OS scrollbars, by Lukas Mathis

Google might be on to something here.

I like it, but I think a screw may be loose.

Macalope:

“Windows 7 is being adopted at an astounding rate!

By Vista users.

XP users? Not so much.”

Bought it.

Hey, I’m proud of it.

Great piece by John Gruber where he tears apart Joe Wilcox’s idiot logic where he believes Apple really didn’t make as much money off of the iPhone as they reported.

The nut of it is, Apple distributes the profit from each iPhone sold, over eight quarters and not the quarter in which it was sold, thus low-balling the reported profit for the currently reported quarter.