Khoi Vinh's Blog, page 89
October 28, 2014
iPad at a Crossroads
Shortly after Apple’s new iPhone 6 models went on sale in September, the company proudly announced that they had sold over 10 million units in the first weekend, a significant improvement over the 9 million units they sold at the launch of the previous models. Similarly, after about a week of the company’s Apple Pay…
Mike Tyson Mysteries
If Mike Tyson had an animated cartoon show, would he hang out with a teenage girl, a ghost, and a talking pigeon, and would they spend their time driving around solving mysteries? Thankfully we live in a world where the answer appears to be “yes.” “Mike Tyson Mysteries” premiered yesterday on Adult Swim, where you…
October 27, 2014
The Shift Away from Design Agencies Has Started in San Francisco
Peter Merholz, a lauded designer and veteran of San Francisco’s design services industry, published an interesting blog post inspired by the recently announced closure of the San Francisco office of Smart Design, as well as by the completely unexpected acquisition of Adaptive Path, a leading independent design agency in that city for many years, by…
The Economic Impact of the iPhone
In his “Strategies” column in today’s New York Times, economics reporter Jeff Sommer has some eye-opening comments on how important the iPhone is to current economic activity. ‘The iPhone is having a measurable impact,’ said Michael Feroli, the chief United States economist for JPMorgan Chase. ‘It’s a little gadget, but it costs a lot and…
October 24, 2014
iPhone 6 Speed Test
This speed test between the iPhone 6, the Galaxy S5, and the HTC One (M8) shows Apple’s newest handset roundly beating the others. I don’t usually link to this kind of technical content because I don’t have a ton of value to add on these topics. I’m also relatively unfamiliar with speed measurement techniques; this…
October 23, 2014
This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory
A new series from Kirby Ferguson, the prolific video essayist behind the fantastic series “Everything Is a Remix.” Released episodically as new installments are completed, “This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory” examines “the quest to understand the hidden forces shaping our lives.” The first episode is free, but a US$15 subscription is required to view…
Thomas Dagg’s Star Wars Series
Heretically, I always roll my eyes a bit when grown adults express their excessive affection for the “Star Wars” franchise. I like the original trilogy fine, but I just find my generation’s preoccupation with it to be a little absurd, especially when articulated as elaborate homages on the Internet. Nevertheless, once in a while, a…
October 22, 2014
Postscript for Ben Bradlee of The Washington Post
David Remnick’s eulogy for the great Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post who oversaw its Pentagon Papers and Watergate chapters, and who died Tuesday at ninety-three, is an aptly magnificent remembrance for a magnificent titan of the last century. It’s short but it’s full of pithy, illuminating anecdotes about Bradlee as…
Aerial Bold
This Kickstarter project aims to create “the first map and typeface of the earth” from satellite imagery that happens to form familiar letterforms. If funded, project creators Benedikt Groß and Joey Lee intend to create a set of computer vision-driven tools and a database that will automatically identify characters—much more ambitious than I had assumed.…
October 21, 2014
Thoughts on Yosemite’s Look and Feel
Over the weekend I installed OS X Yosemite on my MacBook Air. Its new interface, partially inspired by the dramatic aesthetic shift that is sibling made with iOS 7, will take some getting used to for me. Here are some thoughts. Yosemite’s ambitions are evident: it aims to be a much more elegant, more sophisticated,…
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