512 Pixels

Last year, I got a preview of the Apple Pop-Up Museum, a show in Atlanta showcasing the best of Cupertino’s hardware over the years.

This year, some of the guys behind that project are back, with Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 2.0:

This year’s exhibit space will be greatly enlarged over last year, occupying the whole retail space of the store. About 2/3 of the space will be occupied by a museum display of personal computing artifacts from the Kenbak 1 forward. The remaining 1/3 of the retail space will contain hobbyist vintage computing exhibits. For those who missed last year or who would like to see it again, the Apple pop-up museum from last year’s festival will again be available.

If you are in or around Atlanta the first weekend in May, this is well worth the time and money to see.

If you’re wanting to jump into Evernote, Bradley Chambers just updated his excellent ebook on the program.

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After a brief break, I’m re-opening RSS sponsorships here on 512 Pixels. Details can be found at the link; get in touch if you want to help support the site and reach a bunch of awesome nerds.

I’ve been incredibly busy and my Instapaper account is overflowing with things I’ve wanted to link to but haven’t. So, here’s a list of stuff you should check out:

• Chambers Daily: One iTunes Library To Rule Them All — If you’re going to smash two iTunes libraries together, this is the way to do it.
• AnandTech: Microsoft Announces Windows Phone 8.1 — While Windows Phone may have just a tiny sliver of the market, there are some interesting things happening here. I really hope Apple improves Siri to be more like Google Now or Microsoft’s new Cortana.
• The Verge: George Lucas explains how he invented lightsabers — I never know what to think about George Lucas’ unique gift to bullshit his way through something, but this is cool nonetheless.
• Egg Freckles: Broken By Design — More thoughts along these lines about how Apple’s software is really worrying these days.
• Vox: Why the government should provide internet access — The government really screwed up with the recent decay of net neutrality, but treating Internet access as a public utility could solve lots of problems.

Priceonomics has a great article on Susan Kare, the designer of some of the most iconic pieces of computer UI ever done and one of my tattoos.

Apple PR:

Apple today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 2 through June 6 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At this year’s five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X, giving them the latest tools and technologies to continue creating the most innovative apps for the millions of iOS and Mac customers worldwide. WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions, over 1,000 Apple engineers, hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies and fine tune their apps, as well as the Apple Design Awards which showcase the best apps from the past year.

Developers can apply for tickets via the WWDC website (developer.apple.com/wwdc) now through Monday, April 7 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, and tickets will be issued to attendees through random selection. Developers will know their status by Monday, April 7 at 5:00 p.m. PDT. There will also be 200 Student Scholarships available, giving students around the world the chance to earn a free ticket (developer.apple.com/wwdc/students). This year the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and its alliance partners will help promote scholarships to female engineers and coders.

I’m not surprised by the addition of a lottery system. As a developer I’m sure I would find it frustrating, but it’s better than having roughly 4 seconds to buy a ticket.

That said, while I’ve never bought a conference ticket, I will be in San Francisco that week.

This week, 5by5’s international trio (hi mom!) of Apple users discuss Microsoft and Android (with an awesome special guest).

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Joe Rosensteel, President of JoeSteel Industries:

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At The Prompt, we take photo storage very seriously. That is why we have announced this on April 2nd because we’re so, so, so serious about this.

A day you’ll never forget.

Dr. Drang:

There’s been a tendency in recent years for reviewers of Mac and iOS software to heap praise on “opinionated design.” This phrase can usually be translated as “software that doesn’t allow much user customization.” For software that isn’t used often or isn’t used for long stretches at a time, a lack of customization options is no problem—it’s not worth spending a lot of time tweaking a program you spend little time with. But for bread-and-butter applications, like text editors, mail clients, calendars, and web browsers, tweaking the settings is as important as adjusting the driver’s seat in your car. You want to be comfortable with things you spend a lot of time with.

I know I’ve used that phrase in that way, but let’s get back to Herr Snowman:

Of course, the 2–3 things you want to change aren’t the same as the 2–3 things I want to change, so developers have to offer a multitude of options to cover all the bases. When presented with a long list of possible customizations, the possible reactions are

• Oh boy! Look at all the customizations I can do.
• Oh shit! Look at all the customizations I have to do.

The first thing I thought of when I read Drang’s piece was this screen in iOS 7:

There’s no doubt in my mind that Apple wanted iOS 7 to feel opinionated, but its design choices led to issues for many users, so the company keeps cramming more toggles in the Accessibility panel.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Apple is taking the time to make sure as many people as possible can us iOS, regardless of any physical impairments.

Increasingly, however, I fear that Apple makes big, bold statements in its software without spending enough time in the real world first. iOS 7’s interface is certainly the most prominent example, iLife, iWork and OS X are littered with bad decisions.

Opinionated software can be great, as long as the opinions are well-considered. The myriad of UI tweaks available in iOS 7 feel like a failure of design.

Father Drang:

After using Macs exclusively from 1985 on, I reckoned it was time to light out for Linux territory near the end of 1996, just before Apple bought NeXT. But I didn’t leave because I thought Apple was about to go under, I left because the platform had turned to shit. The purchase of NeXT, and the courting of Be that came before it, was Apple finally admitting that it didn’t have the chops to fix an operating system that was in dire straits.

Back then, Apple’s inability to produce reliable software preceded a rapid drop in revenue. Today, in a weird, upside-down reflection of that time, Apple’s great financial success has preceded a rapid drop in software quality, and it’s hard to avoid drawing conclusions about cause and effect. The easy explanation, right or wrong, is that Apple’s success has spread it too thin and that the attention to detail we saw up until a few years ago has been lost.

There are few cars that I love every generation of, but the Golf is definitely one of them.