Grand Larseny

A few days ago Apple unveiled a new model of the iPod Shuffle. Here’s a link to the Shuffle’s homepage along with a video guided tour of the new tech; just try to drool as little as possible.

Here’s the key points for people afraid of clicking links on the web* 

• No buttons on the Shuffle. None. Every button you need is now on the headphone cord
• Much smaller than the older, incredibly small, Shuffle
• VoiceOver to speak the current artist and playlist to you
• Did I mention there’s no buttons on the friggin thing

There has been a bunch of hemming and hawing from people over the missing buttons, as can be expected, but I believe this will be regarded as a brilliant move. Honestly, though, the move is very striking from a design standpoint. When you look at the thing it looks solid, like a single stick of gum or a piece of plastic packaging to be thrown away. Looking inside is no less spectacular; it really makes you feel like you’re living in the future.

The point of the Shuffle, the overriding vision, is to be small. You can have your music in your pocket with any iPod, but the Shuffle’s goal is to reduce volume (volume meaning size, that is). This means there are scenarios where using the Shuffle would not be optimal because there are much, much better options. Scenarios like:

• Playing music in the car
• Carrying around a large library of songs
• Playing songs on a good speaker system
• Playing songs on good headphones

The iPod Classic is great for the car, with a large library, and I use it pretty regularly with a huge speaker system and it responds well. The iPod Nano can be used with good speaker systems and great headphones. If you want to experience your music, these are great options.

I contend that the Shuffle is about consumer driven, perhaps throw-away, media. It is not about tuning your senses to engage as a listener with the artist, it is about appeasing your senses to get on with your day. That, to me, is why the new design of the Shuffle is so brilliant. Yes, you need to use Apple’s brand of headphones to use them, but why would you want something else?

When you’re on the go the best way to control your music is where you can always reach it, on the cord of the headphones. I fell in love with cord-based controls back in the mid 90’s in Hong Kong and again with the iPhone. When I’m moving I don’t want to control every little thing, just tell the music when to shut up and when to start again.

In the end, for me, the thing that kills the Shuffle is what kills the iPod Nano and iPod Touch; the iPhone. Apple has met my needs, and I think that this is one missed purchase they can be happy about.

* I am actually afraid of these people.  Unless you clicked a link to get here, you must go around all day typing misspelled felonies into web browsers. What came after my blog, www.embowzelment.com?

Making a terrarium inside a wine bottle; this is also something I want to do. It seems that I’ve reached a tipping point where now I have a grip of projects that I want to complete (a grip is, roughly, more than a smattering, but less than an avalance), which makes for fun, if a little scattered, times.

Lifehacker has a good rundown of a gentleman’s efforts to create a miniture terrrarium inside a used bottle of rose (pronounced roh-say) wine. Trust me, if you want to even contemplate this project you have to be a snob, so the pronunciation is as critical as correcting those who say it wrong.

Should be good for my desk where the closest thing to nature I’ve got is adhesive vinal wood desks.

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is just about the funniest high-brow humor that I have ever run across. I have already posted their insightful analysis of US Airways Flight 1549 (the flight that landed on the Hudson river without pontoon attachments). By “insightful analysis” I of course mean a hilarious lampooning of conspiracy theories that might arise regarding the spectacular nature of the incident. If you’re looking for a good laugh, McSweeney’s is a great place to be.

Imagine my surprise when I found this, the latest addition to an ongoing series they have been publishing entitled Dispatches from Moscow. The dispatches are neither farse, satire, nor irony. They are very thoughtful, very moving depictions of life’s struggles for the modern Russian.

They succeed in spite of their government, in spite of their circumstances. Reading these articles gives me even more of a respect for the Russian people.

The world’s biggest diamoind heist, it turns out, may well have been an elaborate scam. Well, if you can draw a distinction between a scam and a robbery.

Over at Wired the have the full story given by Leonardo Notarbartolo, who is a gentleman I have not had the pleasure of meeting. It’s a really interesting read. The whole ordeal strikes me in a lot of ways like one of the Ocean’s movies. Another great read by Joshua Davis, a very talented writer.

If I get some time, I’d love to write a true essay on why this video by Kutiman represents the current culture in so many different ways, but for now here’s the music video that got me hooked. Honestly, you really don’t even need to watch it, just listen to the he song created without playing any musical instrument. It’s more than good, it’s great.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably want to find more out about Kutiman. He is, in fact, a recording artist in his own right, having released a full length album and a couple LP’s. I’ve already downloaded them from eMusic, and suggest you do the same.

Much hero-worship has been done regarding US Airways Flight 1549, the flight that crash landed in the Hudson river. I think it’s time that a more critical eye, a more experienced eye, takes a look at the true facts behind the admiration. Thankfully, we’ve got McSweeney’s.

Please, review this compelling list of reasons as to why the flight in question just doesn’t add up before making up your mind on this issue. The truth deserves as much.

I’m ready for this. Garden lamps that look just great and don’t require some horrid electric plug to be strung across your lawn. Ikea has just announced solar lamps for the typical Ikea price of $20 for a string of five lights.

You can check out some shots of the lights in action at Inhabitat, where they look really spiffy. Count me in to pick a couple up when they’re out in the next coming weeks.

Hey sweet-cheeks,

I know we haven’t seen each other much lately.  It’s just all this darn work.  You know how Teodor has me working nights down at the coal plant.  I can’t even describe to you all the nightmarish conditions, and you don’t want to hear.  I’m sure you know, but we don’t even have second-lunch anymore and it’s been months since we’ve had any gumdrops at all in the candy bowl.  But I don’t want to talk about any of that.  Right now I want to talk about you.

You have been right beside me, through thick and thin, baby.  Why, most anyone would have left me after only two days of my fascination with indoor bee keeping, but you only threatened to leave me after six.  I still miss those bees, but that’s not the point.  The point is, I love you.  And to prove it, I’ve got you the only gift as special as you are.  It’s OK, you can open it now.

Panic is a Mac development company that produces some great work. If you’ve been designing with a Mac (or without a Mac, maybe) for any length of time you know of them.

This is their Founder’s Room. When I tell my wife that I want my next house to have a secret passageway to a hidden room, this is what I’m talking about.  This room makes me want to start my own buisness just so I can have a room like this. Absolutely great work. Like it says in the article, this is an example of how Cabel and Steven’s attention to detail and humor permiate every part of their lives.

Can I visit sometime?

Great googly moogly, I get so fed up trying to find owner’s manuals when I really need them. I mean, honestly, if I kept the owner’s manual for every gadget I buy, I’d probably have to, like, file them away. It probably wouldn’t take too much space, thinking about it. Just a small filing cabnet would do.

But I don’t! I always think, “Well, I can always find it online.”  Wrong!  Wronger! Wrongest!

You have be a Google-fu master just to find a blurry, tiny scan of the owner’s manual you are looking for most of the time.  Thankfully I just found out about OwnerIQ.net.  While I’m sure they don’t have every single manual ever made, they do have thousands which is a good starting point. 

This post is more for myself in the future, when I’ll need to access owner’s manuals again. Because why should I store the darn things when it’s all online.

Just started listening to a new band called God Is An Astronaut. For anyone waiting for a great band to go next to their Explosions In The Sky discography on the shelf, this is your band. You can listen to selected songs from a couple of their albums on their MySpace page, if you’re willing to subject yourself to the trappings of MySpace, you desperate individual you.

As always, this band is close but not quite in the same field as the Explosions.  God Is An Astronaut is more of a rock band than the Explosions are, but that is a good thing to me right now. While their songs can be slow building, each one is filled with tension and release. I know musical tension can drive some people nuts, but it really connects with me. On top of that, the release is also in my personal style; it does not come in a violin oveture or driving hook, but in huge guitar riffs and banging piano marches. Put another way, when the time is right it kicks ass.

I don’t know what the name God Is An Astronaut is about, but the music is right on.  On a scale of three to nine, I give it an eight!

Stamp prices are expected to rise again on May 11. It’s been hard to keep up with the litany of stamp price increases lately, which is why the post office offers the Forever Stamps that will always cover the postage for first class letters.  Forever Stamps cost the same as first class stamps online at $8.40 for a book, making them my new default stamp selection. 

You know, for my frequent post office stamp purchases.

Being an astute reader, I’m sure you are wondering what exactly a 1967 Dodge Viper is. The Viper was not produced until the 1990’s, but a very clever designer named Rafael Reston has imagined what might have been. This is his vision of an alternate past:

I absolutely love this project from a design standpoint.  He has taken the spirit of the Dodge Viper, as it has existed in modern times, and put it in the design language of the 60’s. It is still unmistakably a Viper, but from another time. 

What Rafael has done is take a purely modern instance of an object that has existed for the last century, and put it in the design asthetic of a few decades ago. As another example, I wonder what Starbuck’s branding would have been if they had been around during the 50’s?

Taking a slightly different direction than Rafael, let’s think about the internet. It has not been around for a very long time so there is no set design precedent from the 50’s or 60’s for web technology. Still, I wonder if we were to try and design websites from the 60’s, what they would look like?

Click through if you’d like to see more images from Rafael’s gallery.  They’re pretty cool.

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Steve Martin has hosted SNL what, twenty times now or something.  As they say, with experience comes comedy.  Don’t question it.

SNL with Steve Martin via Hulu.com (again).