Our Data Will Survive Us

“It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race,” said Peter Kazansky, professor of physical optoelectronics at the Univ. of Southampton’s Optical Research Centre. “This technology can secure the last evidence of civilization: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”

360 Terabytes on a single disk is amazing in itself, but it's even more thrilling to think that we might have now created something that will outlast our species. I guess this is what the organic robots will need to be able to decode. Let's hope they have disc drives.

PayPal Boldly Goes Where No Payment System has Gone Before

Creating a secure and functional commerce system that can operate in space at scale will not be easy, but with the support of the scientific community, other technology companies and the public at large, we hope to find the solutions to address these challenges.

Here's hoping they don't freeze your account when you're stuck out on Europa. 

Particles, not Pixels

Here's the gist, though: Apple has built a complete, robust physics and particle engine for iOS 7. Elements don't just go from point A to point B, they move through a "real" world. They react to the accelerometer and gyroscope, they collide and bounce off each other and with the edges of the display, and they can change color according to the environment around them. They behave like objects in space, and interact like objects in a game.

Good piece by Rene Richie at iMore on how iOS 7 fundamentally changes the nature of UI design. Also worth looking at this ZDNet piece on iOS 7 Dynamic Type.

Annual iPod Classic Obituaries Begin

Also, as much as those who love the classic, love it a lot and for very specific reasons, Apple is moving away from this 'old' way of doing things. With iTunes Match and iTunes in the cloud – even the forthcoming iTunes Radio – we're seeing where the future of Apple's music offerings lie – somewhere the classic can't join in. There's still a lot to be said for having an iPod that just plays music, and lots of it, but the chances of it receiving a Lightning upgrade like the rest of the range are pretty slim at best.

It's that time of year again.

Missing the Palm V

One of the most interesting decisions that the company made was to not add features. With rivals like HP stuffing everything but the kitchen sink into devices like the Jornada 420, Palm decided to focus on making the product as simple and as elegant as possible. Jeff Hawkins told his designers that “No, we're not going to add any features. Nothing. We’re going to make a beautiful product… We’re going to focus on industrial design.”

Richard Baguley over at Medium hits the nail on the head about what made the Palm V so great. I bought its successor–the Palm Vx–in late 1999 and instantly fell in love. For me it was the first real successful attempt to strip down a pocket digital device to its essence, and it replaced my more powerful and bulkier Apple MessagePad 130 almost instantly. 

The next few iterations of the Palm were not really what I'd call progress. I went through a series of models (the colour m515, the Tungsten T3, and the Palm LifeDrive) with each one adding complexity and decreased reliability. All the time my cell phones were getting more capable and I used the Palms less and less, until the first iPod touch software update turned it into almost the perfect PDA.

I still remember the Palm V with great fondness, but I wouldn't swap it for my iPad mini.

Underwear In Space, Not a Problem

So it would seem that George Lucas lied. 

Down Time

Well, we're really sorry for the downtime earlier today, which was due to a Distributed-Denial-Of-Service attack on our lovely hosts Squarespace. The attack was thwarted pretty quickly by all accounts, but Squarespace had to change some IP addresses, and that left us unavailable via the regular web address. We're very sorry, and hope you didn't miss us too much. 

Sid Meier, Father of Civilization

While we're on the subject of hugely creative individuals making legendary games, Kotaku has a great piece on Sid Meier, creator of Civilization :

Sid Meier doesn’t like thinking about business, and he clammed up a bit when I asked him about MicroProse’s new ownership. “Sid didn't want to be involved in that at all,” Stealey told me later. “No business—not at all.”

“Sid is happiest in his office writing code,” Solomon said.

Amazing guy.

Game Development, Comics, and the Nature of Creativity

We'll have another Doom Ray follow-up with Lars Simkins tomorrow, in a post-Kickstarter target-smashing update., but if you've still not listened to the second part of Kyle's wide-ranging chat with the creator of the Frontiers RPG it's well-worth a catch-up. If you're not a games fan there's some very interesting discussion of what drives creatives in all fields, and more on Kyle's forthcoming comic-book collaboration with Luke Edwards, The Green Men.

Looks Like PlayBook is Over

There goes another tablet that was going to end the iPad's dominance of the post-PC market. 

BlackBerry's chief recently bemoaned the lack of a good business model for tablets and even went so far as to suggest that they'll be gone from the market within the next five years. It's therefore quite consistent with his outlook to consider the PlayBook a peripheral product that isn't core to BlackBerry's future prosperity. All the same, there'll be quite a few PlayBook owners who'll feel their trust has been betrayed by this reversal.

Are there "quite a few PlayBook owners"? I've never met one.

Office arrives at the iPad party, but everyone's moved on.

Ever since the iPhone ushered in the era of ubiquitous mobile computing — and especially since the release of the first iPad began a shift away from traditional personal computers — the question has been whether and how Microsoft Office would adapt.

Here's the answer: Grudgingly, and not very well. Office Mobile, which slipped into Apple's App Store with little fanfare, turns out to be a stripped-down add-on that will leave both Office and Apple users wondering, "Is that all there is?"

In the first year or so of using an iPad I'd regularly have to field questions from colleagues on when we could expect to get Microsoft Office on iOS. In the last year that question has faded away, replaced by curious enquiries as to my own strategies for dealing with the files I get sent by Office-based co-workers. The questioners have mostly figured out their own approaches, or are confident that it's a problem that's largely solved. No-one tells me they're holding off buying an iPad until MS ships a full Office suite.

International Center for the History of Electronic Games

“In the broad scheme of things, video games have recently transformed the way we play, but also the way we learn and relate to each other,” Dyson says. “So we began studying and collecting games in 2006.”

With fewer than 100 games in the collection in 2006, the archive was nothing to marvel at. It was comprised of an Atari 2600, related cartridges and a few other stray objects.

Times have changed.

“By 2009, we got a much better handle on the industry and the history of the industry,” Dyson says with a smile. “We had over 10,000 artifacts. Now, the collection is over 40,000 games and related artifacts, as well as significant archival collections.”

Pi have the beginnings of a similar thing in my bedroom. Seriously, the ICHEG is a very special place, run by very special people, and this is important work. It's a super article, that I can't recommend highly enough.

Ricoh GR APS-C Sensor Compact

I've had my original Ricoh GR Digital for a good few years now (it was released in 2005, though I got mine at a reduced price a couple of years later) and I've always had a soft spot for it. Despite unbearably sluggish RAW performance and a display that looks more than a little antiquated nowadays it handles very well. I also love the discipline that a fixed prime lens imposes. It's a little too close in quality though to a modern iPhone to make it worth carrying around everyday, and it's always just a bit too tempting to reach for my DSLR if I need something with better light-gathering or more focus control.

Im really interested then in the new Ricoh GR, which is just a centimetre taller and wider, and only a few millimetres thicker, yet gets a full APS-C sensor. I'm very keen to give this a spin.

Limbo comes to iOS Next Week

Limbo developer Playdead is bringing the macabre platformer to iOS July 3, and the game's lifetime sales for the platforms it's currently available on have eclipsed 3 million copies, the studio announced today.

The iOS version — which will support iPad 2 and up, iPhone 4S and up, iPad mini and the latest-generation iPod touch — will cost $4.99. According to Playdead, development of the iOS port involved "rethinking the controls and performing extensive optimizations to ensure an amazing touch-based experience."

There's been a lot of focus from traditional gaming sources on how touch screen devices just don't work well for real games, because they don't have the multiple dedicated buttons that hardcore gamers demand. Nevertheless there are multiple classes of games that don't need hair-trigger responses and that–with some smart rethinking–can find a huge new audience on devices like the iPad. Limbo is just such a game, and I'll be eagerly downloading it.

iOS 7 and Spatial UI

This screen-as-object paradigm is easiest to understand in the multitasking interface, where each application is laid out in a row. At first glance this looks like the old app-switcher UI with the added bonus of a preview of each app. But notice that when one app triggers the opening of another app, the new app now actually slides in from the left. If you need to switch back, double tapping home zooms back out to show the original app to the right. This creates a new consistency of interaction that was not there previously. Switching apps is now a much more coherent experience that can take advantage of your spatial memory.

 David Cole, Product Designer at Quora makes some very interesting and insightful comments about the way that iOS 7 makes better use of our spatial memory to help us navigate. I particularly enjoyed his reference to Jef Raskin's Zoomworld UI, which I've long admired.

iPad Flight Manuals Save AA $1.2M in Fuel Annually

"Our Electronic Flight Bag program has a significant positive environmental and cost-savings impact," said David Campbell, American's Vice President – Safety and Operations Performance. "In fact, removing the kitbag from all of our planes saves a minimum of 400,000 gallons and $1.2 million of fuel annually based on current fuel prices. Additionally, each of the more than 8,000 iPads we have deployed to date replaces more than 3,000 pages of paper previously carried by every active pilot and instructor. Altogether, 24 million pages of paper documents have been eliminated."

I've been pitching the convenience benefits of e-books to students for a while, but they generally don't have 35 pounds of paper books to haul around. These are staggering savings in fuel terms.

Apple Brings More Education Features to iOS 7

Thanks to The Loop for pointing to the latest enhancements that iOS is getting to make it even more useful in the classroom. Lots of these features will make a big difference to educators, and will simplify some of the things I've been trying to work out how to do with presentations. Volume purchases for Books will cheer a few of my colleagues, and the Apple TV management solves a few headaches for me personally. All good stuff.

Leap Motion Controller Nears Launch

The company said it plans to debut the device with 100 apps populating the Airspace store, with an almost even split in software built for the Mac and Windows operating systems. These apps are separated into two categories; apps which provide core functionality to the OS, such as switching between tabs and screens in OS X, and software that augments other apps with gesture control. A handful of these apps are now available to developers through Airspace.

When it was first announced in 2012, the Leap Motion Controller was shown working with an iMac to manipulate the on-screen UI via several "3D gestures," such as the familiar pinch and pull used on Apple's touchscreen devices. The small USB Controller captures up to ten points of input, turning a wave of the hand or a mid-air pinch of the fingers into actionable gesture data. 

 For desktop and large-screen set-ups this could be way better than touch. I've been on the pre-order list since they first announced it, and I'm really looking forward to playing with it when it ships.

Pixar's First Photorealistic Short

The interesting thing about this is that I think it’s not about everything moving more photoreal. I think what everyone was amazed at about this short, what John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were excited about was to break open what animation could look like. It could look way more photoreal, but it could also look way more painterly. Just to get rid of this conception we have, of how CG animated features look. Breaking new ground in that territory.

Ultimately, it’s always about what fits the story. That was what I mentioned earlier. First there was the story, and then it, was, “Okay. What is the style? What is the look we can best tell it with?” Because there are no technical limitations anymore. You can make it look however you want it to look.

So this is more evidence of the return they're getting on the Global Illumination System, and it looks beautiful. I'm even more excited though by how they're freeing themselves from the limitations of the technology, and from the hegemony of style. The Blue Umbrella looks like nothing Pixar's attempted before, but the importance of emotion and narrative is undiminished. This is a company determined to reassert its core values, and to remain relevant for decades to come.

Software is not Done

This is linked from everywhere, but it's such a great message I couldn't resist.

Fast forward to today and I hear similar comments from other developers. They see app stores with hundreds of thousands of apps and toss up their hands. It can be hard to look past the numbers. It’s also easy for an app to drown in the growing flood that is the Apple App Store.

Ignore all that. Ignore fear. Ignore the odds. Ignore the naysayers. Find your passion.

I'm totally with this "scratch your own itch" approach too, and the Kickstarter approach to funding is just one means of validating that you're not the only person in the world who wants what you have in mind. It's also important to remember that there's nothing wrong in failing, or in finding out that your vision doesn't align with other people's. That's the kind of data that you just can't get from thinking something through: You have to actually test it.