Off doing my job
I'm currently at a week-long seminar, which is why posting here has abruptly ceased. Expect more later next week.
Traveling with an iPhone →
Dave Caolo is writing the definitive guide to traveling with an iPhone at his website 52 Tiger. I have a travel-packed summer coming up, and I've already found some great tips there. Smartphones truly are excellent international companions as long as you watch out for roaming charges.
Casino Royale Brickfilm →
Nice little adaptation of the opening scene. I question the torso piece for Bond though – 007 should be wearing a sport coat, not a sweater.
– Via Daring Fireball
Pixelmator adds vectors, shape tool →
I use the excellent Mac image editor Pixelmator to trim and clean up many of my LEGO photographs. I've barely scratched the surface of its capabilities, but even I can tell how exceptional the program is. A legitimate Photoshop competitor for only $15 is simply incredible.
Tomorrow it gets even better. Version 2.2 will include a shape tool and vector palette, making it a serious option for graphic design. I need a new header image for the site, and I know just where I'm going to make it.
(As a testimonial, I made this cheesy valentine for my fiancée from a couple of Game Boy screenshots in about half an hour. Not bad for my first time using the program for anything more than color balance or cropping.)
Warren Elsmore's favorite bricks →
Warren Elsmore, AFOL and author of a new book called Brick City, lists the bricks he finds most useful. Can't argue with any of his choices.
Jony Ive is not a Graphic Designer →
There's a hullabloo in the tech blog world about how Jony Ive is supposedly "flattening" iOS and removing all the skeumorphism in time for WWDC. But they're missing a key point: design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works. Yes, Steve Jobs said that.
Ben Thompson astutely makes the case that iOS 7 is not just a coat of paint. Jony Ive, now in charge of Human Interface design at Apple, is not about to slap new icons on the home screen and be done with it. That's not who he is. He thinks about how things work and how to make them better, which is exactly what iOS needs. Would iOS benefit from a redesign? Yes. Does that mean replacing the icons? Maybe, but that's certainly not the whole story.
Summer Galaxy Squad set reviews →
Eurobricks has posted early reviews of the next wave of Galaxy Squad sets: 70706 Crater Creeper, 70707 CLS-89 Eradicator Mech, 70708 Hive Crawler, and 70709 Galactic Titan. Based on the reviews, I'm now hoping to collect many of these. I was initially very underwhelmed by the 70707 mech, but getting a better look at the set has totally reversed my opinion. Why do all the recent space sets have to be so good?