• My laptop is lost, stolen, or the hard drive becomes corrupt thus loosing all my documents, photos and music etc.
• One of my main online accounts (e.g. Gmail or Facebook) becomes compromised and abused by a malicious hacker

Even great utilities like Time Machine, which backup to an external hard drive, don’t cut it these days since it only solves about 25% of the problem. Aside from the usual advice about using strong passwords and backing up frequently, below are six useful tools and services which can provide security for both your files stored offline and your online accounts:

1. FileVault (built into Mac OS X) – encrypts your entire hard drive on-the-fly making your data virtually impossible to access without the correct password (your computer wont even boot without it). Windows has something similar called BitLocker.
2. Backblaze (from $3.95/month) – secure online backup that just works. All your data is encrypted and continuously backed-up remotely so that even if your house burns down (hopefully not) you wont have lost your data. CrashPlan is a good alternative.
3. Truecrypt (free) - create a virtual encrypted disk within a file which can be mounted on your computer as an ordinary disk (like plugging in a USB drive). I use this in conjunction with Dropbox for my most sensitive files (e.g. banking info).
4. Google 2-Step Verification (free) – protects your account even is your password is stolen by requiring a code generated on your phone every time you access your account (similar to online banking). It’s an extra step, but one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account.
5. MyPermissions.org (free) – provides quick links to manage and cleanup which applications have permission to view/use your private information in various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.). Sometimes surprising to see just how many random apps you may have approved.
6. 12vpn (from $79/year) – whether you’re using an insecure wifi connection where anyone could be eavesdropping on your activity, or located in a country where internet access is restricted, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) can provide you with a secure and unrestricted tunnel to the internet.

And finally, whenever logging into your favourite sites be sure to make sure you’re using a secure connection which is usually indicated in your browser by a padlock icon next to the address. If not you can try replacing http with https at the beginning of the address to switch to the secure version (doesn’t work for all sites).

While all of the above doesn’t provide a perfect solution it should go some way to making your data and online identity a lot more secure. If you know of any other good services do let me know in the comments below.

Related posts you might like:

1. Storing Sensitive Data In The Cloud
2. Art?
3. Wordle Cloud

On a recent trip to Wuhan I came across a street containing no-less than eight electronic shops trying to pass themselves off as ‘Apple Stores’ and one in particular which had gone to great lengths to copy Apples signature style.

This shop did an OK job of the brushed aluminium panels, but the “ Have a nice day!” sign above the door gives it away.

Inside the wooden tables and stone flooring look fairly authentic but nothing else seems quite right. Plus points for playing the Jony Ive video on the iMac though!

Further down the street there seems to have been a desperate attempt to slap iPhone logos on every available surface. I especially like the Android logo they’ve sneaked in on the blue one!

I wonder how much credibility these tiny stores get from the Apple brand, especially given that none are authorised resellers, although they do seem to be selling genuine Apple products (where they came from is another matter).

While it might say ‘Apple Store’ on the outside, on the inside it seems to be a China Mobile reseller instead.

A combined HTC & Apple Store? I don’t think so.

As I wandered down the street taking photos I spotted two police officers (or possibly security guards) behind me who seemed to be paying undue attention so I sped up and made my escape. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple tackles this as they expand in China which is expected to become their biggest market in the next few years.

Related posts you might like:

1. Shanghai Apple Store
2. Apple
3. Apple Farm Cafe in Wonju

I don’t want things for the sake of having, but for the sake of needing and making life easier. For this reasons I have grown an intense dislike for being forced to wade through the sea if mediocre choices every time I go shopping. In a world where the population is growing fast and resources are becoming scarce things have to change. There is however a glimmer of light from the few companies which dare to do things differently.

Below I’ve taken a look at five of the best companies driven by principles of good design, who I admire, and tried to dissect what makes them tick and ultimately what makes them succeed.

MUJI

Born in Japan in 1980, MUJI (無印良品) was conceived to be different from the start. Its name means “no brand quality products” which encapsulates its aim to simply to make what is necessary, nothing more and nothing less. They achieve this by surveying thousands of customers to understand what they need, and then they try to meet these needs in the simplest, cheapest ways possible. Today they have over 200 stores in 20 countries with more than 7,000 household and consumer items sold as MUJI products:

Not a fancy towel, but a useful towel. Socks with right angles like feet. Comfortable sheets for a comfortable bed. Beautifully simple bicycles. Functional but never boring writing accessories. Cutlery that fits your hand like a glove. – MUJI

These principles extend to their stores which provide a pervasive sense of calm and order as the backdrop to their neutral nondescript products (some even include tasty cafes). I find it a welcome break from the usual in-your-face logos and over-the-top design found elsewhere. MUJI’s natural, simple, and anonymous design proposes rational lifestyles for today’s world while also being forward thinking – their recently introduced iPad apps that continue these ideas beyond material goods.

Philosophy: ”No Label. Good Products”

• MUJI is not a brand whose value rests in the frills and “extras” it adds to its products
• MUJI is simplicity – but a simplicity achieved through a complexity of thought and design
• MUJI’s streamlining is the result of the careful elimination and subtraction of gratuitous features and design unrelated to function
• MUJI, the brand, is rational, and free of agenda, doctrine, and “isms”
• MUJI aspires to modesty and plainness, the better to adapt and shape itself to the styles, preferences, and practices of as wide a group of people as possible

UNIQLO

UNIQLO (ユニクロ) is Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer whose aesthetic is clean, simple, organised, and vibrant. The name is a contraction of “unique clothing” and far from being a lifestyle brand, their stores offer a white box on a white background filled with thousands of UNIQLO items stacked floor to ceiling, arranged in a rainbow of colours. UNIQLO has ~1000 stores worldwide (90% in Japan) and is aimed at the urban basics shopper, promoting a kind of no-fuss individualism.

By producing a relatively small number of styles in a large number of colours it enables them to attain economics of scale while at the same time disguising this fact through the multitude of colours on display. It delivers a low-cost product that shares qualities of high-end retail. Unlike contenders such as H&M, UNIQLO customers expect to wear their clothes until they wear out.

Over the past few UNIQLO has run a string of innovative projects as marketing campaigns: MIXPLAY, UNIQLO JUMP, UNIQLOCK (my favourite), UNIQLO Calendar (for iPhone/iPad) and most recently 88 COLORS in Shanghai which have successfully combined music + physical expression to create a communication vehicle which works across cultures globally. UNIQLO also runs competitions every year to and select designs for their popular UT t-shirts contributed by artists and photographers online.

Philosophy: “Made for All”

• UNIQLO makes clothes that transcend age, gender, ethnicity and all other ways that define people
• UNIQLO clothes are simple and essential yet universal, so people can combine them with their own styles
• UNIQLO aspires to excellence in quality, design and technology while remaining affordable to everyone
• UNIQLO is a way of thinking that’s about constant change, diversity, and challenging conventional wisdom
• UNIQLO believes that everyone can benefit from simple, well-designed clothes

IKEA

Synonymous with cheap flat-pack furniture, IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 and has grown to become the largest furniture retailer in the world with over 300 stores in nearly 40 countries. While self-assembly enables IKEA to reduce costs and make transportation easier, beyond this the company maintains an almost religious belief to improve not just the lot of people, but the people themselves by encouraging them to take control:

We have decided once and for all to side with the many. What is good for our customers is also, in the long run, good for us… Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way. - The Testament of a Furniture Dealer by Ingvar Kamprad

IKEA stores are easily distinguished by their very large blue buildings with yellow accents (Sweden’s national colors) and few windows. They are designed with a one-way layout, leading customers through the whole store in its entirety with a series of showrooms upstairs and a “Market Hall” downstairs. It’s common for families to make a day trip out of a visit to IKEA and many stores have restaurants serving traditional Swedish food alongside varieties of the local cuisine in each country.

In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the past century, IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture, a concept which its founder Ingvar Kamprad refers to as “democratic design”; the combination of attractive form, inexpensive production, and high function. The intended result is flexible, adaptable home furnishings, scalable both to small apartments as well as large houses. The higher aim is freedom in all senses of the word.

Philosophy: “To create a better everyday life for the many people”

• IKEA focuses on good design and function at a low price
• IKEA has something for the romantic at heart, the minimalist and everyone in between
• IKEA products are designed meet your day-to-day needs and eliminate the unnecessary
• IKEA is constantly trying to do everything a little simpler, more efficiently and always cost-effectively
• IKEA maximises the use of raw materials in order to fulfil people’s needs and preferences

Dyson

Britain has a proud tradition of lone inventors coming up with new ideas in their garden sheds and Dyson’s founder, James Dyson, famously created 5,127 prototypes of his first machine, the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, in a workshop behind his house, before developing one that he considered worked perfectly, the DC01.

I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison

Dyson’s breakthrough idea was to use cyclonic separation to create a vacuum cleaner that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt and didn’t require a bag. At the time, in the early 90′s, manufacturers didn’t want to touch his design since the market for disposable cleaner bags was enormous so he started his own company and after much effort eventually became the market leader.

The company has since gone on to create radically new designs for washing machines (ContraRotator), hand dryers (Airblade), fans (Air Multiplier) and heaters – while not all have been hits, their ability to reinvent entire product categories is almost unparalleled.

Dyson’s background was in industrial design, rather than engineering – a fact which is strongly reflected in the sculptural nature of his products which outwardly reflect their functional nature while being strangely attractive in their two-tone bright grey/yellow colours. He has stated the source of his inspiration comes from frustration – if a problem exists, then logically a solution must too.

Philosophy: ”Solve the everyday problems others seem to ignore, whatever it takes”

• Dyson emphasises function over form; products are only truly beautiful if they work well
• Dyson keeps on failing till they find the right solution through rapid prototyping
• Dyson products express the technology used, so that people understand it
• Dyson encourages differences; be deliberately obtuse and intentionally illogical
• Dyson products repurpose ideas from other applications

Apple

Apple and its founder need little introduction, but while Steve Jobs made design a chief element of the company’s product strategy, it was British designer Jonathan “Jony” Ive who establish the firm’s leading position with a series of functionally clean, aesthetically pleasing and remarkably popular products that started with the introduction of the iMac in 1998. The success of the original iMac helped pave the way to many other iconic designs such as the iPod and eventually the iPhone.

We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both, to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive, easy to use, fun to use, so that they really fit the users – the users don’t have to come to them, they come to the user. — Steve Jobs

Like handcrafted Shaker furniture each Apple product is just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside and feel almost inevitable or undesigned since they defer to how the user interacts with them in a natural and essential way. Apple products are far more than a collection of parts though – their simplicity belies the complexity of the processes which are required to make them.

The work and principles of Dieter Rams, the former Chief of Design at Braun (1961-95), is said to have influenced Ive’s work, and Rams publicly states that Apple is the only company designing products according to his Ten principles of “good design”. Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase “Weniger, aber besser” which translates as “Less, but better”, something that Apple has clearly embraced with its tightly curated product lines that don’t reserve their best innovations for their most high-end products.

Philosophy: “The intersection of technology and liberal arts”

• Apple products are as beautiful internally as they are externally (craft)
• Apple understands what people need before they know they need it (empathy)
• Apple understand that people do judge a book by its cover so first impressions count (impute)
• Apple understands the hierarchy of what is and isn’t important (focus)
• Apple refines every detail in the service of the user to get rid of complexity (simplicity)

Conclusion

As creators, consumers and conservators we shouldn’t accept shoddy design. Companies, like the ones above, which focus on providing what people need now and in the near future in the simplest possible fashion will stand the test of time – their legions of fans stand as testament to this.

In homage to Mr. Rams (who I saw speak at BODW in Hong Kong this week) I’ve put together my own list of what good design is derived from the principles of MUJI, UNIQLO, IKEA, Dyson and Apple:

1. Good design is simple
2. Good design is pure
3. Good design is self-sufficient
4. Good design is essential
5. Good design is iconic
6. Good design is seductive
7. Good design is reactionary
8. Good design is intuitive
9. Good design is democratic
10. Good design is universal

I’d be interested to hear what other companies you think would fit into this list?

Related posts you might like:

1. MUJI Design in Taiwan
2. Apple
3. UNIQLO & 3M in Harajuku

1. Apple is everywhere – it’s staggering how over the past couple of years how the asian market has been transformed from a Galapagos island of feature phones made by Japanese and Korean titans to shear Apple domination. While affluent youngsters used to tout the latest from Samsung and LG all everyone now wants is iEverything. The appeal seems in equal parts about fashion and function with the clean lines and ease of use being a breath of fresh air where good design used to take a backseat. While most other manufacturers are jumping on the Android bandwagon they have a lot of catching up to do.
2. KakaoTalk is killing SMS – around the world SMS is rapidly being replaced by apps which send messages over the net instead of GSM. The main advantage of these apps are that messages are free (minus data costs) no matter where the recipient is in the world and you can do a lot more like send high-resolution photos, videos, share your location or group chat. While WhatsApp may be the darling of the west, in South Korea everyone with a smartphone uses homegrown KakaoTalk. The app is available for free on both iPhone and Android in Korean, Japanese, and English.
3. The Chinese are spending – like with many other countries the people spending the big money these days seem to be the Chinese. I’ve noticed an increasing number of stores actively advertising that they accept UnionPay (China’s equivalent of Visa) to attract Chinese tourists. The value of overseas transactions using the China Unionpay cards jumped 44 percent year on year (2010 – 2011) to 6.37 billion yuan (965 million U.S. dollars) according to the company. More proof that the communist party don’t need to invade other countries to still rule them!
4. Group buying craze – with over 400 competitors, the online group buying market in South Korea is pretty hot right now. The biggest players are Ticket Monster (recently acquired by LivingSocial), Coupang, WeMakePrice, and of course the heavyweight – Groupon. How well any of these will fare in the long-term is unclear but the rapid growth is very impressive. Seoul Space has some good coverage on the subject.
5. Still fantastically fast – while the western world happily sips from modest 3G mobile connections, South Korea is still outpacing anywhere else with the adoption of 4G WiBro (or WiMax) technology providing speeds up to 40.32 mbps on the go. That’s around 10x faster than 3G and better than what most Europeans and Americans can get over a fixed line to their home. The main use of all this bandwidth seems to be video-on-demand services such as streaming TV (a popular pastime for any Seoul commuter!).
6. Shopping on the metro – while I sadly didn’t get to see this in person Tesco, known as Home Plus in Korea, ran a very innovative promotion which allowed shoppers to use their smartphone to scan QR codes on pictures of products stuck on advertisements along metro station platforms (a virtual store if you like). After completing a purchase the groceries are then delivered to the persons home. During the period of the campaign, online sales increased 130% and registered users increased by 76%. The video below shows it in action:

And finally… the invasion of leggy girl and androgynous boy Kpop groups who look and sound almost identical continues unabated except for the occasional interruption by government censors slapping taste & decency bans on any who dare to bare more skin than bad tunes. Cover your ears…

Related posts you might like:

1. South Korea
2. Do You Know South Korea?
3. South Korea Invaded by Kpop Groups

In addition to this they often fail to take advantage of the additional possibilities these devices bring. An iPad can do so much more than just display text, pictures and videos since it has a constant connection to the internet with the wealth of information and social connections that it brings. To date the way in which I’ve seen the technology harnessed is simplistic at best (Wired, Project) and a hinderance at worst (The Daily).

While there have already been lots of discussions about the shortcomings of current implementations I’d like to focus on eBooks in particular which I feel are the worst offenders and what I’d like to see in future eBook readers:

1. Better layout and typography - some eBook readers are better at this than others but there are still clear issues with the display across different devices with various screen resolutions. I don’t want to see scanned copies of type headings or other elements which should be vectorized.
2. Unlimited lending – you should be able to share books your own for unlimited periods to one person at a time. While someone else has your book you obviously can’t read it but can recall it at any time (ala Lendle but built-in).
3. Collaborative reading – you should be able share your reading list, progress, and notes with friends who might be reading the same thing. This would be especially helpful for students or book groups.
4. Copying & sharing – you should be able to copy paragraphs of text for the purpose of quoting or sharing a link to a particular place in a book on Twitter / Facebook etc. This provides another way to drive sales also.
5. Interlinked information – you should be able select a character name, place, or term you’re interested in and it will present you with background information, similar to a normal hyperlink but semantically generated.
6. Portability – if you buy a book in one eBook store you should be able to transfer and read it on any device without being limited or locked to a particular provider. If I buy a book it should be mine to do with as I please in so far as I don’t distribute copies to others (like an MP3).
7. Automatic revisions – when a new edition of a book you own is released it should automatically get updated in your library similar to when you update an app to a new version. Some publishers may want to charge for this which is fine as long as it’s fairly priced (see next point).
8. Fair pricing – at the very minimum an eBook should never be more expensive than its paper counterpart, and considering the savings in terms of manufacturing it would be good to see modest discounts. As the Apple AppStore has shown, when you lower the price people are more likely to make impulse buys and less likely to pirate.
9. Paper trade-in (bonus point) – it would be super cool if a company allowed you to trade in / recycle your old paper books for eBook replacements or discounts [hat tip @WildPixels].

eBook readers like Kindle, iBooks, and the like have been making advances in this direction but they’re moving at a tortuously slow pace. It would be great to see a startup or a company such as iA Japan, who seem to get it, tackle this space and help push the industry forward to a position where it can once again thrive.

Related posts you might like:

1. Building The Perfect Company

I was immediately drawn to its beautiful typography (courtesy of the Google Font Directory) and clean layout which makes for a design satisfying to the eye while remaining lean on resource usage. The featured slider at the top of the home page allows me to showcase my favourite photos larger than before and a lot of extraneous navigation has been removed. As ever any suggestions for how it might be improved further are always welcome.

In other news…

Last week I finally made the transition to Hong Kong after being stuck in limbo in London for the past month. It’s great to have finally made it and I’m slowly adjusting to the my new life here although it seems unlikely things will be completely settled for a couple more months (I’m living in the airport currently…).

For the past four weeks I’ve been staying with some very generous relatives who kindly put me up at short notice and I was able to borrow the apartment of one of my uncles which just so happened to be vacant and nearby where I was working – talk about lucky.

Although I was living in a modern building there was plenty of history in there area and living so centrally gave me a chance to discover a few new areas I had never been before. It’s strange how when you live somewhere you are less likely to explore it than when you’re on holiday.

Spitalfields is full of interesting old streets and diverse communities of people from all walks of life. It’s home to many famous markets including Brick Lane where almost anything can be found including a huge number of Indian restaurants (which may or may not give your food poisoning!).

The area was the stalking ground of the infamous Jack the Ripper who murdered five+ women between 1888 – 1891 and walking around some of the older streets gives you a glimpse into a much darker time in London’s past.

Also nearby is St Katherine Docks where the rich and famous moor their yachts with easy access to the River Thames.

It’s open to the public and makes for nice stroll on a chilly winter afternoon – must be great for the owners of the luxury flats which overlook it.

Almost adjacent to the docks is Tower Bridge which looks magnificent in any weather. I enjoyed the scene in the 2009 film version of Sherlock Holmes where it is seen still under construction – modern bridges just don’t cut it compared to this wonder of Victorian engineering.

Next to the bridge on the south bank what may become an icon of modern London can be seen acceding towards the heavens. When completed in 2012 The Shard will be the tallest building in the European Union at 310 m tall. Despite its controversial location it’s set to be pretty spectacular.

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1. New Year, New Look

Each colour corresponds to a different group within your network, which has been automatically identified based on individual affiliations – bigger dots represent people with more connections than others. The video below explains things a bit more.

I find it interesting to see how the segments within my network are quite distinctly split along geographical lines – Blue / Green represent colleagues on different projects I’ve worked on in the UK, Purple / Orange represent colleagues in Beijing and Shenzhen, with the small Yellow cluster being colleagues in Pakistan.

It would be great to see a tool like this which could do the same for all your online networks and then allow you to see the wider connections between them. I’m sure you’d be able to produce some pretty interesting metrics about individual levels of influence.

Related posts you might like:

1. Speed Demon

I’ve wanted to write about the area for the last couple of years but only got round to taking some photos last September during a trip there with a friend. The first thing you’ll notice is that instead of a few big shops there are in fact thousands split over multiple floors in many buildings; a bit like a department store but much more chaotic.

Each of these small retailers has a different speciality, be it digital cameras, phones, laptops, memory, or any conceivable component you can think of. You can buy complete systems down to individual resistors and integrated circuits. The diversity is staggering but if you’re looking for something unusual be prepared for a long hunt.

When purchasing anything from places like this be sure to haggle and have someone with you who can tell the genuine artifact from fakes which are everywhere. For individual components this can be particularly difficult so it’s best to test things out in the shop before parting with any money.

Some of the merchants can be a bit pushy but are generally helpful and go out of their way to help you find what you want. If they don’t have the exact item you want they will likely know someone else who does. If you’re willing to buy something without an invoice they’ll often give you a considerable discount.

The most famous and original electronics market can be found in the SEG building (赛格广场) on the corner of Huaqiang Bei and Shennan. It has seven floors of small stalls selling electronics items; the first two are wholesale components and the rest is dedicated to consumer goods.

I feel a bit sorry for the people who work long hours in here day-in day-out since the space is so cramped and there are no windows. Only in China could you find anything like this on a similar scale and even if you’re not actively looking for anything in particular it’s a fascinating place to window-shop.

Outside the metro station you will also notice groups of middle-aged women squawking ”fa piao” (发票) at everyone who walks by. What they’re selling is fake invoices which unscrupulous business-men use to claim false expense at work, something I wrote about before – illegal but clearly thriving.

Related posts you might like:

1. New Year Flower Market
2. Shanghai Insect Market
3. Muslim Quarter Street Market

To get to MEGA WEB take the automated Yurikamome train from Shimbash (新橋駅) on the mainland to Aomi Station (青海駅) which is directly connected to Palette Town where the exhibition is. It’s opens 11am – 7pm daily.

I visited early on weekday when there was hardly anyone else there except some foreign businessmen from Toyota on an official tour which I tagged along behind. This turned out to be a lucky move since otherwise I would have missed many of the demonstrations. First up was a humanoid “partner robot” which could fairly convincingly play the trumpet (see video below).

It has artificial lungs, lips and fingers which allow for a natural, if pre-programmed, performance. The way its limbs moved was creepily human although seeing a guy walk out a control booth at the back rather dispelled the illusion! Toyota hopes that similar robots can be used to assist elderly and disabled people – an acute problem in Japan with its shrinking and aging population.

In science fiction and anime you often see fictional bipedal vehicles known as ‘mecha‘ that approximate the shape of a human who sits inside to pilot them (think Aliens or Matrix Revolutions). The i-Foot is about a close as you’ll get to seeing the real thing and while it isn’t quite as cool the 7 ft. high, two-legged, walking machine can even climb stairs. Unfortunately with a top speed of only 1 mph don’t expect it to replace the bullet train anytime soon.

The real star of the show was the i-Real ‘Personal Mobility Concept’ which is a 3-wheeled battery-powered one-passenger vehicle – you might remember it from an episode of Top Gear last year. Check out the video below to see it and other Toyota robots in action:

In low-speed mode the vehicle is upright and moves around at walking pace among pedestrians, without taking up a large amount of space. In high-speed mode it extends in length by leaning back and extending the single rear wheel to improve aerodynamics and stability, thus being able to achieve a speed of 18.6 mph. It leans into corners to prevent it tipping over.

At the end of the demo both the presenter and the i-Real gave a cute little bow but it remains to be seen whether something like this will ever catch on in the real world or end up as a niche product like the Segway. Nissan have developed a slightly larger two-person New Mobility Concept vehicle which goes a lot faster.

Not included in the exhibition but worth a mention is the HRP-4C, a walking, talking humanoid fashion model fembot developed by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Those hands are the things nightmares are made of!

Related posts you might like:

1. Universal Railway Maps
2. MUJI Design in Taiwan
3. Design Driven Brands

How it used to be - the internals of a 1960's Robers Radio

When I interact with my iPad I am focused on a single flat surface which is made up of a large touch screen with a discrete black border. The interface dynamically adjusts around the tasks which I wish to perform; nothing is static except the window itself. While something like a radio was a single-function device what the iPad and similar devices can do is only limited by the imaginations of the developers writing applications for them. One moment you could be writing an email, the next remotely piloting a flying quadricopter.

Contemporary vs Classic - modern devices do a whole lot more

While Apple should be praised for its incredible industrial design it’s the operating system which is the real star of the show. It provides support for these rich interactions and transparently manages everything under the hood without requiring the user to get involved. Google’s Android OS takes this metaphor one step further as it’s totally divorced from the hardware and can be poured into any compatible container by anyone with the right skills. Not only has function been separated from form but continuous software updates allow the functionality to evolve and improve over time.

Hardware as a vase into which functionality is poured

Hardware has become a vessel that is brought to life by the OS and applications which give life and personality. The internet provides an omnipresent and omniscient brain which is as ubiquitous and light as the air we breath yet as powerful as a raging storm. That which was expensive and exclusive ten years ago is now cheap and available to virtually everyone. The fact that what we can hold in the palm of our hands today is many times more powerful than what originally took man to the moon is mind-blowing.

In the world of smartphones we can already stereotype the personalities of the main vendors; Apple is the beautiful perfectionist, Android is the tech savvy geek, Blackberry is the boring business man, and Nokia the ugly but reliable European. These devices have become extensions of our own personalities which mirror our desires and aspirations. It seems that as with art mirroring life and visa versa, technology is also evolving in a similar vein (I’ll leave philosophical discussions about the mind-body distinction to someone else).

So where does this leave us? Today you can no longer tell exactly what something is capable of just by looking at it but you know how to use it instinctively. Touch-screens combined with a multitude of other sensors have given rise to almost Harry Potter-esq magical experiences which are as easy to use as they are powerful. It’s an exciting time to be living in!

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