Author Archives: IdeaMonster

About IdeaMonster

Krop, Square Extension, Dust|box artist. Illusion of sense art group founder, creative director, open mind.

Apple Maps aren’t THAT bad, they’re just prematurely released

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Apple maps google Maps ecce homo

After Apple released iOS 6 this week there has been an incredible amount of anger towards the new Maps application. People were pointing out mistakes, lack of POI and inaccuracy, and also many of the “flyover” 3d view bugs like destroyed bridges and buildings.

This is probably the first big Apple fail since Antennagate that’s so widespread. All the blogs and all the websites are complaining. But they fail to notice two things:

1. Google Maps will land on iOS very soon for sure (it was announced on Google’s mapping event in june).

2. This is the first version of Apple maps and all the negative feedback will actually help make them better.

The point though is that Steve Jobs would probably look over the whole world in those maps personally and check for errors. There are also many bugs in the new App Store (for example on the new iPad iPhone screenshots are distorted vertically)

Apparently quality control at Apple has lowered significantly since his passing. Too bad.

iOS 6 released today! Get it while it’s hot!

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Apple has released the new version of it’s mobile OS, so if your device matches the requirements (iPhone 3GS and up or iPad 2 and up) you can have it in a matter of … hours because the download speed is currently pretty slow. But still, we’re excited for the new features, especially Passbook which will create a completely new service for designers! Great stuff.

In case you don’t know how to update – go to Settings / General / Software update on your iOS 5.1 device.

HTC gets “inspired” by Nokia with it’s new Windows Phones

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Today’s HTC event didn’t bring anything really special to the table. Well aside from some pretty cool phones that is. But the moment I saw the devices I kinda had a deja vu. Was this the HTC or the Nokia event? Apparently it’s either Microsoft pushing for a different styling (to stand out from the rest of black slab-type devices) or they simply took (MANY) cues from Nokia’s flagship – the Lumia 920.

Take a look at those images and find 10 differences ;)

By the way – HTC’s phones also come in new, vibrant colors (that’s a good thing actually)

Adobe Illustrator sucks! We want FreeHand back! Well sort of.

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A while ago a group of dedicated Macromedia Freehand users created a petition to bring back the beloved vector image editor from the dead (or Adobe’s closet if you wish). Of course there’s no way in hell Adobe will admit that illustrator is not good enough, so they didn’t really go well with the idea of bringing a streamlined, easier to use and more intuitive vector tool back to the world. But fret not. Apparently FreeHand’s fans are really a dedicated bunch, because they’re making a “clone” of FreeHand, with modern features that would probably be added anyway if the software was still alive. The project is in development and there’s not much info available yet, but you can give the guys 25EUR to keep them both motivated and moving forward.

We think it’s a very cool idea, because let’s face it – the interface for Ai is dreadful. And since the Pixelmator Team didn’t start a vector app (yet?) we have to stick to what we hope will be the next best thing.

Check them out at : www.stagestack.com

Apple announced the iPhone 5 – September 12th 2012 keynote

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So the rumors were true. The new iPhone is called the iPhone 5, it has:

  • 4″ display
  • 16:9 aspect ratio
  • 1136 x 640 screen resolution

And unfortunately it also has those two stripes on the back – we get it – with full aluminum you won’t get the radios to work, but wasn’t the antenna on the outside now? iOS 6 update coming on September 19th.

Our initial views on the iPhone 5 are: Meh. It’s really not THAT exciting. And the only really exciting iOS6 feature is Passbook, because it opens a whole new real from designers and developers (and businesses). If it sticks it’s gonna change the industry big time. The rest of the OS is ok, but not really revolutionary. Panorama mode in 2012? Come on Apple!

Besides, one more thing is bugging me a little bit. The calendar app icon updates itself with the current day, but the weather icon doesn’t. It still has the sun and 23 degrees Celsius. That’s an inconsistency that is very unlike Apple.

Android sucked visually, now it sucks less (but still)

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Just some thoughts on the eve of iOS6/iPhone 5 announcement. Went back to my iPhone after a month of Jelly Bean for both aesthethic reasons and the general bad execution of the OS. And No, I don’t think Apple has the only right way. In fact I think WinPho8 is the best looking mobile OS on the market right now.

Jelly Bean, or 4.1 is supposedly the best looking Android out there. Sure they fixed a few things, so it doesn’t look completely like an iOS rip-off. Now it looks like a mix of ideas from Microsoft and Apple. Cool, thin fonts on solids, combined with some refined icons apparently means google is now borrowing ideas from a wider array of companies. At least that’s good, cause it might not be confused with iOS that easily if it steals some bits from MS and Web OS too.

Still it’s buggy, and the openness is causing lots of malware and crapware to spread. After using a Jelly Bean phone for a while now I realized how much it still sucks, after Gingerbread. Hopefully WinPho8 will take the lead away from it.

9/11 WTC Conspiracy photos would look very different now, 11 years after the tragic event

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WTC 9/11 conspiracy theory photo

Today’s the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attack on New York. Our hearts are with the victims and their families, but the reason for this post is slightly different.

The photo above depicts one of the planes, and was a base for many conspiracy theories. The problem with those conspiracy theories (the same as with UFO sightings) is that literally ALL of the pictures that are supposed to prove something are blurry and fuzzy. The picture above was taken (obviously) 11 years ago. Now the camera technology has gone so far, that a better camera sits in every other persons pocket. Smartphone cameras also use cloud services to quickly upload photos.

That means the end of conspiracy theories is near. I’m not saying some of them aren’t true. But maybe now, with better technology they’ll simply stop being theories and become facts (conspiracy facts?). Pictures that actually show something substantial instead of a few blurry lines that are open to interpretation. That sort of thing. Let’s hope we won’t see another terrorist attack (seriously people should just get along), but as far as UFO sightings go I seriously would like to see a decent, sharp picture. Especially since smartphones are starting to be better at nighttime photography.

Google releases YouTube native iOS app ahead of iOS6 launch!

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Youtube native iOS app

A day before the very probable iOS6 launch, Google has released it’s standalone, native YouTube app for the iPhone. No universal version yet, but the iPhone version is much closer to the Android installment, than the YouTube iOS app we know and/or love since 2007. The icon has also changed to reflect the google approach, so instead of a skeumorphically Apple’y tv, it now just shows the YouTube logo. It also doesn’t work with iOS older than 4.3, so iPhone 3G users are kinda stuck with the original YouTube app forever. Hopefully it’ll still work after tomorrow.

The new design is actually better and easier to use, so maybe it’s not all bad that YouTube is missing from the stock iOS. Plus that’ll enable Google to do more frequent updates and keep the app on par with the Android version.

Watch the world’s videos and keep up with your favorite YouTube channels with the official YouTube app for iOS. Sign in to access your subscriptions, playlists, uploads and more.

Youtube iOS app native

You can get the new app
on the App Store

Russian bloggers put politicians faces over potholes to fix the roads

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Potholes can be a real problem and a real annoyance. Aside from possible damage to cars, riding on pothole ridden roads is not a pleasant activity. Usually money for fixing the roads is taken from the subsidies inside the gas prices, but apparently sometimes it doesn’t. Politicians care mostly for their PR and image, so a clever grup of bloggers from Ura.Ru decided to combine the two on the streets of Yekaterinburg, Russia. Over the night faces of three prominent politicians from the city were painted over the potholes in a way, that the holes were their “big mouths”. Each also had a quote of a promise made and not kept. The result? It has gone viral worldwide and after an attempt of a cover-up, they actually fixed the roads! Maybe it’s a good idea to do everywhere? After all nothing puts politcians to work better, than bad press ;)

More images and a video below:

Continue reading →

Nokia OIS Fail – misleading video

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Nokia showcased it’s pureview camera technology on their Lumia920 conference a few days ago, but apparently parts of it were a bit misleading. First of all the image stabilization showcase featured someone apparently riding a bike, and shooting a girl that’s riding along. They just forgot to edit one place in which a reflection shows that the camera is most likely a DSLR (and NOT the Nokia Lumia 920) and the camera man is riding on the back of a truck – not on a bike. Nokia quickly apologized saying that they only showcased the OIS technology, not the device itself, but posted a video showing the stabilization on Lumia920 which actually works pretty good (if it’s not another “misleading video”). Why bother then? Maybe it’d just be better to show the real thing work and avoid bad PR?

Also some pictures from their “nightly” photo shoot surfaced, showing that apparently the Lumia920 doesn’t take those awesome bright pictures at night by itself and needs a bunch of lights on tripods around (and a DSLR camera as seen above, but that might be just for comparison shots). Still if you need to cary tripods and lighting equipment to beat other cameraphones in low light photography, then you might be doing something wrong ;)

Here’s the vid showing the real Lumia920 OIS:

And here are the shots from the fake misleading video:

We’re the people with the smile on the box

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Amazon is slowly becoming the new Apple marketing-wise. Their new ads are great and very Apple like, with the focus on people, usage possibilities and emotion. At the same time Apple has released some horrible ads, that have later been pulled. Well, we can argue if the Kindle fire is better than an iPad, but it’s pretty certain that Amazon has the best e-reader and the best bookstore on the planet. And for a while I almost thought Apple could beat that with clever marketing. But apparently Amazon got their marketing right and their ads are just great. We really love to see that not only Apple is good at design and marketing (take Nokia Lumia 920 as a great product design that doesn’t copy like Samsung). Amazon ads are just really, really good. I’d buy a Kindle fire HD if I didn’t already have the new iPad ;)

The reinventers of normal sounds catchy!

You can watch the full press conference below, to see that Jeff Bezos is slowly becoming the new Steve Jobs as far as keynotes go. They’re even using a similar background for their slides, but that’s not a bad thing if the whole conference is well executed – which this is.

Bing it on Microsoft!

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Bing it On microsoft
Microsoft’s Bing is a pretty good attempt to steal some search engine users from Google. It still however is pretty niche compared to the “don’t be evil big brother” from Mountain View. Aside from Bing being important in both Win8 and WinPhone8, MS is trying hard to convince people it’s as good, or better than Google. With this cute, retro styled comparison page they might win a few souls. After a couple of tests I can honestly say that with serious content the results are mostly exactly equal. Sure some sites are higher, some are lower, but both engines provide results that are “good enough”. Cool idea too, MS!

http://www.bingiton.com/