Web design, technology, music and sarcasm by Jack Gutteridge

♦ My web design portfolio

I have re-designed my web design portfolio. It now features six selected websites that I’ve built to date, each with a brief case study and an explanation of technologies used.

It’s built using pure CSS3 for animation and navigation. It’s only one XHTML page. It does this through the CSS target selector and using CSS3 transitions for those browsers that support it. If a browser doesn’t support transitions, such as IE9, then it doesn’t animate. It still works fine though, this is the beauty of the web.

I avoided JavaScript because I didn’t want to include a library like jQuery. CSS3 and HTML5 should be working to abolish these standards. I appreciate JavaScript can do some powerful things, but for almost 100% of the instances I see in the wild, I can’t help but think the functionalities should be native to HTML and CSS. The W3C should be working their arses off to make this the case.

♦ “Blinded by idealism”

Mr Gruber here, throwing some harsh words in agreement towards a snapshot of a few of Android’s negatives. The article is about the state of Android’s fragmentation, again. The article he linked, “I’m sick to death of Android” on ZDNet, is the written anger that writer Jason Perlow has built up over his experiences with two Android devices.

I’m simply sick to death of putting up with all of these issues that seem to have no end in sight.

What he doesn’t explain however, is what these “issues” really are. Being annoyed that you don’t have the latest number version of an OS is one thing, but why? What is it that Jason misses so much from his Android phones that makes them so intolerable to use compared to a phone with the latest build of Android on it? He mentions a bugfix release hasn’t landed on his phone. He doesn’t mention these bugs, or if they’ve crippled his experience.

It’s a crock of shit. I’d put a lot of cold hard cash down that he wouldn’t know what version of Android he’d be running if he wasn’t told. Would that make him happy? Can we just up the number on his about screen? Would he be impressed by then? Would anyone in the consumer world give a shit?

Can you imagine being so dumb — or blinded by idealism — as to take until now to see how fundamentally broken Android is in these regards?

Wha regards?

♦ Samsung’s Note find its Niche

Christina Bonnington writing for Wired:

In short, critics and analysts have not been kind to the Galaxy Note — making recent news of strong Samsung sales figures all the more curious. Forbes recently reported that two million Galaxy Notes have been sold since the device went on sale in Europe some three months ago, and Samsung is on pace to sell 10 million more before the year’s end. That’s a fairly remarkable degree of success considering the Note’s niche positioning.

There has been a lot of shouting in Apple blogging circles about how stupid and ridiculous this thing looks. And it does, it looks ridiculous! But when the iPad was announced, one of the many trending things on Twitter (like “iTampon”) was “Dom Jolly”. The iPad looked like a giant iPhone. It is a giant iPhone, without the phone. The Galaxy Note is a giant phone. The only difference is it’s just about usable as a phone.

If you own a smart phone, you very likely use it more as a ‘tablet’, that is to read, browse the web, message, interact with touch-based apps. Thus, making it more of a tablet is beneficial. It’s no accident that this thing is doing well, it’s killing two birds with one stone. I’d be sold if it wasn’t full of Samsung’s shitty interpretation of Android.

♦ Jonathan Ive Q&A

Interview by the London Evening Standard. It’s hard to pick a quote to highlight. There’s so much golden insight into this extraordinarily talented and experienced person. I’ve gone with this:

It is so important to be light on your feet, inquisitive and interested in being wrong. You have that wonderful fascination with the what if questions, but you also need absolute focus and a keen insight into the context and what is important – that is really terribly important. Its about contradictions you have to navigate.

There’s physically so little in this article, yet so much said. Incredible guy.

♦ “The joy of iPad”

Om Malik for GigaOM writes:

It didn’t matter how it was happening — just that she could talk to her grandson who was oceans apart from her. If there ever was a moment that captured the emotion in a piece technology, that was it. The look on her face made me realize how lucky I am to write about an industry that makes such things possible.

I’ve had a similar experience to this. My Granddad doesn’t understand the use for computers or the internet. He has never shown interest in them. But when he saw me chatting to a mate through my MacBook Air, he was simply dazzled. He even called in my Grandmother to check it out.

There’s nothing spectacular about the iPad. It is the first lightweight tablet computer. And similar goes for my MacBook Air. It’s a low spec, lightweight laptop. But they’re incredibly well designed and really simple. The thought that goes into them (at least the hardware) is spectacular.

Apple has pioneered simple and effective design. Because they work so well, they’re accessible. Any moron can, and now does, use an iPhone, iPad, etc., because they need no explanation. You just do cool stuff on the shiny thing.

I wish people would close their mouth when they’re gawping in awe though.

♦ “Can a machine have soul?”

Back when the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4 was announced, Joshua Topolsky scored an interview with Martias Duarte, formerly head of Palm’s WebOS, now in charge of Android’s design.

The guy has his head firmly screwed on.

This quote made me jump out of my seat and scream “absolutely”. It’s about competing devices to Android 4:

Right now if you look at all of these applications that are designed in this real-objecty, faux wood paneling, faux brushed metal, faux jelly button kind of thing… if you step back and you really look at them, they look kind of juvenile. They’re not photorealistic, they’re illustrations.

Exactly. Apple design of recent looks truly pale for doing this too often. The calendar app in OS X Lion looks like a turd. I’m convinced the address book in OS X Lion is a joke. Duarte is pioneering beautiful design without the need to create faux-real impressions. In Android 4, the interface isn’t pretending to be real, it is real.

Design is arguably the most important part of an operating system and until now has always felt like an afterthought on Android. On ICS, it’s years ahead.

♦ Google’s new Privacy Policy

Google rolls out it’s new Privacy Policy.

I’m a bit dubious at the lack of transparency. On one hand, this document is an amazingly comprehensive and very welcome explanation of how it treats your data. Even I can understand it. But on the other, it’s combining your details across multiple sites that weren’t associated in that way. Google isn’t saying that up straight.

Companies don’t need to simplify their policies though. Journalists and bloggers will sift through the legal jumble to find scandalous scoops, and they’re just as likely to be ignored by the majority of users.

I love Google’s services and I like the way I’m targeted with better data about me. It means I get what I want quicker and easier. When people log in with their Google account, there’s an assumption that the data will be shared, even though it previously hasn’t been.

No company is as good as Google at letting you control your data. Google’s Data Dashboard almost proves this. If every website did this, the world would be better.

♦ Moaner-daily, Google plus is shit yada yada

I like this blog. It’s got some good writers. It reminds me of another blog I used to read. But they’re all sell-outs now so I have no respect for them. These guys are much better.

Joking aside, the rather ineloquent Sarah Lacy here, feeling the need to shout about how awful something is:

People used to always joke that Eric Schmidt was merely the “adult supervision” who wasn’t responsible for much of Google’s success. But now that he’s gone and Page is in charge, it’s becoming apparent how important that adult supervision was.

Sounds like she needs adult supervision herself to prevent her spite!

I use Google+ more than I use Facebook or Twitter now. Granted, there’s very little interaction going on, but it’s far greater than any of it’s predecessors initial efforts. And granted, it is very evil to spread the network around the infrastructure (even the holy search) but it’s their fucking right! Don’t like it, use something else (or try your hardest). My point is Google+ has a lot of genuine users, and I’m just one.

Google+ brings many sweet features to social networking. Circles aren’t even the tip. Instant upload, easy video chatting, easy conversation creation, easy information views. Facebook has become better because of this, take the lightbox or improved list feature.

And that’s what’s incredible. Google has innovated where Facebook hadn’t! This has made the world a better place! Like Android/iPhone. Scott Forstall didn’t see that pull-down notification tray in a dream you know!

So stop bitching. Just because they pissed you off by trying hard to get some traction somewhere. You can turn it off (ish). Focus on the good stuff in the world please, there’s lots of it.

♦ Android Fragmentation, latest edition

Chris Sauve:

Three versions have significant installed bases at present: Eclair (15 million), Froyo (54 million) and Gingerbread (114 million). As one might expect, Honeycomb has not performed well: only 6.6 million Honeycomb devices estimated in use, which we can compare to the 15.5 million iPads sold just last quarter.

Not a day goes by without an Apple blog posting about co-existing versions of Android. Fragmentation is an issue, but it’s not exclusive to Android. Older versions of computer operating systems have long co-existed. Heck, I’m typing this on Windows XP, and that’s a decade old! Mac OS X, Ubuntu, various other software suites. It’s part of evolving software. Google has conquered this on the browser, with only current versions of Chrome being online at any one time. It does this through auto update, something that isn’t workable on something as low-level as on OS.

Anyway the bulk of the problem isn’t Google’s. Unless the next version of Android can split the manufacturer code and the Android base, there’s nothing Google can do to update Android without breaking the OS on different devices.

But there’s a lot more to this. The functionality in Android smartphones isn’t OS specific. HTC has a dialler that isn’t present in stock Android 4. MIUI uses a Firewall that isn’t in stock Android 4. You pick your phone for the features it has and how that suits you. This can be version agnostic.

Despite this post being a very negative look at Android (and if it’s about fragmentation there’s no reason it shouldn’t be), the numbers are staggering. More Gingerbread phones are in use than possibly all iPhones combined. Foyo device make up an extra half. But it’s true that six months after it’s release possibly less than half a million ICS devices are in use. That’s pathetic, but in it’s defence, there’s only one phone that was built for it. ICS is also a bigger step up from Gingerbread that from Froyo to Gingerbread, with an entire version of the code skipping, and hardware requirements increasing.

The linked article is some very skilled analysis. There’s nothing new to learn at all. I would argue that even seeing it visually doesn’t change how it’s portrayed, merely reinforced. Very talented representations never the less.

♦ iPad 3 event

Joshua Topolsky takes us through a frankly genius piece about when the iPad 3 event will be held.

Sadly, it’s wrong. The official Apple invites have just gone out for Wednesday March the 7th.

♦ Android Design Guidlines

Starting from Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Google has defined a consistent global design and interface. At last, no second guessing what the user should expect.

This is far too late coming. Design is a fundamental component for creating a user experience. It should have been with Android before version 1.

Interestingly, there are changes which contradict previous user expectations. Selection in Android 4, for example, has replaced the action previously used for context commands. That’s bold.

Very welcome stuff from Google. I’m in love with the work Matias Duarte is doing, and it’s really standing out from the competition.