Fun is good.
3rd Edition • 18th June 2019
Hello friends,
This email is a reminder. Reminder to myself, my colleagues and to you – to have fun, to not be afraid of inventing things, to do things your way. Don't get me wrong, I love that we live in a world of big data, I've done a lot of design & research work based on data and yes, I admit that there's been situations where I chose a specific layout or style based on the fact that "this is proven to be popular with the demographic" and because "[insert your favourite big sillicon valley startup] does it that way". But that doesn't mean our work can't be also surprising and delightful. If we don't skip the "having fun" part of our job, we can have both, familiarity and innovation.
Unless we want a "shared brand equity"
Anyway, I've been playing around with the format of this email, the last issue got quite lengthy, and I've taken your feedback seriously. There are going to be a couple of subtle changes to make this email better:
(1) I love writing the editorials for this email, but the format is not very suitable for it – you signed up for a regular overview of interesting news and thoughts and having to scroll through a long article to get to the actual content is probably not the best experience. We are relaunching our blog so I'm going to post my editorials as a full-lenght articles there (while keeping the short form here).
(2) ...Speaking about having fun! I've tried to balance the type of news I share with you, but I can already feel that limiting myself to a certain format that much is not fun for me. So from now on I'll keep it more organic – some weeks you'll get more news, another will be more about self-development or... You've got the idea 🙂.
Highlight of the week
Apple's WWDC19
At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Tim Apple Cook and his team announced couple of interesting products and services, including a new Mac Pro that aims to be the most powerful cheese grater Apple had ever made. Jokes aside, after a long criticism of lowering the bar of their "pro" lineup, Apple finally released a product for a very niche and demanding group of people and I applaud this. The pricetag is of course matching the ambition, starting at $5,999, the cost of this machine in it's high end configuration can easily surpass $35,000.
I have to make peace with the fact that I'm not "pro enough" for this and stay loyal to my 2015 Macbook.
The biggest news for me was in surprisingy in the software though. Apple had announced they are going to split their mobile operating system iOS into two and create iPadOS optimised for work on Apple's tablets. Mouse support, external display support, more capable multitasking, new home screen and better file management! I am a big fan of iPads (especially their pro lineup), so I'm happy to see this and can't wait to install the update on my device.
But there is still one announcment I find even more exciting. Apple is going to launch their own Single-Sign-On. Unlike Google's or Facebook's counterparts, Apple built it not only on convenience, but also privacy. Their "Sign In With Apple" works seamlessly with Touch & Face ID (so no password to remember!), but more importantly doesn't share your actual identity with the app itself. Every time you sign up for an app with this, the system creates a unique & anonymous email address for you – you will still receive any emails from the app, but the app developers won't get your actual email address. This is a major step towards healthy level of internet anonymity that I wish Facebook and Google would follow as well.
Oh, and seems it's going to be mandatory to some level. So prepare your apps for an update!
Are we living in a bubble?
#Economy #IPO
The most recent Huawei sanctions from the US are essentially banning US companies from working with the Chinese gigant. Google had to revoke Huawei’s Android license, Intel and ARM (CPU manufacturers) both announced they can't sell any more chips to Huawei as well. And we should all worry about what China will do in response, as most of the modern hardware manufacturing is based in the country.
And now look at the never ending controversies around crazy valuations and IPOs in Sillicon Valley – Uber, Lyft, Fiverr, Beyond Meat are just few of the rect huge IPOs that went 50%-150% up in price... while not making a single penny. Is it worrying or are we just looking at the rebirth of venture capital, where long term innovation is finally getting it's deserved (?) respect and investors want more than short term gains?
The cutest game console ever made?
I don't believe I'm saying this – out of all the amazing 4k (with 8k coming soon) gaming consoles and graphics card with ray-tracing and mac pros, this tiny $149 device appears to spark the most genuine excitement out of them all.
Introducing Playdate – I mean, I probably don't have to, because it's been all over the internet – the "cutest game console ever made". It's made by Panic (authors of several developer-oriented apps for mac as well as popular story-based game Overwatch). It's coming with 12 games included by renowned developers like Zach Gage, Bennett Foddy, and Keita Takahashi. It has a functional crank. It was co-designed with Teenage Engineering (I love op-1).
I mean, I'll probably play it once or twice and then leave it on display. But I'm still excited to see project like this happening. I want more indie hardware!
For more info head over to play.date
Food for thought
Stop wasting money to build ideas in isolation
To read
Agile and continuous (iterative) development has become a standard for in-house product teams, but agencies are still selling specification based software development as in 90s. Why? And what to do about it? Great short essay by Filip Hasa, CEO of Pixelfield.
Does the news reflect what we die from?
To read
Our World in Data has created an interesting study about real causes of death vs. what media tends to report about.
Why everyone should prototype
To listen
Great podcast from IDEO with Chris Nyffeler and Coe Leta Stafford about the value of prototyping and how to do it right.
Keanu Reeves on the stage of E3 conference
For fun
Because we are all breathtaking.
Sending love to...
Adventures with Anxiety (demo)
"Based on my personal experience, here's (a demo for) an interactive story about a human and their anxiety disorder. You play as the anxiety disorder."
This creation by Nicky Case is the whole reason I love games so much. 7 minutes of gameplay in your browser, but makes you feel the experience long after.
