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Samsung's Galaxy III is not the "lawyer's phone"

Sun, 06 May 2012 22:28:40 -0400

Ron Amadeu wrote about Samsung’s new flagship phone pointing out that it was totally designed to avoid lawsuits from Apple. He uses several arguments and places them side to side to the Apple’s lawsuit claims. Read it here

The problem? It’s really easy to notice that while good, some of the arguments are really flawed, and I will show you why I believe Samsung actually thinks this is actually an original design and a beautiful phone.

The Shape

The strange shape on the S3 is indeed Ron’s strongest argument. But Looking at the pre-release ads, I can actually almost visualize Samsung designers going “Pebbles! This is the concept ” and followed it. With all their hearts. If you say it’s ugly.. they would strongly disagree. Even the way Apple presented at the judge would still be valid : They showed both devices side by side. Apart from size, if looked from a couple feets away, the odd shape is barely recognized from a standard rectangle with rounded corners.

Rounded Grid of Icons

Samsung is using ICS stock icons. their icons still the same ( and don’t fit with ICS but they are minority ). I here believe that Samsung knows Devs are not creating apps specifically for TouchWiz… so if you can beat them, join them.

“Springboard” row of icons

Again it looks like Samsung is closer to ICS’s design than anything else. The drawer still there ( look at the S3 videos ) it’s only not present anymore when you enter the “menu” list. So you can argue that iOS’s home is actually the menu list on Android, but I don’t think this would matter for a judge. It’s the first thing the user sees. It’s what the user sees when press “home”.

Ron’s says this is enough to say that the phone was designed by lawyers. I would reinforce : This is Samsung trying to innovate on Industrial design and getting closer to ICS on software. I don’t think samsung cares that much. Take a look at their “siri” competitor:

The UI has the same conversation bubbles, the same small, self contained results. It’s clear that samsung copied. So why would lawyers bother with everything else but leave this 100% similar? I don’t think so.

I said it and I repeat: When it comes to lawsuits… Samsung is a HoneyBadger. It simply doesn’t care. It doesn’t give a ****, and it has worked out pretty well so far.

"…Samsung’s continuing strategy of beating buyers into submission with feature lists"

Fri, 04 May 2012 10:10:29 -0400

““…Samsung’s continuing strategy of beating buyers into submission with feature lists””

- http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/4/2998464/how-samsung-broke-my-heart

And that’s what the Phone market will become with Android. A specs run. A small cpu upgrade will be enough to release another shell in the market, because the phones will become just as dumb as the gray boxes in the past.

Google was really not worried about touch until they saw the iPhone.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:48:50 -0400

Well, this isn’t really new, but it’s always good to remember. This whole Oracle and Google thing is great to watch.

via the verge

pablomarques: Where things come from — lovely little student...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 10:35:23 -0400

pablomarques:

Where things come from — lovely little student project

Page turning in Ebooks : A realistic but pretty interesting...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:33:00 -0400

Page turning in Ebooks : A realistic but pretty interesting approach.

I am not sure if all of them will work when heavy used ( like the swipe-speed based page(s) turn ) but the basic ones are pretty amazing.

via @chrisrauh

Skyrim + Voice : That's the way Kinetic really shines in games.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:51:00 -0400

Arstechnica talks about Bastheda is adding voice to Skyrim. You will be able to “shout” at your tv all those magic words. If it’s possible to actually change to another shout without going over the menus, it will be amazing.
More in the video below:

Nokia's hell has only started.

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:27:41 -0400

I hate predictions but I need to write my thoughts down to review in the future:

Next year, CEO is out, Android is in.

Crazy, I know.

The tool is a mere detail. Amazing. samspratt: Paper by...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:37:58 -0400

The tool is a mere detail. Amazing.

samspratt:

Paper by FiftyThree Studios (drawing by Sam Spratt)

Mostly, I think iPads are toys not tools. They’re fun and magical and all that Apple-jargon, but at least for drawing/painting—they’re pretty useless since the screen doesn’t pick up how hard you press (which equates to finger-painting). Throw in the fact that most of the “good” pieces of software masquerade as professional creation tools with hundreds of settings and sliders, limited resolution, and slow performance—and it’s a cumbersome experience at best.

“Paper” by 53 studios, is simple as hell, yet it is the first drawing app on the iPad I enjoy. Those 9 colors and 6 tools you see? That’s all you get. Hell, even “Draw Something” has a more complicated interface. However, to make up for the lack of a pressure-sensitive stylus, the app picks up the momentum of your strokes and adjusts line widths, opacity, and for the watercolor brush—how much the paint bleeds—based on how fast you move your finger or “dumb-stylus” across the screen (and the performance is great). This was my first attempt at a sketch, about 30 minutes or so and getting used to the brush behaviors—but for the first time since the initial iPad was released, there is a drawing app I like. It embraces the fact that it is a sketchbook rather than a professional tool, it’s deadly simple, and incredibly intuitive to boot.

Yes, that’s how we play skyrim.

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 23:30:02 -0400

Yes, that’s how we play skyrim.

"Android Device Makers Are Mutinying, Says Insider"

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:52:03 -0400

"Android Device Makers Are Mutinying, Says Insider":

This shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s clear that at least the big ones want ways to differentiate themselves. Nobody wants to see the what happened to the PC industry again.

Why did Instagram go the easy way and did an...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:46:05 -0400

Why did Instagram go the easy way and did an “iPhone”-ish app for Android? come one, after so much time you could at least have some Android-ish designs.

nomand: Nothing can describe the experience of Journey. The...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:38 -0400

nomand:

Nothing can describe the experience of Journey. The multitude of layers of meaning this game delivers is unbelievable, from the environmental message in the main storyline, issues of indigenous people and resource mining, to values of companionship on path of enlightenment and it’s temporality, language, rebirth, every playthrough reveals something deep and thoughtful.

I’m in love with this game, to which I pay tribute with this pixel art piece. I can only hope you play the game and experience the Journey for yourselves.

Love movies? Try Whoovie on your iPhone ;) I bet will you like it!

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:57:44 -0400

Love movies? Try Whoovie on your iPhone ;) I bet will you like it! :

HBO Go interactive viewing for iPad is live! Nothing beats the...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:19:24 -0400

HBO Go interactive viewing for iPad is live! Nothing beats the feeling of shipping ;) Content is king, but giving the user the option to dive into the show is a blast! :)

What I love about the design work we did here is that only the black areas of the video player screen ( the stripes due to video aspect ) were used, and user can easily dismiss and focus on the show. Portrait mode still my favorite, but you will have to download the app and watch Game of Thrones season 2 to understand why!

Amazing new app for the iPad, from the guys behind the Courier...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:22:54 -0400

Amazing new app for the iPad, from the guys behind the Courier concept for MS.

"…but when Nokia undertook focus groups it was always clear what phones should look like. We..."

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:31:26 -0400

“…but when Nokia undertook focus groups it was always clear what phones should look like. We had a lot of research to show that nobody wanted to use a phone with a touchscreen…”

- http://www.quora.com/Nokia/Why-did-Nokia-not-have-a-decent-response-to-the-iPhone

A must see talk by Bret Victor. Amazing.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:07:00 -0500

A must see talk by Bret Victor. Amazing.

pablomarques: Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over |...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:53:06 -0500

pablomarques:

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera
by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from
August to October, 2011.

HD, refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised, deflickered, cut, etc.

RIP.

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:07:04 -0400

RIP.

Check it out. Cute characters, great voice over, AR goodies and...

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:39:19 -0400

Check it out. Cute characters, great voice over, AR goodies and more!

pablomarques:

Weetakid, the game. Brought to you by Weetabix.

A game we at BBH have just launched for weetabix.

More at: http://www.weetabix.co.uk/weetakid

More info on it soon to follow.