Yesterday, Nintendo started reminding Wii users that the Wii U isn't just a controller upgrade. It follows this statement from Satoru Iwata last week:

"Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectable to Wii," said Iwata. "We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product."

This does not sound good. When I first read Iwata's statement I thought it was a half-hearted attempt at excusing poor sales numbers, but the more I think about it the scarier it becomes. Nintendo followed the rules. They spent half a decade developing new hardware and software. They incremented their console identity with a new name just like the competition. So why are people mistaking the Wii U for a simple upgrade to the Wii? I think it's due to complacent brand and industrial design.

The PlayStation shipped in 1994. It's logo looked like this:

The successor to PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 shipped in 2000. It's logo looked like this:

And then came the PlayStation 3 in 2006. It's logo looked like this:

Notice a pattern? Brand incrementing with strong visual distinctions. Moving along, the original Xbox shipped in 2001. It's logo looked like this:

The successor to Xbox, the Xbox 360 shipped in 2005. It's logo looked like this:

Much the same story from Redmond. Incremental branding with vastly different designs. But here's where it heads downhill. The Wii shipped in 2005. It's logo looked like this:

The successor to Wii, the Wii U shipped in 2012. It's logo looked like...

...the first one. All different consoles. All the same generational name evolution. The difference? Nintendo didn't redesign the logo. Worse? They almost forgot to redesign the console.

For contrast, the Xbox had quite a wild physical transition between generations:

As did the PlayStation:

But the Wii U did not. It looks mostly like a rounded-over version of the Wii, further blurring the differences between the two. Also, it may be the first time I remember a console being backward-compatible with last generation's controllers. Nintendo may have thought that people would be glad that they could save some money and use their existing peripherals, but I think that backfired as well. As much as a disaster as the PlayStation 4 reveal was back in February, they made sure to show the one thing that might get people excited early on: a new controller.

It's very important to create visual separation between products, especially products with generational updates. From an outside perspective it looks like Nintendo added an optional peripheral and stapled a 'U' on to the identity. That's not good enough, and it may be that they're now suffering because of it, putting them one step closer to being a software-only operation.

• posts
• design, gaming

I've been fascinated with the idea of native, media-specific social timelines for a good long while now. That's why I was thrilled to see Twitter #music launch earlier this week. I love the idea of listening to radio stations made out of the posts of the people you follow. So much so, that I shipped it in the official Tumblr iOS app three years ago (and you probably had no idea.)

Story time! The feature, which was shipped on the Tumblrette codebase is now two generations old, so it's probably safe to talk about. The feature was called Tumblr Play, and you could access it only if you knew the trick:

• View the in-app settings.
• Shake your iPhone. Twice. Hard.
• When prompted for a password, enter the name of a certain adorable Boston Terrier.

After that, a new, third tab would animate in. No wonder the app reviewers never found it. Here's what it looked like:

It was a fairly straight-forward implementation. I parsed and paginated the audio posts on your Dashboard and played them back sequentially and automatically. Tumblr served the audio files in an iOS-capable audio format on a private endpoint to eliminate any need to transcode (thank god.) You could swipe left or right to change tracks or use the transport controls. You could be flip over the page view and the posts were represented in a standard table (in case you wanted to see farther ahead or behind.) You could like and reblog right from the view and it ran in the background so you could use it like Pandora. All you needed was a Tumblr account. It wasn't perfect, but I loved it. Sure, you ended up with the occasional comedy skit in between an eclectic mix of pop and indie music, but that was awesome. That was Tumblr. It was a sonic representation of your Dashboard and it kind of kicked ass.

We talked about making it public, but ultimately, I think Tumblr was worried they could be sued by a music label (or three) for running a streaming platform without a license. I kept bringing it up for the next few years, but it never went anywhere. We moved ahead designing and developing a second generation of apps soon after Tumblr Play was implemented, but for a while I had an ad-hoc radio station unknowingly created by my friends and a parlor trick to show off at parties. Maybe one day they'll resurrect the idea if they feel that there's some value there (as Twitter seems to.) Until then it'll remain just another footnote in the history of Tumblr mobile. I suppose that's pretty cool, too.

• posts
• tumblr, design, ios

After using Euros all last weekend (more on that soon) which come in common sense denominations separated by color and size, this new $100 bill is a spectacularly poor showing (and ugly to boot.) Via Gawker.

• links
• money, design, ugly

Mike Montiero, via The Pastry Box Project:

Do you think picking a fight with some racist cracker on Twitter improves the silence? Do you really? Think twice about it. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. It’s your call. But I can tell you that in the last week I’ve probably deleted more tweets, after asking myself that question, than I’ve spiked in the entire preceding year.

I'd say I post 25% of what I type into Twitter. I edit, and edit and edit until I've either gotten to the core of what I want to say or figured out that it isn't worth saying. One of the more important lessons I've learned in the past few years is that reactionary communication is a dangerous, foolish habit. You don't have to publicly express your feelings about everything that happens in the world, whether it's in our shared one or your personal one. Silent contemplation can be a powerful thing.

• links
• restraint

I enjoy designing and developing my blog much more than writing for it.

— Jeff Rock (@jeffrock) April 17, 2013

I posted this on Twitter last night while I was playing around with the layout on this poor blog that rarely sees an update. It got a couple nods, but a few hours later I got a reply which suggested that the idea behind my tweet was a "blog worthy topic" itself. That got me thinking about a couple things:

1. Yes, that is definitely a blog worthy topic.
2. Why do I continually design structures that I have a hard time filling with content?

At Mobelux, I mostly design apps that get filled with other people's stuff. Apps like Elixr, which is populated with the drinks my friends are enjoying and Carousel, which houses the Instagram photos of the people that I follow. When you think about it, 'house' is a pertinent term when describing apps. It's a comfortable, versatile structure. A typical house holds furniture, keepsakes, appliances, even memories. It has rooms that serve distinct purposes. Places to plug things in and set things down. It's a place for belongings. Apps hold our belongings, too. Photos, conversations, videos. Memories. These keepsakes are just as valuable as the physical objects we carry with us from place to place.

That means that I, and many other people like me, are actually architects, engineers and carpenters. We design and build these places for people and their things. True, we use PSDs instead of blueprints, and keyboards in place of hammers, but the apps we make are homes all the same.

I spent quite a while designing and building this new place that you're currently visiting. Making sure it was responsive and retina-supported. That it was navigable and reasonable attractive. And then, as usual, I finished it and never filled it with things. I suppose it has to do with my home building disorder. But I think it's time for a change. The walls have been painted and the cover plates installed for months now.

I think it's about time I finally moved in.

• posts
• design, development

Arnold Kim on the new MacRumors Roundups feature:

Today we are introducing a new type of page here on MacRumors called "Roundups". ... While MacRumors has always been a great rumor resource, we've long felt that it's been too difficult for visitors to catch-up with the latest news on a particular product. Even amongst our daily readers, we find people often lose sight of the big picture after seeing rumor after rumor.

Very nicely done. This is a good enough rumor site feature that it could have been spun-off into its own website. Now when you're at a barbecue and your uncle's brother-in-law asks you when the new iPhone/iPad/iMac comes out you have a URL you can send him to.

• links
• prognostication

Marco Arment on the rumored iPad mini:

I bet they could sell that for $249, and that would be a steal. The iPad 2 is still great by today’s standards, and in some ways, it’s actually better than the iPad 3.

I don't doubt that they could, but I doubt that they will. Apple has never worried about figuring out how to make devices more accessible to more people. Apple does worry about healthy margins. Plus, it would be priced too closely to the iPod touch (which starts at $199 now) and would do everything it does, except better¹. If Apple ends up introducing an iPad mini at the Fall event, where they traditionally introduce iPods and other media-centric products, I think it would be positioned as the top-end media device above the iPod touch instead of being positioned as a cheap iPad. And it would probably need to start at $299 to make sense in the lineup, especially since we know that Google is selling the Nexus 7 at cost at both the $199 price point.

• links
• ipad, prognostication

Reboots can be fun. And frightening. And liberating. This website was is dire need one of one. There were technical reasons, and there were personal ones. I'll start with the technical ones.

1. It wasn't responsive. If a site can't be viewed efficiently on a mobile device or it redirects to a neutered "mobile" layout then the design is a failure. I was using a (handsome) Tumblr theme and wasn't in control of the experience.
2. It didn't support high-resolution screens. High-res screens are not a fad. We all have a responsibility to make the web look better on them. Again, I wasn't in control of the experience and so adding support would have been tough.
3. It was hosted. Hosting means you aren't the owner of your own content, point blank. There's not anything particularly wrong with that for most people, but it was time for me to make a change. Kind of. Read on.

I've been on Tumblr since early 2008. In that time I've watched Tumblr grow from a toy that my friends had never heard of into a tool used by millions. I've ridden the proverbial bell curve of the thing. I was so enthralled in 2008 that I wrote a native iPhone app so I could check my Dashboard and blog from anywhere. It was eventually acquired by Tumblr and transitioned into the official client. Years later my company made a second-generation client for Tumblr under contract. I got to know some of the most talented developers and designers that I've ever met there. My professional career is intertwined with Tumblr in a way that I've been unable to shake until recently. I haven't said much on the matter, but Mobelux ended its relationship with Tumblr some months ago. It was mutual and we all knew it was time.

This reboot serves as personal separation as well. This isn't a declaration or an abandonment; I still intend to check my Dashboard and post to my account and I'm leaving all existing content there. But it's not where I'm going to write. For me, Tumblr will return to simpler days. When I was posting photos and links for fun. My new site will be a place to post long-form about tech, life, work and whatever else hits me. That kind of post doesn't do well on Tumblr traditionally. I'm pretty enthusiastic about changing things up.

To sum up, Tumblr is where I'll post things I like. My new site is where I'll post what I'm thinking. Follow/subscribe accordingly.

• posts
• blogging, development

Randall Munroe:

The lesson: If the optimist says the glass is half full, and the pessimist says the glass is half empty, the physicist ducks.

‘What If’ is a new blog by Randall Munroe, the author of XKCD, that explores theoretical physics via simple questions like “what if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?” or “how much Force power can Yoda output?” and then plays out the scenarios in exhaustive detail (with XKCD humor injected, of course.) The result is my favorite new thing on the entire internet. Recommended.

• links

Zach Holman:

I’d read all the blog posts and heard all of the advice: slow down, speak loudly, tell a story. But goddamn, no one told me I’d have to put my laptop down on the ground twenty feet away behind a couch because that’s the only place the projector’s VGA cable would reach.

Rule #1: Always bring your own equipment, even if it’s just a backup. Assume the venue is full of black-hearted liars that want to see you look like a fool in front of hundreds of people. Everything else is follow-through.

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• speaking