lundi 30 décembre 2013

Knight Lab Timeline JS test

click here for Apple timeline

A little test of Timeline JS from Knight Lab on some Apple products.

Simple to use and quite good result.

Texts are from Wikipedia and photos from Flickr (see captions for credits)

mardi 24 décembre 2013

"Big plans" for Apple in 2014

Tim Cook, Apple COO, in january 2009, after Ma... Tim Cook, Apple COO, in january 2009, after Macworld Expo keynote. Picture by Valery Marchive (LeMagIT) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Big plans" for Apple in 2014

Paroles, paroles, paroles... So far, Tim Cook has been very generous in announcements, but far less in concrete innovations.

This may be a crucial year for the post-Jobs era for Apple.

dimanche 22 décembre 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Wishing You Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Not available for this christmas, but appealing anyway

Revolution in Photography

Panono : Not available for this christmas, but appealing anyway

Some 30 years ago...

I remember my family looking up at a projection screen a whole bunch of flat slides in the dark. It was a bit long sometimes, but always a great moment shared together.

We all were discussing about travels, family celebrations and so on and our own memories were feeding this shared moment.

..then came the digital era

The projection screen was then replaced by a little computer screen, on which we looked down. We then had the same discussions, same memories and same shared moments.

The computer screen finally has been replaced by TV screen on which we look forward.

And what about tomorrow?

I imagine my family gathered in the same room, all wearing some Google glasses and having the same 360 degrees picture projected in it. We all move and share this moment physically, looking up, forward and down, pointing some particular details.

Will it be better? Who knows. But it seems that technology is not very far from this.

Un procureur demande à Apple d'activer son Activation Lock par défaut

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240"]lock lock (Photo credit: Digiart2001 | jason.kuffer)[/caption]

http://www.igen.fr/iphone/un-procureur-demande-apple-d-activer-son-activation-lock-par-defaut-109388

dimanche 15 décembre 2013

Do I like Apple products? Yes I do. Do I like Apple? I don't give a damn

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase
I have got an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod touch, and two MacBook. Am I an Apple addict? I do not think so. I just observe that I prefer the MacBook I write this blog on than the DELL PC I work on. On the same way, I just used a Galaxy Tab II to test some mobile application in my job. Sorry, but here again, I prefer my old 1st gen iPad.

So, what is so appealing for me in Apple products? I had a recent visit in MoMA some days ago and what is clear is that these products are very close to pop art. By essence, they have something to do with design in its primary essence and I like it. This is not something rational, as art is not. This may be expensive, as art may be. But this something I feel beautiful as some art forms do.

On the other side, the DELL PC I use at work is so black, so sad, so close to any other computer and so far from beauty... The Samsung tablet I use is so complicated, so an engineer product with so much settings and at the end, just another tablet...

Let's admit it, innovation is not on Apple side (at least for a while I foresee). But they anyway still have design with them. And I like design. This is not rational. This is just a matter of nature.

Related articles


samedi 14 décembre 2013

Some thoughts about innovation...

Discover


First things first: having new ideas. This does mean to have a look on what does exist, what would be interesting to add, to combine and to modify. New ideas rarely come from nowhere. You need a great mix of experience, knowledge and of course, vision.

Remember the presentation of the iPhone by Steve Jobs in 2007 at Macworld 2007 (extract). It really illustrates what I mean above. Taking old ideas, improving them, mixing them and obtain new ones.

The discovery of new ideas is a process that mainly sources itself into old ones.

Select


The second step is probably one of the most difficult. You have found a bunch of great new ideas. You believe in them. They will change the way people work, collaborate, live, or whatever. And you have to select few of them (let’s say three) on which to focus your effort.

This process is a heart-breaking one as it means that you will leave apart many great ideas you had and potentially THE ONE. So you have to be very clever here and as objective as possible.

For my part, I use as a basic tool a two columns table on which each idea is evaluated for its usage added-value (does it brings something valuable for the end-user?) and its innovative value (is it something new, that nobody has built before?). In order to introduce some objectiveness in the process, I ask some trusted friends to provide me their own evaluations, and I take the average of all. Once this done, I put all these annotation in a graphic on which axes are “usage added-value” and “innovative value” and in which each idea is represented by a point. I can then select the three points which are the farthest from the centre.

I am then ready for the second step.

Select again


Three ideas to work on is a very high challenge. So the next step is to choose the very first one you will build.

If the different ideas you selected on the previous step are quite complementary, then bingo! You just have to work on your product roadmap to aggregate these ideas one after the other. If not, then chose one and only one.

I do not know any method at this step (If I had, I would be richer… But I am interested by your suggestions). The ultimate selection may be rationalized, or not. I believe that feelings are highly important at this stage in order to be in line with market expectation. Any input may help at this stage I believe: artistic, cultural, industrial or whatever. The main word here should be: “be inspired”.

Then do it…


You have your idea: the great one. It is now time to convert it in a reality. This has to become your obsession. Put all your strengths on it. The rest is a matter of flair and at the end… of luck.