”Skeumorphic UIs resemble physical objects, but they cannot hope to emulate the myriad ways we have to emulate physical objects — so they are always doomed to disappoint on some level if we let ourselves be fooled.”

The latest hoopla regarding Apple’s iPhone 4S Siri feature and its lack of information on abortion clinics has tied into another hot topic in the design world: Skeuomorphism. Simply put, I think it’s amazing that consumer technology is getting to the point where things like UI and UX seriously matter to ordinary, non techie, people.

A few days ago Spotify made its USA debut and wow wee wow what a service. If you know me even a tiny little bit you’ll know that I am really hard to impress when it comes to apps and/or web services and Spotify knocks this one out of the park.

The music industry has been hurting for a LONG time thanks to Napster, P2p, and Mp3s and while iTunes put a bandaid on the music labels, the artists themselves (at least indie ones) have still been hurting. While I can’t say I’ve always acquired all of my music via iTunes or some other legitimate online music store, the process of purchasing, downloading, dealing with DRM issues, backing up and syncing music has been broken for a long time- making it easier to pirate music than to actually pay for it.

Last night after two glasses of Gosling’s I signed up for a Spotify premium account. Holy. Shit. All I can say is Spotify will trick you into paying for music again and you’ll feel good about it.

Spotify Key Observations

• SUPER FAST – searching seems almost too fast. WAY faster than the itunes store hands down.
• OTA Syncing – syncing is so seamless  you won’t have to think about it
•  An interface that makes sense both on the desktop version and the mobile version
• Sharing with other Spotify friends is really easy. You can drop a song in someone’s inbox and they have it!
• Spotify seems to have a good majority of the music I like (even the obscure stuff).
• Since everything streams (although you can make things available offline) you save A TON of disk space

How does Spotify stack up against iTunes
I believe Spotify just took a shot across the iTunes store bow. With the feature set iTunes Match introduces it might be too little too late. Although iTunes Match is $25/yr vs Spotify’s $120/year for a premium account, the functionality you get with Spotify is well worth it. From my understanding, iTunes Match will find music you’ve previously downloaded (from anywhere) and will match that song to one in the iTunes Library if it exists. In the other corner Spotify removes the need to even think about illegally downloading a song or album. It’s all right there in Spotify’s library and ready to sync. So from a user experience perspective, Spotify crushes the iTunes and the iPod ecosystem. All I can do is hope Apple is paying close attention to what Spotify is up to and continues to innovate the iTunes Match and iCloud system. People like things that are ‘easy’ to do (like illegally downloading music), so if ease of use is backed up by a large music library, an awesome feature set, and is also significantly easier to use that iTunes … that sounds like a recipe for [something].

It’ll take sometime before Spotify is a household name but mark my words in this permanent blog post that will live on the internet for eternity: Spotify will become a household name.

UPDATE:
After a week of using Spotify I have noticed that the one important feature it is missing is the ability to browse for music.  You can check out “What’s New” but there is no way to browse music by genre. Essentially Spotify needs a solid music discovery layer. Only a matter of time but this is an area where services like Pandora and Last.fm shine a bit more than Spotify.

It’s been said that the iPad could be the savior of the magazine publishing industry but truthfully I have yet to see a really amazing implementation of a digital magazine that makes me actually want to buy content and interact with the product on a regular basis. A few apps, including Flipboard and Pulse, have made me feel giddy about “consuming” content but after a few days I’ve found myself not opening these apps at all. Not to mention, these apps are not even selling any content whatsoever. I still regularly find myself opening my relatively *ugly* RSS reader and reading content there. It’s just easier on the eyes, for me anyways, to see content laid out in that fashion.

Needless to say, big magazines publishers are currently scrambling to get their content on the iPad. Many have resorted to charging ridiculous prices for “digital editions” of their magazine publications which has turned off many potential customers- myself included. I’m assuming the high cost per issue is really in place to cover the steep cost of production. They gotta pay off them developers some how!

Unfortunately, however, major magazine publishers have very few options at this point.

Hire an entire staff of iPad developers and content creators
The first option magazine publishers have is to hire iPad developers and additional resources to support a new wing of the business. This may require cutting some of your existing staff in order to allocate a budget for your new staff or shifting around some existing roles within the organization. I should also note that this kind of talent search also requires allocating additional resources in the staffing/recruiting department. Great iPad developers are hard to find and even harder to hire full-time so this will definitely be a challenge for magazine publishers.

Wait it out
Soon big magazine companies will either have to create new technology in-house to publish their digital content or wait until this technology has been made available to them. Creating new technology in-house may allow publishers to be first to market however this is a very expensive solution. Developers with the technical know-how to make this happen are very few and very expensive. Publishers who opt to build their own technology for publishing to the iPad or any other digital outlet, will not only need to build the new technology but also have a fully trained team on staff that understands their proprietary software and process.The alternative of course is waiting for the technology to arrive which will making publishing to the iPad easier and faster without having to completely rehaul your company. One of the drawbacks however in waiting for this tech is that it may make a publisher seem late to the game. In the end this is a less expensive option with a potentially higher or equal return on investment.

Dive in NOW!
Like many of the top publishers, getting their content on the iPad as quickly as possible was the solution. Regardless of quality in the end product, the content HAD to be available on the new platform. This is understandable and I think it’s very brave (and risky!) for a lot of this publishers to take the leap first. I also believe we will continue to see publishers take even bigger risks once iPad use becomes more ubiquitous.

—

It’ll be really interesting to see how the future of publishing is shaped before our eyes. In a way, publishers are making a huge bet that Apple’s iPad is indeed the best format and device for consuming their content and that’s probably good news to Apple. I have lots more to write about on the subject but I figured this would be a nice introduction to this topic and my thoughts on it.

What do you think about magazines on the iPad?

The focus on Apple’s faulty iPhone 4 antenna seems to have robbed the spotlight from the iPhone 4 release and knowing Apple quite well, this is killing them.

With the latest blow being Consumer Report’s announcement that they can not recommend the iPhone 4 , Apple will really need to step up to the plate and show their customers some respect. The countless youtube videos reproducing the issues are not the kind of word of mouth Apple wants to spread.

Hoping to possibly avoid an iPhone 4 recall, Apple has decided to mask and cover-up the story with a simple software fix.While reprogramming the algorithm that is used to display bars on the iPhone 4 status bar will definitely fix the cosmetic issue , that’s like buying a ferrari and realizing it only goes 40 mph and then having a Ferrari mechanic tell you they’ll recalibrate the speedometer so it automatically adds 100mph to your speed. Bogus!

Apple can totally delete complaints from their forums all they want, but people will continue to voice their opinions. Sticks and stones rarely have an impact on Apple, but apparently these customer words do.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone 4 is an amazing device. It’s fast, it’s sleek, and the screen is gorgeous. Apps that have been update to take advantage of the Retinal Display look super crisp. Unfortunately, all of these technical achievements will remain in the shadows if Apple doesn’t fix the issue quickly and appropriately.

More to come …

What indie iPhone Developers need to learn now:
As soon as I began looking at the iPad SDK, I realized … I’m gonna need a UI/UX Designer now.With the introduction of the iPad, existing indie iPhone developers will be forced to either:

A) learn photoshop and illustrator
B) join forces with a good graphic designer.

Creating a compelling and engaging user experience on the iPad is significantly more difficult than on the iPhone. The iPad screen real estate is greater and you (the developer) need to fill that space up with visually striking goodness.

iPad Launch Day
Today the iPad launched and many developers will head to Apple Stores (or hopefully receive their shipments on time) and instantly load up their iPad app they’ve been previously working on using the simulator. The screen real estate is larger which makes for your potentially mediocre app to look even more medicore. Especially next to some of the apps that have already been showcased. Not to mention a few of the ridiclously awesome apps include: Netflix and Marvel.

What about you Jeff ?
At first sight, I could not place the iPad in my day to day. I already have a kindle and really enjoy reading books on it because of the e-ink. However, Indian Code clients have already gained interest and will undoubtedly be requesting services for this platform. So I will eventually need to own one pretty soon and will need to work closely with graphic designers to produce awesome releases. You can get away with using lots of the built in visual elements, but at some point , if you’ll really want to push the envelope and you’re gonna have to use visual elements outside of the SDK.

All in all, it is a great time to be an iPhone, iPad , and Mac developer. There is a lot of work out there if you seek it. Find yourself a good graphic designer who can be your partner and focus on making beautiful things! So go now and get started!

You can say I’m late to the game but for my recent consulting gig I’ve had to use Skype quite a bit.  I’ve had an account for several years now but I can’t say I’ve ever had an actual audio conference till recently. Instead of using my precious AT&T minutes to call into 2 hour conferences (ick!), I dial in using Skype- which is free! Actually, only calls to toll free numbers can be made using skype so as long as your virtual conference number is toll-free, you’re golden. Calls to land lines and cell phones can be made but you have to buy calling credits first.

Skype totally owns iChat when it comes to AV sessions. The whole experience is very smooth and not to mention, the quality is excellent. If you have a Skype to Skype chat using a Mac’s internal microphone your mind will be blown- I guarantee it. If you’ve ever done an iChat AV session you will notice how much better Skype is. I’m referring to both audio AND video. Also, connection problems hardly seem to happen with Skype. Initiating audio-only and video conference sessions is super smooth and jumping in and out of sessions is very responsive.

Anyways, you should check out Skype now.

The time has come to bid Apple farewell. It has been an amazing 4 years and so many things have happened while working at Apple. I met my future wife while working at Apple. I got the opportunity to work on the Mothership and live in California for two years. I was able to work alongside some of the greatest engineers, developers, and testers in the world. I worked on some super top secret high profile Apple products! Most importantly, however, I met some really great friends.

Apple will always have a special place in my heart.