A few months ago when the iPad was announced my initial thoughts were that it would be a great device for the majority of people who didn’t need a powerful computer to simply consume and share media. As well, I thought that if you had a notebook and an iPhone that you probably didn’t need an iPad.

However, after having used Uproot’s new iPad and checking out some of the great apps built for the device I’m starting to think that in fact it’s my MacBook that will be the device I won’t need very soon.

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I’m usually the last to say this about anything Microsoft but, from an information architecture perspective, it isn’t quite bad at all. It’s easy to visually parse and it strips our a lot of information bloat without sacrificing key content.

I do wonder what MSN’s very mainstream audience will think about the very stark and minimal aesthetic though.

Now

Soon

For the upcoming Wired issue, Khoi Vinh and a couple of his crew from NYTimes.com put their spin on Craigslist. Just don’t call it a redesign:

Any truly serious redesign of Craigslist would inherently look very different from what we produced, and we kept that in mind from the very beginning. And, yes we took some artistic license, too, which is why it’s probably more accurate to call this a re-imagining than a redesign.

Craigslist has been awesome for me over the years – I’ve used it to sell my car, look for a job, buy vintage furniture and everything in between (except the adult listings). It’s clear that the new design takes into account how to make user flows like that even easier.

Hopefully, Khoi’s ideas can seed a refresh of this great tool.

Kieth Lang at UI & Us tells a story of how rounded rectangles, a shape very common in Apple’s software and hardware design, took off. The primary players in this story are graphics developer Bill Atkinson, a parking sign and Steve Jobs.

Steve took Bill on a walk, pointing out the ubiquity of rounded rectangles in the world around them. Eventually a rounded rectangular No Parking sign convinced Bill.

The very next day, Bill proudly returned triumphant. Overnight he’d written code to draw rounded rectangles at turbo speeds. And once rounded rectangles were as computationally cheap to draw as square-edges rectangles, they became ubiquitous on the Mac.

Kieth does his own digging and comes up with more fascinating information about how the mind actually requires less cognitive effort to process rounded vs sharp-edged shapes.

Read the entire article at UI & Us

This year’s 16 finalists for the Innovations in American Government Awards, given each year since 1986 by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance & Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, illustrate ways that cities, counties, states, and even federal agencies are reinventing services.

My opinion of governments role in service innovation is that of Fred Wilson’s, government needs to be a catalyst in structuring the problem clearly and then letting the market tackle the solutions.There are tonnes of creative technologists (*cough*, *cough*) waiting to feast on well-structured problems to things like Health Care, Finance and Education.

In this economic climate, you’re probably not thinking about airports. However, when traveling it’s the one thing you’ll always have a comment about – and it’s probably not a nice comment. On the flip side, there are some great airports out there. If you’re traveling soon, maybe you’ll pass through one of these.

Apple will be hosting an event today at 1pm PT where they will announce the features of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software. (You can follow a live blog of the event on Macworld.)

For those not a member of Apple fandom (or a shareholder), here’s what this means:

For the business, the event is aimed at keeping the luster on a product that has become the benchmark of the mobile phone industry but is at risk of losing traction as competitors come around to duplicating what made it a success. (Read: The Palm Pre)

For developers, many of whom have made careers out of developing applications for the iPhone, this will hopefully mean a few new tools they can play with to bring an even better experience to the phone. I’ve downloaded several great apps since I got my iPhone and whether I use them to tune my guitar, chat with friends, play a game, check movie listings or find a restaurant, they’ve all been worth it.

That brings us to the consumer. End users will benefit from today’s announcement in a mostly indirect way. I suspect a lot of features announced won’t be cosmetic but rather aimed at expanding the development feature set. Other than Kevin Rose’s (probably correct) prediction that copy-and-paste functionality will be included in today’s announcements, I can’t imagine there will be more tangible updates for the user to look forward to in the iPhone interface.

But of course, no one ever really knows until it happens. Especially when it comes to Apple.

Update: Macworld is reporting that Apple has over 100 features for end user including, as reported, cut, copy & paste and shake to undo. (Developers have over 1000 new features to play with including a notification system and peer-to-peer connections via WiFi or Bluetooth.)

Update 2: In the end it looks like there are a lot of great new features that users will immediately benefit from and a whole lot more that developers can sink their teeth into. Rather than summarizing all the new features here I’ll point you to the Apple site, now updated with all the features in the coming software update.

I attended the Canadian Autoshow today for the first time since I was in highschool. Just like old times, my Dad was there as we walked through the maze of cars, trucks and alternative vehicles spread out for kids and potential customers/fans to view.

This year’s show was definitely overshadowed by the economic changes affecting auto manufacturers. In the midst of re-structuring and declining sales, I was interested to see how automakers would woo buyers feeling the pinch from the economic downturn themselves. Would they provide useless incentives, empty “green” marketing and frivolous features? Or would they provide value through good design, truly efficient energy consumption and modest pricing.

On the flip side, I was also interested in how people at the show would react to the products on the floor. I was pleased to see the huddles around Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades virtually non-existent. But I also saw absolutely no one near the Ford Escape Hybrid, a very fuel efficient and well designed utility vehicle for it’s price, even in comparison to some subcompact cars. It seems at the end of the day, it’s easy to blame manufacturers, but it’s us who have the final vote on what sinks or swims when it comes to cars.

I’ve posted highlights on my Flickr, complete with my observations. Enjoy!