Jacqui Cheng’s brief overview of the iTunes UIs from versions 1 through 10. Version 11 really is the best to date with a lot of really great UI refinements and improvements. If this is at all an indication of where OS X application design is headed, I’m glad to be on board this train.

Ben and I were joined by a very special guest today, Shaun Inman. Shaun is one of my internet heroes. On the show we talk about how Mint and Fever came to be; Shaun’s games Horror Vacui, Mimeo, and The Last Rocket; web design and development; learning new skills; video game jams; and launching a Kickstarter campaign.

Brought to you by the Neu Year Calendar: a big, awesome calendar. Enter discount code “B&B” for a 30% discount, or try to win one: just tweet about NeuYear.net and include their twitter username @NeuYear for your chance to win a free calendar.

Seth Godin:

If we define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance, we can also understand its antonym, anticipation.

Andy Ihnatko:

It’s a brain hack, I know. The joy of the whole “day to night to day again” pattern of life is that bit in the middle: the gap that occurs after whatever happened and before whatever happens next. The gap encourages you to remember that if you fell short of your goals on a Monday, well, there’s nothing stopping you from achieving everything hoped and then some on Tuesday.

I like this “brain hack”. Not to mention who doesn’t like a clean laptop? Something I often do when feeling unfocused and unmotivated but still have a full to-do list, is to take a short break and then come back and do one very short, simple task.

This is a great and interesting article by David Browne at Rolling Stone talking about the change in the music industry where bands and artists are turning to independent means (such as their own pockets or Kickstarter) for producing their music and then selling directly to their fan base.

I found it especially interesting that the very thing which is empowering artists to sell directly to their fans, is also the very distraction which is making it harder for them to focus on their music:

The rise of Twitter and Facebook has helped bands connect with their followers like never before, but it also means another distraction from the creative process. “Fans expect things to come directly from the artist,” says Tennis manager Rob Stevenson. “You have to get yourself to the next gig and do a good gig and do your social media stuff. And there are still only 24 hours in a day.”

Via Elliot Jay Stocks, who is planning to release an album next year and will be experimenting with a business model in which fans of his music can subscribe and get digital songs released several times during a 12-month timeframe and which will culminate in a finished vinyl album.

Also, I love that Elliot connected the dots between the shift in the music industry and the shift in the publishing industry related to some of the concepts laid out in Craig Mod’s most excellent article, Subcompact Publishing.

Patrick Rhone reviews his “aging” first-gen iPad.

A very welcome update, though the iPad design looks a lot like just a bigger version of the iPhone’s.

Update: Federico Viticci has a great review of Rdio 2.0 and all its new features. As I’ve been using the iPad and iPhone apps this afternoon and evening, I agree even more with his sentiment regarding the design of the iPad version:

Second, I’d like the iPad version of the app to always show the sidebar. Right now, several areas of the iPad client look like a blown-up iPhone app, whereas others show that the Rdio team took advantage of the larger screen with grid views and modal windows. However, in albums or playlists the interface is made by a vertical list that looks awfully similar to the Android tablet apps Tim Cook made fun of. There’s too much wasted space that could otherwise be used for the sidebar or, perhaps even better, the social ticker that is still exclusive to the Mac app and web player.

Another fantastic interview:

… let me say that I’ve built my entire career on pushing myself to do things that I didn’t believe I could do.

Matt Alexander posted an excellent interview with Brent Simmons. In it they talk about “tools for the modern writer, pursuing passions, the value of the written word, and the state of the publishing industry.”

Words and stories are my passion, and I’m lucky to live in this era when words and stories are ridiculously abundant and where worldwide distribution is nearly free. People who love to read and write have never had it this good.

As usual, Brent has some very intelligent and insightful things to share. If you enjoyed Craig Mod’s article from yesterday, this interview with Brent complements it nicely.

Colugo is the easiest way to share photos privately with your friends and family.

Colugo is a simple solution to a simple organization and communication problem. Colugo doesn’t use gimmicks like other apps do. No “magic” albums or location based sharing or other features that may sound cool in theory, but when you actually use them you find they are not very useful (at best), and a privacy nightmare (at worst). Colugo is private photo sharing done right.

Want to share some of your photos publicly and others privately — in a single app?

With Colugo you can! Make one album for the world to see, and “publish” it. Keep your other albums private, viewable by only those you invite.

Tired of returning from a party and having to contact all your friends for pics?

With Colugo you won’t have to. Partygoers can take pictures directly into a party album you create and you all share.

Colugo. Simple.

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My thanks to Colugo for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Craig Mod reviews The Magazine — and, briefly, the digital publishing industry at large — as only he can:

Newsstand is perhaps the most underutilized, under-imagined distribution tool in the short history of tablet publishing. If you squint your eyes and tilt your head at just the right angle, you’ll notice something magical about Newsstand: given the proper container, it’s a background downloading, offline-friendly, cached RSS machine people can subscribe to. For money.

When you look at it this way, it becomes clear just how important iCloud is to the Apple ecosystem. It’s slow and subtle integration with iOS and OS X has become paramount. The cohesiveness of iOS and OS X is achieved though iCloud by syncing documents, media, settings, etc. Take that away and a lot of the “magic” of iOS and OS X would turn into pain points.

Twenty-six of the finest gift suggestions around from Kindles and gadgets to books and movies to coffee and more.

Rodney Mullen — “the godfather of street skating” — gave a brilliant and fun TEDx talk about what skateboarding and innovation have in common. If I had to sum it up, I’d say his talk is more about how a new context can lead to a new spin on content.

(Via Michael Mulvey.)