Sponsor: What Designers Say About Life at Booking.com  →

Forgive the cliche, but coming to work for Booking.com has been one of the best decisions. Within a week of arriving to the Netherlands, I had already created two UI experiments and pushed code to the live site. It was intimidating and thrilling at the same time. Those feelings haven’t left. I’m constantly humbled by the more than 300 super intelligent colleagues of 51+ nationalities! I learn every day. If there’s a day I don’t? It means I wasn’t in the office.

The warmth and acceptance of new hires is brilliant. I was invited for chess, football, drinks, and even knitting, within a fortnight. Friday after work drinks can easily evolve into an adventure anytime. There’s always something to do in this city. And at Booking.com, there’s always someone who’s willing to join in. The many parties are just something that has to be experienced. Come join and I’ll show you around!

* * *

My thanks to Booking.com for again sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Sponsor: What Designers Say About Life at Booking.com

Worth a Thousand Words  →

Patrick Rhone on just how awesome the software and hardware is for the camera in the iPhone 5s:

The camera in the iPhone 5S basically moved the needle two years ahead of the entire camera industry. Not just smart phone cameras — all cameras.

Hands down, the number-one feature I’m most excited about in the 5s is the new camera tech.

Worth a Thousand Words

S is for Special  →

Craig Hockenberry on the Mercedes S-Class and the iPhone 5s:

If you’re driving a car manufactured in the past five years, it’s likely it has anti-lock brakes. A standard feature at this point in time, but who came up with it first?

Mercedes-Benz first introduced it on the S-Class line back in 1978. It was a revolutionary technology and the first hint of how digital electronics would change the course of the automotive industry.

S is for Special

M is for Mystery  →

Horace Dediu on the M7 coprocessor in the iPhone 5s:

When the A series chips were created Apple leveraged the in-house design and cost reduction to make a wide range of products with more than 700 million examples built. Designing a chip needs a broad application domain.

Perhaps this is why Apple chose to describe the iPhone 5s as “forward-thinking”. The M7 and the Touch ID are like research projects whose actual value will be realized at some future time, in probably different contexts.

M is for Mystery

The New Reeder for iOS

Reeder 2. It’s here, it’s a universal app, it costs $5, and it’s darn awesome.

Like many of you, I’ve been using Reeder for quite a while. It was over 3 years ago that I quibbled about the iPhone’s lack of a world class feed reader:

Tweetie and Instapaper are two classy apps. They are easy to read from, easy to get around in, and a ton of fun. But tweeting and reading things later should not be the only place where all the action is. I would love to see a top-notch, Tweetie-level, RSS reader for the iPhone. […]

There are tons of nerds who were using Twitter way before Ashton was and who have been riding the RSS train for years and years. And since nerds are the pickiest of all when it comes to usability and interface design, they are the ones most in need of a great feed reader app for their iPhone.

I wrote the above back when the 3GS was the latest iPhone and the iPad was brand new. Of the RSS apps available at that time my favorite was Reeder. Soon after I wrote that article, a significant update to Reeder shipped which improved upon nearly every little thing in the app. Then, Reeder for iPhone got another significant update a year and a half ago during WWDC 2012.

Today’s new version of Reeder continues its journey of getting better and more refined while staying clever and familiar. Moreover, today brings a huge update to Reeder for iPad — an update we’ve been holding our breath for ever since the iPhone app’s 2012 update.

For the past several weeks I’ve been using the new versions of Reeder on my iPhone and iPad and I’ve found them to be wonderful.

There are many parallels when you consider the journeys of visual design between Reeder and OS X. The very first version of Reeder featured a bit more visual fluttery stuff than necessary. But each subsequent version has seen a bit of refinement until now we have a very clean design. And, like OS X, one thing Reeder has not traded in is its personality and whimsy.

No other feed reading app on my iPhone or iPad has the level of speed, polish, and visual delight that Reeder does.

Reeder continues to works with many of the numerous RSS syncing services, including my personal favorite, Feed Wrangler. And what’s great is that this new version of Reeder has added support for Feed Wrangler’s Smart Streams. Yay! (Though I do wish Reeder would list Smart Streams at the top of my feed list instead of the bottom.)

The new Reeder is a premier example of an app that adapts to the iOS 7-style look and feel of less gradients and more gestures yet without giving up on personality and whimsy.

You can download the universal app now for just 5 bucks on the App Store.

The New Reeder for iOS

Regarding the Just-Announced New iPhones

My just-born son must be an Apple fan.

Giovanni’s due date was August 31. We thought surely he would be born before the Bronco’s played in the NFL season kickoff game last Thursday, but nope. Instead of sports, he chose to show up this past Monday, the day before Apple’s special event.

Yesterday, a few hours before we came home, I was sitting on the uncomfortable green couch in the corner of our hospital room. Giovanni laid swaddled and asleep next to me. My wife was ordering our lunch from the hospital cafeteria. And with my iPad propped up on the arm of the couch, I was following along with the news from Cupertino.

As someone who’s kept his iPhone within arm’s reach ever since 2007, and who uses this device about 2 times less than the legal daily limit, the iPhone event is one I look forward to with much anticipation.

One glance at my current iPhone Home screen and you can see how much I use my iPhone for both work and play. Updates to the iPhone and iOS are more than just cool and fun (though they are that). They’re updates to a device I use all the time for all manners of tasks. In a way, the better the iPhone gets, the better my own day-to-day life gets.

Below are a few of my thoughts about the two new iPhones Apple introduced yesterday.

The iPhone 5c

With the 5c Apple has replied to the advice of those who say they needed a cheap phone in order to compete at the bottom of the market. And Apple’s answer is, No thanks.

As pretty much everyone is pointing out, the 5c is more or less the iPhone 5 but in a new and different shell.

Yet the 5c is a significant departure from the standard lineup of iPhones we’ve seen for years. It’s the first new iPhone (other than the 3G) that’s not more expensive looking than its predecessor.

Color options in the iPhone are not a new thing. For years you’ve been able to chose any color iPhone you wanted so long as it was black or white. Well, now you can get it in white, blue, pink, green, or yellow. And for $100 more black, white, or gold aluminum.

The 5c is also a brilliant and clever way of making last year’s model new again.

People who want to spend $99 on a new iPhone don’t have to “settle” with the left overs — they can get the “new” iPhone 5c. And that’s the whole point. Go to apple.com right now and what’s the first iPhone you see? The 5c. Apple is going to sell a lot of these.

Though I won’t be getting the 5c, I love that Apple has made it.

The new colorful lineup speaks of one of the things I most love about Apple products: whimsy.

Especially as it relates to software, Apple’s products are extremely high quality, contain delightful design details, and all wrapped in whimsy. The iPhone 5c is the most whimsical iPhone yet, and without sacrificing quality or detail.

Whimsy is important because when something is fun, it’s more approachable. For those who’ve felt the iPhone was previously too fancy or too fragile for them, this less expensive, colorful plastic version may be just the ticket.

The iPhone 5s

As for the 5s, three of the new features I am genuinely excited about are Touch ID, the improved camera, and the M7 coprocessor. These aren’t just cool new gadgets on a feature checklist, they’re actual enhancements to the iPhone that I suspect will greatly improve the way I use it every single day.

Camera

Look no further than your iPhone’s lock screen to see just how seriously Apple takes the iPhone’s camera. It’s the only icon on there and the only app with a one-gesture shortcut.

In my time using iOS 7 over the past few months, one of my favorites of the new stock apps has become the Camera app (more on that next week). I now mostly take shots in the default Camera app first, and then open those shots in Instagram or VSCO Cam to edit and share them.

As someone who is getting more in more into photography (and as someone with two kids), I love that Apple is so aggressive in advancing the iPhone’s camera and corresponding software. I use the crap out of my iPhone’s camera; as an amateur photography enthusiast, the significant updates to the photographic hardware in the new iPhone is great news.

Alas, Apple still has issues with off-device photo storage, syncing, etc. It’d be great if Apple took that same energy for innovation they are putting on the iPhone’s camera (hardware and software side) and devote it to vastly improving photo storage and organization with iCloud and multiple devices.

Touch ID

Being able to unlock our iPhones, purchase apps and music, and more with just a quick scan of our thumbprint is going to alleviate a huge friction point.

Touch ID strikes me as being of the same class of upgrade as the Retina display. It’s a hardware advancement that vastly improves the experience we have with our iPhones every single time we use them. And while it’s something we could do without, once having experienced it for a day or two, we’ll never want to go back.

M7 Coprocessor

I am quite excited about the new M7 Coprocessor and what it enables because: (a) I had an UP, but it didn’t work out too well for me in the long run; and (b) I used the app, Moves, for a while but it destroyed my battery life.

I loved the personal data and tracking that the UP and Moves enabled, but one ended up being too full of friction, while the other practically required my iPhone to be plugged in as often as possible.

The M7 coprocessor in the new iPhone 5s is a sidekick (as Apple describes it) to the A7 chip. Basically, the M7 is dedicated to tracking motion data and then reporting that data to any apps that want it. And by doing this, one big advantage is that your iPhone’s battery is spared.

In essence, the M7 would let me use Moves again. And hopefully it will spur on the development of even more awesome personal-data-tracking type apps.

Next Year’s iPhones?

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of things, but there are two questions I have about next year:

  1. What will the new lineup be called? The iPhone 6c and 6s? Or just the iPhone and the iPhone c?

  2. How many of the iPhone 5s’s (ugh) new features will trickle down to next year’s “c” model? All of them? Some of them? Should people who bought an iPhone last year and who are waiting to upgrade until next year expect a 5s-sibling version of the “6c”?

Regarding the Just-Announced New iPhones

Jim Dalrymple’s Hands on with the 5s  →

Jim Dalrymple, regarding Touch ID:

Unlocking the iPhone 5S was very slick—just rest your finger on the Home button and the phone unlocks immediately. You don’t have to press or move your finger around waiting for it to be recognized—it just worked.

Also, John Gruber:

Touch ID is very slick, very fast. Almost instaneous.

That’s great to hear. But, that’s the way it’s got to be. Considering how many dozens (if not hundreds) of times a day we’re unlocking our iPhone, imagine how frustrating it would become if Touch ID added an extra few seconds to that process.

Jim Dalrymple’s Hands on with the 5s

Apple’s Video of Today’s iPhone Event  →

I was sad they didn’t live stream today’s event. But, since we know there will be at least one more Apple Special Event this year, perhaps the biggest whizz bang new product(s) is/are still in store, and Apple wants to save their live stream card for that event.

Though I still don’t get why Apple doesn’t just live stream every press event. Maybe they know they get equal attention regardless, and so they don’t consider it worth the work to do a live stream unless it’s for an event where the execs want to do more than announce a new product to the world, they want to show it off.

But then again, they’re already video recording it, so why not flip the live-stream switch?

Apple’s Video of Today’s iPhone Event

Sponsor: Careers at Booking.com  →

The front-end team at Booking.com continues to grow and we are looking for talented UX Designers, Web Designers, Product Owners, and Front End Developers to come help us create the world’s best accommodation platform.

You’ll work at our head office in central Amsterdam which is sandwiched in-between canals, museums and the occasional statue of an old Dutch master (good evening, Mr. Rembrandt). We’ll pay to move you and your family from anywhere in the world; USA, Portugal, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, just to name a few! We’ll provide short-term accommodation and help you adjust to your new home in Amsterdam. You’ll be given the freedom to make impactful improvements to a website and collection of apps used by millions of people. We also have unique company perks like bicycle reimbursement, on site lunch, monthly parties, and our world class year end party complete with live performances!

Apply today.

My thanks to Booking.com for sponsoring the site this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Sponsor: Careers at Booking.com