COLUMN 16/01/2013 David Hepworth's regular column, in the January / February 2013 issue of InPublishing magazine. Should magazines have a bit more steak and a bit less sizzle? In November last year, J

Like any craftsman, I care deeply about my tools, because without them, I can’t do my job. But unlike a carpenter or plumber, my tools change constantly, putting me in the unenviable position of havin

Earlier in “Is Siri really Apple’s future?” I outlined Siri’s strategic promise as a transition from procedural search to task completion and transactions. This time, I’ll explore that future in the context of two emerging trends: Internet of Things is about objects as simple as RFID chips slapped…

The world got its first inkling of the quick wit that would make Apple’s Siri an icon during a packed press conference held before an auditorium of tech elite. "Who are you?" an Apple executive asked

Four years ago I got my iPhone 3G. To this day it’s my daily driver smartphone and constant digital companion when I’m out and about. The world has since long moved on to newer devices with far more c

Steven Heller Dashboard Type What Type of Driver Are You? Rick Poynor Exposure: Clive Owen in character by Dan Winters Anatomy of a publicity picture Debbie Millman Todd Waterbury Debbie Millman talks to Target’s Chief Creative Officer Todd Waterbury about how technology is changing consumption and…

It’s the funny season in technology land. The holidays are over, the major technology trade shows are soon to pass, and thousands of tech writers have nothing to report. So we get stories like the Wal

I blame the floppy disk. For years, it served as the icon for “save,” clearly illustrating to the user that your data would be written to that flat square thing with the hole in it—a digital represent

Quijada’s invented language has two seemingly incompatible ambitions: to be maximally precise but also maximally concise. Photograph by Dan Winters / Typography By AJ Frackattack There are so many way

As far back as I can remember , I was told I would grow up to be an artist. By age six, my obsessively detailed renderings of Mechagodzilla , et al. were already drawing attention from adults. By the

David James, SMPSP / Everett When the House of Representatives finally, dramatically votes to approve the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery, Washington erupts in celebration. Membe

The Autism Advantage Thorkil Sonne and his son Lars, who has autism, at home in Ringsted, Denmark. Credit... Joachim Ladefoged/VII, for The New York Times When Thorkil Sonne and his wife, Annette, lea

I used to work for a very large survey company. They conduct phone surveys, mail surveys, in-person surveys, and they gather data automatically using various gadgets, apps, and plug-ins. They gather a

Brent Caswell wrote a post called " Rethinking the Lockscreen ". Unfortunately he opened his post by heartily bashing iOS. This caused the comments to degrade into a flame war that buried any constructive discussion of the ideas Brent presented. This article is my critique of his ideas. The lock…

No, no, grapefruit is actually NOT a great gift idea for loved ones. Photograph by Thinkstock. Happy holidays, and brace yourself for the season’s worst tradition! I speak not of the crass commerciali

(This essay was a finalist for a 2013 National Magazine Award in the Essay category.) THE PROBLEM WITH environmentalists, Lynn Margulis used to say, is that they think conservation has something to do with biological reality. A researcher who specialized in cells and microorganisms, Margulis was one…

John Sculley: “I think they’re going through a very significant change now in terms of product cycles,” Sculley explains. “Traditionally Apple introduces products once a year; now it’s really introduc

Early in October, I got a call from Bayard Winthrop, an entrepreneur who claimed to have created the world’s best hooded sweatshirt. Because I found this claim amusing—who sets out to make the world’s

[The following is a post written by James Allworth. James is the co-author of How Will You Measure Your Life? . He has worked as a Fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business Sch

Remember the web before Movable Type ? If you wanted a blog you had to program one. You had to know databases and webhosts and PHP or Perl. If you were “just” a web designer, or a writer with ideas, y

A little over a week ago I published ‘Subcompact Publishing’ . The essay is a consolidation of thoughts and prescriptions for tablet publishing. There is a manifesto bit, too. Which is something of an

… Zip drives ate floppies. CD s ate Zips. DVD s ate CD s. SD cards ate film. LCD s ate CRT s. Telephony ate telegraphy. Text messaging ate talking. Tablets are eating our paper … Imagine a table: Hund

Prior to the Model T, before Henry Ford supposedly said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have made faster horses,” there was an entire industry making faster horses, applying technology according to convention not according to potential. Such behavior continues today, and it’s…

It’s the Economy The ‘Mad Men’ Economic Miracle Credit... Illustration by Jasper Rietman Three months ago, “Breaking Bad” cut off its fifth and final season on a maddening cliffhanger. Just as the D.E

Home Apps Social Apps Twitter Twitterrific is the Star Trek of iOS. Not only is it the original, but more than any other app, it has proven its ability to re-invent and re-invigorate itself, over and

Earlier this morning in a post about Apple manufacturing their products in the US, I wrote "look for this "made in the USA" thing to turn into a trend". Well, Made in the USA is already emerging as a

Why are third parties important in the Twitter ecosystem? Let Twitterrific count the ways: First use of “tweet” to describe an update (see page 86 of Dom Sagolla’s book .) First use of a bird icon . F

I’ve always loved shows that take you behind the scenes of creative efforts: Project Runway and Classic Albums being two of my favorites. Here’s one about the development of Twitterrific 5. Since a lo

Economics Economics Indicators Central Banks Jobs Trade Tax & Spend Inflation & Prices Economics Turkey’s Credit Outlook Raised by Fitch as New Policies Pay Off Economics Portugal’s Outlook Raised to

It was my birthday yesterday, and I had to lay down Mister President , my dog of ten years, to rest forever. All things considered, my family and I were fortunate in that we were able to say goodbye t