Album Cover Designers: The New Iconographers

When I was younger, I distinctly recalled noticing the dilemma faced, by album cover designers, when cassette tapes were introduced. Going from the large format LP to the small awkwardly vertical cassette cover had a big impact on design solutions. The CD reintroduced a canvas more square in shape but still diminutive compared to a real "album cover". Fast forward to today and you can see the latest challenge for album cover designers, the digital version of album art. Digital music players like iPod and Zune, that can now display album art, have reintroduced the importance of design and branding in music. There was a stretch there, where artwork was not so easily attached to the digital music. Apple's Coverflow (purchased from original creator steelskies) reintroduced the metaphor of browsing through a pile of records, albeit very tiny records .

How will this change trends in album art design? Will there be bolder, larger, simpler designs? Or is this no different from the challenges faced by traditional LP cover designers who aimed to make a large format record stand out on a shelf in a record store? We shall see, but I expect to notice a greater influence as album art designers start thinking like icon designers. One recent example, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails just released a free full length recording "The Slip". Like his last free album before it (Ghosts), each song has its own piece of artwork associated with it. 10 'covers', and a PDF booklet for one 'album'- now that's something new.

New Apple Products at Macworld 2008

Well there was certainly a lot of buzz around Apple's new product announcements at Macworld 2008. The stock took a hit and there have been some complaints about whether or not the Macbook Air compromises too much. Anyway, more to come on this stuff.

Apple Introduces the new Mac Pro

"he fastest Mac ever, the new Mac Pro has eight processor cores and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of its predecessor.* It combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2 GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage, offering the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists. The standard 8-core configuration starts at just $2,799."

With announcements like this a week BEFORE MacWorld, everyone is buzzing about what Steve will present...

Today Only! Get free shipping on everything in the Apple Store.

Apple is offering FREE SHIPPING on EVERYTHING in the Apple Store - Today Only, so check it out...

J.Y. Design Posts: Apple Mac & iPod Buyer's Guide

J.Y. Design has long been an 'Mac shop'. Many Apple products are used in day to day work. We also find that we recommend various products to clients, colleagues, family and friends.

This new page will be the place to see the latest hardware, and what the highlights and tradeoffs are when considering a purchase. Check it out...

Welcome to Applebucks Store, would you like a Venti iPod with your Grande Mac & Tall Latte?

OK, so Amazon is now selling high quality DRM-Free MP3s. This must mean that any moment now Steve is going to flip the switch and all songs sold by Apple will be "iTunes Plus" but will cost $.99 (or even less, to compete with Amazon's range of .99-.89/song). Right? So, come on Steve... Steve?

Well if Apple doesn't do something soon, before Amazon grows its selection, then the iTunes store could become the overpriced big box of the internet. Could it be that Apple loves Starbucks, because they sell coffee at higher prices, than say Dunkin' Donuts? (That's a Boston joke)

When Apple originally released iTunes Plus, I was not impressed. I was already getting a lot of music I wanted from eMusic, despite the limited selection. Between eMusic, and now Amazon, there's a strong possibility that you can now legitimately purchase most of the music you want in non-DRM form at great prices. Basically, these sites offer the real iTunes Plus, the version consumers actually want.

Apple needs to deliver iTunes Plus style product, at normal or cheaper prices or it will surely loose all but the most naive customers. Let's hope that having more expensive music downloads doesn't actually become an Apple strategy, inspired by its budding relationship with a certain Seattle Coffee retailer. You may be able argue that a mocha at Starbucks tastes better than the average Joe. But there's no arguing that a 128kbps Protected AAC file that costs $.99, sounds better than a non-DRM 256kpbs MP3 file for $.89 - even if it's served in an iTunes cup...

More Pods than 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'!

Apple Refreshes iPod Line: Well there was quite a buzz today. New form factor for the iPod nano with upgraded UI and video support, New colored Shuffles, the recasting of the large capacity model as "iPod classic"; and of course the iPhone without a phone - "iPod touch". White is out as well, only silver, black, and a new palette of colors.

As others have pointed out, Apple has spread out the features, actually making it a tough decision. The nano and classic have an upgraded UI with coverflow and some neat new features. iPod touch has the high-end touch screen UI and wifi, but the limited storage capacity highlights that this is a both a v1 release and comes across as more of a crippled iPhone, than a unique device. Brave early adopters will be in for a treat, but I'd say it would be more conservative to see how these improve in the next release both in terms of capacity and refinements to the design and features. Hit up Apple.com for eye candy, specs, and tons of great videos showing off the new line...

'Tuna Pitch' - Free guitar tuner OS X App and Widget Released

Freeverse: "Freeverse and Felt Tip Software today announced 'Tuna Pitch' a free app and widget to help you tune your guitar or other instrument. With five built-in presets including the standard EADGBE tuning, reference tones, and the option to set all six strings to any note, Tuna Pitch has everything you need to stay in-tune! The Tuna Pitch app features a high-contrast, expandable window so it's easy to read, while the widget version is small and wont clutter your Dashboard. Both the app and widget are 100% free"

Very cool little app and widget combo. It also uses the built in mic or audio input so you can tune your instrument that way too. And hey the application name is even pronounced with a Boston accent.

Coworkers.com Summer 2007 iPod Giveaway

J.Y. Design client Coworkers.com is giving away an iPod Nano (8 GB). The promotion ends on September 30th, so go check it out now. The promotion requires that you register on the site for FREE. It's a startup site, with a growing community so odds are pretty high in your favor: Enter at Coworkers.com now

Cover Flow and the scrolling horizontal subnav at the new Apple.com

37signals has a thoughtful post on the proliferation of the Coverflow UI metaphor: "As the world gets iPhonified and Leopardized, get ready for more Cover Flow (video), the scrolling interface with forward/backward arrows that mimics a CD collection or jukebox selection..." As they point out how aspects of the horizontal scrolling UI have been incorporated into the new Apple.com, they summarize it all well: "At least there’s more conventional text links in the footer."



I think that is an important takeaway. Coverflow is one of many 'views' that you can choose to enable within iTunes. As variations on these newer navigation models start to hit the web, it will continue be important to offer multiple ways to get to the same content. And IMHO, the Coverflow interface as demonstrated in the iPhone port is the most usable version I've seen. It skips the file list below the images, and allows you to interact directly with the thumbnails, flipping albums over to see their contents. Until iTunes can do this too, I will fully understand why Coverflow gets slammed so much.

read more | digg story

Apple Safari 3 Public Beta Fixes Flash Drop-menu Issue

Apple has released a Beta version of its Safari browser for both Mac and Windows. While this is news itself, I'm more excited about the following revelation.

Anyone out there who has done website work where the design called for drop-down navigation menus which overlap Adobe flash content will be happy about this announcement. In previous versions of the Safari Mac browser, there was a 'bug' where drop down menus would flicker badly if they overlapped Flash content. This issue even plagues www.adobe.com in Safari 2.x!

After testing both the Mac & Windows versions of Safari 3, Apple appears to finally have fixed this problem!



Check out the Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

Amazon officially announces long-rumored DRM-free music store

"Amazon announced this morning that it plans to launch a music store later this year that will sell unprotected MP3 files from thousands of record labels."

This is great for consumers - from the healthy competition point of view. iTunes has the integration advantage, so I think that the one company which could be sweating it the most from this announcement is eMusic.com - because they've been the leading non-DRM MP3 store. Depending on just how deep the Amazon catalog is, and what kind of pricing structure it adopts, eMusic could see its subscription service really suffer. Shows you how much pull Amazon has in the market, since eMusic has been doing MP3 downloads for years and the only thing it has been lacking are big labels and per-song pricing.



read more | digg story

The 50 Most Important People on the Web

pcworld.com: "Despite what Time magazine would have you believe, you are not the most powerful or influential person on the Web. At PC World we love online personals, social networks, and videos of people falling on their keisters as much as the next person, but without the folks who create the Craigslists, MySpaces, and YouTubes of the world, much of the Web's potential would be lost among spam sites and other online detritus."



read more | digg story

brandchannel Readers' Choice Awards 2006 Results Are In

Google and Apple stay on top while YouTube and Wikipedia show up for the first time. As usual brandcannel has regional results as well as the Global list previewed here. Read the full report.

iLounge Rings In The Holiday Season With Its The 2007 iPod Buyers' Guide

"The world's most popular iPod and accessory buyers’ guide is back for its third year, and better than ever!" - I dig the wide-screen edition.