Dear Taiwan

Dear Taiwan: A new short film about Taiwanese youth identity.

"Who am I?", is a simple question that the Taiwanese have never had an easy answer to. Due to historical events, the people of Taiwan have drifted between being Taiwanese, Japanese, and Chinese.

In the past century, the Taiwanese have fought against foreign rule, and have continued pursuing democratic freedom, seeking truth and justice along the way, and slowly developing a sense of nationalistic identity.

Today, Taiwan's youths, born and raised in post-martial law Taiwan, are no longer troubled by their identity. They confidently tell the world, "I am Taiwanese"!

2012 GM Advanced Tech Window

On the heels of Samsung's touchscreen windows is this concept demonstrator from the GM Advanced Technical Center.

The Windows of Opportunity (WOO) Project was inspired by psychological studies indicating car passengers often feel disconnected from their environment, GM asked the Bezalel students to turn car windows into interactive displays capable of stimulating awareness, nurturing curiosity and encouraging a stronger connection with the world outside the vehicle.

One more step towards never talking to each other but through a screen.

The Evolution of Music Online

PBS Off Book discusses the massive changes in music distribution and how music blogs and websites have arisen as the new arbiters of quality.

As the 90s came to a close, the business of music began to change profoundly. New technology allowed artists to record and produce their own music and music videos, and the internet became a free-for-all distribution platform for musicians to promote themselves to audiences across the world. The result was an influx of artists onto the cultural scene, and audiences were left wondering how to sort through them all.

SIWA cushioned case

SIWA cushioned case

SIWA cushioned case

I saw a small collection of SIWA bags in the Fine Arts Museum in Taipei recently and I loved the feel of the paper-like material, it felt soft and flexible. It looks just as you see above, like crumpled paper. Over time, depending on how you handle it, the look of the material will change with use.

Designed by Naoto Fukasawa, this SIWA large cushioned case is a perfect for carrying a 13" laptop and it's provides padding for minor scrapes and bumps. Zipper opening and highly water resilient.

SIWA cushioned case

Bring back the stylus!(?)

Farhad Manjoo writing for Slate states his case for "bringing back' or using a stylus with an iOS devices.

For certain uses, the stylus is way better than fingers--it's more precise, easier to control, and more capable. A stylus lets you type just as fast (and maybe faster) than you can with your finger on a touchscreen and it allows for fine-motor skills like drawing and photo editing. Jobs wondered who wants a stylus. I do! And if tablet and app makers took some time to optimize their product for styluses, you will, too.

Today, people use styluses on iPads for specialized, pen-specific tasks like sketching.

"The research shows that the type of content you produce is different whether you handwrite or type," says Ken Hinckley, an interface expert at Microsoft Research who's long studied pen-based electronic devices. "Typing tends to be for complete sentences and thoughts--you go deeper into each line of thought. Handwriting is for short phrases, for jotting ideas. It's a different mode of thought for most people." This makes intuitive sense: It's why people like to brainstorm using whiteboards rather than Word documents.
Today's touch devices cater to the first, deep mode of thought, but--lacking a stylus--they don't give us a way to jot down our nonlinear ideas. That's why I sometimes find it more frustrating to read e-books than paper books--I can't quickly mark up a Kindle title by underlining, highlighting, or writing notes in the margins. The best example of such marginalia--see David Foster Wallace's--are freeform doodles, as graphical as they are textual. You can't do that kind of thing with a keyboard.

I'm afraid I agree with the quote from Walter Isaacson's biography, "God gave us 10 styluses--let's not invent another." The last thing I need is another object in my pocket. There are many times I find a capacitive touch stylus extremely useful; writing Chinese characters, jotting notes, and fine point control I find much easier with a pen than a finger. But thats what the accessory market is for and there are a slew to chose from.


Steve Jobs hated it, but the iPad and iPhone could use a pseudo-pen.

Tablet and E-book ownership nearly double over the holidays

Pew Internet:

The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period.

The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January.


It's not entirely clear which devices account for this increase, the survey strongly suggests that the Kindle Fire and Nook pricing played a role but doesn't produce data to support the assumption. But a good assumption, despite the deluge of initial negative reviews, they are attractive devices at an affordable price point.

Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period

Update:

From Apple's conference call detailing Apple's Q1 record-breaking revenue and profit stated that Apple saw no change in iPad sales due to the introduction of lower priced limited function tablets.

Apple doesn't consider [...] "limited function tablets and e-readers to be in the same category as the iPad". A big reason for the iPads success is that the ecosystem for the iPad is "in a class by itself".

[...] "We strongly believe in optimizing applications from day one to take advantage of the larger canvas. There are only a few hundred apps designed for the competition, versus more than 170,000 apps designed specifically for iPad. People who want an iPad won't settle for a limited function tablet".

Purported piracy costs made up out of thin air

Freakonomics writes on the current debate surrounding the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills in the US Congress. Choice quote: "Unlike stealing a car, copying a song doesn't necessarily inflict a tangible loss on another. Estimating that loss requires counterfactual assumptions .."

Supporters of stronger intellectual property enforcement -- such as those behind the proposed new Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills in Congress -- argue that online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. These numbers seem truly dire: a $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs - that's twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010.

The good news is that the numbers are wrong

One of the most astonishing aspects of the debate is just how much political influence is wielded by a comparatively insignificant industry. You can't even escape this US lobbying groups reach as a foreign citizen living in a foreign country.

How Much Do Music and Movie Piracy Really Hurt the U.S. Economy?

Bag 'n' Noun 60/40 Napsack

Bag 'n' Noun 60/40 Napsack

Bag 'n' Noun 60/40 Napsack

Bag 'n' Noun 60/40 Napsack

The Bag 'n' Noun 60/40 Napsac is tough, timeless, and beautifully designed. Made from Cotton Canvas, webbed handles, heavyweight felt and canvas shoulder straps, and a construction reinforced by riveted joints. This bag looks reliable and robust, a lightweight bag suitable for a day out in the city or a walk in the woods. Importantly it's water resistant and has a convenient drawstring opening.

I think this is bait tidier than the Canvas Rucksack I shared last year.

Bag 'n' Noun 60/40 Napsack

Carga Leather Sleeve Collection

Carga Leather Sleeve Collection

Carga Leather Sleeve Collection

Carga Leather Sleeve Collection

Mauro Bianucci's Carga Bag collection has been celebrated as an "admiration for form and felt" that "speaks for itself. Made by the folding of a single piece of vegetable dyed cow hide, the Carga Sleeve Collection continues their tradition of bringing architecturally inspired design to personal goods through minimalistic aesthetic and understated luxury.

Simply put - these are both practical and incredibly beautiful.

Carga Bags

Solar Suitcase: The Suitcase That's Saving Women's Lives

Solar Suitcase: The Suitcase That's Saving Women's Lives

What if your carry-on suitcase could save a woman's life? In the fight against maternal mortality in the developing world, a rugged, portable "Solar Suitcase" is providing reliable electricity to clinics in 17 countries where healthcare workers previously struggled to provide emergency obstetric care by the light of candles, flashlights and mobile phones. The Solar Suitcase powers medical LED lights, headlamps, mobile phones, computers and medical devices.

[The] award-winning WE CARE Solar Suitcase is an economical, easy-to-use portable power unit that provides health workers with highly efficient medical lighting and power for mobile communication, computers and medical devices. The WE CARE Solar Suitcase was originally designed to support timely and efficient emergency obstetric care, but can be used in a range of medical and humanitarian settings.

The system includes high-efficiency LED medical task lighting, a universal cell phone charger, a battery charger for AAA or AA batteries, and outlets for 12V DC devices. The basic system comes with 40 or 80 watts of solar panels, and a 12 amp-hour sealed lead-acid battery. An expansion kit is available for utilizing larger batteries.

Solar Suitcase. (Source) Via textually and Ken Banks for National Geographic.

A Brief History of Computing Platforms

The rise and fall of personal computing, as an info-graphic, from the short post I shared yesterday. The supporting analysis can be found here.

Audio Clock

Audio Clock

Audio Clock

Another app. to fuel my love of the display of time on an iPhone. Audio Clock by Kojiro Futamura makes your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch into a beautiful clock and a music player. Audio Clock is designed for not only a time utility but also for a digital animation art as interior objects that always on your bedside, desktop and sideboard. Audio Clock is free to use the basic function as a clock and more than 40 different themes are available via in-App Purchase.

App. Store

Via Mocoloco.

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