Fighting to Stay Creative

Shawn Blanc on the importance of the "fun factor" in creative work (emphasis mine):

“There is something freeing about creating for yourself. When we take hold of that baton and create for that second version of ourselves, it’s like having a permission slip to do awesome work. And what better way to have fun than to do awesome work? There’s an inverse truth here as well: most of our best work comes from the place of delight. When we are excited about a project, that creative momentum propels us to think outside the box and to dream new ideas as the project takes residence as the top idea in our mind.”

He goes on to give several helpful tips and reminders for anyone who gets stuck in a creative rut. It's something we all go through sooner or later, so keep this one bookmarked.

The Cramped

The Cramped is a new site by Patrick Rhone that celebrates the joys of pen and paper.

“If you are the sort of person who appreciates nice paper, a decent pen, a well-crafted notebook, a solid pencil, writing and receiving handwritten correspondence, beautiful handwriting, or the clicky-clack of a dependable typewriter, you have come to the right place. The Cramped is a site dedicated to the pleasures of writing with analog tools (the name is purposefully ironic).”

Sites like these tickle my writing bone (even though I don't often write by hand) and I'm excited to see what Patrick has in store.

Feed Wrangler's First Year

Today is the one-year anniversary of Feed Wrangler, my RSS sync engine of choice. Underscore David Smith shared what it's been like to build such a service from the ground up, summed up thusly:

“I have learned more in the last 12 months about web services than I ever did in my preceding 10 years of web development.”

I'm still quite happy with my choice in signing up for Feed Wrangler, and I hope it sees continued success in the future. Congrats on the first year, David!

The ComiXology Outrage

Renowned comic book writer Gerry Conway, venting on ComicBook.com about ComiXology's recent iOS app debacle:

“By forcing readers to leave the app and go searching the Comixology website, add books to a cart, process the cart, return to the app, activate download, and wait for their purchases to appear, Comixology has replaced what was a quick, simple, intuitive impulse purchase experience with a cumbersome multi-step process that will provide multiple opportunities along the path for the casual reader to think twice and decide, ah, never mind, I don’t really want to try that new book after all.”

Exactly this.

There are a number of good comic reader apps for iOS—Comic Zeal comes to mind—but ComiXology always stood out from the crowd thanks to its awesome in-app storefront. Impulse purchases helped me get back into buying comic books, something I hadn't done since I was a little kid. They were arguably ComiXology's bread-and-butter.

When I needed something new to read, I opened ComiXology and tapped a couple buttons. Since I stream all my music rather than purchasing it, any iTunes gift cards I've received have gone towards comic books. And now they'd rather have me use their terrible website (seriously, it's bad, especially on iPhone) and input my credit card information rather than using my already-available iTunes account, all while adding extra steps to the buying process. It's like they want people to stop buying comics.

Now that ComiXology is merely another comic reader app with a shitty purchasing back-end, I can't see why anybody would bother sticking with it.

ComiXology No Longer Offering In-App Purchases

From the official ComiXology Tumblr:

“We have introduced a new comiXology iPhone and iPad Comics App and are retiring the old one. iPhone and iPad users will now buy comics on comixology.com and download to the app. All your purchased books will be readable in the new app once you’ve downloaded [them.]”

Welp, I was excited about them teaming up with Amazon, but those feelings vanished in an instant this afternoon.

In the very same post they mention a new way for Android users to purchase comics in-app. I can only guess this means Amazon doesn't want to share a flat 30% of their sales with Apple, which is silly if true. If the overwhelmingly negative reactions I've seen on Twitter are any indication, their bottom line is about to hurt a lot worse than if they'd just stuck with the IAP model.

Good luck with that, Amazon.

The Most Boring Ad Ever Made?

Leica produced a 45-minute (!) video showing the entire hand-polishing process for their beautiful new Leica T camera. If this isn't dedication, I don't know what is.

If you'd like to know more about the camera itself, I just published a little write-up about it over on Tools & Toys. Also, Steve Huff's video review is a great way to see the Leica T in action.

MacStories 4.0

Viticci and co. have unveiled the long-awaited redesign of MacStories, and I must say, it looks great.

“We spent probably too much time trying to get many details just right, but we’re satisfied with the end result because the new design (and technology behind it) allows us to do a series of interesting things for our readers, with many more in the pipeline.”

The new design is much more readable and a pleasure to navigate, so I'd say it was worth the extra work.

An Obsessive’s Guide to Field Notes COLORS Editions

The guys at Field Notes put together a series of videos covering the last five years of their COLORS editions, and the stories behind each one.

As of this writing, it'll take just under an hour to watch them all. If you're a huge fan of Field Notes though (guilty as charged), it's worth setting aside the time with a cup of coffee in hand.

The Marine's Secret Weapon: Coffee

Former U.S. marines Michael Haft and Harrison Suarez wrote a blog post for the New York Times in August 2013 about how even terrible coffee can (and does) become a necessary social experience for soldiers on deployment.

“We never expected it to become an obsession. Coffee was more than just a drink. It was a way to remember what it’s all about, a way to connect with old friends, a way to make sense of where our paths in life had taken us.”

A fascinating aspect of life in the military that most of us never have to think about. Makes me wonder what other ways soldiers find to bring bits of home with them into the field.

Amazon Bought ComiXology

I never expected this acquistion, but it seems sensible enough. All my digital comics are purchased through ComiXology, while all my physical books and graphic novels come from Amazon. I expect they'll do great things together.

Inside Monument Valley

Cult of Mac interviewed the team behind Monument Valley about the making of the game and the original sketches that led to the stunning level designs we see today.

Tonx Bought by Blue Bottle Coffee

From the Tonx blog:

“As Tonx has grown we’ve added friends to the team, assembling top talents in green coffee sourcing, coffee roasting, software development, design, marketing, and customer service. One thing we lacked though was a dedicated production facility that would allow us to continue growing and improving. Getting there meant either raising a serious wad of venture capital (no picnic!) or finding a partner in the industry that shared our values and ambitions.

With Blue Bottle, we have found a more established company that still has an innovative startup culture, continues to evolve, and is dedicated to improving people’s experience of coffee on an ambitious scale. And they have resources we could only dream of.”

This is one acquisition I can get behind. Congrats to everyone at my favorite coffee subscription service!

For more info, Wired has the full report.

Creativity, Inc.

Speaking of Pixar, there's a book coming out tomorrow called Creativity, Inc. that I can't wait to read. Written by co-founder Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc. grants readers a peek into the creative process at Pixar and how other businesses can apply the many lessons he has learned from managing teams of creative people over the years.

If this excerpt at Fast Company is anything to go by, Creativity, Inc. is going to be an excellent book. Pre-order it from Amazon or from the iBooks Store.

Building the Next Pixar

Evie Nagy of Fast Company interviewed a bunch of Pixar alums about working for one of the best animation studios in the world, and how those experiences translated into their own ventures.

Articles like this make it difficult to pick out the best quotes because they're all so good, but I particularly enjoyed this one by Suzanne Slatcher (who helped create Finding Nemo's Sydney Opera House, the car-like rock formations in Cars, and the iconic house in Up):

“A computer will make something perfectly square, perfectly spherical, and that’s just ugly and boring. All of your time is spent kind of messing it up, which is the opposite of most people’s jobs…the real world is a big old mess and most people’s time is spent tidying it up.”

Here's another good'un for anyone who thinks they always need the newest, shiniest thing to do good work (emphasis mine):

“John Lasseter understood that this was a new medium, but the fundamental medium was storytelling, not technology. The technology helped, but it was just a better pencil—it was marrying the artists and storytellers with the technology in a way that they both really understood and appreciated. That was the key to Pixar's creative success, and it still is.”

There's plenty more where that came from, so go read the whole article.

'Ducks'

Kate Beaton, who draws the hilarious webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, just published a more personal 5-part short story called Ducks:

“Ducks is about part of my time working at a mining site in Fort McMurray, the events are from 2008. It is a complicated place, it is not the same for all, and these are only my own experiences there. [...] Ducks is about a lot of things, and among these, it is about environmental destruction in an environment that includes humans.”

If you have ten minutes to spare today, it's worth reading.

Best Shift Ever

Break.com "pranked" a waitress in the best possible way. I don't want to spoil anything, just go watch it.

It's not the type of thing I would normally link to on Unretrofied, but there has been so much negativity in my internet circles lately and I would rather contribute in the other direction.

Shawn Blanc's Preferred iPad Keyboard Setup

In my experience, the two most popular iPad keyboard setups have always been:

1. Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover, which is a keyboard, hard shell cover, and docking stand rolled into one.
2. The combination of an Incase Origami Workstation and an Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

I use the former, while Shawn prefers the latter. His reasoning is perfectly solid:

“However, I have three quibbles with the keyboard case class of iPad keyboards (which includes cases, covers, folios, etc.)

1. Most keyboard cases are designed to a specific iPad form factor. If you upgrade your iPad every so often, then you must also upgrade your keyboard case.
2. Because I don’t mostly use an external keyboard when using my iPad, I don’t want a keyboard cover that attaches to my iPad. Though I do enjoy using the iPad for writing, that is not my chief task.
3. For the iPad mini, it’s universally acknowledged that no good keyboard case exists. Of the ones that do fit onto an iPad mini, they have to be so small that they’re awkward and uncomfortable to type on.”

Point #2 is where I differ from Shawn. I actually do use my Logitech Ultrathin keyboard nearly constantly because all my writing is done from my iPad. Even when I'm not typing, I still keep my iPad docked on the Logitech just because it works so well as a stand and as a protective cover when closed. I almost consider it a part of my iPad at this point.

Like anything, each setup has its pros and cons. It all depends on your needs.

Fantastical 2 for iPad Released

Fantastical 2 has been my calendar app of choice for the past few months. My one quibble so far has been that it was only designed for iPhone. I have used it on my iPad in 2x mode, but it has never been a great experience.

That all changed with today's release of Fantastical 2 for iPad. All of Fantastical's key features—including the DayTicker and its ability to understand natural language input—have been carried over from the iPhone version. The main difference is that the iPad app takes full advantage of the larger screen to display more information at once. It's more than a basic calendar; it's a detailed dashboard for my schedule.

As it stands now, the iPhone version is where I will quickly create new events, and the iPad version is what I'll use to manage and review existing events. I recommend picking up both if you haven't already done so, especially since the iPad app is on sale for $10, a discount of 33%.

The Invention of the Aeropress

Zachary Crockett, writing for Priceonomics:

“There’s really nothing bad to say about the device other than the fact that it’s a funny-looking plastic thingy. Then again, its inventor, Stanford professor Alan Adler, is a world renowned inventor of funny-looking plastic thingies”

Great article about the history and making of the Aeropress, one of my all-time favorite household gadgets and easily the best coffee maker I've ever owned.

(I also love how they refer to an Adam "lonelysandwich" Lisagor video simply as, "An AeroPress fan's artsy instructional video.")

Designing Unread for iPad

Last night, Jared Sinclair announced that he will be releasing a version of Unread for iPad, and that he will be documenting the design process in a series of videos. He has provided an RSS feed for anyone who wants to follow along.

The first and second videos are up, and I already like where things are headed.