Gizmodo has a great review of the new Palm Pre. Without having one in-hand, this is as close a look as I’ll likely get for another month.

The OS is nice. Clean, appropriately flashy for the new kid, though I’d argue that from what I can see it lacks the consistency that makes OS X such a pleasure both to look at and to use. The Pre feels like it’s trying a little too hard to be new, rather than just good. Round-end buttons turn to rounded-corner rectangles in some instances for no apparent reason. There are screens with mysterious green backgrounds, and others with blue. I’d probably prefer something more neutral that doesn’t visually interfere with the content as much. That wiggly app launch bar doesn’t strike me as any more useful than the iPhone launch bar, just flashier. Doubtless, there will be bells and whistles that trump the now dated feeling iPhone, including a smoother feel thanks to a faster processor.

But this comment from Gizmodo sums up the issue pretty well:

“If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware—someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market.”

I haven’t held one, but the video of the Pre slicing cheese isn’t exactly encouraging. Oddly, this is about where Gizmodo stops complaining. But hardware matters. It isn’t enough to build a great airplane and bolt on some crappy landing gear. If the hardware doesn’t look and work as great as the software it runs, the user experience is only half complete. And the Pre, it’s not an icon. It’s not sexy. It’s a lump.

Maybe Palm is hoping you’ll be so awed by their obviously great OS that you’ll forget what you’re holding. I can’t explain away that sad-looking lumpy thing any other way. It doesn’t have a shape so much as it just kind of falls inelegantly away from the screen hoping to hide itself in your hand. The mini-USB port planted smack-dab in the middle of the side of the phone is painful to look at. That’s where your data cable is going to live, which should make using it while charging absolutely miserable. I don’t have to read the article to get that it’s plasticky—it looks plasticky. It looks like a…phone. These days, that’s not a compliment.

I’m no great fan of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard for serious typing. It’s passable for texting, and ok for a short email, but it’s probably the one weakness that makes the iPhone marginal for business travel. Make it compatible with Apple’s bluetooth keyboard and I’d consider the problem solved. So Gizmodo’s comment that the Pre’s hardware keys are 30% smaller than the iPhone’s virtual keys is jaw dropping. Here’s the one hardware issue that left open territory for real competition pitting one ideology against another, and Palm pulls up in a clown car.

I have no doubt that the Pre will do ok for a while—it’s new, it’s flashy, and Palm has invested a ton of work to make itself relevant again. But they’re taking on a hell of a Juggernaut with two years of ground to make up as fast as they can, and Apple is poised to play its next card on Monday. From the bleachers, it looks like Palm blew their budget on software and is hoping people won’t notice the hardware flaws until they can tidy up with the next model. Or at least I hope so. As much as I love my iPhone, the whole market benefits from serious competition. I wish the Pre had hit it out of the park instead of just bunting.

I wouldn’t have given this game a second glance if it wasn’t for this review, which can be summed up by the following passage: ” I FUCKING TRAVELED THROUGH TIME AND JUMPED ON A DINOSAUR AND USED IT TO KILL MOTHERFUCKING ROBOT ZOMBIES. This game is unbelievable. Impossible. There’s nothing you can’t do.”

I must have this.

Thanks to dotrob for the heads up.

Bud Caddell elegantly describes the challenge of finding happiness in work with his brilliant Venn diagram. To really appreciate the graphic, you need to read the body text. I’ll come back to this mroe than once, I’m sure.

Sometimes, you don’t get to make the choice yourself. The competing theory is that the universe delivers what you need. Disguise or no, I’m taking the blessing.

Thank you, Frank Sparrow.

I just read about Omegle on Metafilter and popped over to check it out. My first contact had already chatted with hundreds of people. I bid him/her well and moved on. My second contact dropped me after a quick a/s/l query. My third was a gem. Apologies for the offensive language—it’s not mine. (Gah-I can’t even repost it. Just bothers me to have it on my blog. Shit-talk redacted.)

Stranger: talk to me

Stranger: im lonely

Stranger: chris hanson?

You: no

You: sorry

You: you?

Stranger: k good

Stranger: no

Stranger: lets se

Stranger: x

Stranger: i wanna role play

Stranger: i’ll be a rhino

You: it turns out that without identity attached to this, people feel no obligation to be polite

Stranger: shut the fuck up nXXXer

You: ok im a cane spider

Stranger: no, you’re fucking stupid

You: lol

You: see?

Stranger: this conversation is now about me hating you

Stranger: nXXXer lover

You: well i’m a cane spider and you

Stranger: i bet you voted for obama

You: ‘re probably bitten

Stranger: get the fuck off the topic of cane-spiders

You: sigh.

Stranger: i’ve been wanting tohate somebody all day

Stranger: thank you

You: anytime

After reading this brilliant and insightful piece from a visual designer from Google, I am wondering again where the voice of industrial designers is. Though the web is primarily the playground of those who design for it, I haven’t yet found a single industrial design blog online. The closest I can find is the forum-based community on Core77. Who are the thought leaders of the profession, and what in the hell are they talking about? Is ID so inaccessible that it defies common understanding? Given how much insight and similarity I can extrapolate from ANY design blog and apply to my own profession at a general level, I rather doubt it.

I’m beginning to think the thought leaders are, in fact, web and software designers. They’re the ones who have their finger on the pulse of technology far ahead of product designers. So, they are the first ones to have to adapt their thinking to cope with it. ID comes second, maybe third.

Via Disqus. We’ll see how long this lasts-maybe someone has something interesting to say.

I actually don’t like comments for the most part since the internet is seldom the place for stimulating debate, but having just availed myself of someone else’s comment field, I thought I’d give it a go. If you really need to get in touch, say, if you had a big pile of money to give me, you can always send an email…