I make things that go on the Internet. I live in Brooklyn and design at Vimeo in a cool building. On this blog I write about UX design, NYC, and technology.
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Yep, we’re doing it, and it’s going to be awesome. The Vimeo Festival and Awards will be a celebration of the best original and creative video that has premiered online. Our goal is to reward the individual creators behind online video and acknowledge the internet as a quality medium of expression and distribution. And of course, we’re going to do it in style.
This is going to be an amazing event. The teaser page is up now (first thing I designed at Vimeo, yay!) and you can watch the awesome videos community members have made. They’re all superb, but my favorite so far is:
Start getting excited people! More info to come in the following weeks.
In a strange bit of nostalgia-inducing luck I find my new desk not far from where I sat in the beginning of FiLife back in 2007. Thinking back to my first weeks at FiLife, in New York, in the start-up world, I’m amazed by how much I’ve learned since then. I’m proud of what we built and what we managed to achieve. I’m very sad to see it go but feel lucky to have worked with such amazing individuals.
I’ve always been a huge Vimeo fan and love their vibe and culture. I’m super-excited to be on such a great team and can’t wait to see what we manage to create and what else I will learn.
If you’re unfamiliar with Vimeo, you should go check it out. Watch some of the great videos (staff picks are a good place to start). You’ll soon see what sets the site apart:
Congratulations to Steve Alvarez for winning the iPad etching contest. I saw his design a few weeks ago since @supersgp sits next to Steve at Code & Theory. I couldn’t imagine a better submission so I’m not entirely surprised he won. Send him a tweet telling him he’s awesome.
It’s this kind of thing that makes me crazy jealous I can’t draw good.
“So I guess I’ve never really been able to talk to my father, and that’s why I’ve always been a follower not a leader. You know what I mean, right Peter?”
Furniture is Vimeo-colored. If you squint you can see me in the BG with my headphones on.
11:15am
0 notes
Virginia Campbell, of Lake Oswego, Ore., suffers from glaucoma, making it extremely difficult to engage in her favorite pastimes: reading and writing. After hearing about the iPad, Campbell, an alumnus of Portland’s Reed College, decided that the tablet could be the tool she needed to get back to enjoying reading and writing. And she was right.
For all the months of bickering and complaining about the iPad it’s important to see that outside the tech industry all these things fall into the hands of real people who don’t care about front-facing cameras, USB inputs, or multi-tasking.
This is why I love technology and design. It brings people joy. It’s fantastic that this woman can just pick up an iPad and start using it to write limericks:
“To this technology-ninny it’s clear In my compromised 100th year, That to read and to write Are again within sight Of this Apple iPad pioneer.”
This is a really eloquent and well-thought out post regarding the launch of Instapaper on the iPad by Marco Arment. In it he discusses design decisions, challenges he faced, and business reasons surrounding app development.
Overall, a very nice piece about an app I love. It’s nice to know things I use a lot are in the hands of thoughtful, intelligent people. Also glad to hear my pro version purchase covers the iPhone and iPad.
I had to uninstall and reinstall FourSquare today so I could use it with OS 4.0. Doing so I found the app has changed a lot since I first installed it before SXSW 2008. Besides being prettier (well done, Mr. Rainert) there are prompts to scrape your Twitter, Facebook, and Contacts lists for friends using the service and a nice flow for new users to join.
As an early adopter of many iPhone apps this makes me wonder what other innovation I’m missing. The initial load and experience for new app users is very important, it’s the first interaction your app has with your customers, but it’s often overlooked—especially in alpha app releases—since you do it once and that’s it.
The next time I find myself creating a flow for an app, maybe I should uninstall a few of my favorites, reinstall them and sign-up as if I was a new user.
3:01pm
0 notes
Chrome Comes Out on Top for HTML5 Test
I used the HTML5 Test today to check out the three major browsers I use: Chrome (day to day browsing), Firefox (development), and Safari (occasional browsing, testing). To my surprise Chrome came out the winner. It didn’t have a perfect score but it was pretty close.
I make things that go on the Internet. I live in Brooklyn and design at 
