Hasta La Gadget!

One look at the N8 and E7 should be enough to convince the casual observer that Nokia is serious about design. The man behind Nokia’s hardware and software design for the last year is Marko Ahtisaari, Senior Vice President of Design and former CEO and co-founder of Dopplr. We asked Marco what it would take to be successful in the US market. His response, while not direct, was still illuminating and gives us implicit insight into how MeeGo, not Symbian, might be Nokia’s near-term play to conquer the American smartphone market. While gesturing to the N8, Marko had this to say:

“In the US I think it will require a somewhat more consequent approach in the high end. No matter how smooth and fast we make this, and we improve the camera — this is the best camera right — it still won’t cut though enough until we do an operating system level innovation. It will do extremely well in the market but it’s not a breakthrough device.”

Marko later added this clarfication:

“In order to cut through in the media environment, I think you need to do operating system level innovation. The products will be cut-through successes in the market, in people’s hands, in share of palms and share of thumbs it will be successful. But in order for it to cut through and people to say, whoa, why didn’t somebody else think about that and that’s kind of what Nokia should do, it will be easier to cut through, from the media point of view, with MeeGo.”

In other words, it’s the media (read: us), in Marko’s opinion, that will affect consumer opinion by influencing enthusiasts (read: you) who will in turn evangelize Nokia’s products throughout the US. MeeGo, not Symbian, is the product that will generate that degree of buzz and excitement. Marko finished by adding, “My goal is that very soon it will be cool to upgrade to the Nokia.”

So, what will Nokia’s high-end MeeGo devices look like? Click through to find out.

Continue reading Nokia’s VP of Design has a plan to crack the US market with MeeGo, and we’re all accomplices

Nokia’s VP of Design has a plan to crack the US market with MeeGo, and we’re all accomplices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Now this, this is what we call exciting. Nokia has managed to scoop up Peter Skillman from the wreckage of the HP/Palm merger. One of the many senior VPs to leave Palm upon its assimilation into the HP empire, Peter spent 11 years with his previous employer and was in charge of the design team that produced the deliciously curvaceous Palm Pre. Now at Nokia, he’ll be heading up the user experience and services division for MeeGo, which means that if you weren’t excited for the platform already, you’ve now got a very good reason to be.

Update: We met with Marko Ahtisaari, Senior Vice President of Design at Nokia, to get comment on this story. His response? “Right, I just hired him.” So why not announce it, we asked, this is pretty big news? According to Marko, “We have products today, products are more interesting. Peter is looking after the user experience design of MeeGo and services and is a great new addition to the team.” Marko’s team, to be specific. To us this seems like another component that could help Nokia break into the US market with MeeGo.

[Thanks, Dave]

Continue reading Nokia hires Peter Skillman, former Palm Design VP, as MeeGo user experience chief (update: confirmed)

Nokia hires Peter Skillman, former Palm Design VP, as MeeGo user experience chief (update: confirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Peter Skillman (LinkedIn)  | Email this | Comments

One of the pleasures of writing in pencil is the friction of two solid materials in contact. One of the delights of writing in pen is that you can write continuously without having to stop to sharpen your stylus. Writing in metal, while expensive, provides some of the benefits of both while exhibiting its own unique beauty.

These two (that’s right, two) different metal pen manufacturers come to us by way of champ design blog Dornob. Both models work on the same principle: A tiny amount of metal alloy transfers from the pen to the page. Unlike pencil, it can’t be smudged with your hand, and unlike ink, it doesn’t need to dry. The amount of alloy for each stroke is so tiny that the pens are expected to last a lifetime without needing to be refilled or replaced. You can sharpen the tips for a finer point with a little sandpaper.

Each company takes a slightly different approach. The Inkless Metal Pen by Vat19 ($27.95) goes with a full stainless-steel barrel. Their marketing department, as you can see from the video above, also has a sharp, playful, dudely sense of humor. (The word “awesome” gets thrown around a lot, and there’s a Scrooge McDuck reference.)

Grand Illusions goes a little more highbrow with their Metal Pens (£13.99/$21.54). They have two short versions (including one that can be worn as a keychain) and a Beta Pen (£12.99/$20.00) which comes with a full-length extension in either black or silver metal or cherry-stained wood.

Grand Illusions also appends a short history on writing in silverpoint: “In the Medieval period, artists and scribes often used a metal stylus in order to draw on a specially prepared paper surface. Generally known as Metalpoint, or Silverpoint when the stylus was made of silver, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and Rembrandt all used this technique.” My friends, this is music to my early-modern-loving ears. (Luckily, you don’t have to rub your paper with pumice to get these 21st-century pens to make an impression.

The alloy in the Vat19 pen (at least) has trace amounts of lead, so it’s not so good for kids. Both are targeted for designers, lefties (who often have to deal with smearing or smudging ink/graphite as they trace their hand across the page), and geeks who like even their handwriting to be all shiny. (Note: The writing isn’t actually very shiny, more kind of a matte titanium, but you can pretend).

Images via Vat19 and Grand Illusions. Story via Dornob.

See Also:

• Continuous Pencil Means No More Stubs
• Sharpie Reinvents Pen with Liquid Pencil
• The Hidden Link Between E-Readers and Sheep (It's Not What You …
• Drawdio: A Pencil That Lets You Draw Music
• Livescribe Updates its Digital Smart Pen With the Echo
• UDraw Pen and Tablet for Wii
• German Multi-Tool Pen Engineered to Outlast its Owner

Apple dazzled customers with an armful of shiny new iPods during a press conference last week, but a number of fans groaned at a less pleasing sight: the new iTunes 10 icon (above).

Gone is the legendary icon of a compact disc, replaced by a blue bubble containing a music note. A Wired.com reader even sent an e-mail to Steve Jobs saying the iTunes 10 icon “sucks,” to which Jobs replied, “We disagree.”

Peeved Apple fans will just have to agree to disagree with the steadfast CEO. But it’s your computer desktop, so why not design your own icon to replace Apple’s? In the past week we’ve actually seen a bunch of really neat alternative iTunes icons made by independent designers.

Wired.com invites readers to redesign the iTunes 10 icon for a chance to win an iPod Shuffle ($50). Submit your mockup in the Reddit widget below, then vote on your favorites. Your votes will determine the standout submissions, and Wired.com editors will make the final call on a winner.

Directions: In the “Image URL” field paste a direct link to the location of the image. In “Image link” just paste a link to your website, if you have one; if not, no big deal. We entered an iTunes icon made by “Toffeenut” as an example.

The contest will close at 9 p.m. PT on Sunday. One winner gets the prize, and we’ll feature the top 10 icons next week in a photo gallery.

What are you waiting for? Get photoshopping!

Submit and vote on your favorite redesigned iTunes icon.

Submit an iTunes icon

While you can submit as many icons as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.

Back to top

Apple has just revealed its 6th generation iPod nano, which has been outfitted with just about the boldest redesign the portable media player has experienced yet. Gone is the clickwheel, to be replaced with a touchscreen interface and a shuffle-esque square form factor. It’s now 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter. Hard volume buttons on the side and a clip on the back provide the minimal hardware accouterments to that multitouch touchscreen, while the inside provides enough juice for 24 hours of audio playback. Seven total color variants will be up for grabs, including a Product RED option, with prices set at $149 for 8GB of storage or $179 for 16GB and pre-orders being taken today.

P.S. — If you were looking for that awesome camera the nano used to have, stop. It ain’t there anymore. We’ve also noted that there’s no video playback to be found anymore, either.

Continue reading iPod nano redesigned: smaller, lighter, better and costing $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB

iPod nano redesigned: smaller, lighter, better and costing $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Apple Store  | Email this | Comments