I just said to Tracy "I'm going to read my book" and picked up my Kindle.
I don't think I'd ever say that about an iPad – even if the reading experience was superior – because an iPad will always be a computer first; everything else is secondary. The Kindle was designed to replace books, not let you read books, watch movies, listen to music, browse the web and play games.
If you're building a single-purpose device there shouldn't be any compromises with the design, and the overall experience while using it for its sole task should always be more enjoyable than with a multipurpose competitor.
I don't want my Kindle to do more, I just want it to be better at what it already does.
When I got my BlackBerry Tour a few months ago the first thing I noticed was that it was physically impossible to plug in the micro-USB cable to charge it while it was holstered. I solved that problem with a hot nail, but it left my holster looking like crap.
Someone hooked me up with a new pre-release BlackBerry 9700 last week (just in time for the BlackBerry Developer Conference), and unfortunately it still doesn't allow you to charge the phone while it's holstered. When it comes to usability this is pretty basic shit; instead users are presented with a few millimeters of stupidity. At least the USB port is at the top of the device, so you can set the phone vertically into a car cup holder with a charger connected, one more place the design of the Storm 1, Tour and 8900 fails.
My high-school French teacher used to refer to screw-ups like this as "mansy-pansy junk" (or something along those lines), and I suspect he'd be just as disappointed with this as he was with what he referred to as my "Franglais".
I just picked up a new BlackBerry Tour today, which is exciting because it means I can dump the BlackBerry 8900 I've been using on T-Mobile the past month and get back to my Verizon roots (and wonderful coverage).
Everything was going well, until I went to charge it.
Here is the device in it's holster:
Notice anything yet? Here is the device next to its holster.
Still don't see it? How about now:
This isn't some knock-off OEM holster I ordered online, it is the holster that ships with the device from RIM. Way to push the limits of good design.
Every other BlackBerry I've owned (and I've owned many) was able to charge while holstered. A shot of my 8330 is below.
Don't get me wrong, I love RIM, but shit like this won't help you compete against Apple.
The problem isn't that this is bad design (although I would argue it is), the problem is that it isn't GREAT design. Apple makes wonderful elegant products that are a joy to use, and even touch. I doubt there is a single person who could touch a MacBook Air and not be enchanted by it. Covering the charging slot feels sloppy and unfinished, like the designers couldn't be bothered to complete the last 10% of the job. That final 10% is what makes the Apple experience so special, and it's something that very few manufacturers are able to achieve.
Every time I use Firefox on one of my Macs I'm reminded what a miserable hack their OS X integration is. The controls don't quite feel right, text selection highlighting always uses blue. The worst feature is the menus though. Context menus are a joke. They've got square corners where the native OS X menus are rounded. The icing on the cake though is being able to have multiple context menus visible at once. In fact it's almost impossible NOT to have multiple context menus open.
Right click on something outside of Firefox, and then right click somewhere inside Firefox. Stunning.
