tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-311941872012-02-02T05:46:10.386-08:00The random and not-so-random musings of a graphic designer.Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-5235134386665771952010-07-20T20:17:00.000-07:002010-07-25T11:34:32.181-07:00

This past weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. So much so that by arriving at work Monday morning, it almost felt like a dream, and that I had never left. As you may or may not know, since 1999 I've worked at RPGFan. Mostly as a graphic designer, but I've had my hands in most of the site by now. One of the companies whose games we heavily cover - NIS America - holds a press event in the summer.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-62828276112534108462010-05-08T23:46:00.000-07:002010-05-08T23:47:58.434-07:00

#4: iAd Apple's iAd platform may be getting scrutinized by the FTC, but let's just talk as if everything goes as planned for Apple. Which it probably will anyway. Ads were never something I imagined I'd be discussing in an iPhone feature post. Fact is, if you've downloaded even a few free apps on your iPhone, you've probably had some exposure to inline ads - I mean, a developer has to make a

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-35979986094369174482010-05-08T15:52:00.000-07:002010-05-08T23:54:14.092-07:00

Remember in my previous post when I wrote this? "New Subtract and Divide blend modes. Good luck finding a use for either." It didn't take long until I came across a video (via Adobe's John Nack, of course) that proved I was jumping the gun. Take a look: So Divide and Subtract do have some interesting potential, it turns out. Said potential is just not immediately obvious like most blend

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-6658227148756302092010-05-04T19:14:00.000-07:002010-05-08T23:54:00.166-07:00

If you happen to follow Adobe's various public outlets such as their Facebook and Twitter feeds, or my personal favorite, the blog of Photoshop Product Manager John Nack, you may have heard about the Photoshop team's "Just Do It" initiative - JDI for short - for the CS5 cycle. In short, the development team took a week off from working on brand new features, instead working on tweaks to existing

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-47660822494259026302010-04-26T21:08:00.000-07:002010-05-09T00:00:23.654-07:00

The idea behind making this series into seven parts was to highlight the seven "tentpole" features of iPhone OS 4.0 that Steve Jobs and company highlighted. Then I refreshed my memory on the list and realized a few things: An improved Mail is welcome, and a nice addition, but the key changes are simply threaded message views and a unified inbox. The latter of course being a feature users have

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-47546451483433898052010-04-25T00:24:00.000-07:002010-04-25T00:28:36.627-07:00

Well, I didn't intend to take so long to post this, but here we are. Part 2 of my Top Ten Buffy Moments includes five more scenes that I feel stand out above the rest, and further prove Buffy was one of the greatest shows ever made. It was also a complete coincidence that three of these five ended up being the 20th episode of their respective seasons. So what else made the list? Check it out

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-72421378475408686952010-04-15T16:00:00.000-07:002010-04-15T16:00:00.356-07:00

I'm a big Joss Whedon fan. My love of his shows started when I randomly decided to start watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the outset of it's third season. I really don't know why exactly I was so intent on watching it, though I recall TV Guide lavishing praise on it at the time, so I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Plus that blonde girl in the lead was pretty. Little did I know what I

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-80703900272833159462010-04-14T20:04:00.000-07:002010-04-14T20:42:53.625-07:00

Part two of my series on the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 focuses on the feature I'm most excited about so far: Folders. #2: Folders Once upon a time, the iPhone had a single home screen, and life was simple. Eventually we were able to add websites as icons to our home screen, which meant we needed more space, so Apple added multiple home screens. Then a little thing called the App Store debuted in

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-7134823456800482932010-04-11T22:23:00.000-07:002010-04-14T20:42:15.498-07:00

Pastebot by Tapbots There are upwards of 180,000 apps in the App Store today, but there are very few that can claim to be nearly as well-designed as Tapbots' three "bots" apps: Weightbot, Convertbot and Pastebot. All three are worthwhile apps, each designed to serve only one function, but to do it exceedingly well. The most useful in my eyes is the third and newest 'bot, Pastebot. Pastebot is

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-84334151430199001262010-04-10T10:56:00.000-07:002010-04-14T20:41:25.114-07:00

Earlier this week, Apple delivered a preview of the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0, and while they offered a glimpse into several of over 100 user features (Quick Look?), they highlighted seven major changes, which Steve Jobs referred to as "Tentpole Features." This series of posts are my thoughts on each. #1: Multitasking I don't really know if multitasking is truly the most-requested feature by

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-50540650228374709002010-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:002010-04-14T20:42:30.206-07:00

One of the recurring features I'll be running here are what I'm calling iPhone App Spotlight. The name is partially derived from the Spotlight search technology in both Mac OS X and the iPhone OS (remember when the iPhone OS was still considered OS X? What happened?). It's also because I couldn't come up with anything catchier. But anyway! These "Spotlights" can and will feature any kind of app,

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-71493030095762950562010-02-04T23:46:00.000-08:002010-02-11T18:33:05.615-08:00

I was going to title this entry "Show Unexpected," just to be clever, but decided against it. Though I clearly still wanted to share that little tidbit with you. I'm often wary of watching a new TV show I expect to like. This of course is because of the love I develop for shows and characters that end up not working out, either due to short-sightedness by the network (Firefly, Wonderfalls, Drive

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-79814777628830687572010-01-31T23:25:00.000-08:002010-01-31T23:25:28.560-08:00

I suppose I should have made this as my first post, but that iPad stuff was just dying to get out. So hello, anyone who may actually be reading this. You may be wondering what you've stumbled onto, besides a generically-named blog prefaced with a studio name that doesn't yet have a functioning website. I thought maybe it was worth posting some form of introduction, so here it is. Who am I? I'm a

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31194187.post-33089670417587475702010-01-28T00:56:00.000-08:002010-02-11T18:34:47.202-08:00

I don't even have the layout finalized yet on this thing, but there's too much to say here to wait. You may have seen Apple's new iPad. Prior to its announcement, it was the stuff of legend - rumored since 2003, the 'Apple tablet' was written off more than once as vaporware. It wasn't until the iPhone came around that people started thinking it would actually come to fruition. And now that it

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02979863817238952912noreply@blogger.com0