Hasta La Ideas

Though it’s been live for less than a week, this alluring “Productivity Future Vision” video already has north of a million hits. Produced by Microsoft’s Office Division, the concept video displays ideas currently under discussion at Redmond. Writes MOD President Kurt DelBene,

All of the ideas in the video are based on real technology. Some of the capabilities, such as speech recognition, real time collaboration and data visualization already exist today. Others are not yet available in specific products, but represent active research and development happening at Microsoft and other companies.

…We see technology moving from a passive tool to a more active assistant, helping us get things done, and strengthening our interactions with one another. You’ll see how people can stay productive using a variety of devices from slates and PCs to mobile devices where they can access their information regardless of their location or the device they are using.

Collaborating on projects with remote colleagues gets easier. Information can be interacted with and manipulated using touch and voice commands to create beautiful and useful documents. Better decisions can be made faster with information that is contextually relevant to where you are and what you are doing.

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A seminal culinary textbook goes digital in this all-inclusive app

For the last decade, the chefs at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) have been publishing The Professional Chef, an industry-standard textbook for aspiring cooks. Now available on the iPad, the significant volume has been given a much more accessible interface for professionals and home cooks alike. With 415MB of content under the hood, the e-book’s 36 chapters include 850 recipes, 100 videos, and 175 diagrams, not to mention 750 photographs of the final product. Powered by Inkling‘s interactive template, the app is set up to to be efficiently used as a learning tool. That means that you’ll spend less time searching for things and more time studying them. Culinary students can even test their kitchen knowledge with the built-in quizzes.

Content-wise, there are few apps that can rival The Professional Chef. The ingredients index covers all the food you’re likely to encounter in an international kitchen, explaining useful information like standards of quality, seasonal availability, and production techniques. It’s intelligently organized, and we were impressed to see their breakdown of cheese—fresh, rind-ripened, semisoft, hard, grating, and blue-veined—which can be a bit overwhelming to neophytes. The diagrams are especially useful if you’re used to relying on a butcher but want to get more hands-on with your food.

The technical aspect of cooking is something that the app handles especially well, with video demonstrations from CIA’s own chefs. Things like how to properly disjoint a rabbit, sharpen a knife on a wet-stone, and cook something sous-vide require detailed explanations from experienced professionals. You will also learn about tools of the trade like china caps, cheesecloth, and salamanders (no, not the amphibian).

The app is supremely navigable, and it’s easy to get sucked into browsing everything from terms to recipes to boning techniques. While intended for use in and around the kitchen, it’s just as enjoyable to explore while lounging on the sofa. With integrated hyperlinks and the iPad’s swipe to menu feature, the app is infinitely more convenient than 1056-page print edition. At around $50, it’s an investment, but one that will easily justify itself for cooking fanatics. Available now on iTunes. Alternatively, the book is available in the Inkling Reader where you can buy chapters individually for $3 each.

Dezeen Wire: The Guardian’s architecture critic Jonathan Glancey explains that the much-criticised ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture, designed by Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond for next year’s Olympics in London, has been an easy target for jokes but that it demonstrates Britain’s manufacturing capabilities and says it “may even effect buildings of the future just as the Eiffel Tower and the Crystal Palace did” – The Guardian

Last week, the so-called “Porscheberry” generated quite a bit of (mostly negative) discussion as to whether or not it could save Research in Motion. As one commenter pointed out, the sunset wallpaper was an apt metaphor for what most regarded as what might well be RIM’s swan song. (I, for one, saw the P’9981, with shallow curves and sleek gunmetal finish, as a belated echo of Yves Behar’s iconic Jawbone… which, of course, dates back to late 2006.)

But you don’t need to be Porsche or fuseproject to come up with a buzzworthy comms device (though an internship at IDEO doesn’t hurt): recent interaction design grad Michael Harboun—a runner-up for the Speculative / Conceptual category of the first annual Core77 Design Awards—recently collaborated with fellow students Thomas Chabrier and Antoine Coubronne on “Angle,” a clever new take on the Bluetooth headset.

People protect their phones with cases but only a few think about protecting their ears with headsets. With Angle, fixing a bluetooth headset gets as intuitive as picking up a phone…

Everything lies in the move. In an easy gesture, you activate the conversation by sliding the phone on your ear. The movement naturally lays down Angle on your ear and you can now benefit from the hands-free communication.

Angle proposes a new move—quick and easy—for a new, safer attitude.

So yes, it’s essentially a Bluetooth headset that’s been integrated into a charging case… and if the form factor isn’t quite as elegant as, say, the Jawbone, the user-friendly design might just represent the sort of subtle behavioral shift that makes a big difference. Instead of fumbling with headphone cables or fishing for elusive earpieces, the “Angle” is more like a natural extension of a smartphone case—specifically (and tellingly) for the iPhone.

The gesture itself looks a bit absurd at first—something like leaving your coffee mug on top of your car and driving away—but who knows, maybe the “Angle” will set a new standard for the Bluetooth earpiece. After all, we’ve now come to assume that anyone who seems to be mindlessly chattering into thin air is actually attached to a discreet hands-free device and, in turn, a similarly-equipped conversation partner on the other end.

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It is a major triumph when I find/make time to sew something. Here is Finley’s first Hallowe’en costume. It was fun to put together… I just made a vest that is large enough to fit over his winter jacket (it snowed this morning) and made some wings. The materials are remnant pieces I took from my mom’s stash of leftover suiting material as well as some cut-up trousers from Glen. There’s some French General linen that was part of a table centrepiece at The Creative Connection and some Fog Linen swatches that were part of an issue of Selvedge magazine. The brown ribbon is leftover from my wedding decorations and I think the piece of gold fabric was my grandma’s. It’s nice to have a variety pile of fabric on hand because if I had had to go out and buy this stuff I don’t think the project would have happened at all. Hoo hoo hooray for all of us packrats!