Elliott C. Back » Design

Apple’s Email Advertising Inconsistencies

Elliott Back — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:53:21 +0000

I got the following advertisement in my inbox just now for an Apple mac. It’s part of their student campaign, so I receive the emails to my old Cornell address. At first glance, it seems innocuous, but think carefully about the contradiction inherent in the panels:

A free iPod touch. Another reason to get a Mac for school.

Reminder: A free iPod isn’t the only reason a Mac makes sense.

1. Runs Office, Vista, and XP.
2. Has built-in WiFi.
3. Doesn’t get those PC viruses.
4. Comes ready to video chat.
5. Does so much more with photos and movies.
6. Delivers course materials and more via iTunes U.

Let’s put this together. According to Apple, the number one selling point for marketing their Macbook computers to students is that existing Microsoft software–Office, Windows Visa, and Windows XP can all be run on the Macbook. Don’t tell me that somehow magically, when Windows is running on Apple’s hardware, that all the malware, viruses, worms, and spyware written for Windows will suddenly stop working or infecting your PC. Yet their #3 point is that the Macbook “won’t get those PC viruses.”

Sorry Apple, the Macbook will definitely get PC viruses if it’s running Windows–which you suggest it should be.

Broken iPhone Screens: Cracked Photos!

Elliott Back — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:41:21 +0000

Apple is going to get pwn’d with a major class action lawsuit once consumers realize that the glass screens of their $600 iPhones break more easily than my Creative Zen Vision M. I wonder what looking at one under UV light would reveal, but I bet the glass is only stress resistant from certain angles.

Those of you silly enough to buy iPhones, please try dropping them so that their edges hit a hard surface–say the sidewalk–from 5 to 6 feet in the air directly on one corner at a 45″ angle to the ground. That should cause the entire screen to shatter like a blow-up balloon! Shame on Apple for not mounting the screen around a floating rubber pad to absorb that sort of impact!

Web Design Thumbnail Gallery

Elliott Back — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 00:29:19 +0000

Patrick Haney has created a Flickr Album for “Web design inspiration,” a collection of screensnaps of the best designed, most visually interesting blogs and websites he could find. When viewed as thumbnails, the effect is quite startling:

Those 306 photographs should keep you busy for some time.

Tropicana Orange Juice Redesign

Elliott Back — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 21:42:29 +0000

Tropicana has redesigned their orange juice containers, and the result is very web 2.0:

Note the high-contrast design, clean solid bands of color, and a splendid use of white space. The container packaging is now stronger looking and relaxed.

Bartleme Goes Integer Overflow!

Elliott Back — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 05:38:10 +0000

Our favorite famous design blogger has a little problem with popularity on one of his pages:

I’m not sure how my server would handle 40, 000, 002, 300, 035, 000, 000, 000, 140, 000, 490, 022, 000, 000, 000, 610, 000, 000, 002, 601, 500, 428, 160, 000, 270, 015, 000, 000, 000, 000, 042, 000, 063, 350, 000, 000, 100, 009, 400, 320 comments! Maybe it’s an overflow?