Mike Baldwin

I said I’d review the iPhone and I’m going to do that…sorta…I will say I absolutely love everything about it. I’ve drained the battery daily. Which I guess is a testament to the weak battery and draining aspects of 3G but it’s all good.

Speed: 5/5

3G is damn fast. Now that it’s rolled out in Lafayette I can surf in the fast lane. I’ve loaded all my favorite sites in a matter of seconds, way better than EDGE. WiFi works well too, have only used it a couple times..Bought a song on the iTunes music store. Very easy to navigate, quick download…

Usability: 5/5

Apple really hit a homerun with their UI. It’s slick, fast, and sexy. I can call, e-mail, chat, surf, play music, record voicenotes, etc all within one package. That’s amazing. Name me one other company who has put a product that can do so much at once. With the SDK came a myriad of great apps. I personally use Twitterific, Facebook, AIM, Pandora, PhoneSaber, and Band a lot. They were all free except for Band (which was only $10, totally worth it)

Affordability: 3/5

Although it has come down a lot in price, you still won’t see this in everyone’s hands anytime soon. I’d like to see the iPhone nano but I doubt that will be coming out anytime soon.

Overall: 5/5

It’s great, it does everything I need it to do, the only features I wish it had was Flash/Java support, a clipboard (is it really that hard?!) some sort of word processing app, video recording/chat capability, and skype. Some of these will be forthcoming, some won’t but I’m okay with that. Like I said, I drain the battery daily, I use the heck out of it, and it was worth every penny!

So I just got my iPhone and I’m STILL waiting for it to activate. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes just like Apple told me to and yet I’m waiting on this thing to become useful…

Aggravating…Oh well, guess I’ll just twiddle my thumbs. Updates to come…

I think a lot of graphic/web designers strive for good design. But what is good design? To me it means something that is sleek, functional, and lightweight. If it’s a website, it should load just the same in IE6 to FF3. This can be a challenge but with the right skillset it’s totally achievable.

If it’s graphic design, I think it should be just as meaningful to the average consumer all the way up to the corporate executive. Good design applies to everything if you think about it. This blog, your car, the computer you own, the coffee shop you frequent, design is everywhere. Good and bad. As an editor, I strive for a good workflow and a polished product at the end. This means I don’t cut corners, I don’t take shortcuts, and with this day and age I can edit anywhere. That freedom alone is worth a lot to me.

So what is good design? You could say it’s in the eye of the beholder. What I consider good design, someone might consider crap. So in some ways it is subjective. I think the more something is adopted and simulated into culture speaks to good design. But in the end, it’s whatever you make of it.