CREATExCHANGE

A redesign by SimpleBits went live last week. Rogue Amoeba creates wonderfully useful audio software for the Mac. And they have a clever name and mascot. Congrats to the RA team for implementing the new design! #

Cameron Adams has created a fully-functioning drum machine in JavaScript (without libraries or Flash). Incredible. #

“One or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.” Also see the Sleeveface pool on Flickr. #

Last month, we launched Disco, and today we’re happy to announce the second installment of the Ballroom Family of stock web icons over at the IconShoppe. It’s called Square Dance, and it’s a simple little set of rounded-square icons that come in 7 colors, 3 sizes and 2 formats (GIF and PNG). And just like Disco, it’s also reasonably priced at just thirty-nine bucks.

I’ve been meaning to put more time into stocking the shelves of the ‘Shoppe for a while now, and Meagan has been handling the meticulous color/format production of these new sets, with more to come.

New favorite thing to listen to on the short walk to the office: a bite-sized, 5-minute MP3 of the latest NPR news via their iPhone-friendly mobile site (via). #

Probably no color profile issues with this version (via). #

A few months ago I switched from BBEdit to Coda for fulltime development work. I’m a happy camper for the most part (largely because of it’s integrated local/server syncing). This new version touts a nice new plug-in system to extend the editor. #

I returned from Tokyo on Monday. I gave a talk at the Web Directions East conference. I’ve never had a simultaneous translation of a presentation before. I hope it went OK. I’ll be forever grateful to John Allsopp, Satoshi Kukichi and the rest of the WDE team for inviting me to speak, being incredibly gracious hosts and generally being awesome people. I’ll never get tired of traveling to faraway places, where (without fail) the quality of people in this industry inspire, impress and humble me. I feel lucky.

I don’t think I’ll travel that distance again without the rest of my family.

I’ll never forget walking through customs after spending the entire Election Day in the air. CNN was on in the airport lobby. ‘Barrack Obama Elected President of the United States’ it said. Twenty seconds later, John McCain started his concession speech. Relief after 14 hours of nail-biting anticipation.

I took a lot of photos. I tried packing as much into a few days as possible. I was amazed by the giganticness of the city. I caught a view of the cityscape at night, at the top of the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed. They wanted a $20 cover charge, so we left.

I loved that every train station in Tokyo has it’s own unique short little melody (hear them all). I love how this aids accessibility with audio. I’m thinking we need more unique audible melodies for events that happen on the web or desktop. I was also impressed with the grooved sidewalk path found throughout the entire city, which would direct a blind person from station to station, uninterrupted.

I probably didn’t bow enough.

I sang Don’t Stop Believing in a karaoke bar in Shinjuku along with friends old and new. I’ve never sang karaoke before. I had the best doughnut I’ve had in my life in Harajuku, at Tamagotchi Donuts. I was amazed by the depth of the character culture in Japan. It permeates everything and everyone — not just for kids, but a part of general communication throughout the city.

I tried the eel (unagi) and ‘chicken knuckles’, but was less adventurous with the raw horsemeat. I loved the simplicity of the food in Japan. I have a new favorite snack in ‘onigiri‘, a triangle of sushi rice, seaweed, and (in my case) teriyaki-soaked seaweed inside. I’ll have to hunt for those here at home.

I learned two Japanese phrases. I should’ve learned more.

Callie Shell followed Barack Obama for much of the last two years, and captured some excellent photos (and micro stories to go along with them). Keep clicking ‘Show More Images’ at the bottom to see them all. #

Color profiles make my head hurt. Follow these instructions to disable Photoshop’s sneakiness and all will be well. Every time I set up a new machine, I always forget at least one of the steps involved. Bookmarked for the future (via @cliffwegner). #

“The most amazing thing about them is that they’re all made from real money — the Falcon alone is made from three individual dollar bills. That’s $497 cheaper than the LEGO version, at least.” (via)

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I just bought a new MacBook Pro. I like it. I was stunned at how bright the LED screen is. Then I realized it was only at half brightness. I don’t mind the lack of a button under the trackpad. I pretend there’s still a button under the trackpad. I rest my thumb where the button used to be. I’m OK with that, and it works for me.

I’m impressed with the precision of the casing. I picture dudes in white lab coats with metal instruments in their hands when I look at the tiny micro speaker holes. I don’t remember picturing dudes in white lab coats before (OK maybe with the 1st gen iPhone). I’m surprised that it’s not all that much thinner or lighter than the previous model though.

I like that, when lifting up the lid, the entire machine doesn’t lift off the desk or try and skate away. I like that there’s no latch, but miss an audible click that confirms it’s fully closed. I like that all the inputs are on one side now. I don’t like that it’s the opposite side that I’ve configured my desk for.

I love the glass screen. I’ll still need to plug into a non-glossy screen for any real color work. I’ve been OK with that. I think the speakers are louder than the previous model. I doubt my hearing has improved over the last few days, but if it has, then the speaker volume remains the same as the previous model. I’d be OK with that.

I was shocked how small the box it comes in is. I’m happy that Apple is considering packaging waste now. This reduced packaging lowers the “unboxing excitement” by approximately 4%. I’m OK with that.

I like this new MacBook Pro.

There’s a big difference between lazy and efficient. Sometimes the latter comes off looking like the former.

“Ever wish songs just sang what was happening in the music video? Well now they do.” (via) #

I would like to use Huffduffer. I want my username to be ___________ and I want my password to be __________ . My email address is __________.
By the way, my name is __________ and my website is __________ .

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Simple package tracker that uses Google Maps to show progress (via @greghoyboy). #

… we can stop waiting around for browser makers to give us what we want, thanks to their efforts on JS engines, and start using the advanced CSS we’ve been hearing about for years.

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We’re happy to announce a brand spanking new icon set for sale over at the IconShoppe. It’s called Disco, and it’s a simple little set of disc-shaped icons that come in 7 colors, 3 sizes and 2 formats (GIF and PNG). It’s also reasonably priced at just thirty-nine bucks.

The IconShoppe has been offering our hand-crafted web icons to go for designers and site owners. We’re excited to finally add a new family to the shelves, with more to come in the coming months.

Also, going on sale today is Chameleon16, a TrueType pixel font for Mac and Windows that’s inspired by the Chameleon family of color-changing icons we’ve been serving since 2005. Now at just $19 USD, Chameleon16 is now the cheapest way to get the Chameleon Original set of icons (plus alphanumeric characters!).

Looking to find great talent from a targeted audience of savvy web workers? Get 30% off the purchase price of a full-time or freelance job listing over at our partner, Authentic Jobs. Just enter the promotion code SIMPLE31 and immediately feel better about the crumbling economy. Offer ends October 31st. 100% satisfaction guaranteed.

The homepage in particular uses RGBA color values to add transparency to the text so it picks up the background tone, whether it’s a solid color or an image. Even the “black” text on the homepage is slightly transparent, which gives it just a hint of the background color. It softens the contrast a bit, and it reminds me of the effect when I used to overprint colors in print design.

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We’ve created a special place where we can recommend various books, music and products that help us design and kick ass. That place is called SimpleGoods, a custom little Amazon Store (or “AStore” as those in the know call them).

Design and customization by Meagan, who is now an expert in overriding horrendous legacy code via a tiny textarea. One is limited in terms of what’s customizable in an AStore, but Meagan found a way to make it unique and awesome (just don’t look under the hood, and send your code grievances directly to Amazon.com, thanks ;-).

Some of the categories are merely stubs for adding products in the future as we come across them. And you might be interested to know that the latest item added is our new Hoover “Slider” Rechargeable Broom a vacuum alternative for the space-conscious. Apparently when a vacuum is small enough, they’re called “electric brooms”. Just FYI.

A few weeks ago, Meagan suggested Wurdle, a simple word puzzle game for the iPhone. It’s now the cause for late night iPhone-swapping battles here between my wife and I. The most consistently addictive game I’ve downloaded from the App Store yet. My only criticism is the logo, which has no bearing on how excellent a game it is. #

Duct Tape is a business tool. It’s not one that anyone wants to use but it’s there for when perfection has run it’s course and it’s time to move on to other pursuits. Purity has no duct tape—only devotion.

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I want to get married again after reading this (Kerry: to you, of course). Pixel art letterpress invitations? Brilliant. #

“Founded by long time web industry figures Maxine Sherrin and John Allsopp in 2008, Scroll is a print, PDF and online magazine for web professionals.” Looks wonderful. Also see Veerle’s excellent write-up about her process in designing the awesome logo. #

Why a magazine? Because we didn’t hear the music we wanted on the radio.

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A variety of hand-screened, web font ampersands on t-shirts. We love this, naturally. #

For those indecisive evenings. Or perhaps when surf-n-turf is on the menu? #

“… modern, typographic neighborhood posters, including the areas of Chicago, Brooklyn, Manhattan, San Francisco and Boston.” Boston (in dark red) ordered. (via) #

Impressive update to Safari’s built-in developer toolkit. #