Google TV Remote app for Android gets its first update, with voice search and design tweaks
The official Google TV Remote app for Android has been around since late 2010, but it only just received its first update since launch. So what’s changed? Support for voice commands has been extended for compatibility with Voice Search on Google TV 3.0, the old swiping directional circle has been replaced with an easier to use tappable d-pad, the look has changed slightly (check after the break for a screen of the old UI) there’s accessibility support, and now the icon is sporting a small microphone. They’re all minor tweaks, but after a couple of years, it’s nice to see any attention being paid. We’ll see if bigger changes for the platform are in store at Google I/O in May.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Google
Source: Google Play
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Plex client project for Raspberry Pi gets a fresh update and its own site to call home
RasPlex is not the only HTPC software project aimed at the Raspberry Pi (also see Raspbmc, OpenELEC or PyPlex), but it is trying to leverage the Plex Media Server to become the best option. As detailed on the “Why Rasplex?” section of its new website, Plex’s client/server model lends itself to handling video streams that might otherwise not be supported by the Pi’s lightweight ARM CPU, as well as (once it’s out of beta) access a number of additional apps and features. Its creator celebrated Pi day yesterday by launching a new site for the project, and even has plans for custom cases to make mounting your $35 media PC in the living room easier to do. Hit the source links to download the latest update, version 0.1.27 or just get more information.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: RasPlex.com
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Spotify for iOS gets a much-appreciated interface makeover
Spotify gave its Android app a very overdue interface overhaul last year. The iOS version wasn’t in quite as dire straits, but we’d still call today’s redesign a long-needed modernization that pulls out some of the clutter. Its 0.6 update mostly brings in useful concepts from the Android version, including the always-on Now Playing strip and the seemingly inescapable navigation sidebar. The update also solves a handful of stand-out flaws, such as reflecting the right track on the lock screen — about time, really. Listeners will need a Premium subscription for more than just radio, but everyone in Spotify-supported countries can grab the update today.
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video
Via: Spotify
Source: App Store
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Oklahoma Gets its Contemporary On
Established in 1989 in Oklahoma City, OK, as City Arts Center, the recently renamed Oklahoma Contemporary is a nonprofit organization that offers progressive and innovative art exhibits and “encourages artistic expression in all its forms through education and exhibitions.” Last week the organization announced its name change and introduced the new identity designed by Saffron.
The Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center brand is focused around the idea of ‘Creative Connections’, speaking to the role of Oklahoma Contemporary in connecting the local community with contemporary art, connecting art with the individual, and hosting the conventional alongside the unfamiliar. This spirit of connection is reflected in the new visual identity that allows for the work of exhibited artists to take center stage, while projecting Oklahoma Contemporary’s unique personality. The identity will be brought to life across Oklahoma Contemporary’s communications and their built environment, including a new stunning building due for completion in 2016.
— Press Release
The old logo wasn’t particularly good or bad, boring for sure, but nothing too offensive. It simply stated what it was: the arts center of the city. That’s probably what local folks said, “let’s go to City Arts Center”. Now locals, who are already in Oklahoma, have to say “Let’s go to Oklahoma Contemporary.” Awkward. Perhaps the hope is that they’ll say “Let’s go to the Contemporary” or “Have you see the show at the Contemporary?”. The name change feels perfectly well reasoned to elevate the name of the organization to a national level so that “Oklahoma” is recognized but the resulting name is really, really long. (How long before they rebrand as “OC”?). The logo is also pretty long. I don’t mind long logos, they are just a pain in the ass to work with but Saffron has found a nice way of implementing this evenly-spaced and ruled 20-character Gotham wordmark: In application the first line of the logo extends to part of the content, so the logo doesn’t get completely lost as it gets smaller in usage due to its length. The logo, its various options with images thrown in and cropped, and the oversize cropped typography all feel like clichés of contemporary art organizations, things we’ve already seen. It’s not entirely original but it definitely works, it looks good, and, branding-wise, helps place Oklahoma Contemporary in the same playing field as other sans-serifed contemporary art organizations.
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Microsoft starts taking orders for 128GB Surface Pro, $999 gets one shipped on March 1st
Microsoft has been having troubles keeping the 128GB model Surface Pro tablet on virtual and actual store shelves, but it looks like the drought, as promised, is ending. The tablet’s now up for pre-order on the Microsoft Store website with an estimated March 1st ship date. Best Buy will also be receiving shipments of the slate soon and is also willing to take your money now to reserve one. Alas, our friends north of the border in Canada are still without a 128GB Surface purchase option, but at least the folks at the Surface Blog have promised to provide more info on the matter sometime soon. Don’t believe us? Head on down to the source and see for yourself.
[Thanks, Jon]
Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft
Source: Surface Blog, Microsoft Store
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Samsung Galaxy Note II gets pretty in pink, makes Hello Kitty proud
To say that we’ve covered many, many rosey devices around here still wouldn’t do the statement justice, so don’t mind our slight excitement after seeing the Galaxy Note II show up wearing a very pink outfit on Samsung’s Taiwanese site. Clearly, the phone tablet slab looks to follow in the footsteps of its other galactic siblings, the OG Note and GS3, and, in the process, looks to give an extra hue option to those who prefer something a little different than the more traditional colors, or even the newer amber brown and ruby wine. Since Samsung hasn’t made an official announcement yet, however, availability details are still relatively unknown, so we’ll have to wait to see whether or not this light pink Galaxy Note II ever makes it past the Taiwan page and onto others. In the meantime, perhaps you’d like to mosey past the break, where a rather glamorous press shot gallery awaits.
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note II in pink
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Via: UnwiredView
Source: Samsung (Taiwan)
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Google Drive scores multiple photo and video uploads on iOS, Wallet gets visual refresh on Android
Mountain View’s just doled out an update to Google Drive on iOS, giving it the ever so slight bump to version 1.2.2 and a handful of new features. Font fanatics could see the addition of Helvetica Neue to Docs as the big ticket item in the new release, but the ability to upload multiple photos and videos otherwise headlines the batch of improvements. With the latest version, pinch to zoom now works with slides and QuickOffice users can open files and save them to Drive. In addition, spreadsheets have been freshly endowed with improvements to animations, diagonal scrolling and cell formatting for dates, decimals, currency and the like. Google Wallet on Android also received an update, but it focused on delivering a revamped UI and sundry improvements to stability and battery use. Now, the app packs navigation tabs and houses cards under the “My Wallet” section. Hit the neighboring source links to give either application a spin.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Google
Via: 9to5Google, Android Central
Source: Google Play, iTunes
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Nivea Gets Rid of its Own Wrinkles
First produced in 1882 in Germany by pharmacist Carl Paul Beiersdorf, Nivea is today one of the leading skincare products in the world owned by Beiersdorf AG (which also owns Elastoplast, Eucerin, Labello, and La prairie). Nivea’s most well-known product is its original Nivea Crème which was first packaged in the iconic blue tin in 1925 and now serves as the basis for the “new global design language” introduced by Nivea this week, designed by San Francisco-based fuseproject.
Sample of existing products and their packaging.
The blue tin has embodied NIVEA’s brand values since 1925. It is the brand “face” that consumers around the world associate with trust, closeness and expertise. Now Beiersdorf AG has introduced a new global design language based on the iconic blue tin. The new design consistently translates the successful NIVEA brand’s values into a product that consumers can see and feel, thereby making products in all categories immediately recognizable. Beiersdorf has consistently developed the NIVEA brand with a focus on its global core values. The gradual introduction of the new design for the entire NIVEA skin and body care portfolio will commence in more than 200 countries in January 2013.
— Press Release
Although a circle version of the logo has been used before, and is currently what’s on the Nivea website, it is not officially the sole logo: Try a Google Image Search for Nivea logo and wince in pain. On its current range of products the Nivea wordmark is delivered in a rectangle with an unflattering curve with cheap gradients hanging from the bottom. The idea of establishing a single logo is not just good but much needed. Basing it on the iconic tin can is the perfect rallying cry for the company to adopt it and stick with it. It’s unfortunate that the kerning wasn’t fixed, you can put a whole body lotion bottle between the “NI” pair. It’s a tricky word to kern, but surely it can be done.
Sketches and prototypes.
Sample of new packaging.
Detail of tilted and logo-embossed cap.
The blue NIVEA tin wasn’t just the basis of the design, but also a source of inspiration to the designers. The crème tin is used as a logo, reflected in the rounded contours of the new packagings and in the reduced blue and white colors of the new design. The round lid, which tilts towards the consumer, embossed with the NIVEA logo, has obvious similarities with the iconic blue tin and it provides customers with a “familiar face” on the shelf.
— Press Release
The new packaging looks great. The bottles look softer and friendlier and the tilted cap is a fun example of user friendliness in the real (physical) world. It does look like they are keeping the creme/droplet motif from the old packaging but rendered in a new way. It’s totally goofy but most mainstream packaging is, so it fits well. Overall, I love me a good standardization and simplification exercise that builds on existing equity at a global scale.
Yves Béhar on the development of the new packaging.
Project spotted at The Branding Source and most images sourced from Design Boom.
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OzHarvest Gets a New Set of Wheels
Established in 2004, OzHarvest is an Australian nonprofit organization that rescues food mainly from restaurants, food wholesalers, and retailers to distribute to charities supporting the vulnerable in Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide, and Brisbane delivering 441,500 meals per month across the country with a fleet of 15 vans. In December OzHarvest introduced a new identity created in a pro-bono collaboration between Frost* and Droga5.
One of the vans currently in circulation.
The new mark utilises the distinctive yellow food distribution vans that have become OzHarvest’s hallmark, which are picked out in a vehicular shape constructed with scores of images of staple food items. In a cheeky nod to the nature of the services provided by the charity, the identity is realised in the informal, san serif font, Frankfurter.
— Frost* Project Description
The old logo was so naive and helpless you almost wanted to deliver a meal to it and see if that helped any. No point in scrutinizing its shortcomings. The new logo is a great evolution of the original and where Frost* and Droga5 could have said “This logo is shit, nothing can be saved, now get out of our way and let us design something awesome” they built on it, its intention, and the equity of the vans themselves to design something awesome. We’ve seen logos made out of stuff before so this is not groundbreaking but it’s perfectly appropriate, rendering a playful, bold solution that spells out exactly what the organization does. You also have to love the typeface choice, Frankfurter and its relentless use in the annual report below, craftily produced in only two colors. This is pro-bono at its best: a great organization with a desperately crappy logo paired with a collaborative team clearly having fun and producing an effective identity.
2012 Annual Report.
At OzHarvest’s 8th birthday celebration Tall Poppy Collective recreated the logo with actual items like tires and pots and pans. Image cropped, see original and more info here.
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Video-streaming Xmas cheer restored for Netflix users as AWS outage gets fixed for affected devices
Did this Christmas’ Netflix outage have you and yours “bah humbuging” whilst picking through that collection of physical discs for solace? Fret no more, as the apparent Amazon Web Services outage behind the problem (which brought the service down on many-a-device) is now a officially a mark in Christmas Past. Within the last hour, Netflix announced via its Twitter accounts that its Instant Watch offerings are now “back to normal streaming levels.” While it’s not exactly a Christmas miracle, we’re sure many are delighted to finally be viewing Hollywood’s holiday cheer on their newly unwrapped gizmos.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Netflix (Twitter), Adrian Cockcroft
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