EVERYWHERE IN SPACE-TIME SIMULTANEOUSLY—Attempting to appeal to the widest possible demographic base as Election Day draws near, President Obama made a surprise campaign stop Monday to visit an infini

What happens once iPhone and iPad users update to iOS 6 and try the Maps app? Do they stick with it, or do they decide - in line with chief executive Tim Cook's "extremely sorry" letter on Apple's sit

Q: What would happen if a beloved web comic created a series of ... physics explainers? Randall Munroe began his career in physics working with robots at NASA's Langley Research Center. He is famous,

This post has been updated several times (last update was on Feb.8, 2013); be sure to scroll to the end. Also see my final follow-up in 2014 . One central feature of any connector/plug is the pincount. The ubiquitous AC plugs we all know from an early age have 2 (or, more usually, 3) easily visible…

"In your twenties, when you knew everything, endings were easy because there were still so many beginnings." http://t.co/QB2eqOuG

By Ben Johnson. The first in our series of blog posts by members of the Raizlabs team of developers, designers and product managers on various aspects of the world of mobile development. Animations can make a world of difference in the user experience of a mobile app. Most of the time, we don’t even…

The College Rankings Racket The U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings came out earlier this month and — knock me over with a feather! — Harvard and Princeton were tied for first. Followed

Media Platforms Design Team When you arrive at night in Fort McMurray, the little Canadian town that might just destroy the world, the tiny airport looks smaller because of the snow and all the Explor

Opinion Rethinking Sleep SOMETIME in the dark stretch of the night it happens. Perhaps it’s the chime of an incoming text message. Or your iPhone screen lights up to alert you to a new e-mail. Or you

On my first day at Shichahai Sports School, the elite athletic academy in Beijing, Coach Chang introduces me to his ping-pong class. "We have a new American student," he says, peering out from behind the prescription sunglasses he wears indoors. As all eyes turn toward me, I feel a rush of nerves.…

The original iPhone Photograph by Tony Avelar/AFP. Like many of Apple’s inventions, the iPhone began not with a vision, but with a problem. By 2005, the iPod had eclipsed the Mac as Apple’s largest so

So. The iPhone 5 has been unveiled and many people–including me–were underwhelmed. Lighter, thinner, new back, (slightly) new color scheme. Just tweaked a little. Like changes to a car model from year

The opening dialogue of Christopher Nolan’s 2006 film, The Prestige : Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something o

Even af­ter his parachute opened, Tyler Stark sensed he was coming down too fast. The last thing he’d heard was the pilot saying, “Bailout! Bailout! Bail—” Before the third call was finished, there’d

In recent years, the aesthetic of UIs has followed a dominant ideology that attempts to replicate the physical world. With a handful of software/product updates and new releases in the last few months, we’ve begun to see how it might be time to find a new balance (see Clive Thompson’s article in…

Next post Previous post The trick of Apple’s Retina graphics isn’t simply producing hardware with high-resolution displays, it’s also producing software that understands how and when to use pixel-doub

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. Brad Plumer points us to a new survey from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication,

Behind every Google Map, there is a much more complex map that's the key to your queries but hidden from your view. The deep map contains the logic of places: their no-left-turns and freeway on-ramps,

The future of technology is this: extreme usability coupled with extreme simplicity. The more we learn about technology — and the more we learn about ourselves — the more we discover and realize how t

Dieter Rams commentary, ten principles of design

Photo by Shutterstock . The brazen lies of the Romney/Ryan campaign — on full display in Paul Ryan’s spectacularly dishonest speech at the Republican National Convention — have political pundits at a

Published in Monday Note · 4 min read · Sep 2, 2012 -- “Monsieur Voiture, you hopeless [redacted French slur], you still can’t prepare a proper mayonnaise! I’ll show you one last time while standing o

Bring Your Stories and Ideas 4 min read · Aug 14, 2012 -- Medium is a new place on the Internet where people share ideas and stories that are longer than 140 characters and not just for friends. It’s

Neil Armstrong steps onto the Moon Nobody born after 1935 has walked on the moon. Nobody since the nineteen thirties . The children of eight decades since have still not made it back there, or reached

Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. makes for powerful courtroom drama. Calling it drama, however, is faint praise. It’s entertaining and thrilling but the effects are shallow and they don’t l

The old tech giant freshens up, but still looks like a follower. Contributed by Stephen Coles on Aug 24th, 2012. Artwork published in 2012 . Today, Microsoft announced a new logo using Segoe . It is t

Illustration by Jon Krause “SPEEK EENGLISH, TACO,” THE GIRL with the giant backpack yelled when Maria asked where to find a bathroom. The backpack giggled as it bounced down the hall. It had been hour

Myths about the Hero Twins , one of whom is shown holding a bow here, are an important part of Navajo identity. In certain circles, there is a violent allergic reaction whenever someone suggests that religion and science are compatible. A particular type of atheist is especially vulnerable to this…