Wow! If you like karaoke AND people dressing up as robots you’re going to love Robot Cowboy! Check out this video of him in action or find out more at CDM

So it seems BBC Three have gone for a bit of a rebrand, along with a new multiplatform vision which will include becoming the first channel to be broadcast live across the internet as well as on tv (though if you missed your weekly hit of “Can Fat Teens Hunt” on either platforms then don’t worry as you can always catch up with it on iPlayer too!)

I quite like the new logo, though it does seem mighty similar to the Heart FM one?

The BBC are currently running a ‘Festival of Technology’ today and all of tomorrow. It’s completely free, and will showcase latest developments within web, interactive television, digital tv, audio production etc. It’s in Television Centre on Wood Lane and is open to everyone (though if you’re not BBC staff you have to register here). I’m gonna try and pop down tomorrow morning …

… Very funny (though very mean) video of someone walking through the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with one of those ‘TV be gone’ universal remotes. Watch video

Although I missed it last year I’m gonna try and get work to pay for me to go on this, it’s in London on April the 17th and 18th. Looks like there’s gonna be some good speakers, also alot about usability/user centered design - rather than just how to make shiny buttons!:

http://www.futureofwebdesign.com/

Interesting article this morning from Ashley Highfield (head of BBC Future Media & Technology) talking about possibilities of the BBC getting more involved with Apple now that they’ve released a time-based system of DRM in their new movie rentals feature within iTunes:

… Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist.

Personally I think this would be really good, I think it’s a big problem that alot of video sharing sites also seem to have their own media library - what would be really great is let people download content which can be used in the player of their choice?

I was gonna do a post about the new Macbook Air, which is undoubtedly very cool, however I thought this was quite interesting - article in Gizmodo comparing Jonathan Ive’s work at Apple to the product designer Dieter Rams who worked at Braun during the 50’s and 60’s:

When you look at the Braun products by Dieter Rams—many of them at New York’s MoMA—and compare them to Ive’s work at Apple, you can clearly see the similarities in their philosophies way beyond the sparse use of color, the selection of materials and how the products are shaped around the function with no artificial design, keeping the design “honest.”

This passion for “simplicity” and “honest design” that is always declared by Ive whenever he’s interviewed or appears in a promo video, is at the core of Dieter Rams’ 10 principles for good design:

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic
• Good design helps us to understand a product.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is durable.
• Good design is consequent to the last detail.
• Good design is concerned with the environment.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

Right, new year, time to get back into the ol’ blog posting again … the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy as I’ve been leading the design team on the next version of iPlayer, however I’d like to try and get back into the habit of doing one post per day - thought I’d kick off with a new threadless sub, this was actually an idea I started doing for work, however when it got scrapped I thought I’d develop it a bit more and see if I could get a good tee design out of it!

Please vote or comment on it here:
http://www.threadless.com/submission/147491/Radio_Evolution