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We’ve installed some mobile-browser-sniffing PHP so that iPhones, Blackberrys, et al, will automatically see this version of our site. And, in a nod to best practices, there is a link at the bottom if you would like to return to the normal site.
For the moment, the site is formatted specifically for the iPhone. We’ll be working on making that a little more flexible.
Today Google announced it would be gradually phasing out IE6 support for all of its apps: Gmail, Google Docs, etc. This is very welcome news, but I doubt it will be much of a nail in IE6′s coffin — much less the final one.
IE6 is hanging on for one reason: Corporate IT environments. IE6 is the product of a Microsoft that, in 2001, was still trying to monopolize the web — not necessarily the content of it, but the creation of it. This was also right around the time the web was embraced as a way to decentralize information, and a lot of very big companies dedicated a lot of resources to building tools that may have been “web-based” (and therefore decentralized) but used proprietary technologies and coding techniques that made them inaccessible to anyone not using a browser that didn’t support these non-standard means.
Not such a big deal in 2001, when IE had clearly won the browser wars of the 90s, but a very big deal now. Users are much more aware of their alternatives and seemingly much more comfortable making a change. (The incredibly speedy rise in the popularity of Google’s Chrome speaks loudly to this.) They may not know why we as developers prefer one browser to another, but finally the experience of using a better browser is winning users over.
Yesterday I went to see the Frick Collection with a friend. It’s this particular friend’s favorite museum and I had never been; I have to say that I was blown away.
What makes the Frick special, is that unlike most museums, it is simply one man’s collection — the art he collected throughout his life and the house he built to display it. I say “house,” but the building takes up an entire block of Fifth Avenue, across the street from Central Park. (The lot cost five million dollars when he bought it in 1913.)
There are some incredible individual pieces, but the entire experience is amazing. It’s curated as a collection, and the house looks and feels much like it did when he lived in it, so it has an intimate feel that you never get from The Met or MoMA. Additionally, they offer free hand-held audio guides, which are extremely well done. Listening to the staff talk about the works enhanced the experience 100%.
I highly recommend it.
On Monday I talked to designer Roger Black about the projects he’s working on, including a few that we may be able to work on together.
On Tuesday I met Jeff Veen and Bryan Mason for the first time — both formerly of Adaptive Path, and who are now inventing the future of font-delivery with TypeKit.
On Wednesday I met two gentlemen who once managed the publication of Newsweek, and talked to them as they discussed a new venture that’s trying to figure out the future of content.
Yesterday and throughout the week I’ve been acting as a sounding board for Jeffrey Zeldman, on ideas for his multiple successful businesses. At this moment I’m listening to him be interviewed for the inaugural podcast of Dan Benjamin’s new venture, 5 by 5.
I may be slightly at loose ends at the moment, and uncertain about the future, but I’m not sure I’d trade it.
Over past couple of years I’ve tried most of the new methods of communication on the web. I had stopped blogging, but I started a Tumblr blog, and kept at it for a little while, thanks to Tumblr’s interface and ability to make pushing content onto the web just about as easy as it can be.
Then Twitter came along, and (while I initially resisted it) once I started I all but stopped any other kind of blogging. Twitter is great for simple thoughts, quick links, and staying in touch with your circle of friends. It’s also, thanks to one of any number of mobile apps, dead simple to both consume and create Twitter content while on the go.
(As an aside, I have found that I usually re-assess the list of people I follow every few months, and the people I don’t know personally are usually the first ones to go; what they’re writing about is usually uninteresting to me, even if topically you’d think it would be.)
Now I’m trying full-on blogging again, mainly because I need to engage my brain a little more significantly. I think that while Twitter is great, it doesn’t inspire any thoughts or actions that are actually constructive to me. It’s like watching TV — it’s passively consumed and almost as passively created by me.
Taking the time to write, even if I’m not thinking about what I’m writing ahead of time (which clearly I’m not), engages me on a different level, and I think, for me, it will provide benefits beyond what you’re seeing on this page.