via Tina Roth Eisenberg. Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times:

To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation.

What is the value of architecture? It can be measured, culturally, humanely and historically, in the gulf between these two places.

Oh, I learned so much from Steve. It was a blessing to get to work for 12 years with, you know, one of the greatest people our country has ever had. But the most important thing he told me was to trust your intuition and do the right thing. Steve just said if you do the right thing and focus on just one thing at a time you’re best, you’ll end up in a really good place.

Not all cell phones are created equal. You can buy an iPhone 4S today and sell it a few months later on the secondary market for almost what you paid for it. However, if you buy the latest big fancy Android phone, a few months later it has lost hundreds of dollars in value.

One reason why Android phones lose value so quickly is because the pace at which new Android phones are announced is so quick.

Only after 18 years as a barista in New York did his boss, the cafe’s owner, feel qualified to return home to show off his coffee-making skills. Now, at Bear Pond’s main branch, he stops making espressos at an early hour each day, claiming that the spike on the power grid after that time precludes drawing the voltage required for optimal pressure.

My kind of cafe.

What is clear is that there is not yet a perfect ultrabook for Windows 7 users — one with the perfect balance of features and value. Obviously, Apple is never going to make that machine, but in many ways its hardware enables the best Windows experience right now, even if it hasn’t been tweaked for power efficiency and costs too much for the tradeoffs involved.

This will present problems for developers and designers of iPad apps unless Apple also releases a new display with either a higher resolution or a HiDPI mode. Otherwise we will no longer be able to view 1:1 mockups or run the simulator at full size without clipping part of the view.

A very good point, but I think the iPad 3 will become the most popular device to develop Retina-class apps for the iPad 3.

Resolution-independent artwork and interfaces are the way forward, and save you time (and design expense) in the long run.

All images are Photoshopped. Or Lightroomed, or iPhoto’d, or dodged, burned, re-touched, cross-processed, developed with more or less agitation in the tank, at warmer or cooler temperatures, and so on and so forth. This has been true since the beginning of photography.

I agree, but where many disagree is how much manipulation should be accepted.

The iPad was not designed to be all things for all people. How much better would the iPad need to be selling to convince these pundits that Apple nailed it, that they struck gold with the iPad’s concept and execution? There may well be gold in other spots on the tablet frontier, but Apple is going to keep digging in the same spot.

The only thing Apple is worried about is making the next iPad the best iPad it can.