How Apple And Microsoft Borrow From Smartphones In New Desktop UIs

How Apple And Microsoft Borrow From Smartphones In New Desktop UIs

Over the past week, both Microsoft and Apple previewed their new desktop operating systems. Both explicitly pull their interactions from their respective smartphone user interfaces. Here's Microsoft's Windows 8:

The start screen appears to be a super-sized version of the Windows Phone 7 user interface, with tiles that provide summary information about "apps" (apparently we can't call them 'programs' or "applications" anymore). The desktop interface can be manipulated through various touch gestures (or quaintly via mouse), much like Apple's forthcoming Lion OS, previewed here:

Irma Boom, Genius Bookmaker, On How She Works [Video]

Irma Boom, Genius Bookmaker, On How She Works [Video]

The first thing you learn about celebrated bookmaker Irma Boom, in the excellent short film below, is that she hates books. Not all books, mind you. Just the DIY kind. "A book which has been made by hand showing traces of handicraft is to me disgusting," she says, "hideous."

It's a gem of an insight into the mind of a graphic design great who once won an award for "The Most Beautiful Book in the World" by creating a monograph that in many ways looked homespun.

Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” Visualized In A Mysterious Graphic Language

Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” Visualized In A Mysterious Graphic Language

The Four Seasons, a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi, is one of the few pieces of classical music almost anyone can recognize. But unless you can read music, you'll never see The Four Seasons. Designer Laia Clos has created a set of graphic interpretations of the concertos that don't exactly demystify them to non-musicians, but at least they make Vivaldi's timeless structural intricacies visible at a glance.