Uninspiring by design – By Joshua Topolsky

Last week I was looking at a pile of smartphones I’d recently been given to review. The devices were virtually indistinguishable from one another.

Slab after slab, no keyboards, no color. Just black blocks with shiny touch screens, maybe a few buttons dotted along the side. Some had fake metal rings that wrapped around the body of the phone, a kind of mimic of the iPhone’s metal antenna. Some went for a matte finish instead of high gloss. All were familiar, and all were uninspired.

Turning them over was no better. Some brandished HTC logos, some Motorola, some Samsung, some LG. The list is long, but my attention span with these lookalikes is becoming shorter by the minute.

Looking at the latest crop of laptops (in particular, models based on Intel’s “Ultrabook” chipset), the trend is the same. One machine after another trying to ape theMacBook Pro or MacBook Air. Aluminum casing? Check. Tapered edge? Check. Black, “chicklet” keyboard? Check. So little to differentiate the systems beyond specs and the odd placement of a USB port or trackpad.

HP released a laptop called the Envy, which was nearly a shot-for-shot remake of the MacBook Pro. Envious? Yes, that was obvious.

It’s as if design innovation has all but stopped in the world of technology. It’s so rare to see something truly original that when an odd looking device does pop up, people in the industry almost bristle. As if sameness were a desirable quality. As if looking like the rest of the bunch gave you some advantage, some “in.”

There are a few rays of light in the technology landscape, however. Despite the fact that Windows Phone has yet to really take off, Nokia made big design strides with the introduction of the Lumia 900 — using a solid, molded polycarbonate shell instead of the metal or plastic you see on most devices, and giving users color options like a striking cyan.

Nikon also seems to be at least trying with products like its J1 camera. While the device itself is not a particularly good shooter, the design seems to be reaching for something more than the status quo. The sleek, clean, interchangeable-lens camera looks like something from the future — something from our dreams of what technology would look like in the 2000s.

Elsewhere, companies such as Jawbone have seemed to pay particular attention to the physical presence of their devices. The company had designer Yves Behar (one of the few notable names in the technology design space) create its iconic Bluetooth speaker, the Jambox, as well as the flawed-but-beautiful fitness bracelet, the UP.

On a smaller scale, pioneers like the Swedish instrument-maker Teenage Engineering have painstakingly merged technology and art into a single device, a standalone synthesizer called the OP-1, which is as gorgeous to look at as it is fun to play with.

But on the larger scale — in the larger world — our electronics makers seem to have given up when it comes to innovative design. Yes, Apple and Jony Ive are still cranking out some of the most beautiful technology ever produced, but even Apple looks a little familiar these days. And where is the competition? Where is the company that will go toe-to-toe with the best in the business . . . and beat them?

Sadly, that competition is in short supply these days, and I think it’s a problem for our industry. Frankly, it’s a problem for our world.

You may not put stock in physical design — in beauty — but a care for the way these products are designed and built has repercussions beyond just the look and feel of a device. Apple has had to rework and rethink the guts of its products to match ambitious designs, driving down part sizes, creating new manufacturing methods and dreaming up all kinds of new ways to do old things.

That’s innovation, in both design and technology — and it’s important to moving the industry forward.

The truth is, good design costs money, and taking risks is, well . . . risky. Most of the infrastructure that’s been built around technology manufacturing is concerned with one thing alone: keeping the bottom line as low as possible. That might get you good margins, but it won’t often get you good design.

As long as a single company, Apple, is willing to take risks, that single company will continue leading the way in product design. And that’s too bad, because I don’t necessarily think that Apple will always have the best idea, or the most original.

I think it’s time for this industry to wake up to design. To wake up to beauty in form and function. I think it’s time that technology companies started taking a long, hard look at what they’re putting out into the world. Hopefully, they’ll start to realize that competition takes more than “me too.”

Sometimes, it takes “me first.”

In online video, minorities find an audience – By Hayley Tsukayama

A disproportionate share of YouTube’s top personalities are minorities, a striking contrast to the most popular shows on mainstream television, where the stars are largely white. These minority-produced, home-grown shows are drawing massive audiences — the top one has 5.2 million subscribers — enough to attract the attention of major advertisers.

On Wu’s videos, ads for Mazda and Toyota pop up. Michelle Phan, a Vietnamese American beauty guru, who ranks 20th among YouTube’s most popular channels, has become a spokeswoman for Lancome. YouTube declined to reveal how much such producers earn, but it says hundreds of them make at least six figures annually.

“A lot of U.S. marketers are leaving minority audiences on the table,” said Seneca Mudd, the director of industry initiatives at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “Advertisers would ignore that trend at their own peril.”

Among the 20 most-subscribed-to channels on YouTube, eight feature minorities. Most are Asian American. Many more black and Latino shows populate the top 50. These producers are also finding an audience that has been largely neglected by Hollywood. Nearly 80 percent of minorities regularly watch online videos, compared with less than 70 percent of whites, the Pew Internet & American Life Project says.

Wu, who ranks 11th among YouTube channels, said he does not intentionally target Asian American issues. But those viewers more easily understand his jokes on dating, stereotypes and the generational clash between parents and kids, he said. “I just tell my stories honestly, and usually Asian Americans will relate to me because they say, ‘That’s how I am and with my parents,’ ” he said.

Added Phan: “If you look at mainstream media, there aren’t many Asian Americans. But it’s also shown non-Asians that they’re not that different from a girl with a different skin tone and a different background.”

Analysts say the trend of minority content on YouTube makes sense. Networks feel pressure to appeal to a broader audience, but Internet video can thrive by just targeting niches because the cost of producing a show is so low, said David Bushman, television curator for the Paley Center for Media.

But the audience for shows like those of Wu and Phan extends beyond their niche. The viewership numbers are eye-popping. Ryan Higa, a Japanese American comedian, has 5.2 million subscribers, second among all YouTube channels, according to the company. In total, his videos have been viewed 1.1 billion times.

Wu has 2.3 million subscribers, but often many more than that watch individual shows. While precise numbers are not available, a large majority of his users live in the United States, YouTube says. The same is true of other minority content producers.

Other analysts note that these figures cannot be neatly compared with Nielsen television ratings, which measure the U.S. audience tuning in to programs on the day they air, both live and on DVR.

Still, the growing popularity of online video — and the time it is taking away from other types of media — is turning heads in traditional studios, experts say.

For minorities, the medium offers a way to push back against stereotypes on network television, said Maureen Guthman, the head of brand strategy and acquisitions for the African American-focused channel TV One. Blacks can present themselves “completely unfiltered and without [someone] telling us, ‘You’ve got to be more this’ or ‘You’ve got to be more that,’ ” she said.

Although much of what’s on YouTube is raw, the production behind some of the shows is growing more sophisticated. Tutele, a popular Hispanic American channel, was launched by Maker Studios, a company with 70 million subscribers over 400 YouTube channels. Maker, which is also behind YouTube’s biggest hit, Ray William Johnson, also recently snagged former Disney vice president Chris Williams to be its chief programming officer.

“The Internet is moving so quickly in many directions that it’s hard to predict,” Guthman said. “I see some sort of merging” between online video and traditional television, she said.

It’s too early to say how this will play out, but a shift is coming, said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. Future content producers might choose to bypass the networks altogether, for instance, because they can go to advertisers directly with proof that there’s a demand for their content, he said.

“That may not be the case when you’re Joss Whedon or J.J. Abrams, but what about the next J.J. Abrams?” he said. “Will that person ever do a network television deal? I don’t think so.”

Regardless of the future of television, McQuivey said, the trend of minorities on online video is welcome.

“There’s a thriving opportunity for any of these groups to see a rise of content targeted at them from their own people,” he said, “and that will be a great thing.”

Hollande a supplanté Merkel à Bruxelles, juge la presse allemande

Le président français François Hollande a imposé les euro-obligations comme principal thème du sommet européen mercredi à Bruxelles, remettant en cause la domination de la chancelière Angela Merkel sur ces rendez-vous, estime jeudi la presse allemande.

«Hollande fixe l’agenda européen» titrait jeudi matin le site internet deDie Zeit, appuyé par celui du Spiegel qui estimait que «Hollande vole la vedette à Merkel». Mais les deux hebdomadaires de centre gauche partagent les mêmes doutes sur les résultats concrets que François Hollande obtiendra au final.

«C’est le premier sommet européen depuis des années qui n’est pas dominé par Merkel», estime le Spiegel sur son site internet, soulignant que c’était aussi «la première fois depuis des années que les Allemands et les Français ne se rencontrent pas avant le sommet pour établir une position commune». L’hebdomadaire juge cependant «improbable» une victoire de Hollande sur les eurobonds.

Avec les euro-obligations, ces emprunts européens communs dont Berlin ne veut pas entendre parler, François Hollande «a choisi à dessein» un sujet controversé pour «défier» la chancelière et affirmer «que Merkozy (le duo qu’elle formait avec l’ancien président Nicolas Sarkozy) c’est du passé».

Die Zeit voit, quant à lui, la chancelière «sur la défensive». «Il est délicat de constamment dire non quand la situation en Europe ne s’améliore toujours pas. C’est d’autant plus difficile quand un autre (responsable) fait sans cesse des propositions», commente l’hebdomadaire.

Beaucoup plus belliqueux, le Süddeutsche Zeitung voit quant à lui Merkel et Hollande «sur une trajectoire de collision» et estime qu’ils se sont rendus «coup pour coup» lors de ce sommet, chacun ayant des alliés de poids.

Le quotidien populaire Bild relève sur son site web qu’on a «beaucoup parlé pour aucun résultat» concret.

En se disputant sur les euro-obligations, la France et l’Allemagne «ont marqué leur territoire», et «jamais les Etats-membres – et particulièrement les moteurs européens allemand et français – n’ont été aussi éloignés sur leurs revendications qu’aujourd’hui», juge le quotidien le plus lu d’Allemagne.