Today Introducing: the Hickshaw-
In response to our DIY Movie Making theme, Derek "Deek" Diedricksen sent us this first episode of Tiny Yellow Houses, a series he's doing on backyard shackitecture, this one featuring his "Hickshaw," a movable small structure designed to be used as a backyard hang-out space/tiny office or festival sleeping space.
Derek also has a self-published, hand-drawn book of his wacky, whimsical backyard structures, called Humble Homes... You can order it on his blog, Relax Shacks.
More pics from the b... (more)
- Today How-To: Make great big stuff
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I've had this long-standing concept for a theme restaurant where everything--tables, chairs, utensils, food, condiment dispensers--is like 30% bigger than normal. The idea is to make you feel like a kid again. We'd call it "Tiny's." (And yes, we're still seeking investors. Also waitstaff suffering from gigantism.) Look for one soon in a strip-mall near you. Believe me, you won't be able to miss it.
In the meantime, if you just can't wait for the experience, you could always start f... (more)
- Today Reminder: Maker Faire Detroit - Community Planning Mtg, Tomorrow, March 10
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Dale Dougherty and Sherry Huss would like to invite you all to a Maker Faire Detroit - Community Planning Meeting, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Main Branch Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI.
In addition to providing updates on the event, the goal of the meeting is to continue to generate ideas, form working groups, and continue to connect with people and organizations that would be interested in bringing Maker Faire to De... (more)
- Today Neat demonstration of proportional and PID control systems
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Spotted in the MAKE Forums:
Liam built this impressive robot, then used it to demonstrate the difference between proportional and PID control. The robot is designed to stay a certain distance from an object, and uses two Sharp IR distance sensors to track it's position. The system looks like it is working great, however he is noticing some variability in the output of the distance sensors he is using- anyone have any ideas?
This is the GBOT with a PID controller using the ZX-40A microcontr... (more)
- Today The drumbot of our dreams …
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Beeple posted this video analyzing/documenting/presenting a beyond-awesome computer-generated rhythm machine I so deeply wish was real. Note to self - must figure how to construct laser capable of creating laser sound … anyone? [via CDM]
From the pages of MAKE:
Drumbot Activate! MAKE: 15: Music, Page 60. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition!
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Dig... (more)
- Today STS-131 mission brings robotics outreach to teachers, students
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The upcoming mission of the space shuttle will focus heavily on robotics and NASA is using that opportunity to bring additional educational outreach to teachers and students. In an education briefing today, NASA detailed some of the resources and events related to STS-131. The robotics section of the NASA web site includes lesson plans, multimedia, information about robotics competitions, and career profiles of ways students can use math, science and engineering in various robotics jobs. STS-1... (more)
- Today Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 giveaway
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Build your dream, then make it move! Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is the latest version of the robotic building set that launched First Lego League and inspired thousands of kids. People have used Mindstorms to make everything from robotic animals to Rubik's cube solvers.
Today, in association with The Lego Group, we're giving away a NXT set! All you have to do is leave a comment on our Facebook fan page. Simply find the post on Facebook corresponding to this one, and leave a comment describing a ... (more)
- Today Spring-cleaning sale in the Maker Shed
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Spring is in the air! The snow is melting, the birds are chirping, and we're looking to do some cleaning in our warehouse. What does that mean for you? Well, for starters, we have a bunch of products on sale in the Maker Shed. We'll even throw in free shipping on orders over $125! Just use the code "CLEARME" at checkout.
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Read more articles in Maker Shed Store |
Digg this!... (more)
- Today Confetti System designs parties
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More fun for spring: Sight Unseen has published their visit to Confetti System's studios in New York CIty, where Julie Ho and Nicholas Andersen design, yes, party decorations. It doesn't get much more fun than this: shimmering, geometric piñatas stuffed with their own special mixes of confetti, giant swaths of crepe garlands with lushly oversized tassels, gold-fringed birthday hats, and handmade leis.
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- Today Florence Design Academy's free lighting tutorial
- Nothing beats a good design school education, but for the cash-strapped there is also an impressive amount of free educational materials online. A good case in point: Instructor Mario Malagrino of the Florence Design Academy has posted a free Studio Max illumination tutorial, intended for his students but available to all, on how to simulate photo studio lighting techniques for product design renders. (We discovered it while rooting around on their site in search of more of Sekhar Roy's work.)
... (more)
- Today Sekhar Roy's seating pods concept
- I'm lovvving these Terrace Bar Seating pods by Sekhar Roy, a student at the Florence Design Academy.
The swooping arm holds interchangeable light fixtures, and while there's a chance someone sitting near the center might bump their head on the arm, I'd be willing to watch my guests do that time and again just so I could have this thing in my house.
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- Today Learning innovative product design via...stand-up comedy?
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[image credit: John Sherman]
We've seen creatives generate inspiration from all manner of strangeness over the years, but this has to be a first: Professor Peter Robbie's Design Thinking class at Dartmouth incorporates improv sessions. According to an article in Dartmouth Engineer, "I've always thought that the quickest and smartest folks at the brainstorming phase of design have been those who do standup and improv," says the professor. "They never say no. They never miss a beat.... (more)
- Today Donna Wilson's latest: costumed egg cups and hand painted pooches
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Spring really is in sight, and here's hoping this sunny, 50 degree day in Ann Arbor is no false testament. UK designer Donna Wilson must be feeling the same—today, she released her new Spring 2010 collection. Particularly great is the new line of friendly ceramics, a move away from her usual work with artisanal wool. For instance: character egg cups, to be dressed up in costume this easter, pictured above.
Or Meg, who shows up in both plate and pillow form:
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- Today The Rec-Rac bike rack: Ex-ID student still has the knack
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Brent Price works as a financial planner, but he went to school for industrial design. So when the Colorado-based family man recently ran into a problem, he dusted off the old ID training to solve it--and wound up opening up another line of income for himself, by mass-marketing the resultant product.
Price and his family enjoy biking in the Colorado Rockies with their two dogs, but even with a big-ass pickup truck they found themselves unable to fit all of the bodies and gear for the trip... (more)
- Today Carnegie Mellon is seeking a Program Director in Pittsburgh, PA
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Program Director: Master's in Product DevelopmentCarnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, PA
Carnegie Mellon University is seeking candidates for the position of Program Director of the Master's in Product Development (MPD) program. The MPD program was established in 2003 and is a leading, highly ranked international program in new product development practice and management. The program is jointly run between the College of Engineering through the Department of Mechanical Engineering and th... (more)
- Today This Just Inbox: Lightweight by Nightshop
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Nightshop, a new design label from Rotterdam, sent us their very first release: Lightweight, a double lamp inspired by Chinese paper lanterns and shaped like a dumbbell. The lamp is 90cm long by 35 cm high and contains two light bulbs—we're presuming one per side, but, sadly, there are no pictures of the thing lit up. The entire thing is made from PVC: narrow strips are held to the ribbed frame by brightly colored stitching.
The lamp should be available in select shops in the UK ... (more)
- Book a spot in the Sahara to plant your tree: Tree-Nation
- If you hang out a lot of the web, you probably have heard about the $1 million page. Its principle is dead simple: the page features 1 million pixels and allows you to book your tiny pixel-size ad for $1. Tree-Nation technique is comparable yet with a more citizen spirit. Instead of pixels, you support trees; instead of investing into an individual future fortune, you contribute to re-green desert areas in the Sahara.
“Our objective is two-fold: Primarily environmental, but also closely... (more)
- No walls, reused materials, but a real fitness club
- Green warriors have their green fitness club. Where? In Spain, in Valdespino de Somoza, in the countryside of Leon. It’s there where some Spanish villagers have built a low-tech green gym area called Lumen. Don’t expect to meet steamy trainers, listen to trendy music, or carry heart beat tracker. There, you get in shape by playing with exercise machines made from a worn car battery, tree branches, boots, rocks or concrete.
There, you essentially learn everything by yourself, by re... (more)
- French mailmen to ride electric vehicle
- French mailmen have a new vehicle. La Poste, the French postal service, has ordered 500 electric delivery microcars for this year and 10,000 within the next five years. Great move that we applaud, although the new squad will be a tiny portion of the gigantic fleet of fossil-fuel vehicle. By far to private sector companies, La Poste has around 60.000 vehicles, 25 airplanes and 3 high-speed trains.
Nevertheless, the electric vehicle will bring substantial energy saving. According to La Poste CE... (more)
- Bicodi, a simple and aesthetic stool for your bar
- We could be filed this under “camper knowledge for the living room.” After all, campers sit on any tree branch and when they could find one, they consider a tree trunk as a temporary stool. We were quite like this when we first way the Bicodi stool from the Italian design agency 2CWorkshop. Their bar stool has something from the rather simple camper trick but with a more aesthetic approach.
The Bicodi concept consists of linking a base and a seating with a bar. Many variations can... (more)
- En-Fer: Solid furnitures made from solid gears
- For an explicit name, En-Fer is a good one. The atelier, founded by Swiss designer Stefan Lehner and Christina Lanzos, is only interested in thrown-away steel products like old supermarket carts, worn industrial chains, springs, rings or used tin cans. What for, will you ask. To make new furniture, to make new things from materials that have an history.
Take this spring chair for example. The frame is a classic industrial chair with membrane springs. “Membrane springs are used in conden... (more)
- Once worn, cardboard boxes turn blankets
- This may not the most colorful blanket, but the material used to manufacture it is abundant: worn cardboards. While they are rigid and uncomfortable, those Cardboard Coverings blankets are soft and supple. Plus they’re light enough to be folded and carried easily in a bag.
While the still visible graphics of the original box remind us that they were once disposable containers of consumables, we wish they could be customizable or come with different patterns. This way, they would provide... (more)
- Your carpet, this wool balls piece of art
- Tennis balls aren’t only for tennis games. They can be make a seat. Wool balls aren’t only for knitting purposes. Consider them as ready-made pieces of carpet.
That’s right, Belgium designer Diane Steverlynck brought this nice idea up. Her Modul_le is a flexible carpet made of felted wool balls. Each round unit is independent from the others. To stick them together, just pin them on the velcro layer. What is great in this big puzzle is that everyone could change the pattern ... (more)
- Pump bike tires up with the seatpost
- How to get a bike pump always at hand without attaching it to the bike? Dumb question, isn’t it? Just put one in your bag, will you answer. Okay, but how do you do if you want to carry a bag, if your bag is too small or that your pump is just too big? Ah.
British designer Philip Robinson proposes another way to solve the case: Hide it in the bike itself.
Its BioLogic ZorinPump is a combination of a seat-post and a floor-pump, hiding the pump mechanism inside the seat-post without addin... (more)
- Today How-To: Padded Framing of Embroidery in a Hoop
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I've seen a few variations on ways to mount completed embroidery, and I'm liking this latest tutorial from Maximum Rabbit Designs. I particularly appreciate her use of double-sided tape, and find her technique for padding the embroidery really interesting. [via Mr. X-Stitch]
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- Today How-To: Baby Care Bare Costume
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Instructables is getting ready for Halloween early this year with Sarah James' Care Bear baby costume tutorial, modeled here by the inimitable Corvidae. I'm speechless.More:
3-Armed Baby Costume
How-To: Infant Pumpkin Costume
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- Today A Crafty Road Trip from Detroit to O-HI!-O!
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It didn't take much convincing to go visit my crafty pals at Wholly Craft! once I heard "Crafty Superstar" Grace Dobush was giving a lecture on the business basics of crafting. Just a few bottles of pop, some salty snacks and a charged iPod were all I needed to head south on I-75 last weekend.
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- Today How-To: Tin Can Punch Light
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Punched metal is a classic technique used worldwide that transforms tin scraps and old cans into beautiful and delicate pieces of art. This project uses a recycled tomato can filled with ice to create a sturdy and safe candle holder. The standard motifs for this type of project include hearts, stars, and spirals, but I was inspired by the flickering lights of the EQ sound frequency display on my car stereo. Download the PDF of my pattern, or print your own onto photo paper to make a template... (more)
- Today Purl Soho Logo Design
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Our two favorite crafty places in NY are merging into one location in Soho! Purl and Purl Patchwork will be moving together under one roof and under the new name of Purl Soho sometime in April. Congrats to our friends there! We can't wait to take a visit. In the meantime, this post on the process of designing the new Purl Soho logo is inspiring me to flip through my vintage craft books.
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- Today Petri Dish Soap
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Sean @ Make: Online writes:
This week's clever maker-entrepreneur award goes to Etsy sellers Cleaner Science, who make and sell these awesome soaps that look like petri dishes full of growing germs. They're easy to make (I presume), inexpensive to buy, light enough to ship cheaply, and totally original. Home run! Bonus: some include glow-in-the-dark spots!
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- Today Hardware Sorting Box
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I love this brilliant hardware sorting box from Craftster user Wulf. A simple series of graduated boxes allows pieces of hardware to be dropped into their proper storage location. [via Dinosaurs and Robots]
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- Today Stitch Lampshade
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Comes perforated and in two aspect ratios for your convenience and customization! [via Core77]
LampGustaf's Stitch Lamp
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- Today Our New Apartment by Vandasye
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words Johanna Agerman
Our New Apartment is a collection of furniture produced using laser-sintered plastic and off-the-shelf wood by Vienna-based design practice Vandasye.
Our New Apartment is a collection of furniture produced using laser-sintered plastic and off-the-shelf wood. Created by Vienna-based design practice Vandasye, the series is inspired by the nomadic quality of urban dwelling and is manufactured in collaboration with Metropolitan Works, the manufacturing unit of London ... (more)
- Issue 082 is out now
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icon 082 / April 2010
The April issue of icon gets sensory with Mathieu Lehanneur, one of a new wave of designers treating science the way that the previous generation treated manufacturing. We visit Lehanneur's studio/laboratory, where he tinkers with medicine, raises fish inside coffee tables and conducts atmospheric experiments. Similarly experimental is Herzog & de Meuron's VitraHaus in Germany, the world's most ambitious furniture showroom, a surreal stack of house-like slabs.
... (more)
- Gallery: The Office Park
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words William Wiles
The Office Park is a series of photographs by Nicholas Cobb depicting a model of a large suburban business centre. Cobb's project takes the squeaky-clean business aesthetic of developments such as Richard Rogers' 2002 Chiswick Park in west London and gives it a dark, dystopian twist. Office workers enjoy corporate casual Friday entertainments among the humane modernist buildings and soft landscaping, but unpleasantness seems to be afoot. Hardcore pornography is being s... (more)
- Log cabin by Piet Hein Eek
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words Nicola Churchward
Masquerading as a stack of firewood, rustic yet modern, movable and built from sustainable material - this log cabin has it all.
Created by Dutch designer and architect Piet Hein Eek, the structure - built on wheels to bypass building regulations -- is a rehearsal space for a musician.
The tree-trunk exterior encases a steel frame salvaged from a builders' yard. The facade is made up of small cross-sections of tree trunk, arranged and positioned by ha... (more)
- Neue Bücher:
- ArchivfundeDie Dokumentation des 23. Forum Typografie sollte nicht nur ein Rückblick sein, sondern auch Neues bieten. Einem Hinweis folgend, machten sich ein Dozent und zwei Studenten der HfK Bremen auf den Weg ins Archiv der HfG Ulm -- und entdeckten wahre Schätze. Die aus einem Buch und zwei DVDs bestehende Publikation erzählt daher nicht nur von einer spannenden Konferenz, sondern präsentiert drei [...]... (more)
- News: Creative Paper Conference 2010
- Am 14. und 15. Oktober findet in München die dritte Creative Paper Conference statt. Bis zum 18. Juni gilt ein Frühbuchertarif.... (more)
- Interiors: Hitziger Paravent
- Die Traditionsfirma Hansgrohe präsentiert im Rahmen ihrer Designlinie Axor jetzt den Axor Urquiola Paravent. Er dient klassisch als Sichtschutz und ist zugleich Spiegel, Handtuchhalter und Radiator. Jedes Modul bietet eine Wärmeleistung von 730 Watt, die über die weiße Oberfläche mit Wolken-Dessin an die Umgebung abgegeben wird. Beliebig viele Elemente lassen sich aneinanderreihen und über [...]... (more)
- Ausstellungen: 18 Jahre spielen!
- Bis zum 6.6. läuft im Design Museum Gent eine Retrospektive auf die Arbeit des holländischen Produktdesigners Richard Hutten. weiter...... (more)
- News: 18 Jahre spielen!
- Bis zum 6.6. läuft im Design Museum Gent eine Retrospektive auf die Arbeit des holländischen Produktdesigners Richard Hutten.... (more)
- Hard & Soft: Multifunktionaler E-Book-Reader
- E-Books und E-Book-Reader sind zwar schon seit einiger Zeit auf dem Markt, haben sich aber noch nicht etabliert. Mit Edge von Entourage Systems könnte sich das ändern. Das erste sogenannte Dualbook kombiniert den E-Book-Reader mit der Funktionalität eines Netbooks, eines Notizblocks und eines Multimediageräts. Es besteht aus zwei Bildschirmen in einem Gehäuse, das sich wie ein Buch aufklappen [...]... (more)
- News: Jetzt einreichen: iF communication design award
- Die Deadline für Beiträge zum iF communication design award 2010 endet am 30.4.... (more)
- Materialien: Innovative Dämmung
- Aeroíx stellt ein neues Dämmstoffsystem für Ballone vor. Das Produkt punktet mit der weltweit geringsten Materialdichte in diesem Anwendungsbereich.... (more)
- Yesterday The Remembering Self Reflects on Happiness and Morality at TED
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TED conferences, you might think, are happy affairs. You get up early, meet the most fascinating people, listen to jaw-dropping talks (each followed by a standing ovation), have deep conversations, and party until dawn – and all of that for four days in a row, safely remote from your usual daily routine. The reality, however, is more complicated. The event is a physical and mental stress test, an emotional rollercoaster ride that challenges you with constant over-stimulation, extreme cro... (more)
- "It's Been Like Walking Into a Forest With a Match"
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For Wired UK’s “Work Smarter” issue (just released), I had the pleasure to speak with John Winsor, co-founder and CEO of Victors & Spoils (V&S), the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles. You can find a shortened article in the Wired UK magazine. Here’s the interview in full length.
Q: V&S launched a few months ago. How is it going so far? How many clients do you have, and can you share some of the work that you are do... (more)
- Penguin Books Innovates in Publishing...Again
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Penguin, the fabled English publisher, is plunging head first into the world of iPad content. Not iPad books, exactly, as these things are not recognizable as books in the normal sense - they are closer to games and full-fledged apps. Even in the case where they are adapting existing print books, there is enough new stuff going on where it diverges significantly from what we normally think of as "book". A Kindle ebook these are not. Check out the video above for an intriguing p... (more)
- Zipcar: The Apple of Car Sharing
- A story of innovation, ecosystems, and success from the author of Innovation X.
Companies that transform their industries usually do so by creating nicely integrated combinations of products, software, online experiences, and services. Apple, Amazon, and Google are top examples. Let me suggest that we add Zipcar to that list.
Zipcar was founded in 2000 with a pilot program in Boston by founders Robin Chase and Antje Danielson. The company has grown rapidly. In 2008, Chase and Antje bought ... (more)
- It's Time to Rethink the C-Suite
- We need to rethink the traditional combination of CEO, COO, CTO, CMO and CFO. Back when companies were about routinization and optimization for efficiency and profit in stable industries perhaps this combination made sense, but in today's complex world it is woefully inadequate. As Dan Pink writes in his new book Drive, most organizations today are less based on procedural algorithms and must run on ad hoc heuristics. The tidy C-suite club of old just doesn't cut it in today's messy, disruptive,... (more)
- Build it and They Will Telemed?
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In the healthcare device and software industry, the mantra: build it and they will come doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked since Noah built an ark or the movie Field of Dreams was made. Ignoring the user experience is what’s wrong with the healthcare experience and begs for innovation.
I recently attended the Continua Health Alliance conference in San Diego. If you’re not familiar with Continua, their current focus is to develop and influence interoperability guidel... (more)
- Down and Out in SXSW
- The buzz in Austin is palpable: SXSW is in the air. At frog, we’re gearing up to host the 17th annual SXSW Interactive Opening Party. Last year we celebrated our 40th anniversary and wowed the crowd with Chinese dragons, drum lines and Burlesque. This year, expect more spectacle and maybe a bit of information overload as we go down and out in SXSW.
We look forward to seeing Interactive, Platinum and Gold SXSW badge holders for another legendary frog party. More info here: http://my.sxsw.c... (more)
- Windows Phone 7 Marks a 180 Degree About-Face for Microsoft
- Recently I wrote about why Google needed to take control of both hardware and OS for Android with the Nexus One. Others making hardware on top of Android had just not been able to create the quality of user experience that Google wanted, and, as the old saying goes, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.
An interesting article on Gizmodo makes the same argument about Microsoft and Windows Phone 7:
This level of involvement is a radical break for Microsoft. It's them admit... (more)
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Product design