Hello, music lovers.

The Apple iTunes WiFi store is open for business (I downloaded, installed and listened to music last night around 8:00 PM) and I have done everything I can to break it.

DANGER, WILL

We expect Apple to deliver us classy, beautiful, easy to use UI, and they definitely delivered.  This, my friends, is why the latest addition to my iPhone is dangerous. It’s too easy to just get what I want.

Now, I realize that’s the point. I know they’ve been sitting in meetings at APPL wringing their hands and salivating at the sheer thought of millions of people in love with their touch screens and their ability to show off to mall teenagers and corporate c-level geek-at-heart types. Good job.

In a matter of roughly 28 seconds I had searched for an artist (I went with Stone Temple Pilots because I was feeling old-school) and found the acoustic version of Plush (a great song that I don’t care to understand and perhaps one of the best acoustic versions of any rock song by the original artist. The closest thing to it, in my opinion, is In Your Eyes –originally performed by Peter Gabriel– and remade in the incredible acoustic form by Jeffrey Gains).

If you have an iPhone and a WiFi connection, go have some fun and spend a couple bucks. After all, why the heck did you buy that thing if you weren’t already sold on the abilities?

Last night I had the chance to hang out with a bunch of very passionate and skilled people surrounding the markup and style of beautiful user interfaces. The crowd was dynamic and the conversation was seriously engaging.

Ethan Marcotte, a friend for many years, and Dan Cederholm, a person with whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with on a project at Staples hosted the event at Boston Beer Works (the one near the Gahden, not the Pahk). These two people are brilliant with code and are incredibly wonderful people.

So - why post?

I am publicly calling on Msrs. Marcotte and Cederholm to take the Society to the next level and create a symposium or show and tell of some kind so that people can relate with one another, not so much about standards and accessibility, but about beautiful design and learning experiences from others. I believe that a few beers and a burger are great reasons to hang, but I would love to see people talking more about what they’ve been able to create and craft.

oh, and thanks, Ethan. The pin is really swell.

I’m honored to have taken the journey from long-time reader to first-time author for A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites.

The article is based on my theory of adaptive client management (book coming soon?). Please take a look and leave a comment and thank you for stopping by!

In the immortal words of Peter Griffin: Holy crap, Lois.

We’re in a new league with this device.

If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve spent WAY too much money on Bluetooth devices over the past five years I wouldn’t be qualified to even talk about this technology. I’ve been through seven or eight of these cyborg-wannabe-headgear thingies and every time I’ve spent more than the previous just to increase my ability to talk to someone without yelling (or feeling like I have to yell) or catching every fourth word of my poor colleague’s conversation to the point where I think there’s been an indecent proposal.

And then the Jawbone arrived.

This device has been nothing short of incredible. The clarity with which I can have a phone call is probably better than my land line when sitting in a nice quiet room. But that’s not the fun part. The fun part is getting in the car, opening all the windows and turning up the volume on my iPod while still enjoying a nice, normal-volume conversation. No, really. It’s that good.

A hefty price makes this device a tad out of reach for people who aren’t as insane as I am about sound quality, but I’m telling you: it’s worth it. It not only makes you sound better to the people you call, it makes incoming calls much more pleasant as well.

Oh, the joy of not having people ask me “What did you just say?” ten times in .54 seconds is bliss.

I obviously highly recommend this device and will look forward to other devices using the same technology in the near future.

For those individual system users or small agencies and companies who can navigate swiftly in the techno-pools, it’s time to start thinking about and planning the budget for a new machine (already!?).

Next year the new USB 3.0 standard will be released and the race for products to include this new hoppin’ connectivity will be on. Like gangbusters. (Does anyone say “gangbusters” anymore?)

The new standard has been touted as being ten times faster than the current transfer rate and will no doubt be incredibly helpful when trying to transfer video and gargantuan pictures in RAW format.