All Hail the Genius Bar:

Mark Gurman has good news for Apple Store visitors:

In many stores, Apple will replace the video walls with dedicated Genius Bars, marking a return to a familiar element from an earlier era. The design resembles the Genius Bars of the past but with an all-wood look. There will be two counter heights for accessibility, while the wall behind the bar will include storage drawers and large posters highlighting new products.

The new Genius Bars and Avenue bays will be designed to mesh with existing stores and look fully integrated — as if they had been part of the original design.

Apple has been tinkering with this for a little while in select stores, and it is good to see that the company is considering rolling it out more broadly.

For a decade, Apple’s changes to its stores have made them more confusing and chaotic. This is a step in the right direction.

Source: 512 Pixels

I can draw now!:

I’ve confirmed this while working on user interfaces for personal tools I’ve built, illustrations for blog posts, and, more recently, my upcoming Rails World presentation. For example, even as a child, I was decent at drawing but terrible at coloring. Guess who can pick a terrific-looking color palette if you ask it?

As a programmer, I’m used to AI writing code better and faster than me by now, but this is different. I can now do things I couldn’t dream of doing before. That’s why I find it incredibly appealing to iterate on visual things using natural language. I feel in control, I enjoy the process tremendously, and I don’t see any blockers.

Source: Jorge Manrubia