#HTE

Mozilla is redesigning the Firefox logo, with a little help from the rest of us.

This time around, though, the plan isn’t just to create one new icon for the flagship browser, but to design an entire series of icons to fit the brand’s different ventures — from mobile and VR browsers, to screenshot and file sharing tools. Mozilla’s already uploaded some possible takes, and now wants users to comment on its blog for feedback about what the icons should look like.

“As an icon, that fast fox with a flaming tail doesn’t offer enough design tools to represent this entire product family,” Mozilla designers wrote in a blog post. That means looking past recoloring the logo or making the fox sleeker: Mozilla is starting from square one with many…

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Consider the ways you use your bank card on an everyday basis, whether handing it over to a cashier, swiping it to make contactless payments, or inserting it into an ATM. How are you holding the card as you do all those things? Vertically, I’m willing to bet, or in portrait orientation, to borrow a term. And yet, the vast majority of credit and debit cards are designed in landscape, sticking to a thoroughly outdated usage model. This is the senseless design inertia that the UK’s Starling Bank is rowing against with its newly unveiled portrait card design, which was spotted by Brand New.

Starling is one of a new wave of mobile-only banks, whose business is primarily conducted through a mobile app. It also issues a debit Mastercard as part…

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Consider the ways you use your bank card on an everyday basis, whether handing it over to a cashier, swiping it to make contactless payments, or inserting it into an ATM. How are you holding the card as you do all those things? Vertically, I’m willing to bet, or in portrait orientation, to borrow a term. And yet, the vast majority of credit and debit cards are designed in landscape, sticking to a thoroughly outdated usage model. This is the senseless design inertia that the UK’s Starling Bank is rowing against with its newly unveiled portrait card design, which was spotted by Brand New.

Starling is one of a new wave of mobile-only banks, whose business is primarily conducted through a mobile app. It also issues a debit Mastercard as part…

Continue reading…

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Anyone who’s tall enough knows the struggle of trying to squish into the back of an airplane’s seat — so it’s a bit surprising that The Wall Street Journal managed to wrangle the CEOs of American Airlines and Delta, both six feet, three inches, into the cramped coach seats of their respective company’s airplanes to talk about seating space. And while there, both CEOs said that their seats wouldn’t get any tighter, though neither apologized for the scant legroom at the back of their planes. If people wanted more space, both said, then they can pay more for it.

“I feel what our customers experience,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told the Journal. The CEO claimed to ride coach about a third of the time — typically when the swankier…

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Anyone who’s tall enough knows the struggle of trying to squish into the back of an airplane’s seat — so it’s a bit surprising that The Wall Street Journal managed to wrangle the CEOs of American Airlines and Delta, both six feet, three inches, into the cramped coach seats of their respective company’s airplanes to talk about seating space. And while there, both CEOs said that their seats wouldn’t get any tighter, though neither apologized for the scant legroom at the back of their planes. If people wanted more space, both said, then they can pay more for it.

“I feel what our customers experience,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told the Journal. The CEO claimed to ride coach about a third of the time — typically when the swankier…

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There’s a new food truck parked under the Brooklyn Bridge: it’s big, it’s bright yellow, it’s… disturbingly bulbous, and it’s giving out hot dogs — with your choice of ketchup or mustard — for free.

Designed to resemble a curvaceous Volkswagen microbus, Hot Dog Busis a piece of mobile art that was commissioned by the New York City Public Art Fund from Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. Through the end of summer, visitors are invited to approach this bloated cousin of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro and snag one free all-beef hot dog per day. The Public Art Fund estimates that 50,000 hot dogs will be given out by the end of the exhibition.

But the question remains: what the hell is wrong with this bus?

W…

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#HTE

There’s a new food truck parked under the Brooklyn Bridge: it’s big, it’s bright yellow, it’s… disturbingly bulbous, and it’s giving out hot dogs — with your choice of ketchup or mustard — for free.

Designed to resemble a curvaceous Volkswagen microbus, Hot Dog Busis a piece of mobile art that was commissioned by the New York City Public Art Fund from Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. Through the end of summer, visitors are invited to approach this bloated cousin of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro and snag one free all-beef hot dog per day. The Public Art Fund estimates that 50,000 hot dogs will be given out by the end of the exhibition.

But the question remains: what the hell is wrong with this bus?

W…

Continue reading…

#HTE

Perhaps you’ve heard of graphene, a form of carbon that could bring us bulletproof armor and space elevators, improve medicine, and make the internet run faster — some day. For the past 15 years, consumers have been hearing about this wonder material and all the ways it could change everything.

But 15 years is a long time, so it’s time to understand what’s really going on behind the breathless headlines. The Verge spoke to Joseph Meany, an analytical chemist who explains the science of the material, and Phillip Ball, a science writer who is skeptical of all the hype. We visited a lab that is starting to manufacture with graphene, and got some of our own to play with. So, what’s so special about graphene? What’s happening with the…

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#HTE

Perhaps you’ve heard of graphene, a form of carbon that could bring us bulletproof armor and space elevators, improve medicine, and make the internet run faster — some day. For the past 15 years, consumers have been hearing about this wonder material and all the ways it could change everything.

But 15 years is a long time, so it’s time to understand what’s really going on behind the breathless headlines. The Verge spoke to Joseph Meany, an analytical chemist who explains the science of the material, and Phillip Ball, a science writer who is skeptical of all the hype. We visited a lab that is starting to manufacture with graphene, and got some of our own to play with. So, what’s so special about graphene? What’s happening with the…

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Sotheby’s will auction off five unique Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 1 speakers this week, which the two companies are calling a celebration of the art of design. Each speaker has been individually anodized and dyed at B&O’s world-leading aluminum factory in Denmark. This is what makes the pieces genuinely special: Bang & Olufsen fancies itself the best company the world when it comes to crafting aluminum (its high-profile clients like BMW would agree), and it achieves a level of design precision that’s rarely matched. You certainly couldn’t just buy a generic BeoSound 1 and spray-paint it to look like one of these special one-of-a-kind editions.

Originally produced to mark the 2016 launch of…

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