Obama breaks Twitter record

This picture tweeted by Barack Obama right after it was clear he won the 2012 elections is now the most retweeted picture EVER on twitter!
His tweet has now been retweeted over 600,000 times!

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Breaking: Skype replacing Windows Live Messenger

Microsoft will retire its Windows Live Messenger chat service, shifting its focus instead to similar functionality in Skype, a new report says. The changeover could happen as early as this week.

Citing “several sources,” The Verge reports Microsoft is planning to integrate Windows Live Messenger into Skype in the coming months and then retire Messenger.

On the back end, the merger of the two systems has been happening already. Skype now uses much of the Windows Live Messenger’s systems to make and receive calls (the calls themselves, however, still use Skype’s peer-to-peer system). Skype also uses Messenger’s systems for about 80% of instant messages exchanged on the service, the report says.

Source: TheVerge

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UI design inspiration

UX (User Experience) is all those elements and factors related to the user's interaction with a particular environment or device which generate a positive or negative perception of the product, brand or device.

 

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Thonet concept bike by Andy Martin

The Frankenburg, Germany-based company is looking to branch out (no pun intended) from furniture with none other than a concept bike.

At the end of 2010 London based-designer Andy Martin was asked by THONET to design and develop a concept road bicycle using their steam bending process developed in the 1930s. Andy Martin Studio developed three designs of which the final was selected because its beauty and modest connection with the heritage of the company. Andy says 'The challenge was to take on fairly low tech process of steam bending and then apply it to a 21st-century bicycle with highly complex engineering.' With the many restrictions of hand bending the beech frame the final jointing and contours would be cut and adjusted on a cnc machine. Andy Martin has also developed a series of connectors and sprung rods to reinforce joints and the major stress areas in the frame.

As some of you may have guessed from the images, it's a fixed-gear, which the press release duly declares to be "the tradition of cycling: one has a greater connection to the bike and the surface one rides on." Curiously enough, they also note that it has no brakes and "several interchangeable gear ratios"—implying that the Thonet Bike is indeed rideable.

At $2,900 (£1800), the HED H3 carbon wheelset pictured in the renderings denoted by the press release would typically be upwards of 20–30% of the total cost of a high-end track bike... but they're practically a bargain on this build: the limited edition Thonet bike will be available for £43,000 ($70,000).

Via Core77

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HTC One SC ,Designed for China

From the front HTC's One SC looks right at home alongside the company's One series of smartphones launched earlier this year, but flip it over and it's a whole other story. The SC has a unique segmented design dominated by an HTC logo set into a ridged pattern, with a separate metallic section housing the camera and flash.

Inside, however, the phone is pretty run of the mill, with a 1Ghz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 5-megapixel camera. The asymmetrical design is nothing if not eye-catching, but for now the phone is only set to see release in China. Next to the Japan-only HTC J, we'd say it's a toss-up as to which country got the better deal.
Via TheVerge

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