Linked List: January 18, 2014

Saturday, 18 January 2014

Speaking of DF RSS Feed Sponsors 
Another last-minute scheduling change has left next week’s spot open.

Update: That didn’t take long.

The next open spot after that isn’t until the end of February. If you’ve got a product or service to promote to DF’s discerning audience, get in touch.

Duplicate: A New Typeface From Commercial Type 

My thanks to Commercial Type for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote Duplicate, a collection of new typefaces by Christian Schwartz and Miguel Reyes, paying homage to legendary French type designer Roger Excoffon.

Duplicate comes in three varieties: Duplicate Sans, Duplicate Slab, and Duplicate Ionic, each in 6 weights from Thin to Black. Designed for use in publications, websites, and corporate identities, Duplicate works beautifully at a wide range of sizes, from captions to headlines, and all 36 styles have been manually hinted for use on screen.

These are great typefaces — attractive, readable, and very distinctive. Duplicate is available now from Commercial Type for print, mobile apps, and as self-hosted webfonts.

Products for Nobody 

Abdel Ibrahim, writing at The Tech Block:

Just look at Chromebook Pixel for example. How many people are really going to spend $1300 on a high-resolution Chromebook? Are techies going to? No so much. Are everyday consumers going to? Hell no. Why even build it? To prove that they can build a high-resolution laptop for $1300? At this point, any hardware manufacturer can do that. Just go to your local Best Buy. […]

But at least they’re trying, right? Absolutely. I’m glad they are. But it would awesome if the brilliant minds at Google worked on something everyone reading this would actually want to buy. Not something we probably won’t see for years, maybe even decades.

Om Malik on Google’s Smart Contact Lenses 

Om Malik:

One in 19 people on this planet have diabetes. I am one. […]

So when I read about Google’s “smart contact lens project,” which allows these lenses to measure blood sugar levels, for a very brief instant I was excited.

Before and After 

The Joy of Tech on Google’s acquisition of Nest.

Motorola Cuts Moto X’s Wood Finishes From $100 to $25 

Always a good sign.

NPD: Apple and Samsung Widen Lead in U.S. Phone Market 

Brian X. Chen, writing for NYT Bits:

Nokia, whose smartphones primarily run Microsoft’s Windows operating system, was not even worth mentioning in the study. In general, Nokia’s Windows phones have not gained traction in the United States, although Nokia’s phones are selling stronger in overseas markets like Argentina, India, Poland and Russia.

The NPD numbers underscore especially disappointing results for Motorola. Last year, the company aggressively promoted the Moto X, its first flagship smartphone made under its new owner, Google. Yet despite these efforts, Motorola’s presence in the United States last year dwindled compared with 2012, according to the study.

Update: The story has now been updated to read:

The report did not track phones using the Windows Phone operating system, so Nokia, which uses that software, did not appear. In general, Nokia’s phones have not gained traction in the United States, although Nokia’s phones are selling stronger in overseas markets like Argentina, India, Poland and Russia.