Purl — An Animated Pixar Short

Purl is an animated short film from Pixar’s SparkShorts program. It is directed by Kristen Lester and is based on her experience of being in animation.

My first job… I was like… the only woman in the room. And so… in order to do the thing that I loved, I sort of became one of the guys. And then I came to Pixar and I started to work on teams with women for the first time. And that actually made me realize how much of the female aspect of myself I had buried and left behind.

Purl features an earnest ball of yarn named Purl who gets a job in a fast-paced, high energy, bro-tastic start-up. Yarny hijinks ensue as she tries to fit in, but how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for, and in the end, is it worth it?

February 5, 2019 ✚ Permalink

End of the road for Fiat in India this year

Hormazd Sorabjee, writing for Autocar India:

Fiat’s current product portfolio, which currently only consists of the Linea and Grande Punto (and the latter’s hotter Abarth and crossover derivatives), will not comply with the upcoming stricter safety and emission regulations. There has been minimal investment in both these ageing products, which have been on sale for around a decade. Hence, investing in upgrading the Linea and Grande Punto, which are well beyond their lifecycle and whose combined sales were just 101 units in 12 months (from December 2017-November 2018), would be pointless.

I really didn’t think I’d see this day, FCA.

February 4, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Spotify is in Talks to Acquire Gimlet

Peter Kafka, reporting for Recode:

Sources say Spotify is in advanced talks to acquire Gimlet, the Brooklyn-based company which produces a network of popular shows and makes shows for advertisers like Gatorade. Gimlet has also been moving into TV production, including a deal that turned Homecoming, which started out as a scripted podcast, into an Amazon TV show starring Julia Roberts.

Podcasting is going big, and it’s good to see Spotify trying to get a piece of that pie.

February 2, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Office 365 Comes to the Mac App Store

Apple’s Press Release on their Newsroom:

Today, Office 365 is available for the first time on the Mac App Store, making it easier than ever for Mac users to download Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the whole suite of Microsoft’s popular apps. Users can also purchase a subscription for Office 365 from within the apps, so they can get up and running instantly.

This was announced at WWDC in June last year. I wonder how much of a cut from the subscriptions is Apple getting from this.

My bet? Not a lot.

January 25, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Marshall the Window Cat

Coming across stories like this on Twitter is one of the most wonderful things about the Internet as we know it today.

https://twitter.com/erika_strong/status/1088108670888693762?s=21

January 24, 2019 ✚ Permalink

The Twitterrific Ad Network

Gedeon Maheux, writing for The Iconfactory:

Now you can advertise your app, website, product or service directly on Twitterrific’s expansive network of tech-savvy users for just $100 a month. For that price we guarantee 1,000 tap-throughs – not impressions but actual visits – to your App Store page or website. What’s more, we take care of creating the ad for you ourselves and even provide App Analytics for iOS or Google Analytics for websites.

Twitterrific is one of the most lovingly crafted apps out there, and the folks at The Iconfactory are a bunch of incredibly passionate folks. The ads in Twitterrific are actually something you want to see and work as refreshing change from the usually clutter spreading like a parasite across the web.

If you’re an app developer, you should go check out The Twitterrific Ad Network here.

January 23, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Hoefler & Co’s Cloud.typography Now Includes Entire Library of Fonts

The folks at Hoefler & Co. have just announced a major change coming to Web Fonts from H&Co.

For years, Cloud.typography has included any five fonts of your choosing, and the rest available to purchase. Today we’re making things a lot simpler, a lot more flexible, and a lot more valuable: every Cloud.typography subscription now includes access to our complete library of fonts to use on the web.

This is a phenomenal value being offered at just $99/year. The fonts that Hoefler & Co. offers are some of the most remarkable fonts available today, and to have access to the entire library of fonts to include in any of your websites, is great news for any designer and developer out there.

But that’s not all, there’s more good news further down in the post.

Whether you’re a Cloud.typography subscriber or not, now you can license any of our fonts for self-hosting, and download them as both woff and woff2 files.

I like that both these options are independent of each other, and that you can even buy a perpetual license to the exact font you want to self-host.

January 23, 2019 ✚ Permalink

G Suite Pricing Goes Up for Basic and Business Editions

Google has announced today that it will be increasing the prices of its G Suite offering.

Over the last ten years, G Suite has grown to provide more tools, functionality and value to help businesses transform the way they work. The one thing that hasn’t changed over this time, is price. Today, we are announcing two incremental list price updates to reflect this value. Starting on April 2, 2019, G Suite Basic Edition will increase by $1 (from $5 to $6 per user/month) and G Suite Business Edition will increase by $2 (from $10 to $12 per user/month), or the local currency equivalent where applicable. These increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. Pricing for G Suite Enterprise Edition customers will not change.

I think the price increase is fair, but I do wish Google had a ‘Lite’ plan, smaller than the Basic edition, that only offered Gmail + Drive for $3/user/month.

To be fair, Google does offer lower pricing for G Suite in India, starting at ₹150/user/month for the Basic edition, but I bet that’s rising to ₹200 very soon.

January 17, 2019 ✚ Permalink