Path’s iOS App Uploads Your Entire Address Book (Without Notifying You)

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Path has been a fun app to play with, and they’ve done some outstanding UI design work (really pushing the state of the art of iOS interaction design forward), but this is most certainly not cool. Arun Thampi explains:

Upon inspecting closer, I noticed that my entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path. Now I don’t remember having given permission to Path to access my address book and send its contents to its servers, so I created a completely new “Path” and repeated the experiment and I got the same result – my address book was in Path’s hands.

Here’s the direct link.

For anyone interested in closing down their existing Path account, here are the details from Path’s support site.

UPDATE: Here’s a direct link to Path CEO Dave Morin’s response to the post, along with the ensuing discussion with other users.

 | Posted in Etc. | Tagged as , , ,

 

Pure Fix Cycles on Sale at Fab.com

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

The Delta fixie from Pure Fix Cycles

Okay, now that I’ve safely acquired one (ended up with the Dixie, pictured above, rather than the previous object of my lust, the Papa), I can safely plug the Pure Fix Cycles sale at Fab.com. They’ve got a limited number of these gorgeous bikes on sale for $75 off – $250, down from $325.

Here’s the direct link.

If anyone needs a Fab.com invite, hit me up via email (linked in the right sidebar) or on Twitter.

 | Posted in Personal | Tagged as , ,

 

Bad Day for Bigots, Good Day for America

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

AMEN.

Mother Jones nails it. Adam Serwer lays out the details.

UPDATE – This pretty much sums it up:

 | Posted in Politics | Tagged as , , ,

 

My Latest Obsession: The 2012 Papa from Pure Fix Cycles

Monday, February 6th, 2012

2012 Papa from Pure Fix Cycles

I’ve been researching city/commuter bikes for our upcoming move to San Francisco (I’m hoping to spend a lot less time in the car and much more time on a bike, at least for my commute) and I came across this beauty from LA’s Pure Fix Cycles.

Besides being a gorgeous piece of design? It’s incredibly priced – $325, with free shipping. Holy shit.

The 2012 Papa (Pure Fix Cycles)

 | Posted in Design, Personal | Tagged as , , , ,

 

Budweiser’s Flash Fans Super Bowl Ad

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Yes, it’s a homage/rip/whatever of Improv Everywhere’s Best Gig Ever stunt, but this still made for the best commercial of this year’s Super Bowl. Sadly, it aired only in Canada.

(Courtesy of Roger Ebert)

 | Posted in Video | Tagged as , , , ,

 

John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Amazing Collection of Essays – Pulphead

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah SullivanI’m a bit embarrased to say I wasn’t really familiar with Sullivan’s work before coming across it on Deadspin, but I’m trying to make up for it, eagerly devouring the Kindle edition of Pulphead: Essays. The Deadspin piece excerpts “Feet in Smoke”, an amazing tale of the electrocution and near-death of the author’s brother:

I stood frozen, staring at him. The nurse spoke to me from the corner of the room in an unexpected tone of admonishment, which stung me at the time and even in retrospect seems hard to account for. “It ain’t like big brother’s gonna wake up tomorrow and be all better,” she said. I looked at her stupidly. Had I not seemed shocked enough?

Read “Feel in Smoke” here.

Get Pulphead: Essays in print or Kindle editions here.

 | Posted in Personal | Tagged as , ,

 

Sheriff Tom, Age 4?

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

Patrolling the backyard, circa 1979

Doesn’t every kid have a phase in which he/she traipses around parents’ shoes? Here I was patrolling the backyard sometime around 1979.

What’s really intriguing is the rush of memories this brings back; I can close my eyes and still both smell and feel the texture of those leather boots of my dad’s, which I absolutely loved (and wore all the time).

 | Posted in Personal | Tagged as , , ,

 

The Intriguing Design Work Being Done at Bloomberg Businessweek

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

Adam Clark Estes at the Atlantic Wire talks with Bloomberg Businessweek’s creative director Richard Turley, discussing some of the intriguing design work being published in the magazine, particularly come of their cover concepts. Turley, discussing the concept of their latest cover (planes having sex):

The cover conversations happen quite quickly. Sometimes that’s a product of our proximity. Sometimes we just email a bit and say something and come up with an idea. Josh comes up with a lot of the cover ideas. It was Josh who said, “How about planes having sex for the cover?” And I was like “YES.” Sometimes I get a bit too much of the credit. We have a good relationship. We have a good partnership. We disagree occasionally. But we know when we have a good idea and don’t try to get in the way of it.

Read the full interview here.

The Businessweek team also has an active Flickr account with lots of examples of both their cover and interior graphics work.

 | Posted in Design | Tagged as , , , ,

 

Seaweed at the Bell House in Brooklyn

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

The pride of Tacoma, Seaweed, from a spot show last April in Brooklyn. I was fortunate to see one of their first reunion shows Labor Day Weekend 2007 at Bumbershoot in Seattle. We need more shows and a new album. Please?

 | Posted in Music | Tagged as , , ,

 

The Bark Side

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

An awesome teaser for Volkswagen’s 2012 Super Bowl ad.

 | Posted in Video | Tagged as , ,

 

Tom CarmonyNorthleft is a blog written by Tom Carmony. While primarily design-focused, you'll also likely find a smattering of music, pop culture, politics and pictures of my kid.

I wrangle pixels and code for Mule Design from an outpost in Tacoma, WA. Before that, I ran my own design practice, Bainbridge Studios, for the better part of a decade.

Follow me on Twitter or email tom@northleft.net.

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