Alchemy by Leban Hyde | UX + Branding

Apple Event: Spring Loaded

Mark your calendar (three weeks in a row, woohoo!): Apple announced its "Spring Loaded" event for April 20 at 12:00pm CDT. In classic form, not many details have been revealed on what will be announced, so all we're left with is speculation. But with the news of a combined TV box coming out just the day before, one can only wonder if the focus will be on a further attempt to revive Apple's smart-home product line. I'll say that, as an active user of both Apple and Google products, Google is currently winning this market.

And while you're at it, mark your calendar for the next Samsung Unpacked event on April 28th at 9:00am CDT. It's no coincidence that this is set for a week and a day after Apple's event, but I'm okay with that — give me all the tech!!! And with most of us working from home still, hopefully our friends in PDT can make it a pajamas and coffee event.

In other connected device news, Spotify launches Car Thing, a screen device that essentially acts as a mobile juke box (kids, go ask your parents). As they also rolled out voice commands just a week prior, I would expect that deeper integration with "Hey Spotify" will be the biggest selling point (your phone currently has to be unlocked and app open in order for it to work and who does that?). As a user & mobile designer, I've been really impressed with Spotify's attention to the in-car experience on their mobile app alone, so I'm excited to see what Car Thing has to offer (I signed up immediately… check the link at the end of the article).

Filed under "Posts I Wish I Had Written," we get a nifty step-by-step guide to bringing your iOS designs over to Android. As someone who's had to do exactly that, I endorse their recommendations. Of course, I would expect you to trust a Material Design Advocate who actually works for Google's word over my own, but just for what it's worth.

Following up on last week's announcement on LG's mobile division, I dove a little deeper into why they decided to close up shop. Honestly, I had no idea that LG had been responsible for so much innovation. Now, admittedly, as someone who plays in the software layer, I haven't always cared about what happens in the hardware layer outside of what can be accessed through APIs to provide a better user experience. But if you work in this space long enough, I guess it's only a matter of time before you place equal importance on both.

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