I just completed my first week as the new Designer & Front-end Developer at Envy Labs! This week has been tremendous, and I look forward to growing as a designer & developer on such a great team.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs — an incredible visionary who will be sorely missed.

The iPhone 4S has a much faster CPU, a much faster GPU, a much better camera, a highly advanced voice-AI system like nobody has ever seen, better battery life, an improved antenna, international GSM roaming ability on CDMA-locked phones, a 64 GB option, and better carrier availability. It is extremely likely to become the best-selling smartphone in the world.

Would as many people be disappointed if Apple had released the same device but called it the iPhone 5?

Marco Arment on the iPhone 4S. I couldn’t agree more.

Siri. The intelligent assistant that helps you get
things done. All you have to do is ask.

I, like several others, found myself skeptical about the practical everday uses of Siri, Apple‘s new voice command assistant that’s built into the new iPhone 4S. People are adverse to voice command utilities because they always seem to be more trouble then they are worth. However, I believe that, with a proper implementation, Siri can be of use to the everday user. I immediately thought about my Mom, and how perfect such a tool would be for a user like her. She knows how to complete the majority of tasks on her iPhone, but there are several features she doesn’t use to their fullest capability. Siri could assist her in accomplishing those tasks. It will be interesting to see how it’s used, as well as how it develops over time. Apple knows what they’re doing, so I’m sure it will grow into a seamless part of their product.

If you’re building web applications, spin.js is an excellent resource to add to your toolkit. You can dynamically create loading spinners with JavaScript. You no longer need to use a loading .GIF to accomplish this. The best part is that you can change the spinner speed, width, color, size, etc. on the fly, without the need for making a new .GIF.

It was about time that I updated my portfolio site. It was starting to get stale. So, without further ado, please head over to http://www.drewbarontini.com and have a look around. I’ve posted some new work, and all of my projects have individual pages with screenshots, information about what I did, and a little more information on the project. I hope you like it!

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.

- Steve Jobs on design. There won’t be another innovator quite like him.

I’m going to withhold judgment for now, but my initial impressions of Google+ are great. I think the product has a lot of potential, mainly because of the Circles feature. You can place people into Circles, where you can control who sees what content. For example, I could have a Circle for my family, and then share something just with them. You can also filter your Stream by a given Circle, and you will only see the content from that Circle. It’s different concept, and one that Facebook has never fully integrated. It will be interesting to see how Google+ evolves, and if enough people use it to warrant people adding another social network to their life.

The Hit List is a simple, yet sophisticated application to manage the daily chaos of your modern life. Based on the simple concept of making lists, The Hit List lets you plan, forget, then act when the time is right.

After a couple years of being in beta, The Hit List finally goes 1.0. In addition to the mac application, the iPhone app has been submitted and is in review. It should go live in the App Store soon. I used Things by Cultured Code for a long time, but the lack of sync caused me to abandon it. They have been working on sync for some time, but I’m tired of waiting. Recently, I’ve been using Teux Deux as a simple todo list, but I’m now using The Hit List since its 1.0 release. It’s well designed, feature-rich, and has a nice amount of flexibility to work the way I want it to. I look forward to the release of the iPhone app.

Great story about Joshua Kaufman (@jmk) recovering his stolen MacBook using a Mac application called Hidden. He details the whole story, and even includes the pictures the application captured of the thief.

The calendar you’ll actually enjoy using.

Fantastical is a beautiful, new Mac calendar application. Some of the standout features are:

• Natural language engine for creating events
• Color-coding and beautiful design for viewing events
• Works with iCal, Entourage, or Outlook
• Automatic alarms

You can download a free trial version and, if you choose to buy it, you can get it at a discounted intro price of $14.99 until June 1st.

A great tool that lets you replicate the effects of layer styles (just like in Photoshop) from within the browser. Oh, and it generates the CSS for you.

We print your Instagram photos.

Another Instagram-related service has popped up. Printstagram, much like the name implies, will print your Instagram photos on a 20″ x 40″ print for $10 + shipping.

Teach your clients about the mysteries of the web.

A great idea, and a great resource for freelancers.

Tweetbot is a full-featured iPhone Twitter client with a lot of personality. Whether it’s the meticulously-crafted interface, sounds & animation, or features like multiple timelines & smart gestures, there’s a lot to love about Tweetbot.

Do yourself a favor and download Tweetbot by Tapbots. It is a great application. It has replaced Twitter for iPhone for me.

Instantly print and ship your Instagram photos right from web or iPhone. Send high-quality photos to friends and family, anywhere, anytime.

If you use Instagram, then you’ll really like this app that just got released today. TechCrunch did a nice writeup about the application. Be sure to check it out.

A clean and simple way to help align your layouts. No complex grid frameworks necessary.

If you design in the browser, this is a great tool to incorporate a grid quickly and easily.

I don’t even own an iPad 2 yet, but I really want this cover.

A great site that shows off a collection of responsive websites. If you’re building a responsive web design and are looking for some inspiration, this is a great site to visit.