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“Croissants, smoothies and boring chats.” At Puccino’s, a coffee retailer in the UK, you’re tagged with off-beat attitude messages that make you smile.

Designer and illustrator, Jim Smith, has created a scratchy pen-style brand identity for Puccino’s with a sense of humor. The coffee cup’s packaging gives you quirky messages as you interact with it. It’s almost the kind of child-like comments you would not say out loud.

A brand identity made of playful doodling and the banality of every day. Fresh simplicity that is strangely attractive. Is Jim Smith’s quirkily humor questioning the seriousness in art?

The Rodney O. Lain Archive:

Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of my dearest friends, Rodney O. Lain. The picture above is of us at the opening of the Apple Store at Mall of America. That was a fun day.

Some of you long time Mac folks may remember or recognize that name or his writings. He wrote for just about every Mac website in the blossoming days of the internet – MacAddict, Applelinks, The iMac.com, MacSimple, Mac Observer – You name it.

His style was irreverent and confrontational. He liked to piss people off in order to make them think. But he was wicked smart about it too. He not only had a degree in Journalism, but also in Theology, and he used his “pen” as both sword and pulpit to great effect.

He also loved the Mac. I mean, it bordered on obsession, but was born of pure passion. Despite having many regular office style day jobs, he always kept a job at CompUSA and, before that, Best Buy for the sole purpose of “converting the sinners” to Macintosh. Seriously folks, any fanboyism you see in me pales in comparison to Rodney.

Rodney is no longer with us but, thanks to Low End Mac, much of his legacy remains. I urge you to take some time over the next couple of days to peruse the work that is there. Some of the subject matter may be dated but the passion remains. At the least, it is an interesting window to a time not too long ago when Apple was on the ropes, fighting the battle against the specter of death daily. Not too many people knew then that Rodney was fighting the same battle. As happy as I am that Apple won that fight, I wish Rodney had as well.

In praise of unitasking:

I became keenly aware of how infrequently I focus on one single thing when I started using my iPad. For the most part (yes, you can play music in the background), it does one thing at a time. In fact, when I’m using an app on the iPad, it becomes that app.

I have found this to be very true myself. As I see it, unitasking is a feature of the current iOS and not a bug. Another reason I am glad to wait a while before buying the iPhone 4 is that, while my iPhone 3G will run iOS 4, both multitasking and homescreen wallpapers are not supported on it. Forced minimalism is something I often embrace.

Plex Media Center for OS X:

As I said, the new Mac Mini is perfectly designed to be used as a media center machine. Just hook the HDMI to your new fangled TV set and you are most of the way there. I say most of the way because you will need some software, not only to play all manner of (legally acquired) media, but also something that is easy to see and navigate using the remote from your couch. That said, I see a lot of chatter about Boxee being the software to go with here. And while it is nice enough, I am going to argue for a better (In my opinion, at least) solution.

Plex is not as well known as Boxee, and that is part of it’s advantage. Plex is designed to be media center software for the Mac. Unlike Boxee, Plex has no goals of creating set top boxes, supporting game consoles, or running anywhere but on a computer. Why is this an advantage?

Well, because most media companies are stuck in lizard brain dinosaur land. They think that there is a huge difference and divide between watching content on a television and watching it on a computer. Most take great issue with Boxee and have tried several times to cut it off at the legs. Why? Because Boxee’s main goal is to play on a TV and the media dinos think they should get paid for that. Plex, on the other hand, only cares about playing on a desktop or computer and, if you happen to hook that computer up to a TV, well, that is your business. The dinos care much less about it and, therefore, you will suffer less hassles (features and access suddenly being removed, etc).

Also, unlike Boxee, the Plex interface is clean and very Mac like. It is well maintained, has support for just about every streaming channel imaginable (Hulu, Netflix, etc.), and has a ton of configuration options under the hood. I have been using it daily for a couple of years now and it is rock solid. Highly recommended for that new Mac Mini you were planning on buying.

Dutch designer Bram Geenen created the Gaudi chair as a follow-up of his Gaudi stool.

Like the Gaudi stool, the Gaudi chair is developed by using the same methods (models of hanging chains) as Antoni Gaudi used to find the strongest shape for his impressive churches.

The construction of the chair is compared with the stool a bit more complicated due to the forces in the chairs backrest. That is why Geenen combined the chain models with a software script to determine a 3D printed structure of nylon ribs to distribute the forces of the backrest across the chair. The structure is covered by a thin shell of carbon fiber.

Shareable: Gadget Lust Vs. Good Enough:

…it may be time to pull yourself away from Twitter and Gizmodo and get some perspective. Take a walk, hit the public library and borrow a book and a DVD. Find a yard sale and remember how quickly the newest tech becomes discarded detritus piled on a driveway. Consider how short the trip is from driveway to the landfill. As geeks, it’s incredibly easy to get seduced by gadget lust, as our obsessions are stoked by the endless, breathless Internet hype cycle. But as long as they operate, the gadgets already in our pockets and in our communities are good enough

I don’t think I could have said it better myself.

Amid the enthusiastic drone of the vuvuzelas, the 19th FIFA World Cup began in South Africa yesterday. Of the 32 participating nations, overall the playing kits are as smart and appealing as I can remember.

England make their debut today and it’s their jersey that takes the spoils — an understated, clean and classy contradiction to the vibrancy and colour of the rainbow nation.

Harking back to pre-war, pre-branded era shirts, perennial kit makers Umbro went back to basics by taking inspiration from Saville Row to produce a more tailored garment. Even the geometric type looks like another English classic: Gill Sans. And whether you happen to be David Beckham, or a World champion gurner, the shirt looks great regardless — objective achieved for a mass-market product.

The red away jersey, unveiled by British band Kasabian earlier this year, is constructed in a similar vein, though it’s more a reference to England’s sole World Cup triumph in 1966.