If you’ve ever begrudgingly wished that the Microsoft side of the fence had someone like Apple’s design guru Jony Ive, well, we don’t. But Marko Ahtisaari, head of Nokia design, comes awfully close. And this video discussion about the design of the Nokia Lumia 920 is quite interesting.
All it’s missing is a British mispronunciation of aluminum. :)
Thanks to Ryan and Travis Lowdermilk for the tip.
Paul
Us Brits can't possibly mispronounce 'aluminum' as we don't know what it is. Is it like aluminium?
Loving the colour choice with the latest Nokia phones....sorry, I mean color choice ;-)
Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium
;-)
Damn it. Beaten to it by my fellow island-dwellers.
Aluminium / UK
Aluminum (the dumb way) / USA
I've had mine for 3 weeks. I do like it very much but am wondering about one part of the design. My lock/unlock/power button is already caving into the device and I really don't see it last even six months. Anyone else experiencing this?
I never understood why Brits felt the need to intentionally change the spelling of aluminum while leaving platinum alone.
But I never understood why they intentionally changed the spelling of tire to tyre, either, since etymologically, tyr- would only apply to the exhaustion variant of the word.
I've come to suspect they just mess with the language to keep it proprietary and only pretend to care when an American is within earshot.
Actually both aluminum and aluminium are correct. Aluminum was the original name, then 5 years later after its discovery it was changed to aluminium in order that it fitted in with all the other elements. Unfortunately, US-based dictionaries kept using the old spelling, hence it stuck.
Actually just read over what I wrote. I retract the first sentence. Sorry, it seems we in the UK pronounce it correctly. :)
All of the other elements of the time. Again, I can't help pointing out Britain's apparent apathy toward platinum. :)
The -ium spelling was proposed by an anonymous opinion in a political rag--a 200 year old equivalent to an internet forum comment--objecting to the ghastly, barbaric lack of an extra syllable in a word from a topic on which he had no authority or verifiable expertise.
It is thus recorded forever in the history books that Britain decided a 200 year old tweet was a more informed opinion than an established chemist who, for what it's worth, was also very much English.
Not sure which source is correct, but this here:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm
seems to suggest that the chemist who "discovered" aluminium changed his mind a few times, finally settling on the spelling: aluminium. The american Webster's dictionary would then be at fault for not updating to the right spelling, though perhaps because the metal was very difficult to extract and thus quite rare, it may not have seemed very important at the time.
Btw, though I realize we've already quite badly digressed, I should point out the common American mispronunciations of words from other languages, like French and Italian words coupé and bruschetta... Urgh. :P
Finally had a chance to play with the Lumia 920. I loved Nokia back in the day and the 920 isn't all that heavy. I really wanted to fall in love with this phone and get another Nokia again.
But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why I would drop a more established ecosystem for Windows Phone 8. The 920's a fine phone, every bit as good as any other flagship but what's the selling point? Android convinced me to switch because it had fewer restrictions than iOS.
What do I get by switching to WP8?
You get a more integrated stock experience, a more consistent and intuitive interface, and apps that have free trials! (how that last point hasn't caught on with other app stores makes no sense to me)
I all honesty, if you love to tinker and customize every part of your phone, then Android is for you. If, however, you would rather have a device that works well out of the box without any fuss, then consider WP8 and iOS. If you then would prefer a modern interface and the ability to create a really personalized home screen, then WP8 wins (as long as you're comfortable with less apps)
Haz enee-wun als notised that thu inglish langwij iz not orl-wayz spaled thu way it iz pronownsed?
Here is a funny video about American vs British english.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
P.S. This guy is the PC in the UK version of the "I'm a Mac" adverts.
"No, Marko. Wearing your black turtleneck might be a bit too close...OK, you can wear your black shirt."
How can anyone pronounce "A L U M I N I U M" as Aluminum? It's there in the periodic table right?
Anyway, Marko is pretty creepy. Supernatural maybe?
Mr Pedantic here...
Americans say Aliminum in the same way that Platinum is pronounced which makes sense. They also spell Theater better than the british do we kinda miss spell it with theatre. They misspell Pearl Harbour, Capt James Cook named it, he was from England.. They did however name the space shuttle Endeavour correctly - incidently one of his ships.
We also say 'Do the Maths' which I feel sounds better than 'Do the Math'.
Britain and American seperated by 3000 miles of ocean.
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