That's not me, but it is my shirt, as depicted by Zazzle. You register, upload artwork, preview it, and they put it on tee shirts, hats, mugs, buttons, etc. that you order. It's certainly not cheap, but it is fast, and totally custom. I ordered one shirt and it arrived today.

What's more, you can make your artwork public and other people can put it on their goods. When they are sold, you get a royalty. There is also an affiliate program which gets more of the sale in your pocket.

Now I have discovered tee-shirt design, what do you think I should put on a Bagelturf shirt for sale to the general public? And would you buy one? With shipping that one shirt was about $25. That's as much as an entire book, so it had better be a good shirt.

Also, if you are in the UK you should check out Tee Marto. You can't send in your own designs, but they do have some good ones for sale.

Tags: Tee Shirts, Design, Store

That's the top-level screen (or so we believe) for the iPhone. But why those buttons? It's really not all that different from any smartphone or PDA and I wonder why. Everything else about the device is revolutionary.

I see icons denoting services and tools, but none relating to people. Communication starts with a person, then with a selection of the method. iChat works like this. With iChat the method is easy to select because I can see if and how the person is currently connected. With the iPhone interface I have to select how first, then who. Which means that I have to know who has SMS, who has voice, and who has email right at this instant.

And what of incoming information? If someone urgently contacts me three ways, I don't know that. All I see are three items in different media: one phone message, one SMS message, and one email. From the top level which do I check first? How do I know these are all the same person?

What would I change? At least half of the main screen should be dedicated to people, either icons of individuals or groups (such as colleagues). Those icons should show me how many voice messages, SMS messages, notes, and anything else associated with that person I have currently, and should also show their availability. Some icons should be fixed, reserved for family members and colleagues who I communicate with regularly. The others should vary according to what messages I have. Having a small number of people icons available on the screen would also add a social twist to the iPhone: being on someone else's iPhone would be a badge of honor, getting bumped an embarrassment.

The design reinforces my opinion that the iPhone is destined to be more of a machine communication device than a human communication device. In other words, its ability to communicate with people is secondary to its ability to communicate with other devices. This may seem like an odd idea, but it is exactly what the iPod achieves with the support of a desktop computer and the iTunes music store: seamless communication of music. The iPhone really is a hand-held computer, an extension of the desktop, and of anything else connected to the internet.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, Design