Minimalist

There’s a certain magic in watching someone squeeze maximum capability out of a beautifully spare workstation. While plenty of computer setups aspire to the look of a NASA mission control center — bristling with displays, peripherals and enough RGB to signal alien life — a different school of thought holds that the best setup is the leanest one. Fewer devices mean fewer cables, fewer distractions and more space to think. You can do a lot with a little.

Robert Pfaff is a young illustrator living in Michigan. He’s also a hard-core gamer with a love for all things pixellated, so he decided to combine both passions together and create this amazingly evocative set of digital artwork.

We found his work to be compelling, so asked Pfaff to choose his favorites and tell us a little about what they meant to him.

Pfaff is thinking about printing and selling his work on posters; if you’d like to encourage him, be sure to visit his artist page on Adobe’s portfolio site, Behance.

Source: Robert Pfaff

The ring of Tim Cook’s softened Southern twang hasn’t yet left our ears, and yet Belkin has already announced, not one, but practically a whole wall at the Apple Store full of iPad Air cases and keyboards.

Of the ten cases and three keyboard cases announced by Belkin after today’s event, the most interesting is the minimalist Qode (perhaps a Star Wars character?) Thin Type Keyboard Case — one of Belkin’s excellent keyboards wrapped in aluminum and equipped with a hinge that lets it double as a cover for the screen. For a little more protection, there’s the Qode (Peruvian dessert?) Ultimate Keyboard Case, which adds a protective aluminum backing around the iPad Air.

Boy, things are really heating up in the minimalist heck-with-all-this-crap-I-only-want-to-carry-one-thing space. Earlier this week, Distil Union unveiled Wally, basically a strip of leather that clings tenaciously to the back of your iPhone, with a small cavity you can fill with cards or cash.

But the $35 Crossover, created over at crowdsource-design site Quirky, looks like it might be even more minimalist than Wally — it’s just two silicone straps that grip the edges of your iPhone. And it comes in all kinds of colors to boot.

Weather apps are fairly thick on the ground in the App Store, and iOS even comes with its own Weather app, and has done so since day one. If that’s good enough for you, then keep on enjoying it; there’s nothing wrong with that.

However, if you’re a big fan of apps like Clear, where the interface is simple, minimalist, and just gets out of the way, you’ll love WeatherCube for iPad. It’s a universal app, and chances are you’ll dig it’s clean, functional lines enough to use it often on your iPad 3, 4, or Mini.

Check it out.

The best ideas are famously (stereotypically, perhaps) captured on the back of a napkin. That’s the thing that’s been closest to hand at a zillion restaurant or coffee shop tables when great minds have got together and come up with something new.

Ink is a new, free digital napkin for the modern era. It’s also an exercise in minimalism, designed to replicate that napkin and the pencil you’d scribble on it with and nothing more.

These utterly gorgeous minimalist icons for the Mac are about to get installed on my iMac, and you should do the same. Featuring icons for all of OS X’s core apps as well as popular third-party apps like Spotify, Sparrow, VLC, Firefox and more, this custom icon set can easily be installed using Panic Software’s CandyBar, which is completely free.

Stunning, don’t you think?

Source: Appicns.com

Having an uncluttered and minimalistic desktop has several benefits. Not only does it remove visual distractions, it can also actually speed up your Mac. In this video, I’ll show you a few ways to clean up and un-clutter your desktop.

The TRTL STAND iPhone 4 case ($30) is an eco-friendly case from TRTL BOT that, similar to its cousin the Minimalist 4, is made in the U.S. entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Not only does it aim to protect your device from scratches, scuffs, and scrapes, but it also boasts a built-in stand with a choice of three viewing angles.

The TRTL BOT Minimalist 4 ($30) is an eco-friendly iPhone 4 case made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. It attempts to substitute your wallet by providing a card slot on the back of the case which will house up to three credit cards, while protecting your device from scratches, scuffs and scrapes with a sturdy plastic shell that clings to the stainless steel band around your iPhone.