The Brooks Review

Year: 2010

  • My Priority Inbox in Apple Mail.app

    With the announcement of Gmail’s new priority inbox I thought I might share how I make my own priority inbox using Mail rules in Apple’s Mail.app. First this is not nearly as impressive as what Google has built, but when you have several email addresses and a filing system you like, using Gmail is just not that practical (at least not for me).

    First let’s take a look at the rules I have:

    Screen shot 2010-09-01 at 4.27.53 PM.png

    News From Apple

    The first rule is the basic rule that Apple gives you, it colors all mail from Apple as blue, I actually like that so I have kept it all these years.

    Junk Mail Deleter

    The next is a junk mail deleter, basically if Mail flags an email as Junk mail it then marks it read and deletes the message. Yes, it deletes the message, I may miss one or two emails a month because of this but I don’t care because the time savings are well worth it. Additionally if the message I missed was really that important someone will call or contact me via other means.

    Backup Rule

    This is for a few blogs that I run that email me a database backup on a regular basis. This rule finds those emails and marks them read and files them away for me. This is essential to keeping my inbox empty.

    Urgent

    This is a very basic rule that scans just my emails, looking for the word ‘urgent’ in the email body, subject line and like. Once it finds this it colors the message Red.

    Verification / Confirmation

    Same setup as above, but looking for verification or confirmation, then marking the message red and coloring it gray. I often shop while on the run, and I hate confirmation emails making me think I have 5 emails in my inbox, when really I only have one that needs attention.

    Database Backup

    Another rule for emailed backups.

    Send to OmniFocus

    This is added by OmniFocus for emailed task entries. It works, kinda.

    CCd Bamboo

    This is one of my favorite rules. Basically it is looking for my work email address to show up in the CC field, and then checking to see if my name appears in the message body. If my name is not in the message body and I have been CCd on the email, the email is then marked read and archived. I figure I will never need to read these emails, and if I do they are easy enough to look up or for someone to tell me later what they said. Saves a ton of time.

    Important People

    This is the group that I pay attention to, I have a group in Address Book.app that is labeled Important. In that group I have added all the contacts that I think are important and that I want to be sure I see their emails (my Wife, good Friends, family). Whenever one of these people email me their message is flagged. I sort by flagged and so these emails are always read and responded to first.

    TBR Backups

    Just another backup rule for this blog (I never get around to consolidating).

    In Practice

    I have been using this setup for a while now, and rarely do I run into problems. I am always making new rules and later deleting them if they don’t work. The CCd rule is the newest, and so far I am really liking it.

    Now these rules are not made to help me on my Mac, but on my iPad and iPhone – for this to help there I must keep my Mac running 24/7 with Mail open so that it can process this stuff. Fortunately I do this with my Macbook Pro and Mac mini that I keep on all the time.

    The real key here is keeping emails out of my sight, I don’t even want to see them if I don’t need to, and that is the basis I have used for creating all these rules.

    [Updated: 9/3/10 at 7:11 AM] Be sure to read my update on my reasons behind this setup here.

    [This part of an ongoing series on dealing with email, to see more posts look here.]

  • One Bucket to Rule Them All

    Chris Bowler on OmniFocus:

    But I don’t believe that’s the target audience in question here. Folks who work on a Mac all day, do just that — work. And since you have to manage tasks and information, OmniFocus is a great option. In my mind, it’s the best option and it’s already here.

  • Flash on Android

    Ryan Lawler reviewing Flash on a Nexus One:

    Shockingly bad.

    I think a lot of people assumed Apple was lying when they said that these devices won’t run Flash.

  • Apple’s iPod Event – In Steve Jobs Quotes

    Ok so there is no way I am going to do a full write up, instead I am going give you a few of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs, and end with the important things (in my words).

    (all quotes are my transcription of Steve Jobs from the live broadcast Apple provided)

    “And here it is with people in it.”

    “Activate Jiggle Mode”

    “People clearly missed the buttons.”

    “Instantly wearable”

    “Wouldn’t be Apple without some new ads.”

    “Just about to cross the 12 billion song threshold”

    “Since iTunes will probably surpass the CD in sales we thought, maybe it’s time to ditch the CD in the logo.”

    “A social network for music.”

    “I’m a little particular.”

    “Here’s Lady Gaga, who I am following.”

    “We’ve got one more thing, actually one more hobby.”

    “They don’t want amateur hour.”

    “Remember these are commercial free too, which is nice.”

    “This is by far the best implementation of Netflix too…”

    “Even though we are a little more successful now…”

    Some killer stuff there. The iPods are meh, for anyone who is lazy (i.e. doesn’t work out) and owns and iPhone. The iPad update looks awesome, really awesome actually. Ping stands to be a huge profit center or a colossal flop, I think it will flop – I just don’t see people caring that much (I probably am wrong). The Apple TV update is so good I am going to buy one, and at $99 it is finally priced right.

  • How Google’s lack of control affects their value chain

    Asymco:

    Google today is faced with the prospect that not only the devices (which sit on its OS) but also services and apps on top would choose to remain on old versions of Android. There is nothing to stop them from doing just that. Unlike Microsoft, Google does not enforce licensing terms for Android. It is at the mercy of the value chain.

    In other words Google shot themselves in the foot by not writing their licensing in a way that would allow them to force vendors to use the latest and greatest in a timely manner. Oops.

  • Last Minute September 1, 2010 Apple Event Predictions

    This event will be all about FaceTime I think, new iPod touches that match the specs of the iPhone 4 bringing in FaceTime. New Apple TV with support for FaceTime. iOS 4.1 that unifies iPod touches with the iPhone (no update for the iPad).

    I don’t expect there to be any streaming info just yet, but TV subscriptions seem imminent.

  • WikiLeakiLeaks.org

    Well good idea, but its got nothin’. I mean seriously there is no information on the site yet.

  • WebOS 2.0 Features Revealed – What About the Hardware?

    So we now know about the features, but does Palm/HP really expect people to stick with what will be a 3 year old device? Where is the new hardware?

  • Oxford English Dictionary ‘will not be printed again’

    Not that big of a surprise, perhaps more surprising is that there are still people who buy dictionaries.

  • The Oatmeal Just Gets Us

    So very very true. You won’t get me to blink until it hits $9.99 though, just ask my bank.

  • Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of September 1 Event

    For the first time since 2005 Apple will be providing a live video feed for tomorrow’s event – no need for compulsive refreshing tomorrow as we can all now stream it.

  • Is Facebook ‘Too Big to Fail’ – Hell No

    In a post on the Backupify blog, Jay said this:

    As written previously, Facebook has become too big to fail. Everyone is on Facebook, so everyone wants to be on Facebook. Perhaps more accurately, Facebook is AOL 2.0 — a massive walled garden that makes the internet simpler and safer for the average user. Facebook may be doomed to AOL’s same fate once the walls of that garden become too closed in but, lest we forget, AOL is still around. Diaspora will fail to kill Facebook simply because Facebook can’t die, even after it has faded to zombie-like pointlessness.

    Are you kidding me, is this Jay’s first trip to the tech world? Did he not see Enron, Lehman, Madoff, or WorldCom? What they hell is he smoking? People once thought FriendFeed and MySpace were never going to fail, that worked out well for them. AOL for all intents and purposes has failed already, simply still being in business doesn’t mean you are not a failure.

    Second, I’m not convinced the average user gives a damn about privacy.

    Probably true, but once they start getting turned down for the precious few jobs out there because of pictures of their debauchery – well then they will start to care.

    Third, the opportunity to host my own social networking server is one that appeals only to the smallest fraction of the social networking marketplace.

    Absolutely true, but like Twitter the nerds must take over first and the rest (as they say) will follow. Diaspora will get the nerds to use it, the nerds will get regular users wanting it, and thus they will offer a hosted solution.

  • Coming Soon: AMD and Intel Inside

    AMD is killing off the ATI brand name and rolling it all under the AMD brand. Smart move that makes a lot of sense. The thing is, this really looks to be a shot at Intel, I mean AMD primarily has competed against Intel and now you can get a computer that has both Intel and AMD chips – just look at the current Mac Pro’s.

  • Courier for Mac

    Realmac Software:

    Courier allows you to share files, images, photos, movies, and more with all your favourite online services – including Flickr and Facebook.

    I hate, hate, hate how cumbersome it is to upload to Flickr, so this is a very welcome app for me.

  • Call Failed, Now Brought to you by Google

    Michael Arrington talking about Google Voice’s recent troubles:

    About 30% of my inbound calls have the caller muted – they can hear me but I can’t hear them. And outbound calls are worse. In the last 24 hours at least 75% of them failed completely. Either it never starts ringing, or it rings a couple of times and then dies. In fact, I called Google PR to give them a heads up on this story and that call failed too. As did a second attempt.

  • Character Amnesia

    Judith Evans:

    Character amnesia happens because most Chinese people use electronic input systems based on pinyin, which translates Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet.

    Interesting side effect of technology, really makes me wonder what would have happened if the US and western systems weren’t the ones to invent the digital inputs.

  • MySpace Announces Its Death

    I had almost forgotten about MySpace, but good news for its 3 users, you can now sync with Facebook (the much more popular social networking site).

  • Slow Death of Digg

    Rose and Co. are trying to push for massive change, instead of being like Zuckerberg and telling people that ‘this is the way it is’ he is caving to pressure from users. This will only end badly for everyone.

  • National Parks Infinite Photo

    Click to zoom in (flash) and reveal a lot more photos, very cool.

    [via Coudal]

  • Gmail Priority Inbox Sorts Your Email For You

    Jason Kincaid:

    The system uses a plethora of criteria to decide which messages are most important: things like how frequently you open and/or respond to messages from a given sender, how often you read messages that contain a certain keyword, and whether or not the message is addressed solely to you or looks like it was sent to a mailing list. If you come across a message that’s been marked important when it shouldn’t have been, you can hit an arrow to tell Gmail it’s messed up. Likewise, if a message that should have been flagged gets sent to the ‘everything else’ area, you can promote it. Through these actions Gmail gets progressively smarter, so the system should work better over time.

    This sounds really cool, I was getting ready to write up how to implement this in Apple’s Mail app and still will, but I can’t wait to try this out.