The Brooks Review

Year: 2010

  • Review: Elements Text Editor for iOS

    Elements is a writing app that syncs its text files with your Dropbox (link is to my referral account, if you don’t like me go to Dropbox.com) account giving you full access on your computer. When it came out I downloaded it immediately I am a sucker for any new app that may make my life easier and this sounded like it might. The thing is I already had Simplenote and it was syncing via Dropbox and Simplenote Sync already, so Elements would have to be better.

    It isn’t better, it isn’t even close.

    The Flaw(s)

    I hate to give a bad review of anything because I know a lot of time and effort went into making this app, but it really isn’t worth the money. The UI is ugly, and icon is ugly – even on the larger screened iPad it still is ugly. Oh and did I mention that you can only sync it with the ‘Elements’ folder that it creates in your Dropbox account? Well you can only sync it with that folder, what a waste.

    Elements would be useful for a lot of people if it was just a text editor for Dropbox files, allowing you to edit and save back, any text files that you store in your Dropbox folder. Instead it forces me to create yet another folder, where I will promptly forget what I am storing in this new folder.

    Perhaps I am just spoiled by the recent Simplenote 3 update, but this really is not a great text editor. I am hard pressed to see any benefit it offers over Simplenote and that is reason enough alone for me to not use it.

    Why You May Like It

    Now that we have the bad stuff out the the way there is a subset of people that I can see really liking this app: those that don’t like to tinker. If you have Dropbox already and use a program like TextEdit or TextMate (and so on) then this is a dead simple method of syncing. Whatever is in the Elements folder is synced and accessible in the app, dead simple.

    Simplenote requires that you start syncing with its service (free) and then if like me you use Notational Velocity (with text file storage) enabled, placing the folder for Notational Velocity files in Dropbox accomplishes the same thing as Elements. It is a bit more complicated.

    Two Other Nifty Features

    Emailing as an attachment is a really nice feature. Simplenote can email a note, but it cannot email it as a text file attachment (though it has several other sharing options). Being able to attach a text file to an email brings me a step closer to a full computing experience.

    The second neat feature is the scratchpad, hit a button and you can jot a note, while you write another note. This feature is limited in its usefulness, but a great addition anyways.

    Bottom Line

    There is a very niche market for this app, and at a price of $4.99 that niche better be willing to pay up. Most are better off getting the free Simplenote.

  • Apple to hold media event on September 1st

    I guess new iPod touch’s that more closely resemble the current iPhone (front camera and retina display), iPod refreshes and the new Apple TV. I do not think they will touch the iPad at this event, they may quietly drop the price while the store is down though.

  • Someone Has Way to Much Time on Thier Hands and Possibly Super Fingers

    This person claims to have beat the world record for texting speed on an iPhone 4 by a whopping 4 seconds. If true, that is damned impressive.

  • Flashback: Brad Silverberg and Bill Gates unveil Windows 95

    Say what you will about Microsoft now, but Windows 95 was a game changer for the software world. Take a look at the first two videos in this post, great stuff.

  • Step Away from the iPhone

    Matt Richtel reporting:

    “People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,” said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.

    It is no surprise that our brains need down time, I think we call all agree that stepping away from our phones/computers allow us to see the world in a new light. Not to mention it really helps us to think.

    [via Hacker News]

  • Garrett Murray Sees a Problem with Facebook

    Garret Murray:

    That’s the problem with Facebook. They are slowly destroying independent web applications with boring versions that immediately win due to Facebook’s population (which at this point is the 3rd largest country on earth). There’s no demand for excellence.

    Sounds a lot like the Microsoft we knew in the 1990’s.

    [via Tyler Galpin]

  • Review: Simplenote 3

    Last night Simplenote released the version 3 update, a massive update that brings a slew of new features to the very simple note taking app for the iPhone. I like so many others took to using the app at the urging of Daring Fireball’s John Gruber when he mentioned it quite some time ago. Since then the much ridiculed app icon has changed a few times and again in version 3 it gains a new icon, more than that the interface has been overhauled and refined.

    The Best New Feature

    With version 3 on both the iPad and iPhone Simplenote has introduced ‘full screen’ editing, where by you get a white canvas, your text and the keyboard and nothing else. No clock, or battery status indicator to distract the eye, a pure typing environment. This is awesome. Anybody who writes a lot will tell you just how great this feature is, and with most things iOS related this feature really shines on the iPad.

    The one complaint I always had about Simplenote on the iPad is that I didn’t like to have to type offset, where the text was pushed to the left. Now though with fullscreen the problem has gone away, a truly great writing app has emerged from what was once just a simple note taking app.

    Other Mentionable New Features

    Tags: a great way to help you stay organized, I however have never been a big user of tags and so I doubt that this will be very used by me.

    Pin to Top: This allows you to select a particular note that stays at the top of the list no matter how you are sorting. This was a much needed feature, I can’t tell you how long I have spent scrolling for a note (I often forget or neglect to search, mainly because I try to use it with just one hand a lot).

    Orientation Lock on iPhone: I know with iOS 4 you can double tap and get the orientation lock system wide, but let’s face it most people will not use that (except on the iPad the hardware switch is far more convenient) so being able to turn off landscape mode in Simplenote is great – who uses the landscape iPhone keyboard anyways?

    Little Annoyances

    On the iPad the UI simulates a stack of papers, but it would appear that the top sheet of the paper is the same height, just more narrow than the sheet behind it. This is unlike other UI tricks where the stack just appears to be eschew below the top sheet. Whatever is going on I hate it.

    The placement of the ‘sign out’ button in both the iPhone and iPad are in a terrible spot, I have hit them several times thinking it was the close or done button. Please move this in line with the other options for sanities sake.

    On the iPhone the button to go full screen is with all the other tools on the toolbar, on the iPad it is a very low contrast icon in the bottom right corner, by itself. This is really annoying, put it up top with all the other tools and buttons, don’t make me search for it every time.

    Buy It

    Buy this not because I say so, but because Evernote sucks and this is what a real notes app should be like. What an great update and I am sure more great ones to come. (I should clarify that Simplenote is free thought you can purchase upgrades in the app)

  • Battle of the Drones

    As I kid I remember playing F117a-Night Hawk on DOS, I had a joystick and a keyboard and I flew around shooting targets and trying to dog fight other planes. That was the past, but it appears it may also be the future of warfare. Amazing.

  • Keeping Mint’s Unique Referrers List Clean and Useful

    If you use Mint to track your web stats you will want to do this.

  • Giz-China Does a Terrible ePad Review

    This is a horrid review of a product, take this example from the author Andi:

    The ePad is very light! Much lighter than the iPad and therefore it’s going to be much more comfortable for those with weak wimpy wrists while reading, playing and browsing the web.

    So you don’t have a scale or the tech specs that you can tell us how much it actually weighs, for instance the iPad weighs 1.5lbs, and the ePad weighs? 1.4lbs? 0.6lbs? Come one.

    Oh and this:

    The 10 inch screen maybe the same size as the iPad’s and the bezel surrounding it may mimic the little Apple tablets with mirror like detail, but looks are not all they seem.

    The screen ‘maybe’ the same size? Either it is or isn’t the same size, buy a ruler. Holy cow.

    And:

    The overall scores are 3-2 for the ePad!! Plus two ties due to personal choice regarding O.S and the material of the body.
    […]The scores are now 2-1 to the iPad, I could take a point from the iPad too for costing a hell of a lot more than the ePad, but I won’t because, like I’ve mentioned before the iPad does something all these cheap Android devices don’t…. It works and it works very very well and what’s the point in buying something that doesn’t work just because it’s cheap!!

    So the ePad is the winner, then Andi rejiggers the scores until the iPad is the winner. What the hell is going on here?

    [via Wired’s Gadget Lab Blog]

  • Leaked photos of Samsung Galaxy Tab

    Looks like a cheap piece of crap, also what is with the blatant “Dock Connector” rip off?

  • On Cupholders and Feature After Thoughts

    Since I turned sixteen I have had three cars, all of which were European. My first car a 1991 BMW 525i had no cup holders to be found, the next car a 1998 Land Rover Range Rover 4.6HSE had four terrible cup holders in the center console – they only were able to hold a pop can reliably. My current car a 2004 BMW 545i has two pop out cup holders in the dash, they are to say the least, horrid pieces of crap.

    BMW and Land Rover added cup holders as an after thought, europeans simply don’t indulge in food and beverage in their cars like we crass Americans do. So when they started to add cup holders it seems as if they designed the entire car, got it ready for production when an American ex-pat stumbled by and said, where is the cup holder? BMW then scramble to shove a cup holder in wherever they could, resulting in a craptastic after thought of a cup holder.

    Case in Point

    Take a good look at the above cup holder, now forget about the fact that there is no way in hell you are putting a super-sized anything in it and look at where the air vent is in relation to the cup holder. They are positioned in such a way that when you have a drink in the cup holder, the drink gets all the air. Now this poses two problems, first the occupant does not get either A/C or heat depending on the weather – they mostly sit there in an uncomfortable state. The second problem, a much more dire one, is that the drink is getting all that air blown on it, resulting in a beverage constantly being warmed or cooled depending on the circumstances.

    Indeed these cup holders were an afterthought.

    Afterthoughts are Every Where

    I see design and feature afterthoughts daily, we all do. When a company adds a feature last minute shows like a bright red pimple – we all see it, but try not to say anything about it. We need to stop and truly ask companies to either delay a product to properly design a forgotten feature, or instead leave it out until they can properly work it in.

    After all I am really glad this BMW has cup holders, but it is almost worse than if it didn’t have any. The cup holders that BMW provided are so poor, that I would much rather have a pop-out iPod dock than a cup holder that makes me worry my drink will flip out with every turn I take.

    Examples

    I see this all the time, so here are some examples of things that feel as if they were forced into a product at the last minute and not designed into the product from the very beginning.

    • The To-Do list in Apple’s iCal (what a terrible mess that is).
    • Adobe’s Camera Raw for Photoshop (actually on second thought just put down adobegripes.tumblr.com and you can see this problem very clearly).
    • Safari Extensions, though a nice feature, does anybody think it feels truly native?
    • Send to Instapaper in NetNewsWire just looks a feels added on, why can’t I keep reading, why do I have to stop and wait for you to send it to Instapaper?
    • iOS notifications; does anybody think these are as polished as the rest of the OS?
    • MySpace.com, no really the entire site.
    • The YouTube.com homepage, take a look at it, what a confusing cluster fuck that is.
    • Safari’s ‘Top Sites’ view, who uses this?
    • Flickr’s lack of upload buttons. Let me explain: if you are a Flickr user have you noticed that once you leave the homepage (Flickr.com) there are no obvious upload buttons? Instead you have to click on the ‘You’ drop down and then click upload. This is a photo sharing site, put an upload link on every damned page!

    There are so many more, but it just gets to depressing to keep listing them off.

    Advice

    Take the time to do it right the first time, if you forgot something do not try to squeeze it in at the last minute, make a plan and polish it later.

  • What a Mess

    Jared Newman:

    In fairness, Motorola’s not the only company to struggle with Froyo. Owners of HTC’s Droid Incredible are still waiting for their update — rumors of August 18 didn’t pan out — and the brand new Dell Streak tablet is stuck on Android 1.6 until the end of the year. Samsung’s Galaxy phones are all expected to get Froyo, but with no date announced for U.S. wireless carriers. So while Motorola gets an extra dose of shame for shutting down Droid X users, the only phone maker to truly ace the Android 2.2 launch was, of course, Google.

    This is why you let Apple control everything, so this kind of crap doesn’t happen. Amazing.

    [via DF]

  • Germany to Outlaw Employers Checking Out Job Candidates on Facebook, but Googling Is OK

    In business school we all had to take a class about interviewing potential hires, during which they told us that we should never look at the name or a picture so that we remain objective. We all know of course that this rarely if ever happens, bias sinks in every where and I believe that it should.

    Do you really want to work for someone that would much rather have the opposite sex doing your job, or a different race? What about a person that would prefer a more outgoing personality, or a more subdued one? We all want to love what we do, and a huge part of that is loving the company that we work for. This Facebook bull will never hold up, Germany will never be able to enforce it so in the end it doesn’t matter.

    Don’t get bent out of shape if someone doesn’t hire you because what they found out about you, chances are they just saved you from a miserable job.

    [via Hacker News]

  • Acer Chairman Expects iPad Market Share to Drop to 20%

    DigiTimes:

    In a Chinese-language interview with the Economic Daily News (EDN), JT Wang, chairman of Acer, said that he expects Apple’s iPad market share to drop from close to 100% currently to only 20%-30% after the tablet PC market stabilizes.

    He may have to eat those words, though I may have to eat these words.

    [via AppleInsider]

  • Simplenote Gets Updated, Stays Simple

    Consistently one of the best apps for the iPhone and iPad. Paick Rhone says it best so be sure to read this post of his about e update. Also I love the new icon.

  • Google Adds Push Support to iPhone App

    Great workaround for Google and the iPhone to play nice. I would love to see other companies start to build this into their apps (Basecamp).

  • American’s Suck at Vacation

    Lexington (The Economist):

    These show that in 2009 the average American adult received about 13 days of holiday, whereas the average Briton enjoyed a luxurious 26. The average “working” Frenchman, infuriatingly, had 38 days. Worse yet, more than a third of Americans do not even take all the days they are allowed. In 2009, harrumphs Expedia, Americans “gave back” a total of 436m vacation days. In fairness, America does indulge its children: their school year is one of the shortest in the world, as is their school day. But the indulgence ends with adulthood.

    My wife and I try to take as much vacation as possible, only limited by her jobs terrible vacation policy. You should try to use yours up to, if only to take a long weekend camping somewhere.

    [via Hacker News]

  • Facebook iPhone App Gets Privacy On The Go

    Great to see Facebook making this little changes, but when are they going to make the bigger policy changes that they need to make?

  • Seth Godin on Publishing

    Godin:

    To be succinct: I’m not sure that I serve my audience (you) by worrying about how a new approach is going to help or hurt Barnes & Noble.