The Brooks Review

Year: 2010

  • Microsoft’s View on: PC vs Mac

    If I was Microsoft I would have made the entire site in Flash and said one thing:

    If you were on a PC right now you would not hear your CPU fans spinning…

  • Papermaster Lost Confidence of Jobs

    This is what I was talking about yesterday – Gruber speaks to why the timing was as such here. The antenna wasn’t as big of an issue as the competing corporate cultures.

  • Finder Sidebar Separators

    Killer way to spruce up your Finder sidebar.

  • Google SSL Web Search Encrypts Your Google Searches and Suggestions by Default

    Kevin Purdy:

    Google’s SSL Web Search (beta) extension provides the same kind of encrypted searches safe from third parties as you’d get by visiting encrypted.google.com. Installing this extension simply creates a new search engine in Chrome, which you can then set as the default to make all your Google searches secure, or change its keyword for a quick encryption toggle. Your searches should be safe from prying eyes, but they’re still known to Google, of course.

    What the hell are people searching for?

  • My Challenge to You: Only Speak Like a Human at Work

    This is how you succeed in business today, Daniel H. Pink:

    In a world awash in information and choices, clarity is now a source of competitive advantage, says [Jason] Fried. “The real winners in business are going to be the clear companies. Clarity is what everybody really wants and appreciates.”

    Bottom line, be open and honest. You will be amazed how favorably people will react.

  • Coffeehouses Unplugging Internet Access to Reconnect With Customers

    In college independent coffee shops were all we frequented because of the fact that they had free Wi-Fi. Since the Verizon MiFi came out I couldn’t care less what coffee shop I work out of (only on Fridays and the occasional Saturday) – that is until last month. Last month Starbucks switched to free Wi-Fi and since I usually worked out of Starbucks (the paid Wi-Fi meant more tables were available on average) it has become pretty difficult to find a coffee shop to work at.

    The coffee shop industry is undergoing another change, the small shops are starting to charge for the internet access (at least from what I am seeing in Portland and Seattle) while the big guy (Starbucks) is making it free. This just means that more people are going to be remote working out of Starbucks.

    Kudos to the independent shops for being smart enough to see the change and start reacting to it – that is how you survive against a competitor like Starbucks.

  • Introducing The New Sharpie Liquid Pencil

    I am a huge Sharpie fan – so two quick things about this:

    1. Looks amazing.
    2. Why did no one tell me there was a Sharpie Blog?

  • Firing the Right Guy: Papermaster

    It was reported yesterday that Apple and Mark Papermaster have parted ways. By all accounts from people seemingly in the ‘know’ Papermaster was fired. Papermaster had been in charge of mobile device hardware design/engineering coming from the mobile processors devision of IBM. This firing has of course led to rampant speculation in the blogosphere as to why he was fired, most concluding that it all comes down to the negative PR and the issues associated with the iPhone 4’s antenna design.

    This seems like the natural reason why he would have been fired – after all the iPhone 4’s antenna does have a ‘weak spot’ and it caused Apple to have to give stuff away for free – something that no company likes to do. So it seems natural that this was the reason for his firing and it very well could be the reason.

    However as I stated here, and John Gruber pointed out here I think it could have to do with (at least in part) the delay of the manufacturing for the white iPhone 4, which keeps getting pushed back leading many to wonder if it is 2010’s biggest vaporware product. Ask yourself what is more embarrassing for Steve Jobs, shipping a less than perfect product, or not shipping a product on time after announcing it?

    I think the answer is the latter – Jobs ships products and he usually does so on time. The timing of this firing just doesn’t make sense for it to be solely based on the antenna – if that was the case it would have happened just before or right after the iPhone 4 press conference. Leaving Apple to say that they are giving free cases and have fired the person responisble for this ‘weak spot’. Instead of firing comes much later – well after the bad press around the antenna had subsided.

    Add to all this the fact that many are reporting that the iPhone 4 antenna had been designed long before Papermaster was on the scene – leaving him to just finalize the design – and I think the story begins to tell itself.

    My guess (and this is a wild shot in the dark) is that Papermaster didn’t fit in Apple, be it with Jobs or the management team as a whole (culturally or otherwise, remember IBM and Apple are very different companies) and the delays to the white iPhone 4 coupled with the antenna issues did Papermaster in.

    We may never know but what seems clear to me is that now was probably the best time to fire Papermaster. Had Apple waited until things were going smoothly there would have been wild speculation and much concern from investors (read: Wallstreet) that would have negatively impacted Apple’s stock. A firing now leads people to think that Apple is not putting up with failure and is trying to correct course (albeit a minor correction) which will only make investors more confident, thus pushing up the stock.

    At the risk of sounding like a bad movie, Apple fired the right guy at the right time. ((You know they always try to use the movie’s title in the dialog.))

  • Apple says it has patch for remote attack on iPhone, iPad

    Byron Acohido:

    The patch is completed, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said in an interview. But Kerris said on Friday that she was not able to give a time frame for its public release.

    I would expect it sooner rather than later.

  • Executive Leaves Apple After iPhone Antenna Troubles

    A lot of people are saying he was fired, and that it probably was over the iPhone 4 antenna issue. Though I am leaning towards thinking that it may have been over the white iPhone 4’s lack of availability – that probably pisses Jobs off more.

  • Don’t bank on KMart’s $150 Augen tablet getting Android Market access

    Brad Linder:

    But when I actually moseyed on down to my local KMart to pick up an Augen GenTouch78, I was surprised to discover that it really did have the Android Market installed. There’s just one catch — it doesn’t work properly. You can browse the market or search for apps. But when you actually try to download apps, nothing happens.

    I had no idea that was the case with the Android Marketplace – I have a feel g Gruber might be working on a post about this. [via @gruber]

  • Why Apple’s cash is worth more than Microsoft’s cash

    Love it, great analysis.

  • John Siracusa Weighs In: Apple and the war for the mobile market

    John Siracusa:

    Apple doesn’t need to license iOS to other handset makers. Yes, Android is starting to look a lot like the Windows of the mobile era, but not because it’s licensed to third parties. The contexts and uses for handheld devices like music players and cell phones are far more limited than for PCs; hardware diversity is not driving Android sales. The magic formula is simple: quality + availability. Android is ascending in the market because it’s good, it’s available where people want to buy it, and it runs on the networks people want to use.

  • How Apple Could Kill Google’s Holiday Buzz

    Listening to Dan Benjamin and John Gruber the other day (Talk Show Episode 2) really got me to start thinking about all the market share bull between the iPhone and Android phones. It is mostly a meaningless market for consumers – mind share matters more – but investors pay attention to these metrics and that affects stock prices. All the analysts seem poised to give Google a win this coming holiday season, expecting Android sales to eat into iPhone sales and finally tame the ‘beast’ that is the iPhone and Apple.

    I however think it would be dead simple for Apple to completely and utterly kill Android sales come this holiday season. This is a simple two pronged attack that they need to wage.

    Prong #1

    The iPad needs to come in swinging – it is already wildly popular at a price point of $499 – so imagine how people would react if in September Apple announced a new lower price. Say $100 off each model, they did this with the original iPhone (though that was because of a subsidy from AT&T) and I think they may do it again here. Often Apple will price high in case it doesn’t sell well, and by all accounts the iPad is a smash hit.

    Lowering the price by any amount would make it that much easier to swallow for all those parents looking for gifts for their students and gadgets for dad (and mom). It would also squash any price point that Android and Microsoft would be able to come out with – $399 for and iPad, I would buy another at that price.

    Prong #2

    This is the dirtiest tactic and I would love it if Apple did it. Come september they need to hold a special press event – that this event they announce that the iPhone is coming to all major U.S. carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile) and roll out will begin immediately. The key here is that the phone does not have to be immediately available, just available on one carrier – say T-Mobile as that would not require any new hardware (I think).

    Do you really think many kids will be asking for an Android phone for Christmas if they know that patience will net them an iPhone? I think this would be the first time we see patience in teenagers.

    This approach does not come without risk – Apple would have to be able to ship phones for all the carriers no later than January to keep from being creamed in the press and minds of consumers.

    Buzz Killed

    Even the announcement that the iPhone would be coming to T-Mobile (a carrier not many people care if it is on) would hurt Android sales. Such an announcement would serve to fuel the fires of bloggers, and journalists that just maybe an iPhone on Verizon is imminent. That alone should be powerful enough to humble the sales of Android.

    The Google Block

    This of course could all be blocked up by Google if they decide to play dirty. They could try to tell carriers that if they sell the iPhone then they can’t have Android phones (not likely). They could force vendors to cut prices, roll out massive new updates, or innovate.

    Of course for every play that Google can do, Apple can do as well.

  • Engadget’s BlackBerry Torch review

    I can’t decide which of these lines sums up the review from Joshua Topolsky better:

    …instead the company is just treading water with its offerings.

    …since RIM is keeping up with the Joneses.

    Both work.

  • Why I Miss The Blinking Red Light

    Mike from Wad City:

    On the iPhone, the taskbar does not include any such information. Instead, I need to unlock it to see what’s come in, unless I pay for an extra app to prod me with pop up notification windows that still require effort to parse.

    Except for you know that blue box that pops up to tell you about all the missed calls and text messages – semantics.

    I used to have a Blackberry (8100?)the first thing I did was turn off that light. To me Blackberries are kind of like PCs they both have a bunch of blinking crap that is completely unnecessary.

  • On How Google Wave Surprisingly Changed My Life

    Max Klein:

    But in general, if you are collaborating with people and you have not tried Google Wave, then you are perhaps missing the greatest thing to happen to small web based businesses since Dropbox.

    This may be the only instance where I have heard of someone actually using Wave in a productive manner. I thought from day one that Google was in trouble for the simple reason: I knew no one on Wave. Klein should check out Basecamp and Campfire though, they may fill the role nicely.

  • WikiLeaks must be stopped

    Marc A. Thiessen:

    With his unprecedented release of more than 76,000 secret documents last week, he may have achieved this. The Post found that the documents exposed at least one U.S. intelligence operative and identified about 100 Afghan informants — often including the names of their villages and family members. A Taliban spokesman said the group is scouring the WikiLeaks Web site for information to find and “punish” these informers.

    I honestly can’t say that I disagree with the sentiments in this article – it is walking a fine line between freedom of the press and national security. I doubt though that many view WikiLeaks as ‘the press’ especially when it’s leader says things like this:

    He recently told the New Yorker he understands that innocent people may be hurt by his disclosures (“collateral damage” he called them) and that WikiLeaks might get “blood on our hands.”

  • T-Mobile USA loses 93,000 customers in 2nd quarter

    Peter Svensson:

    In total, T-Mobile lost 93,000 customers, ending the quarter with 33.6 million.

    Ouch. They may not last long as a U.S. carrier – I can’t think of the last time they did anything relevant.

  • Maybe? – Google and Verizon Near Deal on Pay Tiers for Web

    Last night The New York Times reported the above story – I didn’t have time to read it so I had not posted it. A migraine set me off to a slow day today and with 5 hours of meetings I could only follow along on Twitter. So here is the story, last night The New York Times said:

    Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.

    Which is so very clearly against Google’s Net Neutrality stance, and their mission statement of ‘Doing no Evil”, which by Google’s own admission such a thing would be, and should be viewed as ‘evil’. Google’s public policy Twitter account then tweeted:

    @NYTimes is wrong. We’ve not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet.

    At which point it would seem the whole thing should be over, but Google was apparently offended, as was Verizon because TechCrunch got a couple of quotes from them both denying the story.

    Everyone seems to be stuck on the fact that Google is denying, and should they be trusted and yadda yadda yadda, but who gives a crap about that. The bigger question here is where the hell did The New York Times get this information, why was it not vetted, and where does this leave the Times’ integrity?