The Brooks Review

Year: 2011

  • How to Build a Site That Looks Great on Every Screen

    The linked post isn’t particularly mind blowing in any sense. What is interesting to me is all the frameworks and tools that are popping up to re-flow websites based on the screen size of the device being used. For the most part I think they all suck, because it is just a set of rules that allows someone else to drop in their content.

    All of these frameworks look amazing with the examples given, but one must remember that these examples were made to look great on the framework. Every site should have its own framework for flowing differently based on screen size, because every site’s goal is different. And it’s not that challenging.

    On the one hand I love the idea of the site changing based on my screen, but not every site. The goal shouldn’t be “make the site work on all screen sizes with responsive design”, it should be make the site work on all screen sizes, period. Responsive design should be used (added?) as a way to enhance a site on a smaller screen, offering the visitor an even better experience than what they would have otherwise received.

    The danger with responsive designs is that there is no option to go back to the “full site”. That can be very annoying to users if proper care was not taken in the implementation.

  • Easter Island Heads Have Bodies

    File this one under: that’s even more creepy.

  • A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

    Mona Simpson on her brother, Steve Jobs:

    >His philosophy of aesthetics reminds me of a quote that went something like this: “Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”

  • Some Responses to the Magazine Counterarguments

    Marco Arment responding to criticism on his [Double-dipping post](http://www.marco.org/2011/10/27/double-dipping-ads-in-ipad-magazines):

    >I don’t need to know why $4.99 is insufficient to pay for 15 articles on my iPad. I just know that it feels like a premium price for such a relatively small amount of content, and I don’t feel right paying premium prices for ad-subsidized products.

    I don’t see how people in the industry can be angry at Marco, he is the customer and he is feeling ripped off. Whether or not you believe that “the customer is always right”, you certainly must believe that a customer feeling ripped off is not good for business.

  • Facebook Says 600,000 Accounts Compromised Every Day

    Bob Sullivan reporting, and doing the math:
    >That might sound like an impressive record, but doing the math, that means 600,000 accounts are hacked or otherwise compromised every day.  Facebook’s 0.06 percent figure seems intentionally precise, so it’s probably fair to surmise that potentially 18 million accounts per month are impacted.

    A clear example of how different the numbers look when you change from a percent to raw numbers. I’m not saying this is bad or good, but it is a lot.

  • ‘Apps Are the New Channels’

    John Gruber makes a great case for how an Apple “TV” experience could be. As I [talked about with Shawn today on our Podcast](http://thebbpodcast.com/2011/10/episode-32-displays-and-televisions/) it is evident to me that the experience on such a device needs integration between each of the apps.

    That is, if I search for a movie on the current Apple TV, it should search all available “channels”, not just within the iTunes or Netflix areas. Doing this would make a better user experience and an easier to use device. This can and should be done with apps, the user just shouldn’t need to first pick an app if they don’t want to.

  • Edovia – Insanely Great Software for Mac and iOS

    A big thanks to Edovia for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. I use their Screens apps on all of my devices on a daily basis — they are simply great. I am also a big user of the TouchPad app that they make and Screens on my Mac is a far better solution than any other that I have found.

    I truly like these apps, so if you are in the market, you can’t go wrong with Screens and TouchPad (the app, not the tablet).

  • MacBook Air Screen Colors

    The writer behind *Recenseo* noticed that the screen on his MacBook Air didn’t have great color because:
    >The one made by Samsung has the perfect settings from the very beginning, but for some reason the LG doesn’t. To make the LG version look similarly as good as the Samsung screen, you’ll have to follow a couple quick steps.

    I don’t have the screen with the “bad” color, but when I retweeted the article a few people pinged back thanking me because this change made a difference (for the better I assume). Give it a try, and with all these things backup first.

  • Reminders.app Versus OmniFocus

    Don Southard has a nice breakdown of the Reminders app and OmniFocus on the iPhone — importantly how there is a use for both. I too like the Reminders app for adding small tasks while on the go, that would all change (of course) if Siri could add things to OmniFocus.

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 32: Displays and Televisions

    >Shawn and Ben discuss the dying Cinema display that Shawn owns and his options for future upgrades, with speculation about what Apple may do to those displays down the road. The Apple TV set is also discussed and how such a content model would work. They talk about funding projects on Kickstarter and making chili.

  • Why I’m Kissing Spotify Goodbye

    Brett Kelly lays out some good reasons why Spotify isn’t for everyone. For me the moment they decided that you needed a Facebook account to use the service was the same moment I knew it wasn’t right for me.

  • Digital Magazines Still Have Adverts Non-Shock

    Craig Grannell offers his opinion, refuting [Marco’s claim](http://www.marco.org/2011/10/27/double-dipping-ads-in-ipad-magazines), on magazines that you pay for and still get ads in.

    I get where Grannell is coming from and he is right that ads in magazines (digital or other) are not *that* intrusive and act as a subsidy for the magazine. However, that’s only an explanation and not an excuse.

    I subscribe to a great many magazines because it is often cheaper to subscribe (usually about $19 a year) than it is to buy them à la carte as I want them. I am not paying $4.99 for one issue when $19 gets me a years worth — makes no sense — and that is exactly why the pricing is the way it is: publishers want people to be subscribers because that is what ad rates are based on.

    So, yes, I do want magazines to make money and pay writers — but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the readers. You either strip the ads and ask the readers to support you, or remove the price of admission and get the ads to support you. Anything in between annoys the crap out of me.

    Grannell asks in response to Marco asking what he paid for:

    >How about the content, and the wages of the people who write the content, and who design the app?

    This is all true, but it is also true then that he paid for: the ads. It is also true that the advertisers paid for the wages, and designers. That’s the problem. ((Speaking solely for myself here.))

  • Quote of the Day: Dan Benjamin

    “‘My new iOS app uses Facebook for logins’ is the new ‘It only runs on Windows’”

  • HP Announces It Is Keeping Personal Systems Group

    Matthew Panzarino on The Next Web:
    >“It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,” Whitman said. “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.”

    So, what changed? That is, unless, no “analysis” was done when the decision to shit-can the PC division was made.

    HP and Netflix have a lot in common.

  • Quote of the Day: Marco Arment

    “I just don’t feel comfortable paying for an iPad or web publication, no matter how good it is, and then having ads shoved down my throat.”

  • Siri Powered TV

    Nick Bilton speculates (guess? has heard from unknown sources?) that the Apple TV (an actual TV) will be Siri driven. Which would be great if you knew what you wanted to watch, but not so great for channel surfing.

    Seems logical, but at the same time hard to envision without a more full picture of how the system would work.

  • Bloomberg TV+ for iPad

    Live TV on your iPad, for free. For. Free. This is another, in a long line, of examples of Bloomberg getting “it”. Who cares if you don’t like Bloomberg TV, or the industry they serve — the precedent of this move is very big.

    More like this please.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: Belkin Mini Surge Protector

    I have been wanting one of these little guys for a long time, but ~$29 — come on. For $11.60? Hells yeah.

    So I bought one about a month back, it was great move. Here are some of the scenarios that I have used or for, or are planning on using it for:

    – Taking to a coffee shop when I know I will need to charge my MacBook Air (helps to split the outlet to share the love).
    – Every time I travel. Doubles as my iPhone charger and to help with the general lack of power outlets everywhere I go.
    – Conferences. (see: Coffee Shops)

    It’s a handy thing to have, doesn’t weigh much, and is decently compact (when in your bag, quite bulky on the outlet). Again, I would have kept living life without it but at $11.60 it is hard to go wrong.

    **UPDATED**: You can only charge one iPhone at a time (I am told), and you cannot charge an iPad, off the USB ports.

  • iPod nano Remote Controls

    Shawn Blanc is dreaming:
    >I think the idea of a product like this — a touchscreen watch that plays music and also has phone-like capabilities and an ability to connect to and control our other devices — is a no-brainer.

    I see the limited appeal of such a device, but I think it would be a horrible failure. The iPod nano as a watch is poor. The reasons:

    1. It is too big.
    2. It cannot be operated without looking (yeah, I’ll get to Siri in a moment).
    3. Redundant

    If you already carry your iPhone in your pocket, what’s the actual benefit to controlling it from an iPod nano? It saves you from pulling out your phone? Your iPhone is likely already in your hand.

    Add to this that such a watch would need a loud enough speaker that you could hear the feedback and a directional microphone to cut ambient noise for commands — well I just don’t think it works very well. I don’t think you could create a watch-like device that is more convenient to control the phone that is already in your pocket, than just pulling out your phone to control it.

    Besides, the iPhone (in my mind) already has such a controller: bluetooth headsets.

    Siri has a place on iPods, but it don’t think using an iPod to control an iPhone when the two are only ~30 inches apart is Siri’s place on iPods. I think Apple would be better served with another go at creating a sleek bluetooth headset, which already can control your iPhone.

    Think of it this way, what’s easier: holding a watch close to your mouth to send commands, or just keeping a (tacky) bluetooth headset in your ear?

  • Dropbox Announces ‘Team’ Service

    Will Knight:
    >The new service, Dropbox for Teams, which has been in beta for the past year, is aimed at companies. It will provide a terabyte of storage for five users, along with administration tools and support, for $795 per year. Additional user licenses cost $125 per year and come with 200 gigabytes of additional storage.

    First I had heard of this, but seems like a no-brainer. You can read more about Teams [here at their FAQ](https://www.dropbox.com/help/category/Teams).