The Brooks Review

Month: February 2011

  • A Really Good (Brain) Dump

    I don’t subscribe whole heartedly to the GTD method — I only do weekly reviews on a quarterly basis — but one part of GTD I love is the brain dump. Brain dumping is the second most satisfying thing that I can do in OmniFocus (the first is a tie between checking off tasks and deleting them). I have always had one single problem with brain dumps: I forget a lot of things that should be purged from my brain when I am faced with a blank OmniFocus inbox.

    A couple of months ago I was fiddling about in OmniFocus and while in Context view I started noticing that a ton of tasks were flowing into my head — things that I needed to do, but had yet to be captured anywhere. So I started brain dumping, going from context to context and getting down everything that came to mind.

    Except that I ran into another problem with this: context view doesn’t offer much help if you need to create a new project, nor is it very good for brain dumping — if they aren’t staring at me in my Inbox, I will never process them. The problem is assigning due dates, start dates, projects and the like when you add an action in context view is less than ideal.

    My solution for this: quick entry and double windows.

    I simply ‘review’ my contexts and add actions as I think of them using the quick entry pane. The advantage with this system for me is that when I get to location specific contexts (such as Costco) I can quickly pour out things that I need from Costco in the context window (I rarely add any more information to store list actions). I assign everything else straight to the inbox using quick entry.

    On occasion I will open a second OmniFocus window that just shows the Inbox and I will dump straight into that — it works better when I know that I will have a lot of stuff going on (i.e. I haven’t done a brain dump in a while).

    I have really found this to be helpful — more so than just viewing a blank inbox or going from project to project. For whatever reason looking at a context that says ‘office’ reminds me of a whole mess of stuff that I need to do…

    This isn’t GTD, but is about getting things done.

  • Host Your Static Website on Amazon S3

    Amazon Web Services team:

    You can now host an entire website on Amazon S3.

    You can now configure and access any of your S3 buckets as a “website.” When a request is made to the root of your bucket configured as a website, Amazon S3 returns a root document. Not only that, if an error occurs your users receive an HTML error document instead of an XML error message. You can also provide your own error documents for use when a 4xx-class error occurs. 

    S3 is a great service, and this is a great solution for people that don’t need things like SQL.

  • The Small iPhone Rumor

    The New York Times:

    Another person who is in direct contact with Apple also said that the company would not make a smaller iPhone at this time, in part because a smaller device would not necessarily be much cheaper to manufacture and because it would be more difficult to operate.

    Also free MobileMe (believe it when I see it).

  • Less is Perfect

    Liam Cassidy on why he switched back to Things from OmniFocus:

    Things, on the other hand, is so simple it requires almost no learning.

    The above can be both a good and bad thing. It is both the reason people love Things and the reason people love OmniFocus. Make no mistake though, OmniFocus is not annoyingly complex like, say, Microsoft Word.

  • Private Equity Pyramid Scheme

    This is a really interesting take on the current venture capitalist landscape and it would explain those stupid ‘worth‘ numbers people are bouncing around. Basically the idea is that the VCs first to invest at a company get a high valuation so that new investors come in — then the first set of investors get their money back. This repeats and repeats.

    I don’t know if this is really what is going on, but it is certainly and interesting theory for a very… unique person.

  • Apple versus Amazon

    Craig Grannell has this to say about the restrictions now in place for the App Store:

    This is about getting Kindle off of iOS, because it competes with iBooks. Thing is, Kindle being booted off iOS won’t make people switch to iBooks—it’ll make people buy Kindles. And time people are using their Kindles is time they’re not using their iPads and iPhones, potentially reducing the likelihood of them making purchases.

    I disagree, I think that if that is truly what Apple wanted they would have bundled iBooks into iOS and then rejected the Kindle app under the dubious ‘duplicating existing functions’ title. Apple clearly has easier means to booting Kindle — this is a play for more money, not for a monopoly situation.

  • One Percent More

    A few items to follow-up on my ‘Thirty Percent’ post from yesterday — I am getting tired of answering the same emails over and over. Here goes…

    Justin Pennington gets it:

    @BenjaminBrooks I totally agree with you, I’m not sure why people are so against it. 70% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

    Wil Shipley (developer of Delicious Library) makes a valid point:

    Traditional book publishers, for instance, will give an author about $1 on a hardback sale. Solution: authors should dump publishers.

    I could cherry pick tweets all day long, but the bottom line is that this is nothing new in the business world — it is just something new in the App Store.

    Magazines

    A few people have written in to say this will kill any profit that a magazine would get. Except that remember you can have a paper magazine, printed and mailed to your home twelve times a year for the bank busting price of $10. Magazines and newspaper have never made money off of the price of subscriptions — they make money from the sales of ads inside the publications. Apple isn’t stopping that — serve them up for all readers care, nothing new.

    Amazon

    Even more people wrote in wondering how crazy I was for thinking that getting rid of all apps that act as ebook readers — except iBooks — is a good thing. I don’t and I doubt those apps are going away. Apple thinks this stuff through and I am confident that the complete picture has yet to be painted, be patient.

    At the very least offering just the reader for Kindle should be sufficient — I doubt many Kindle users struggle to remember Amazon’s URL to go buy a new book. Yes, it would be less convenient, but it isn’t a death blow by any means. Beyond that book distributers have a really screwy deal to begin with — it’s an industry ripe for change.

    Netflix

    Perhaps the most heated emails were from people that are upset about the consequences this may have on Netflix. Again we don’t know the entire story here, but my guess is that if Netflix is going to die because they now must give Apple a 30% cut of their monthly subscriptions — then, well, Netflix’s business was on the verge to begin with.

    Netflix costs $7.99 a month for streaming only and from that we can’t really derive what is profit, but we do know that they will send you a DVD and a return envelope for $9.99 a month plus streaming. Now that isn’t just one DVD a month, but only one DVD at a time. So for $2 more Netflix can afford to ship and house DVDs back and forth — to and from — people’s houses. I can assure you that sending someone one DVD a month and the return envelope (with associated warehouse costs) eats up more than just $2. If anything Netflix wants the Apple subscription model to work because it will mean more profit to them, not less.

    Music Subscription Services

    The same probably isn’t true for music subscription services, but honestly you are streaming so you need a net connection for it to work. Which is to say that a slick HTML5 app may be better suited for these services — it would be cross platform and incur them no fees from Apple.

    Again though, I really think that these services will reach an economy of scale where the 30% take isn’t worth arguing about when you are talking about a subscriber base in the millions. Bottom line: a 30% cut is far less destructive than Apple starting a streaming iTunes store — now isn’t it.

  • Stephen Hackett’s Open Letter to Douchebags

    Stephen Hackett:

    However, linking to stories about how long someone has left to live is a different thing entirely — and is way over the line. Gizmodo, 9 to 5 Mac, Cult of Mac and others all crossed that line today.

    Amen.

  • Yudu Media Gets It

    Joel Mathis:

    There are so many iPads in circulation, Stephenson said, “whatever Apple charges, you have to be there. Don’t fight it, run with it.”

    [h/t to Mike Ball on Twitter]

  • Thirty Percent

    People are really hung up on this 30% issue. I think it is dumb to get hung up on this — doesn’t matter if you are a developer or a consumer, let it go. I say this because there is only one way to get Apple to reverse this policy: make the App store fail, therefore Apple is forced to change its game. I don’t think any person wants to see the iOS App Store go away any time soon — it is a source of many peoples income and millions of peoples entertainment.

    Price of Admission

    The problem with the current mind set is that people are looking at this from the following perspective:

    “My app is worth $10 a month. If I sell 10 subscriptions I should get $100 a month, but Apple is taking a 30% cut of that and now I will only get $70 a month. Oh crap, I really need $100 a month, so now I need to raise my prices by 43%. ((Source, via Ian Hines on IM)) I can’t believe that Apple is taking this much money!”

    Here’s the thing about that logic: it’s wrong. Apple isn’t taking jack from you because without Apple you wouldn’t have a business developing iOS apps. Plain and simple. People really need to get this. If Apple did not create, maintain, pay for, hire people, construct, scheme, profit from the App Store — there would be no App Store to speak of. If there is no App Store then there is no revenue for any iOS developer. ((Sure Cydia is around, but that user base is minuscule and piracy laden.))

    So stop thinking about 30% being stolen from you and instead ask yourself if it is worth $3 for every $10 in subscriptions to have your product put in front of 100 million+ consumers which can subscribe with only a hand full of taps. I think it is.

    Value

    Next you need to ask yourself if your time is better spent supplying content to subscribers, or managing subscriptions. Apple is giving you an out from customer service. If someone needs to unsubscribe or has issues with their subscription — it is no longer your problem, Apple needs to fix that.

    Here’s what else you don’t have to do (if you don’t want to):

    • Process payments
    • Advertise
    • Worry about data breaches that give out SSN and Credit Card numbers

    I don’t know about you, but not having to deal with this stuff is well worth 30%.

    I’m Leaving

    Go for it, but remember: people on Android don’t pay for things, iOS users do. Would you rather serve ads, or sell apps/subscriptions?

    There is good reason for many people to leave the App Store over this. In fact 37signals’ David Heinemeier Hansson has already tweeted: “FYI, if Apple comes hunting for 30% of software subscription revenues through iOS, we’re dropping Campfire/Highrise apps in a Chicago second”. It makes sense for them to leave rather than pay 30% — most of their users are desktop/laptop based, not iOS based. So they already need those systems in place that I talked about before — on the flip side it doesn’t make sense for iOS only apps like ‘The Daily’ to leave over this, as they (theoretically) don’t have such systems in place to begin with.

    Books / Kindle

    This system also doesn’t make sense for book distributers to use — 30% is their entire profit. But I don’t think we have heard the end of how these book apps will work under the new iOS rules — personally I think we are all jumping the gun a bit on this one.

    Reacting

    Rules change when you play in someone else’s backyard — it sucks, but if you are smart you can still be wildly successful. The 30% cut isn’t great (though it does look great from a strict consumers view), but it isn’t the end of the App Store — I bet it only makes the App Store better by ridding it of more junk apps.

    “Smile, breathe and go slowly.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

  • The 4-inch iPhone display

    Chris Rawson does a great job breaking down why the 4″ iPhone 5 screen rumor is a bit off base.

  • Differences Between CDMA and GSM

    To control many of the settings you have to dial seemingly random numbers with Verizon — AT&T has sliders in the Settings.app. Oh and no holding or conference calls with more than two people on Verizon.

    But wait, AT&T doesn’t allow you to dial a hard pause — touché Verizon, touché.

    [via TUAW]

  • The Motorola Xoom: $800 Unsubsidized, $600 for WiFi-only

    Matt Burns:

    This pricing puts the 32GB Xoom nearly on par with the 32GB iPad. Both tablets ask $600 for the WiFi-only version while the 32GB 3G iPad is just slightly less at $730.

    Not bad pricing and with carrier subsides the price could be even more attractive — but can the software really compete?

  • The Simple (And Perhaps Harsh) Reality Of Apple’s Ecosystem

    MG Siegler follows up on why this move makes sense, is not in fact evil and this:

    Apple is betting that the allure of being tied into their incredibly efficient iTunes payment ecosystem (along with its 100 million + accounts tied to credit cards) will outweigh the downside of having to pay them a 30 percent fee. The same 30 percent fee they currently take from the thousands of app developers collectively making billions of dollars off of the App Store. And the same 30 percent fee they currently take for all other types of in-app purchases.

    As I told a couple of you who emailed about this: Apple is providing the billing, payment processing, infrastructure, and willing/able buyers for only 30% — seems like a steal to me.

  • Are Web Fonts Ready for Prime Time?

    Pat Dryburgh points out that using a web optimized font through Typekit will render ugly in IE if you also use the -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased trigger in your CSS file. I was using that with this site and turning it off proved to render FF Meta Web Pro a lot better in IE 8 — so to the 3% of you that view this site in IE, you are welcome.

    Also if you miss the ‘old’ look install this Safari extension.

  • ForkBombr: Writers I Read

    Stephen M. Hackett the man behind Forkbombr was kind enough to interview me for his new series “Writers I Read”. I had a great time and talk a bit about photography and Lightroom vs. Aperture.

  • Apple’s Big Subscription Bet

    MG Siegler on why Apple played its hand this way:

    Further, Apple absolutely had to force the prices to be the same (or better) as they are outside the app environment to ensure the system would work at launch. Without this key component, the system would be DOA. Companies would undoubtedly be okay with this system if they could jack up the prices to pay for Apple’s 30 percent cut, but that would undermine the entire system. Apple’s stance on this will piss companies off, but it’s the right one for consumers.

    I am tired of hearing non-developers whine about this move. The bottom line is that this is the best possible move consumers of iOS devices could have hoped for.

    A system that is:

    • Easy to use.
    • Easy to Manage.
    • Easy to quit.
    • Offers privacy protection (companies don’t get your data unless you OK it).

    Yes, this gives developers the shaft. Yes, 30% is a huge chunk. BUT, what’s the cost of you not getting potentially hundreds of thousands of new users? Far greater than 30% — that’s for sure.

  • Customising your WordPress theme for the DF Linked List plugin

    The developer of the excellent DF Linked List plugin that I use created a guide that helps you customize your theme files to make the plugin work. Please check this out if you want to use the plugin — know many of you have emailed asking how to do this.

  • Delegate a Task in OmniFocus With Email

    Don Southard posted an Applescript ((via MacStories)) on his site today that allows you to grab a task in OmniFocus and send it to someone using Sparrow. This is a great script, but since I don’t use Sparrow it has little utility to me.

    So I tweaked it, the result of which is a script that grabs the selected task in OmniFocus and creates a Mail.app message based off the data. I like it.

    Couple of notes:

    • I borrowed Southard’s code.
    • I borrowed Apple’s code for making a new Mail message
    • It probably is not perfect.
    • I removed the addition of contexts. The thinking is that we all have our own contexts so it is rather pointless to send that to someone.
    • In the script I changed the subject line to read: “Task Delegated from Ben Brooks” — in hopes that clarifies things a bit. However in the downloaded script it just reads “Delegated Task”.

    Set this script with a keyboard command using the excellent FastScripts (I am using ctrl+opt+d) and you are ready to roll. I don’t know just how useful this will be right now — but hey I’m adding it to the collection.

    Download my version for Mail.app here.

    [Updated: 2.15.11 at 1:58 PM]

    Reader David Messent sent in a modified version of this Applescript that embeds an OmniFocus link to the script that will allow another OmniFocus user to add it with just a click — very cool!

    Download his file here.

  • The King of Apple Talk Radio

    A well deserved title for a great guy and a great podcasting network.