The Brooks Review

Month: March 2011

  • Engadget’s iPad 2 Review

    Joshua Topolsky:

    For owners of the previous generation, we don’t think Apple’s put a fire under you to upgrade.

    That seems to be the gist of most reviews.

  • MLB.tv on Apple TV

    It’s lame that there isn’t at the very least a free account that lets you look at the highlights of the game like you can on the iOS apps. It is even more lame that a subscription will run you $99/yr.

    What’s cool is that this is on the Apple TV — also NBA is there, but that’s less cool.

  • Keyboard Maestro on the Mac App Store

    If you don’t have it already…well now is the time to rectify that. Here’s why.

  • VeriFone Releases Open Letter to the Industry and Consumers

    Douglas G. Bergeron, Chief Executive of Out-of-touch, on Square being insecure and vulnerable:

    Don’t take our word for it. See for yourself by downloading the sample skimming application and viewing a video of this type of fraud in action.

    That’s neat — I can’t wait for Microsoft to start making viruses for OS X to show that OS X is just as vulnerable.

    (Also I doubt Apple will approve that app.)

  • “Better Together”

    Shawn Blanc:

    How long until Apple updates Mobile Me (or builds something new) that lets 3rd-party devs sync their apps over the air and that easily lets users keep their apps in sync just using our Apple IDs

    That’s a good question. I don’t think it really matters though, the Dropbox and Simplenote sync services have been working pretty darn good. I loathe to think I would need to use MobileMe to do it and I am not one of those that think MobileMe will go 100% free.

    Though, admittedly, I still think Apple should buy Dropbox.

  • Apple releases iOS 4.3

    It’s a solid update and one of the most stable iOS betas I have ever used. As noted everywhere else the best improvement is in Safari — be sure to check that out.

  • Couldn’t Be More Wrong

    “FC Expert Blogger” Patrick J. Howie thinks a bunch of things about the tablet market and every single paragraph is another link baited piece of…

    He starts really strongly ending the first paragraph with this bit:

    There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 tablets coming out this year, and most of them seem to have no better sense of purpose than to replicate the iPad. This is a doomed strategy, if it can be called as strategy at all. But the iPad and the majority of its competitors are focusing on a very narrow view of what the tablet can do.

    I can buy that, but I need you, Howie, to sell me on that last sentence. And so he tries:

    Rather, the tablet has the potential to improve our productivity. While the iPad 2 makes some strides in this direction compared to the original iPad (especially with the stronger processor), the focus of most of the enhancements are aimed at improving the entertainment value of the device.

    When did anyone ever complain about the processor? I seem to remember people applauding it and complaining about the lack of RAM, but ok let’s move on.

    But it is just stronger processing power along with a mindset towards increasing our capacity to do things–not just playing games–which represents the future of the tablet.

    OK, but you just said the iPad 2 has a stronger processor, so we are all good then right? Also didn’t you just say that the processor is only a minor part and that we need to focus on productivity — surely you don’t think processing power and productivity go hand in hand?

    Apparently not, because he starts to talk about the Kno tablet and brings up this gem:

    First, the Kno comes with a pen, which is too “uncool” for the Apple but which is very handy for writing compared to the impractical touch-screen keyboard.

    Right, because all those pen computing devices of the past worked out so well for people, I mean even the Palm Pilot wasn’t great. But I can see the practical advantage of pen computing for writing notes and Howie follows with another strong point:

    With the dual-screen, you can truly multitask in a way that just is not possible with the single-screen iPad. Users can compare two articles side by side, perform an Internet search and take notes at the same time, and even perform analysis on one side and document the results on the other.

    That is a killer feature, but only for a very niche group of users: academics. Also you should Google: “laptop”.

    But what is this:

    If Apple would spend more effort improving the functional ability of the iPad, enabling application developers to create apps that truly improve our productivity, then the future of the tablet will arrive that much sooner.

    Where is the proof that they are stifling or not-approving apps that increase user productivity? Simplenote, Dropbox, OmniFocus, 1Password are just a few of the approved apps that I use daily to improve my productivity. Most apps that are not approved are entertainment apps, not productivity apps. I really don’t see the evidence here and I think this is an idiotic statement, but I digress.

    Because now he gets to the Xoom:

    This is why the Xoom is so intriguing. Motorola and Google are two companies that have proven their ability to see around the corner and they have made it much easier for developers to get applications to market than Apple has with the iPad. However, the Xoom is really built to be another iPad with an emphasis on entertainment–as if two cameras is really the key to success in this category–which is a shame for all of us.

    So the Xoom has potential because Motorola AND Google are building it!!! But, alas, it is just another iPad clone according to Howie.

    I don’t even understand the logic here: he starts to touts the Xoom before then lumping it with the 100s of other iPad clones. This makes no sense, if you say that Motorola and Google are “two companies that have proven their ability to see around the corner” then do you mean that Apple is not that type of company?

    After all it was Google that created Android and Motorola that created the iPhone — wait, nope. Google bought Android and Motorola is on its death bed.

    I think the real argument Howie is trying to make is that Apple should allow all apps on iOS — which is clearly what he seems most frustrated about, not that he really thinks the iPad 2 is bad.

  • Being Post-PC

    Watts Martin in response to post-PC ramblings:

    And when you can run them better on the tablet—no compromises—then “post-PC” won’t be a marketing buzzword anymore.

    We are pretty close to that for many apps — if you ask me.

  • The Very Difficult Problem of Notifications

    There has been a lot of talk lately about mobile notification systems and specifically what Apple might/should bring to iOS — I think that everyone can agree though that all notifications systems fall short of being great (even WebOS). Every single mock-up of a different notification system that I have seen solves only a subset of the problems — they certainly are better than what we currently have on iOS, but these “solutions” are in no way a real solution.

    They are neat studies in graphic design and user experience, but for me they only ever solve one of the two main notification problems.

    The Two Problems

    1. The notification system must actually alert you to important things (that meeting you are about to be late for) and the system needs to be in your face about it, else you won’t truly be notified of a damned thing. That is a subtle color change here, and a small icon there, is simply not good enough. If every icon has a badge that reads 1 in a little red dot, or everything is glowing your favorite shade of color, then nothing is really being conveyed — instead everything is being ignored.
    2. The notification system must get out of your way when you need it to. Anybody who has woken up their iPad to find 7-8 notifications on the screen knows what I am talking about — it takes a long time to get rid of these irrelevant notifications. Most often everything that it was notifying me about is no longer relevant, or has already been done. However a blanket dismissal creates other problems (more on this in a bit).

    Solutions

    The problem that most people have when they attempt to fix notification systems is that they solve one of the two above problems, but rarely both. ((I am being generous here because I actually don’t think any one has solved both of these problems.)) To solve both is difficult at best and, impossible to most (including me).

    How do you design a notification to simultaneously be annoying and alerting, while at the same time getting of the way when it needs to get out the way. That is, to say it better: how do you design a notification that notifies you and reminds you of things, all the while it doesn’t annoy you and notify you about erroneous stuff?

    Is it even possible?

    In the past this was solved by hiring a real, live, human being to sit at a desk outside of your office — this was a stellar system. This person (let’s call them an “assistant”) knew when you were in a rush and cranky, they knew exactly what you needed to know as you ran out the door to the next meeting that started 15 minutes ago. The assistant knew and they knew not because they were good at notifying you, but because they were intelligent. They could read so many non-verbal cues that allowed them to know exactly what was going on from just a glance of you.

    That was (and for some is) a great solution — then HP and Palm and others decided it was best to replace them with digital calendars and even more people decided it would be great to take phones and email with you everywhere you go. Which compounded the problems that we currently have.

    If you leave all the default notifications on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air then you will have a rather obnoxious symphony of beeps, boops, bops, pops, and windows showing up. It ain’t pretty.

    iOS

    When I click on my iPad and I see a notification that I dismiss, only to get another, then another, another, and another — I always stop and think: “where is the clear all button?”

    A dismiss all button would have been a colossal mistake for Apple to have included, because just maybe the third notification is one that I REALLY need to see. Right there is the problem with adding a “dismiss all” button — the point of a notification is that it is something that needs to be seen before you casually dismiss it.

    Again this is why people are so good at notifications, we inherently know when something is and is not relevant based on who we are notifying and simultaneously know when something that was important is no longer important.

    A Modest Proposal

    I don’t have a solution the the hardcore UI, UX, and technical design problems that exist above, but I do have a practical way to help.

    Stop the notifications.

    The simple problem is that most people are getting too many notifications about things that just don’t matter. Or, as Art Webb said, “If you make everything bold, nothing is bold.”

    Amen.

    Do you really need to know when the Mighty Eagle is ready again in Angry Birds? Do you really need to know every time your favorite team scores? Do you need a reminder on every calendar appointment? Do you?

    What do you need?

    Start there.

  • Footnote of the Day: Marco Arment

    Marco Arment writing about which iPad 2 you should get offers this gem of a footnote in reference to his use of waiting “on line”:

    If you aren’t in New York, you probably say “in line”. Your pizza might suck, too. Sorry. But hey, your real estate is affordable. Win some, lose some.

    I love footnotes.

  • ThinkPad with ‘24 Hour’ Battery

    Charlie Sorrel:

    But the new X220 is also pretty on the inside, and its main selling point is a ridiculous 24 hour battery life. That’s enough to let you update Excel spreadsheets while a plane takes you anywhere on the planet.

    May also win the award for best battery life in the ugliest possible laptop. I mean good lord that thing is ugly.

  • How To Remove The WordPress Admin Bar [Updated]

    Finally got around to googling this and luckily there is a way to get rid of that ugly WordPress admin bar that sticks itself to the top of your WP site.

    [Updated: 3.8.11 at 10:24 AM]

    Twitter follower @Preshit wrote to tell me you can disable this in your user options (in your user profile). I had no clue, that is way easier.

  • Poll Technica: Facebook, take it or leave it?

    You have no idea how happy it makes me to get a link sent to me about a Facebook poll where 36.47% (the plurality ((Thanks to @rorycberger for the correction on the term.)) ) say they don’t have a Facebook account. Good stuff.

  • What the Quick Bar Affair Says About Twitter’s Future

    Mathew Ingram:

    Although the company has since said that a new update is on its way that will make the feature less annoying, the outrage over the #dickbar is a symptom of a larger problem for Twitter: it wants to be a business, and users have gotten used to it being a utility.

    Well said. The dickbar though goes one further and actually becomes as annoying as the flash based blinking ads found on low-rent sites.

  • Post-PC Device Elitism

    There is an article that has been making the rounds on sites like Hacker News that has a very link-baity title: “If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?”. Fun.

    Here is the main point of Paul Hontz’s argument (as I see it):

    You can’t even turn your iPad on the first time without being tethered to iTunes.

    Which is true, but paints an inaccurate picture. You see, you indeed can not turn on an iPad — for I don’t know what reason — without first connecting with iTunes, except that none of this means that you ever need to have iTunes on your home computer. If you walk into an Apple Store and buy an iPad you can have them do the initial sync to get your iPad up and going, thus you never have to have synced the iPad with your iTunes. I think Hontz’s argument is pretty silly, but let’s look at this new term more closely.

    All of this depends on what your definition of “post-PC device” really is — Wikipedia (the aggregator of all that is relevant) doesn’t even have a page for this term just yet. I would define a post-PC device as a device that moves the user beyond the computer — a device that could/does replace a computer for the general consumer.

    And the iPad is pretty damned close to that, if it is not already, the definition of the post-PC device.

    Let’s take no further evidence than this video from April 22nd showing a 99 year-old woman using her first computer: the iPad. I don’t recall her having troubles with iTunes syncing. Sure you could say that we need an open platform, or that we need one that is completely detached from the computer — but if this is the argument that you hold, then you must also complain about the fact that 3G service must come through carriers that charge you and that to use WiFi means you need to setup a WiFi router.

    Me? I just argue that a post-pc device is something that just works substantially better for most people than your typical PC/Mac would — and I think the iPad fits that bill rather nicely.

  • The App Wall

    MG Siegler:

    I’m using too many apps of the same nature for any of them to actually be truly useful. And in fact, I now have too many apps in my life in general. I’ve hit the app wall.

    This entire article is very relatable for me and I can’t help but wonder how we better curate our apps in the future. Personally I hope Apple does it for me.

  • Quote of the Day: Sean Parker

    “I think a career is something your father brings home in a briefcase every night, looking kind of tired.”
    — Sean Parker via transcript from John Gapper

  • Landlord Wouldn’t Fix Leak For 5 Months. This Letter Got Him To Do It in 5 Days.

    I typically like to stay on topic here, but some of you may also know that by day I am a property manager and seeing this just frustrates me — it gives a bad name to property managers everywhere. If you are a renter (a lot of us are) the best thing you can do is to know your lease and know the applicable laws in your state.

    You will not believe some of your rights that you just always assumed you didn’t have.

    FYI

    One last tip — if your landlord isn’t getting something fixed that you want fixed, a written and mailed letter will do you wonders over repeated phone calls. Best thing you can do if you have called in the problem or submitted the maintenance request and have yet to see action: write a letter and mail it, be professional and concise — then once you sent the letter, call your landlord and let them know that you sent it to them.

    Disclaimer

    These thoughts are coming to you as a tech geek to a tech reader, not in any professional real estate sense and therefore, you should take everything with a grain of salt.

  • MailTags v2.6 integrates with OmniFocus Project List

    Sven Fechner:

    You can now simply select to have OmniFocus projects show directly inside (and in addition to MailTags’ own projects) Mail.app’s tagging panel. Only caveat is that you need to have OmniFocus running to get access to it’s project list. You can do the same for CulturedCode’s Things or even for both if you are one of these indecisive productivity nuts that can’t settle with one system.

    What a nice update.

  • Quick Takes on Five Apps (No. 3)

    I’m back with another set of quick takes, check out the past posts here.

    CalendarBar (Mac OS X)

    A very handy menubar app that shows you upcoming appointments. I typically don’t like apps like this, but this one is done very well and I really have found it useful to me. I like that it can pull your information from multiple services at once and you Facebookers will like that it integrates with events you have in Facebook. Mostly though it is just a great way to see what is coming up.

    Instacast (iPhone)

    I don’t like the name — in fact I don’t like the fact that “insta” has become so popular — but the app really is clever. Basically you can search for and browse podcasts that are in the iTunes directory and subscribe to them in the app. The app will then download episodes and allow you to watch and listen to them on your phone. This means no more plugging into your Mac to get the latest and greatest episodes of podcasts.

    You should subscribe to The B&B Podcast when you are checking out the app. ((Shameless plug.))

    You won’t like this app if you are not a podcast person, but if you are this is a great little app.

    Canned Mail (iPhone)

    From the guys who made the excellent Canned app comes Canned Mail. Just like with the former you create precomposed messages that you can quickly send out when needed, this time with email instead of text messages. Great for creating responses that you have to send on a regular basis (mailing addresses and directions for me). Be sure to check it out — it’s nice to have in your arsenal.

    That said I have only used it once since I installed it — unlike with text messages I rarely send that many of the same emails. This is definitely a niche app.

    Acorn (Mac OS X)

    It’s like Photoshop without all the crashes and stupid UI design. It is a great Photoshop-ish replacement and I have been using it a lot lately for compressing down images and resizing them. It is fast and light and I really like the way it is laid out in comparison to Pixelmator. Check this out (free trail on their website) before you consider Photoshop — you will be surprised.

    Having said that, Acorn is certainly not Photoshop — you can do a lot in Acorn, but not a lot as easily as you can in Photoshop. Where with Photoshop you get great tools like Background Eraser, you can do the same in Acorn — minus the automatic / easy part. My problem has always been that I have used Photoshop for as long as I can remember, so when a new tool comes about it is not as easy for me to think “outside” of the straightforward tools PS offers.

    NetNewsWire Lite (Mac OS X)

    I know a lot of you don’t want to use Reeder, or simply don’t like the look of it. Have no fear NetNewsWire is back with a free Lite version for the Mac App Store. The looks are cleaned up, but the Lite version doesn’t offer Google Reader syncing. That maybe the deal breaker for most, but if you just read RSS feeds on your Mac this is a good place to start.

    It’s not of any use to me without Google Reader syncing, but I really like the direction it is headed with the design of this Lite version. I can’t wait for the full version to come out (and it is coming with Google Reader syncing).