The Brooks Review

Month: June 2011

  • Phone Book Company Loses Court Fight Against Seattle

    Those yellow page litterers tried to stop progress, they lost — lost big as Vanessa Ho reports:
    >As of Wednesday, more than 225,500 yellow pages have been cancelled in Seattle.

    Well done Seattle, well done.

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 17: Aviators and BBQ

    Discussing Kansas BBQ, Google + and the HP TouchPad.

    Thanks to our fine sponsors: [Wren](http://wrenapp.com/) and [Seamless](http://fivedetails.com/seamless/).

  • Likability

    Shawn Blanc:
    >The iPad is more than the sum of its parts. The iPad has an intangible: *Likability*.

    The emphasis is his, not mine. I agree with this statement, but I don’t think the intangibles are what got the iPad sales going in the first place, nor do I think it is the reason people are drawn to the device. The intangible likability of the iPad is what is getting people to buy another iPad and not consider buying a different tablet — it’s what is “locking” people into the iPad.

    Shawn thinks the TouchPad has this likability and that this is reason to hope for the platform — I haven’t played with one, so I can’t say for sure — I just don’t see the TouchPad as being likable to anyone outside of the geek world. At least not in anyway close to the likability of the iPad.

  • Myspace’s 50 Million User Profiles Now Belong to an Ad Targeting Firm

    Ben Popper on the My Space acquisition:
    >But the acquisition today by Specific Media is quite different. They bought the profiles lock, stock and barrel. Now they will use them for their core business, ad targeting.

    First off, that is a lot of speculation — even for me. Every is in agreement though that it is pretty sketchy for an advertising firm to own a social network, yet they are OK with Google (who makes their money from ad sales) owning one…

  • Best Google + Article

    I am guessing this article about how to delete your Google + account is going to be pretty handy in the coming week or so.

  • The HP Camry

    I was actually hoping that this would be a great tablet, alas that doesn’t seem to be the case.

    [Joshua Topolsky](http://thisismynext.com/2011/06/29/hp-touchpad-review/):

    >Hardware quality feels cheap
    >Developer support is thin right now

    [Tim Stevens](http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/hp-touchpad-review/):

    >The shortage of apps is a problem, no doubt, but that will change with time. What won’t change is the hardware, and there we’re left a little disappointed.

    [Jason Snell](http://www.macworld.com/article/160858/2011/06/hp_touchpad_first_look.html):

    >If it can get developers engaged in its platform and iron out all the bugs while also growing webOS as a smartphone operating system, it might really have something here.

    [John Biggs](http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/29/review-the-hp-palm-touchpad/):
    >Fingerprints and scratches galore. Get a case when you get the TouchPad. It needs one.
    >WebOS is amazing, but I worry its features aren’t being done justice with the paucity of apps.

    [Walt Mossberg](http://allthingsd.com/20110629/touchpad-needs-more-apps-reboot-to-rival-ipad/):
    >But the tablet’s hardware is bulbous and heavy compared with the iPad 2 or the svelte Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, an Android tablet.

    I intentionally only pulled out the parts talking about the apps for the TouchPad and the hardware of the device. The reason being: those are the two elements that make the iPad *the* iPad. Yes, iOS is a very nice operating system, but so is WebOS.

    Let’s pull cars back into this analogy. The reason I was looking purely at third party app comments and hardware quality is because that is the difference between a Camaro and a Ferrari — both sports cars, but hardly comparable. Where as the difference between WebOS and iOS (all other things like hardware and apps being equal) is akin to the difference between a Ferrari and a Lamborghini — now the little things really matter. ((Clearly the Ferrari is the choice a discerning reader would make, however someone who wants to live on the edge of losing control could make the case for the Lambo.))

    The OS on these devices is only really going to shine when you have two really equal competitors. From the sound of it, HP made themselves a lovely Camry.

  • Ballmer Responds to Calls for Him to Quit

    Tom Warren reporting:
    >“You cut me open and saw what was inside: Windows. Windows. Windows. Windows,” Ballmer said in an audio recording obtained by GeekWire. “Our company was born on the back of Windows. Windows underpins a huge percentage of all of our success, all of our profitability, all of the important things that we do. So, how important is it? Very, would be a very fair answer.”

    While a typically absurd comment from Ballmer, it actually explains a lot about Microsoft’s current “vision”. Also, this *almost* makes me want to join the Seattle Rotary club. Almost.

  • Wizards of Bullshit

    David Heinemeier Hansson on the idea that Zuckerberg is now really rich:
    >Now anyone with an iota of critical thinking would perhaps question whether a stock purchase of 0.01% is representative for the worth of the company at large, but not Forbes. They simply accept this fantasy 1:3000 transformation as fact and serves it up as the foundation of an article that then goes on to place Zuckerberg as the 3rd riches techie in the world.

    [See also this post of mine from January](https://brooksreview.net/2011/01/worth/).

  • Google + (-Me)

    As the title states, I won’t be joining Google’s [new social network](http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/) any time soon. I wasn’t even going to post about it, until I started to get people asking me about it. I have two problems with Google +:

    1. It’s made by Google.
    2. I don’t trust Google.

    That is: I don’t trust Google with my private info, unless the offering is so compelling that it would be detrimental to me to not use their offering. (That’s why I use Google Reader and Google Analytics, but not Gmail.)

    [Dave Winer on Google +](http://scripting.com/stories/2011/06/28/googleYawn.html):

    >Products like the one Google just announced are hatched at off-sites at resorts near Monterey or in the Sierra, and were designed to meet the needs of the corporation that created it. A huge scared angry corporation.

    If you don’t believe what Winer is saying, then take this passage from Steven Levy, [writing for Wired.com](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social/all/1):

    >And after Page formally took the CEO title, he reportedly mandated that 25 percent of the annual bonus check for all Google employees would be dependent on how well the company does in its social efforts.

    They didn’t create Google + because they thought they could do social better, they created it because they *need* to be in the social game and to be in the social game, they must do it better.

    I am not saying that Google + is bad, but I can tell you that it will be an uphill battle for it to succeed, it must not only beat out Facebook, but Twitter too. I fear though that it will suffer the same fate of Google Wave after reading [this](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html):

    >Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone’s on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they’re not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Huddle, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what’s going on, right this second.

    That sounds killer, but it doesn’t work unless your entire family is on the “+” and that they actually use “+”.

    Earlier today I posted this quote from [Tom Coates](http://twitter.com/#!/tomcoates/status/85782655769116674):

    >Fundamentally, Google is a utility. No one wants to hang out at their power company.

    What I think Coates is saying here, and the way that I read it, is that Google is a dumb pipe, not a hip club. Facebook and Twitter are hip clubs, not Google.

    How do you become a hip club?

    From everything I read Google has done one major thing right — they made the tool easy to use, [MG Siegler](http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/29/google-plus-is-actually-pretty-good/):

    >Overall, it took me about 15 minutes to get fairly comfortable with all the major elements of the Google+ system. That’s good, especially given how much you can do. At first, it seemed a bit overwhelming, but the concepts are actually pretty easy to learn once you experiment and understand how things work.

    That was not the case with Google Wave, which I never really figured out. It is also likely a problem for new Facebook users, and is a huge problem for new Twitter users.

    Twitter suffers from ambiguity — it is only what you make of it. Facebook suffers from confusion from feature creep: what does it mean to be a fan, what do all these privacy toggles mean, what is right?

    Google wins by eliminating these problems.

    ### In the End

    At the end of the day I just don’t see this being the savor that Google is looking for, it’s the Motorola Droid to Apple’s iPhone. A good, solid offering, but it’s not an iPhone.

    Dave Winer in a [follow-up post](http://scripting.com/stories/2011/06/29/pagesMistake.html) to his passage above:

    >Forget about dipping your big toe in to get a sense of the temperature. These are the advantages of the upstart, when they’re starting. People have responded to yesterday’s piece by saying basically that Facebook can’t rip up the pavement any more than Google can. True. But their innovation is done. Now they’re reaping the rewards.

    This is exactly what we are seeing now with iPad competitors, they are dipping their toes in the water — they aren’t feature complete. They are a competitor to *last years* iPad, not this years.

    This is what Google + feels like, a competitor to social networks of last year, not now. Twitter isn’t my only social network, Instagram is another that I use, ditto Gowalla.

    Google + could be around for ages, but I doubt it will ever gain the traction it needs to be a true force in social. Even if it does, will it ever become compelling enough for a guy like me?

    Doubtful.

  • Why Lithium-Ion Batteries Die So Young

    Josie Garthwaite:
    >Over the course of years, the lithium-ion battery that once powered your machine for hours (days, even!) will gradually lose its capacity to hold a charge. Eventually you’ll give in, maybe curse Steve Jobs and then buy a new battery, if not a whole new gadget.

    That sentence bugs me a lot because Apple only uses these batteries in a few devices: iPhones and iPods. ((They do sell massive quantitates of these devices though.)) The rest of Apple’s battery powered devices use the newer lithium-polymer batteries. In the battery world lithium-ion was a massive step forward, flawed, but worth the trade offs.

    Admittedly I don’t know a ton about lithium-polymer batteries, but from what I read over on the ever questionable [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-polymer_battery), these batteries are an extension of lithium-ion batteries that do two things better:

    1. More cycles before the battery wears down.
    2. Less discharge while sitting unused.

    This is why new MacBook Airs, for example, can hold their charge on ‘standby’ for a month at a time. This is also likely why Apple seals these batteries out of the customers reach:

    >The major risk factor is the volatility. When punctured, Li-Po batteries react quickly by smoking and causing large fires.

    So there’s that.

  • Quote of the Day: Tom Coates

    “Fundamentally, Google is a utility. No one wants to hang out at their power company.”

  • Replacing the Human Concierge

    Jane L. Levere:

    >Still, the question remains whether digital concierges can ever equal their human counterparts. Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst for Forrester Research, said he did not think they would. “Nothing will ever replace a face-to-face concierge,” he said. “A guest visiting a city for the first time will have a lot of questions and will need to have interaction with a concierge.”

    This strikes me as something that an encyclopedia salesperson must have said. Speaking of — where’s my [Britannica](http://www.britannica.com/)?

  • Flexiglass

    I [posted yesterday about Moom](https://brooksreview.net/2011/06/moom/) and how it makes use of the damned green button again. Cody Fink has a great review of yet another app in this category called Flexiglass.

    What piques my interest about this app is the ‘real zoom’ option that makes the green button just throw the window to fullscreen (I can hear former Windows users rejoicing now). It also has some multi-touch gesture support, which looks neat.

    I don’t use these apps enough to try and switch from Moom now, but it does look pretty nice. ((Bonus points for having a better name than Moom too, though that isn’t that hard.))

  • New Sony VAIO Z: Packs Thunderbolt

    Alas it is not of the Mini DisplayPort variety. I have two majors concerns with Thunderbolt:

    1. That it won’t be adopted by the PC market, leading to a Mac only product that is very good, but has incredibly high-priced peripherals. (Think Firewire 800 here.)
    2. That if it is adopted everyone will use some slight variation of the product so that, essentially, we are back to number one.

    Number two is the route Sony is taking, this is not good for anyone — they should have just used the Mini DisplayPort standard and took advantage of all the cool looking products that will be coming out for the Macs. ((I should note for those wondering that as far as I know the Mini DisplayPort is Apple technology that they are still licensing for free to anyone who wants to use it.)) Too bad.

  • Quote of the Day: John Robb

    “Facebook is an example of Madoff entrepreneurship. I win big, everybody else loses. Sure it’s viral. But it’s viral deception.”

  • OopsieFocus

    Shawn Blanc:
    >When launched, the OopsieFocus script will check to see if OmniFocus is running. If OmniFocus is running then the script does nothing and OmniFocus brings up the Quick Entry Pane for you just as it should. If OmniFocus is not running then the script will automatically launch the app and bring up the Quick Entry Pane.

    This really is a great script, Shawn let me be privy to a ‘beta’ copy of it a while back and I have been using it flawlessly with Keyboard Maestro ever since. I can’t remember the last time I hit the OmniFocus quick entry shortcut and **didn’t** see the pane pop open — great work.

  • Dropbox Being Sued

    I’m not big on the “sue, sue” approach Americans take with things, but in this case I think it may be the best course of action. Dropbox doesn’t seem to think what happened was anything more than a “bug” or a fluke. I for one am not convinced that they truly think this is *that* serious. Hopefully this is the smack over the head that they need.

  • Crazy Tumblr Traffic

    MG Siegler:
    >Last Thursday, Tumblr hit 400 million pageviews for the day, Karp tells us. It’s close to 5,000 pageviews a second, he notes.

    That’s just crazy — hard to blame them for uptime issues when they are trying to handle that much traffic. ((Not to worry, I will find a way to blame them. [Also don’t take me too seriously with this footnote.]))

  • Review: Moom

    The one feature that Mac users seem to be clamoring for that their Windows brethren have is that ability to ‘snap’ windows to half the screen. There are a ton of apps for the Mac that seek to provide this functionality, tools like [Divvy](http://mizage.com/divvy/) and [SizeUp](http://irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/). Recently I stumbled across another app of this breed called: [Moom](http://manytricks.com/moom/).

    Aside from the name, I quite like Moom.

    Size Up is not a tool I enjoy using, because while I am a keyboard junkie, even I can’t remember all the shortcuts for that app. I do however like that it can “remember” the last size of the window. Divvy is very nice but again it never was something that I really liked using and quickly passed on.

    In truth, I rarely need a tool for managing the size and positions of windows on my Mac. It is something that I rarely change and can easily do “manually” or if I want it to be a constant I will make a Macro for it in Keyboard Maestro.

    Moom however, does something really incredible: it makes use of that stupid, pointless, irritating, inconsistent, green plus button found at the top of most windows on the Mac. You see, with Moom hovering over that green button presents you with options for how you want to manipulate the window. Imagine that.

    It’s actually kind of amazing that Apple doesn’t just build this in, because it *is* pretty slick.

    ### Features

    With Moom the hover allows you to manipulate the window in the following ways:

    – Full Screen (for you switchers)
    – Move & Zoom to left half of screen.
    – Same thing on right.
    – Move & Zoom to top half of screen.
    – Same but for bottom of screen.

    Once you have manipulated the window with Moom you can hover again and revert back to the original dimensions of the window — without this feature these utilities aren’t worth using.

    These features alone are pretty sweet and well worth the $5 price tag. But Moom also allows you to set up some custom controls that appear in the menu, my favorites of which are: send window to another screen and proportionally resize it, and centering the window on screen.

    It’s hard not to like Moom, it is $5 when the two competitors listed above are $14 and $13 respectively. Oh, and you can set some keyboard shortcuts if you are good at remembering thousands of those.

    Now, you can try Moom for up to 100 times for free, or buy it and it comes with a generous 60-day money-back guarantee (which is kind of amazing for such an inexpensive app). This tool is not for everyone and honestly I rarely use it, but I love it for the very fact that it makes the green plus button useful.

    **Pro Tip:** Set the app to run faceless in the preferences.

  • Best Buy’s Music Cloud Service

    Bit late on this one. But it’s another crippled and doomed to fail from the outset offering much like Google’s.