The Brooks Review

Month: November 2011

  • HP Folio 13 Ultrabook

    HP’s first ‘ultrabook’ is quite possibly the most boring notebook I have seen.

  • Quote of the Day: James Victore

    “But the few brave ones, both companies and individuals, who risk comfort and safety for a chance at beauty or being able to move someone — they have a potential to gain so much more.”

  • Evernote Pivots, Clones Readability

    [What the hell is going on today](https://brooksreview.net/2011/11/readability-pivot/)?

    Also, relatedly, what exactly is the strategy at Evernote. They started as a note taking app, then PDFs, photos, a quiz thingy (Peek), now a Readability plugin? I don’t get it.

    Evernote [says](http://www.evernote.com/about/corp/):

    >Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find.

    So how to [Peek](http://blog.evernote.com/2011/11/02/evernote-peek-gets-virtual-cover-now-available-for-all-ipads/), and now Clearly, fit into that vision?

  • Europe Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used at U.S. Airports

    Looks like Europe has a clue, Michael Grabell:
    >The European Commission, which enforces common policies of the EU’s 27 member countries, adopted the rule “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.”

    That’s a smart move. What’s really stunning to me is this bit from TSA spokesman Mike McCarthy:

    >“Since January 2010, advanced imaging technology has detected more than 300 dangerous or illegal items on passengers in U.S. airports nationwide.”

    Given the amount of people being scanned, 300 seems like an incredibly small number to me — almost like TSA is over stating the threat. Given that 50% of the scanners installed at U.S. airports are expected to cause cancer in a small percentage of people that pass through them, well, 300 seems very small.

    I do like what the UK does, as Grabell points out:

    >The United Kingdom uses them but only for secondary screening, such as when a passenger triggers the metal detector or raises suspicion.

    That seems like a much more reasonable security protocol.

  • Readability Pivots, Clones Instapaper

    If I described to you a service that was very well designed and allowed you to save articles you read on the web for later reading on devices such as your iPhone, iPad, and Kindle. What company would you, an educated technophile, assume I was talking about?

    What if I said the apps on iOS were fantastic ((Supposedly, I cancelled my account so I won’t be trying them.)) , that the service is essentially free (though with premium upgrades) and had an API that allowed it to be used by other services (like Twitter apps and Reeder)?

    You would probably guess I am talking about [Instapaper](http://www.instapaper.com/), but in this case we are talking about Readability. Because Readability has gone out and decided that trying to get people to pay publishers when they read their articles is too hard and that being a middle man in that transaction isn’t that effective at improving the bottom line.

    But what’s the difference, why choose Readability? I have no clue because while the service touts on their blog that it is free, [CNN’s Mark Milian scoops](http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/tech/mobile/readability-iphone-ipad/):

    >The free version of Readability will limit users’ inboxes to 30 articles each, and they won’t be able to access links saved in their archive folders until they pay the $5 monthly fee. Sending an inbox full of articles to a Kindle will also require a subscription.

    *Sounds fantastic.*

    It could turn out that Readability has figured out some magical way for making the “Read Later” crowd yearn to pay them, but with Instapaper being free for everything except search and a one-time iOS app purchase (of $4.99, what you would have to pay monthly to Readability) they are going to be hard pressed to win over users.

  • PROTECT IP Act Breaks the Internet

    The Protect IP Act / SOPA is not the solution for anyone by “big media” — it’s not something that’s “good”. Let’s shut it down.

  • This 28-Year-Old Is Making Sure Credit Cards Won’t Exist in the Next Few Years

    Ben Milne in response to a question from interviewer Alyson Shontell:

    >The biggest difference between ideas like this and a PayPal — and PayPal is a phenomenal idea, Square is too — is that those are built on top of networks like Visa and Mastercard. We’re building our own.

    At $0.25 per transaction, no matter the amount, you better believe this is a serious competitor to Square, Visa, PayPal and others.

  • What the Vaio Z Says About Sony’s Little Design Problem

    Easily the best article I have read in a while. Don’t believe me?

    Rob Beschizza:

    >It’s as if Sony was using Helvetica before almost everyone else, then switched to Arial when the world followed suit.

    Then, later:

    >But Sony rarely iterates, even when it’s onto something good. Everything is a one-off. It treats a billion-dollar business the way a microbrewery treats ales with silly names.

    This article is not only spot on about Sony, but about Apple too.

  • Siri Awareness and Downtime

    Interesting, looks like Apple may have solved [this problem](https://brooksreview.net/2011/11/siri-down/) of when to notify the user of downtime.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: Jawbone ERA Headset

    The best bluetooth headset I have ever owned. I love this thing. (Note: I have tested this and it has not survived the washing machine and dryer. Even with the standard rice treatment.)

    Also comes in [Midnight](http://d.pr/JpzV), [Smokescreen](http://d.pr/sCOj), and [Silverlining](http://d.pr/594K).

  • ‘Greater “Choice” for Wireless Access Point Owners’

    Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel for Google:

    >We’re introducing a method that lets you opt out of having your wireless access point included in the Google Location Server. To opt out, visit your access point’s settings and change the wireless network name (or SSID) so that it ends with “_nomap.” For example, if your SSID is “Network,” you‘d need to change it to “Network_nomap.”

    MG Siegler in [response](http://parislemon.com/post/12830433289/you-want-me-to-do-what-to-my-what):

    >That’s great — 99% of the people who will want to do this will have absolutely no idea what any of the above paragraph means.

    Not only that, but we should not be required to make our SSIDs look like crap in order to protect our privacy.

  • Web Browsers and the RAM They Use

    Safari after loading two pages in two separate tabs used just 77.3 MB of RAM, Chrome (for the same task) used 206.9. Chrome may load pages a touch faster, but it will more handily impact the rest of your computing speed. Great test.

  • Finding the Anonymous Blogger

    Andy Baio on tracking down an anonymous blogger:
    >So, how did I do it? The unlucky blogger slipped up and was ratted out by an unlikely source: Google Analytics.

    Pretty interesting, had no clue there was a way to reverse lookup Google Analytics.

  • ‘Time to Web’

    MG Siegler (yes I am linking to this post twice) comments on why competing on specs is dead:
    >My MacBook Air doesn’t have the specs of a brand new HP PC laptop — but it still feels faster. Maybe it’s OS X, or maybe it’s the solid state drive. Point is, consumers don’t and shouldn’t care. They care about which machine will boot faster and which will be easier to navigate. Time to web matters.

    That last line is crucial, and for most could probably restated to “time to Facebook”.

  • Quote of the Day: MG Siegler

    “Consumer Reports now matters just as much as specs do. Which is to say, not at all.”

  • Secret Labs

    Admittedly I am not Google’s biggest fan. I don’t think they live up to their “do no evil” mantra and I think their design is largely crap.

    As a company I very much feel like their time at the top is limited.

    However, for what ever reason, this [talk of the Google X lab](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreaming-up-the-future.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all) has really intrigued me — given me hope even for the sustainability of Google as a company. But I am cautious, because it takes more than just a building, smart people and money to create profitable things.

    Supposedly Google is running a secret lab (dubbed Google X) where engineers get to play with all the crazy ideas they want. A concept made popular by places like Xerox PARC (where many of today’s modern computing paradigms were established). It’s just that comparison though that worries me most — and should worry stock holders more.

    We all know that the Xerox Alto was an idea “stolen” not just by Apple and Steve Jobs, but also by Microsoft. The Alto was a marvel of engineering at the time, but Xerox couldn’t execute on the concept — for what ever reason — and thus, though it was an awesome innovation, it wasn’t so awesome for the company that thought it up.

    That’s my largest fear with the Google X lab. Google has proven many times over that they can indeed make some really cool stuff. The problem is that they largely fail at creating practical, consumer, applications for their products that they dream up (Google Wave, for example. Google TV as another example.)

    What good is a space elevator to Google? How does a self-driving car help Google?

    You can stretch to create answers for each. You could theorize that if people didn’t have to drive themselves they could search on Google more, or any other idea you wish. The fact though is that Google has only managed to make money off of one thing: ads.

    How does that translate into space elevators and self-driving cars? Because as cool as those things maybe (and they are cool) they don’t make a whole ton of sense for Google.

    Instead Google X feels more like a convenient distraction for potentially-problematic-restless co-founders of the company. Much in the same way that the Steve Jobs biography talks about Apple wanting Jobs to run AppleLabs instead of leaving — on the off chance he comes up with something useful, all the while keeping him away from infringing on the core money making businesses.

    I have no knowledge of Google X outside of the public reports on it, but I do know that allocating resources, however small, to such a division is potentially very frivolous. I have no doubt that such a division exists at Apple — but in a less official way — the difference in my mind is that Apple has proven they can create a market, that’s just not the case with Google thus far.

    Creating cool, off the wall, things is well and good. But it doesn’t make a lick of business sense unless those things directly help the bottom line. Not all of the innovations must help the bottom-line, but the ones that do, must offset of the cost of all those that don’t.

    So I ask again: space elevators?

  • Jack Dorsey’s Twitter & Square Work Schedule

    Paul Sawers:
    >Whilst weekends are a little slower for Dorsey (he hikes on Saturdays), it’s interesting to note that his Monday-Friday routine is applicable to BOTH companies – after 8 hours at Twitter, he literally walks 2 blocks to put in another 8 hour shift at Square.

    This is not sustainable, no matter how hard Dorsey tries.

  • Vulnerabilities Give Hackers Ability to Open Prison Cells From Afar

    There are two weak points in prison systems that could allow a hacker to open all the prison doors:

    1. Most of these computers are connected to the Internet when they shouldn’t be.
    2. You could still instigate a virus from a flash drive.

    One of these two failure points has an easy solution.

  • Stanford Study on Working From Home [PDF]

    Stanford took the time (9 months) to study the true effects on having an employee work from home. The end result was a lot of data that points to a 4% boost in productivity, with additional benefits to both the employees and the company.

  • Wired’s Kindle Fire Review

    Jon Phillips:
    >Indeed, the Fire is a fiendishly effective shopping portal in the guise of a 7-inch slate. It’s also a winning video playback device that uses Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon’s own digital storefront to deliver hundreds of thousands of movies and TV shows, many of them free.

    That’s where most of the “good” stops. Phillips also thinks the Silk web-browser is crap, which is really disappointing.