The Brooks Review

Month: April 2012

  • Screenshot Journal

    A nice review of Screenshot Journal by Neven Mrgan, I had never heard of the app — which is a shame because it really is great if you like to dive into the pixels of iOS screenshots, or just organize your screenshots a bit better.

  • Former Sun Chief About Google

    By now you probably heard that former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz did his best to kill Oracle’s case in the spat with Google, but Florian Mueller does a good job in this post showing that Schwartz himself see problems with the way Google fails to license things.

    It all makes Schwartz come out looking pretty petty.

  • T-Mobile Tries to Woo iPhone Users with $200 Bounty

    No, really. Also: what [he said](http://verynicewebsite.net/2012/04/t-mobile-iphone-bounty/).

  • iPad Usage

    John Paul Titlow:
    >The iPad and its chief competitors in the tablet space are not poised to replace laptops and desktops just yet, a fact confirmed in IDG’s survey. Only 6% of respondents said their tablet has “completely replaced” their PC and 16% said the iPad had ousted their laptop from their lives. Instead, the tablet is serving as more of a supplementary device.

    This would make it seem to most (including Titlow) that the iPad is a supplementary device. But I think this survey actually shows just how fast the iPad is taking over, in just two years 16% of iPad users have replaced their laptops. That’s incredible to me. ((Yes I know the survey was for “tablets”, but come on — we all know it’s iPads.))

  • The B&B Podcast #58: Again With the Ys

    Shawn and I talk about BBQ grills, naming products with a Y in place of an `i` and turning tablets into laptops.

  • ‘More to Discover on Our Latest iPhone, Android Apps’

    From the Twitter blog on the latest iOS/Android app update:
    >Lastly, we’ve added push notifications for Interactions, so you can know immediately when your Tweets have been retweeted or favorited, or when somebody new follows your account.

    Who would want this? Worse yet: these new notifications are on by default, even though I only updated the app. That alone should be a criminal offense.

  • Pop, Soda, Coke

    Samuel Arbesman:
    >One of the clearest regional differences in the U.S. can found by tracking the words people use to refer to soft drinks, which is in fact the map you saw at the top of this story. Pop or soda, or even Coke, these small linguistic differences are not as small as we might think. While “soda” commands the Northeast and West Coast (green) and “pop” is in between (black), “Coke” reigns in the south (turquoise).

    Neat map.

  • Tweet of the Day: Dave Pell

    Every page with web comments should be sponsored by antidepressants.
    — Dave Pell (@davepell) April 26, 2012

  • The Privacy Concerns of Google Drive

    Nilay Patel breaking down the privacy implications of cloud storage services:
    >In the end, though, the actual wording of these documents doesn’t reveal much — they all set out to do the same thing, and they all accomplish their goals. What’s most important is how much trust you’re willing to give companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Dropbox as more and more of your data moves to the cloud.

    [via The Loop]

  • ‘The iPad as Gateway Drug’

    For all the talk of the iPad being priced too high, it sure is funny that, as Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports:

    >Now, according to a new NPD survey, their first Apple (AAPL) product is more likely to be an iPhone or, increasingly, an iPad.

    The iPad is selling like crazy, but I am not so sure it is going to have as large of a halo effect on Macs as the iPhone does — for one, it can do much more than an iPhone and many think of the iPad as a computer and not a complimentary device to a computer.

  • TSA Jacks $300 from a 95 Year Old Man

    Marney Rich Keenan:
    >”Can you imagine an 85-year-old lady and 95-year-old retired Air Force Major in wheelchairs being treated like terrorists?” Petti asked recently sitting in the kitchen of the Bloomfield Township home he shares with Woodward.

    I can’t imagine it, but apparently the TSA can.

    And later, after TSA jacked $300 and a police report was filed:

    >Nobody, he says, is giving him a straight answer. “The police said they went and reviewed the videotapes but they were too blurry,” Petti says. Petti’s son Bill, who is helping his father, doubts that. “You can bet if my father were a terrorist, those videos would not be too blurry.”

    Ugh.

    [via reader Stuart R.]

  • Kaspersky: “Fair” and “Balanced” “Analysis”

    Steve Evans reporting:
    >”I think they [Macs] are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” Kaspersky told CBR.

    Not quoted were the direct links, prices, and features of the [Mac based security software](http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/anti-virus-for-mac) that Kaspersky sells.

  • Obama Shuts Down the TSA

    Oh wait, nope that’s him on a late night comedy show, but I’m sure he is all over the TSA incompetence.

  • TSA Agents Accused Of Taking Bribes To Let Drugs Through LAX Checkpoints

    Chris Morran:

    >Last night and this morning, authorities arrested two current and two former screeners at Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly taking bribes to not notice that travelers were secreting stashes of coke, meth and pot in their suitcases.

    Imagine what I would find if I even tried to find stories about TSA stupidity…

  • The Devaluation of Everything: The Perils of Panflation

    The Economist:
    >Estimates by The Economist suggest that the average British size 14 pair of women’s trousers is now more than four inches wider at the waist than it was in the 1970s. In other words, today’s size 14 is really what used to be labelled a size 18; a size 10 is really a size 14.

  • ‘On the Meaning of “Settle”’

    Spot on analysis by Matt Drance.

  • ‘How Far Do Google Drive’s Terms Go in ‘Owning’ Your Files?’

    I really tried to keep from reading about Google Drive, but so many of you sent me stuff about the TOS for Google Drive that I couldn’t ignore it. Zack Whittaker does a nice job breaking it down and compares what Google is asking for versus other services, the money quote:
    >Simply put: there’s no definitive boundary that keeps Google from using what it likes from what you upload to its service.

    I am sure you are *shocked*.

  • TSA Has No Idea How to Screen a 7-Year-Old With Cerebral Palsy

    Chris Morran reporting for The Consumerist:
    >”[T]he woman started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me,” the father recalls.

    He’s talking about a TSA officer. What’s particularly funny is the TSA statement to the site, which makes no mention of action taken against rude employees. What a bunch of assholes.

  • Macs, Malware, and Anti-virus Software

    Lucian Constantin reporting on malware for Macs:
    >Sophos collected malware detection statistics from 100,000 Mac computers that run its free antivirus product and found that 20 percent of them contained one or more types of Windows malware.

    I don’t care what Sophos found, because I don’t trust Sophos, but what I find interesting is the above number: 100,000. Does that number mean that Sophos only has convinced 100,000 Mac users that their free anti-virus software is worth it?

    And is an anti-virus customer the best yard stick for Mac users if only a fraction of Mac users actually have anti-virus software? I think not.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: Aden + Anais Muslin Swaddle Blanket

    These were given to us as a gift and they are hands down our favorite blankets to swaddle our daughter in — we don’t even bother with all the other swaddle blankets people bought us. So, you know, if you are in the market…