Month: June 2012

Cory Doctorow writing about what users give out in search of ‘free’:
>Even if you read the fine print, human beings are awful at pricing out the net present value of a decision whose consequences are far in the future. No one would take up smoking if the tumors sprouted with the first puff. Most privacy disclosures don’t put us in immediate physical or emotional distress either. But given a large population making a large number of disclosures, harm is inevitable.

Rachel Metz:

>It’s clear that the fledgling service has a ways to go, though. Currently, much of the on{X} experience takes place in a Web browser: You can only add, modify, or code rules from the website. The mobile app allows you to delete or turn off rules, or view the activity log related to individual rules.

>Still, Weitz thinks users will be drawn to on{X}, since we’ve long desired the kind of automated intelligence that can alert us in the morning if it will be a cold day.

It’s an interesting project by Microsoft to create an IFTTT type app for Windows phone. What’s lame is that all work needs to be done in the browser and in JavaScript, which makes the above statement seem silly, IFTTT can alert you of cold weather, no JavaScript needed. This is the type of service though, that iOS needs, an Automator/Keyboard Maestro like tool for iOS.

Fantastic, *subscribed*.

My thanks to this week’s RSS sponsor, Harvest.

Harvest is one of the best ways to track the time you spend on billable projects. When you have clients like Happy Cog, well you are doing something very right. I’m not a user, but the only reason for that is because I don’t bill based on time — otherwise I would be right there using it.

Be sure to check out all the screenshots because they have some great looking tools and reports.

Clever macro from Gabe over at Macdrifer, kicking myself for not having thought of this.

Peter Kafka summarizing and summary, notes:

>If you want a reason to be skeptical about this, you’d note that Facebook is a comScore client, and that the two companies worked together last summer to produce a study about the way brands use Facebook.

That’s a typo, I assume, it should read: “You should be skeptical about this, because Facebook is a comScore client.”

>In this episode Shawn and Ben talk about grilled cheese bacon burgers, shooting at cats with automated paintball rifles, what does “GTD” mean anyway, the craziness of Apple rumors leading up to WWDC, traveling with only an iPad, and using a Mac mini as a server.

Brought to you by the fine folks at [Igloo Software](http://igloosoftware.com/origami) — they are giving away an Origami case for the iPad.

Shawn Blanc:
>The iPhone’s display is its preeminent hardware feature — everything else is secondary. If the next iPhone has a bigger display it will be because Apple decided bigger is better.

Yes, a thousands times, yes.

A great post by Dr. Drang talking about how Microsoft could re-learn stuff they used to know from Instapaper:

>Maybe Steve Ballmer should ask Marco for advice.

If you don’t get why Office on iOS is important for Microsoft, then read this.

MG Siegler taking down ridiculous statements from the Chairman of Creep:

>The same is true for the vast majority of new startups — I talk with dozens each week. The refrain: iOS first. Android second. Down the road. At some point. Maybe.

Great post and paints the sad consumer side of Android: slow updates, lack of top developer support, and on.

This is like the [CableDrop that I mention a while back](https://brooksreview.net/2012/05/amazon-item-cabledrop/), but made for handling more cords. It’s a nice addition to the side of my desk, where I can use it to hold:

– MacBook Air power cord
– USB cable for HDs
– iPod/iPhone/iPad Cord

I only have three cords there and before I used two CableDrops to hold them — now the Cable strip does this job a bit better. For less than $10 for two, it’s worth checking out.

*Bonus tip*: A couple readers mentioned that double stick tape doesn’t hold well — to combat that clean the surface you are sticking anything to with alcohol (not the drinking kind) first and you will get a long lasting hold.

Farhad Manjoo:
>And then what will we have? A movie about a guy who was great at being terrible — a sure hit, but not one that tells us anything about how Jobs pulled off the biggest corporate turnaround of all time.

He’s probably right. “Good movie, not accurate, and a wasted opportunity.” Is probably how my review would read.

Wolf Rentzsch ((Yes, I am late to reading this.)) on how to decide where to buy a particular app from, says:
>Fortunately Apple now only accepts sandboxed Mac apps, clarifying the situation: customers should buy Mac apps directly unless there’s a good reason not to.

I disagree. Rentzsch makes some great points and arguments for buying apps directly, but there is a simple reason why most Mac users should buy only from the Mac App Store: peace of mind.

As Rentzsch lists, there are a few really strong reasons to buy from the Mac App Store — what he doesn’t say is that most of the reasons to buy direct don’t apply to the non-nerd population, which is most of the Mac user base.

Personally, being a nerd, iCloud alone is reason enough to only buy from the Mac App Store.