The Brooks Review

Year: 2012

  • ‘Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs May Have Dark Side When It Comes to Health’

    Ted Burnham reports, for NPR, on a study that shows defects in the manufacturing process of most all compact fluorescent lightbulbs; a defect which can allow UV rays through. UV rays are both damaging to skin and art alike.

    That’s CFLs, but smart people stay away from them because they have a pretty bad quality of light and prefer “standard” bulbs or high quality LED bulbs.

    But CFLs are cheap and are being pushed heavily by energy companies in the U.S., with many of those companies offering trade-ins for standard bulbs.

    Burnham also looked at LED lightbulbs and found that even if the same coating is damaged (the one that allows UV rays to leak through CFLs) in LEDs, the light becomes blue *and* stays out of the UV spectrum — in other words there is no harm. This is fascinating and I wonder what the potential liability is for CFL manufacturers will be in the coming years.

    All the more reason to buy [my favorite LED lightbulb](https://brooksreview.net/2012/04/amazon-led-bulb/), or you could [buy Marco’s favorite](http://www.marco.org/2012/07/31/two-new-led-bulbs).

  • ‘Why Twitter Still Needs to Care About Accessibility’

    Austin Seraphin writing about the official Mac Twitter app, from the perspective of a blind user:
    >And now we come to the point of this article. The official Twitter app for the Mac has zero accessibility. I don’t mean a little, or enough to get by, I mean nothing. VoiceOver shows a close button, a minimize button, and a zoom button. And nothing else.

    I was actually just talking to Marco Arment about accessibility and how so many apps get it wrong. I am not blind so I don’t rely on on such features, but as we know the iPhone is a very helpful tool for the blind, so I was saddened to hear from Marco of how poorly so many apps fare in accessibility testing.

    Voice over, and general accessibility, features probably aren’t important to many people in the grand scheme of the App Store, but for those that it is important to, such features become critically important.

    If you want to see just what I mean go to: Settings > General > Accessibility > Triple-click Home > VoiceOver. Exit settings and triple click your home button, now launch any third party app you rely on and try to use it with your eyes closed. The iPhone will speak what you are touching, unless the app isn’t properly coded: which is likely the case.

    Finding this out actually bummed me out. I am thinking that I will start to include notes about Voice Over support in my reviews of apps — and look into anything I can do to this site to improve accessibility.

  • Quote of the Day: Marcelo Somers

    “We’ve adopted John’s concept of linking, but not the idea that we need to tell a bigger story on our sites.”

  • What Does “Clear Browsing History” Mean to Google? Not Much.

    Nik Cubrilovic found something interesting:
    >I have recently discovered two privacy issues with Google Chrome that users should be aware of. They both relate to browsing history data not being deleted despite the user taking action to delete browsing history.

    That’s the intro to Cubrilovic’s post, but it is a bit misleading. Basically Chrome clears your browsing history in the history menus, but not two settings:

    1. Zoom level info
    2. Prefetched DNS stuff

    What this means is that if you change the zoom level on a site or the DNS is prefetched for the domain, that domain will be recorded and not removed in two files within Chrome. Now you have to know about this, as people around you are not likely to stumble on this information.

    However, as Cubrilovic points out, this is a potential area of vulnerability on a publicly shared computer — especially with Chrome’s surge in usage.

    I think more importantly this is one of those areas where a function works in a way that the user didn’t assume it would work. I think most users would assume nuking the browsing history would nuke it everywhere — I wonder if Safari and Firefox have these issues too.

  • After Epic Hack, Apple Suspends Over-the-Phone AppleID Password Resets

  • Amazon Quietly Closes Security Hole After Journalist’s Devastating Hack

  • Galaxy Returns

    [Steven Musil has a list of reasons why people (at select Best Buy locations) are returning the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57487895-37/malfunction-not-ipad-played-greater-role-in-galaxy-returns/). Let’s break down the list, shall we, from most common to least common reasons (according to Musil):

    – Browser freezes
    – Lack of screen sensitivity
    – Poor WiFi
    – Screen lagging
    – Short battery life
    – Inability to sync with a PC
    – Honeycomb OS is difficult to use
    – Wanted an iPad 2 instead
    – Lack of support for Hulu, Netflix, Skype
    – Poor speed and performance

    Ten reasons, only one of which is: “this isn’t an iPad”. ((Anyone else find it odd that he specifies iPad 2, I wonder how many returned it for the new iPad, or a used iPad.))

    Same list, same order, just changing the names of each item to the underlying cause:

    – Bad software
    – Bad hardware
    – Bad hardware
    – Bad software
    – Bad hardware **and** software
    – Bad software
    – Bad software
    – Bad purchase decision
    – Bad software
    – Bad hardware **and** software

    So out of ten reasons to return the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, seven reasons (70%) can be attributed to Android. Forty percent is hardware. I think that says a lot about why Android tablets have been failing: Android is the weak point.

    But that’s not all this tells us, because what is the baseline for these complaints. Is it that the tablets performs these tasks worse than their computers, or worse than another tablet? If another tablet, what tablet?

    I would argue no one buys a tablet expecting it to match PC speed, so I assume that these complaints are in comparison to *another* tablet — the only one of which that makes sense is the iPad because the iPad is the only one with wide enough advertising for first time tablet buyers to be able to form some sort of a baseline for how a tablet should work.

    What I am saying is that the majority of knocks against this tablet are software related and are probably in comparison to the iPad.

  • iPhone Caused “Crisis of Design” at Samsung (Memo)

  • How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

  • Trey’s Lightroom Presets

    [I saw this collection earlier and decided to buy it](http://www.stuckincustoms.com/lightroom-presets/). It was only `$19.97` for the entire collection of Lightroom presets (sort of like Filters for Lightroom). Editing photos takes an artistic eye and I always have applied a preset and then tweaked it to my style when I needed to make major adjustments. Trey Ratcliff’s presets are very good out of the box, needing little tweaking. Here are some examples using them with shots that otherwise looked below average:

    Original.
    Original.
    Original.
    Original.
    Original.

    Again, not spectacular shots on my part, but the filters turn these shots into useable images in my opinion. Not to mention that they give you fantastic starting points to build off of and to see what areas of the images you want to do what to. [Well worth the purchase](http://www.stuckincustoms.com/lightroom-presets/).

  • Apple Branded Search

    [MG Siegler speculating about Apple replacing Google as the default search engine with Bing](http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/06/two-down-one-to-go/):
    >Microsoft needs Apple to make Bing relevant. Apple needs Microsoft in order to stop paying Google billions. This is so obvious. I think we may see a Google-free iPhone sooner, rather than later.

    [I’ve already spoken about how I like Bing on my iOS devices](https://brooksreview.net/2012/08/bing-mobile/), but I think there is another option towards removing Google from iOS and Apple alike.

    [I mentioned that Yahoo! should buy DuckDuckGo](https://brooksreview.net/2012/07/yahoo-punching/), but what if the suitor was Apple?

    Think about this for a moment: what if Apple used a fraction of the cash they have on hand to buy two companies:

    1. DuckDuckGo
    2. Wolfram Alpha

    Then they turn those two search engines into one and the same search engine — powered by Apple — and only available to Apple customers. It’s now the default on iOS and Mac OS X — it would become instantly excellent and widely used.

    Apple would also have two options here:

    1. Give it away free as a thanks for being a customer — they can afford to.
    2. They could place one or two ads on the results using iAds, thus making up what they spent to buy the companies in a few years time.

    Think about this a little more: not only would this be a blow Google, but to Microsoft as well. This would give people a true reason to use iOS and the Mac, it would keep money out of competitors hands, and would be a game changer.

    I have no clue if this a business Apple wants to be in, but I would bet that at least one (DuckDuckGo) of these two companies would match up very nicely with Apple. ((Man, I hope this happens.))

    Alternatively I could see Apple convincing Bing to allow a fully Apple-branded results page and I could further see Microsoft being OK with that for a bit, but that prospect is far less exciting.

  • Text Me if the CDC Reports a Zombie Outbreak by Ericbock

  • ‘Bluetooth vs Airplay’

    Fred Wilson talking about how he loves to allow anyone in the car to control the audio over the bluetooth connection and comparing that to AirPlay in his home:

    >But that doesn’t support Android phones and not all third party mobile apps support Airplay. Airplay is not ubiquitous in the way that Bluetooth is.

    After realizing how awesome bluetooth is he bought an adapter to use at home:

    >I am betting that by replicating the experience they have in the car in our home, they will take control of our home music system with their phones in the same way they do in our car.

    I am betting they are going to love streaming 1080p videos over that bluetooth connection… wait.

    Bluetooth *is* more “open” than AirPlay, but to say that it is better? Hmmm, I think not.

    For starters you aren’t going to be streaming HD video over bluetooth. Secondly and most importantly: you need not pair AirPlay. Anyone can walk into my home and as long as they are on my network (most friends and family are setup to be already) they can AirPlay audio and video to my TV. That’s awesome and let’s face it, the majority of people that come into my home have iOS devices, not Android.

    Here’s another reality: while bluetooth will likely be OK for those that live in the home, it’s going to be a pain in the ass to pair a new phone for those that come and visit. The *moment* will have passed, if you will, by the time you are setup and ready to go.

    I just don’t see the benefit of this move unless you are an Android only family — which I think Wilson is heavily invested ((Not in the $$$ sense.)) in Android.

  • The Problem With Kickstarter and Software

  • OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – OS X Mountain Lion: Data Loss via ‘Save As’

  • RIM CEO Thorsten Heins Interview: RIM Considered Android Switch

  • Apple’s Secrets Revealed at Trial

  • ‘Saving Private Research in Motion, RIM, Blackberry’

    Jean-Louis Gassée has a fantastic article dissecting the comparisons of RIM now and Apple back in the mid-nineties (when Apple was on the verge of collapse). A lot has been said about RIM and what they are trying to do, but I love this question for RIM believers from Gassée:
    >Weren’t most of these engineers already onboard when RIM fell asleep at the switch?

    Indeed.

    At this point it’s not only that RIM doesn’t have a competent platform to even compete with Microsoft, but it is that they seemingly can’t decide what the hell the right path forward is.

    – We will march on!
    – New CEO
    – We are massively talented.
    – Slash 5k jobs.
    – BB10 will save the world.
    – BB10 will run everything for you.
    – Our handset business is still growing!
    – We *might* need to license BB10. Might.

    It’s like playing Monopoly against a child and convincing the child to trade different colors with you back and forth as it benefits you. Every trade you make a compelling case why it is best for them, without thinking the child buys that case and makes the trade. Next time you make another more compelling case that contradicts your last. And so on.

    RIM is the child here.

    They started off assuring everyone that they were fine that the management was great. Then they hire a new management team, which says everything is fine. Then they cut thousands of jobs, but it’s right back to everything is fine.

    This is a pathetic line of rhetoric that seemingly only RIM’s board is buying.

    Yes, there will always be those that want a hardware keyboard, but if the demand for such a device is strong enough I assure you an Android partner will make it. There simply are no more compelling reasons why one chooses RIM over Apple/Google/Microsoft.

  • The Positive Power of Negative Thinking

  • Quote of the Day: Rob Cox

    “Facebook looks like a prime example of what Wall Street calls a falling knife—that is, one that can cost investors their fingers if they try to catch it.”