The Brooks Review

Year: 2012

  • Extending the Life of my G4 Mac mini

    I purchased my Mac mini the day that Apple announced it — I mean the very first Mac mini Apple made — and I spent every last dollar I had on it at the time. I have used that Mac mini everyday since I purchased it and it’s only on its second hard drive. Suffice to say, I have gotten my value out of the machine.

    For the last five years or so, the Mac mini has spent its little life attached to my TV as a media center. It downloads and stores all the video files ((I don’t know the legality of downloading TV shows from the web if you pay for the cable subscription already, so that’s *not* what I am talking about. Either way, it’s not movies — honestly.)) I would like to play on my TV and plays them over a DVI connection. Up and until this year everything worked really well, I couldn’t playback 720p or higher quality files, but “normal TV grade HD” played back just fine.

    Then everyone made the switch to encode video files with h.264 and well, the Mac mini struggles to play those files back. I get random artifacts and massive amounts of dropped frames during fast moving scenes. This is something that has been driving my wife and me nuts.

    This all got me to thinking about how I could get back smoother playback without having to buy a new machine. Initially I thought Mountain Lion would be the answer, streaming the files from the mini and AirPlaying to the Apple TV, but having to move my retina MacBook Pro into the living room didn’t sound appealing.

    I wanted to stream from the mini to the Apple TV, but with none of the video streaming to AirPlay apps working on PowerPC chips, I thought I was SOL. Then I found [File Browser](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filebrowser-access-files-on/id364738545?mt=8), a $4.99 universal iOS app that allows you to browse network shared files, play them back on the device and/or stream them over AirPlay.

    So with that I can stream the videos on the Mac mini to my iOS device, from there I can AirPlay them to my TV via the Apple TV. Thus giving me smooth playback for $4.99.

    It’s not all roses though, the app is pretty ugly and the icon is blue.

    That said, it worked, worked well, and amazingly was damned easy to setup.

    And so the G4 Mac mini lives on.

  • The Twitter Political Index

    Twitter has launched a pretty cool project that analyzes all the tweets on a given day and shows how favorably each presidential candidate is on Twitter. That is pretty cool and a really great use of Twitter.

    **But…**

    Why is it only updated once a day at 5:00pm? Isn’t Twitter about the “real-time web” — what the hell is real-time about updating data once a day at 5:00pm?

    This data would be far more interesting and informative if it was updated in real-time. A candidate says something more dumb than usual on TV and we can see them drop in likability, and then minutes later does something great and they begin trending back up. Seeing that kind of data would be awesome, seeing the data on a one day snapshot is just neat.

    Twitter could have made this awesome, but instead they only made it neat.

    That is what worries me most about Twitter right now…

  • ‘A Simple Journal’

    When Day One, a Mac and iOS journaling app, first launched I gave it a go for a while and quickly dropped it. I was contacted a while ago from the developer to test out a new version of the app (just launched the day of this posting) and I have been using and loving the app quite a bit lately.

    [Shawn Blanc has an excellent review of the suite of apps](http://shawnblanc.net/2012/08/day-one-review/), so be sure to check that out if you are interested in it.

    What I have to say about the app is this:

    – It is damned clever. In Shawn’s review he mentions that if you add a photo to your journal after the fact, the app will ask if you want to back date the entry to the time and location the photo was taken. This is so perfect for me, I don’t want to interrupt an experience as it is happening, but I love logging that experience after the fact. I never did this before because I didn’t want to have to remember dates and locations — now I don’t.
    – The app is gorgeous, even for how blue it is.
    – The power of the app is in the simplicity of the app. It is just about journalling, not any other social muckery.
    – It’s on my home screen. I had used it for about a week before I had to clear off another app from my home screen to get Day One on there. This is big for me, because it really does take a lot to get on my home screen. ((Fun note: since taking this site behind a paywall I ditched having Ego on my home screen and replaced it with the WordPress app for fixing my typos.))

    I have never been a person that keeps a journal. I always thought it would be great to be that kind of a person, but I never enjoyed doing it. With Day One I am really enjoying journaling.

    One wish: I wish that the app had some sort of analytics that could look for keywords in all my entries and then graph my happiness v. sadness over time — that would be pretty neat.

  • Productivity Porn

  • Quote of the Day: MG Siegler

    “It’s the thought that Twitter may not be Twitter anymore.”

  • ‘Craigslist Now Asks for Exclusive License When Posting’

    The headline says it all, and this is likely a response to Craigslist recent spree of trying to lock out others from using Craigslist data (think [PadMapper](https://www.padmapper.com)). I can’t be the only one that thinks Craigslist is ripe for a disruption, because there is so much wrong with it that goes beyond the hideous and user hostile design of the site.

    Many have pointed out that Craigslist is secure because they have a huge network of users, both sellers and buyers. That’s true, Craigslist is the second best way to rent apartments in my experience, with a sign in the yard being the best way. That’s how far and fast Craigslist has come for many.

    But, I would remind you that no matter the size of your network, if you service becomes too douchey the users will flee for greener pastures. Primes examples: MySpace and Digg — both relics of a different time (though Digg is trying a comeback).

    MySpace and Digg both got big fast, but died (or almost died) because they started doing things that users didn’t like, that didn’t help users, and another service popped up that seemingly didn’t do those things.

    I for one would love to see someone try to disrupt Craigslist, here’s my suggestions of what to do:

    1. Clean, user friendly design.
    2. Allow searching of all locales at once.
    3. Integrate a payment gateway like Stripe so a secure payment could be made when the item is in hand.
    4. Allow the data to be used and viewed through APIs.
    5. Charge per listing, like $2 to post an ad. This does two things: removes ads; and helps cut down on SPAM listings.

    Those are just a few quick suggestions at the top of my head, but it seems to me the time to strike is now.

  • Cycle Through Conversations in Messages

  • “Best Wi-Fi Router”

    Wes Fenlon at *The Wirecutter* mistakenly thinks the best WiFi router is some ASUS concoction and in writing up his thoughts he clearly doesn’t get “it”.

    [This is the “it” I am talking about](https://brooksreview.net/2012/06/wifi-routers/).

    Actually, Fenlon exposes the true problem with *The Wirecutter* and sites like it, they are always trying to find the “new best” thing in category X — because writing that “W” is still the best isn’t a very good way to get page views. The ASUS router seems to just be the fastest and most hackable router out there, which is great, but those things alone don’t make them the “best”.

    This is akin to *The Wirecutter* proclaiming that the Bugatti Veyron is the “best” car because it is the fastest. ((When everyone knows that Aston Martin’s are the best sports car and BMWs are the best all around cars — come on.))

    I can’t stand this kind of “reviewing”. *Unsubscribed.*

  • The New Digg

  • Nexus Q Launch Delayed Indefinitely, No Longer Available for Pre-Order

  • The MagSafe 2 Hoopla

    There’s been a lot of talk about Apple’s new MagSafe 2 connector, mostly with complaints. Complaints about the width are to be expected, so is the move back to the “T” style connection.

    The one complaint I didn’t expect to see if that it doesn’t stay put very well. Lukas Mathis is just the most recent of the lot to complain of this, he even broken his screen because of it (odd).

    Personally I have found the MagSafe 2 to be just as strong, if not stronger than, the original MagSafe. This could be chocked up to a Rev A product from Apple — which usually have some issues of some sort — but my real question is this: is this a problem with the Mac side connection, or the MagSafe 2 power adapter itself?

    Has anybody gone around and tested the port with various power adapters?

    Very curious.

    **Update**: I now have two chargers for my retina MacBook Pro, and on both I am able to drag the retina MacBook Pro across the desk by pulling the charger cable. I am going to go ahead and say that those seeing trouble with it should take their machines in to Apple.

  • Dropbox confirms it got hacked, will offer two-factor authentication

  • Facebook Abstainers could be labeled Suspicious

  • Samsung angers judge by sending rejected evidence from Apple trial to the media

  • Facebook sinks to record low as doubts grow

  • ‘The Real-Time Web Is Too Important to Entrust to Twitter’

    Matthew “The Panzer” Panzarino arguing the importance of real-time networks like Twitter:
    >More power to Twitter, and I hope that its business continues to grow and thrive. But for us, those of us who understand the inherent power in the real-time flow of information, we need to plan a future where Twitter isn’t the only option.

    You need to read his entire post: it’s a fantastic look at why Twitter is as important as no one knows that it is. Twitter is quite literally the fastest way to find out about anything. Not only is it pure documentation of life on a second-by-second basis, it is one of the few reliable ways to find out up-to-the-moment information in a time of crisis.

    To put it in a better perspective, with due respect to those involved, imagine how different the world would be today if we had Twitter before 9/11/01. How many lives could have been saved by giving real time information to all? Maybe none, maybe it still would have been too unexpected, but I like to think that not only is Twitter a great place for me to complain, it is also an amazing place to be informed and to engage in the world.

    There simply is no other tool as good as Twitter is for informing the world on a moment-by-moment basis, and Panzarino is right — this is far too important of a tool to be in the hands of just *one* company.

  • Twitter at a Crossroads: Economic Value vs. Information Value

  • London Olympics 2012: Twitter ‘Alerted NBC to British Journalist’s Critical Tweets’

  • Inspired by Sony

  • IAP Greed

    Craig Grannell writing about the annoying (greedy?) practice of iOS gaming developers forcing users to continue to buy things via an IAP, in order to continue enjoying the game. He writes:
    >They are designed around keeping you hooked through the time investment you’ve put into them, rather than around addictive, exciting, engaging game design. The problem is, money talks, and with top-grossing titles typically being the most exploitative money-gouging games on the App Store, why wouldn’t more developers head in that direction?

    I don’t play enough games to notice this, but it shows the bad side of the business model I advocate for: charging for your work. The tough distinction is between a service and an actual app. Instapaper is a service in my mind, and thus I would be willing to pay monthly for it (I pay for the subscription). By that I mean, I would be willing to pay just to use the basic service on the website. Numbers is just an app, not a service, so I feel you should be charged accordingly. This means, charge me enough to fund the next version of the app — how ever far away that might be.

    I am not sure where games fit in, they feel more like apps than services, but then some games are really services. Things like *Words with Friends* feels like a service, not a game. Whereas *Tetris* clearly is a game to me.

    The real question in my mind right now, is whether this is something that should be regulated by the marketplace (gamers) or by Apple? Should Apple start rejecting apps that can’t be used in a long-term and meaningful way without IAP? Or should Apple continue down the current path and leave it to the gamers to stop buying these IAPs?

    I think the latter is the best move, but I also think it is the slowest option.