“It’s better to have a few fantastic things designed for you than to have many untrustworthy things poorly designed to please everyone.”
Year: 2012
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ABBYY Business Card Reader
Here’s what typically happens when I meet someone new:
– They hand me a card.
– I glance at the card to see if it looks cool.
– I put card in my pocket.
– Once back at my office, or home, I throw the card away if it doesn’t look cool.
– Two weeks later I wish I hadn’t thrown the card away.So that was next on my list of things to change and I set out to find a great iOS app to change this with. I just wanted to be able to snap a picture of a business card and save the info to my contacts. Simple.
Turns out there are a lot of offerings with mixed results. ABBYY is the best that I have found. It’s not updated for the iPhone 5, and the voiceover support is iffy, but it does a hell of a job pulling in accurate information. And it is fast, really fast. You don’t have to even use ABBYY’s proprietary contact database, you can send it right to your iPhone contacts upon saving.
Next round of new business cards I make for myself will be made to work perfectly with ABBYY, yours should be too.
So if you ever get handed a business card, this is worth your $4.99 — it’s damned handy.
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Stuff in iOS 6 That Drives Me Nuts
I’ve been using iOS 6 for a long time, and for a lot of that it was in “beta” so bugs and sluggishness are expected. But we are now well out of beta, and have received the first update. With that I feel comfortable talking about a few things that still really drive me nuts in iOS 6.
Allow me to vent:
## The App Store
The revamped App Store looks fantastic and has a lot of great touches. Not having to enter in your credentials for updates, and not leaving the store when you buy an app, are tops among those great new features.
What’s not so great is that the iOS App Store works as if it is being run off of a Blueberry iMac somewhere, wait that’s too generous. The entire interface is slow and sluggish — even on my 50mbps down internet connection — it feels like I am working on an 2G cell network.
I have even had times when — for no reason — I can no longer scroll around certain parts of the “Featured” section and have to force quit the App Store to get it working again. It’s bad, really bad.
At times I will even go to update an app and the updates screen just sits there blank… Good times.
There have been a few rare times where the App Store is running fast and smooth and it feels like a gem at those times, so what in the world is going on?
## Siri & Bluetooth
My car has a handsfree bluetooth system built in. So when my iPhone is in my car, it auto pairs with the car’s bluetooth. This is great for everything except Siri.
For whatever reason Siri doesn’t keep the connection open, so while I can start a Siri request via bluetooth, the connection soon cuts off and Siri gets pissy. The solution, is pretty easy, just tap the little bluetooth icon when you invoke Siri and switch to the iPhone for Siri input.
Well the solution would be easy if that toggle actually worked. Instead you will find yourself tapping the icon few times with no response, then the phone catching up and turning bluetooth on and off, and then finally getting the dialog where you can actually get bluetooth off.
That is, if you haven’t crashed into a tree yet.
## Incoming Calls
It’s great that my iPhone beeps when I get an incoming call, but why does it beep once more after I press ignore? Here’s what happens: I am on a call and another call comes in, I press ignore, I get back to the conversation and then the phone beeps as if another call is coming in, but there isn’t one.
This is massively annoying to me, and distracting as hell. Maybe the iPhone isn’t made to be a phone — at least that’s what it is feeling more and more like to me.
## —
These are nitpicks, yes, but they are very real and very annoying issues.
I don’t want to burden a Forstall-less-ish Apple with any more troubles, but it’d be swell to get these issues taken care of.
Since, you know, we are on version 6 of the OS.
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Quote of the Day: Farhad Manjoo
“The Surface, by contrast, will let you do everything you want. The problem is that you’ll have no fun doing it.” -
‘Taking Surface to Work’
Paul “Supersite” Thurrott has some interesting Microsoft Surface points:
>The Surface is what it is, and regardless of my opinion of the thing, it’s pretty clear that millions of people have purchased the devices and many more will do so in the weeks and months ahead, and that many of them intend to bring it to work.
I think the only thing that is “pretty clear” is that we don’t know how many people will be toting these around…
>Surface, of course, usually comes with a keyboard cover of some kind and I frankly have a hard time imagining almost anyone using this device without a cover.
That’s interesting, [especially given the Bishop link](https://brooksreview.net/2012/11/content-consumption/) from earlier today. If you are buying a Surface, I just don’t see how you don’t buy one of the covers as well — that’s one of the biggest selling points as marketed by Microsoft.
>And although I’m not the overt fan of this device that many of you appear to be, we can all agree on this: It’s going to be getting a lot better, and soon.
That, I would have to agree with. From everything I have seen, all signs point to a serious commitment from Microsoft to make the Surface a well rounded tablet — that can only be good for consumers.
## Ah, Thurrott
One other note about Thurrott though — drives me nuts. Read this:
>Sadly, my critical examination of Surface with Windows RT was frequently misunderstood. I have a responsibility as a reviewer to be honest about any and all products that I use, and my Surface piece reflects what an incomplete and frustrating experience this particular device really is.
I really respected him for saying that, but then he immediately follows it with:
>But if you’ve been following along on the SuperSite for Windows, you know that I’m writing a series of tips and other articles about Surface, aimed at helping people overcome these frustrations. Of which there are many.
“The Surface is pretty annoying, unless of course you read all my tips to make it less annoying!”
Ugh…
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A ‘Content Consumption’ Device
Nope, Todd Bishop isn’t wrong-headedly talking about the iPad, this time the Surface RT gets that moniker:
>This speaks to the fact that my family is using our Surface primarily as a content consumption and light communications device.Ugh. I wouldn’t normally post one sentence from an article that is not talking about how to use the Surface, but that’s not what I did here — this is Bishop’s set up for that sentence:
>Here’s my first piece of advice: Consider saving yourself some money and getting neither.
The argument being made is that you don’t need one of these keyboard covers, because in Bishop’s experience this isn’t a device you will type a lot on. That entire things reads like early iPad criticisms and is really too bad.
The more I hear things like this, the more I think the Surface may actually be on to something — perhaps creating a strong competitor for the iPad when it hits version 2. The reason these negative comments make me think this is because the comments surround a lack of apps, and 1.0 bugs. It sees to me like the Surface RT is a solid product that is suffering from a lack of developer support, as well as bugs.
To me, the bigger point that Bishop should have made, was glossed over: that is family was *actually* using the Surface. If that is in lieu of an iPad, then that is huge news.
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ASETNIOP
An intriguing keyboard concept. They have a web-based tutorial where you can try it out on your iPad, and I really recommend that you do try it out. I have spent a few months of my life trying to shift from QWERTY to DVORAK before, and always failed to do so.
I spent 10 minutes playing with this on my iPad and was starting to feel pretty confident. I can really see this gaining some traction, it’s simple, easy, and fast. Seems like it would be ten times easier to teach children.
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‘Power Is Finally Back in Manhattan. Here’s How to Make Sure It Never Goes Out Again’
Tim Wu:
>The key is to decentralize: to turn a regional electric network into a network of smaller, neighborhood networks, that no single points of failure, so no one substation can take down half a million homes.It’s a fantastic idea, if you stop and think about it.
And then when you think about it a bit longer you realize three things:
1. This would be an incredibly expensive and long overhaul.
2. It would require full support from utility companies.
3. It would require massive pressure from the federal government.The likelyhood of getting any two of those is slim, all three? That seems like a pipe dream to me, because something of this scale would need to start with the government, which isn’t even able to make the call that sending mail carriers to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on mules is simply not a cost effective idea. Here’s hoping I am wrong.
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Quote of the Day: The Economist
“Both men have it in them to be their better selves; but the sad fact is that neither candidate has campaigned as if that is his plan.” -
Skilled Operators
Lukas Mathis arguing that casual users need high-end computers:
>So the sentiment that «entry-level» computers are good enough for casual users is exactly backwards: casual users are the ones that need high-end computers, while proficient users are the ones who can work around the limitations of low-end computers.Anecdotally I’d have to agree with this. I manage to find ways to keep a G4 Mac mini operational as a home media server by hacking at OS X, but my wife struggles to not be frustrated with her aging MacBook Pro — even though it has more than enough power for what she needs it for.
This immediately made me think of “pros”, or skilled operators, which is what we are talking about. The best hammer a consumer can buy is probably one of those anti-vide hammers with large heads and a comfortable grip — this is not the hammer a pro buys, because a pro doesn’t need such features and only finds those features to be getting in the way. Likewise, if a race car driver wants to go very fast, they turn off traction control ((Except in F1, right, they still have it there?)) while the casual driver will need traction control to stay alive.
A skilled driver can drive a slow car faster than a casual driver can drive a much faster car.
This translates to computers of course, but not just in speed of the computer. A large part of the disconnect that I see is seeking out odd solutions. Whether it is through tools like Hazel, Keyboard Maestro, LaunchBar, or through simply finding apps that do remote desktop and other odds and ends that users wish they could do, but cannot find the apps to do them. A lot of casual users assume that if it is not already on their computer, it cannot be done.
We may not be able to solve casual user’s problems, but things like the Mac App Store should help alleviate some of those problems. (Provided we can get users to look in the Mac App Store and pay for Apps, which is another issue all together.)
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‘Bringing Responsiveness to the App World’
Oliver Reichenstein, on iA Writer’s new font sizing:
>Inspired by our deep experience designing for the web, we’ve given Writer for Mac a responsive design, changing the font size based on window width. This maintains the text’s typographic proportions, zooming in and out without reflowing the text. I don’t know why it took us so long to find this obvious solution.
Writer now resizes to three levels based on the window width. It’s actually pretty neat, and the full screen views are not changed.
Writer is a very polarizing app for people — either you love it, or you laugh at it. I personally love it, because the focus is purely on writing and editing. The app is made for just that and that is what I need.
What is particularly interesting about this post is how Reichenstein views the three font sizes, saying this about the largest size:
>Seeing your sentence from close slows down your pace. This is particularly helpful if you have a tough subject to write about, that requires you to take one step at a time. Especially when paired with Focus Mode, this helps you write that difficult scientific paper, poem or philosophical text.
I had never thought about how font size controls the speed that you write with — but this may explain why I like “focus modes” so much in text editors. Such modes slow me down and cause me to think more instead of just typing down everything on my mind because I cannot easily glance at what I had written — I also don’t know how much I have written. It’s this kind of thought that leads to a product that is simply hard to describe in words, and is more about experience than features.
My only gripe right now with Writer is that you can’t bring those font sizes to the fullscreen mode — my preferred mode — all I want is a smaller font size for editing in fullscreen, perhaps I am alone.
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The FLOTE
A brilliant idea that is *almost* perfect. [I first found the FLOTE](http://www.floteyourtablet.com) while lamenting about the difficulty of reading my iPad while holding a sleeping infant. The jackals in the chatroom pointed me to the FLOTE, a simple, beautiful, iPad stand that solves this very problem.
The base of the stand. There were only two catches:
1. This was a Kickstarter project that had not shipped yet.
2. It is priced at $319.99.The price, honestly, seemed a bit much, but in looking at it more I could truly see the quality of build that was going into the product. I paid up and waited.
I waited a really long time. Past the time when my daughter was sleeping on me all the time. I still wanted it.
I finally got it, and it is a mixed bag for me.
## The Design
The creator of the FLOTE kept me in the loop and I can tell you that the detail he focused on is amazing. There is a lot of care in this stand and it shows.
The magnetic ball of perfection. The magnetic ball that allows articulation of the iPad is amazingly well designed. It’s quite honestly my favorite part of the stand, so well done that it seems as though Apple designed that bit.
The looks are fantastic. The stand is sturdy and decidedly will not tip over — it weighs a lot. The clamp for the iPad is strong and allows for many different sized tablets. However the clamp seems like it could have been better. It’s not bad, but I’ve yet to be able to take my iPad in or out with just one hand. That probably wasn’t a design consideration, but when you are relaxing on the couch it is much harder to do something on the stand with two hands than just one.
The iPad clamp. The stand itself swivels amazingly well. The telescoping arm was added after the funding was complete, and it works decently. The action is smooth, however the plastic finger nut is an unfortunate necessity. I have found, though, that you rarely need to telescope the arm — so it’s a set it and forget it thing for me. Thus, this doesn’t bug me too much.
The finger nut for the telescoping arm. Which leads me to the one thing that drives me nuts about the stand: the up and down arm action. The arm that holds the iPad out from the vertical pole is secured with a large hex bolt. You pre-tighten it and then you are supposed to be able to use it with no issues. That, however, isn’t how it played out for me.
The hex bolt of doom. I have yet to find the sweet spot that allows for smooth travel of the arm, with a firm hold when I want my iPad to stay where I want it. The creator is revising the design, to add a plastic wing nut instead of the hex bolt, but even that isn’t a great solution. This isn’t a deal breaker, I just tightened it down more so that it is a bit tougher to move — that works, but it’s not great.
## The Real Problem I Have
What I have come to realize is that no matter how good this stand was, it simply wouldn’t work for me. The iPad, it turns out, is a very intimate device. Whereby I mean that part of what makes the iPad great is touching it and holding it. So when you off-load the holding to a stand, the iPad just becomes a screen.
In use, iPad can be used at any angle or orientation. That seems nice at first, but then you realize it’s not really great as just a screen.
Therein lies the problem: I don’t like using an iPad if I am not holding it.
## Back to the FLOTE
iPad clamped in with Smart Cover still on. The FLOTE is not perfect, but you’d be hard pressed to look at it, use it and still say that it is over priced. It’s well made, it’s solid. A lot of thought has gone into it and the two problems I have with it are fairly minor in use.
No, my real problem with the FLOTE is that it solves a problem — that as it turns out — I really don’t have.
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Quote of the Day: The Macalope
“If Amazon’s big loss is due to selling a ton of Kindle Fires, shouldn’t that loss have been offset by the company selling lots of content?” -
The B&B Podcast #83: Listener Q&A
>Shawn and Ben answer questions from the listeners, covering topics about Pinboard, budgeting, tech purchases, Apple Care, upgrades, covering Apple news, and more.
Brought to you by our outstanding sponsor:
– Doxie Go — A better way to go paperless. [Go get one, or two.](http://www.getdoxie.com)
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‘Scrolling vs. Pagination’
I rarely disagree with Lukas Mathis, but in this case he is incorrect:
>Scrolling affords a completely empty kind control. The user is doing more, she’s controlling more, but she’s not actually achieving more.
and:
>Pagination gets out of the way. Read a page. Push a button. Read the next page. Repeat. No needless interference with the actual text being read, no unnecessary interactions that could pull the reader out of the book’s world.
In an ideal world, he is correct, but on the web he isn’t correct. Let’s use Instapaper as an example since it pulls all pages of an article and allows scrolling or pagination. The pagination is a great touch, but it leads to a broken reading experience in my usage.
Why? Because an algorithm not a human chose the pagination points. A well designed and devised pagination system — from the author — works well because the author can choose a natural break point.
So in Instapaper I scroll, because the reading experience is more fluid and less broken. I like pagination in reading apps, but I much prefer a fluid reading experience. So scrolling is still the best in my mind.
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Atwood’s Surface
Jeff Atwood on his Microsoft Surface RT:
> Surface is just like the first iPad in that it has all the flaws and rough edges you’d expect in a version one device. But it is also like the first iPad in that there is undeniably the core of something revelatory and transformative here – a vision of the future of computing that doesn’t sacrifice either keyboard or touch.
A great and very much positive take on the Surface RT by a guy who just wants cool computers. He makes some fantastic points, including the above quote.
Last night I saw an ad for Best Buy that features a convertible Microsoft laptop of some sort and I have to say, I can see the appeal of that for people. For example I am tapping this out in my iPad, sitting in a vacant office space waiting for a service technician — this is something I do often. I have my iPad 3 with LTE, my iPhone 5 with LTE, and my retina MacBook Pro all here. Yet I’m only using the iPad, because at a moments notice I will need to get up and meet a technician. With my laptop that means I’d have to close it up and stuff it carefully back in my bag. The iPhone is too small for typing like this, so I go with my iPad, but I would be done with this post already if I had a keyboard for the iPad, then again that’d be silly because my retina MacBook Pro is right here.
All that to say that I often find myself in situations where such a hybrid computer would not only be useful, it’d be *better*. Now, I am wondering how that would translate for the rest of my life, could I dump my iPad and retina MacBook Pro for just one device? It doesn’t seem possible, especially if it means switching to Windows, but then again I thought the same thing when I switched to the Mac in 2004. I don’t want to switch to Windows, but I also live to find a better, easier, way to live.
Maybe it is worth giving it a try… Really.