Month: March 2013

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  • ‘The Pebble’

    [Stephen Hackett reviewing The Pebble, a massively delayed, “smart” watch][1]: > This means turning off the iPhone, flipping it to Airplane Mode or simply leaving it on your desk when you go to lunch means your phone will forget what its supposed to do. Or leaving your watch inside when you mow the grass. Or […]

  • ‘Why Developers Shouldn’t Use iCloud Syncing’

    [Brent Simmons][1]: > How comfortable are you with outsourcing half your app to another company? The answer should be: not at all comfortable. Simmons’ argument has been linked all over the web as an astute damning of iCloud’s unreliable synchronization for developers to use in their apps. I think Simmons missed something with his statement: […]

  • Quote of the Day: John Gruber

    “This, from the company that shitcanned Google Reader because they wanted to ‘focus’.” — John Gruber

  • Quote of the Day: Laird Hamilton

    “To me, there’s nothing worse than waking up and realizing that the sun’s already been up for awhile.” — Laird Hamilton

  • ‘Email Signoffs: End Them Forever.’

    [Matthew J.X. Malady fighting the good fight](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/03/email_signoffs_end_them_forever_best_yours_regards_they_re_all_terrible.single.html): >Henceforth, I do not want—nay, I will not accept—any manner of regards. Nor will I offer any. And I urge you to do the same. I can’t tell you how much I agree here. See also: “[Email Mistakes That Irritate Smart People](http://brooksreview.net/2010/07/email-mistakes-that-irratate-smart-people/)” I largely skip all formalities that […]

  • Quote of the Day: Frank Chimero

    “The past wasn’t better, we just forgot about all the shitty shit.” — Frank Chimero

  • Forecast.io

    I get emails from people trying to do weather apps all the time. But the best emails I get are from Jack and Adam at Dark Sky — these guys just get it. They just publicly launched [Forecast.io](http://blog.forecast.io/post/46290267206/announcing-forecast) and it’s amazing. I’ve been using it for a bit and here’s my verdict on it: it’s […]

  • More Anti-Google Services

    [Lavabit](http://lavabit.com/index.html) comes highly recommended from reader Daniel R. as a better email option than Hush for private email. It is cheaper and offers more. I signed up for a free account, but have yet to figure out how to upgrade it to a premium account — still if you can, Lavabit looks like a very […]

  • ‘Google’s Google Problem’

    [Ryan Avent makes a salient point regarding the shut-down of Google Reader](http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/03/utilities): > Yanking away services beloved by early adopters almost guarantees that critical masses can’t be obtained: not, at any rate, without the provision of an incentive or commitment mechanism to protect the would-be users from the risk of losing a vital service. This, […]

  • You Can’t Quit, I Dare You

    [Marco Arment](http://www.marco.org/2013/03/21/thursday-sandwich): >Want to really stick it to them? Stop using Google. All of it. Search, Gmail, Maps, the works. Delete your account and start using Bing. Ready? >… >Yeah. That’s the problem. You won’t. I won’t. Nobody will. After I read that I quipped to Marco (on App.net) that this is factually incorrect — […]

  • ‘Blocked Sites Is Discontinued’

    [Google](http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1210386): >The Blocked Sites feature is no longer available. To block particular sites from your search results, we recommend the Personal Blocklist Chrome extension from Google. You may also download your existing blocked sites list as a text file. Totally not related to Google’s ability to sell ads. *Totally* different. See also: [Massive botnet costs […]

  • Quote of the Day: The Macalope

    “Because people who don’t pay for smartphones buy so many apps.” — The Macalope

  • Maybe

    [Kevin Fanning, writing about failure and passion](http://kfan.tumblr.com/post/45910246222/ok-by-now-youve-seen-this-article-in-the-onion): >Maybe the self-obsessed celebrity artist culture isn’t that helpful or useful. Maybe eventually we get to a place where we see that books and music and art are created by us, people who have school and day jobs and other shit we care about. I encourage you to […]

  • Quote of the Day: Marco Arment

    “New Google is much more strategic, cold, and focused.” — Marco Arment

  • ‘Rego, the New Place for All Your Places’

    [Shawn Blanc on Rego](http://shawnblanc.net/2013/03/rego-review/): >Rego is a brand new, location-based app that fills the void left by Gowalla — and Rego is not a new social network. Man do I miss Gowalla. I’ve been using [Rego](http://www.regoapp.com) only a couple of days now (based on Shawn’s review) and it’s really quite nice. The part I like […]

  • Developer Hostility Towards Users

    Being in an industry that is entrenched in Windows based software means that I am constantly looking for a solution that is both robust and not terrible looking. We chose Yardi’s Genesis software for our property management needs because it was the only offering that offered everything we needed and did so without cutting corners. […]

  • The Time I Was Wrong*

    *I’m wrong a lot. Uncharacteristically, I didn’t order an iPad mini when it came out. Truthfully, as I’ve said many times, I really didn’t want a device without a retina display. For most of the last year I have primarily used my iPad for reading and writing — not much else. For most of 2013 […]

  • mtrostyle.net

    [A new site from Bardi Golriz](http://www.mtrostyle.net) has me all sorts of intrigued. The site, as you might be able to guess, is all about Windows 8 and the Surface RT. Two interesting things caught my eye: 1. “[Multitasking on a Surface is a Snap](http://www.mtrostyle.net/blog/multitasking-on-a-surface-is-a-snap)” Golriz talks about the behavior of the swipe-to-multi-task gesture on the […]

  • ‘Apple Is Losing the War – of Words’

    [Jean-Louis Gassée](http://www.mondaynote.com/2013/03/17/apple-is-losing-the-war-of-words/): > Why were Samsung’s mean-spirited ads seen as fun and creative, while Schiller’s slight misstep is called “defensive”? And: > Because of its position at the top, Apple should have the grace to not trash its competitors, especially when the digs are humorless and further weakened by error. Gassee’s article is getting a […]

  • How Mailbox Can Make Me A User

    Of all the things I love about Dropbox—incredibly seamless integration with OS X and Windows; automated back up and revision history; access to my files on multiple devices, wherever I am; sharing photos with my parents through the free account I set up for them—there is one I value the most: that every year Dropbox […]