The Brooks Review

Year: 2014

  • The Tablet Loses

    With a seemingly immenent announcement of larger screen iPhone, there has been a lot of talk about device sizing. What is ideal: smaller tablets, or bigger phones?

    In addition to all of this we are seeing tablet growth slow, as presumably fewer people are upgrading and fewer people are buying. ((No, shit, right?)) Both of these thought patterns are related, and one common thing I have seen is that the laptop isn’t being replaced by tablets, it is being replaced by phones.

    It seems crazy, as a person with a high-end Mac, an iPad, and an iPhone, that people would be using the iPhone (or like devices) as their computer. But, is it really that crazy? Not when you stop and think about it.

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  • Phone Sizes

    Luka Mathis:

    That’s why phone size is such a difficult topic. It depends on you, and it depends on what you do with it. I’m glad that Apple is about to introduce a larger phone,6 but I also still believe there are people who would benefit from an additional phone that’s even smaller than the 4S.

  • Comcast Being Comcast

    David Kravets reporting on Comcast injecting ads on top of webpages when connected to their public wifi hotspots:

    “We think it's a courtesy, and it helps address some concerns that people might not be absolutely sure they're on a hotspot from Comcast,” Douglas said.

    Now they will know, and can promptly make the wise decision to get the hell off your wifi.

    These unwanted JavaScript injections are terrible. I've been told serving your site over SSL can stop this, which is why (in part) I serve this site over SSL. (Even though it is tremendously slower.)

  • Blogs Are Cool Again

    Mustapha Hamou:

    If you choose to follow a blog, no company like facebook can decide whether or not you can read its posts

    Except for when you go to share the blog post. I think that Twitter is going to cause quite a stir the moment they start filtering timelines (and they will). Good thing we have RSS and the old reliable blog and email system. There's a lot to be said for decentralized systems.

  • The iOS “@@” Shortcut As A Text Expander For Emails

    What a great tip. Love it.

  • The Infamous Nature of Being a Dick

    You have probably read more than one thing I have written where I was a dick, either on purpose or incidentally. I likely wasn’t trying to be a dick at the outset, but yeah, I ended up being a dick. It could have been a review chastising an app solely for the color of their icon, or snark about Google tracking everything we do — it could have been just about anything.

    Whatever the case, I have become well-known for being a dick. It’s ok, you can agree — I do.

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  • The Brooks Review Podcast: Episode Ten – No, Really.

    Longer episode than normal, but a lot of fun courtesy of Garrett Murray and his thoughts on my Twitter bio.

    Thanks to Macminicolo.net and Rego for sponsoring.

  • The Leak Heard ‘Round the World

    Over the long US holiday weekend several celebrities had their privacy violated and less than desirable photos were shared of them around the web. The mainstream media has made a spectacle out of it by either shaming the celebrities for daring to live their lives as they want, or Apple for doing something. ((Or perhaps, for the lack of doing something.))

    The truth of the matter is far more complex, and we have yet to get the clearest picture. There are though a few things we can take away from this which I think are worth repeating.

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  • New Membership Plan: Quarterly

    In honor of the seventh major design revision to the site, I am now offering quarterly memberships (for a limited time) at just $7 every three months. The plans are live, and remember you can switch plans if you want.

    The plans are now:

    • $7 every three months
    • $40 a year
    • $4 a month

    The best value is quarterly. I’d love it if you became a member.

  • Terrible Management Practices

    Clive Thompson:

    Because, as Ms. Deal found in her research, endless email is an enabler. It often masks terrible management practices.

  • The Design

    I know it can be boring to read about a blogger’s new site design, and truly there’s nothing revolutionary here, but at some point you may wonder why I made the changes I made — and that’s what this post serves to answer. An answer to ‘why’ for both of us. (Sometimes I forget too.)

    Unlike every other redesign that I have done I first sat down and figured out some clear goals for the new design.

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  • The Brooks Review Podcast: Episode Nine – Producitivytistststs

    I’m joined by Mike Vardy to chat about productivity tactics and whiskey. Good show.

  • Tacoma Police Using Surveillance Device to Sweep Up Cellphone Data

    Kate Martin:

    The Tacoma Police Department apparently has bought — and quietly used for six years — controversial surveillance equipment that can sweep up records of every cellphone call, text message and data transfer up to a half a mile away.

    Makes sense, John is a sketchy looking guy. ((Seriously though: in my own backyard? Damn.))

  • Dropbox is a Feature

    October of 2011, Forbes posted this juicy bit:

    Jobs smiled warmly as he told them he was going after their market. “He said we were a feature, not a product,” says Houston.

    I remember most people’s feelings on the matter being split, but I thought it was an astute point from Jobs.
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  • The Arbiters of What We See and Read

    Glenn Greenwald on the very real dangers of seemingly innocuous censorship of the Foley beheading video:

    Given the savagery of the Foley video, it’s easy in isolation to cheer for its banning on Twitter. But that’s always how censorship functions: it invariably starts with the suppression of viewpoints which are so widely hated that the emotional response they produce drowns out any consideration of the principle being endorsed.

    Be sure to read the entire post as Greenwald makes the case for why services like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are now more like public utilities than private entities. A fate they certainly don't want thrust upon them.

  • TextBundle

    This is where TextBundle comes in. TextBundle brings convenience back – by bundling the Markdown text and all referenced images into a single file.

    Cool work and I can't wait to see where this heads. Here's hoping for fast developer support as this could be killer for iOS too.

  • Quote of the Day: Erik Spiekermann

    “Inher­ent qual­ity is part of absolute qual­ity and with­out it things will appear shoddy. The users may not know why, but they always sense it.”

  • Mikes On Mics #134: Talking Time with Ben Brooks

    Mike Vardy was kind enough to have me on his podcast this week. We talked about a ton of stuff, including my new focus on — shit — focus I guess.

  • Building a Lightweight Photography Kit for the Urban Professional

    Álvaro Serrano:

    When you look at the whole process, the amount of tools and gear that are needed may seem daunting. And yet, it is entirely possible to build a lightweight, versatile photographic kit for the urban professional.

    What a great and detailed look by Serrano at how and what he carries everyday. It’s eerily similar to how I work daily too — we both use GORUCK Field Pockets to carry a camera in a ‘normal’ bag for instance. He owns more lenses than I think one needs, but he doesn’t carry them all daily — which is probably more important.

  • So That’s It Then

    It’s late in the afternoon on a lovely and calm April 8th a Sunday in 2012. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there were four people in my car — I was driving.

    I remember exactly where I was.

    I was turning right onto James, from Broadway, in Seattle. And I said it, as if I felt like I just pulled off some great heist as I mumbled under my breath: “So, that’s it?”
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