The Brooks Review

Month: March 2015

  • Desk PM

    There’s been an an abundance of talk about Desk, a multi-blog publishing tool that looks very pretty. The talk, unsurprisingly was drummed up because the creators chose to buy a spot on Daring Fireball to advertise the product. I held off because Ulysses, but at some point I have to try things like this to see if there is something here.
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  • Tim Cook’s Leadership

    Fantastic profile of Cook. He truly seems to be the type of leader you, I, should aspire to be.

  • New Version of Napkin

    New version of an app I use almost every day. Fantastic week for good software.

  • Filters for iPhone

    800 filters for $0.99 in a well designed package? Uh, yes please, and thank you very much.

  • Fantastical 2 for Mac

    The app is goddamn gorgeous looking. ((Federico has a more in-depth review than mine.))

  • Homemade Mini Donuts

    I can attest to these being delicious.

  • Fear of Apple

    Eli Schiff:

    Arment too let his fear be known: “I’m scared of having damaged my relationship with Apple.” It is highly interesting that Arment of all people now regrets and fears having criticized Apple, considering that six years earlier, he was not so afraid of throwing punches at the company.

    Interesting post all around about how people criticize Apple.

  • Scenery for Mac

    Really sweet new Mac app which provides a dead simple way to put your app screenshots on beautiful images. Very nice work, and a great pricing model too.

    If you work on apps, add this to list.

  • MagSafe Has Never Been Great For Light Laptops

    Yours truly, in my review of the 2010 MacBook Air:

    The computer is so light that when sitting on the couch cushion and charging I am not at all confident that the MagSafe would release before the computer would get yanked to the floor. I thankfully have yet to test this in the “real world” but in giving it a few tugs it seems to be that 60% of the time the MagSafe pops loose. It really depends on the material the Air is sitting on as the lack of weight in the machine means that it needs some friction to help that MagSafe release without pulling the Air to the ground.

    Puts things in perspective a bit.

    (Apologies for the missing images, I’ll have to search for those.)

  • The Future of Bad Watch Predictions

    Marco Arment:

    The dumbwatch industry’s best hopes are either their own successful lines of Android Wear watches, or praying that the overlap between their customers and smartwatch buyers doesn’t get very big.

    Oh, yeah, no. I'm guessing Marco isn't a watch person. Which really isn't that hard of a guess to make given that he uses the term “dumbwatch” — a term akin to 'iTouch'.

  • The Billionaire’s Typewriter

    While on the topic of blogging, I couldn’t agree with this post more.

  • For Bloggers

    I’m actually quite tired of talking about what we call blogs, or don’t call them. Or the permalink structure, or who gives a shit.

    When people ask me what I do, outside of work, I tell them I write. When they ask what I write I tell them I write a blog. If they laugh I tell them the cold hard stats, just as I tell the world.

    At that point they either shut up, or fuck off, either one I am fine with. ((I link to Josh only because that was the tab that was open, and he’s way to nice to use “fuck off” and it really needed to be said here.))

  • How People Sleep When They’re Not Surrounded by Electronics

    Greg Ferenstein:

    In rural Brazil, residents tended to fall asleep around 9:20 and wake up around 6:30. In comparison, the hyper-connected citizens of London went to bed closer to midnight (11:15 PM) and wake up at 8:30 AM.

  • OmniOutliner for iPhone

    The OmniGroup has been making a big push of late to make all of their apps universal iOS apps, and that means some apps that were never on the iPhone before, are now making their way to the device. This week it is one of my favorite apps: OmniOutliner.

    I’ve been a long time OmniOutliner user, so when OmniOutliner came to the iPad it became my go to way to outline. The biggest missing piece for me was always the iPhone app. Once you find a good tool on one platform, you can’t help but yearn for it on all the platforms you use. ((Yes, that a Ulysses reference.))

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  • The Fuzzy, Insane Math That’s Creating So Many Billion-Dollar Tech Companies

    Sarah Frier and Eric Newcomer:

    Here’s the secret to how Silicon Valley calculates the value of its hottest companies: The numbers are sort of made-up.

    That’s basically all you need to read there.

  • Quote of the Day: Jason Snell

    “Apple shouldn’t build new tech to support people who are reluctant to give up old habits.”

  • Pebble Time is not a serious Apple Watch competitor

    Steven Sande:

    I could go on, but I won't. The next time I hear someone refer to an Apple Watch with a price that starts at $349 as expensive compared to the Pebble Time – which hasn't shipped yet either, by the way – I'm just going to shake my head and walk away. There's no fighting stupid.

  • The Lack of MagSafe

    It appears, if my RSS reader is any indication, that the lack of a MagSafe connector on the new MacBook is a “thing” now (it is replaced by the USB-C port). People are doing lots of math and lamenting over laptop cords they have tripped over in years past.

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  • The Upside Of Slower

    MG Siegler on the new MacBook:

    I can’t recall the last time I used a machine that wasn’t powerful enough to handle everything on the web (insert Adobe Flash joke here), but it was definitely more than two years ago. I’m sure I’ll be fine with this new machine.

    Same here.

  • Ulysses for iPad

    The wait is over.

    Maybe you weren’t waiting, but I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. And most Ulysses users have been waiting for this day for quite some time as well.

    Today my favorite writing app, Ulysses III (now renamed to just Ulysses and shipping alongside an updated Mac app), gets a full blown iPad app. Gone are the days of syncing your Ulysses documents through Daedalus Touch (no one will miss that).

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