Johanna Romero talking about her transition to iOS only:
Everything else I needed to do with a computer, I was able to do with my iPad Air 2. Albeit with a smaller screen and only 16GB of storage space (a device limitation I’ve sworn I would never put myself through again).
Colin Devroe does a good job summing up iCloud Photo Library first experiences — including the slow initial sync. It is, as he says, amazing once it is all setup and working because stuff syncs fast. I’ve been relying on it since it came out and have yet to be disappointed.
It is done in a way that no third party service could match the ease of use and convenience of it all.
Tom Bihn’s blog on a new fabric they are using in packing cubes:
Aether is an ultra-light, 100% nylon fabric from Japan. It has a unique and somewhat complex construction, combining 30 denier monofilament with both 100 denier and 200 denier yarns in a micro-ripstop weave that further increases its tear strength. Like most of our fabrics, Aether is coated on the backside with urethane for weather resistance, as well as having a surface treatment of durable water repellant. Though its hand is a bit crisp when new, we greatly prefer Aether’s aesthetic over commonly available silicone-coated nylons. It’s light, but surprisingly tough. As far as we know, we’re the first manufacturer to use Aether.
I’ve had a chance to use these packing cubes with this fabric for sometime now, and it is outstanding. I was concerned about the weight saving move they made with the zippers, but that concern has proven unfounded. This fabric is so thin and somewhat transparent — I just love the look and feel.
Practically speaking, what I love is that these new packing cubes have no weight or space downside when you use them. I’ve just been tossing a couple empty ones in my bag each trip, and you don’t even notice them. Great stuff.
Federico Viticci on the new fast charging setup for iPad Pro 12.9″ users:
The performance gap between the 29W and 12W power adapters is simply too big to ignore: every iPad Pro user would want to spend less time charging their device and end up with more battery, more quickly. The 12W power adapter essentially brings glorified iPhone charging to the iPad Pro – a subpar experience that, at this point, is barely acceptable.
I too picked up the new USB-C to Lightning cable (arrived yesterday) to try out, since I already had one 29W charger — I’ll be heading over to get another 29W charger tonight. The speed of charging is fantastic.
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from my talented wife, Erin Brooks. Do go check out her blog where she writes a good deal about her amazing photography. This bag was provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review and feedback.
When we sought a backpack for Sloane, our almost-4-year-old daughter, we wanted a durable bag. There are plenty of backpacks available, but many wouldn’t last more than one school year, if that. Luckily, our friends at Tom Bihn let us know they were trying out a new backpack for kids, and we jumped at the chance to give it a whirl. The first version of the Sprout backpack was her favorite color, purple (aubergine), and perfect in size, but Sloane had one recommendation: it needed a sternum strap.
Maciej Ceglowski on why the IFTTT support will stop working. I’ve gone ahead and taken the liberty to delete my account from IFTTT. You might do the same before they accidentally break that functionality or some shit.
I’ve become a bit of a notebook person, whereby I mean I write in a notebook everyday to keep track of important things at work. I am not, however, obsessed with finding the right notebook — I quite like the one I have.
Michael Rockwell responding to my post about the new 9.7″ iPad Pro:
For me, the 9.7-inch iPad strikes the perfect balance between power and portability — I can get all of my work done without a hitch and the device’s size would never be considered unwieldy, regardless of the setting.”
I agree, but again few will like it as their primary computer. I got a chuckle out of the fact his primary Mac was an 11″ Air.
I tend to kill my iPad Pro (12.9″) battery daily — right around 6pm it is nearly exhausted. I assume this is due to the amount of video calls and Skype calls I do on a daily basis. Nevertheless, I use the piss out of my iPad Pro.
I won’t lie and say I never use my MacBook. Sometimes I need to take a video call and look something up at the same time, and if I were to leave the call app on iOS, my video awkwardly stops, so I use the MacBook. Likewise there are still a few things I can’t do, or can’t do well on iOS, like manage Medium Submissions ((Or post to Medium in general unless through Ulysses. The Medium app is a joke for creating content with.)) , News Publisher stuff on iCloud, and a handful of random Pages documents which contain fonts I have yet to install on iOS.
I test a lot of tools all the time. And if there is one thing this has taught me — more than anything else — it is that it is most certainly not about the tools. That’s odd to hear from someone who spends a lot of time telling you which tools are the best — whether it be apps, knives, bags, etc — but it is true. It’s just not about the tools.
First and foremost it is about having just enough in your tools to do the work.
Manton Reece commenting on his sticking with the larger iPad Pro:
The keyboard really does transform the iPad. It’s great.
When the iPad Pro first came out, many people were stuck without the Pencil or the keyboard for it and so their enthusiasm was dampened quite a bit. Do yourself a favor and don’t even consider an iPad Pro without the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard Cover — you won’t find the device nearly as compelling without them.
My enthusiasm for the iPad Pro lineup is well documented on this site, so naturally I have been fielding the question of which iPad Pro people should get, and if I am moving to the “smaller” model myself. I am very happy to see the addition of the 9.7″ iPad Pro — if for nothing else than signally Apple’s continued commitment to the iPad lineup.
The 9.7″ model, however, does not appeal to me. Yes, the better camera I guess is nice (not the bump though) and yes the smaller size might be nice at times — sure even the color shifting display seems great. But it is a lesser device.
This is a laughably bad post. Boag states the iPad Pro is a death by a thousand cuts, yet only offers three/four weak reasons:
This whole post is an eyeroller and honestly I thought it might be a joke. I mean his images aren’t even of the iPad Pro, they are just of an iPad — and a fucking iPad 2 at that.
But I don’t want this post to be a rant. I want to see if there is something we can learn from the failure of the iPad Pro, as user experience professionals.
Your post failed to do anything at all. ((I don’t even know why I posted this link, but I assume it is because of how funny the images are that I felt compelled to share it.))
Dries Buytaert on the larger problems of the web today:
But algorithmic oversight is not enough. In numbers by the billions, people are using free and convenient services, often without a clear understanding of how and where their data is being used. Many times, this data is shared and exchanged between services, to the point where people don’t know what’s safe anymore. It’s an unfair trade-off.
Lots of really great thoughts in this post. A true must read post.
Om Malik writing about the future of transportation:
Just as iPhone made us rethink what we should expect from a phone and changed our behavior, a company like Uber is slowly changing our relationship with the car. Much like Tinder, which has changed the perception of what is romance, on-demand mobility is essentially training us for a future where ownership is a luxury.
Some really good thoughts in this post. What struck me the most: pre-iPhone, Motorola, Nokia, and BlackBerry were the kings of the mobile phone industry. Post iPhone it is Apple, HTC, and Samsung (among others). Will the same happen for the car industry?
Does GM, Ford, and others go the way of Nokia and Motorola? It sure seems like they don’t have the business mindset, and technological talent, to succeed.
I’ve been experimenting going with all GORUCK gear and nothing else. The kit I have to work with is:
Is that enough for all my bag needs? I’ve been trying to see if it was, but after a couple months I can tell you that it is not enough. The Field Pockets are too small for how I pack, the GR1 is too big for daily carry of my iPad Pro, while the Bullet Ruck is too small to carry the iPad Pro (despite being perfect for my MacBook).
Manton Reece on Ulysses Mobile:
Ulysses for iOS falls into this trap. Its use of iCloud is private to the app, unlike iCloud Drive or Dropbox which are accessible from other apps.
Manton is frustrated about the lack of Dropbox support in Ulysses Mobile and he is expressing a common complaint and concern I hear from people about the app. The question I am asked is how I handle this, how I am ok with it, how I use my text in other apps…
I was upset when I got my iPad Pro and Ulysses didn’t scale correctly on it, as that was the thing holding me back from a great iPad Pro experience. But then I got my hands on a beta of Ulysses Mobile, and since then it’s easily become my favorite app on iOS.
I’m in love with this app.
Marcus Fehn on porting Ulysses to the iPhone:
If you look at the finished product, you may very well think it all looks so self-evident. “How could it ever have been different”, you may ask. And that’s great, because then we’ve done our job right. But again — this is work, people. Hard work.
They have truly done a fantastic job and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.