The Brooks Review

Month: March 2017

  • Bose QC35s

    My last pair of noise cancelling headphones was the Bose QC 19s, and I wore them so often that not only was the pleather earpad disintegrating, but I had zip ties holding together various other broken parts. They were a pair of headphones which seemed amazing to me.

    Though the sound isolation, the noise canceling, was never great, it was good enough that I was fine with it. Now fast forward to Christmas 2016 and my father gifted me a pair of QC35s, which is only appropriate since I got the QC 19s from him way back when. I put them on right away and was astonished at how quiet the room was, I didn’t believe it. My dad and family were also impressed.

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  • Right, About VPNs

    If you haven’t heard, the Republican Party pushed through a change which removes the FCC from its ability to oversee how data is used from ISPs. Effectively, this would allow someone like say, Comcast, to legally sell your internet traffic records. Things like: the sites you visit and where you visit them — anything you are doing on the web which isn’t HTTPS will be known and able to be sold. Even with HTTPS where you go is still known by the ISP.

    This is clearly very bad. The only way to now truly maintain internet privacy (once 45 signs this into law) — even at home — is to use a VPN. This fact has not slipped through the eyes of VPN providers.

    Having spent some time using VPNs full time, I need to tell you right now: it sucks. Doesn’t matter what service you use, it’s a lessened experience. The connections are choppy at times, slow at others, and never as fast as your internet connection.

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  • Stormcrow

    Jared Sinclair:

    If you’ve ever wanted an easier way to write a properly-threaded tweetstorm, my new app Stormcrow can help. Type all your tweets into a single text view. Stormcrow will automatically separate your paragraphs into a thread of automatically-numbered tweets.

    Great little app.

  • Fastmail

    From the first day I had the brooksreview.net domain name, I’ve hosted the email myself in various forms — which has been about 7 years now. At first, I hosted with with Media Temple using their built in tools, then as I moved hosts through the years I moved the email hosting with it. Each move was a royal pain in the ass, and typically resulted in at least a long stretch without working email in some way, shape, or form.

    About 5 times a year my email would also shit the bed in ways I didn’t comprehend. Plainly put: the advantages of hosting and “owning” my email system was far outweighed by the fact that my email was insanely unreliable.

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  • iPad Productivity Report — 3/27/17

    I want a to play a little what if, rumor speculation, this week — as it specifically relates to iPad Pros. If we make the assumption that at some point in the next year we will get two new iPad Pro models: one in the 10.5″ configuration, and another in 12.9″ — both with a reduction of bezels overall. The 10.5″ effectively is the 9.7″ model footprint, with smaller bezels to get the larger screen. The 12.9″ model is the same screen size, but reduction of the device footprint to be tighter to the screen edges.

    Or, put another way: we get a smaller iPad with a bigger screen, and a smaller bigger screened iPad — though I am not sure that is any less confusing…

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  • Burned once, publishers are wary of Medium’s new subscription offering

    Kelley Calkins, as quoted by Poynter, on Mediums continued fuckery:

    “Initially, it was a lot of swearing,” she said. “Then came the tears. And the cheap beer.”

  • Uber Self-Driving Vehicle Involved in Arizona Crash

    Mark Bergen and Eric Newcomer:

    The photo, showing the Uber SUV on its side, suggests a relatively high-impact crash. That would be a contrast to the incidents involving self-driving cars tested by Waymo. In more than two million miles of testing on public roads, Waymo’s vehicles were mostly minor incidents, often when other cars drove into the back of their vehicles in busy areas. 

    The future is self driving cars, and it’s hard to deny it. However, it is funny that a company whose sole purpose is driving other people around, is actually the worst at making self driving cars.

  • Samsung’s New iPad Pro Is Just Fantastic

    Alex Cranz:

    Technically, if you want to be “accurate” this is not an iPad Pro, but Samsung’s first premium Android tablet in over a year. In 2015 Android sort of lost the tablet war it had waged against iOS.

    Oh fuck off. It’s not a technicality when it is reality. And Android didn’t “sort of” lose the tablet war, it gave up in spectacular fashion.

  • How to hide annoying page elements

    Awesome new update to 1Blocker (both iOS and Mac) which allows you to select page elements to block per domain. I was able to test it ahead of the launch and it’s pretty sweet. I love seeing this stuff — and yes you do this from the extension, no need to enter the app proper.

    Stellar work.

  • Apple’s New Workflow

    Matthew Panzarino:

    Workflow the app is being acquired, along with the team of Weinstein, Conrad Kramer, Ayaka Nonaka and Nick Frey. In a somewhat uncommon move for Apple, the app will continue to be made available on the App Store and will be made free later today.

    This was amazing, because it set off a lot of people last night. Workflow was also quickly updated by Apple to kill off a lot of Google based integrations. Most notably for Chrome and switching mapping to Apple Maps.

    This was likely a legal move, as Marco Arment noted this morning on Twitter. Even so, the future is completely unknown to those outside of Apple right now. The app will either slowly die, be fully integrated into iOS, or live somewhere in the middle — gaining native integration, but with a more limited scope than before.

    And either outcome is just fine.

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  • Social Networks are a Feature

    Excellent post from Daniel Jalkut.

  • The “new” iPad (5th Generation)

    I’ve been thinking a lot about this new release from Apple. What it means and what it could mean. So here’s a few slightly coherent thoughts on it:

    1. I think the iPad being just ‘iPad’ and priced at $329 is fucking fantastic. It’s the model people should get, and it helps that it is now the lowest priced model. I am tempted to pick one up for our household.
    2. The new red iPhone is hideous, should have had a black front.
    3. The iPad mini seems dead. I am guessing it is only sticking around because Apple is testing a theory: people bought iPad mini’s because it was the cheapest. So set the larger iPad at a lower price and bring up the iPad mini — see which one sells better. Come this time next year my money would be on the iPad mini being no more.

    These announcements also seem to gel nicely with the 10.5″ iPad Pro rumors. I would guess that come October-ish we get new iPad Pros in both 9.7 and 12.9″ variants — both with bezel reductions (lord knows the 12.9 could use that).

    As for those wondering what I might want the new iPad model for: myself. I would give my wife my 9.7″ Pro and keep the new model for me. Unless you need the keyboard or pencil, it really is the best model to buy. Keep in mind that new iPads are never limited by hardware speed, only by the software itself — a nice position to be in.

  • Should Have Posted this Yesterday

    Joe Cieplinski:

    Specs are not the problem with the current iPad.

    Yep.

  • iPad Productivity Report — 3/20/17

    ## Together with DEVONThink

    When I started using DEVONThink I was very skeptical, and not all that enamored with the app out of the gate. I started using it to both track lists of things I would like to buy, as well as various research information which I might never use, but would like to have around.

    The deal breaker with DEVONThink for me is the archaic syncing systems. I wanted a tool which would sync in the background, seamlessly, without me having to watch sync indicators before I could even use the app.

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  • GORUCK 10L Bullet Ruck (version 2) Review

    I’ve long been a huge 10L Bullet Ruck fan, as it is a fantastic backpack for the size. Well made, and sized to both be small, but not look stupidly small on a person’s back. This is such a hard balancing act that the Bullet Ruck is the only backpack I have found under 20L which can pull this off for me. That includes GORUCK’s own Echo too.

    So, naturally I sold my version 1 Bullet Ruck.

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  • Getting Great iPhone7+ Portrait Mode Shots

    My wife:

    > With a little understanding and patience, using your “little” phone camera, you can create some strong, print-worthy images.

    I’d say so.

  • New Stuff Day Two (video)

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  • Adventure Core Nano Wallet

    I’ve been searching for a small tote to help me carrying some of the flashlights I’ve been testing as well as a pen, knife, and lockpicks (seemingly more and more handy for helping friends). I stumbled upon the Microkit from TripleSeven and wanted to get one, but they remain sold out.

    So I snagged a Core Nano Adventure Wallet, which started as a Kickstarter project. The idea is a wallet for wallet things, but which can also carry EDC things like those listed above.

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  • iPad Productivity Report — 3/13/17

    It’s hard to escape the upcoming rumors about the possible new iPad Pros coming — but even harder to escape the nonsensical wishes of people better suited to using Macs instead.

    ## Clamshell iPad Pros, Kickstands, Surface Pros, and Shit Like That

    When I decided to go [iPad Pro only](https://brooksreview.net/2015/11/the-full-ipad/) back in November of 2015, I took a few beats to [try the biggest iPad Pro competitor](https://brooksreview.net/2015/12/surface-pro-4/): Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4. If the iPad is a “big iPhone” then the Surface is a laptop with tablet-like features. Both are compromised products, but in massively different ways. One struggling to find its place on desktops, and the other struggling to find its place on couches.

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  • EDC Pouch (video)

    A quick video of a new EDC pouch I am trying.

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