Gabe Weatherhead posted an article about where the iPad fits, how it works, and such. In short, I think his underlying premise is off base. There’s a terrible analogy which keeps being trotted out, stated by Weatherhead too, where the Mac is a truck and the iPad is a car, etc etc etc. It’s a Steve Jobs quote, and thus is attributed far more truth than it really should be.
Year: 2017
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10.5” is the Ideal Size for the iPad Pro
Brian Renshaw:
The text is larger enough to read easily and the writing window is plenty sufficient. This is a similar feeling I’ve had with the keyboard. Its just big enough, which, at the end of the day, makes a massive difference.
Apt description of the keyboard size.
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App Update Sizes
What you see, is not what you get.
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The Very Best Things
I’ve long had a page I labeled as “The Best” where I list items which I’ve come to feel are the best for their categories. I wanted to point out a few of the very best things I have found for those who are not members. These are not full reviews, but rather the core of why I feel these items are the very best.
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Uber’s CEO is out because of pressure, not some ethical epiphany from the board
DHH:
But let’s not kid ourselves. Kalanick didn’t get the boot because Uber’s board had some ethical epiphany. They presided over his misdeeds for years. Fat, golden years steered by toxic leadership and fueled by depraved acts.
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Apple goes after clones and spam on the App Store
It’s great to see Apple going to this length to remove the bullshit.
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Apple just created, and killed, a generation of AR businesses
Matthew Panzarino:
So now here we are, with the ability for just about anyone to spin up an AR window inside their app. I predict that we’re going to see some real crap over the next few weeks and months as people just “put an AR on it.” But aside from that, we’re going to see a plug unstoppered on industries that needed a reliable version of this kind of AR portal in order to execute on a vision.
I can’t wait.
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Social Cooling
John Naughton linked to this in his post, but this site is worth bookmarking. It’s often annoying (on a good day) to try and explain privacy implications to “normals”, instead send them this site and ask them to take a look.
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Surveillance Capitalism and Google
John Naughton:
The idea that being watched on this scale isn’t affecting our behaviour is implausible, to put it mildly. Throughout history, surveillance has invariably had a chilling effect on freedom of thought and expression. It affects, for example, what you search for. After the Snowden revelations, traffic to Wikipedia articles on topics that raise privacy concerns for internet users decreased significantly.
I love the term “surveillance capitalism” as it is very apt. His post is worth your time if you are among the many who think Google and Facebook tracking your every move isn’t “that big of a deal”.
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F-Secure FREEDOME VPN
To answer your question, given my last post, I’ll be using Freedome VPN from here on out. I like Private Internet Access, but Freedome is much faster.
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Some Important Changes at Cloak
The Cloak Blog:
We will be utilizing Google Firebase and Fabric.io to receive anonymized feedback to help deliver the same exceptional experience on as many devices as possible.
Kudos to them for not burying this info, as they could have, but instead putting it at the bottom of a blog post sure to be popular on pricing changes. I personally will curtail my usage of the service, but would still recommend it for the average user who just wants to protect their shit in general.
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iPad Productivity Report — 6/19/17
It’s been almost a week with the 10.5” iPad Pro, so let’s talk about how amazing that is. Then a couple more things: Affinity Photo, and iOS 11 multi-tasking.
You must be a member to read the rest of this content.
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Anker PowerCore+ Mini
One problem I often run into when I head out to WWDC is power for my iPhone. Since it’s what I am using to communicate all day long over LTE, take photos, and more — the battery dies fast. I am never sure how my days are going to play out, so I always like to make sure I have some means of topping off my iPhone battery while out and about.
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One Way to Fix Uber: Think Twice Before Using It
Farhad Manjoo:
Don’t do it — at least not without considering the full weight of your decision, and the many alternatives you might turn to instead. Try Lyft. Use a taxi, a bus or a train. Heck, hire a limo and a chauffeur with a golden top hat. To encourage a better Uber, it’s time to play the only card you’ve got: If it backslides or otherwise fails to live up to the promises it’s making now, stop using Uber.
I’ve been using Lyft when it’s an option, and I’ve been really happy with it. If only some more cities would be added — I die a little inside when the only option is Uber or a traditional Taxi.
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Message Startup Slack Said to Draw Interest From Amazon.com
Alex Sherman , Eric Newcomer , and Alex Barinka:
Buying Slack would help Seattle-based Amazon bolster its enterprise services as it seeks to compete with rivals like Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The company’s cloud-hosting unit, Amazon Web Services, in February unveiled a paid-for video and audio conferencing service — Amazon Chime — that lets users chat and share content.
I’m inclined to say it might even make for a better Slack, but I dunno.
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Which cloud storage option gives you the most bang for your buck?
Matt Birchler:
What this chart really shows is that Box is the worst deal in almost all scenarios. Charging $10/month for 100GB of storage is just terrible in 2017. Paying them $15/month gets you unlimited storage, which is really the only place where they are even competitive.
iCloud, contrary to what nerds bitch about, fairs really well in the aggregate.
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The iPad
It’s little surprise to hear me talk on and on about how great the iPad is. It’s little surprise to my coworkers to hear me talk about it either, but in a normal day, when I interact with humans, I actively avoid talking about this. I avoid this because people in general are hostile towards the idea, and there are many other things I would rather be doing than argue with people where they can argue right back. Especially, when I watch them use an iPhone as their primary computer, despite not wanting to admit it or entertain the notion that this means the iPad too could be a good primary computer for them.
Typically, I save these posts for members, but I want to share this with you because there’s an important shift to note, a shift which is going to take place over the next few years on a larger scale, and more immediately this fall.
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End-to-End Encryption in Day One
This really is a “finally” feature. Day One has long asked that you put some of your most private things in the service, then sync it with them. All without proper encryption.
So yeah, fucking finally.
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The 2017 iPad Pros
John Gruber on the new iPad Pros with iOS 11:
It feels like a hand has been untied from behind my back, and this amazing hardware has finally been allowed to run free.
Apt description even for current model iPad Pros.
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The 10.5” iPad Pro: Future-Proof
Federico Viticci:
A common misconception about the leather sleeve is that it can only fit the iPad with no cover attached, but it’s actually the opposite. The leather sleeve is best used when the iPad is attached to a Smart Cover or Smart Keyboard; otherwise, the device will be loose and it might slip out (even when the Pencil is in), which happened to me when I was testing the iPad in the sleeve with no keyboard or cover attached to it.
Ordered.