Gruber:
>I’m guessing Apple’s pitch to the textbook companies is something like this: “Digital transformation of your industry is inevitable. Here’s our plan; we’d like you to come along for the ride. But if you choose not to, we won’t hesitate to leave you behind.”
The nice thing about that pitch is that Apple can resuse it.
Jenna Wortham trying to explain what it means to ‘pivot’ in business:
>To pivot is, essentially, to fail gracefully.
*Strike One.*
>“Ideas are like lightning in a bottle, so if the company is small enough and didn’t seem to capture lightning on their first try, it makes sense to try again,” said Ben Horowitz, one of the founders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
*Strike Two.*
>Sometimes a pivot is necessary when the pace of Internet evolution has made a start-up’s original plan obsolete.
*Strike Three.*
The sad thing is, Wortham actually got it right before trying to sugar coat the term:
>Theirs is just one example of a start-up that decided to cut its losses and pivot — choosing an entirely new direction in the hopes of transforming a dud of a business into one that might have a shot at success.
*Home run.*
Pivoting is just a face-saving way of saying: “our idea was shit.”
Franklin Tessler, M.D., C.M:
>Currently, the main unique problem with touchscreen keyboards is their lack of tactile feedback. Unlike mechanical keys, which move and offer resistance, virtual keys don’t react when they’re pressed. As a work-around, manufacturers typically let you turn on audible key clicks, but that’s not always effective, particularly in noisy surroundings. As a result, says Hedge, users strike virtual keys with as much as eight times the force as they tap real ones — and all that force puts strain on your fingers, wrist, and forearm.
I’ve seen this many times. Personally I don’t think I strike touchscreen keys very hard at all, but I doubt I am the majority case. I will say that the most evident cases of “over pressing” is among the older users — as far as I have seen.
Because of that, I am not sure that this is a problem in dire need of solving. As touch screens become more prevalent we become more accustomed to them — and thus will ease off on the pressure we apply to software keys.
At least I would think…
I tested a ton of apps in 2011 — too many to count. Because of that process it meant that new apps were constantly challenging the old guard on my iPhone, here’s the apps that I ended the year with (well the ones worth mentioning).
### Calendar
The second most popular email I get is: what calendar app do you use on your iPhone… I tested a lot of calendar apps during the year and every time I came back to [Agenda](http://getappsavvy.com/agenda/). It’s certainly not perfect, but it works really well for my needs.
I love the continuous scroll view that allows me to consume a lot of information very quickly. For that reason alone it has been fantastically hard for me to even bother giving another calendar more than a couple of days on the home screen.
A big point of friction on the iPhone was entering calendar data — this made a lot of other apps challenge Agenda. However with the release of Siri it has become easy enough to tell my phone a new appointment and then look at my schedule in Agenda.
Without Siri I maybe using something like [Calvetica](http://mysterioustrousers.com/calvetica).
### Weather
Ah yes: weather apps. [I was a big fan of My-Cast](https://brooksreview.net/2011/04/weather/) and it still is a very good app. Truthfully though once I got my hands on the iOS 5 beta I switched back to the stock weather app and I am still using it.
While I don’t like the overall look of it, it excels in simplicity and telling me exactly what I need to know. I have been mostly happy with the app and frankly Siri handles a lot of my weather queries these days.
Many have asked if I have looked a new weather app X and for the most part I have. I still haven’t found one that is more practical than the built-in app that Apple now offers.
### Check-In
Big changes here in the social space as [Gowalla](http://gowalla.com/), my long favored location check-in app, is dead and gone from my iPhone. I have replaced it with [Foursquare](https://foursquare.com/) and though I don’t much care for the app itself — it actually fills the need perfectly. ((I use it as a breadcrumb for myself, so that when I ask myself “have I been there?” I have a way to check.))
I do miss the original Gowalla though…
### Notes
This was perhaps the most challenged app on my iPhone home screen, but [Notesy](http://notesy-app.com/) is still there. I am not joking when I say this app was challenged — it felt like every other day another note-taking Dropbox app made its way to my iPhone, but time and time again Notesy came right back into its home on my first screen.
I am not sure if it is my affinity for the app icon, or my love of the Solarized themes in the app that does it, but for an app that hasn’t been significantly updated in a while — it sure holds its own.
### The Less Interesting Ones
Of all the changes for apps on my iPhone, perhaps the most notable to me was moving [Instapaper](http://www.instapaper.com) back onto my home screen. I hadn’t been using it much on my iPhone, so it was moved off in favor of giving my a space to add an app I wanted to heavily test.
However in the last 4 months of 2011 I found myself using Instapaper so much that it made no sense to not have it on my home screen. I don’t use Instapaper on my iPhone in the same way that I do on my iPad, but I do use it to fill tiny voids in my day with non-game content.
So back Instapaper came.
There has been one app that went unchallenged in 2011: [OmniFocus](http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/). Not even a single new task management app piqued my interest enough to think about trying it in lieu of OmniFocus. I find that interesting given how competitive the space has historically been, but not surprising given how good OmniFocus really is. Reminders from Apple came the closest, but even then it was just a supplement to OmniFocus — that is until OmniFocus baked in the Siri support.
Lastly, [Capture](http://skyballoonstudio.com/capture) stuck on my home screen even though it is one of the least used apps on my iPhone. It’s one of those apps that when you need it, you need it. For that reason alone I have found it worth keeping on the home screen.
Personally I find it very interesting that most of the apps that are on my home screen have been on there for a very long time. It’s interesting not only because of how many apps I tested, but because of how competitive the app market is.
Further I noticed that I could move too different kinds of apps because of the addition of Siri to my iPhone. The Apple weather app is the prime example — it’s not good enough without Siri, but with Siri it is more than sufficient.
When/if Siri is opened up to third party developers things should get very interesting in the iOS app space, let’s hope that happens soon.
Doxie has released version 2.1 of its Mac software [that adds OCR functionality and a better icon](http://www.getdoxie.com/resources/files/release_notes.txt). Not sure when this was released, but I just caught it yesterday.
**Update:** I can confirm that the OCR now works (though you have to plug your Doxie Go into your Mac to activate the setting) and that the application icon is vastly better.
An Apple support page for installing iCloud on Windows. Looks to me like it doesn’t sync the Documents and Data over, but all other items it does. ((Naturally no back to my mac either.)) I didn’t realize this utility was out there.
*This is an update to my [previously linked item](https://brooksreview.net/2012/01/short-sighted/).*
Paul Asselin: ((Also kudos for using Calepin.co, but no byline is annoying — I wonder if this is a Calepin.co limitation?))
>iCloud is unpractical and reserved for the Mac addict that never touches any other computer.
He’s pissed that Apple didn’t make a Windows compatible cloud environment. I think this is a pretty short sighted look at iCloud. When and where iCloud works it is a fantastic service — leaps and bounds better than Dropbox. However Apple is still working out some rather large “hiccups” with the system.
I don’t think it is fair to write off iCloud just yet — my best guess is that once it is working perfectly on the Mac, Apple will begin to explore ways to give Windows users some sort of access.
And as far as this statement goes:
>Apple would gain so much love if it just open sourced everything.
They may gain love from geeks, but certainly not from investors — look no further than what Amazon did with Android. That is all the reason Apple needs to steer clear of such a path.
**Update**: Looks like the post was removed, luckily [Google has a cached page here](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:a8L_ytkIatgJ:asselinpaul.calepin.co/Apple%2520is%2520flawed.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us). The article has been replaced with a similar, but [different post](http://asselinpaul.calepin.co/the-failure-of-airdrop.html). ((A post I still disagree with.))
Interesting story of adopting tablets in restaurants to allow patrons to order things for themselves, pay, and stay entertained. I can’t help but to think that this is more of a stopgap than a solution.
Wouldn’t the better solution just be to have an app, or web app, that users pull up on their phone? That is: why should a restaurant pay to provide the hardware that most are already carrying with them?
I would guess that most restaurants could get away with only carrying a few tablets for those that don’t own a smartphone — and provide an app (likely one made by another company specifically for restaurant).
Writing a book or research paper is about more than hammering away at the keys until it’s done. Research, shuffling index cards to find that elusive structure – most software is only fired up after much of the hard work is completed.
Enter Scrivener, a content-generation tool that lets you compose and structure long and difficult documents based on material from multiple sources. Adopted by novelists, screenwriters, journalists, lawyers and academics alike, the program allows users to split the editor and view documents, PDF files, multimedia and other research materials next to each other. A virtual corkboard and outliner help with structuring or providing an overview of the draft. Collate, read and edit related text without affecting its place in the whole using Scrivener’s Collections feature. Close out the world in Full Screen mode. And when you’re finished, export to e-readers or the most popular word processing programs for submission.
[Available for Mac OS X and Windows at Literature and Latte](http://click.syndicateads.net/2012/01/scrivener/brooksreview.html).
Jessica Guynn, reporting for the Los Angeles Times, has this quote from, Dropbox founder and CEO, Drew Houston:
>”People may know us today as the magic folder on their desktop or the app on their phone. But we see ourselves as building the Internet’s file system,” he said.
The story paints Dropbox as an amazing service (which it is), but also seems to think that its biggest competition is from things like Apple’s iCloud service — which is wrong.
In truth iCloud will never rival Dropbox because it isn’t built to work on everything, everywhere. No, I think the biggest problem Dropbox faces is the trend of hiding the file system. What good is Dropbox if you never see your files?
More specifically, if your only computers are an iPad and iPhone — Dropbox is significantly less valuable and relevant to you. That’s why the bit I quoted from the article worries me so much.
John Battelle:
>Some dude I don’t know posted it to Google+, I clicked through to his post (gaining Google another pageview), then clicked through the video to YouTube. That’s lame. That’s not a Googley search experience.
And then a bit later:
>Seems a bit off. Seems like Google is taking the first click away from me and directing it to a Google service.
As I said to Shawn the other day (more or less): “Google is the one company where I don’t feel good about using their products, but I have a really hard time not using their products.”
There’s still a lot of back and forth going on with this iPhone mute switch argument, but reader Ian Ferrel ([@ianferrel](https://twitter.com/#!/ianferrel)) emailed in to say:
>It’s worth noting that the image shown when you flip the switch is a bell with a line through it, not a speaker symbol with a line through it. This is a clue that the switch is not setting the volume to zero, it’s turning off the ringer.
That’s a fantastic point and here’s what he is talking about:
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/ringer-mute.jpg)
I don’t think most iPhone users are going to notice the difference between the ringer symbol and the speaker symbol, but Apple took the time to make them different because, they do in fact, have different meanings.
**Update:** I’m not saying this exonerates Apple. I am saying that Apple sees a clear differentiation between the mute switch and the volume rocker — and uses symbols differently to convey this to users. It should also be noted that Apple labels the speaker icon as “ringer” when you adjust it with the volume rocker and this leads to more confusion.
Andy Ihnatko on the iPhone mute switch:
>If I forgot to unmute my phone after a movie, I’m a dumbass. But if my iPhone makes noise during the movie despite the fact that I’d deliberately chosen to silence it, I can only conclude that the dumbasses in this equation reside about 3,000 miles west of here.
I disagree here and think (along with [Gruber](http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/iphone_mute_switch_design))that the iPhone mute switch works perfectly as is.
My reason is simple: when I go to bed at night, I want to know that my alarm will wake me, but that my drunk friends won’t.
If you are in Seattle, show your support:
>On January 18th, in conjunction with blackouts of websites all over the web, we will be having several large events in Seattle.
Paul Thurrott on Apple’s deal with Target:
>Oh good, I was just thinking that what this country needs is more Apple Stores. I have an idea: Rather than build all this crap, why doesn’t Apple just unilaterally make each of its products available for 25 percent less than the current selling price? It would save money, raise market share, and benefit the millions of people who can’t actually afford all this stuff to begin with.
I would guess he has the same advice for Microsoft since they too are opening stores, and [plan to open a lot of them](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/steve-ballmer-reboots-01122012.html)?
>This week Shawn and Ben talk about the future life of a being a dad, headphones, some follow-up to last week’s show, iPhone photography and videography, Google’s percieved evilness, and a person’s decision making ability. There is also one more thing.
Big thanks to our sponsor: [Verses](http://kepner.me/versesapp).
Quinn Norton:
>TSA air marshal Adam Marshall was arrested by the Boston police department at 3:50 a.m. on December 10 after he allegedly argued with members of Occupy, called some of them prostitutes, struck one of Occupy’s organizers and main Tweeters in the face, grabbed her iPhone and then fled.
This guy is allowed to carry a loaded weapon on an airplane — you know — to protect it.
“Even adjust your race.”
I’ve always cared about the headphones that I use, but if I am honest the depth of that care extended mostly to price and design alone. I wanted something priced higher than grocery store checkout line level, but far less than an audiophile would pay — mostly I just wanted my headphones to look cool.
There was also another thing: I liked the Apple headphones back then. I liked them for the same reason everyone else did back in the day: they told the world you had an iPod. So I really didn’t need portable headphones.
Christmas of 2004 (maybe 2003) my Dad gave me a set of Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones — big, noise canceling, and the Bose name. I loved those headphones, in fact I still love those headphones.
Up and until yesterday I still used those 6+ year old headphones for almost everything — including travel. ((They are great for blocking out crying babies on the plane.))
But I knew I needed a new set of headphones, I mostly knew this because here is what those old Bose headphones look like today:
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-1.jpg)
Yes, that’s a zip tie holding them together along with a piece of tape. The zip tie was added to them somewhere over the U.S. in a cramped cabin of an airplane. ((For the life of me I can’t remember why I had a zip tie with me.)) The tape was added later to secure other plastic bits that were cracking.
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-2.jpg)
The right side held up much better, not requiring tape until sometime in 2009.
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-3.jpg)
You guessed it, this is the reason I needed new headphones. Sometime last year the ear pads started to disintegrate and leave little black flecks all over my ears and face. They still work fine and fit nice — they just kinda gross me out now.
But that’s a long life for a set of mid-range headphones.
Perhaps my favorite part of the old Bose was the stack of courtesy cards that it came with — and that store in the case — for handing out to other people:
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-4.jpg)
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-5.jpg)
How perfectly arrogant.
This isn’t a review of any new headphone — it’s a goodbye to a great set of headphones.
But, to save some emails, here is what will be replacing the Bose: two separate pairs of Sennheisers.
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-6.jpg)
Those are for my home.
[
](http://c276381.r81.cf1.rackcdn.com/headphones-7.jpg)
Those are for my office.
I hope they last a while…
Horace Dediu:
>One wonders if these “media tablets” are not PCs and yet they negatively affect the purchase of PCs whether they are indeed competing with PCs.