The Brooks Review

Author: Ben Brooks

  • Truer Words

    Justin Blanton laying the smack down:

    >While on the topic, if you’re not using 1Password (or similar)—and you can afford it—then you’re an idiot. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but there just isn’t any excuse.

    No excuse.

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 16: Our Longest Episode Ever

    >Shawn and Ben discuss backing up, wireless networking speeds and the celebration of keeping an iPhone for more than a year. They also touch on iPhone 5 rumors, the Nokia N9, HP Touchpad and Shawn’s struggle to find a good Netflix app.

    Big thanks to our sponsors: [Pulp](http://acrylicapps.com/pulp/mac/) and [InVision](http://invisionapp.com/).

  • Tweed

    A big thanks to [LithiumCorp](http://lithiumcorp.com/) for sponsoring this weeks’ RSS feed to promote their great iPad app: Tweed. Tweed is part of a new class of apps that I am starting to see trickling out, that take something we are all very familiar with (in this case Twitter) and transform the way we use the service (as a curated list of links in this case). Tweed is also a great way to introduce new Twitter users to Twitter itself — less updates about coffee and more updates in the form of excellent links that can be read right away, personally I think this is a great way to help people see the value in Twitter.

    Be sure to check out Tweed in the [App Store](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tweed/id435667186?mt=8), it is priced at $2.99 for a limited time.

  • Verizon LTE MiFi Benchmarks

    Bare Feats:
    >However, the LTE MiFi not only maintained essentially the same download speeds but the upload speed jumped to 11,974Kbps — or faster than the Comcast 50Mbps cable upload speed in our lab!

    From the sounds of it, this is one hell of a mobile broadband device.

  • The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace

    Felix Gillette nicely sums up Myspace circa late-2008/early-2009:

    >Myspace was becoming Detroit.

    This isn’t a knock against Detroit, but it epitomizes the problem that Myspace faced: the influential people — the ones that could change things — were leaving en masse.

  • Screenstagram

    Great new screensaver:
    >Screenstagram displays photos from Instagram. It can show you your friends’ photos or photos from the Instagram popular feed, which contains highly rated photos from across the Instagram community.

  • The ‘Mobile’ Web

    One thing that really bugs me is when I encounter an ‘mobile optimized’ website on my iPhone/iPad. I hate these sites because they are akin to going into a Ferrari dealership to see a Ferrari and instead only getting to see a Mercedes, that some guy traded in — you feel screwed over.

    What’s more annoying is when these sites don’t give you the option of viewing the ‘full-site’ — how stupid must you be to not even allow that? Then you come across sites that throw up notifications every place they can to let you know that they (in all their genius) have created a dedicated iPhone app for you — because *that* is much easier to use than following the link from Twitter.

    The situation is pretty bad right now, but just when I thought it couldn’t get worse the quality “journalism” that is the New York Post, up and [decides](https://brooksreview.net/2011/06/ny-post-stupidity/) that their users **must** use the native iPad app instead of being allowed to see the site in Safari on the device. So *now* if you follow a Post link from Twitter you are basically screwed, having to manually find that link in the iPad app — or more likely moving on to better publications.

    ### Why

    What possible reason is there to create these ‘optimized-experience’ for mobile devices, when the very nature of the web browsers that current mobile devices are equipped with are explicitly designed to work with sites as they *currently* are?

    Let’s take a look at some advantages of each “solution”.

    #### Advantages

    ##### Native Apps

    – Run faster and don’t require 100% of page elements to be loaded over the web.
    – Full of hype, which excites people.
    – Opens your site to a new market for discovery (via App Stores).
    – Can do things that you can’t do with a website (e.g. uploading from camera roll).

    ##### Mobile-Optimized

    – Theoretically loads faster.
    – The user doesn’t have to double tap to ‘zoom’ in on areas. (Theoretically)
    – Content can specifically be formatted for the screen the user is using. (Again, theoretically.)

    ##### ‘Full-Site’

    – Easier on the web site owner.
    – Instant recognition that the user is in the right place.
    – Users are comfortable with the layout and don’t have to re-learn how to use the site.
    – Cheapest option.

    ### Disadvantages

    ##### Native App

    – Expensive and a resource hog for the web site owner. (By way of time to make it and funds to make the app.)
    – Twitter and Email links don’t open in the app.
    – Most content driven sites (blogs) don’t offer a compelling reason to use the app over the website, or an RSS reader.
    – Can lead to user confusion.

    ##### ‘Mobile-Optimized’

    – Can lead to user confusion of whether they are at the correct site.
    – Often less content/features are shown.
    – Doesn’t always look great on every device outside of the iOS sphere.
    – Many users prefer the full-site experience.

    ##### Full-Site

    – Not everything that a standard ‘full’ web browser renders will render on mobile devices.
    – Likely the slowest loading option.
    – User must scroll and zoom in and out more.

    ### Just Leave Well Enough Alone

    The issue isn’t that it is hard to build for mobile, but that it is unnecessary at this point *to* port your website for mobile devices. If you really find it necessary use [responsive design](http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/) from the outset, or at the very least give me an option to go to the full site.

    What is clear: forcing users to use a crappy mobile ‘theme’ for your fancy blog is just silly and unnecessary.

    *A note: If your site tries to force me to use anything other than the full-site you run the risk of me not coming back to your site.*

    UPDATE: A couple of good points brought up by [Sean Sperte](https://twitter.com/#!/sperte) on Twitter. Mainly that I am talking mostly about designs that are made as substitutes for the full site and not designs made as alternates for the full site — an important distinction that I felt I did not make clear. Lastly that there must be different standards for web apps than for non-web apps.

  • FTC to Serve Google With Subpoenas in Broad Antitrust Probe

    Thomas Catan:
    >The new inquiry, by contrast, will examine fundamental issues relating to Google’s core search-advertising business, said people familiar with the matter. The business is the source of most of Google’s revenue. The issues include whether Google—which accounts for around two-thirds of Internet searches in the U.S. and more abroad—unfairly channels users to its own growing network of services at the expense of rival providers.

    This will likely result in bad news for Google, yes the courts have made it harder since the Microsoft anti-trust days, but if you think the FTC can’t find at least a few instances where Google abused their monopoly — well you would be wrong.

  • The Eleventh App

    David Barnard responding to [this post](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2959-ten-apps-is-all-i-need) from David Heinemeier Hansson:
    >If we took a poll of all iOS users and asked for a list of the eleven absolutely essential, can’t live without apps I bet we’d end up with at least a thousand different types of apps.

    He makes a great point that adds to what I was [saying](https://brooksreview.net/2011/06/dhh-apps/) very nicely.

  • Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars

    I imagine that one could devise a pretty clever self-driving car that, under normal circumstances, is better than many drivers I see on the road. What I can’t imagine is that mixing these cars with the erratic drivers that are *currently* on the road would be good at all.

    The problem isn’t that the driver can’t override the system — they can — the issue I have is that most people interested in this wouldn’t be paying attention at all.

    #### And

    The biggest challenge for these cars is whether they can “foresee” impending crashes. Meaning when I drive down a residential street on a nice day I keep an eye out for kids playing that may suddenly go running after a loose ball, how could a car do that? No matter how advanced sometimes you just can’t beat the human eye. Because the first time a ‘driverless’ car kills a kid in an accident that a human could have avoided — well that’s the end of the dream.

  • The FBI Stole an Instapaper Server in an Unrelated Raid

    Marco Arment:
    >So the FBI now has illegal possession of nearly all of Instapaper’s data and a moderate portion of its codebase, and as far as I know, this is completely out of my control.

    [This](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/f-b-i-seizes-web-servers-knocking-sites-offline/) whole [mess](http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/department-of-justice-disrupts-international-cybercrime-rings-distributing-scareware) is crazy to try and wrap your head around. Likely the only way that Marco ever gets and explanation or half-hearted apology from the FBI is if:

    1. He knows someone at the FBI.
    2. We (the collective Internet) make a big enough stink about it.

    I say we make a big ol’ stink about this — we, as United States citizens, have a duty to hold those we put in power responsible for their actions. If someone must resign for taking a picture of their junk, then someone **must** explain why they took down seemingly innocent sites. At the very least, the warrant needs to be produced to the public and if the FBI did over reach they need to be held accountable for that action.

    UPDATE: Marco got the server back [last night](http://blog.instapaper.com/post/6854208028), it’s still not known why it was ‘taken’.

  • Stephen Elop Unveils Nokia’s First Windows Phone Device

    Tom Warren on what is rumored to be the first Nokia Windows Phone 7 device:
    > The design of the device appears to be identical to the recently announced Nokia N9, powered by MeeGo.

    Surprise!

  • Walt Mossberg’s Samsung Series 5 Google Chromebook Review

    Walt Mossberg:
    >The Chromebook starts up almost instantly—in 10 to 15 seconds in my tests—much more quickly than most Windows machines. This is partly because it’s really just a big Web browser. In my tests, Apple’s MacBook Air started just about as quickly, but it costs twice as much.

    He neglects to mention that the MacBook Air can do far more than twice as many things as the Chromebook. Mossberg spends the entire article trying to like the Chromebook, but ultimately can’t recommend it (no surprise) — what strikes me as odd is that he seems to think this is the way of the future:

    >So a cloud-centric computer isn’t a crazy idea.

    I agree, but the Chromebook idea is far more than just a ‘cloud-centric computer’ — it is a web-browser-centric computer, and that is a crap idea. Small storage is fine on a computer with a strong cloud offering, but doing everything in a web browser is far from ideal.

    For an example of a real “cloud-centric computer” look no further than future iOS devices once iCloud launches, and no I am not joking.

  • More Apple Patents

    Nilay Patel laying the smack down:
    >So Apple got yet another patent granted today, and now there’s yet another media firestorm over whether it means Cupertino will be able to sue every other phone manufacturer out of business, or at least out of the business of making multitouch devices. And, as usual, most of the hysteria is based on a fundamental misinterpretation of what the patent claims actually say, and what behaviors they actually cover in iOS.

    The end result of his analysis: a boring patent.

  • David Heinemeier Hansson On Third Party Apps for Mobile

    David Heinemeier Hansson commenting on the Nokia N9 and the apps he needs to make a phone useful:
    >But the established wisdom now is that you cannot win without hundreds of thousands of apps.

    I have to disagree, DHH is arguing that if you get the core apps right (for him those are: Safari, Camera, iPod, Clock, Weather, Photos, Messages, Mail, and Maps) then you have a rock solid device. That is a hard argument to argue with because he is right, 3rd party apps don’t make a device good.

    Third party apps make a good device, great — and that is where I disagree with him.

    With DHH’s argument you would also have to wonder why someone just doesn’t own a dozen or so items of clothes, after all if you have one really good shirt, why do you need two from two companies? It’s really about choice and whether those choices are good or bad it doesn’t matter, it’s what the current market is demanding — to ignore the current market, well ask RIM how that works out.

    This late in the game it is downright foolish to think that you can compete with iOS jsut offering the “core” apps.

  • RIM Becoming Too Radioactive to Takeover

    I have no clue why anyone would want to take over RIM — it surely would make the stock drop of whatever company acquires them.

    Ed Sutherland reporting on RIM’s woes of late:
    >Once worth $83 billion, the Waterloo, Ontario BlackBerry maker has slid to around $15 billion

    Yikes, if I was the board I would be so mad I would wish that I had two CEOs to fire — oh wait.

  • The Brooks Report Card

    Myke and Terry were kind enough to have me on the Bro Show again. This time around we talked about WWDC, hardware rumors, the Nokia N9, and ArringtonCrunch/Aol. These guys are a lot of fun so be sure to check out this episode.

  • That Flickr iPhone Data

    Amazing iPhone camera usage being reported by Flickr, especially after you take into account the fact that they can’t count all the photos taken with the iPhone.

  • Review: Agenda

    Since the iPhone came out I have been less than enamored with the stock calendar app — it’s not that it is *bad* — it’s that the stock calendar app doesn’t meet my [calendar criteria](https://brooksreview.net/2010/09/sucky-calendars/).

    To sum up the linked post about calendars: I don’t see any reason why a calendar app should ever show me the ‘past’ by default. In that respect the built-in calendar app fails miserably unless you keep it in day or list view — neither of which is very good.

    I have — off and on — for quite a while now been using Calvetica. The problem with Calvetica is that I have always liked looking at Calvetica more than I have liked using it. That is: I find it a bit cumbersome to use, but very beautiful to look at. (Yes adding calendar items is a touch faster in Calvetica than the native calendar app.)

    I was lucky enough to get contacted a while back about a new calendar app: [Agenda](http://getappsavvy.com/agenda/). I was told (as I have been before) that this was THE calendar app and that I was going to love it.

    After using it for weeks now I can report that I do, indeed, love it. However, before I talk about what I love, I should probably mention what I don’t love about the app (and it is a short list):

    1. I am not a fan of the icon (surprise). It’s not terrible, but it is also not representative of the app in the least. It shows an old desktop style calendar when this app is anything but mimicking that design.
    2. The last thing that I am not a huge fan of is the bottom toolbar being translucent — that design choice just kind of bugs me. Again, it’s not terrible and many probably like it — I just find it distracting.

    ### The Good (Really Good)

    The good part about this app is that it is just a never ending scrolling list of days, no times shown unless you have an appointment on that day — then it shows you the start time of the appointment. This is awesome, this is what I need, this is perfect.

    On my iPhone I don’t need to know anything other than what is coming up and Agenda excels at showing me this. If the app did nothing more than that it would be worth the $1.99 price tag, but it does so much more.

    The entire app is driven by left and right swiping (even though [Nokia just invented that](https://brooksreview.net/2011/06/nokia-n9/)). By default you see the list of days, swiping left to right zooms you out, meaning you now see a month view, then a year view. Swiping right to left moves you into a day view, then appointment view. The animation and swipes are very fast and well done.

    What makes this interaction so good is not that it exists, but that it makes using the app one handed a joy — this is an app that you can check as you run out the door.

    I love that.

    ### Some Oddities

    The current version in the App Store doesn’t have one of the best improvements to the app: double tap the top to return to “today”. That is coming in an update already submitted and the lack of the feature really slows down the usage of the app — because getting back to ‘today’ without it is really cumbersome. I wouldn’t mention that this was being improved, but since it is already submitted I think it is safe to judge the app with that being a part of the app (added to it that I have used the app with this feature).

    All the calendars are grabbed from Apple’s Calendar app, which is fine, but do note that all the calendars appear as one color (black) in the main view. I can’t decide if I like this choice or not, on the one hand the other views color code the calendars so it is nice not to have to be disgusted with the rainbow that is my schedule — on the other hand it is sometimes frustrating trying to “dig” deeper to find out which calendar that event is on.

    ### Buy It

    This is all a rather long winded way of saying: [buy this app](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/agenda-a-better-calendar-todays/id440764409?mt=8). It is a great calendar app, the best I have used on the iPhone thus far. Well done.

    UPDATED: A lot of people have commented on the badge icon, this is optional and can be completely turned off in settings. The badge, by the way, shows the current date. I recommend you leave it off, then again I hate all badge icons.

  • Steve Jobs: Wedding Photographer

    Carolyne Zinko and Carrie Kirby:

    >No official wedding photo was available because the photographers — Jobs and Ellison’s son, David — had not finished preparing them for the photo album yet, Ellison said.

    That would be Steve Jobs they are talking about. This isn’t really news, but it leaves me with so many questions:

    1. Will Jobs create the photo album from iPhoto or Aperture?
    2. What camera did Jobs use, Canon/Nikon/iPhone?
    3. How long before Jobs considers the photos ‘finished’?

    Lastly: How cool is it to say that Jobs was one of your wedding photographers? (Technically I know the answer to this one: awesome.)

    [via Viticci]