The Brooks Review

Author: Ben Brooks

  • Status Of CrunchPad Litigation

    This is a pretty wild account of what is going on, of course only one side is shown here. What is shown is pretty damning evidence against Fusion Garage. The thing is though (and Gruber said something to this affect a while back) what are they fighting over? This product is not making money, what can they hope to gain?

  • Bill Hill On The Future of Reading: iPad Blows Kindle Out Of The Water

    Fantastic read, Bill Hill:

    When the history of reading on screens is written, it might well be seen as a series of footnotes to the iPad. Yes, we’ve had other eBook devices before now. And yes, the Kindle broke new ground with long battery life using the eInk technology. But as I said in an earlier post, eInk is essentially a backward-looking technology, too slavishly bound to emulating paper, and it’s an evolutionary dead-end.

    [via DF]

  • QoTD: The cult of busy

    It’s the ability to pause, to reflect, and relax, to let the mind wander, that’s perhaps the true sign of time mastery, for when the mind returns it’s often sharper and more efficient, but most important perhaps, happier than it was before.–Scott Berkun

    [via Shawn Blanc]

  • Ars Technica Reviews Internet Explorer 9

    Peter Bright does a great job covering all of IE 9. One thing that I think is pretty nice is the way tabs are handled, they take up no extra vertical space. They are not on the top or bottom of the URL bar (Chrome is top, Safari is bottom right now) rather they are inline with the URL bar. This looks nice and like I said takes up no extra vertical space (which on our widescreen computers is precious), though the major downfall is how many tabs you can realistically deal with before they become too small.

  • The New Boxed Wine

    Just take a look at that picture – the new boxed wine is a comin. I bet this makes true wine lovers die a little on the inside, and college students everywhere get really excited about the possibilities.

  • Apple releases iOS 4.2 beta for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

    Live in the Dev center right now, I just renewed my iOS developers account so that I can get it (I have been waiting for a iOS 4 beta for iPad to hit to renew). Sweet!

  • For Most People the iPad Is Better Than the Kindle

    Earlier today Brett Kelly posted his thoughts on why (for him) the Kindle is a better book reader than the iPad:

    I know that a great many folks think that the iPad is a “Kindle killer” (ugh, always with the killing), but I can say pretty confidently that the Kindle is going to fill a void that the iPad couldn’t effectively fill: a light, small device whose single, express purpose is reading, not everything.

    I agree it will fill a niche market void that the iPad won’t (hipsters will be hipsters), for the mass market and most geeks the iPad will dominate the market. There are two very simple reasons why the iPad will be the choice for many: weight and price.

    The Kindle weighs 8 ounces more than just my iPad. You read that right, the iPad weighs more than the Kindle. The reason is simple, the iPad sucks at everything except reading books (and other magazine/newspaper subscriptions you may have on it) so if you want a full featured device like the iPad for non-reading times, well then you need to carry an iPad and a Kindle (thus making the kit weigh 8 ounces more).

    By the same logic then the Kindle costs you $139-189 more than an iPad. Again you would have to buy the Kindle and the iPad to get the same amount of functionality.

    I have no doubt that a great many of you will disagree with this logic, and some may say you could buy a netbook and a Kindle for the price of an iPad (you could but you would be an idiot – netbooks suck a lot) but the point here is reading right? There have only been two instances when I missed my Kindle, hiking and being in the sunny outdoors (luckily I live in Seattle so sun is a rare occasion). Hiking is obvious, all I want are some books to read, perfect fit for the light weight, longer lived battery in the Kindle. Outdoors is a screen issue, which again is not something I run into more than a few times a year.

    I like the concept of minimalism, and single serving applications and gadgets, but I cannot justify carrying two devices when just one would do. On my recent trip to Vegas I took only my iPad, I used to for everything including reading books. Had I brought a Kindle to read on instead I would have had to add the iPad in a bigger bag (this bag is not fitting an iPad and Kindle), or my Macbook Pro in an even larger bag. As someone who takes stuff to and from work everyday with him the Kindle simply does not make sense.

    Hell the Kindle doesn’t even make sense for my Mom or Dad, they can do 99% of their home computing on an iPad, and read books with it (my Dad actually does, perhaps my Mom will around Christmas time). Why would I buy either of my parents a Kindle and a computer/iPad device? It is just to complicated, it is the difference between having 18 remotes to work your home entertainment system instead of just getting one really good universal remote (I am not talking about those crap ones that never work, I am talking about those $300+ remotes that kick ass).

    I guess what I am trying to say is that there are a few times a year when a Kindle would be more convenient and then there is the other 99% of the time when an iPad would be killer. Your choice.

  • Revisiting Solid State Hard Drives

    Jeff Atwood:

    […]because if you care at all about how your computer performs, solid state hard drives remain a life changing experience.

    Agreed.

  • The Best Subtle Things About New Twitter

    Great overview of what is new by MG Siegler, honestly though the only time I use the web interface is to change my profile picture. I want a new version of Tweetie for Mac.

  • Google Engineer Stalked Teens, Spied on Chats

    People at Google can and do look at your ‘private’ data – if you want true privacy Google is not the way to go (nor is anything that you don’t host yourself). Though for the record this is the creepiest looking guy, seriously look at the pictures.

  • Alarms

    Very clever looking Alarm and timer program for scheduling some tasks. I think this will fit in my workflow very nicely (for those things that don’t need to be in OmniFocus).

    [via Shawn Blanc who found it via Patrick Rhone]

  • MG Siegler on the Verizon App Store

    This is incredible interesting, Verizon will be making their own curated app store (much like Apple’s curation process) that will be preinstalled on select Android devices (version 2.2 and up). So they quality should be better and easier to find that the normal Android store, Verizon and the developers get a cut of money, not Google and the consumers get screwed. Well they get screwed in so far as they can’t take their apps out of Verizon.

    Sounds swell.

  • Giving up on Google

    Rob Sheldon lamenting on his experiences with Google:

    The experience I have with Google every day has convinced me that they’re no longer concentrating on their original mission. Google is now a marketing company, and what was supposed to be their “core competency” has been neglected in favor of rolling out new features and services.

    and:

    Google just isn’t a company that’s concentrating on the problems that I need solved. I didn’t need “instant” search results; I needed effective search results.

    Sheldon is right, there are a lot of instances where I can’t find what I need with Google. The search engine he recommends, DuckDuckGo, seems excellent especially if you search for more technical things. I have already added it to my bookmarks to use more often.

    [via Hacker News]

  • The Commute Map

    Very cool Map mashup that shows you where people in your zip code are commuting to and from.

    [via Flowing Data]

  • Security Advisory for Flash Player

    Adobe:

    This vulnerability (CVE-2010-2884) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Flash Player on Windows. Adobe is not aware of any attacks exploiting this vulnerability against Adobe Reader or Acrobat to date.

    Yeah so this is not good at all, turn it off and have some piece of mind.

  • New Kindle Pool Ad

    I love the new ad, but I think this tweet from Corey Thomas (@thecore) sums it up best:

    @gruber By Amazon’s logic, the woman in the Kindle ad should have a woman next to her gloating about a paperback book.

    [via John Gruber]

  • Google Feels the Need to Justify Itself

    I don’t get Google here, why do they feel the need to justify themselves to the ‘media’? This makes no sense, let your product speak for itself, your users know if they are still using your product so what more do you need.

  • I Remember When: Tribute to Mac OS X’s Tenth Birthday

    Today marks the tenth anniversary of the release of the Mac OS X beta. It wouldn’t be for another three years that I would get my first taste of OS X on an iBook during a communications course at my University. A year later I would come home to find my laptop stolen and a desperate need for a new computer. It was at this time that I purchased a Powerbook G4 12” – the most fabled and perhaps most loved Mac portable to date.

    Since the end of 2004 I have used Mac OS X non-stop, I am an early adopter on all Apple products and a hardcore fanboy. I have been thinking a bit about what Mac’s mean to me, specifically what if anything I should write on this anniversary of the platform.

    Piece of Mind

    Then it came to me, what I really truly love about OS X (putting aside the beautiful hardware) is the piece of mind that it gives me. Here are a few worries that Mac OS X made moot:

    • Anti-Virus Software
    • Windows Registry Issues
    • DLL files
    • Clippy (you know the MS Office paper clip helper guy)
    • Viruses
    • NetSend (if you don’t know what this is Google it)
    • Plastic computers
    • ‘Active Desktop’ Errors
    • Internet Explorer
    • ‘Safe mode’
    • ‘Safe mode w/ networking’
    • ! Important Install Drivers before plugging this peripheral in!
    • WinZip
    • PS/2 Ports
    • Little yellow bubbles in the corner of my screen

    Mac OS X, giving me piece of mind since 12/2004. Thanks Apple.

  • Mark Zuckerberg opens up for The New Yorker

    Truly fascinating interviews and accounts of Facebook and Zuckerberg.

  • Exchange “remote wipe” is a terrible, terrible bug

    Did you know that when you setup and exchange account on your mobile device the Admin can wipe it – whereby ‘it’ I mean your entire device? Neither did I.

    [via DF]