The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • ‘Minimal WordPress Themes’

    Nice list of WordPress themes, I’m often asked about my theme and about the design of new blogs, so let me give two tips I always hand out:

    1. Make your site the best reading experience you can make it.
    2. You don’t want my theme because you won’t understand how to use it.

    That said, I took a look at this list and if I was starting out again and didn’t know how to make my own theme, here’s the two I would be torn between:

    – [Duet](http://thethemefoundry.com/wordpress/duet/): I’m not a fan of two column articles on the web, but that’s easy enough to change that I’d still go with this theme.
    – [Manifest](http://themes.jimbarraud.com/manifest/): A close second, but I’m leery of how it would work on iOS devices compared to Duet.

  • Twitter to Remove Third-Party Image Services From Its Apps

    John Herman:
    >Twitter will soon remove support for third-party image hosts, such as Twitpic and yfrog, from its official apps, according to a person who was briefed on the company’s plans. The changes will be coming fairly soon — likely in the next updates to each client.

    This makes more senses than killing third-party clients. Because this *is* a part of the content being uploaded to Twitter — so they likely want to “own” that data. What will be interesting is to see if Twitter changes (or already has) terms in the Terms of Service (for Twitter) that by default grants Twitter the rights to use the images you upload via their service. I know this has long been something Facebook tries to get away with, so we will see just how evil Twitter wants to go on this one.

  • ‘Use TextExpander to Sanitize Formatted Text’

    Nice and simple tip from Justin, but there’s actually a couple of other ways to do this if you don’t want to go the TextExpander route: the two I use are LaunchBar and Keyboard Maestro.

    ### LaunchBar

    Dead simple, just activate `Clipboard History` in your LaunchBar preferences and check the box `As Plain Text`, setup your shortcut to invoke clipboard history and you are done. I am using `OPT+Commoand+\` and `Command+\` on my machine — makes for copying and pasting plain text pretty fast.

    ### Keyboard Maestro

    Of course if you really want to be fast about it, you can use a macro in Keyboard Maestro that strips formatting. Actually this is a default macro that comes with Keyboard Maestro — not something I made. The shortcut I have set for it is `Shift+Command+V` and boom, no formatting. In case you deleted the macro, just go to `File > Import to Macro Library` in Keyboard Maestro, close the file chooser dialog that pops up and find the macro to re-add it to your library.

    I think you’ll be amazed at how handy plain text formatted clipboard items really are.

  • ‘Towards a Retina Web’

    A great overview of the different techniques that you can utilize to make your websites retina ready. On this site I had been using the double-resolution (actually 2048px on the long side) picture trick — meaning everyone gets to download huge images. This has slowed down site load times, significantly, but it was the easiest to implement and has kept the site looking great.

    I used [Icon Slate](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icon-slate/id439697913?mt=12) (hat tip to [Gruber](http://daringfireball.net) to create a retina favicon. Those are the only images I use, everything else is just CSS and text.

    Now, the biggest downside to this is that in Reeder on the Mac (and I think Google Reader) images from my site shoot out of their bounds and look crazy big.

    I’ve since installed [Retina.js](http://retinajs.com) to use and try out, but it occurs to me that all these tricks are just nasty hacks for something that is just going to have to be standardized in the browser itself. That is, we need a standard file name attribute that tells the web browser when there is a retina asset available, the browser knows it needs the retina asset, and grabs that first.

  • ‘Gotcha Features’

    Jessica Dolcourt:
    >Yet its lack of a “gotcha” feature gives shoppers considering other powerful alternatives — like the intriguing Lumia 920, the larger-than-life Samsung Galaxy Note 2, or even the won’t-quit Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD — fewer reasons to stick with Apple.

    Oh boy. Let me get this straight, the iPhone 5 is just an ok option, but will sell well while opening the door to competitors? And Dolcourt’s proof of this is that she found three separate Android phones that each have one feature better than the iPhone 5. Right, so I could carry all three other phones (which are huge phones) and have a better offering, or just carry the iPhone 5. But I *totally* see where they left the door open, why didn’t they add those made up features you spoke about earlier in your article:

    >[…] an innovative camera feature that lets you drag and drop subjects around the screen, or other far-out concepts come to life.

    Yeah, Apple, what the hell. I bet no one pre-orders this piece of junk — [oh wait](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/14/iphone-5-pre-order-sells-out-20x-faster-than-4-and-4s-further-highlighting-apples-dominance/).

  • ‘Apple’s Magic Is In The Turn, Not The Prestige’

    MG Siegler writing about people who are “disappointed” that the iPhone 5 looks the same as the iPhone 4S:
    >Apple is not and will not change things just for the sake of change. And while some may now be clamoring for this change, the paradox is that if Apple did make some big changes, many of the same people would bitch and moan about them. Apple is smart enough to know that in this case, most people don’t really want change, they just think that they do because that’s the easiest way to perceive value: visual newness.

    Siegler’s post is fantastic and worth a read, but I have a counter point to his argument that is something to be mindful of. That is, RIM was very good at ever so slightly making the BlackBerry devices better — iterating design — but in the end they got pigeoned holed into thinking the same.

    I don’t see Apple doing this at all, but I think it’s important to remember that iterating to perfection is fantastic just so long as you recognize that perfection may be a completely different device than what you are iterating on today. This in my mind is what explains the move to a 4-inch screen. I am sure that in 2007 3.5 inches seemed fantastically big, but Apple kept their eyes opened (and their minds) realizing that 4 inches maybe a better device.

    This is counter to what RIM did, deciding that a trackball was better than a jog dial and color screens better than monochrome — so we have nothing to worry about with Apple right now. I just want to point out that there’s two types of iteration: iteration for the sake of perfection and iteration for the sake of selling new devices. It’s the latter that we need to be worried about, Apple’s still well in the iterating to perfection mode.

  • The B&B Podcast #76: Pop Open LaunchBar

    Really fun show this week that only runs 30 seconds over the 30 minute mark that Shawn and I want to hit or be under. Shawn and I talk about tips and tricks for LaunchBar, teaching each other some new ones along the way.

    If you’ve given up on our podcast, or podcasts in general, I’d urge you to give this one a listen — we’ve worked hard to try and make the show fit better into busy schedules and I really think this is a fun episode.

    [We also recorded a nice After Dark about switching from AT&T to Verizon](http://5by5.tv/afterdark/231) — for those not familiar an “After Dark” is 5by5 network lingo for the conversations that happen after we stop recording the episode.

  • Doubling Down

    Shawn Blanc on the iPhone 5 event:
    >It was like the whole internet had the run sheet for today’s event.

    >Earlier this year Tim Cook said Apple was doubling down on secrecy, and yet virtually every single thing announced today was called by the rumor mill.

    The rumors were so accurate and consistent (well the sane rumors) that I thought for sure they all had to be wrong. I guess there’s going to be some job openings at Apple.

    However, as un-Apple as the lack of secrecy was, I think it paid off better for Apple. Typically after an big announcement event their stock takes a dive because Apple never “meets” rumors, however this time around Apple *did* meet the rumors — and Apple’s stock immediately climbed (continues climbing as of this writing). So there’s an interesting case to be made for getting rumor-mongers more accurate leaks.

  • ‘The Backdoor’

    Richard Koopmann, found a backdoor into the member-only posts on TBR:
    >Back to the point, in my bit.ly network is an account held by Ben Brooks that tweets out a link whenever a new post hits his website. And as I found out, converting a bit.ly user page into an RSS feed is as simple as appending .rss to the end of the URL.

    Koopmann was kind enough to contact me before posting this so that I could fix the hole, but it’s certainly one I had never even thought about. Since launching the paywall I have had quite a few people email me about backdoors they found into the content — none sounded malicious, most found their way in accidentally.

    When designing the paywall I knew one thing: there will always be ways around the paywall, always. I can’t stop it, so I just accept it as fact.

  • SpiderOak

    A nice review from Glenn Fleishman on Macworld that looks at an interesting backup/sync option called SpiderOak. He concludes:
    >If you’re looking for the highest level of privacy and a service that has all of the pieces in one place for backup, sync, and read-only folder sharing, SpiderOak offers the strongest solution.

    I’ve known about SpiderOak for a long time now, at it seems right up my alley, but honestly the UI is confusing and ugly. I tried to use it a month ago and just couldn’t find the time to want to set it up. That’s why Dropbox and Time Machine are so powerful — just flip a switch and forget about it.

    Still, I’ve heard from many that SpiderOak is a much more secure option — and with iCloud it might make a nice complimentary service over Dropbox. I’ll give it another go.

  • ‘Integrity and Bullies With Blogs’

    Joshua Topolsky (the editor-in-chief of *The Verge*) responded to [earlier criticism](https://brooksreview.net/2012/09/reporting-kind-of/) of a Verge post on his personal Tumblr. Overall it’s about what you would expect, but the opening salvo is a real gem and so I think we should break down the opening paragraph line-by-line.

    >I wanted to make this brief, because I have more important things to do with my time than respond to bullies who like to play-pretend that they know things they don’t.

    This is an interesting way to start. He’s trying to discredit those that are speaking out about this, saying they are “play-pretending” that they “know” things that they don’t. Further, that even talking about these people are a waste of his time because this is very much a non-issue. Two of those people: Marco Arment and John Gruber. So I’m thinking this opening statement is a bit of a stretch, but heck, he’s upset.

    I’m breaking the next bit up for better analysis.

    >But, just as I felt compelled to respond to Michael Arrington when he attacked the work I (and my team) did at Engadget,[…]

    It’s one thing to have Arment or Gruber call you out, but Arrington? Ouch, I had forgotten about that.

    > […]I am now responding to Marco Arment, John Gruber,[…]

    I’m glad he didn’t pussyfoot around calling people out by names — when everyone knows who called you out, best to address those people directly.

    >[…]and anyone else who sets up a minimal WordPress blog and thinks that the ability to publish text onto the internet gives them insight into what journalism is or what I do for a living.

    Wait, you have got to be fucking kidding me, this is the next bit of discrediting tactic he is taking? That somehow a minimal looking WordPress blog makes you a shit writer? How do the tools have anything to do with the writing talent?

    Topolsky is using Tumblr for fucks-sake if you really want to start talking about platforms, probably not best to sling shit when using Tumblr — just saying. ((I mean Jim Dalrymple has a minimalist looking WordPress blog, didn’t comment on this, and is ten times the writer/reporter/journalist of the entire Verge staff combined. Probably best to check the WordPress comment at the door.))

    Further, this minimal looking WordPress blogger hack, looked into his RSS feed of ~600 tech minded sites to see who commented about *The Verge* — of those commentators I am the only one on WordPress that commented — so it must be me right? I mean it’s not like WordPress is [*that* popular to blog on](http://trends.builtwith.com/cms).

    Give me a break.

    That’s not to mention that Topolsky likely offended half of the people that read *The Verge*, but hey he needs to defend his site.

    ### The Error

    Here’s the thing, I would have loved for Topolsky to have posted this as an open “letter from the Editor” on *The Verge*. He could have clearly and calmly laid out the policies at *The Verge*. He could have went on record as saying why the topic was omitted, that they always tell the truth, and so forth.

    But he didn’t.

    Instead Topolsky responded on his smaller personal Tumblr site.

    >My point is this: when someone accuses this team of lacking in integrity, or being on the take for a company, or somehow perverting their work for the sake of some other party (readers or otherwise), I take it pretty seriously. I think it’s bullshit, and I won’t stand for it.

    “I mean, not seriously enough to talk about it openly on the site that I am editor-in-chief of, but the next level down for sure. But really, as I said, I don’t have time for this shit — it’s serious — but I don’t have time for it.”

  • “Reporting”

    Harry Marks on the fact that the Spectre One looks exactly like an iMac, and yet Engadget didn’t mention that in its review — instead the author tweeted it would have been trolling to mention that fact — rebuts:
    >I don’t believe it would be “trollish” to state that the Spectre One is, at the very least, influenced by Apple’s iMac all-in-one.

    [Marco Arment points out](http://www.marco.org/2012/09/10/elephant):

    >Big “gadget” blogs depend on maintaining very friendly relationships with the companies whose products they cover so they can continue to get exclusives, interviews, press badges to events, and early access to products.

    Better still, [Jonathan Poritsky reminds us that those exclusive are usually piss-poor anyways](http://candlerblog.com/2012/09/10/staying-friendly/).

    Of course, [this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone](https://alpha.app.net/benbrooks/post/372549) — it’s [one of the reasons I moved to a paywall model](https://brooksreview.net/2012/07/new-tbr/) so that I could *always* avoid not being able to speak my mind.

    I’d like to say I expect more from Engadget or *The Verge*, but I really — honestly — trust their reviews less than I trust Amazon reviews.

  • Siri Drops the “That”

    A nice catch by Shawn, but more interesting is that he feels he treats Siri like a person. I, for one, treat her better — last night I caught myself saying to Siri: “**Please**, set a time for 20 minutes.” I mean who uses “please” anymore?

    My guess, 95% percent of people that use Siri, speak like they are naturally speaking to a human. That’s not because we think Siri is a person — no — I’m guessing it is because Siri actually understands us ((Mostly.)) when we use our *natural* language.

  • ‘I’m David Marcus, and I’ve Been Running PayPal’

    David Marcus, in a comment on Hacker News, about all the complaints surrounding PayPal:
    >[…]there’s a massive culture change happening at PayPal right now. If we suck at something, we now face it, and we do something about it.

    There’s so much that’s fascinating about his statement. Let me just run through them:

    1. This was sent publicly on a very nerdy link aggregation site. Not done via a Press Release or anything more private.
    2. This sends the wrong message. This makes PayPal sound like a startup (again) and makes the company look rather unprofessional — not something you want your online bank sounding like.
    3. That said, I love that he did this. The statements could be complete bullshit, but the fact that he had the savvy to respond to this criticism is fantastic.
    4. This feels more like a response to the loss of customers, than it does a response to a real complaint.
    5. PayPal is clearly worried about their future, because you don’t hire a guy that says the things Marcus is saying if you are riding high.

    Should be interesting to watch if any changes happen.

  • ‘How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means for the Future of Everything’

    A fascinating in-depth look by Alexis Madrigal at how Google maps the world. What’s interesting to me is just how much human involvement this takes — there’s no doubt that Google Maps is the premier online mapping service — [but how does Google make money off of Maps](http://www.quora.com/How-does-Google-Maps-make-money)?

    That’s the real question. Having used iOS 6’s new mapping application, it’s readily apparent to me that while not *as good* as Google’s, I’ve yet to be frustrated, lost, or annoyed by Apple’s offering. Which is to say, I bet most other people won’t be bothered by Apple’s offering either — where does that leave Google? Will people really care to download a Google Maps app, when the built in one is pretty damned good too?

    Does Mapquest often get downloaded on iPhones? I think we have our answer.

    So while Google spends millions, billions(?), on maps I have to wonder if it will all have been wasted as a source of income for them.

  • ‘Apple Shifts Some Memory Chip Orders for New iPhone From Samsung to Other Chipmakers’

    Jung-Ah Lee:
    >Analysts said that the ongoing high-profile litigation between the two companies may have accelerated Apple’s move to reduce its dependence on Samsung.

    That’s deep.

    I said it earlier, but if Apple really wanted to screw over Samsung, they would find a way to not use Samsung as a supplier. It looks to me that Apple agrees, they need to diversify their suppliers. What’s most interesting to me, is how this will effect profitability for iOS hardware and quality. Hopefully the latter won’t be affected at all.

  • ‘I’m Done With the Verge’

    Jonathan Poritsky writing about the end of his readership to *The Verge*:
    >On what planet is disclosure a suggestion?

    Full disclosure: Poritsky emailed me his post. Wait, maybe I should phrase that differently:

    >EXCLUSIVE: Poritsky emailed me his post.

    That’s better. I gave up on *The Verge* [awhile ago myself](https://brooksreview.net/2011/12/failure/), but hey that’s just me. ((Fun note, my post is listed in Wikipedia, of which I take great pride being the critical guy’s post on Wikipedia.))

    To be fair, *The Verge* has some of the best patent litigation coverage on the web — they do a great job and should be commended for that, but the things Poritsky points our are just, well, really egregious. The rest, the reviews, commentary, news, is all poor on a daily basis and really should be better given the talent level of *The Verge’s* staff.

    That said, if you do dump *The Verge*, why not [subscribe to Poritsky’s site](http://candlerblog.com)? That’s what I just did. It’s certainly better looking than *The Verge*. ((Exception to that permalink button, that’s gotta go. Update: He changed them, good man.))

  • Nokia Faked the Still Photos Too

    Pretty damning research and quasi-proof from Youssef Sarhan that Nokia faked the still photos for the Lumia 920 too.

    [I take back what I said](https://brooksreview.net/2012/09/gruber-nokia/), Nokia should be taken to task over this level of deceit. [I’d love to see the FTC step in and sanction them over misleading advertising](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_advertising#United_States_advertising_regulations).

  • The B&B Podcast #75: B&B 2.0

    In addition to talking about Kindles and App.net, Shawn and I announce our new show format. I won’t give everything away here except one thing: our new goal is to stay at 30 minutes or less per show. If you haven’t had time to “catch up”, this is one you might move to the top of your podcast queue.

    We are also accepting sponsors for each show, $395 a show. Get in touch with me to book that. ((I know, I know, but how do you paywall a podcast?))

  • ‘Why and How I Use Fever’

    Nice, timely, post from Anthony Drendel detailing how he uses Fever° and why he uses it opposed to other RSS readers. I have to agree with him on the reasons for using Fever — it’s a fantastic RSS tool. One point he left out is that Fever is great if you don’t like to waste time keeping up with news while you are on vacation — just set the Hot List for the last week (or whatever time frame) and you can get a great sense of what happened while you were drinking, I mean vacationing.

    Reeder recently added in Fever support (you still need to have Fever installed on a web server), but I think Sunstroke — made by Drendel — is a far better option for interacting with Fever on your iPhone. He also just [updated Sunstroke to version 1.3](http://itunes.apple.com/app/id488564806), which has a lot of visual enhancements (read: better design).

    I’m often asked what I use for RSS, this is it: Fever and Sunstroke.