The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Google’s Tablet Strategy

    Ina Fried for a site with a URL has this quote from Google’s Andy Rubin on the Nexus 7 tablet:

    >“When it gets sold through the Play store, there’s no margin,” Rubin said. “It just basically gets (sold) through.”

    In other words: Google isn’t making a profit off the Nexus 7. I absolutely do not understand how shareholders continue to be OK with this mentality. Google now has several high-cost, low-reward, programs running that they are pissing away money on — let’s recap the ones I can think of:

    – Google Glass
    – Nexus 7
    – Self-driving cars
    – Space Elevator

    Most of these projects can be found on this [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_X_Lab) page. Perhaps I’ll look like a fool in ten years and Google will be rolling in cash from all these ventures, but more likely investors will be sitting back and wondering what the hell went wrong.

    The idea of selling the Nexus 7 to users at cost is just a bad idea. Google didn’t *need* to sell a tablet for $200. Google doesn’t need to compete with the Kindle Fire, because the Kindle Fire doesn’t seem to be doing, well, stellar at all.

    Apple makes a pile of cash everyday by selling a tablet at $499 ((They were making money long before the $399 version.)) , which is exactly why Google should be trying to make a profit. If they break even at $200, why not sell it for $250 — that’s still half the price of the most successful tablet in the market.

    In the end, I know why Google is selling at break even, because Google truly believes this:

    >The amount of tablet-specific apps have also been an issue, but Rubin said Google is sticking with its strategy of encouraging developers to write a single app for both phones and tablets, while taking some care to make sure the layout and button size are optimized for larger-screen devices.

    Translation: we don’t give a crap about how much users like using the product, just that they use it.

    Make no mistake, when this is the mentality you approach things with, then you very much need to sell your product at break even — or it won’t sell.

  • An App Keeps Spies Away From Your iPhone

    Tom Simonite:
    >A new app called Silent Circle tries to change that by encrypting calls, e-mails, and texts. It’s aimed at activists, companies, and individuals who fear they’re being spied on.

    In other words: it’s aimed at me.

    Think of this though, for all you spy lovers, this would be a way to *finally* have your own “secured line”. Thus allowing me to now say to people: “this line isn’t secure, I’ll call you back on a secure line”. Awesome.

  • iBank for iPad

    I have tried a lot of the Mac banking apps and every time I come back to iBank. While I don’t use iBank on my iPhone — their new iPad app is really nice. It feels a bit sluggish to me right now, but looks great ((The icon: no, just no.)) and has a lot of functionality.

    As a bonus tip (again thanks to [Justin Blanton](http://hypertext.net/2012/06/omnifocus-secure-webdav)): instead of using the default ‘WiFi’ sync option I setup a WebDAV sync, but since we are talking about financial data I used the excellent [CloudSafe](http://cloudsafe.com) service. I highly recommend CloudSafe because of the security it offers and the speed the service runs at — also it is really simple to use.

  • ‘What Am I Missing Out on by Not Having an iPad?’

    Luckily, Prashant Sachdeva has that question covered.

  • Apple & Fashion

    Sheel Mohnot:
    >In 1986, Apple decided to extend its brand… into clothing. And it wasn’t a black mock turtleneck and jeans.

    And it also wasn’t good…

  • Macbook Pro Retina Review from a Photographer

    Luminous Landscape has a nice review up of the retina MacBook Pro. Two nice points in the review:

    1. An explanation of why apps need to be “retina enabled”.
    2. A comparison of drives on Thunderbolt versus USB 3.

  • WTHR

    This may not be the most useful weather app out there, but in my opinion it *is* the most beautiful weather app in the App Store — down to the icon.

    Update: [I am being told](http://twitter.com/joestracci/status/217719336587112448) there is a bug in the app right now that keeps location services running (a fix is in the works). (I disabled the apps access to location services in the Settings app to avoid this for now, but that makes the app not work.)

  • Podcasts App From Apple

    Apple launched their new Podcasts app — and this looks like a strong competitor/clone of Instacast, Downcast, et al. Interesting.

    Update: [Turns out there is also a `redeem` button in the new app](http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/06/26/redeem-button-in-new-podcasts-app-for-ios-points-to-possibility-of-paid-podcasts/). Interesting.

  • Sublime Text 2.0

    It’s out and it truly is a very nice text editor. I may have to give it a go in place of TextMate — may.

  • ‘Can Cisco Re-Invent the Router?’ Probably Not.

    Cisco is pimping a new router that has iOS apps that interact with it, and easy traffic priority. The first is a “finally” feature. The latter is completely useless to all but the most advanced users — who aren’t going to want this router any way.

    Cisco needs to focus on making a router [that is better than what Apple offers](https://brooksreview.net/2012/06/wifi-routers/), because until then no one will care — and why should they? Who wants to spend time deciding which media device gets priority over the other? Not me, I have better things to complain about.

  • Damn the TSA

    TheIndyChannel.com reporting on the latest TSA outrage, when a TSA agent inspected (by hand) the cremated remains of the a man’s grandfather — John Gross, was carrying the remains through the TSA checkpoint and said that after she spilled some of the remains on the ground, this is what happened:

    >”She didn’t apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn’t pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me.”

    That just pisses me the fuck off. If this TSA agent isn’t fired, then everyone in the TSA with the power to fire her should be fired.

    Oh and in case you are wondering, here’s the TSA’s own rules on screening cremated remains:

    >But the agency’s own website says human remains are to be opened under, “no circumstances.”

  • Encrypted OmniFocus Syncing

    What a fantastic solution — I had no idea that one could encrypt this data, but I just switched over to this. ((Don’t act surprised, and if you are: read this site more.))

  • ‘How Microsoft and Apple Are Fighting the Prejudice That Tablets Are Not for Creating’

    Shawn Blanc:
    >Microsoft needs a compelling reason for customers to see the Surface as a legitimate computing device. And since they don’t (yet?) have a gangbusters App Store, they built keyboard cover instead.

    Not only do I think Shawn is spot on, I think this is very Microsoftian too. Well said.

  • Retina MacBook Pro Heatmap

    The post isn’t in English (though there are others who have re-written the post, I figure you guys are savvy enough to know how to translate it), but shows some great images of where the heat on the new retina MacBook Pro is centered.

    This jives with what I recorded and noticed, again I never was able to get the machine hot enough to warrant even a slight discomfort — then again I steered clear of Flash and Adobe in general.

  • Apple Reportedly Replacing “Ghosting” Retina MacBook Pros

    After I posted my retina MacBook Pro review this weekend, a couple of readers pointed out some articles talking about ghosting issues. I haven’t seen it, but it sounds like some are and that some are getting replacements from Apple. As McCarty notes in the linked post, this is a common problem with IPS displays.

    *(Here’s hoping my early adopter nature doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.)*

  • Speaking of Privacy

    Jeffrey Rosen reporting on “the right to be forgotten” on the web:
    >But the right to be forgotten also gives people the right to demand the removal of embarrassing information that others post about them, regardless of its source, unless Google or Facebook can prove to a European regulator that the information is part of a legitimate journalistic, literary, or artistic exercise.

    The paranoid, privacy nut, side of me is very happy about this. The blogger side of me is very worried about the implications of: “legitimate journalistic, literary, or artistic exercise”. Beyond that: how is this even enforceable — practically speaking…

  • ‘Apple Wants to Protect Your Identity … by Cloning You ‘

    Megan Garber reporting on a patent, owned by Apple, that could help users remain private on the web:

    > The overall point, the patent text notes, is to “make any data collection about a principal less valuable and less reliable.”

    Hmm, now this is *just* a patent, but man if that doesn’t seem like a threat to Facebook and Google. Here’s hoping Apple does implement something this cool.

  • Calling Bullshit

    Justin Blanton on the ‘Apple sets all laptop screens at 70 degrees’ story:

    >Can we all agree too that *no matter what angle a laptop screen is at when a customer approaches it*, that person will move the screen so she can see it better, because of preference, stature, lighting, etc.? Who starts playing around with a laptop they’re thinking about buying and *doesn’t* adjust the screen?

    I thought I was the only one around that wasn’t impressed or surprised about that story. it all sounds like common sense and not some big secret.

    Now if J.C. Penny starts showing clothes at 70 degrees, then we have a story.

  • ‘Microsoft’s Developer Problem’

    Marco Arment:

    >The even bigger problem, I think, will be the lack of dogfooding: most developers of the kind of apps Windows 8 needs *don’t use Windows*.

    This is a great post about not only a Windows 8 problem, but why iOS took off the way it did.

  • ‘Slippery Surface’

    The Macalope:

    >Now the only question is if the runner will score or if Microsoft will go one-two-three from here, as is traditional for baseball teams from the Pacific Northwest.

    So true.