The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • ‘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.

  • Snitchware

    My thanks to Snitchware for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed to promote WeatherSnitch 2 — their update to a very good weather app. Most readers know by now that I have, and continue to, try most every iOS weather app out there. Over this past week I have been using WeatherSnitch 2 to plan painting outdoors for some youths that I have working for me — I have to say — WeatherSnitch still has one of the best weekly forecasts of any iOS app.

    The month view is my default view of the app, and I love how I can glance at it to see weather trends — something critical to planning for potential problems in my day job.

    Be sure to [check out the app](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weathersnitch-2/id452569394?ls=1&mt=8/), I really like it.

  • Striped SSD RAID

    Ever wonder what would happen if you take two extremely fast SSDs from OWC and put them in a striped RAID on a brand new MacBook Pro (using the optical drive for another SSD)? Well OWC wondered, and here’s the result:
    >Yow! With this setup, we averaged over 1000MB/s read speeds and write speeds that nearly hit 900MB/s. That completely blows the MacBook Pro with Retina Display out of the water!

    By comparison they tested the single SSD at 500/475MB/s — that’s pretty much double the performance with a striped RAID. I can’t even think about how fast that would be without getting jealous.

  • Justnotes v. 1.1

    They changed/fixed my biggest issue with the app:
    > Updated file naming of notes synced with folders (filename is same as note title).

    Boom, go buy it. It’s my favorite notes app for the Mac.

  • OWC Announces Mercury Electra MAX 3G 960GB Solid State Drive

    Nine hundred and sixty gigabytes in an SSD, all for an MSRP of $1299, … sorry I started to drool a bit at the idea of using this as an external drive for my retina MacBook Pro.

  • Microsoft Surface Pricing & Controlling the Message

    Why does Apple usually tell you the price of things before the frenzy around a new product gets out of hand? Because if rumors start up that the device is going to be much cheaper than Apple can, and intends to sell the device for, then Apple will look bad when they announce the actual price. It’s pretty simple and works this way because many casual observers of technology don’t/can’t/won’t distinguish between fact and rumor.

    So when Microsoft announced the Surface without a price, well they set themselves up for failure. Matthew Panzarino reports that the two prices for the two Surfaces will be $599 and $999. This has been so widely reported in news today that if my RSS reader had trending keywords, $599 and $999 would be the hottest trend in my RSS reader.

    So what happens if Microsoft cannot meet these all too reasonable sounding price points, price points that they never specified: disappointment happens.

    Microsoft may have copied Apple’s style for product announcement, but they forgot the most important aspect: controlling the entire message. Oops.

  • Command-Tab on Your iPad

    Neat tip to enable CMD-Tab behavior on the iPad — not sure this is something I would ever want or need, but pretty cool that it is there. This also would be great to use when you *are* trying to use your iPad as your only device.

  • ‘Blackballs’

    MG Siegler lays out exactly why Gizmodo has no credibility with me.

  • ‘Microsoft Has a Credibility Problem With Windows Phone 8’

    Loyd Case points out a really interesting problem that Microsoft has made for themselves by quasi-abandoning users of Windows Phone 7. This is not a good start and something Microsoft really needs to figure out.

    If Apple can run iOS 5/6 on a 3GS, then why can’t Microsoft run Windows Phone 8 on a few months old Nokia Lumia? Sad.

  • ‘Why Apple Is Making the Mac Harder to Use’

    Michael Schechter commenting on TextExpander 4 having to leave the Mac App Store due to the new sandboxing requirements:
    >I often complain that this is one of the biggest shortcomings of iOS (JUST LET ME USE TEXTEXPANDER IN THE MAIL APP ALREADY) and I don’t see how bringing the same restriction to OS X is better than finding an intelligent way to make useful software safe for the average user.

    [Chuck Skoda](https://twitter.com/skoda/status/215895982943113216) commenting on Twitter on the same issue:

    >Why does it seem like this isn’t clear to everyone? Apple doesn’t want things that change system behavior on the App Store.

    Yep. Moreover as users we shouldn’t want it either. By choosing to use an app like TextExpander, Moom, and others that lift up OS X’s britches is to make the choice that you *want* that functionality. It’s not something that you *need* to make things work, it just makes things work better. Schechter wants these apps in the App Store, but they should not be there — plain and simple.

    The App Store is for the average user. Apps that don’t fit in the App Store guidelines are simply not for the average user. That matters because the apps that don’t fit those guidelines can/will/could cause a massive support headache for not only Apple, but for the resident family geek. ((Who is probably you.)) Users should be able to make the reasonable assumption that anything they download from the App Store cannot and will not mess up their computer in any way that uninstalling the app won’t fix their computer. Now, TextExpander probably won’t screw up a person’s computer, but then again, what if a user can’t figure out how to stop TextExpander from launching snippets, because they hid the dock icon and menubar icon — perhaps they don’t even know that TextExpander is the culprit? And there’s your problem.

  • The B&B Podcast #66: Typing on My Microwave

    >Shawn and Ben talk about Tweetbot, Ben’s new Retina MacBook Pro, building your own desk, Thunderbolt drives, the just-announced Belkin WeMo, and the Microsoft Surface.

    Be sure to tune in, Shawn has some great thoughts on the Surface.

  • ‘Surface: Between a Rock and a Hardware Place’

    John Gruber:
    >Microsoft Surface is not fundamentally about Microsoft needing to control the entire integrated product in order to compete with the iPad on design. It’s about Microsoft needing to sell the whole thing to sustain its current profitability.

    Gruber also sees Microsoft buying Nokia, which is something I have long suspected.

  • DIY Standing Desk

    I guilted Chris into writing up something about his desk, and I love this line in his write up:
    >It’s not perfect. But having a work environment that brings you pleasure is important. And when you built the major piece of furniture in that environment with your own hands, the satisfaction I get is increased greatly.

  • TextExpander 4

    [A great update](http://www.smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/help/releasenotes.html) to a utility that I would be lost without.

  • ‘MacBook Pro 15″ With Retina Display Running 3 External Displays’

    Amazingly cool. The new retina MacBook Pro can run three external displays and it’s own internal display. If I had that many displays to test, I would test this myself. Until then I’ll just drool a bit.

  • ‘Samsung Finally Wins Its First Offensive Case Against Apple’

    But there’s a catch. Take it away Mr. Florian Mueller:
    >It’s not even clear that Samsung will make enough money as a result of this infringement finding to offset the 800,000 euros it now owes Apple in legal fees because it lost with respect to three of its four patents.

  • ‘Microsoft Kept PC Partners in Dark About Surface’

    Poornima Gupta and Lee Chyen Yee reporting on the secrecy that Microsoft kept with the Surface:
    >Windows chief Steven Sinofsky made a round of telephone calls but gave only the barest details on Friday, neither revealing the name of the gadget nor its specifications, two people close to Microsoft’s partners told Reuters.

    Basically, then, some Microsoft partners learned the name Monday, but weren’t left in the dark about specs, because really no one has the specifications… still.

    Also I love this bit:

    >Ovum’s Dawson said Microsoft was giving its OEM partners “a huge vote of no confidence” and they would “rightly feel slighted”.

    That would be true if Microsoft hadn’t been sitting and waiting since 2010 for the hardware “partners” to make a decent device — and I’m no Microsoft apologist, but you had to see this coming.

  • nRF8002 Bluetooth Low Energy from Nordic Semiconductor

    I’ve long speculated that a better way to use geofencing is to make use of bluetooth chip to tell your phone where you actually are. Turns out, someone else makes the hardware already. Here’s what David Edwin emailed to tell me about the product:

    >Nordic Semiconductor has introduced a new Bluetooth low energy chip, the nRF8002 which is a single chip and can be configured to last for years on a single watch battery. The size of the chip and battery is 3 dimes stacked on top of each other. This chip implements a proximity service and does not require any programming on the chip.

    >This chip with its battery (like a tag) can be stuck on a surface and the app on the iPhone can wirelessly detect the chip from a distance of a few inches or upto 15 yards. The tag can be built to have a range of a few inches or 10 yards or mode. The app on the iphone can detect the presence of the chip in a couple of seconds. See attached pictures for the size of the tag.

    That’s pretty cool. Edwin also said that he wants to arrange a couple free development kits for developers that read this blog, so get in touch if you would like to get one of those the giveaways are all gone, but you can buy a dev kit [here](http://www.semiconductorstore.com/cart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=47363).

  • Stephen Hackett’s Custom Made Desk

    He put a glass top on it, but it has wood behind it so the only thing he’ll have to contend with is finger prints.

    [Here is part 2, with finished pics](http://512pixels.net/new-desk-2/).

  • Chris Bowler’s Custom Made Desk

    Looks fantastic, love the raw finish on it. I do believe it is standing height too.