The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Shawn Blanc’s Custom Made Desk

    I’ve always loved this desk that Shawn built. Truthfully (not to offend Shawn) this desk isn’t hard to make, you just need time. Good place to start.

  • Jordan Patterson’s Custom Made Desk

    I love the thought that went into the desk and even more the fact that he went with a budget of $150. Try to buy a desk that even gets close to what he built for $150 — won’t happen.

    It’s not the desk I would build, but that’s the point of building your own desk.

  • ‘Apple’s Illogical App Store Upgrade Process’

    Kirk McElhearn details how Apple upgraded the Bento iPad app: by releasing the new version as a new app and updating the old version to have a pop up telling users about the new version.

    Yep, something has gotta give.

  • Ever Wonder What a Tech Journo Would Write After Touching Something for 90 Seconds, Without Being Allowed to Use that Something?

    I always wondered that too, luckily Farhad Manjoo answers that lingering question with this paragraph in his treatise for why the Surface is going to be great — keep in mind he only spent 90 seconds with the device, in a powered off state:

    >Microsoft has clearly spent a lot of time making this thing look and feel just right. The Surface isn’t flashy—it’s less outwardly gorgeous than the new iPad—but it is delightfully functional. It’s got a kickstand built invisibly into the device, and, even better, Microsoft created an ingenious case that includes a “pressure sensitive” touch keyboard right inside the cover. If it works well, the keyboard—which I got to inspect at great length but not actually type on—is going to be the Surface’s killer attraction.

    Things that should be illegal to say until you use something for prolonged periods of time:

    1. “feel just right”
    2. “delightfully functional”
    3. “ingenious case”
    4. “killer attraction”

    And that is just one paragraph of the 12 that Manjoo wrote.

  • Microsoft Surface Dates and Pricing

    Ryan Nakashima for the AP, published in The News Tribune, notes that the Surface should go on sale around September or October of this year and has this to say:

    >Microsoft said the Surface’s price tag will be similar to the iPad, which sells for $499 to $829, depending on the model.

    >A slightly thicker version – still less than 14 millimeters thick and under 2 pounds – will work on Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 Pro operating system and cost as much as an Ultrabook, the company said. The pro version comes with a stylus that allows users to make handwritten notes on documents such as PDF files. It will be released about three months later.

    First things first: lol, a stylus. Ok now that that is out of the way: “cost as much as an Ultrabook” — so in other words be really expensive.

    So there are two of the main details that were missing about the Surface: price and availability. It sounds like they are coming end of this year and Microsoft is pushing to get at least the ARM model in iPad price territory.

    What about that third question, the battery? Well:

    >Microsoft didn’t say how long the Surface would last on battery power.

    Ha. My guess is that Microsoft is *hoping* to get the tablets out later this year and that they are doing their very best to make the price competitive, but I would also guess that at this current juncture the battery life is still poor. Thus Microsoft is withholding that information until they improve it some more before the device ships. We will see.

  • The Microsoft Surface Tablet Edition for ARM and Intel and Fans

    Some smart features but not worth thinking about until three things happen:

    1. Price is announced.
    2. Firm ship date announced.
    3. Battery life announced.

    Until then, you don’t really have a product.

  • The IKEA TV Reviewed

    Gizmodo translates a swedish review of the IKEA TV and it’s not good:

    >And there you have it—the IKEA Uppleva, a $1000 home theater system that appeals mostly for the cheap wood it’s packaged in.

    It’s unclear to me whether anyone thought this would actually *be* good…

  • ‘The Nokia Torture’

    Jean-Louis Gassée speculating:
    >And there is Nokia’s chosen partner, Microsoft. What will Nokia’s failure do to its future? Ballmer knows Microsoft can’t be relegated to a inconsequential role in the smartphone wars. Will this lead to Microsoft going “vertical”, that is buying Nokia’s smartphone business and become an vertically player, as it already is in its Xbox business?

    Ever since Elop (former Microsoft exec) was appointed CEO of Nokia I had this thought in the back of my head: what if Elop was sent to Nokia to set the company up for an eventual take over by Microsoft? Elop partnered with Microsoft to ship Windows Phone 7 — that seemed like a move towards this thought. Now though? What if Microsoft just didn’t want to pay for what Nokia *was* worth and instead needed it devalued? Hmmm.

    This is not likely the case, as it would be a massive scandal, but still should Microsoft buy Nokia I will forever hold this speculation of my restless mind to be the truth.

  • Chuck Skoda’s Week With iOS Six

    Chuck Skoda:
    >While at first glance iOS 6 seems to have generally minor updates when compared with iOS 5, I’d like to point out that this post is now nearly three times as long as last years reflection on my first week with ios five.

    I think iOS 6 is a bigger update than most people think. (Also I didn’t know about a few things that Skoda notes, a nice overview.)

  • Treehouse

    My thanks to Treehouse for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote their online learning solution, but really it’s more than that. I used Treehouse for a few months and learned a ton about web development and CSS — it’s easy and fast.

    There’s great challenges and some really nice video walkthroughs taught by people that know their stuff. I already knew a bunch when I went through the lessons, but I have no doubt that someone who knows very little can pick up with these lessons and learn a ton. If you want to know more about web design or even iOS apps, I’d start [here](https://teamtreehouse.com/learn/projects/?cid=947).

  • TSA Testing Scandal Uncovered at Philadelphia International Airport

    CBS:
    >The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that they intend to fire seven of their employees following the discovery of a bribery scandal at the Philadelphia International Airport.

    >After an eight month investigation, authorities say a TSA training instructor who was responsible for administering annual proficiency exams was found to have accepted payment from TSA security officers to ensure passing grades.

    Here’s something to ponder this weekend, what’s more embarrassing: that seven TSA employees were caught taking bribes, or that it took eight months to investigate?

  • Google Maps vs. Apple Maps: A Side-by-Side Comparison

    Not quite fair right now, given the beta nature of Apple’s mapping solution, but interesting none the less. While Casey Chan points out the Apple offers “less information” than Google, Chan does so as if to imply that this is a bad thing. One look at the maps though and I can’t help but like Apple’s better.

    Apple is offering clean maps. I don’t think that Apple is lacking in information, as much as they are making a conscious decision to *show* less information. Whether this is good or bad truly depends on how you use maps. My guess is that Apple figures you need less information now that you will have turn by turn navigation.

  • 2012 MacBook Air Benchmarks

    The new Air lineup is impressively fast, and given how inexpensive they are, well they should be on everyone’s shortlist.

  • ‘The New MacBook Pro IS the Future’

    Christina Warren saying exactly what I have been thinking all week amidst the stupidity surrounding the new retina MacBook Pro:

    >No, what’s happening to PCs is very similar to what has happened to cars over the last 20 years. In order to be more powerful, more efficient and more streamlined, the products not only require less user interaction – they inhibit that interaction.

    Her entire post is fantastic, read it.

  • The B&B Podcast #65: Lucky Charms Turbo Boost

    >In this episode Shawn and Ben discuss the crazy method they are taking to live stream the show, the new retina MacBook Pro, Ben’s ridiculous computer buying, iOS 6, whiskey, and how we use RSS.

  • ‘Follow Me, Follow You on Twitter’

    Posting a link to myself here, because it’s time again to remind people of what Andrew Turnbull so succinctly [said today](http://twitter.com/ar_turnbull/status/213317835932434432):

    >@BenjaminBrooks the best (and worst) thing about Twitter is that you are in charge of your own experience.

    So very spot on. This morning I blocked a bunch of people, truthfully I have been blocking a bunch of people for months now. If the unfollow/follow button is how I control what I see in my Timeline, the block button does the same for what I see in my mentions tab. That’s all there is to it, if you were/are blocked it’s because I just don’t care to see you clutter my mentions tab up. ((There’s lots of people that speculate that I block anyone who disagrees with me — which is just not true. I do, however, tend to block people that tweet disagreements at me every time I post something on the web — that’s why the button is there.))

    Maybe this seems harsh, but it makes Twitter better for *me* and truly that’s what I care about.

  • A New Reason to Leave Facebook

    Josh Constine writing about Facebook Exchange, a new way to show users ads:
    >For example a travel site could serve ads about a flight to Hawaii to someone who almost bought a flight on their site. Advertisers might pay big premiums for highly-accurate targeting. Users will be able to opt out of Facebook Exchange via third-party demand-side platforms, but they can’t opt out of the program completely from within the social network.

    So this program is opt-out only, but the user can only opt-out from each advertiser by clicking a little `x` when they see the ad? What could go wrong?

    One thing that Constine also notes is that this also a good way to show ads for things that are *currently* happening, like TV programs about to air. This is all really neat from an advertising and technology stand point, but this sounds like a horrible thing for users. It’s like you need to actively monitor what you do, or you may begin to see ads for that crap everywhere.

  • Thomas Brand on Windows Phone 7

    Nice review from Thomas Brand about the Nokia Lumia 900 and Windows Phone 7 (man that’s a wordy couple of names). One thing that I really wish would be brought to iOS, is the text selection that he mentions:

    >Dare I say the copy and paste support on Windows phone is even better than on iOS. Selections are usually made one word at a time, and images and text can be copied and pasted multiple times without waiting for a popover menu to appear.

    That sounds really nice.

    I am always interested in the “Live Tiles” versus the static icons of iOS. Live Tiles seem like a really good idea on paper, but I can’t help but to think that in practice they aren’t that great. I haven’t tried it though, so that’s just speculation. I will note that I only saw two mentions of them in this review.

  • Correction of the Year

    I wasn’t going to post this ridiculous article that [Matt Gemmell](http://twitter.com/mattgemmell/status/212940930691514370) tweeted about, but then WSJ had to post a correction to the article. The original article by Clint Boulton basically stated that the higher resolution of the new retina MacBook Pro would lead to more bandwidth being used on corporate networks. Which is just completely false.

    The correction:

    >An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that the higher resolution Retina displays of the new iPad and forthcoming Macbook Pro computers would increase consumption of network bandwidth, thus slowing performance of corporate networks. Higher resolution screens do not in and of themselves consume more network bandwidth.

    Ha, you don’t say…

  • WordPress Version 3.4

    Nice to see how fast WordPress is being updated these days, but this version has one concerning feature that I want to make everyone aware of: native Twitter embeds.

    What this means (as far as I can tell) is that if you paste a link to a tweet, WordPress will automatically turn that into an embedded Tweet. This is really nice for a lot of people, but those embeds also have tracking code in them — so I don’t use them.

    Go to `Settings > Media` and look for this:

    Uncheck that box to turn this “feature” off.