The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • The Dark Sky Company

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor: [Dark Sky](http://darkskyapp.com/?ref=brooksreview). They really do make a different kind of weather app, one that I find not only useful, but supremely beautiful. I use Dark Sky just about everyday, multiple times, it’s on my iPhone home screen and in my iPad’s dock.

    Quite literally the only problem that I have with Dark Sky is that I like it too much. The guys behind the service have gone through such great lengths to make the data fast to get out of the app that you need not spend much time in the app — yet it is so interesting to see the weather maps and look at the graph that I often find myself, very rudely, staring at the app for no reason.

    If rain is something that you want to know about (really everyone on in the Pacific Northwest with an iOS device should own this), then I really do urge you to check out Dark Sky.

  • Apple Responds to the DoJ

    Jacqui Cheng:
    >”Without Apple’s entry, eBook distribution would essentially be ceded to a single distributor (Amazon), who would then possess virtually unlimited power in the eBook business,” Apple wrote. “Apple provided all publishers, large or small, similar opportunities to utilize Apple as an agent to sell eBooks directly to consumers through the iBookstore on non-discriminatory terms.”

    This response has to make Amazon feel a tad bit uneasy.

  • Degreees

    A very nice weather website that shows the current temp (weather status by background color), your location, the high for today and tomorrow. It’s dead simple and nice looking.

    Bonus tip: open it in iOS and save it to your home screen for a fullscreen view and a nice looking icon.

  • Facebook Releases a Photocentric App for Apple Devices

    It seems to me that Facebook finally realized the same thing that I did years ago: people like Facebook because they like to stalk 1) former “lovers” and 2) former high school rivals. ((Often I refer to this as my: “any new photos of that girl I used to know on a bikini possible vacation?” theory.)) So a photo app seems like the perfect tool to do just that, makes sense.

  • ‘Google Subsidiary Motorola’

    This is the opening statement by Florian Mueller on his latest report of a Microsoft victory over Motorola in a German lawsuit:
    >The Munich I Regional Court today ordered a German patent injunction against wholly-owned Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility because the Android operating system infringes EP1304891 on “communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface”.

    Emphasis is mine. I emphasize that part because this is a PR problem that Google now has to deal with. Prior to acquiring Motorola Mobility, Google was only defending itself against the, non-consumer facing, Oracle ((To the best of my knowledge.)). Now though, every lawsuit against Motorola Mobility is essentially a lawsuit against Google — because Google owns Motorola Mobility.

    That may not be an immediate problem, but the more lawsuits that Motorola Mobility loses, the darker Google’s black eye gets.

    Take for example Mueller’s closing paragraph in this same post:

    >Most Android devices sold in the United States already have an Android (and Chrome) patent license from Microsoft. Major device makers like Samsung, HTC and LG have opted for legal certainty, and every ruling that Motorola loses against Microsoft validates their decisions to prefer licensing over litigation.

    With Motorola Mobility now owned by Google, could they even license a patent without significant repercussions? Think about it, because in my eyes, Motorola Mobility licensing a patent, from anyone, is admitting that Google itself needs to also license that patent for Android as a whole. Oops.

  • ‘Kickstarter Hides Failure’

    Dan Misener scraped the Kickstarter website, only to find out that there are in fact no readily visible failed projects. Misener brings up the interesting point that it is hard for new project creators to learn from the failure of others if they can’t see those failures. I understand why Kickstarter hides failures, I would too, but a bigger point that Misener didn’t touch on is the projects that were funded that *still* failed.

    This is not uncommon, but it’s rarely (if ever) talked about. It’s going to take a major failure for a change to be made. Imagine if the runaway success project for the Pebble watch fails to ever see the light of day. Kickstarter can rebound from that, but they need to have much better communication than they currently have with backers. Right now all I ever hear from Kickstarter is what new projects they think I should back.

    What about the projects that are massively behind schedule? What responsibility should Kickstarter have to backers over those failures?

    Both questions are going to need to be answered, clearly, sooner rather than later.

  • Diet Coda

    Hot on the heels of Coda 2 is Diet Coda, which just became the best code editor with built in FTP by a large margin on the iPad. Seems like a bargain at, the soon to change price of, $9.99.

  • Coda 2

    Amazing update. I have always been a TextMate user for code, but Coda 2 converted me last night with its AirPreview feature to the iPad alone.

    AirPreview is a bit magical.

  • The B&B Podcast #62: iSniper

    Shawn and I talk about smoking meat, those damned bigger screened iPhone rumors and, of course, Readlist.

    Brought to you by the fine folks at Hover.

  • 1136 x 640

    John Gruber explaining how Apple could keep a 4″ iPhone under wraps while still getting developers ready for the larger screen before hand:
    >If Apple introduced something like this in iOS 6, they could encourage iOS developers to adopt the recommended APIs to be responsive to changes in available vertical screen space. For now, they could pitch this in the context of *shrinking* screen space in response to on-screen notification banners, but, come October, apps that do the right thing would automatically be responsive to, say, a new device with 176 more pixels.

    That would be clever and answers one of the biggest doubts that I have/had about the rumored ‘tall-skinny’ iPhone.

  • Business Speak

    HP Press Release:
    >HP (HPQ) today outlined plans for a multi-year productivity initiative designed to simplify business processes, advance innovation and deliver better results for customers, employees and shareholders.

    That’s business speak for: “We are firing 27,000 employees.”

  • ‘Over-Promise and Under-Deliver’

    Paul Kafasis tried to reenact the Samuel L. Jackson Siri commercial and it sounds like Apple needs a “results may vary” disclaimer.

    There’s no doubt in my mind that I am better off with Siri than without, but she can be a very frustrating woman. What makes Siri even more frustrating (at least to me) is that Apple is always changing things on the back end. People often comment that Siri has gotten worse or better, but what’s really happened is Apple has tuned Siri to *be* more accurate and thus we notice the changes on the user end.

    This would be a good thing, if as humans we didn’t adapt, but we do adapt. When I tell Siri: “Call my Wife.” I get back a prompt that says something like: “Sorry, I don’t have a number for ‘My Wife’.” Which is stupid. So I put my Wife’s contact as my spouse on my contact info, aaaaannnndd Siri still couldn’t figure it out.

    I even told Siri to remember that “My wife is Erin Brooks” — to which she said “OK” — no go.

    Then I added “Wife” as the nickname to my Wife’s contact and tried that. No dice. What does work for me: “Call Wife.” It took me all of 20 minutes to get that working when Siri came out, now it’s my default behavior.

    That’s just one thing, but there are tons of corrections that *I* have made to the way that I talk to Siri to make her work better for me. Now, when Apple tweaks Siri on the back end, sometimes they fix the workarounds I was using and the end result is that my workarounds don’t work as well.

    I don’t see this changing because Apple *must* make Siri more accurate and in the process Apple is going to (unintentionally) break things periodically that we, as users, adapted to.

  • Files.app

    Rene Ritchie makes the case for iOS 6 to have a ‘Files.app’ of sorts:
    >Files deserve equal status under the OS. Since Apple has has already done a lot of interface work for Documents in the Cloud, the material is all their. They just have to give it a face.

    It’s an interesting proposal to a problem that Apple very much does need to address. I wonder though if something like this is just annoying to power users/ nerds, or if this is a problem that all iOS users face.

    Because unless it falls under the latter, I don’t see Apple creating a solution.

  • ‘Motorola Will Be Google’s Most Interesting Project Yet’

    Dan Frommer:
    >**One opportunity would be to formally split Android devices into three tracks:** Plain-old-Android, do what you want with it; the Nexus program (significant Google control, available to select partners); and a third line (complete Google control, exclusive to Motorola, ideally the highest-quality line). We’ll see if that happens — and if it does, whether it works. Everyone has different motivations for Android: Google, phone manufacturers, carriers, and consumers. They might never harmonize.

    I think the third is where Google will eventually *have* to end up, but once that happens why would any other Android phone manufacturer (Samsung, HTC) bother making Android powered phones?

  • ‘Fine Line’

    Kyle Baxter on the Readlists dis-service:

    >It’s very easy to cross over from saving articles for later to saving articles and distributing the content on your own, for your own purposes.

    Baxter spells out the fine line that apps like Instapaper and Pocket walk, guess which side of the line he thinks Readlists falls on?

  • ‘The Facebook Fallacy’

    Michael Wolff:
    >Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it.

    That’s the opening sentence, and it only gets better and harder to argue with from there. Wolff makes some great points, not only about Facebook, but about web advertising in general.

    Typically when I read a post I am able to pick out one section to quote, with this post I could have quoted just about any sentence.

    I rate this post: fifteen seconds of slow clapping.

  • Google Officially Acquires Motorola (Closes the Deal)

    CEO of Google, Larry Page, today (May 22, 2012):
    >Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility.

    [Phil Goldstein](http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/motorola-exec-product-strategy-wont-change-after-google-acquistion/2012-03-01) on March 1, 2012:
    >Andy Rubin, Google’s senior vice president in charge of mobile, said he is aware of the concerns that Google will favor Motorola, but stressed that Google has “literally built a firewall” between the Android team and Motorola.

    I guess “literally” doesn’t include putting a loyal Googler in charge.

  • Let’s Sing

    A fun new game from Lex Friedman and Marco Tabini where you pick a competitor and then hum the tune of a song (out of three choices, where you can listen to the songs as well), they they have to guess the song.

    As I tell Shawn all the time on our podcast, I am tone deaf, pitch unaware, rhythmically challenged, and generally embarrassing when it comes to musical pursuits. That said I asked my wife to play this last night against Lex while I tested it out — even just being a spectator I had good fun. There’s a free version and a [paid](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lets-sing!/id519518278?mt=8), no ads, version.

    It’s a pretty fun little game, if you find me on there you may just get to play against my wife.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: Canon Pixma PRO9500MkII

    I’ve had this printer for a while now and I have to say: it’s the best printer I have ever owned. I specifically chose this printer for the quality and the size.

    Because looking at 8×10 prints is neat, but looking at 13×19 prints is fantastic.

    My wife and I don’t really buy artwork to hang on our walls, we buy frames and fill them with pictures of *our* life.

    Yes, the paper I use is expensive because I want the prints to look great.

    Yes, the ink doesn’t last long and is massively expensive and requires all the colors to be full before printing in black and white.

    Yes, it is a printer in an increasingly digital world.

    But — man — it’s a hell of a printer, and after all it’s much more satisfying to look at your photos when they are hanging on the wall.

    Oh, and this printer used to retail for about $900, but through Amazon can be had for the bargain price of $535.71 after rebates. So there’s that too.

  • ‘The Touchscreens Are Coming’

    Chuck Skoda:
    >One thing though of which I’m convinced — the child confused that her swipes and pinches leave the magazine unaffected will not find it any less strange to have a laptop screen ignoring her gestures en masse.

    Personally I don’t see a point in touchscreens on computers, but when you put it the way Skoda did, well… yeah that makes sense.