The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Shawn Blanc’s Membership Drive

    Also, on the subject of my pal Shawn, he is running a membership drive this week. There are some great prizes, but more importantly [diapers are expensive](http://shawnblanc.net/2012/02/noah-blanc/) so go sign up.

  • How Big Will Retina Display Magazines Be?

    Shawn Blanc:
    >What is Condé Nast going to do with their magazine apps? Their current issues (which use images even for text) are going to look horrible on the Retina display and if they start making their files 4x bigger then the downloads will get even more ridiculous — growing into the ballpark of an 800 MB file. At that size, after few back issues of The New Yorker and Wired and your iPad’s storage will be maxed out.

    First, isn’t it just 2x bigger on the iPad? But Shawn makes a great point here: the decision of magazines publishers to use crappy image only tools for text is going to show how short-sighted of a decision it was on March 16th 2012. Here’s hoping magazines pull their collective heads our of their collective asses and use better tools.

    Update: About the 4x versus 2x debate. It’s 4x the pixels, but my thought is that is misleading because you are basically just doubling the size. Looks like I am wrong, or at least in the minority on this thinking though. Oh well.

    Update 2: Yeah, I am wrong about the sizes. Not the first time. Carry on, nothing to see here.

  • Welcome, Apple from the OpenStreetMap Foundation

    Jonathan Bennett:
    >The desktop version of iPhoto, and indeed all of Apple’s iOS apps until now, use Google Maps. The new iPhoto for iOS, however, uses Apple’s own map tiles – made from OpenStreetMap data (outside the US).

    So what are they using in the US?

  • The TSA Blog: Viral Video About Body Scanners

    TSA responds to [that video about the guy walking through their machines with a large metal object](https://brooksreview.net/2012/03/tsa-metal-detection-skills/). Instead of disproving that it is possible to do what the video shows, they just talk about how fantastic their security is.

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 50: The K Stands for Class

    We recorded a special mid-week episode to talk about Apple’s iPad event.

  • ‘(unless you use actual pen and paper)’

    This is gold.

  • Tweet of the Day: @Arnoldkim

    “iPhoto requires “iPad 2 or later”. Right so iPad 2 or iPad.Gotcha.”
    — Arnold Kim (@arnoldkim) March 8, 2012

  • iPhoto for iOS is Unintuitive

    I have only played with iPhoto for iOS for a bit now, but I am not the only one that thinks it is a pretty unintuitive and confusing app to use. I don’t even know what I did half the time, or if the button I pressed worked.

    That about sums it up.

  • ‘iPhoto for iOS Not Using Google Maps?’

    Doesn’t look like it to me.

  • iPhoto for iOS

    Now live in the App Store. (It doesn’t read the SD card from my GX1 via the Camera Connection kit — no surprise given that Aperture doesn’t read it either.)

  • Apple – The new iPad

    Black, 32GB, 4G on Verizon. At least if they ever take my order…

  • ‘How Changing Technology Affects Security’

    Bruce Schneier:
    >Changes in security systems can be slow. Society has to implement any new security technology as a group, which implies agreement and coordination and — in some instances — a lengthy bureaucratic procurement process. Meanwhile, an attacker can just use the new technology.

  • Keyboard Maestro and OmniFocus Perspectives

    Clever.

  • ‘We Need to Talk About Android’

    Fraser Speirs:
    >If you’re going to download and install apps from all over the web, you had better be sure that the base OS is bang up to date with security patches. That’s simply not what you get with Android.

    >This is one of those places where Google’s inability to move the installed base to new OS releases is actively harmful.

  • $1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless by Blog

    Well that’s just a fantastic waste of money and privacy.

    Site gets bonus points for its name.

  • ‘Android Increases App File Size Limit’

    Drew Olanoff:
    >Yep, that means that apps could now become as big as 4GB.

    And I thought downloading an issue of *The New Yorker* was painfully slow…

  • ‘Questions About Readability’

    Jonathan Poritsky interviewing Readability’s Richard Ziade asks:
    >Your support documents state that “premium supports the costs to run the service, continued development” and paying publishers. If all of your customers go with a free account, how does Readability intend to make money?

    Ziade answers:

    >We’re still navigating towards a plan in that respect. Right now, we just want to build a big and engaged community.

    I.e.: “we have no clue.”

    It’s also interesting how Poritsky asked about supporting Readability with ads, the same “feature” that Ziade seems to have designed Readability to avoid, to which Ziade gives a couple of “backed my self in a corner” hilarious answers to.

    I now have less faith in Readability’s motives.

  • ‘Shutting Down Windows 8 is Easy’

    Paul ‘Supersite’ Thurrott:

    >Shutting down Windows 8 is *easy*, and that’s true no matter which input type you use:

    >Keyboard. WINKEY + I, UP ARROW, ENTER, U.

    >Mouse. Charms, Settings, Power, Shutdown.

    >Touch. Charms, Settings, Power, Shutdown.

    I mean *really* why can’t users remember that simple keyboard shortcut or where “Shutdown” was moved to in the “Charms” menu — hard to believe these people even use a computer, am I right Supersite?

  • ‘Will Apple’s Continued Success Be Followed With Another Failure?’

    Howard “Head in the Sand” Baldwin:
    >Hoopla over the possibility of $600-per-share stock prices notwithstanding, I wonder if Apple’s success is leading it toward another abyss. (Note: Apple’s stock closed down a bit Monday at $532.20 per share.)

    iPad and iPhone innovations notwithstanding, I wonder if Apple will ever innovate?

    Also if Apple’s stock price being “down a bit” is so concerning, then what of RIM and Microsoft? ((Why the hell did Macworld “reprint” this crap?))

  • New Basecamp

    It looks fantastic — I stopped using it just a month ago because I found that I was the only one in my office actually keeping it up to date. What a great tool though.