The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • ‘Messages Is Really, Really, Really iChat’

    Dr. Drang solves the mystery of why LaunchBar still shows iChat and doesn’t seem to be able to index ‘Messages’ in it’s place. ((Some of you may be thinking: Ben said he was done with posting links to anonymous blogs. This is true, but Dr. Drang is pseudonym and that for some reason doesn’t bug me. Likely because I can say that ‘X wrote Y’.))

  • Dan Frakes’ Hands on With Mountain Lion Mail

    There’s a new feature that Frakes talks about called: VIP:
    >We all have particular people—our family members, our boss, our bookie—whose messages are more important than others. While Mail in Lion let you use combinations of rules, labels, and mailboxes to make a particular person’s messages easier to identify or view, Mail in Mountain Lion adds a new feature that’s custom-made for such purposes: VIPs

    I already do this by flagging email based on a rule, but this looks way better.

  • Your Title Matters

    Nick O’Neill on Forbes “stealing” an NYT article:
    >I had that experience myself at AllFacebook with this article. It was an article that I wrote following 6 months of research on copywriting. The reality is that in the world of newsfeeds and streams, titles matter more than ever before. The best content in the world will fall flat without a great title. Nothing illustrates it better than this recent Target article.

    This is, unfortunately, very true. I written things I thought were just OK and had them blow up because the title was “clever” and then written something I spent days on and it fizzles because the title wasn’t that great.

  • (via Instapaper)

    A new site:

    >Instapaper’s most liked articles, as determined by Twitter.

    Very nice.

  • iOS Permission Dialogs

    Marco Arment:

    >If I asked most careful people if Instapaper could have their location, they’d refuse, because there’s no obvious good reason. But if the app asks right when they enable a location-based setting from a screen that shows why it’s asking for their location, they can make a more educated decision. Similarly, if an app doesn’t seem to have a good reason when it asks for Contacts, a skeptical person can decline.

    I would love to see more developers put thought into when a user sees a dialog so that users can make more educated choices. I am not holding my breath though. ((There are hundreds of great developers, but thousands of developers that are less than great.))

  • ‘OMG iOS is being OS X-ified’

    Jim Dalrymple still isn’t seeing it:

    >You see my point? Apple added these apps to iOS because they made sense for those users. That’s exactly what Apple did with Mountain Lion — added apps and features that made sense for that OS.

    He points out things that clearly came from OS X to iOS. Here’s the problem: OS X came first and iOS is based off of it. So yeah, of course it has elements from OS X. That’s why the above quote proves my point: “added apps and features that made sense for that OS”. Glad we agree.

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 47: Bruce

    >This week Shawn and Ben talk about Flickr, the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, and iMessage notifications.

    Brought to you buy the finest sponsors: [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/) and [Doxie Go](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php).

  • Osfoora for Mac

    A nice Twitter client for the Mac. I have only been using it today and I haven’t stopped using it yet — which is longer than most apps last. I am not sure that it is better than the official Twitter app, but it has some great things going for it, like: Instapaper support, Tweet Marker, etc.. ((The icon is horrid though.))

  • TSA Training Instructor Charged With Bribery

    Michael Hinkelman reporting:

    >Federal prosecutors unsealed bribery charges today against a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) instructor at Philadelphia International Airport.

    The charge:

    >The charging document said that between August and October 2011 Gilliam took a $200 bribe in exchange for ensuring a passing grade on the mandatory, annual certification exam by taking the test for a security officer.

    This is *clearly* way over blown, it’s not like TSA is ‘protecting’ us from terrorism or anything. ((Actually a bigger deal needs to be made of the people working at TSA.))

  • About Gatekeeper

    A great, and thorough, explanation of a new security feature coming to Mountain Lion.

  • Writing Kit for iOS

    Speaking of great iPad text editors, don’t forget about Writing Kit. I was thinking about this the other day and realized that if I had to do all of my writing on the iPad and could only have one of the plethora of writing apps installed on my iPad: Writing Kit would be my choice.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love writing in iA Writer far more than any other app. But the features that Writing Kit offers makes it the best all-in-one writing/research app that I have tried. A lot of that has to do with the previewing and HTML export, but there are also other killer features in the app.

    It’s worth checking out if you like to write on your iPad/iPhone.

  • Phraseology for iPad

    It seems like it has been far too long since I talked about iPad text editors here. Dave Caolo has a nice review of Phraseology and talks about one of it’s most unique features:
    >The Arrange Menu offers drag-and-drop control over the body of your document. Specifically, you can rearrange paragraphs, sentences and line breaks with a swipe. Just grab the handle next to each and drag that element to its new home. The Arrange Menu even shows the word count and character count for every paragraph and sentence. Deleting elements is just as easy; tap the red delete button and they’re gone.

    I don’t remember when or who told me about this app, but it is quite clever in a few areas. Admittedly I am not a fan of writing in it, but I am a fan of editing my documents in it (for those rare times when I do: a) write 100% on my iPad and b) actually edit). It’s worth giving it a look (or just reading Dave’s review) if you are into iPad text editors.

  • Messages Downloads Your Previous Conversations

    David Chartier:
    >In fact, if you’ve previously chatted with someone on your iPhone or iPad with iMessage, then start talking to them in Messages on your Mac, the app will download your previous conversation and begin keeping it in sync with your other devices.

    Not only that but I didn’t open my MacBook Air from 4p yesterday to 6a this morning and all of my iMessage conversations during that time when my Mac was asleep were up on my screen right away in Messages when I opened up my Air. This was at once very weird and also kinda cool.

  • ‘Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser Privacy Settings’

    Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries for *The Wall Street Journal*:

    >To get around Safari’s default blocking, Google exploited a loophole in the browser’s privacy settings. While Safari does block most tracking, it makes an exception for websites with which a person interacts in some way—for instance, by filling out a form. So Google added coding to some of its ads that made Safari think that a person was submitting an invisible form to Google. Safari would then let Google install a cookie on the phone or computer.

    Given all the privacy issues Apple has faced this week, with the address book issues, you have to think they are pissed about this one. This was a pretty self-serving and short-sighted move by Google.

    Can’t wait to see how this one plays out.

  • ”As OS X Mountain Lion Proves, Twitter Is Apple’s Social Network’

    MG Siegler:
    >More importantly, Twitter has now firmly established itself as not just the iOS go-to social service, but Apple’s go-to social service.

    I still can’t believe the level of integration Twitter is getting — but I am glad that it isn’t Facebook.

  • Apple Wins German Injunction Against Most of Motorola’s Slide-to-Unlock Implementations

    Florian Mueller:
    >Today’s ruling and the revelation of this new Microsoft lawsuit show that the noose keeps tightening around Android’s neck in many ways. With more and more patents being asserted against Android in different courts, Google needs to come up with a better way to address its intellectual property issues than possibly trying to reach a state of mutually assured destruction on the basis of FRAND-pledges standard-essential patents, a kind of misconduct that antitrust regulators won’t tolerate because standard-essential patents are a fundamental issue, unlike Google’s desire to get away with infringement.

    The mutual destruction path seems to be where all this is headed for now, but what a win for Apple. I can’t imagine not having “slide-to-unlock” on any touchscreen smartphone.

  • ‘Apple to Take on Windows 8 With OS X Mountain Lion’

    Paul ‘Supersite’ Thurrott on the OS X Mountain Lion release:
    >There were absolutely no rumors to indicate such a release was coming, and given the timing, one can logically assume that Apple is trying to steal some thunder from Microsoft’s eagerly-awaited Windows 8.

    [Apple CEO Tim Cook to the Wall Street Journal](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577226864202052768.html):

    >I don’t really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple

    Who to believe, who to believe…

  • Daring Fireball on Mountain Lion

    John Gruber:
    >And then the reveal: Mac OS X — sorry, OS X — is going on an iOS-esque one-major-update-per-year development schedule.

    That’s going to be great.

    Be sure to read Gruber’s entire post about this — he offers a lot of great insight.

  • OS X Mountain Lion. Innovation Comes Back to the Mac.

    Apple on the new OS X:
    >Messages, Reminders, Notification Center, Twitter, and more. You love them on iPad. Now you’ll love them on your Mac. And with iCloud, they all work better together.

    “Mountain Lion”? Really?

  • Messages Beta

    Say goodbye to iChat and hello to Messages (with support for iMessage).