The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • DuckDuckGo WordPress Search

    Joshua Goodwin has a simple solution for WordPress users that doesn’t use the iFrame method for adding DuckDuckGo site search.

  • ‘Google: Do Yourself a Favor and Just Come Clean Already’

    Sarah Lacy:
    >I’d respect Google more if they came out and said, “This is a change in the way we’ve presented search results in the past and here’s why…” than make another statement trying to throw blame back at Twitter and Facebook. Quibbling and asterisks aren’t going to work, because Google is the one who made the unequivocal statements to begin with. Don’t make this become an issue for anti-trust lawyers, because that’s not the point. This is between you and your users, Google.

  • The New Vimeo

    Fantastic work putting the content first. Well done.

  • ‘iBooks Ideas’

    Great list of the types of books that you could use iBooks Author to create. I think it is the perfect tool for creating modern day cofee table books and travel guides.

    The latter of which I really want to see created.

  • Judge: Americans Can Be Forced to Decrypt Their Laptops

    This is an interesting debate. On one side you have those that feel giving up a password/key to unencrypt a hard drive is no different then being compelled to hand over a key to a safe. On the other side you have those that say it is a violation of our Fifth Ammendment rights.

    I can see both sides of this. I don’t know where I personally stand, but I do believe that this is an incredibly important issue that needs a resolution.

  • DuckDuckGo !Bang

    It appears that a lot of people don’t know about the `!bang` syntax with DuckDuckGo. Take a look at this page for some of the cool things you can do.

    Searching `!amazon airswimmers` will take you to Amazon.com and search it for `airswimmers`. That’s neat, but there’s more.

    Here’s two of my favorites:

    – `!twitter`
    – `!wordpress`

    Give it a look — because it is a killer.

  • DuckDuckGo Search on iOS

    They also have a free, universal, iOS app.

  • Change the Default Safari Search Engine to DuckDuckGo with Safari Omnibar

    Steven Teskey has another method for adding DuckDuckGo to Safari that omnibar lovers will like.

  • ‘Waking Up at 5am to Code’

    Matt Greer on waking up at 5am to work on personal projects (coding in his case) before he heads off for a full day of work (even doing so on the weekends):
    >It’s 5am and I will be also putting in a full day’s work afterwards. Not being stressed out or frustrated during this time is essential. I ensure this by working on truly personal projects that interest me and I have complete control over. I’m only two weeks in but so far no signs of getting worn out, in fact quite the opposite. It’s been pretty invigorating.

    I actually used to do this very thing, only waking up at 5:30a instead. I loved it, but I had to go to bed early enough to be awake at that time — this did not make my wife happy. Now I wake up at 6a and do a bunch of things before work.

    I work with every chance I get, whether for this site or my day job — it’s just a part of my life. Luckily one of those two jobs is something that I can hardly call work.

    Bottom line: mornings are underrated — give them a try.

  • ‘RIM Can’t Save Itself’

    Dan Frommer on RIM’s chances of saving itself:
    >Consider Palm, Motorola, Windows Phone, and other similar comeback efforts — all with arguably better resources and management than RIM. None has succeeded yet, Palm is finished, and Motorola managed to sell itself to Google to help in a patent war.

    Not that I ever thought RIM had a chance, but when you put it like that things *are* bleak for RIM.

  • ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Bookmarklet

    Joel Mathis:
    >Google’s recent move to emphasize results from its own Google+ social networking service is getting some new pushback—in the form of a *Don’t Be Evil* bookmarklet that reorganizes the site’s search results to place more emphasis on other social networks.

    Nice.

  • ‘Translation of New RIM CEO’S Car-Crash Video on YouTube’

    Craig Grannell on the RIM CEO video making the rounds:
    >Unfortunately, your correspondent fell asleep at this point, due to Heins’s relentless monotone, and so we have to guess as to the remainder of the video’s content.

    I didn’t make it past the first 30 seconds.

  • TSA Turns Away Sen. Rand Paul at Airport Checkpoint

    Dana Bash reporting on an incident with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, statement by his father congressman Ron Paul:
    >”One of the ultimate embodiments of this (police state) is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities,” the congressman said in a written statement. “The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe.”

    He set off the body scanner and the TSA wanted to pat him down, he asked to go back through the scanner again — TSA refused. The story’s not interesting, but his statements are certainaly true.

  • Amazon Studios

    Amazon is giving away $1.1 million this year for test movies and movies scripts. They essentially are creating Kindle Singles for movies — except now they are willing to help you out with the cash outlay neede to produce a movie.

    I think this is a fantastic idea, something that Netflix and Hulu should have been already doing.

    From the [FAQ](http://studios.amazon.com/getting-started):

    >Amazon Studios makes money by getting movies made, so while we can’t guarantee it, our goal is to make that happen. To that end, we have established a first-look development deal with Warner Bros., the biggest movie studio in Hollywood.

  • Google’s Distorted Statistics

    Rocky Agrawal:

    >But what concerns me most is that Google is touting these meaningless statistics in the hopes that journalists will misunderstand them and report that Google+ is seeing rapid growth. The bottom line is, those 60 percents, 80 percents and 90 million registered users are just there to mask the fact that Google doesn’t want to tell us how many people are actually using Google+.

    >It’s intellectually dishonest. And as a public company, it raises questions of Google’s intent — the market is watching Google’s moves in social and needs to see traction. I expect better from Google.

    You should read this entire post, because it is a scathing look at how Google and other companies report numbers. The one thing I think Google really screws up are the vague “X devices *activated* this quarter” numbers they release for Android device usage.

    It’s getting harder and harder to keep your head in the sand and trust Google.

  • RIM Downsizes

    From two CEOs, Chairmen of the Board, and COOs to just one CEO and COO — no word on the chairmen situation. ((I’m on pins and needles over here.)) All this in an effort to follow chapter one of thier new iBooks *Business 101* textbook.

  • ‘Bridge to the Future’

    Fraser Speirs:

    >Apple already revolutionized education when it invented the iPad. While iBooks textbooks are a bridge from the past to the future—and we do need a way to get to the future—they are not that future.

    Interesting take on the announcements by Speirs — who might be the most knowledgeable person out there when it comes to using iPads in education.

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 43: My Computer Is Slow This Week

    >This week Shawn and Ben talk about Ben’s meeting avoidance tactics, the snow in Seattle, Jelly Belly jellybean flavors, and what Apple’s iBooks announcements mean for independent writers.

    Big thanks to our sponsor: [Verses](http://kepner.me/versesapp).

  • ‘Too Many Gadget Choices’

    Joshua Topolsky on the plethora of gadget choices presented by companies:

    >For a journalist, it’s daunting — for shoppers, it’s starting to seem impossible.

    And a bit later:

    >As differentiation between like-minded products becomes smaller and smaller, and the market stratifies around specific platforms or standards (iOS and Android in the case of smartphones), buyers seem to be finding the myriad selection distracting or upsetting instead of exciting or enticing. Anyone who’s been in a cellphone shop lately can probably tell you this.

    I agree there are far too many choices out there — particularly in the Android device market. However isn’t another solution — a solution more geared towards what *The Verge* does — to provide solid, [opinionated](https://brooksreview.net/2011/12/failure/), reviews to better help consumer choose?

    There is a real need for companies to slim down their product lines and gain focus on a few great devices, but I also think that white-washing every review of a product, well, tends to not help the situation either.

  • ‘Lumia 900 Introduction to Trigger Smartphone Renaissance for Nokia and Microsoft’

    Wayne Lam for iSuppli:
    >Largely based on Nokia’s strong support, Windows Phone is set to regain the No. 2 rank in the smartphone operating system in 2015. Finnish-based Nokia in 2009 lost its second-place worldwide ranking because of rising competition from Google Inc.’s Android and Apple Inc.’s iOS.

    >In 2015, however, Windows Phone will account for 16.7 percent of the smartphones shipped, up from less than 2 percent in 2011, according to the IHS iSuppli Mobile & Wireless Communications Service at information and analysis provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). This will allow Windows Phone to slightly surpass Apple’s iOS to retake the market’s second rank behind Android, as presented in the table below.

    This is a surprisingly confident statement given that it is a prediction of the mobile market *three years from now*.