The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • The Perfect Twitter iPhone App

    Justin Williams in looking at different iPhone Twitter app clients and has a perfect comment about Tweetbot:
    >I consider Tweetbot to be the best designed Android app available for iOS.

    and:

    >I don’t dislike using Tweetbot, but I certainly don’t enjoy using it either.

    A lot of people ask why I don’t like Tweetbot and the above two statements from Williams are two great starting points for explaining why I don’t care for the app.

    I am with Williams here, there is no perfect Twitter app for me right now. I have tried most of them and still stick with Twitter’s official client — it’s not perfect — but it’s far better than everything else out there.

  • ‘Pilot Pricing’

    Peter Kafka on the iBookstore textbooks:
    >All of that assumes that the book pricing stays at $15. After Apple’s event, McGraw-Hill executives repeatedly used the phrase “pilot pricing” to describe their near-term plans. And they told me that they have the ability to change the price when and if they want.
    >But when I posed the same question to Apple media boss Eddy Cue just now, I got a much different response. “This isn’t pilot pricing,” he said. “All of our books will be $14.99.”

    Sounds to me like Apple isn’t budging from the $14.99 pricing, but the McGraw-Hill, for one, is willing to walk away if that pricing doesn’t work out. ((Of course they may try to negotiate a new price with Apple, but we know how stubborn Apple can be.))

  • Mac App Store – iBooks Author

    Write, design, and publish your own ebooks to the iBookstore — for free. I’m excited.

  • xScope 3

    It’s badass:
    >Easily view the contents of any Mac desktop window on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

    xScope is a fantastic tool and it just got better, much better.

  • TMS Broadcast to the World via iPad

    Iain Broome talking about *Test Match Special*:
    >And today, during three hours of radio wave blackout in Dubai, it was broadcast around the globe via nothing but an iPad and Skype. By a bunch of old blokes. Now that’s incredible.

    That is incredible.

    **Update:** [*The Guardian* has the story too](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/19/bbc-test-match-special-ipad), with comments from the commentators…

  • John Gruber on the Scope of Apple’s Education Initiative

    Gruber:
    >I’m guessing Apple’s pitch to the textbook companies is something like this: “Digital transformation of your industry is inevitable. Here’s our plan; we’d like you to come along for the ride. But if you choose not to, we won’t hesitate to leave you behind.”

    The nice thing about that pitch is that Apple can resuse it.

  • ‘Pivot’

    Jenna Wortham trying to explain what it means to ‘pivot’ in business:

    >To pivot is, essentially, to fail gracefully.

    *Strike One.*

    >“Ideas are like lightning in a bottle, so if the company is small enough and didn’t seem to capture lightning on their first try, it makes sense to try again,” said Ben Horowitz, one of the founders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

    *Strike Two.*

    >Sometimes a pivot is necessary when the pace of Internet evolution has made a start-up’s original plan obsolete.

    *Strike Three.*

    The sad thing is, Wortham actually got it right before trying to sugar coat the term:

    >Theirs is just one example of a start-up that decided to cut its losses and pivot — choosing an entirely new direction in the hopes of transforming a dud of a business into one that might have a shot at success.

    *Home run.*

    Pivoting is just a face-saving way of saying: “our idea was shit.”

  • The Hidden Danger of Touchscreens

    Franklin Tessler, M.D., C.M:
    >Currently, the main unique problem with touchscreen keyboards is their lack of tactile feedback. Unlike mechanical keys, which move and offer resistance, virtual keys don’t react when they’re pressed. As a work-around, manufacturers typically let you turn on audible key clicks, but that’s not always effective, particularly in noisy surroundings. As a result, says Hedge, users strike virtual keys with as much as eight times the force as they tap real ones — and all that force puts strain on your fingers, wrist, and forearm.

    I’ve seen this many times. Personally I don’t think I strike touchscreen keys very hard at all, but I doubt I am the majority case. I will say that the most evident cases of “over pressing” is among the older users — as far as I have seen.

    Because of that, I am not sure that this is a problem in dire need of solving. As touch screens become more prevalent we become more accustomed to them — and thus will ease off on the pressure we apply to software keys.

    At least I would think…

    [via David Zax]

  • Doxie 2.1

    Doxie has released version 2.1 of its Mac software [that adds OCR functionality and a better icon](http://www.getdoxie.com/resources/files/release_notes.txt). Not sure when this was released, but I just caught it yesterday.

    **Update:** I can confirm that the OCR now works (though you have to plug your Doxie Go into your Mac to activate the setting) and that the application icon is vastly better.

  • ‘Learn How to Set Up iCloud on All Your Devices.’

    An Apple support page for installing iCloud on Windows. Looks to me like it doesn’t sync the Documents and Data over, but all other items it does. ((Naturally no back to my mac either.)) I didn’t realize this utility was out there.

    *This is an update to my [previously linked item](https://brooksreview.net/2012/01/short-sighted/).*

    [via email from reader Terry Thiel]

  • Short Sighted Look at iCloud

    Paul Asselin: ((Also kudos for using Calepin.co, but no byline is annoying — I wonder if this is a Calepin.co limitation?))
    >iCloud is unpractical and reserved for the Mac addict that never touches any other computer.

    He’s pissed that Apple didn’t make a Windows compatible cloud environment. I think this is a pretty short sighted look at iCloud. When and where iCloud works it is a fantastic service — leaps and bounds better than Dropbox. However Apple is still working out some rather large “hiccups” with the system.

    I don’t think it is fair to write off iCloud just yet — my best guess is that once it is working perfectly on the Mac, Apple will begin to explore ways to give Windows users some sort of access.

    And as far as this statement goes:

    >Apple would gain so much love if it just open sourced everything.

    They may gain love from geeks, but certainly not from investors — look no further than what Amazon did with Android. That is all the reason Apple needs to steer clear of such a path.

    **Update**: Looks like the post was removed, luckily [Google has a cached page here](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:a8L_ytkIatgJ:asselinpaul.calepin.co/Apple%2520is%2520flawed.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us). The article has been replaced with a similar, but [different post](http://asselinpaul.calepin.co/the-failure-of-airdrop.html). ((A post I still disagree with.))

  • ‘Tablet Computers Take Wait Out of Waiting Tables’

    Interesting story of adopting tablets in restaurants to allow patrons to order things for themselves, pay, and stay entertained. I can’t help but to think that this is more of a stopgap than a solution.

    Wouldn’t the better solution just be to have an app, or web app, that users pull up on their phone? That is: why should a restaurant pay to provide the hardware that most are already carrying with them?

    I would guess that most restaurants could get away with only carrying a few tablets for those that don’t own a smartphone — and provide an app (likely one made by another company specifically for restaurant).

  • ‘Dropbox Inventor Determined to Build the Next Apple or Google’

    Jessica Guynn, reporting for the Los Angeles Times, has this quote from, Dropbox founder and CEO, Drew Houston:
    >”People may know us today as the magic folder on their desktop or the app on their phone. But we see ourselves as building the Internet’s file system,” he said.

    The story paints Dropbox as an amazing service (which it is), but also seems to think that its biggest competition is from things like Apple’s iCloud service — which is wrong.

    In truth iCloud will never rival Dropbox because it isn’t built to work on everything, everywhere. No, I think the biggest problem Dropbox faces is the trend of hiding the file system. What good is Dropbox if you never see your files?

    More specifically, if your only computers are an iPad and iPhone — Dropbox is significantly less valuable and relevant to you. That’s why the bit I quoted from the article worries me so much.

  • ‘Quite a Conundrum’

    John Battelle:

    >Some dude I don’t know posted it to Google+, I clicked through to his post (gaining Google another pageview), then clicked through the video to YouTube. That’s lame. That’s not a Googley search experience.

    And then a bit later:

    >Seems a bit off. Seems like Google is taking the first click away from me and directing it to a Google service.

    As I said to Shawn the other day (more or less): “Google is the one company where I don’t feel good about using their products, but I have a really hard time not using their products.”

  • ‘On the Behavior of the iPhone Mute Switch’

    Andy Ihnatko on the iPhone mute switch:

    >If I forgot to unmute my phone after a movie, I’m a dumbass. But if my iPhone makes noise during the movie despite the fact that I’d deliberately chosen to silence it, I can only conclude that the dumbasses in this equation reside about 3,000 miles west of here.

    I disagree here and think (along with [Gruber](http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/iphone_mute_switch_design))that the iPhone mute switch works perfectly as is.

    My reason is simple: when I go to bed at night, I want to know that my alarm will wake me, but that my drunk friends won’t.

  • Seattle Against SOPA

    If you are in Seattle, show your support:
    >On January 18th, in conjunction with blackouts of websites all over the web, we will be having several large events in Seattle.

  • Thurrott On Apple’s Target Plans

    Paul Thurrott on Apple’s deal with Target:

    >Oh good, I was just thinking that what this country needs is more Apple Stores. I have an idea: Rather than build all this crap, why doesn’t Apple just unilaterally make each of its products available for 25 percent less than the current selling price? It would save money, raise market share, and benefit the millions of people who can’t actually afford all this stuff to begin with.

    I would guess he has the same advice for Microsoft since they too are opening stores, and [plan to open a lot of them](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/steve-ballmer-reboots-01122012.html)?

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 42: Baby Technology

    >This week Shawn and Ben talk about the future life of a being a dad, headphones, some follow-up to last week’s show, iPhone photography and videography, Google’s percieved evilness, and a person’s decision making ability. There is also one more thing.

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

  • TSA Air Marshal Arrested for Stealing Boston Occupier’s iPhone

    Quinn Norton:
    >TSA air marshal Adam Marshall was arrested by the Boston police department at 3:50 a.m. on December 10 after he allegedly argued with members of Occupy, called some of them prostitutes, struck one of Occupy’s organizers and main Tweeters in the face, grabbed her iPhone and then fled.

    This guy is allowed to carry a loaded weapon on an airplane — you know — to protect it.

  • Fotoshop by Adobé

    “Even adjust your race.”