The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 40: The Last Show of 2011

    My cats fight a little in this episode, so that’s an added bonus for everyone. We talk about the past year and the coming year as well as site redesigns and using iPads with keyboards.

  • Tweet of the Day: @Harrymccracken

    “When Verizon says it won’t charge $2 for online payments, it’s saying it’ll get $2 out of you in some less obvious manner. Some victory.”
    — Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) December 30, 2011

  • Verizon Says It’s Scrapping $2 Online-Payment Fee

    CNN:
    >Verizon Wireless said it will scrap proposed $2 fee for one-time payments, citing “customer feedback.”

    Just what did they think the “customer feedback” would be? Joy?

  • Automate Your Dropbox

    It’s like ifttt for Dropbox. There’s actually some pretty neat things that it can do too.

  • bitpocket

    Roll your own Dropbox using the extra storage on any server you have SSH access to.

  • Insync, Dropbox Like Syncing, Not the Band

    Jon Russell:
    >Shortly after loading, it will request access to your Google account, from which it creates a new ‘Dropbox’ folder which contains physical copies of all the files on your Google Docs account. The rest is easier, as Insync updates your Google Docs account with any changes you make to the files on your PC or Mac.

    This solves the biggest problem I had with Google Docs, nice.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: SOG Twitch II Knife

    My little sister and her boyfriend gave me this knife for Christmas and I love it. It’s my new everday carry knife. It feels fantastic, is a bit bigger than my other carry, but very slim. It is heavier though, yet I don’t mind that.

    It also opens faster than any other knife I have ever owned. I find it quite nice too look at and to hold.

    What a great gift.

  • Missing the Point

    Peter Burrows penned a post basically urging Apple to start licensing patents to Android handset makers and thus begin to make more money. He says repeatedly that Apple won’t be able to stop Android devices from being sold and thus their attempts to do so are futile.

    I say Burrows is completely missing the point. ((Shocking, I know.))

    It’s pretty clear to everyone that Steve Jobs had one goal: stop Android from ripping off Apple patents. Largely referred to as “copying”. With Jobs gone you have to consider how on board Cook and the board of Apple are with that plan — and I think a reasonable assumption is that they are on board for now.

    So we know the goal and the people in charge seem to back that goal. The plan is self-evident: lawsuits.

    That just leaves the *why*.

    Why does Apple care about this? If they only cared because they feel like they should be getting paid, then yes licensing is the best option — but it seems pretty damned clear that is not the why as Apple sees it.

    I don’t know the why here, but if I had to guess I would say that Apple only wants users to have an iOS experience on an iOS device. And if that is the why, then licensing doesn’t solve a damned thing.

  • Verizon Wireless To Charge You To Conveniently Pay Your Bill

    Marguerite Reardon:
    >Verizon Wireless plans to charge subscribers a new $2 fee every time they pay their wireless bills online or directly over the phone.

    Can you hear me *now*?

  • ‘The Social Networks’

    Justin Williams on how he views his website/blog as a social network:

    >I consider this site to be the landing ground for everything that I consider most important. I publish the content I care most about here because I own every pixel of the experience. It is also a great launchpad to push fine readers like yourself to other areas of the Internet that I frequent or want to share.

    I never thought about this site acting as a “social network”, but after reading this I can’t help but to say: “ditto”.

  • ‘The Infographic Plague Is Just Laziness’

    Well said, but I don’t get the thinking that you should grab an infographic and upload it to your site and post it on your site. That seems trashy to me when a link to the infographics original post is far more beneficial for the entire Internet.

    Then again I never undertsood the “more pageviews!!!!” mentality.

  • Japan Gets Wi-Fi Dispensing Vending Machines

    Serkan Toto for Aol on new Japanese beverage vending machines that come equipped with free WiFi:
    >After logging in, users will see various location-specific information on the home screen, for example on local stores, or sightseeing spots.

    Seem ridiculous to most I am sure, but there are *a lot* of vending machines in Japan — and from what I have expereinced of the culture this will probably work out well for Asahi.

  • ‘Family Apple’

    Hugh Sissling:
    >In 3 years, Apple has made and sold us 19 products, all of which throughout the family are considered some of the best purchases they have made.

    The incredible thing about this story: it doesn’t seem that uncommon anymore.

    This holiday weekend was pretty comical to me because every time someone got a text message everyone checked their phones — because everyone has an iPhone with the same text-tone. More surprising is that no one asked me which phone or computer to get — they just wanted to know which iPad to get and if they should wait for the *next* iPad.

  • ‘I Might Get a Wireless Keyboard’

    David Chartier shares a great “post-pc” story.

  • Fixing GoDaddy

    Dave Winer on fixing GoDaddy:

    >They must change their company so that their support of SOPA could not have happened.

  • Subscribing to The New York Times

    Khoi Vinh on his attempt to renew his *New York Times* subscription:
    >The total customer experience here is haphazard at best, and, at worst — I hate to say this because I am still friendly with many people at the company, but in truth there’s no way around it — it’s insulting. It shows a certain amount of disrespect to customers for a company to choose not to present a full accounting of available offers, displayed plainly and in an easy-to-compare chart, so that anyone can fully understand all of the options and decide quickly.

    I think the NYT is a great publication, but their site, pricing, and so forth all seems to disregard what I really want: great writing and reporting.

  • ‘The Windows Phone Problem In Three Words: Way Too Late’

    MG Siegler on why Windows Phone hasn’t taken off:

    >Two to three years in the hole, the only way Windows Phone can win the market now is to make a product that is leaps and bounds better than what’s out there. They need something that’s an iPhone-in-2007 type product. The product they have, while good, isn’t that.

    That’s actually the best explanation I have seen as to why a seemingly better-than-Android OS hasn’t taken off in the market — they were just too late and now they need a game changer to get back in it.

  • More GoDaddy Ridiculousness

    From what I read yesterday it sounds like GoDaddy was working its hijinks to try its best to slow down the waves of domains being transferred out. As of today it sounds like they have given up on that “tactic”, but why would you want to stay with them now?

  • Tests Cast Doubt on F.A.A. Restrictions on Kindle and iPad

    Nick Bilton:

    >The F.A.A. and other groups seem to be running out of reasons we can’t use digital e-readers on planes during takeoff and landing. Maybe their next response will be: “Because I said so!”

    Isn’t that the current reasoning? ((We are being told what to do by idiots, I swear.))

  • ‘By keeping an unlawful feature, Google will disadvantage HTC, rile Apple, and alienate the ITC’

    Florian Mueller:

    >I believe everyone will agree that Google’s related policy must […] as a matter of good citizenship (also known as “corporate social responsibility”) respect the law and the institutions tasked with interpreting and enforcing it.

    >You know, “don’t be evil”.

    How many times has Google’s mantra comeback to bite it in the ass compared to the amount of times it has helped to garner the trust of, well, anyone?