The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Malls Track Shoppers’ Cellphone Signals to Gather Marketing Data

    Sean Gallagher:
    >The technology, from Portsmouth, England-based Path Intelligence, is called Footpath. It uses monitoring units distributed throughout a mall or retail environment to sense the movement of customers by triangulation, using the strength of their cellphone signals. That data is collected and run through analytics by Path, and provided back to retailers through a secure website.

    Apparently the service can then use the data to create a heatmap of the store. While creepy, this is also pretty cool.

    Also: time to bust out the tinfoil hats.

  • How I Roll When I Fly

    If you have a minute I would love to know what you do when you are told to turn off electronics while flying.

    *(There’s a bonus question about the lame things you have been told for the reasons behind having to turn off electronics. I’ll post the best answers later this week.)*

  • Apple Store Employees Use App to Locate Shoppers Picking Up Online Purchases

    Nathan Ingraham:
    >It shows the customer on a map of the store so employees can find them and deliver their purchase, ideally without the customer ever having to ask for help.

    Now *that* is cool. Relatedly: a bit freaky.

    More importantly I want to know how they get the location inside the store that accurate. Google maps has a hard enough time telling one street corner from another.

  • The Degrading State of Common Sense

    Kristina Grifantini:
    >Researchers at Dartmouth College and the University of Bologna in Italy have developed an Android app that uses the camera on a smart phone to detect oncoming traffic.

    It isn’t amazing that this possible, it *is* amazing that we see a need for such a thing.

  • Red Glow

    Well here’s a reason for shutting off electronics in flight, from Anna Leach:
    >An iPhone caused a small emergency in an Australian airplane after it inexplicably started to glow red and emit “significant amounts of dense smoke” as the craft touched down in Sydney airport.

    Check out the picture in [this pdf](http://www.regionalexpress.com.au/MediaRelease/Files/295_MR20111125%20-%20Mobile%20Phone%20Self%20Combustion.pdf).

  • The Why

    This statement from Marco Arment rings so true:
    >His father has many good reasons not to switch, and I don’t understand any of them.

    Marco’s talking about the feeling of banging your head into a wall that you get when you try to “help” people with their technology problems. I too stopped long ago trying to help anyone because most of the time I just don’t understand why they are doing things the way that they are — and more importantly don’t care to understand why.

    #### Another short story ####

    I grew up working construction for my father’s company. I am now a property manager and a licensed real estate broker. When it comes to just about any home repair I either know how to repair it, or I have a “buddy” who could do it for me, likely for close to free. It’s a “perk” of my job.

    These are things you may not know about me and it really doesn’t matter.

    I rent my current place and you would think that given my background and current profession that I would never need to call my landlord to have a repair done — that’d be a wrong thought.

    Nothing has occurred other than A/C troubles that I couldn’t fix myself, but I usually always make the landlord come and fix stuff and while I play dumb with the repairman. ((The only exception is if I need it done now and don’t care to wait. That and toilet issues: they are so easy to fix I don’t see making someone waste money on a plumber.)) The reason is the same as why I play dumb with technology: I don’t care to learn why things are being done the way they are, because those things will likely always look “wrong” to me.

    If it’s not something that I own, then I want the person who does own it to make the call on how something is fixed because at the end of the day I don’t know the why and don’t care to know it.

  • How Many iOS Devices Will Be Sold in 2012?

    A great look at what iOS device sales could be in 2012 by Horace Dediu. The interesting thing here is that he is expecting the sales in 2012 to be close to the same amount of devices that are *already* in the market. Read that again.

    You know that app you have been trying to launch? Time to do it.

  • Shawn Blanc on Stamped

    Mr. Blanc has a great sentence on how one should think of Stamped:
    >What Twitter is to status updates, Stamped is to our favorite things in life.

    He also has two great criticisms of the app, things that I fully agree with. I didn’t realize they were using Affiliate links for things that can link to, that alone maybe enough to sustain the app.

  • [SPONSOR] Doxie Go — Now Shipping

    Doxie Go is the tiny, cordless scanner that scans anywhere — no computer required. Doxie’s elegant Mac software makes it easy to go paperless.

    Doxie creates create searchable PDFs you can save and share — save scans to your desktop, add them to your iPhone or iPad’s photo roll (and therefore to iCloud), send to Evernote, or simply keep your scans in Doxie’s app and recycle all that cluttered paper.

    This holiday season, give the gift of organization. Now available on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053TRH2M/tag=brooksreview-20) and [direct from the manufacturer](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/tbr_nov11-2.php).

    *(Editors note: I will have a review of this product up in just a little bit.)*

  • Fliers Still Must Turn Off Devices, but It’s Not Clear Why

    Nick Bilton on the antiquated rules for fliers:
    >Surely if electronic gadgets could bring down an airplane, you can be sure that the Department of Homeland Securityand the Transportation Security Administration, which has a consuming fear of 3.5 ounces of hand lotion and gel shoe inserts, wouldn’t allow passengers to board a plane with aniPad or Kindle, for fear that they would be used by terrorists.

    I don’t disagree with him, but I feel like trying to change this rule is akin to banging your head against a concrete wall with steel reinforcements.

  • Dave Winer: Why I Use the Kindle Fire

    Winer has liked the Fire since the day he got it. Taking a look through his points I get the sense that there are two main things that he likes:

    1. The smaller size. That’s a real plus of the device because it *is* easier to have at the ready and to use when trying to hold the device from extended periods without support (reading, movies).
    2. That the little issues the device has will go away in updates.

    While I disagree with the first reason, I can completely see how it is appealing for many people — just not me. I prefer a bigger screen over the smaller screen.

    Lastly the second reason is kinda crazy. You are banking on liking the device *if and when* Amazon does something to make it better. I am just not sure the jerky animations will every be a software fix and I think that goes for a lot of the issues that I have with the Fire — including the lack of a volume hardware button.

    I think it is more likely that the Fire 2.0 looks way better.

    One last note: Winer said that he still uses the iPad for Words with Friends, Email, and web browsing but doesn’t know why. I do, well for two of them:

    1. The keyboard on the Fire sucks for writing, also the email client sucks.
    2. The web browser on the Fire is terrible, not so on the iPad.

    What he still uses the iPad for are things that the iPad is simply better for.

  • Reading Magazines on the iPad

    Justin Williams:
    >I’m convinced that the people who actually write for magazines, edit them and publish them have never actually tried using their iPad versions for more than a few moments. If they actually did try to use their publication’s app as the actual means to read each issue, things would have to improve. Right? RIGHT?!

    I agree with most of his complaints because the only thing worse than Magazines on the iPad is Magazines on the Kindle Fire. I also mostly agree with his suggested fixes.

    The best way to bring a magazine to an iPad is to not try and replicate the paper magazine reading experience.

  • Justin Blanton on Dark Sky

    He gets it:
    >Just before both of these trips it struck me that the information Dark Sky provides—precise weather predictions for the immediate future—is exactly what I’d need before setting out on these (and similar) outings in the future.

    I think it takes a bit to understand just why this weather app *is* different, but one you do understand it you really want it.

  • The Jawbone UP Fails, but Teaches 3 Golden Rules for Experience Design

    Cliff Kuang on the Jawbone UP:
    >As is, the UP introduces just enough friction into the process that it never quite melds into your routines. Simply having to take the wristband off, uncap the end piece, plug it into your phone, load up the UP app, and then have it synch means that it becomes another chore–rather than a new feature of your constant dialogue with your smartphone.

    This is a really great take. I am currently testing out the Fitbit (which he also mentions) and find that he hits on a lot of problems that I see in both devices — mostly that it has certain friction points that make it less interactive than it needs to be.

  • The Demise of Quality Content on the Web

    Rian van der Merwe on the lack of quality content on the web:

    >I don’t know where we go from here. I just know that I’ve stopped reading sites that cater more for advertisers than for me as a reader.

    That’s a noble thing to say, but I have found it really hard to do in practice — mainly because there are some great writers on terrible ad-centric sites.

  • Ulysses on Sale

    Fifty percent off [one of my favorite](https://brooksreview.net/2010/11/writing-tools/) long form writing apps ($9.99) in the Mac App Store until the 28th of November.

  • MacStoriesDeals: Black Friday 2011 Edition

    Huge round up of discounted software for iOS and Mac.

  • +PACK

    Two new accessories for the [Glif](https://brooksreview.net/2010/12/glif-review/), a ring to attach it to you keychain, and a little bit of extra security when you are shooting on a tripod. *Ordered*.

  • Daedalus Touch for iPad 66% Off

    Daedalus Touch is a pretty neat little writing app for the iPad. You can get it today for 66% off (only $1.99). This might appeal to those that find iA Writer too simple, and those that are writing a project. Best to watch the demo video [here](http://www.the-soulmen.com/daedalus/).

    It’s a nice app.

  • AgileBits Thanks-to-You Sale

    Fifty percent off 1Password this weekend. This is a must have app for me.