The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Just Give It a Yank

    Wired.com on how to find and remove a GPS tracker from your car:
    >Just get under your car and look around. If you see a black box, give it a yank. If it comes free, it’s probably not factory-installed. Even if you’re not sure what a normal car underside looks like, a surveillance device is going to look out of place.

    I was really pumped to read this (admittedly paranoid) article, but come on — all the different options Wired gives readers are pretty pathetic. I am going to go ahead and recommend that you not climb under your car and start yanking on things.

  • How Tablets Change Our Computer Usage

    Nielsen Wire:
    >When asked whether they used other connected devices more often or less often since purchasing a tablet, 35 percent of tablet owners who also owned a desktop computer reported using their desktop less often or not at all, while 32 percent of those who also owned laptops, said they used their laptop less often or never since acquiring a tablet. Twenty-seven percent of those who also own eReaders said they use their eReader less often or not at all – the same percentage as those who also own portable media players. One-in-four tablet owners who own portable games consoles are using those devices less often, if at all, since purchasing a tablet.

    I have noticed this with my usage. My wife though — she seems unchanged.

  • Laptop size, weight, and power

    Marco makes some great points about carry weights and being practical about what your laptop “needs” are. Also, be sure to read Marco’s first footnote — while I don’t agree, that doesn’t mean he is wrong.

  • Apple, ARM, Intel

    Chris Foresman:
    >With no clear performance or efficiency benefit derived from moving to ARM, it doesn’t seem likely Apple will be ditching Intel wholesale for its notebooks, even two years from now. However unlikely, though, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple won’t use ARM processors for future Mac-like computers.

    If this move happens it’s only going to be for low-end Macs, but even then keep this in mind:

    >Effectively, Intel could make a 22nm clone of Sandy Bridge processors with identical performance at close to 50 percent of the power requirements. Imagine the performance of today’s MacBook Pro with something like double the battery life—there’s a lot more to it than just the CPU power requirements, but you get the idea.

    Hello new MacBook Air.

  • Tablets and Doorstops

    Philip Greenspun:
    >Not useful as a computer; too light to serve as a doorstop.
    >My friend has not asked for the tablet back (he got it for free at a conference).

    [Looks like I wasn’t *too* far off](https://brooksreview.net/2010/09/playbook-prototype/).

    [via DF]

  • #1 in Boring

    It should come as a surprise to no one that I abhor meetings. Peter Bregman hits on a great point:

    >PowerPoint presentations inevitably end up as monologues. They focus on answers, and everyone faces the screen. But meetings should be conversations. They should focus on questions, not answers, and people should face each other. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve found that even the hum of the projector discourages dialogue.

    There are two types of meetings in my book:

    1. Colossal wastes of time.
    2. Super productive and inspiring.

    The problem is that #1 happens 90% of the time. Running a good meeting is simple:

    – Know what you need to convey.
    – Know what you want the end result of the meeting to be.
    – All attendees should know the above information *before* the meeting.

    Good luck.

  • Saving USPS

    So Google and other executives that know nothing about mail delivery and mostly just about advertising are getting together to talk USPS and see what they can think of doing to save it.

    Ed O’Keefe notes:
    >USPS anticipates losing about $7 billion during the fiscal year that ends in September and is in the process of eliminating 7,500 postmaster and administrative positions to save money.

    There is a glaringly obvious solution here: raise postage prices. It is awesome that I can send a physical piece of paper from Seattle to New York for less than 50 cents, but that is also absurdly (and obviously unsustainably) cheap. Charge me $5 and we solve a bunch of problems.

    1. Less junk mail means mail is more meaningful.
    2. Higher revenues.
    3. A little thing called “covering costs”.
    4. Less mail sent means less paper used, which in turn is better for the environment.

    I know this is overly simplified and that it would result in a lot of jobs lost — honestly though, no matter what you think, this is the only way to keep the USPS from being taxpayer funded — at a loss.

  • Why User Privacy is Bad for Google / Facebook

    Matthew Lasar:
    >But whatever you think about this issue, the letter shines light on the degree to which Facebook and Google not only identify with advertising companies, but see themselves as such companies.

  • Mac App Store Sales

    A tale of 11 downloads after one day in the #6 spot for your category in the Mac App Store. Those are some surprisingly low sales numbers. I would say that part of this is aided by the fact that it is an odd app that most can’t use, but it passed things like BBEdit and Coda.

    This leaves me to think that Apple’s algorithm is not what most think it is for determining rank. My bet is that when you have a sudden surge of downloads (relative to your app), you start moving up in anticipation of more downloads.

    Still, 11 sales seems pretty low.

  • The B&B Podcast Episode 10

    For this installment Shawn reports live from Hawaii on coffee and Pineapples. We also talk Mac OS X Lion, Mac App Store, writing bad reviews, and Shawn’s next computer purchase.

    Thanks very much to [Fontcase](http://bohemiancoding.com/fontcase) for sponsoring the episode.

  • “Just Hold it Naked”

    Devir Kahan:
    >If you have an iPhone and use a case, take it off for a second. Just hold it ‘naked’ for a second, and remember how it’s supposed to feel.

    I would also add: now throw away your case that you spent $30 on for no reason.

  • More on eBook Pricing

    Fraser Speirs:
    >I don’t care and don’t want to have to care about the internal structure of your industry and the value chain and who pays for what when. If it doesn’t feel like a good deal, then no deal.

    Also see his graph for his perceived value of each type of book as I think it gets at the heart of the problem.

  • Thunder Sync

    MG Siegler:
    >Long story short, I’d bet on a big Thunderbolt strike before a full-on ascension by Apple into the cloud for syncing. Google, I suspect, may continue to go the other way. And the two sides will have a new talking point for their war: sync speed versus sync anywhere.

    That’s a pretty safe bet.

  • Arguing for ‘Business Class’ News

    Oliver Reichenstein:
    >Reading news online feels like flying Economy. Loud distracting banners, cheap stock picture material, sloppy typography, a lot of useless comment noise, machine generated reading tips, no human service, and a claustrophobic information design make the reading experience a torture.

    If you are at all interested in shaping news on the web then this is a must read. To answer the question at the end, I’d pay $49 per year for the NYT laid out as described — actually it would be great with just his mock up.

  • MacBook Air SSD Upgrades

    The pricing here is crazy considering the minimal speed gain you get. Sure the drives can be larger, but those prices need to, and should, come down.

  • Streaming Videos to Your Tablet While You Fly

    A nice touch by American Airlines allowing its customers to buy and stream movies to their devices over WiFi. Now, what’s the pricing on that?

  • TomTom Oh Boy

    Jim Travers:

    >In the video, TomTom CEO Harold Goodijn stresses that the tracking of its devices is voluntary and that customers can choose not to allow it.
    and:
    >TomTom says the company has provided this data to police departments and other authorities to help them identify congested areas for safety reasons and to help determine where road capacity needs to be increased. Mr. Goodijn says TomTom had been unaware Dutch police were using the data to choose locations for speed traps and that the company would prevent that type of usage in the future.

    Correct me if I am wrong, but here’s how the above basically reads: “I mean, look, these people asked for the location data and so we gave it to them. It’s not like we *knew* what they were going to do with that data. Look, if users really cared — then why’d they leave the tracking feature turned on? Here’s what I am going to do, I am going to go down and tell cops that they can’t use our data in that way. No, I will still sell them the data, but I will amend the ToS for the usage.”

    Yeah — you get the picture.

  • Keeping it Straight

    Patrick Rhone has a new book out called *Keeping it Straight*. I had the privilege of getting an advance copy of the book to read and read I did. I maybe read two books in the last year — this was one of them. I don’t know what you will get out of the book, but for me I got a tangible benefit: a trunk full of items that went to Goodwill.

    Again that’s not what the book is about, but it did cause me to start cleaning my desk (again). From there I started cleaning everything and eventually I was starring at bags of garbage and piles of items to donate. It felt great. I can’t wait to read the book again and see what happens.

    Randy Murray says:

    >Patrick offers the ‘Why’ to GTD’s ‘How.

    I can see that.

  • eBook Pricing

    Nik Fletcher:
    >The item you’re selling has to be priced relative to any physical predecessor. No, really: when you’re supplying a digital copy in place of a book with substantial printing costs, we’re going to question why we need to pay a premium when there’s lower costs associated with the production of said item. The idea that a user should pay a premium for the ‘convenience’ or ‘privilege’ of a digital copy is laughable, and will simply disenchant users who feel penalised by this premium.

    This is one of those posts that I was nodding along in agreement with the entire time I read it.

  • White iPhone 4, Not Fat

    Mike Gikas:
    >But when we compared a white iPhone 4 with a black iPhone 4 in our Yonkers, NY, lab using high-quality calipers, we found they were both the same thickness (0.37 inches). T

    I can only imagine how pissed *Consumer Reports* was that they couldn’t put another red mark on the iPhone 4 by claiming inconsistent sizing — must have been seriously depressing for them.

    I’m just glad someone (finally) took the time to measure the thicknesses before proclaiming that two devices are not the same size.