An awesome look at a lot of computer interfaces used in movies — no analysis, just a boat load of screenshots.
[via Coudal]
Category: Links
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Creepy iPhone 4 FaceTime Bug
MrGQ in the Apple discussion board on the FaceTime bug:
>I am experiencing the exact same issue recently. Most notably just minutes ago when i called my GF and i saw a “picture” of myself from today when i was at the office. I know it was from today because i had the exact same shirt. The weirdest thing is that picture is not stored on my iphone.You may be thinking that, while this is weird, it isn’t that creepy. Nasetron adds the creepy though:
>Some of the images that have been coming up on mine are from times and places when I know without a doubt that I haven’t been using facetime.
Luckily it seems the images are not being shown to any one but the iPhone owner — but still, why is it taking these pictures at all?
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iAds
MG Siegler reporting the tagline for Apple’s new app that let’s you see a gallery of ads:
>Great ads. On-demand. In your pocket.
That’s messed up, what’s even more messed up is how many of us will download this.
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Dropped… Hello?
Chris Foresman on an iPhone survey about customer satisfaction:
>That doesn’t mean users on Verizon don’t see at least one significant benefit: fewer dropped calls. Verizon iPhone 4 users reported a dropped call rate of 1.8 percent. AT&T iPhone 4 users, in contrast, had a dropped call rate of 4.8 percent—more than double that of Verizon iPhone 4 users.What’s interesting about this is not that it is telling us what we already knew about AT&T, but that dropped calls don’t seem to have anything to do with the iPhone 4 antenna position. 1.8% for Verizon is nothing — nothing.
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Short Sleepers
Melinda Beck:
>Out of every 100 people who believe they only need five or six hours of sleep a night, only about five people really do, Dr. Buysse says. The rest end up chronically sleep deprived, part of the one-third of U.S. adults who get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, according to a report last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I am no short sleeper and am very much a morning person. Yet, I see the same thing that the WSJ is reporting here — many people thinking they do need less sleep than what they truly need. Funny thing is this last bit in the article:
>Nowadays, some short sleepers gravitate to fields like blogging, videogame design and social media, where their sleep habits come in handy.
Some people, in an already tiny group, gravitate towards these professions — just found that irrelevant and funny to include.
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More on Mr. Reader
Justin Blanton:
>On balance, I think it’s a solid release, especially for this category of app, which inevitably generates a lot of criticism from us ‘power’ users, because it’s something we use all day, every day. The developer appears to be rather responsive, so I’m expecting great things in the future, and am sure that most of the app’s larger issues (most notably, instability) will be attended to in short order.It is a very solid release — but it doesn’t feel as elegant as the iPad itself does, thus a mismatch that I hate. Also Justin pointed out that I was wrong about a scrolling point in my quip about the app, I have since updated the [original post](https://brooksreview.net/2011/04/quick-takes-on-five-apps-7/) to reflect my wrongness. ((Thanks for that Justin.))
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In the Year 2015 Smart Phones Will Be Android and Windows Phone 7 Only — IDC Claims
Matthew Shaer reporting news from IDC ((IDC stands for Idiotic Data Center, FYI.)) analyst Ramon Llamas, news Shaer surely can’t believe:
>And by 2015 – just four years away – Windows Phone will be the second most popular OS in the world, Llamas added, right behind the Android OS.I can’t wait.
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Empty Threats
Georgina Prodhan reporting for Reuters about the Financial Times not wanting to use Apple’s iOS subscription service:
>He said he was hopeful of a positive outcome to negotiations with Apple, but added: “If it turns out that one or another channel doesn’t mix with the way we want to do business, there’s a large number of other channels available to us.”
>He added: “We have a great relationship with Apple.”Whereby ‘other channels’ he clearly means the PlayBook — wait that’s not shipping — must just be Android then. Because we [all know those users like to pay for stuff](http://www.edibleapple.com/mlb-ceo-bob-bowman-ios-more-likely-purchase-content-than-android-users/).
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“For Me It’s Worth It”
TJ Luoma on the AirPort Extreme:
>I buy Apple’s Wi-Fi hardware for the same reason that I buy their computer hardware: it works better than many competitors’ products, has been more reliable, and doesn’t require me to spend a lot of time maintaining it.
That’s not just one users experience — it seems to be everyones that has every used an AirPort Extreme. I have one at home and switched to it from a LinkSys router running an install of DD-WRT to get a boost in reception. I can’t imagine going back to that crap. The AirPort just works — and works damned well.
When we remodeled the office that I share with another two companies the larger company that we sub-let from was trying to device a wireless network. They had an IT pro come in and install a robust, custom, wireless network complete with antennas coming down from the acoustical grid ceiling. Eight months later a new IT company came in to redo the network and they replaced that system with just one AirPort Extreme. These IT guys are not Mac guys — but they told me that in their experience the AirPort routers can’t be beat for small offices (less than 30 people).
They *are* that good.
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The Forkbombr Home Screen Organization Method
Stephen M. Hackett on how he arranges his iPhone home screen:
>As such, I place my most-used applications in the center of the screen, with less vital ones further out. The green box I overlaid on the screen shot shows the primary target area I can reach with my thumb, while cradling the phone. Since my apps just take up the top three rows, they form a great little rectangle, making it easy to tap the top of the OmnniFocus icon, for example, to launch the app.
An interesting method to be sure, my main problem with the important-icons-in-center approach is that there is no clear memorization for me — in other words I have to look to hit those app icons. Whereas with my [four corner approach](https://brooksreview.net/2011/03/homescreen-organized/) I don’t need to look to hit those spots.
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Wil Shipley on Farmers and Miners
Wil Shipley:
>If you’re building up a company for the sole purpose of looking good for one solitary moment – the day you go public – you’re not building for the future. You’re not (to waterboard my metaphor) maintaining the soil, making sure your animals are healthy and happy, and all that good husbandry stuff a good farmer does. Your only focus is looking like you’re going to achieve great sales in the future.
This, in a nutshell, is what [Facebook is doing](https://brooksreview.net/2011/01/worth/).
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AutoTag2 for WordPress TextMate Bloggers
What I really miss about blogging with MarsEdit is the auto-complete feature for tags — this way I don’t have a bunch of the same tags, spelled (or capitalized) differently. In TextMate I just have to guess, well that is until Mr. Brett Terpstra revived this old bundle of his called AutoTag:
>What the bundle does (short version) is find the most appropriate tags for your content based on tags you’ve already used before.
It works and I am really appreciative to have this.
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Episode #6 of The B&B Podcast
In episode #6 Shawn and I talk about a poll we took on Twitter for dock appearance and placement. We also dive in to other areas of your Mac desktop including the type of background images people use.
Our fine sponsors for this episode are [Screens](http://edovia.com/screens/source=brooksreview) and [Instacast](http://itunes.apple.com/app/instacast/id420368235?ref=bbsponsor).
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Stupid Market Share Comment
Henry (link bait) Blodget:
>The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search). And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more value it becomes. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them.
I may be way off base here, but seems to me that developers like to develop for platforms that earn them a living — and right now that’s still iOS, not Android. ((Though there are exceptions to every rule, in general iOS is still a far more lucrative platform.)) I mean it’s rare you see an hot new app got to Android first, before it comes to iOS — regardless of market share.
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Marco Arment on Android Market Share
Marco Arment:
>It’s important to consider why they bought Android phones in the first place. Was it because they tried their friend’s Droid and had to have one because it was so good? Or was it because they went into the Verizon store for their next contract renewal, they wanted an iPhone but knew it wasn’t available on Verizon, the sales guys told them this was just as good as the iPhone, it looked a bit like an iPhone, and it had a buy-one-get-one-free sale?
Marco has a great point, I am sure the market will change over the next 18 months — in the iPhone’s favor. Why? Because last night my buddies new-ish Droid Incredible died long before the night was over — after a full charge in the morning and a 40 minute boost during the afternoon.
Android phones just aren’t there yet in the user happiness category.
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On Gizmodo
The Macalope on Gizmodo:
>These days they just sit around lobbing epithets like “evil” at Apple. That might actually hurt—if their opinion were worth something. -
“Bits of Torn Paper”
Brent Simmons:
>If this rumored new UI for iCal is real and not just a mockup by a misanthropic Photoshop sadist, then I’m going to be distracted forever by the bits of torn paper under the toolbar.It drives me crazy in the iPad version of iCal.
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“Affluent CEOs”
Jacques Mattheij on Bob Parsons and the now infamous elephant fiasco:
>Flying in affluent CEOs to shoot members of a protected species is not going to help in reaching a fair compromise, taking into account the rights of all the parties involved, the villagers, the institutions tasked with protecting the animals, and, of course, the animals themselves.I am moving all my domains to [Dynadot.com](http://www.dynadot.com/) and I couldn’t be happier with their service.
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A Translation of Dell’s Andy Lark by Craig Grannell
I couldn’t have written it any better myself.
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“Could Blogging Be the Key to Raising a Generation of Great Writers?”
Liz Dwyer:
>The desire for reader feedback keeps the students excited about wanting to write more posts, and they’re eager to improve their writing skills for their readers’ benefit. “They now have a worldwide forum instead of an audience of one,” Christens said, noting that the students “see themselves as writers—real writers.”This is awesome.