The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • MUJI Apps for iPad

    The calendar is average, all the icons are ugly – but thankfully not blue. The notepad app, very neat – I like being able to type notes anywhere on the page, and be able to doodle as well. Nicely done. That Muji To Go app, yeah I am not even going to bother downloading that one.

  • iPad Life Update

    Quick update to all of the iPad Life interviews to date, they now all have screenshots from the interviewees as part of the post. Be sure to go back and check them all out, there are some cool wallpapers on some of these iPads.

    [Thanks to Shawn Blanc for kicking off this idea.]

  • TechRadar’s Samsung Galaxy Tab Review

    They say the scrolling and battery life is all kinds of horrible.

    Which is funny because Engadget didn’t seem to mind. Conspiracy, no, just crappy inconsistent hardware and software.

  • Neven Mrgan: Notes on setting up a new Mac

    Some great thoughts on some of the rough edges while setting up a new Mac. Windows users should take note that we are complaining about the way the default startpage looks in Safari, what was your last experience setting up a Windows box like?

  • Because They Are Microsoft

    For seemingly no reason Microsoft changed around some shortcut keys that they could have left alone for those moving from Entourage 2008 to Outlook 2011 on the Mac. What a bunch of [insert your own insult].

  • ‘Meet the Resistance’

    Paul Kafasis:

    So let’s try to put an end to security theatre. Let’s take back our rights, along with our dignity. Let’s remember what Ben Franklin taught us, that those who sacrifice liberty for security (or worse, the illusion of security) deserve neither. Let’s find our balls, and then make them touch ‘em.

    I’m in.

  • Nothing About This is ‘Easy’

    A six step process that has you dialing 27 numbers on your phone just to record a call, better yet read the description of how you can record an incoming call. Absurd.

    [via 37signals]

  • Get the Best Capital One Loan Using Chrome

    Super odd, but a reader of Consumerist is reporting that they got different loan rates from Capital One based on which browser he used. Firefox was 3.5%, Safari 2.7%, Opera 3.1%, Chrome 2.3%. Let me know if you have seen anything like this.

  • Put This On: Where Do I Put My Cell Phone?

    Men’s style blog Put This On answer the perplexing question of where you should carry your cellphone, or more importantly where you should not carry it. Jesse Thorn:

    You’re right to think that the belt clip is the pocket protector of our generation.  There is absolutely no excuse for it.  It is embarassing, and if you own one of these grotesque monstrosities, you should throw it away now, lest you be tempted to wear it in the future. 

    So to my friends and readers who carry theirs on their belt, I am just trying to help.

  • Owen Cain – A Feel Good Story

    Emily B. Hager for the New York Times:

    Owen will turn 8 on Nov. 11. While his condition is not expected to worsen, he is extremely sensitive to infection and once nearly died of pneumonia; three specialized therapists and a nurse help keep him alive.

    Though he cannot speak, his parents have taught him to read, write and do math. He has an impish sense of humor and a love of “Star Wars.” “He’s a normal child trapped in a not normal body,” said his father, Hamilton Cain, 45, a book editor.

    Since he received the iPad, Owen has been trying to read books, and playing around with apps like Air Guitar. And, one day, he typed out on the keypad, “I want to be Han Solo for Halloween.”

    What a great story, I love to read about how devices like the iPad are helping those that felt so helpless before.

  • Does Things.app Have Over-the-Air Sync?

    Nice single serving site:

    To this day, Things.app does not have Over-the-Air syncing.

    OmniFocus for iPhone was released on July 10, 2008. From day one, it featured some form of Over-the-Air syncing.

    Customers of CulturedCode have waited over two years for Over-the-Air syncing. The company says they are working on it, but every day that goes by without the feature is another day when switching to OmniFocus looks all the more enticing.

    Come to the dark side (aka The OTA syncing side).

  • Some Sites Should Never Go Down

    Earlier today PayPal was down – there are some sites that should never go down, this site and banking sites are among those. PayPal going down would be akin to you local bank branch closing to go on vacation – who’s OK with that?

  • Good Deal on an SSD

    I am selling my old SSD drive on eBay – save yourself $100 over the price of a new one and buy this one. I am even throwing in an external enclosure so you can clone your current drive.

    You can also buy the MacBook Pro I busted the other night if you are so inclined.

  • Mint Data

    Want to know how much a person normally spends when they go to a restaurant you are checking out? Enter Mint’s new data portal that tells you just that based on actual transactions. This is all sorts of data porn – awesome.

    [via Gina Trapani]

  • Marco: ‘The Mac App Store isn’t for today’s Mac developers’

    Marco Arment:

    So I expect a lot of iOS developers to start making Mac apps, especially individuals and very small teams.

    Agreed.

  • David Pogue: “Office for Mac Isn’t an Improvement”

    David Pogue on Office 2011 for the Mac:

    The Mac suite now includes the Ribbon, a horizontal toolbar that’s built into Office for Windows. What I don’t get is this: Last time I checked, computer screens were all wider than they are tall. The last thing you’d want to do is to eat up that limited vertical screen space with interface clutter like the Ribbon. Don’t we really want those controls off to the side, as with the Formatting Palette in the previous Mac Office?

    Overall he doesn’t like it, and you know why? Pogue said it at the beginning of the review:

    Much of the work Microsoft has done is to make the Mac version of Office look and work more like the Windows versions.

    That is always a recipe for disaster because it never feels like a ‘real’ Mac application when companies try to do that.

  • The 13″ MacBook Air Scares TSA – The 11″ Not So Much

    Jeff Gamet:

    U.S. air travelers can leave their shiny new 11.6-inch MacBook Air laptops in their bags when passing through airport security checkpoints according to the TSA. The 13.3-inch model, however, is too big and still must come out for separate screening.

    Yet another reason why the 11 is going to make inroads with first-class.

  • While You Wait: An Epic MacBook Air Review

    I wasn’t going to post AnandTech’s review, but it really is excellent for people thinking about making the same switch that I made.

    The ‘while you wait’ part? That is because I am working on my review – you are waiting for that, right?

  • Macworld Looks at Hybrid Drives

    These drives have had me curious for quite sometime, they take a small SSD (usually about 4GB) and combine it with a normal platter based HD. The result, according to Macworld, is a slightly faster drive with some of the benefits of SSD storage. Interesting, I wouldn’t buy this drive in lieu of an SSD (even given the price difference), but I would buy one instead of buying another ‘regular’ HD as a replacement (non-performance replacement, as in your last HD just died).

  • Upgrade Your MacBook Air DIY

    So a company is claiming to make a flash memory module that you can swap out with the built-in storage on your MacBook Air, giving you 256GB of storage. They also give you a USB 3.0 housing for your chip that you take out. Sounds pretty neat, no pricing yet (that is going to determine if it is worth it).

    As a side note I busted off a connector on my Wife’s MacBook Pro last night swapping the HD – upgrades like these are not for those that can’t afford to have to replace expensive parts.