The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Baby Stuff We Use

    Good list from Casey Liss. And that Sleep Pillow app he mentions, yeah we use that too and it is fantastic.

  • Outlook for iOS and Email Security

    I've been ranting about this on Twitter, but Gabe did the work to find some sources. Outlook for iOS does re-route your email. For that reason I'd run away from it.

  • Chili history: There are no beans in San Antonio’s specialty.

    Kriston Capps:

    So chili: no beans. Chili is beef plus hot and smoky. No macaroni, no cinnamon (c’mon), and certainly no tofu.

    This is what I always tell people.

  • An interview with Ben Brooks

    I wrote this interview a while back for Ryan, but I just read through it again and yeah — enjoy!

  • The Tom Bihn Parental Unit on Tools and Toys

    Speaking of my wife, she penned a review of the Parental Unit for Tools and Toys. I think it turned out great, and the model — he’s quite good.

  • Great iPhone Photos

    I’ve been helping my wife setup a new blog the past week. She published her first post last night and it’s a great one. ((Though bias alert!)) My wife is an excellent photographer, and 99% of the time she uses just her iPhone for everything from image capture to editing.

    So she wrote about it, and it’s amazing to see the before and after on some of her pictures. Do go and check it out. ((She’s got a lot more great posts in the pipeline.))

  • Long-Term Review of Côte & Ciel’s Isar Rucksack

    Thomas Wong:

    When I’m asked about the Isar, my elevator pitch is this: it’s basically a thin laptop backpack with a duffel bag grafted right onto it. That’s a brutal way of putting it that strips out all the magic of the design, but it gets the point across.

    The Isar is the one bag that I keep looking at, wanting to try out to see how it stacks up. It's a gorgeous looking bag.

  • Shifts

    Really stellar new app from Built by Snowman. In my prior career I was looking for something just like this for some staff, and I wish we had Shifts.

  • The Ona Bowery

    I put together an Ona Bowery review for Tools and Toys. It expands on the one I had written for this site. Shawn added some photos of his bag so you get to see the leather version too.

  • The Otherside of the Fixed Lens Argument

    Garrett Murray, disagrees with me that fixed-lens cameras take some getting used to:

    There’s nothing to get used to with a fixed-lens camera. You can still use it point-and-shoot, or you can take the next step, learn more, and make better photos.

    He makes good points, I still think it’s not the right camera to recommend to the non-photographically inclined. As I think it is harder to get used to zooming with your feet, and to find the composition for your one focal length instead of just “zooming” to make it work. Meaning, raise your camera to capture a stunning sunset, only to realize it looks too distant, or you are getting to little of the surroundings — you have to think about what might work, or forgo capturing it. Whereas most beginners would just “zoom” so it looks more like a postcard. ((I don’t mean that as an insult, just an example.))

    I glossed over this whole position in my post because I’m still too new to only having a fixed lens camera. However, I did mostly shoot all my other cameras with just one lens. That said I still think there is a large distinction to be made, and a large enough one that beginners aren’t well suited towards fixed lens. ((Then again watch me change my mind in another month.))

  • Alibi – A witness for every moment

    The only thing I can't figure out about this app is just how creepy I think it is.

  • Travel Laundry Stuff Sack (video)

    Really great video showing one of the best pieces of travel gear out there.

  • ‘Your Best Work’

    Michael Lopp:

    It’s a business and there are good fiscally responsible reasons as well as culturally ones to move to an open space, but who is doing the math on productivity? Who understands the compounding productivity interest earned with each consecutive uninterrupted minute of work? It is there in those hard to capture collective minutes where your best work is happening.

    Seems to me like remote working solves all of this. Just saying…

  • The Address Book Paradox

    A rather interesting approach to a modern Address Book. I would love to be able to launch into a specific service from within the iOS Address Book. One of my favorite features of Slack is that I call click on a persons profile picture and see a popup which allows me to call them with Skype. So handy.

  • It’s About the Camera

    Good post from Stephen, and I am linking to him because his thoughts on the protruding camera lens on the iPhones 6 at the end is spot on.

    One point I disagree with him on is the iPhone camera being ‘good enough’ — it’s down right a better camera that my Fuji in many respects. Better macro, better fast action, better video, etc.

  • Walk in a Park

    A new photo essay of mine.

  • Whittling Down The MacBook To An iPad

    M.G. Siegler:

    I suspect this new MacBook will be the last laptop I end up buying. Again, that doesn’t mean the MacBook is dying anytime soon, but I believe this will be the pinnacle of the product. We’ll get spec bumps for years to come. But it will be the long, slow fade we just witnessed with the iPod.

  • Reminder: Photo a Day Project

    Just a reminder that I have started a photo a day project, pretty fun stuff.

  • Unique Photos

    Garrett Murray comparing the X100T to the plethora of other cameras he has used of late:

    It fits better in my hands and it still takes amazingly unique photos.

    I picked up the X100T before the holidays and it has been an amazing tool.

  • Jitouch 2

    I saw this Mac preference pane app in action today, and I was blown away. I am not at my Mac, but this is something I plan on installing the moment I get home.

    You can create custom gestures to do all sorts of things, such as:

    • Three finger tap to close tab.
    • Three finger tap to open link in new window
    • Gesture to fullscreen an app
    • Gesture for positioning apps

    And so much more. Very cool tool.