Category: Links

Nice set.

Tim Bajarin:

Now, I realize this statement is pure marketing hype and the reality of the Surface Pro 3 replacing all the demand for laptops is absurd. But the message overall that the Surface Pro 3 could replace laptops is going to resonate with many in the enterprise. If Microsoft pushes this message too hard even consumers may start to think this new form factor is a laptop instead of what it really is — a tablet with a keyboard.

I can't get this same thought out of my head. employees may want this and not know it won't (likely) be a good laptop replacement and IT managers will see it as a way to save on costs (laptop + iPad).

Federico Viticci:

The new design modernizes the app, but I feel like usability and legibility have been sacrificed for good looks in some areas of the interface. I'm skeptical about the decision to separate action titles from the checkcircles, and long lists of actions can be difficult to scan quickly. This appears to be a problem in common with many other designs inspired by iOS 7, and I would like The Omni Group to tweak some of their decisions and offer user-configurable settings.

Agreed.

Shawn Blanc:

Every one of the design changes in OmniFocus 2 for Mac is an improvement on an app that has been desperate for a visual overhaul for years. The visual overhaul has been worth the wait.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but it is substantially better.

Finally.

Belinda Luscombe:

A new study out from the Council on Contemporary Families suggests that contrary to most surveys, people are actually more stressed at home than at work.

Men and women, with or without children, doesn't matter.

Josh Ginter on deciding to go with micro four-thirds:

In complete contrast, Micro Four Thirds cameras don’t deliver the same image quality and they are certainly held back technically by their 2x cropped sensors. I don’t think there’s any denying that Micro Four Thirds cameras are not capable of doing the best portraiture.

That entire paragraph isn’t quite correct. The sensors are very good and really only have trouble with huge prints. Beyond that they are on par with most other sensors. This is a long debated topic, but I’m in the camp that the sensor size doesn’t matter.

What’s different between micro four thirds and say Fujifilm is that the latter has different color rendering and the best noise control I’ve ever seen. Different sensors and sensor sizes really only give you different looks in your photography. It’s up to you to decide which look you like.

Emily Oster:

There is no definitive answer in the literature, but reading it all together I find myself more convinced of the sit-stand desk’s benefits than I expected — sufficiently so that the next time I move offices, I’m getting one.

It’s the best way to work. I miss my standing desk when I am at home.

Ladar Levison:

In Virginia, the government replaced its encryption key subpoena with a search warrant and a new court date. I retained a small, local law firm before I went back to my home state, which was then forced to assemble a legal strategy and file briefs in just a few short days. The court barred them from consulting outside experts about either the statutes or the technology involved in the case. The court didn't even deliver transcripts of my first appearance to my own lawyers for two months, and forced them to proceed without access to the information they needed.

His story is absurd, but not because of his stance, but because of the overall lack of due process and — you know — justice.

Brett Terpstra on the DuckDuckGo redesign:

My favorite part of the redesign is that image and video search results are available on the main search page.

It really is a fantastic update.

Rolfe Winkler:

In a December letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was disclosed Tuesday, the search giant said that it could be serving ads and other content on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

Enjoy your Nest…

Sweet.

Patrick George:

If you add up GM’s total U.S. sales from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, it equals about 12.18 million cars, according to their own sales data and news reports. And in 2014 alone so far in the U.S., they’ve recalled more than 13 million cars, with possibly more on the way. P

This entire situation is crazy, and I am surprised it is not bigger news. John Oliver has a really good take if you are an HBO subscriber.

Rance Crain:

What Samsung is basically saying, Sir John argues, is that “the other guy isn’t cool. Because I’ve basically taken what they’ve done and I’ve made it a different shape and a slightly different size and I’ve brought it out in different colors. That’s not cool. So I think they could find themselves in a short-lived space.”
The bottom line for Apple is to continue improving the product, by all means, but most important: Don’t react, because that’s not cool.

Really great article as long as you stop at the last line above.

Ryan Devereaux, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras:

Legal or not, the NSA’s covert surveillance of an entire nation suggests that it will take more than the president’s tepid “limits” to rein in the ambitions of the intelligence community. “It’s almost like they have this mentality – if we can, we will,” says German. “There’s no analysis of the long-term risks of doing it, no analysis of whether it’s actually worth the effort, no analysis of whether we couldn’t take those resources and actually put them on real threats and do more good.”

Patrick Rhone:

In fact, I would likely be all in on the idea if they offered just the service/app part for any notebook you already owned or preferred to use. Say, for instance, if for that price you could print off a pre-paid shipping label, send them any notebook up to a certain size, they scanned it and made it available in their app, and then sent it back to you. That, I might buy.

Now I feel bad for pointing this notebook out to him.

I’m quoting his conclusion, but this entire piece is a must read. Trevor Timm:

Intelligence director James Clapper’s infamous lie to Congress – in which he claimed just months before Snowden’s leaks that the NSA was not collecting data on millions of Americans – will certainly follow him for the rest of his career even if it never leads to his prosecution. But while Clapper almost certainly broke the law, the senate committee members in front of whom he spoke knew the truth regardless.
The Justice Department, on the other hand, convinced the supreme court to dismiss a case that could have dramatically curtailed the NSA’s most egregious abuses of power based on false statements. And now all of us are forced to live with the consequences of that.

Those motherfuckers.

Jordan Merrick:

Similar to Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode, the speeds are incredibly fast and, with a little overhead, my tests showed transfer speeds hit 700MB/sec.

Noted.

Dennis Mersereau:

If you're getting a respectable weather report, they'll also include something called the “dew point” immediately after the temperature. The dew point tells you to what temperature the air would have to cool to reach full saturation, or reach 100% relative humidity. Looking at the dew point is the best way to determine how much moisture is present.

Must read in my book. I had no idea.

LOL, Snapchat.