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Hopes and dreams of an even more secure iOS.
Editors note: this is a guest post from Guillaume Ross.
With iOS 10 coming up this fall, and WWDC announcements about it right around the corner, the web is now assaulted by tons of wishlist, requests and predictions articles.
As I like to be a part of every problem, I figured why not throw in some of my iOS 10 wishlist items, but only those that relate to security.
The key is to just not put any shoes in your bag.
The key: pack one pair of shoes. In fact, most people who travel long enough slim down to one pair of shoes, and a pair of sandals for a full year of travel. I don’t do sandals, but I fully agree with one pair of shoes being all you really need.
Shoes are not only bulky, but they are heavy. There’s two things which will push you to having to carry a larger, and often heavier bag: shoes and jackets. I’ve talked about picking the right jackets — they need to be compressible. Most people really only need one pair of shoes when they are traveling — and honestly the only reason you would need more than one pair is again: variety.
I’ve seen people bring a 65L hiking backpack so they can work for 45 minutes at Starbucks.
There’s a monotony that comes with working at home. Same room, same desk, every day. No one in the house ever puts things in my office without me knowing. There’s no coworkers who ever stop by to torpedo my day. I can listen to whatever I want. I can do whatever I want.
My office is mine, and mine alone.
This is good. This is great.
Be selfish.
A small standing desk, that’s really all I need.
So up went that small desk in the corner of our bedroom, and there I worked for a good 6 months. It wasn’t big enough though, and I often found myself working on the bed or the floor. I needed a bigger desk.
Absolutely brutal take on the new Top Gear hosts. I have yet to see the new show, but I did watch the 90 second preview on iTunes. Here’s the thing, that 90 second preview used to be amazingly entertaining to watch and make me want to buy the show. I left the preview with the…
Absolutely brutal take on the new Top Gear hosts. I have yet to see the new show, but I did watch the 90 second preview on iTunes. Here’s the thing, that 90 second preview used to be amazingly entertaining to watch and make me want to buy the show. I left the preview with the new cast scratching my head.
Luckily, the old cast is back on Amazon this fall.
Jonathan Rhyne: The camera practically disappears and allows you to immerse yourself in capturing the perfect moment in time. The above statement is the highest compliment you can pay to any camera.
The camera practically disappears and allows you to immerse yourself in capturing the perfect moment in time.
The above statement is the highest compliment you can pay to any camera.
There are a ton of great options for pants out there…
I really hate packing pants, because they are bulky and they always seem to get wrinkled — the only worse thing to pack is a cotton dress shirt. What makes pants doubly annoying is that you typically only need one pair — the pair you wear when you leave. However, then there’s the fear of a spill, or a rip, or of them not being flexible enough to cover the range of activities and situations you have planned. Can they go on that short hike and still to the five star restaurant for dinner? To the business meeting, but also everything else in between?
When I started down the path of looking at travel friendly pants I knew there were two things I really wanted to avoid: cargo pants and pants that look more like hiking pants than “regular” pants. If they have “zip-off” anything, no thanks. If they focus more on hidden pockets and insect repellent, no thanks.
One last reminder that the membership drive ends today at 5pm PST. There’s also one other thing: the quarterly membership plan ($7/quarter) is currently way cheaper than all other plans. After today that plan will be gone for good. If you are on that plan now, you get to keep it until you cancel it.…
One last reminder that the membership drive ends today at 5pm PST. There’s also one other thing: the quarterly membership plan ($7/quarter) is currently way cheaper than all other plans. After today that plan will be gone for good. If you are on that plan now, you get to keep it until you cancel it.
After today though, that will no longer be an option. Thanks to everyone who has been signing up, I can’t wait to do the giveaway.
Take only your iPhone and one other device if you need it.
You need far fewer electronic devices than you think. All I carry is my iPhone and my iPad Pro. Done. My rule here is very simple: take a phone and one other device. Unless you have a major reason why you need three devices, take only two. For me the second device is my iPad Pro, and before that it was my MacBook. If you need a Mac, take a Mac and use your phone for anything else. But decide if you even need that second device — I take mine strictly because if I can squeeze in writing time, it is worth having the iPad Pro. But I could do it all with my iPhone if I wanted.
There’s lots of ways to talk yourself into taking one more device, but I’ve always found that when I travel with three devices, one will always go unused. There’s nothing more frustrating than lugging something around you don’t use.
Marco Arment on, I guess, a potential demise of Apple: ((Perhaps this is more of a warning, or a complaint about iCloud services?)) Today, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are placing large bets on advanced AI, ubiquitous assistants, and voice interfaces, hoping that these will become the next thing that our devices are for. If they’re…
Marco Arment on, I guess, a potential demise of Apple: ((Perhaps this is more of a warning, or a complaint about iCloud services?))
Today, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are placing large bets on advanced AI, ubiquitous assistants, and voice interfaces, hoping that these will become the next thing that our devices are for.
If they’re right — and that’s a big “if” — I’m worried for Apple.”
What if they’re wrong though?
If Google is wrong, and computing continues to be defined by a tightly controlled grid of siloed apps that you poke a thousand times a day on a smooth rectangle of manufacturing excellence, Apple is fine. They’re doing a great job of what computing is today, and what it will probably continue to be for a long time.”
Not quite.
Actually, this is not accurate. Not all of these companies can “win”, some have to fail. So essentially Google, Amazon, and Facebook are fighting for their futures. If they are wrong, some or all likely meet Blackberry’s fate. If they are right, they could still lose and meet Blackberry’s fate because their competitors do it better, or something like that. Blackberry wasn’t wrong — they saw the mobile phone becoming an essential tool for everyone — Blackberry just didn’t win.
Now, back to Apple. Let’s assume that Marco is right and Apple isn’t even fucking trying big data or AI. (I personally feel there is little chance this is a correct assumption, but whatever. It actually doesn’t matter.) Let’s say, for shits and giggles, that Facebook wins at AI and Google wins at big data and Amazon does something else we don’t care about for this post. Does Apple become irrelevant?
If you assume that they do, then essentially you think the iPhone paved the way. You think that the iPod was the first MP3 player, you think OS X was state of the art — and on and on. Apple rarely does it first. None of those things did it first. It’s not a zero-sum game.
Apple succeeds right now because they do it better. Will it be hard to catch up? Maybe, but so far it’s not been hard for Apple at all. Not under Steve Jobs, and not under Tim Cook.
Let’s also not forget Maps. When the iPhone came out, I don’t think Apple was prepared for just how crucial mapping would be. They just relied on Google to get it right. And then, Apple Maps. Is it better? That’s subjective. But it is most certainly good enough. The Apple Watch wasn’t even close to being the first. Is it amazing? Depends. But is it better than any other smart watch? Yes.
So, even if Facebook, Google, and Amazon beat Apple to something, they would all very much want their something on the iPhone. Because: iPhone.
As long as iPhone still trumps all — iPhone still trumps all. Even if Apple has to start 3 years in the hole — we’ve seen them do it successfully with Apple Maps and many other things — it doesn’t hurt them, it just doesn’t help them.
The iPhone trumps, and cash is King. Apple has both — massive amounts of both if we are talking about cash.
Apple can wait and take their time. They can be cautious, they are in a position where they don’t need to skate to where every puck will be, they just need to be ready to drop everything to get to the puck once they think they know where it is about to land. This is a strategy that works for only a hand full of companies because it takes a dominant market position, and cash. This is exactly how Internet Explorer won over Netscape Navigator, by the way.
Over at MartianCraft we launched new versions of TouchPad and NumPad. Among the new things is how we tackled upgrade pricing. I’m very proud of the model we used, so take a look at the article explaining it.
Over at MartianCraft we launched new versions of TouchPad and NumPad. Among the new things is how we tackled upgrade pricing. I’m very proud of the model we used, so take a look at the article explaining it.
Nice overview from MacStories on the latest PDF Expert update. Personally, I am very happy they support the Apple Pencil now. Great app.
Nice overview from MacStories on the latest PDF Expert update. Personally, I am very happy they support the Apple Pencil now. Great app.
I love all three of these shirts so much, I wear them daily.
Editor’s Note: I’m going to be writing some posts about how I travel light. I’ll pull them all back together at the end with one larger post and hopefully a video. I am not a super minimalist packer, I am however a light packer. This will also be very geared to men, sorry to all the women — I just have no way of writing about that.
Wrinkles and stains. For me those are the two largest concerns I have when I know I need a dress shirt, or “button down” shirt on a trip. (This is also the standard shirt I wear, so I can’t recall any time when I didn’t pack one or more.) Will it wrinkle? Will it clean easily if I spill my Tex-Mex all over it? Will it still look good after a couple days in a plane or a suitcase?
This is easily the most concerning thing I have seen about the future of Apple. I’m not yet sold on voice, but I have no doubt it is a large part of the future of computing.
This is easily the most concerning thing I have seen about the future of Apple. I’m not yet sold on voice, but I have no doubt it is a large part of the future of computing.
It’s time for free stuff and supporting the site.
I haven't held a membership drive in quite some time, so here we go. As most readers know, there are two funding sources for this site: affiliate revenue, and membership revenue. On an average month I make about 70% of the money for this site from memberships.
Reviewing things not only takes me considerable time (even just finding things which might be good to review), but it also costs considerable money. I only receive items in exchange for a review about 30% of the time — the remainder of the time I am left spending my own money on these items.
A great hoodie and a great Henley.
I’ve never been a hoodie kind of a guy, but working from home lends itself to wearing a hoodie quite well. So I knew I wanted to get a decent one — something built to last — and I ended up with a Flint and Tinder 10-year Hoodie, in black.
Spencer Bentley: People who say, ‘it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer,’ are missing the boat. Sure if you put a ten thousand dollar camera in the hands of a blind raccoon you’re probably not going to get any great photos. But in the same vein, if Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, or Vivian Maier had…
Spencer Bentley:
People who say, ‘it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer,’ are missing the boat. Sure if you put a ten thousand dollar camera in the hands of a blind raccoon you’re probably not going to get any great photos. But in the same vein, if Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, or Vivian Maier had left their cameras at home how much poorer would we all be.
Fantastic post.
Uh, why wouldn’t you want Apple to make some sweet podcasting money?
I tried to ignore this podcasting hubbub, but I failed. Marco Arment writes about Apple’s position with podcasts:
The biggest player app: Apple’s built-in iOS Podcasts app is the biggest podcast player in the world by a wide margin, holding roughly 60–70% marketshare.
The biggest podcast directory: The iTunes Store’s Podcasts directory is the only one that matters, and being listed there is essential for podcasts to be easily found when searching in most apps.
In other words: podcasters are so worried about what Apple might do, because anything Apple does with podcasts will essentially become the defacto standard for podcasts given Apple’s actual role in podcasts being too important to podcasting. Apple holds the best keys to discovery, and the largest market share for podcasting apps.
Or: if your podcast isn’t listed in iTunes, then do you really have a podcast?
If you only get one, make it Merino wool.
Editor’s Note: I’m going to be writing some posts about how I travel light. I’ll pull them all back together at the end with one larger post and hopefully a video. I am not a super minimalist packer, I am however a light packer. This will also be very geared to men, sorry to all the women — I just have no way of writing about that.
I’ve previously spent a lot of time, and money, trying to find the best undershirt you can wear. And while I stand by my assessment that Underfit shirts are the best ones you can buy, travel undershirts are a different breed. Whereas with my daily wear undershirts I just need something which is comfortable and looks good under my shirts, with travel undershirts I need them to also be:
Once you start down this path you end up looking at two types of shirts: Merino wool, or synthetic. I personally felt that synthetic must be the way to go, however after a lot of research it seemed very clear to me Merino wool was the way to go. Which sucks, because those shirts are very pricey.
Succinct is hard, but it is what we want.
I recently wrote, on Medium, how all of my news is sourced through three iOS apps: Reeder, Economist Espresso, and Medium. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with these apps as they offer the perfect way to consume news:
Add to this list now, the New Yorker Today app and the Quartz News app. The New Yorker has always been very hit and miss for me over the years — often what they write is too long and dense on a topic which doesn’t hold enough interest for me to want to read it. But 2-3 times a month, they hit the nail on the head. The hard part: finding that stuff.