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Don Melton on moving to WordPress: What I really needed was a publishing system easily accessible from anywhere — even mobile devices — to quickly create and deploy content. Which is the whole point of having a blog that people want to read. See, I just don’t understand people who bother using non-Wordpress blogging platforms.
Don Melton on moving to WordPress:
What I really needed was a publishing system easily accessible from anywhere — even mobile devices — to quickly create and deploy content. Which is the whole point of having a blog that people want to read.
See, I just don’t understand people who bother using non-Wordpress blogging platforms.
The MacBook, Surface Pro 4, and iPad Pro are moving use away from traditional laptops to the devices we really need.
The three computers I am talking about are: iPad Pro, Surface Pro 4 / Surface Book, and MacBook (12” retina model). You probably suspected the first two given what I have been focused on of late, but that last one you might be questioning. Allow me some context before you label me as having lost my mind for claiming the MacBook is a part of the future of computing.
Erin Brooks on the camera she stole from me: It’s so easy to use. Even not knowing all of the technical rules about cameras and photography, a person would be able to get fabulous shots using this camera. There aren’t a lot of settings that I need to tinker with, so I can have a basic understanding…
Erin Brooks on the camera she stole from me:
It’s so easy to use. Even not knowing all of the technical rules about cameras and photography, a person would be able to get fabulous shots using this camera. There aren’t a lot of settings that I need to tinker with, so I can have a basic understanding of how a camera works, and get the shot quickly, without much thought toward the set-up.
I miss my camera…
I sent out a newsletter containing all the links and a general thought for this week. I am going to move to this approach instead of posting links on the site when I come across them. I’m not sure Friday is the right day, but it’s the day for this week. The link above will…
I sent out a newsletter containing all the links and a general thought for this week. I am going to move to this approach instead of posting links on the site when I come across them. I’m not sure Friday is the right day, but it’s the day for this week.
The link above will give you the web version of the newsletter, you can subscribe to the newsletter here.
I want to love it, so many good ideas, but that battery. BUT THAT BATTERY. And where’s the apps?
At the end of November I concluded with a post about how I was going to be all in on the iPad Pro and use it as my primary work machine. And then, as I was looking through Apple’s News app, I started to see a lot of people talking about the Surface Pro 4 versus the iPad Pro. The Surface Pro line has always intrigued me, and by all accounts many thought the Surface Pro 4 was the culmination of all of Microsoft’s work, and done very well at that.
It holds a deceivingly large amount of clothes and gear.
Note: This backpack was sent to me by Standard Luggage for the purpose of writing this review. Also all photo credits go to my wife, Erin Brooks, she’s way better than I am.
I remember when I was a freshman in college, my sister (she was still in high school at the time) made it to state finals for track — which meant she was competing in eastern Washington. I took a long weekend and travelled out with my family for the two nights. I packed a almost-full duffel bag.
Sounds like a reasonable amount of gear, right? It would be, except the bag I packed in was 72 liters. Mean it was huge and I basically packed for a weekend in it. ((Funny enough, this worked out great as a rain storm moved in and I was the only one with clothing for such an event — and extra clothing for my dad to borrow. Still though…))
Sign up to get on the beta for the iPhone and iPad Pro. It’s really great.
Sign up to get on the beta for the iPhone and iPad Pro. It’s really great.
I’ve given The Verge a lot of shit over the years, but this video is basically the most helpful comparison I have seen on the two devices.
I’ve given The Verge a lot of shit over the years, but this video is basically the most helpful comparison I have seen on the two devices.
It’s small enough to travel with inside another bag, but perfectly good as your EDC bag too.
Since I became a rather loud MacBook only user, I’ve been seeing people asking on Twitter, and asking me directly, which shoulder bag is the best for a MacBook. I really didn’t have any good answers because I rarely use shoulder bags, and because I didn’t have any small enough not to be silly for the MacBook.
There’s a lot of good looking options out there, but I wanted to be able to test something affordable for a change. So I reached out to Tom Bihn and asked if I could stop by to test out a few different bags, and possibly swipe one for a while to test out.
Jack Lowe: The results were incredibly revealing – after just 7 days 88% of the group that left Facebook said they felt “happy” as opposed to 81% in the group still using the site. They also felt less angry, less lonely, less depressed, more decisive, more enthusiastic, and enjoyed their lives more. Ditching Facebook also…
The results were incredibly revealing – after just 7 days 88% of the group that left Facebook said they felt “happy” as opposed to 81% in the group still using the site. They also felt less angry, less lonely, less depressed, more decisive, more enthusiastic, and enjoyed their lives more. Ditching Facebook also appeared to reduce stress levels by as much as 55%. They’re some pretty strong results…
All this makes me want to leave Twitter and Instagram behind… Again.
Luke Dormehl: In fact, the group is arguing that, “Apple’s conduct … enhanced competition by increasing e-book output, the number of e-book titles, and the number of e-book distributors, which led to technological improvements in the e-book market and enhanced freedom of expression and access to e-books.” Instead of focusing on Apple, the group claims that the…
In fact, the group is arguing that, “Apple’s conduct … enhanced competition by increasing e-book output, the number of e-book titles, and the number of e-book distributors, which led to technological improvements in the e-book market and enhanced freedom of expression and access to e-books.”
Instead of focusing on Apple, the group claims that the Department of Justice should instead apply its antitrust investigations to Amazon.
If you want a fast content blocker, be prepared to whitelist YouTube, because they all hate YouTube.
Here we go again, another round of iOS content blocker testing. Before I get into the testing, I want to point out why certain apps were tested while others were not tested. I can assure you I downloaded/purchased/unlocked every content blocker I could find on the App Store. I lost count how many there were after they were all installed, but I was starting to worry I may never stop downloading them.
I was not looking forward to testing these, it takes 10 minutes on average to test each content blocker — and well you can do the math when I had more than 30 installed. That’s a lot of time. So I needed to pare the list down in a way which made sense without testing them first.
Gabe Weatherhead: Data syncing may be the most critical aspect of modern computing and we’ve settled too easily for the most convenient solution.
Data syncing may be the most critical aspect of modern computing and we’ve settled too easily for the most convenient solution.
Sketch Blog writes about their decision to leave the Mac App Store. This is a real shame as Sketch is amazing and having all your apps purchased from the Mac App Store is a way better experience for users setting up new Macs. There’s been thousands of words spilled on this topic already, but I…
Sketch Blog writes about their decision to leave the Mac App Store. This is a real shame as Sketch is amazing and having all your apps purchased from the Mac App Store is a way better experience for users setting up new Macs.
There’s been thousands of words spilled on this topic already, but I want to spill some different ones. Words directed at Sketch and not Apple.
Sketch,
Hi, big fan here. You’ve long said you won’t be coming to the iPad because you can’t be convinced it will be profitable. That’s very reasonable, but your life just got a lot harder moving outside the Mac App Store.
Now you can certainly make it, but you won’t have that sweet — sweet — free banner marketing from Apple. So that’s going to be a little more expensive for you.
So meet the iPad Pro.
It’s a hell of a device and maybe if you made a small thing to perhaps even just view Sketch files on the iPad (not the Mirror app) — perhaps that would give you an idea of interest. And then maybe give us some basic tools. See where things go, you don’t need to marry the device, but at least take it on some real dates.
The iOS App Store is better, not great, but better. I would love to have you on it.
Love usually,
Ben
S.V. Dáte: All of this is readily known to even a schoolchild with a casual interest in airplanes—which raises the question: Where and why would Trump get the idea his plane was bigger? Great read. But why not call these lies?
All of this is readily known to even a schoolchild with a casual interest in airplanes—which raises the question: Where and why would Trump get the idea his plane was bigger?
Great read. But why not call these lies?
Thomas Wong: One of the coolest multitasking benefits of the iPad Pro is that there’s enough space to read source material and take handwritten notes, simultaneously. I write with my right hand (even though I’m normally left-handed), so I usually keep my note app in Split View along the right hand side. I feel like…
One of the coolest multitasking benefits of the iPad Pro is that there’s enough space to read source material and take handwritten notes, simultaneously. I write with my right hand (even though I’m normally left-handed), so I usually keep my note app in Split View along the right hand side.
I feel like an idiot, but it never even occurred to me to do this. Man is this going to be a great tool for students and meetings.
I was pretty sure I would only get to 25,000 — maybe 30,000 — words for the month. But as I write this, I am already safely past the 50,000 word benchmark. I had always planned on writing a wrap up for the last day, as sort of an easy way to get in the last…
I was pretty sure I would only get to 25,000 — maybe 30,000 — words for the month. But as I write this, I am already safely past the 50,000 word benchmark. I had always planned on writing a wrap up for the last day, as sort of an easy way to get in the last however many words I needed to, but I never considered I wouldn’t need any words.
This was way easier than I thought. I wrote every night when the kids went to bed until 9pm, and then edited posts and published whatever was done. This really only worked because my wife was stuck in bed for the majority of the month healing from foot surgery — so there was little else for me to do.
The first night it took almost 2 hours to get 1,300 words, but by the end of it I could crank out 2,000 or more words in just a couple of hours.
It felt really good.
I had always assumed I went through lulls with writing, but I think I just get lazy and fall out of the habit. I am going to be sure to set aside time everyday for writing from here on out, but taking my time more with the posts.
As it turned out the hardest part was editing. I didn’t account for how much time editing would take, and because my goal was just not writing the words, but also publishing them, this became a big struggle. As I write this I have two posts waiting to be edited before the end of the day to hit my word goal.
I need a better way to edit, so that’s next up on my list to tackle.
Topics were pretty easy, but a large part of that is thanks to the iPad Pro having showed up at my house. Without a new device to write about — especially one as important as the iPad Pro — I think I would have been a little thin on topics.
My biggest concern, more than the word count, was quality. I wanted to be sure to keep quality up, but since I typically take a week or more on each post, I was worried I might not be able to do this. I am not the one to judge the quality, but there are only a few articles which I look back on and cringe a bit.
Overall I am pretty damn happy with what I produced this month.
It was a fun month, and while I am not likely to do it again, I hope to keep my writing up and to be writing a lot more.
Thanks for those of you who encouraged me, and who actually read the massive amount of words I published this month.
Final stats:
Thanks!
Fraser Speirs: If you have certain very specifically-defined workflows, and a work environment where you can guarantee yourself a chair and desk, you can probably get your work done on a MacBook Pro. For the rest of the world, there’s iPad. A must read.
If you have certain very specifically-defined workflows, and a work environment where you can guarantee yourself a chair and desk, you can probably get your work done on a MacBook Pro. For the rest of the world, there’s iPad.
A must read.
I think the iPad Pro marks a turning point for iOS devices, and I for one am very excited.
Back in April I wrote about my internal conflicts between the rumored MacBook 12″ Retina, and the rumored iPad Pro. In that post I think my thoughts were best summed up as:
Just a few notes on the bags I have around me and how they work with the iPad Pro.
Depending on how you look at things, one of the best or worst things about switching computers is finding the perfect bag once again. I had found it with the MacBook, but the iPad Pro has sent me down the rabbit hole once again. Here’s a couple sentences on how the iPad Pro fits in each of the bags I have kicking around my closet.