The Brooks Review

Top Posts

Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022
The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025
Grand Seiko SBGX261February 23, 2023

Recent Articles

  • Short Trips and Which Bag

    Always choose the backpack.

    I ran into something rather unexpected: it’s hard to choose a bag for a very short trip.

    The scenario I found myself in: departing on a plane at midnight, and landing at 6am (destination time), then boarding another plane at 9pm (destination time), and returning home again at midnight. No hotel involved, just two flights, and work in-between each, before mercifully arriving home. ((To be clear, I drove the decision for such cramped flights, and not staying over longer. I wanted to minimize time away from the family as the available flight options were terrible.))

    (more…)

  • “Tablet”

    MG Siegler on iPad use in Europe: Yet in five years, cafes everywhere will probably be filled with them. Much like the term “computer” has transferred from mainframe to desktop to laptop, I think it will take the place of “tablet” soon. More and more I am not sure why most people buy anything but…

    MG Siegler on iPad use in Europe:

    Yet in five years, cafes everywhere will probably be filled with them. Much like the term “computer” has transferred from mainframe to desktop to laptop, I think it will take the place of “tablet” soon.

    More and more I am not sure why most people buy anything but an iPad.

  • A Few “Standing Desk” Best Practices

    Conor McClure: I’m still not sold on the usefulness of standing mats. It’s easy to see why comfortability should be prioritized, but in reality, it doesn’t need to be; after all, your standing desk exists for better health. If going barefoot for long periods of time is uncomfortable, your goal should be to train that,…

    Conor McClure:

    I’m still not sold on the usefulness of standing mats. It’s easy to see why comfortability should be prioritized, but in reality, it doesn’t need to be; after all, your standing desk exists for better health. If going barefoot for long periods of time is uncomfortable, your goal should be to train that, not eliminate the discomfort with a mat.

    When I started standing my feet hurt so bad I couldn’t wait to get a fancy anti-fatigue mat. It alleviated some, but not all pain. About 6-9 months into using that mat I started to have pain again, mostly on my heels. It was too easy with the standing mat to put my weight load unevenly on my feet. So I ditched it and haven’t looked back. No pain, no mat.

  • Obvious Button States

    The iOS shift key, and Skype’s mute buttons drive me nuts.

    If you use iOS then you’ve likely run into the most annoying part of iOS: the terrible shift key. It’s so bad it has a dedicated website to helping you understand if shift is on, or off.

    Aesthetically the key works as it blends nicely with the look and feel of the keyboard, but from a usability perspective it is a miserable failure. Now Apple isn’t alone, there’s another offender I recently found for public flogging: Skype on the iPhone.

    (more…)

  • “Blogging” with Twitter and Instapaper

    This type of stuff will die out, because the moment someone like Justin wants to go back and search for a product he tweeted about — and can’t find it on Twitter — back to the ol’ blog it is.

    This type of stuff will die out, because the moment someone like Justin wants to go back and search for a product he tweeted about — and can’t find it on Twitter — back to the ol’ blog it is.

  • Desk PM

    A solid basic blogging tool.

    There’s been an an abundance of talk about Desk, a multi-blog publishing tool that looks very pretty. The talk, unsurprisingly was drummed up because the creators chose to buy a spot on Daring Fireball to advertise the product. I held off because Ulysses, but at some point I have to try things like this to see if there is something here.
    (more…)

  • Tim Cook’s Leadership

    Fantastic profile of Cook. He truly seems to be the type of leader you, I, should aspire to be.

    Fantastic profile of Cook. He truly seems to be the type of leader you, I, should aspire to be.

  • New Version of Napkin

    New version of an app I use almost every day. Fantastic week for good software.

    New version of an app I use almost every day. Fantastic week for good software.

  • Filters for iPhone

    800 filters for $0.99 in a well designed package? Uh, yes please, and thank you very much.

    800 filters for $0.99 in a well designed package? Uh, yes please, and thank you very much.

  • Fantastical 2 for Mac

    The app is goddamn gorgeous looking. ((Federico has a more in-depth review than mine.))

    The app is goddamn gorgeous looking. ((Federico has a more in-depth review than mine.))

  • Homemade Mini Donuts

    I can attest to these being delicious.

    I can attest to these being delicious.

  • Fear of Apple

    Eli Schiff: Arment too let his fear be known: “I’m scared of having damaged my relationship with Apple.” It is highly interesting that Arment of all people now regrets and fears having criticized Apple, considering that six years earlier, he was not so afraid of throwing punches at the company. Interesting post all around about…

    Eli Schiff:

    Arment too let his fear be known: “I’m scared of having damaged my relationship with Apple.” It is highly interesting that Arment of all people now regrets and fears having criticized Apple, considering that six years earlier, he was not so afraid of throwing punches at the company.

    Interesting post all around about how people criticize Apple.

  • Scenery for Mac

    Really sweet new Mac app which provides a dead simple way to put your app screenshots on beautiful images. Very nice work, and a great pricing model too. If you work on apps, add this to list.

    Really sweet new Mac app which provides a dead simple way to put your app screenshots on beautiful images. Very nice work, and a great pricing model too.

    If you work on apps, add this to list.

  • MagSafe Has Never Been Great For Light Laptops

    Yours truly, in my review of the 2010 MacBook Air: The computer is so light that when sitting on the couch cushion and charging I am not at all confident that the MagSafe would release before the computer would get yanked to the floor. I thankfully have yet to test this in the “real world”…

    Yours truly, in my review of the 2010 MacBook Air:

    The computer is so light that when sitting on the couch cushion and charging I am not at all confident that the MagSafe would release before the computer would get yanked to the floor. I thankfully have yet to test this in the “real world” but in giving it a few tugs it seems to be that 60% of the time the MagSafe pops loose. It really depends on the material the Air is sitting on as the lack of weight in the machine means that it needs some friction to help that MagSafe release without pulling the Air to the ground.

    Puts things in perspective a bit.

    (Apologies for the missing images, I’ll have to search for those.)

  • The Future of Bad Watch Predictions

    Marco Arment: The dumbwatch industry’s best hopes are either their own successful lines of Android Wear watches, or praying that the overlap between their customers and smartwatch buyers doesn’t get very big. Oh, yeah, no. I'm guessing Marco isn't a watch person. Which really isn't that hard of a guess to make given that he…

    Marco Arment:

    The dumbwatch industry’s best hopes are either their own successful lines of Android Wear watches, or praying that the overlap between their customers and smartwatch buyers doesn’t get very big.

    Oh, yeah, no. I'm guessing Marco isn't a watch person. Which really isn't that hard of a guess to make given that he uses the term “dumbwatch” — a term akin to 'iTouch'.

  • The Billionaire’s Typewriter

    While on the topic of blogging, I couldn’t agree with this post more.

    While on the topic of blogging, I couldn’t agree with this post more.

  • For Bloggers

    I’m actually quite tired of talking about what we call blogs, or don’t call them. Or the permalink structure, or who gives a shit. When people ask me what I do, outside of work, I tell them I write. When they ask what I write I tell them I write a blog. If they laugh…

    I’m actually quite tired of talking about what we call blogs, or don’t call them. Or the permalink structure, or who gives a shit.

    When people ask me what I do, outside of work, I tell them I write. When they ask what I write I tell them I write a blog. If they laugh I tell them the cold hard stats, just as I tell the world.

    At that point they either shut up, or fuck off, either one I am fine with. ((I link to Josh only because that was the tab that was open, and he’s way to nice to use “fuck off” and it really needed to be said here.))

  • How People Sleep When They’re Not Surrounded by Electronics

    Greg Ferenstein: In rural Brazil, residents tended to fall asleep around 9:20 and wake up around 6:30. In comparison, the hyper-connected citizens of London went to bed closer to midnight (11:15 PM) and wake up at 8:30 AM.

    Greg Ferenstein:

    In rural Brazil, residents tended to fall asleep around 9:20 and wake up around 6:30. In comparison, the hyper-connected citizens of London went to bed closer to midnight (11:15 PM) and wake up at 8:30 AM.

  • OmniOutliner for iPhone

    Full featured: yes. Perfect: no.

    The OmniGroup has been making a big push of late to make all of their apps universal iOS apps, and that means some apps that were never on the iPhone before, are now making their way to the device. This week it is one of my favorite apps: OmniOutliner.

    I’ve been a long time OmniOutliner user, so when OmniOutliner came to the iPad it became my go to way to outline. The biggest missing piece for me was always the iPhone app. Once you find a good tool on one platform, you can’t help but yearn for it on all the platforms you use. ((Yes, that a Ulysses reference.))

    (more…)

  • The Fuzzy, Insane Math That’s Creating So Many Billion-Dollar Tech Companies

    Sarah Frier and Eric Newcomer: Here’s the secret to how Silicon Valley calculates the value of its hottest companies: The numbers are sort of made-up. That’s basically all you need to read there.

    Sarah Frier and Eric Newcomer:

    Here’s the secret to how Silicon Valley calculates the value of its hottest companies: The numbers are sort of made-up.

    That’s basically all you need to read there.