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Working only on my iPad is a dream, but it’s also not that far off.
Tim Cook opened a never-healing wound when he relayed to Daisuke Wakabayashi:
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook says he does 80% of the work of running the world’s most valuable company on an iPad.
I personally didn’t think much of that statement because my own personal experience lends me to think this is likely true.
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Brian S Hall: Last week, I praised Nadella for his bold, borderline revolutionary statements. A few days later he morphs into a parody of his predecessor.
Brian S Hall:
Last week, I praised Nadella for his bold, borderline revolutionary statements. A few days later he morphs into a parody of his predecessor.
The Editors at The New Yorker: On a desktop, on a tablet, on a phone, the site has become, we believe, much easier to navigate and read, much richer in its offerings, and a great deal more attractive. For months, our editorial and tech teams have been sardined into a boiler room, subsisting only on…
The Editors at The New Yorker:
On a desktop, on a tablet, on a phone, the site has become, we believe, much easier to navigate and read, much richer in its offerings, and a great deal more attractive. For months, our editorial and tech teams have been sardined into a boiler room, subsisting only on stale cheese sandwiches and a rationed supply of tap water, working without complaint on intricate questions of design, functionality, access, and what is so clinically called “the user experience.”
What you notice is that they are aware of what is key to their business success: the content. So when you scroll down into the story a bit your eye just sees the story. It’s lovely in that there are very few bullshit distractions.
Kuba Baran has a nice post on his Speedtest.net Keyboard Maestro macro and he uses sed to strip out some of the unneeded crap that my macro spits out. Nice work.
Kuba Baran has a nice post on his Speedtest.net Keyboard Maestro macro and he uses sed to strip out some of the unneeded crap that my macro spits out. Nice work.
Smart work from Second Gear, as Glassboard is a really fantastic service.
Smart work from Second Gear, as Glassboard is a really fantastic service.
If you do even one presentation in your life, you owe it to those you are presenting to read this book. I have immense respect and trust for David Sparks, and this book is fantastic. As I write this he is already topping the iBooks charts — so you don’t have to just take my…
If you do even one presentation in your life, you owe it to those you are presenting to read this book. I have immense respect and trust for David Sparks, and this book is fantastic.
As I write this he is already topping the iBooks charts — so you don’t have to just take my word for it.
Just remember that a presentation isn’t just something conference speakers do, most of us have to present information all time, this will make you better. And maybe that lands you a better job. Maybe
Lee Hutchinson: Nadella’s e-mail stretches to almost 600 words in six paragraphs—too long by at least half considering the content. It’s bloated by stock corporate phrases totally devoid of meaning—Microsoft will “drive greater accountability” and will have “more productive, impactful teams.” The company will “accelerate the flow of information.” The e-mail even manages to drop…
Lee Hutchinson:
Nadella’s e-mail stretches to almost 600 words in six paragraphs—too long by at least half considering the content. It’s bloated by stock corporate phrases totally devoid of meaning—Microsoft will “drive greater accountability” and will have “more productive, impactful teams.” The company will “accelerate the flow of information.” The e-mail even manages to drop in hyper-double-super buzzwords like “agile” and “lean.” I heard and read the same words at Boeing, and the same phrases show up in every big company's layoff notices. They're the corporate version of the “Oh, it's not you, it's me” break-up response.
This is a great analysis of why Nadellas Microsoft is the same Microsoft it always has been. In other words another out of touch CEO.
Mark Taylor: Verizon has confirmed that everything between that router in their network and their subscribers is uncongested – in fact has plenty of capacity sitting there waiting to be used. Above, I confirmed exactly the same thing for the Level 3 network. So in fact, we could fix this congestion in about five minutes…
Mark Taylor:
Verizon has confirmed that everything between that router in their network and their subscribers is uncongested – in fact has plenty of capacity sitting there waiting to be used. Above, I confirmed exactly the same thing for the Level 3 network. So in fact, we could fix this congestion in about five minutes simply by connecting up more 10Gbps ports on those routers. Simple. Something we’ve been asking Verizon to do for many, many months, and something other providers regularly do in similar circumstances. But Verizon has refused. So Verizon, not Level 3 or Netflix, causes the congestion. Why is that? Maybe they can’t afford a new port card because they’ve run out – even though these cards are very cheap, just a few thousand dollars for each 10 Gbps card which could support 5,000 streams or more. If that’s the case, we’ll buy one for them. Maybe they can’t afford the small piece of cable between our two ports. If that’s the case, we’ll provide it. Heck, we’ll even install it.
The only people shocked by this are Verizon PR reps.
Stefan Constantinescu: Here’s the Amazon Fire Phone’s first 30 second television commercial. It’s frankly terrible, but interestingly enough, none of the phone’s key features (Firefly and BS 3D) are demoed. That’s an understatement.
Stefan Constantinescu:
Here’s the Amazon Fire Phone’s first 30 second television commercial. It’s frankly terrible, but interestingly enough, none of the phone’s key features (Firefly and BS 3D) are demoed.
That’s an understatement.
A quick tool for translating time into multiple time zones for planning.
One thing I have run into of late is time zone questions when I am trying to schedule guests on my podcast. “Did you mean Pacific, or Central?”
It’s a bit annoying, and I’ve always meant to make a better way to do this. So I wanted to create something that grabbed my location, knew the time zone, and spit out the conversion — but I haven’t figured that out yet.
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Bradley Chambers: Because of that, I always use a VPN when I am using WiFi other than at my house, my work, or my inlaws. While I am using OpenVPN with a 3rd party VPN service, I don’t recommend that for most people because it is a lot more complicated to setup. I highly recommend…
Bradley Chambers:
Because of that, I always use a VPN when I am using WiFi other than at my house, my work, or my inlaws. While I am using OpenVPN with a 3rd party VPN service, I don’t recommend that for most people because it is a lot more complicated to setup. I highly recommend Cloak for folks wanting a really easy to use VPN service for Mac and iOS.
Yep, Cloak is a great service.
One of the greatest cars ever made.
This post on Jalopnik by Doug DeMuro caught my eye, as he discussed a little bit about the E39 M5 — a car dear to my heart as it is my daily driver. In fact, I drive a 2002 as was the vintage which DeMuro wrote about it. In the post, which is largely irrelevant for the sake of this post, he said one thing that got me thinking:
But most enthusiasts tend to agree there was something really special about the third-generation model, the “E39,” which was sold from 2000 to 2003. And it’s easy to see why: the E39 M5 looked perfect. It had the right power. It was the right size. It was solid and well-built. For many BMW fans, the E39 is the best M5 that ever existed.
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Ulysses III, my favorite writing app, is 50% as part of Mac App Store’s Explore Your Creativity promotion. Go get it, it’s an app I highly recommend.
Ulysses III, my favorite writing app, is 50% as part of Mac App Store’s Explore Your Creativity promotion. Go get it, it’s an app I highly recommend.
I like his ‘hisender’ macro, that’s clever.
I like his ‘hisender’ macro, that’s clever.
Om Malik on the nightmare leadership at Microsoft: And Nokia, the once haloed and peerless brand when it came to phones was sold to Microsoft for relative pittance. Elop heads up Microsoft’s Devices Group. Think of it this way — since Elop took over as Nokia CEO, the company has cut over 50,000 jobs (if…
Om Malik on the nightmare leadership at Microsoft:
And Nokia, the once haloed and peerless brand when it came to phones was sold to Microsoft for relative pittance. Elop heads up Microsoft’s Devices Group. Think of it this way — since Elop took over as Nokia CEO, the company has cut over 50,000 jobs (if you include today’s announcement.) That is just mind boggling. That bumbling strategy which was the hallmark of Elop’s Nokia tenure still continues — in other words, Microsoft doesn’t really have a Nokia strategy.
Going head first into mobile, by firing most of the mobile staff…
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on July 10th, 2014:
At our core, Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world. We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more.
This is a widely circulated statement, and is clear direction for Nadella that the future of Microsoft lies in two areas: mobile and the cloud. That’s smart, because that’s where the future of computing really is right now.
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This week I am joined by Jonathan Poritsky to talk about media. We touch on Hollywood being out of touch with technological reality, the ins and outs of streaming with Hulu, Netflix and everyone else. Thanks to my sponsors, Dark Sky and Timelytics — two fantastic iOS apps.
This week I am joined by Jonathan Poritsky to talk about media. We touch on Hollywood being out of touch with technological reality, the ins and outs of streaming with Hulu, Netflix and everyone else.
Thanks to my sponsors, Dark Sky and Timelytics — two fantastic iOS apps.
A few months back Matt Gemmell wrote a post titled “Small Screen Productivity” and it’s one of my favorite posts. What I love is that it’s not some exhaustive listing of the apps he uses, or the tricks, but rather a good look at how he is productive on a smaller screen. This one bit…
A few months back Matt Gemmell wrote a post titled “Small Screen Productivity” and it’s one of my favorite posts. What I love is that it’s not some exhaustive listing of the apps he uses, or the tricks, but rather a good look at how he is productive on a smaller screen. This one bit from Gemmell in particular is something I love:
I think that small screens are only claustrophobic if you feel you have to physically interact with the space. If you’re mousing around, you can feel the dimensions. The pointer can bounce off the screen edges, and you have a visceral sense of the area available.
That’s something I have personally found true, and even though my screen is 15”, there is still a lot of little things I do to maximize flow beyond just learning to leave the mouse be.
To me, what feels most constraining about any tool, or environment, are the things that inhibit your workflow.
I cannot focus when my kids are yelling at me, or when I am sitting in a coffee shop and I hear the conversations of others. I cannot bear down when I am uncomfortable, my arms contorted in an airplane seat. I need to be in the right environment, just as I need my tools to be setup in a way that works for me.
With that in mind here are some of the things which can make OS X feel all the more powerful, and custom tailored, to you, but a word of warning: you must use them correctly. Use them incorrectly, and confusion is all you will gain.
I recommend using a trackpad with your Mac because the addition of a trackpad makes for using the built in Spaces a lot better. On a small screen in particular it can make you feel like you have multiple displays.
I personally use a ton of spaces, but typically I have at least three going at any given time. Like Gemmell I like to define my spaces for what I do in each space, typically:
Another key is to let Apple arrange the spaces for you. In the Mission Control preference I allow the spaces to be rearrange based on recent use. This is great when you go to swipe from Space to Space as you can keep the spaces you are actively working on grouped closely together.
It can be a bit overwhelming to use Spaces at first, but once you get going it negates the need to minimize and hide apps. Which is really killer. It also allows you to achieve better focus on a per app basis — much like the focus you gain when using iOS — without having to force the app into fullscreen mode.
Speaking of which, in the same vein as Spaces is fullscreen mode for apps. I’ll caution you a bit about fullscreen mode, because fullscreen mode is not equally great. While I typically always have Ulysses in fullscreen mode, I never have OmniOutliner in fullscreen mode because the latter just seems more cumbersome to use in fullscreen mode.
There’s two types of fullscreen mode, as far as I can tell:
It’s my sincere hope that more Mac developers start paying better attention to fullscreen mode — as there is a lot to be improved here.
Of the apps I use regularly, here are the ones that typically live in fullscreen mode:
Of those Ulysses is the only app with an excellent fullscreen mode — the rest are just easier to keep in fullscreen mode rather than seeing their window in a Space. and fullscreen mode is useable for those apps.
I find fullscreen mode good for apps that: are writing oriented; or you need to be able to bear down and focus on; or are just apps that you want to always keep open, but don’t always want to see.
Justin Blanton on the iA Writer look:
In fact, I’ve become so enamored with its aesthetic that I’ve spent a ton of time trying to replicate it across a few of my most-used apps–including the Readable bookmarklet I use for reading (long) web articles in a browser–and, I think it’s safe to say, I’ve succeeded.
iA Writer was a revelation for me too, and like Blanton I have taken a lot of time since then to customize the look and feel of the apps which allow it. For me that means using a standard set of colors and fonts where possible:
Any app that allows me to tweak the colors of it, that’s what I set the theme to look like.
But why is that important for making your Mac workflow better? For me, as everything starts to feel more consistent on my Mac things feel more comfortable.
Changing fonts and color schemes isn’t about being custom, it’s about being comfortable. Find something you love and plaster it everywhere so that every app feels like home. Just as the right decor in your office is important, so too is the right font, in the right colors.
I am a huge power tools user, as in powerful apps that extend and automate functionality on your Mac. This isn’t the time or place for exhaustive reasoning on these apps, instead I recommend that you get at least one power tool app and learn how to use the piss out of it.
Doesn’t really matter which one, they are all very good helpers. There’s five that I would choose between if I were to start out again: Alfred, LaunchBar, Keyboard Maestro, and TextExpander.
Again it doesn’t matter which one you pick, just pick one and stick with it until you are finding yourself unable to use a computer that doesn’t have it installed. Then you can move on to another power tool app.
Here’s the power tool apps I use, and how I use them (in brief):
Whichever app you pick, the app won’t make you instantly better — you have to learn to use these tools by integrating them into your daily workflow. But once you get the hang of them you will be saving a lot of time each time you use your Mac. If I use a Mac missing anyone of those tools, I feel like I might as well be on Linux. ((Next year is the year of Linux right?))
Not to be overlooked is a built-in power tool in Automator. It’s not as powerful as the others listed above, but it does have one huge advantage: it can integrate with services in Finder. Which means you can use a fairly easy to understand graphical interface to build actions for files.
I have a few that resize images, and I can do that just by right clicking a file and navigating to services. All-in-all this is very handy, and if you want to get started on the cheap — don’t pass this up. It is also very easy to learn, so you won’t need to do anything but play around with it.
I’ve relentlessly pursued streamlining my workflow over the years, and the one thing that I have found to be true is that you must do it one bit at a time. Creating twenty new workflows may be faster, but you won’t remember how they work, or when and how to use those workflows.
And thus you’ve wasted your time.
Instead, I’ve found that I tweak and work on one workflow change until it is second nature and working perfectly. Then I move on to the next. Like sanding a piece of wood, you have to go little by little until you have a smooth board.
Paul Ford: Did you ever notice, wrote my friend Finn Smith via chat, how often we (meaning programmers) reinvent the same applications? We came up with a quick list: Email, Todo lists, blogging tools, and others. Fantastic article, I could quote the entire thing.
Paul Ford:
Did you ever notice, wrote my friend Finn Smith via chat, how often we (meaning programmers) reinvent the same applications? We came up with a quick list: Email, Todo lists, blogging tools, and others.
Fantastic article, I could quote the entire thing.
The new podcast app on the block, but more to the point the new app from Marco Arment, is Overcast. I’ve downloaded it, but to be frank I actually don’t listen to any podcasts. It’s a rare occasion that I do listen to a podcast, so my commentary on the app is like Paul Thurrott…
The new podcast app on the block, but more to the point the new app from Marco Arment, is Overcast. I’ve downloaded it, but to be frank I actually don’t listen to any podcasts. It’s a rare occasion that I do listen to a podcast, so my commentary on the app is like Paul Thurrott commenting on anything but a Microsoft press release.
Here’s what people are saying:
I played with Overcast this morning for the first time and while there are some really nice touches (suggestions based on Twitter, EQ while audio is playing) there are somethings that I really don’t like (the typography doesn’t feel very cohesive to me). Again, I don’t use podcast apps so I’m a poor judge here.
Either way, it plays podcasts just fine, so I don’t see a reason not to get it for free to check it out.