Recent Articles

Ole Begemann on the design of his 6 plus:

The way the display glass curves around the sides is stunning and feels great in the hand. There is almost no discernible seam between glass and aluminum. It must have taken Apple’s industrial design team tons of work to arrive at this level of workmanship. The curves also make the built-in swipe gestures feel a lot more natural.

I am in 100% agreement here, and in fact his entire ‘design’ segment of his first impressions are spot on.

Stephen Hackett:

The iPhone 6 is actually 17 grams heavier than the 5S but it feels lighter, due to not being as dense. The glass over the screen is thinner, making taps feel more hollow than on the old phone, or even the iPad. The combination of these things makes the iPhone 6 feel cheaper than the 5S somehow.

I agree with most of Hackett’s review, but this blurb I have to strongly disagree with. To me the fit and finish of the iPhone 6, feel in hand, and ever other detail feels leaps and bounds better than the iPhone 5s. It’s not even close if you ask me. I’m not sure what he means about feeling more hollow, it feels more solid to me. The iPhone 5S always felt kind of empty to me.

The iPhone 6 feels like solid metal and glass.

This is one of my favorite features about iOS 8. It works well, and you can put in a lot of stuff. Do note that you can only see this if you use a passcode to lock your iPhone, but you are doing that right?

One thing I added to the medical notes section: a reward for returning my phone.

I showed this to a coworker when iOS 8 launched and his response was: who will ever find that? Indeed it is a bit hidden, but iOS is so prevalent that I suspect it won’t take cabbies, or EMTs long to be knowledgeable about this.

Craig Hockenberry:

How many apps on your iPhone or iPad have a built-in browser?

Would it surprise you to know that every one of those apps could eavesdrop on your typing? Even when it’s in a secure login screen with a password field?

Oh boy.

Dan Provost:

I am biased, obviously, but I am of the opinion that if you are putting that much time into the creation of your time-lapse, you should have some say over the final output.

Bob O’Donnell:

The reason is, we’ve now reached a point where there are too many apps (yes, I said it) and there needs to be more focus on quality versus quantity. But if everyone involved seems to think building more mobile apps is their ticket to millions, the problem is just going to get worse. And that’s, ultimately, why I believe the app ecosystem could end up buckling under its own weight.

MG Siegler:

Radio Shack stores seem to be just the right size. The key would be to curate only the best-of-the-best Android devices, Google devices, Microsoft devices, Sony devices, etc. Not everything, just the best.

Really smart plan.

In 2005 I co-wrote a senior paper for our business course on how to turn around Radio Shack. Our idea was very similar, only instead of focusing on devices, we thought it would be more focused on video gaming — a sign of the times I guess. Either way the concept was the same: small selection of really great things, and things that the employees had a deep understanding of.

This very much reflects the deep knowledge tradition of the chain. I wish they would do it.

Gabe Weatherhead:

If you rely on one handed use, I can easily dismiss the 6 Plus as an option. If you want the most portable and powerful pocket computer then the 6 Plus is almost perfect.

Gabe Weatherhead:

My interpretation of the documentation is that a keyboard extension can enable network access if it is for the purpose of improving the application. What improvements warrant this, is up to the app developer.

Don’t worry, not a single keyboard out there is worth it at this point.

This week my guest is Conor McClure and together we tackle the nerd relationship with health and fitness. We look at standing to work, walking, step counting, and other ‘fitness’ trackers.

There’s also a little giveaway challenge so be sure to listen.

Tim Cook:

Finally, I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.

That's almost like a dare to the FISA courts: “Try us, and you'll see what the $100 billion in the bank is for.” I love it.

John Moltz:

As it turns out, Apple’s product image for the iPod touch also omits the bump.

Dustin Curtis:

The reason current voice interfaces suck is because they force the speaker to consciously enter a “voice” mode and then create context around the action they want the computer to perform. This makes no sense; the computer should just always be listening for potential commands within the context of whatever the user is doing.

While out of town this weekend I was talking with Shawn Blanc about the new design here. He mentioned that one frustration he has is there is nothing to indicate that he is logged in.

Technically this is not true, the menus change when you are logged in, but practically this is true. I added a bit of welcome text to the header of the site, so if you are logged in you will see that, if you are not, then you will not see the text.

If you hit the link, you should be taken to your profile. If you want to change what displays just follow the link and change the ‘Display Name’ dropdown to what you want to be read. (It populates that drop down from: username, First name, Last name, nickname.)