Chris Morran: > According to reports, the TSA is removing backscatter full-body scanners, which use very small amounts of ionizing radiation, from major airports and replacing them with less-controversial millimeter wave scanners. But those X-ray scanners aren’t going to the Museum of Bad Ideas; they’re being shipped off for use at smaller airports. That’s pretty…
Chris Morran:
> According to reports, the TSA is removing backscatter full-body scanners, which use very small amounts of ionizing radiation, from major airports and replacing them with less-controversial millimeter wave scanners. But those X-ray scanners aren’t going to the Museum of Bad Ideas; they’re being shipped off for use at smaller airports.
That’s pretty funny, but this is funnier:
> The TSA says that privacy and health concerns were not behind its relocation of the backscatter devices.
I’m sure. I’m sure you are sending them to lower profile airports so that the mass-market is not being given cancer and not having their rights violated. Nothing to do with the shit storm this is causing for the TSA.
I hate these guys. We should have a national “opt-out” day where every traveler says no to scans and asks for the pat down. Better yet, we should do this on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Make it happen, again.
Since I launched the [members](https://brooksreview.net/members/) only paywall I have been plagued with RSS feed issues for members. There are a handful of people that simply cannot seem to get a reliable RSS feed, no matter what I do. And this really bugs me. So I wanted an alternative way to have new posts delivered. Given…
Since I launched the [members](https://brooksreview.net/members/) only paywall I have been plagued with RSS feed issues for members. There are a handful of people that simply cannot seem to get a reliable RSS feed, no matter what I do. And this really bugs me. So I wanted an alternative way to have new posts delivered.
Given my recent obsession with email newsletters, the downfall of Twitter, the lack of good ADN WordPress plugins, and my general need to spend the money I make on the site to actually make the site better, I had JR code a daily summary email.
If you have an account with the site, regardless of whether you are still a paying member, you can [go into your profile](https://brooksreview.net/wp-admin/profile.php) and check a box to get the daily email. It comes at 5pm pacific time, with links, titles, and excerpts of what was posted. It’s not formatted with HTML, it’s bare bones and quick.
I hope you like it.
(It is, of course, opt-in not opt-out. So be sure to go to your profile to activate it.)
Since my [post yesterday about organizing your iPhone 5 homescreen](https://brooksreview.net/2012/10/5-homscreen-organization/), I have gotten a lot of responses from people wanting the wallpaper that I use. Here it is, it’s by Matt Gemmell. (Also, you should be reading Matt’s blog.)
Since my [post yesterday about organizing your iPhone 5 homescreen](https://brooksreview.net/2012/10/5-homscreen-organization/), I have gotten a lot of responses from people wanting the wallpaper that I use. Here it is, it’s by Matt Gemmell.
Mark Jardine explaining the $20 price point of Tweetbot for Mac: >Because of Twitter’s recent enforcement of token limits, we only have a limited number of tokens available for Tweetbot for Mac. These tokens dictate how many users Tweetbot for Mac can have. The app’s limit is separate from, but much smaller than, the limit…
Mark Jardine explaining the $20 price point of Tweetbot for Mac:
>Because of Twitter’s recent enforcement of token limits, we only have a limited number of tokens available for Tweetbot for Mac. These tokens dictate how many users Tweetbot for Mac can have. The app’s limit is separate from, but much smaller than, the limit for Tweetbot for iOS. Once we use up the tokens granted to us by Twitter, we will no longer be able to sell the app to new users. Tapbots will continue to support Tweetbot for Mac for existing customers at that time.
In other words: “Twitter fucked us.”
I talked with Shawn about this today on the B&B Podcast, but Tweetbot for Mac has really been stuck in the middle of a crap storm, think about what has happened (my loose timeline):
1. Tweetbot releases the beta build.
2. Twitter pulls the API rug out from under them.
3. Lots of people (that are target Tweetbot customers) start making the shift from Twitter to App.net.
4. Tweetbot finally comes out to a smaller market that is actively trying to move away from a Twitter and faces a Twitter that is outwardly hostile toward the app — thus forcing the app to never get very large.
Yikes.
There’d be no shame in having consumed cases of scotch if you are Tapbots.
>Shawn and Ben talk about five different apps that have been released in the past couple weeks. We went over the 30 minute mark by 2 minutes and 15 seconds — it’s my fault, sorry.
>Shawn and Ben talk about five different apps that have been released in the past couple weeks.
We went over the 30 minute mark by 2 minutes and 15 seconds — it’s my fault, sorry.
Claire Cain Miller quoting Larry Page, Google’s CEO: >“Virtually everything that we want to do, I think, is somewhat at odds with locking down all of your information for uses you haven’t contemplated yet,” Mr. Page said. “That’s something I worry about.” Is it just me or does the above make zero sense? I want…
Claire Cain Miller quoting Larry Page, Google’s CEO:
>“Virtually everything that we want to do, I think, is somewhat at odds with locking down all of your information for uses you haven’t contemplated yet,” Mr. Page said. “That’s something I worry about.”
Is it just me or does the above make zero sense? I want to break it down a bit:
>Virtually everything that we want to do,
“Most things Google wants to do…”
>I think
“I’m pretty sure…”
>is somewhat at odds with locking down all of your information
“is not possible if Google locks down all of your information”
>for uses you haven’t contemplated yet
“because you can’t see the future”
>That’s something I worry about.
“I worry about you not seeing the future”?
So, here’s what I read Page as having said:
>Most things Google wants to do, I’m pretty sure, is not possible if Google locks down all of your information and that’s because you can’t see the future. And I worry about you not seeing the future.
My head still hurts. Honestly I think Page failed to say: “Users don’t know our future plans, and those plans are not possible without more sharing of user information.”
But he can’t say it that clearly, because that’d piss off privacy advocates even more.
Tina Brown and Baba Shetty outlining the Newsweek transition to all digital: >Exiting print is an extremely difficult moment for all of us who love the romance of print and the unique weekly camaraderie of those hectic hours before the close on Friday night. But as we head for the 80th anniversary of Newsweek next…
Tina Brown and Baba Shetty outlining the Newsweek transition to all digital:
>Exiting print is an extremely difficult moment for all of us who love the romance of print and the unique weekly camaraderie of those hectic hours before the close on Friday night. But as we head for the 80th anniversary of Newsweek next year we must sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its purpose—and embrace the all-digital future.
They are doing it with a single global edition focusing on original content backed by a subscriber model. Needless to say, I love this move and kudos to the Newsweek team for recognizing that such a move is needed. Let’s just hope Adobe isn’t their digital partner for this, and that they pour the resources into having a software development team that rivals the money they poured into the print editions. (They could also buy something like Mag+ that powers the excellent The Next Web Magazine.)
Ages ago (last year) I wrote a post about my methodology for organizing my iPhone and iPad homescreens. I still use that methodology for my iPad, but with the extra row of apps on the iPhone 5 I had to rethink my organization system. At first I simply added another row of apps to the…
At first I simply added another row of apps to the bottom, like I suspect so many of you did, but after a week it was clear to me that this was the wrong way to go about utilizing an extra row of apps. I was stuck, not having a methodology bugged me because there had to be a good way to organize with this extra row — then during a 3am wake up call from my daughter it hit me.
With the added screen real estate I had finally added it to my homescreen, but it was in a random spot and in the dark I couldn’t find it without looking at the screen. Then I thought, if I had it in the top corner I could find it without looking — because it’s as far as my thumb can reach along the edge of the phone.
That was the aha. So I have rethought my overly nerdy way of organizing my homescreen. Let’s take a look.
I had actually modified my original method, and the modified version can be represented as such:
Modified homescreen layout for iPhone 4S sized screens.
The numbers roughly correlate with the priority of the apps in those spots.
So for the iPhone 5 I finally realize that I need to treat the extra row, not as a row that slid into the bottom, but that attached to the top, like so:
Now what apps go at the top?
From there all I had to decide was what should go at the top. As I said, top right is my flashlight app for the simple reason that I can find that spot on my iPhone every time without looking. This, however, is not something universal for people, it just so happens that with the grip I keep on the phone, my tendency to hold it with my right hand, and the size of my hand, the top left corner is an easy tap for me without looking. Great spot for a flashlight app in other words.
Here’s my revised iPhone 5 homescreen layout methodology:
iPhone 5 homescreen layout.
I admit that this is a bit of a cop-out. I’ve numbered the top row all the same, but this is simply because the top row is not easy to access and therefore any app in that spot should be one that fits two criteria:
Is useful to have on the homescreen, but not mission critical. (Flashlight app)
Isn’t accessed all the time, but when needed is an app that you would get annoyed digging for. (Settings)
I’ve obviously thought about this layout a bit, and tailored it for my thumb range: that is the apps I tap the most, I want in a zone that is easy for my thumb(s) to get at. It’s that simple, here’s what my homescreen looks like:
My homescreen as of October 17, 2012.
I only want to note a few things:
I love having settings in the top row, like really love it.
Der Kalendar likely isn’t permanent. I’ve become annoyed with calendar apps (again) and am cycling through a bunch right now.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell iOS to allow an app to span multiple icon cell areas? I’d love for Scratch to be the size of both the OmniFocus and Scratch icon spots for really quick and easy taps.
Overall, I am pleased with my new arrangement methodology now that I have better accounted for thumb reachability and decided that the extra row of apps is added to the top, not the bottom of the screen.
Emily Heffter reporting on the overturning of a Seattle, Washington law that allowed customers to opt-out of getting a shit-pile of yellow paper left on their door steps: >The court ruled the city’s law is unconstitutional, saying yellow pages are protected, like other publications, by the First Amendment. I say we start calling the cops…
Emily Heffter reporting on the overturning of a Seattle, Washington law that allowed customers to opt-out of getting a shit-pile of yellow paper left on their door steps:
>The court ruled the city’s law is unconstitutional, saying yellow pages are protected, like other publications, by the First Amendment.
I say we start calling the cops when these are left at our doorsteps and filling out littering reports against Yellow-page providers. That’d be fun.
Tiffany Hsu: >Tired of being used as showrooms by customers testing products in person before buying them cheaper online, Target and Best Buy have both pledged to offer the same prices in stores as major Internet shops. It’s about time, as it made no sense for them to be higher. Now, price is the only…
Tiffany Hsu:
>Tired of being used as showrooms by customers testing products in person before buying them cheaper online, Target and Best Buy have both pledged to offer the same prices in stores as major Internet shops.
It’s about time, as it made no sense for them to be higher. Now, price is the only factor for why Amazon is so successful [as I have said before](https://brooksreview.net/2012/08/amazon-domination/), but there is one thing online never has: crowds.
I don’t shop online because it is cheaper — I’d actually be willing to pay more to shop online — no I shop online because there is far less hassle. What would take me 15 minutes to walk into a store and purchase takes me less than 3 minutes to purchase online. No retail store, not even Apple, can beat that. Until they do, things like this won’t matter.
*(Truth be told, what does matter is layaway programs — those are driving people into stores like mad.)*
