The Brooks Review

Top Posts

Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022

Recent Articles

  • Sun — Simple Weather App

  • Both iA Writer for Mac and for iOS Receive Significant Updates

  • At Least 12 Killed, 50 Injured in Colorado Movie Shooting

  • For the Week Ending July 20th, 2012

    This week was all Google, all week long — but don’t worry the TSA made an appearance. ### Yahoo! Former Google executive Marissa Mayer made the move from what seemed like a dead end job, [to the CEO of the once web darling, Yahoo](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/googles-marissa-mayer-tapped-as-yahoos-chief/?hp&pagewanted=all). This is a pretty big deal in tech, and [it got…

    This week was all Google, all week long — but don’t worry the TSA made an appearance.

    ### Yahoo!

    Former Google executive Marissa Mayer made the move from what seemed like a dead end job, [to the CEO of the once web darling, Yahoo](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/googles-marissa-mayer-tapped-as-yahoos-chief/?hp&pagewanted=all). This is a pretty big deal in tech, and [it got the nerds all riled up](http://dearmarissamayer.com/) — was it Mayer herself that prompted [this great response to them](http://www.flickr.com/dearinternet)?

    [*The Week* has a nice roundup of the hubbub surrounding Mayer’s hiring](http://theweek.com/article/index/230636/marissa-mayer-can-yahoos-new-ceo-turn-the-company-around), but personally I think this was a savvy move by Yahoo and gives them a fighting chance at righting the ship — I give Yahoo better odds than Microsoft.

    Not everything is roses in the Mayer hiring, well at least not for Google as [Marco Arment points out](http://www.marco.org/2012/07/17/the-real-reason-marissa-mayer-left-google):

    >Every time Apple loses one of its Senior VPs, we see stories questioning Apple’s leadership and future, suggesting that there may be significant inner turmoil.

    >Well, Google just lost one of its top people.

    [Steven Levy points out in his article for Wired](http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/why-marissa-mayer-the-ultimate-googler-makes-sense-for-yahoo/), most Googlers he talks to don’t see themselves at Google in 5 years. [Something to keep on eye on](https://brooksreview.net/2012/07/google-mayer/).

    ### Nexus Se7en

    Speaking of Google, pre-orders of Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet made it in the hands of users this week and guess what? There’s a ton of reviews to read. [Most agree that this is a mighty fine tablet](http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/15/omg-he-likes-it-he-really-likes-it/), though there are some [that question the usefulness of the device](http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2012-07/googleasus-nexus-7-review-best-weird-breed).

    [Shawn Blanc, also questioned this in his write-up, concluding](http://shawnblanc.net/2012/07/the-nexus-7/):

    >Where is the magic? The fun? The incredible 3rd-party apps? It is because of these elements that the iPad is more than the sum of its parts while its competition continues to remains less than.

    I’ll post some thoughts on the tablet soon, but suffice to say — I don’t think it’s worth spending money on.

    ### This Week in TSA Stupidity

    [The TSA freaked out this week](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/07/17/man-claims-worlds-largest-penis-got-him-frisked-at-sfo/) as a man with a world record holding penis had a “concerning” bulge in his pants. Oh TSA, you would be the government agency to force me to write the word penis on my site.

    ### Apple Ordered to Buy Samsung Some Nice Ads?

    [So says a U.K. judge, that ruled Samsung tablets are *not* a knock-off of the iPad](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-18/apple-must-publish-notice-samsung-didn-t-copy-ipad-judge-says.html) — and therefore Apple must now buy ads in top publications, as well as post on their U.K. website, that he hath decreed Samsung tablets to not be iPad knock-offs.

    We’ll see how that works out for you.

    I can’t see Apple ever complying with this. If there is a fine, I bet Apple pays it up to $400 million without even blinking. If it is an injunction against selling in the U.K., well I say Apple calls the bluff on this one — would you want to be the judge that decided no more iPads in your country? I didn’t think so.

    ### Patents

    Remember when the iPhone was announced in 2007 and Steve Jobs proudly declared something like: “we patented the crap out of this thing”. Remember that?

    We this was the week those patents started to get approved, everything from the [disappearing slider](http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/17/3165237/intellectual-properly-apple-patents-disappearing-vertical-scroll-bars) to how they display files on the screen.

    [Christina Bonnington](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/apple-patent-gui-iphone/), for Wired:
    >It may sound snoozy, but the patent — which covers graphical user interfaces ranging from email to Camera Roll to menu lists to the multi-touch interface in general — looks like a dangerous weapon for Apple as it battles Android handset makers.

    I can already hear Samsung screaming “prior art!”.

    ### Sad Days in Redmond

    [Microsoft reported it’s first *ever* quarterly loss](http://allthingsd.com/20120719/aquantive-write-down-deflates-microsoft-earnings/) as they realize the loss on an acquisition gone bad.

    That’s too bad too, because it’s been rather nice weather here in western Washington. Then again, we have had freak lightening storms all week…

    This is a big deal for Microsoft, but it’s not *that* big of a deal. The loss was basically from a bad investment, rather than the kind of losses that — say — RIM is experience, those of disinterested consumers. So while this stings, it’s more like deciding that the boat covered in moss on the side of your house — yeah that boat — it’s no longer an “asset” to your family, rather than it is about actually tanking your business.

    ### Sad Days for the Country

    [A shooting in Colorado at a Dark Knight Rises movie premier has left a dozen dead and many more injured](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-20/14-killed-as-many-as-50-injured-in-colorado-movie-shooting.html). Most debates that will arise from this shooting, will sadly, be the wrong debate to be having.

  • Typekit’s New, Improved Embed Code

    The Typekit Blog

    The Typekit Blog

  • Microsoft Reports First Loss in History

  • Google’s Data Advantage Over Apple’s Siri

  • Marco Arment on Dropbox

    Rob Sobers writing about a statement Marco Arment made on his podcast about Dropbox: >Marco’s response echoes my personal feelings about Dropbox and other public cloud services – treat Dropbox as though it’s nearly public. **Marco’s rule of thumb is that he doesn’t put anything in Dropbox that could potentially be harmful or embarrassing if…

    Rob Sobers writing about a statement Marco Arment made on his podcast about Dropbox:
    >Marco’s response echoes my personal feelings about Dropbox and other public cloud services – treat Dropbox as though it’s nearly public. **Marco’s rule of thumb is that he doesn’t put anything in Dropbox that could potentially be harmful or embarrassing if it were leaked.**

    Regular readers will know that I am paranoid about this kind of data breach. So my solution? Sensitive stuff goes inside an encrypted DMG inside of Dropbox. I am willing to trade a bit of security for the ease of use Dropbox offers.

    Also remember that there is a Dropbox like solution that is encrypted on the user end, called: [SpiderOak](https://spideroak.com).

    Or your can use [this tool to encrypt first](http://getsecretsync.com/ss/) (never tried it).

  • The B&B Podcast #70: Really Great Frisbee Thrower

    >Shawn and Ben talk about the Nexus 7, Android, the tablet market, the UK ruling for Apple to place ads saying Samsung didn’t copy them, and how to grill a steak. [Shawn also *made* me do an After Dark](http://5by5.tv/afterdark/197).

    >Shawn and Ben talk about the Nexus 7, Android, the tablet market, the UK ruling for Apple to place ads saying Samsung didn’t copy them, and how to grill a steak.

    [Shawn also *made* me do an After Dark](http://5by5.tv/afterdark/197).

  • A One, Two Punch for Yahoo!

    This post makes one huge assumption: I assume that Marissa Mayer does not want Yahoo to continue to suck. If that assumption holds true, here’s two acquisitions Yahoo should make to become awesome, and a service that I use daily. ### Acquire 500px [Just yesterday I pondered about Yahoo buying 500px](https://brooksreview.net/2012/07/photo-tip/), I awoke today thinking…

    This post makes one huge assumption: I assume that Marissa Mayer does not want Yahoo to continue to suck.

    If that assumption holds true, here’s two acquisitions Yahoo should make to become awesome, and a service that I use daily.

    ### Acquire 500px

    [Just yesterday I pondered about Yahoo buying 500px](https://brooksreview.net/2012/07/photo-tip/), I awoke today thinking it is an even better idea than it was yesterday. The play here is simple: buy 500px and rebrand it as “the new Flickr”. Migrate the entire existing Flickr user base and instantly make them all happy.

    Next get hard to work on a mobile app for iOS uploads and see about getting direct integration into iOS from Apple for iOS 7/8.

    This is smart because 500px is a business already, not some free service that Yahoo would need to figure out how to monetize.

    I doubt every Flickr user would be happy with this, but it’s a better option than the “dying the slow death” path that Flickr is currently on.

    ### Acquire DuckDuckGo

    It would pain me to see DuckDuckGo bastardized with ads, but I think there is a smart play here. Yahoo buys DuckDuckGo and starts serving ads on it, and make it the default Yahoo search engine. Yahoo is already an option on most browsers and devices (like iOS) so the potential user base is there. Putting the Yahoo brand behind the DuckDuckGo power, might be a win-win for both.

    Of course the awesome privacy features of DuckDuckGo may suffer, but I have a solution for that: charge users to keep DuckDuckGo as it is — if they want. Figure out how much each user is worth to you in ad dollars. Divide that in half, and charge that a year for “pro” DuckDuckGo users. I bet it comes out to less than $10/yr — cheap!

    This *is* a better option than [partnering with Google](http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-microsoft-search-alliance-google-127843).

    ### Who This Hurts

    This is a play against Microsoft and Google. Yahoo would become a better search engine than Bing, and an excellent alternative to Google. Yahoo would also have (once again) the strongest photo offering for everyone from mom and dad, to pro level photographers. Both businesses would be easy to integrate, have a place in the company, and be able to immediately contribute to the bottom line.

    Notice who this doesn’t come after: Apple. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? If Yahoo can show it is savvy, it would make itself a far more attractive partner to Apple than Google — and that could pay off in spades.

  • ‘What does ⌥ (the Mac option key symbol) represent?’

    This is pretty clever, whether or not it is true. I think the worst of all the symbols on current Mac keyboards is the Launch Center / Spaces key that is three randomly placed rectangles. Everything else on a Mac keyboard is so very neat and tidy, then you have that F3 keys and it’s…

    This is pretty clever, whether or not it is true. I think the worst of all the symbols on current Mac keyboards is the Launch Center / Spaces key that is three randomly placed rectangles.

    Everything else on a Mac keyboard is so very neat and tidy, then you have that F3 keys and it’s unorganized mess — it drives me nuts.

    Which brings me to one last point: the option key on Macs doesn’t show that symbol — it’s something that you see in menus when looking for keyboard shortcuts. So how long before Apple rids their keyboards of the Command key symbol? The word is already clearly spelled out and it would lend to a cleaner look. There’s got to be a traditionalist at Apple keeping that symbol on Mac keyboards.

  • Quote of the Day: Marco Arment

    “If given the choice between writing for free or censoring myself, I’ll write for free.” — Marco Arment

    “If given the choice between writing for free or censoring myself, I’ll write for free.”

  • Tutorial: Enhance Photos With Curves

    A great curves video tutorial from Aaron Nace on the 500px blog. If you take photos at all, then you should watch this because it can really do wonders for your photos. This got me to thinking about something else though — and so excuse this tagent. One the last remaining, somewhat relevant, Yahoo! properties…

    A great curves video tutorial from Aaron Nace on the 500px blog. If you take photos at all, then you should watch this because it can really do wonders for your photos.

    This got me to thinking about something else though — and so excuse this tagent. One the last remaining, somewhat relevant, Yahoo! properties is Flickr. But Flickr hasn’t been great in years. I [recently stopped using it in favor of 500px](https://brooksreview.net/2012/04/500px-2/) and think you should give 500px a shot if haven’t yet.

    Now thinking about Mayer being the new Yahoo! CEO, Flickr, and 500px — it seems to me like right now 500px is the ultimate realization of what Flickr could have been. The photos on 500px are stunning, the design is top notch, the site is easy and fast to use — it’s a great site and a better product.

    So it occurs to me, what with Mayer being branded a product person, that 500px seems like it would be an exceedingly smart acquisition for Yahoo!. ((Note: I have no clue what to do here. Yahoo has an `!` at the end of the name, but what happens when I need to say then name and then end the sentence? What a mess.)) Yahoo! could give it the funding, backing, and exposure — transition all Flickr users to it and boom: instant relevance.

    Just a thought.

  • ‘Can a Design Firm Differentiate an Android Device?’

    Be sure to watch the video in this linked post. Frog design has partnered with Sharp to make a new smartphone for the Japanese market. They are using Android with a high customized skin — but really the customization goes deeper than just the skin. The way to think of this is like this: base…

    Be sure to watch the video in this linked post. Frog design has partnered with Sharp to make a new smartphone for the Japanese market. They are using Android with a high customized skin — but really the customization goes deeper than just the skin. The way to think of this is like this: base Android is a Mr. Potato head with body parts randomly put on him, this Frog version is the same Mr. Potato head with the body parts arrange correctly.

    The video makes the design and interaction look fantastic — I’d love to try one out.

  • Google, Mayer, and the Future

    [Marco Arment brings up a really good point with regard to Marissa Mayer leaving Google to become the CEO of Yahoo!](http://www.marco.org/2012/07/17/the-real-reason-marissa-mayer-left-google): >Every time Apple loses one of its Senior VPs, we see stories questioning Apple’s leadership and future, suggesting that there may be significant inner turmoil. >Well, Google just lost one of its top people.…

    [Marco Arment brings up a really good point with regard to Marissa Mayer leaving Google to become the CEO of Yahoo!](http://www.marco.org/2012/07/17/the-real-reason-marissa-mayer-left-google):
    >Every time Apple loses one of its Senior VPs, we see stories questioning Apple’s leadership and future, suggesting that there may be significant inner turmoil.

    >Well, Google just lost one of its top people.

    Mayer was the 20th employee at Google and has been with the company for most of the company’s existence. So I think Arment’s statement is very interesting. What happens when Google loses top “talent” — is that bad for the company?

    Steven Levy seems to have had a lot of access to not only Mayer, but Google itself, [and in his post for Wired he notes](http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/why-marissa-mayer-the-ultimate-googler-makes-sense-for-yahoo/):

    >And it must have been disappointing that she was not included in the “A” team of top product lieutenants that Larry Page chose when he became CEO last year.

    That surprised me, I always thought she was one of the top people at Google — certainly the only non-creepy Google execs. ((Looking at you Schmidty.)) So Levy is painting a picture of someone who seems to have hit their peak at a company — only natural then for an ambitious person to leave.

    More to Arment’s point though is this passage from Levy in the aforementioned Wired article:

    >I did an informal survey of the young managers and asked each to guess if he or she would be working for Google in five years. Not a single one answered in the affirmative. When I reported this to Mayer (we were in Israel by then), she was unruffled. Actually, she told me, it would be a positive thing, because Google DNA would be spread throughout Silicon Valley, to the benefit of all.

    I certainly wouldn’t want to run a company, and train new employees, if every one of those employees didn’t expect to be there in five years time. That line about spreading Google DNA just seems like a bunch of PR brush-off speak to me — this matters. Should be interesting to see how Google changes as they continually turn over managers.

  • Quote of the Day: Craig Grannell

    “This feels like an email client designed to appeal to people bereft of emotion.” — Craig Grannell

    “This feels like an email client designed to appeal to people bereft of emotion.”

  • Scratch — Your Quick-Input Notepad

    I’ve only been using Scratch since yesterday, but I have to say it looks to have ousted Drafts as my go to note/scratch pad app. In my testing it launches faster than Drafts, and offers a lot of little clever features. For one, it supports Markdown with a special row of keys — but that’s…

    I’ve only been using Scratch since yesterday, but I have to say it looks to have ousted Drafts as my go to note/scratch pad app. In my testing it launches faster than Drafts, and offers a lot of little clever features.

    For one, it supports Markdown with a special row of keys — but that’s almost trivial now in iOS apps. What’s really nice is that it has a special row of keys that give you other keys that would before cause you to tap and change the keyboard. In my case: the em dash is there. I use a lot — a lot — of em dashes, so for me this is a time saver.

    What’s odd is that the app doesn’t have a new note button, instead a delete this note button. Which at first was annoying, but really it’s more like taking the current page of paper you are writing on and tossing it aside, only to see a new — fresh — sheet of paper.

    Ok, before I wrap up this mini-review, let me point out two other features:

    – You can append what you just wrote to a text file in Dropbox. Append people. Very cool.
    – You can export just the text you select, again, nice touch.

    Did I also mention you can customize that custom row of buttons?

    The icon is blue-ish though, so that was a strike against it, but then I looked harder at it in my dock and the icon has grown on me. So note the time and date (July 17, 2012) because this is a blue icon that I like.

    The biggest rub I have with the app is that when I export to Dropbox I have to navigate my entire list of Dropbox folders. I would love to setup the app so that exports to Dropbox always go to folder X and that when I append they always go to file X. That’s a nitpick though. What’s more impressive is how much this app does without ever showing a settings screen.

    It’s [$2.99 in the App Store](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scratch-your-quick-input-notepad/id533320655?mt=8) and I applaud them for charging a premium price. It’s not for everyone, but — right now — it *is* for me.

  • Checkmark

    Checkmark made the rounds a couple of weeks ago when it was announced. I have been beta testing the app for a good while now and can say that it is a really solid app. I don’t personally use it, but that has more to do with my love affair with OmniFocus than Checkmark itself.…

    Checkmark made the rounds a couple of weeks ago when it was announced. I have been beta testing the app for a good while now and can say that it is a really solid app. I don’t personally use it, but that has more to do with my love affair with OmniFocus than Checkmark itself.

    [Shawn Blanc uses the app](http://shawnblanc.net/2012/07/review-checkmark-for-iphone/), and after talking with him, I agree that Checkmark is best thought of as a Reminders Pro — that is Apple’s own Reminders app taken to the next level.

    The best explanation I can give as to why you should use Checkmark: if you love location based reminders, but you don’t love having to enter them by hand in Reminders. Checkmark really excels at this and has an added nicety of delaying the reminder when you arrive or leave a place — that’s actually exceedingly helpful.

    It’s $0.99 in the App Store and really worth checking out.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: Ikea Poang Chair

    My wife and I just picked up two of these over the weekend and I have two main things to say about this chair: 1. It is ridiculously inexpensive. This Amazon price is about what we paid at IKEA and it really is surprising that you can get this chair for that cheap. 2. It…

    My wife and I just picked up two of these over the weekend and I have two main things to say about this chair:

    1. It is ridiculously inexpensive. This Amazon price is about what we paid at IKEA and it really is surprising that you can get this chair for that cheap.
    2. It is a really comfortable chair. I know you may not believe this, but it is very comfortable. Not only that but it has a nice bounce to it that our daughter loves.

    Every item like this that I post is an item that I have tried and really like — this is no exception. You may not like IKEA stuff, but if you need a comfortable armchair for any purpose — you could do a lot worse than this chair.

    (It comes in three different wood colors and many different fusion colors and fabrics — this is just a link to one option.)

  • ‘The Retina War Is Upon Us’

    Wells Riley on designing with retina screened computers: >Whether Photoshop scales a 1x image or not, I’m still not getting a real-world representation of a pixel-perfect 1x image on a 2x screen. It just can’t happen. The screen is too good to be backwards-compatible. The problem isn’t designing for the new retina MacBook Pro, the…

    Wells Riley on designing with retina screened computers:
    >Whether Photoshop scales a 1x image or not, I’m still not getting a real-world representation of a pixel-perfect 1x image on a 2x screen. It just can’t happen. The screen is too good to be backwards-compatible.

    The problem isn’t designing for the new retina MacBook Pro, the problem is designing *on* the new retina MacBook Pro *for* non-retina screens.

    Due to some unavoidable circumstances I scrambled to work up a new theme for this site before I launched the paywall — so the entire site was designed on my retina MacBook Pro. No problem, I whipped the site up using Coda 2, tested it on my iPhone and iPad — everything looked great. Then I got to my office and tested the new design on my MacBook Air, and — oh shit — things didn’t look right. So unless you view this site on a retina machine, you are *not* viewing it how I designed it. Luckily I don’t use any image files for the design, so I haven’t had to deal with that. Also it’s a pretty basic site, but still it was a bit of trouble.

    It would be difficult, if design was my job, to not have a retina MacBook Pro, but just as difficult to design with a retina MacBook Pro. Should be interesting to see how this plays out long term.