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It now takes a credit card to get a Gmail account — how anyone is OK with that is beyond me. If a free service ever asks me for my credit card, I immediately know that the service is “free”, not free. Update: A couple of people have told me that: a) this is optional…
It now takes a credit card to get a Gmail account — how anyone is OK with that is beyond me. If a free service ever asks me for my credit card, I immediately know that the service is “free”, not free.
Update: A couple of people have told me that: a) this is optional and/or b) this is due to Google wallet integration. Either way it is not ideal. With regard to iTunes requiring a credit card, I’d argue that you buy things with an iTunes account and not necessarily with a Gmail account.
Like the title says: ### Microsoft **1990-1999:** Apple can’t touch them. They are *the* platform going forwards — no need to worry about your OS — just buy damned fast hardware. **2000-2002:** Meh. **2002-2004:** Why is nothing new? I am tired of blue and green or silver and green start bars. **2004:** See ya. **2005-2007:**…
Like the title says:
### Microsoft
**1990-1999:** Apple can’t touch them. They are *the* platform going forwards — no need to worry about your OS — just buy damned fast hardware.
**2000-2002:** Meh.
**2002-2004:** Why is nothing new? I am tired of blue and green or silver and green start bars.
**2004:** See ya.
**2005-2007:** Microsoft now stands for everything that I see wrong with computing in general. I loathe the fact that they are so prevalent in my home state.
**2007-2008:** They are going to go bankrupt, lol.
**2009:** I forgot about them for a bit.
**2010:** They have something in Metro, I want to see more.
**2011-Writing of this post:** They are now the underdog I want to see having a come from behind upset with Windows Phone and Metro. Man, would I love to see that.
### Apple
**1990-1999:** Who would use a Mac? The floppy disks don’t even work on the PCs I have at home without converting stuff each time. These things are junk.
**2000:** My sister has a Mac, oh man is it slow.
**2001:** The university has some iBooks running OS X, I have to say it looks interesting.
**2002-2003:** If nothing else I want the PowerBook because its hardware looks sweet.
**2004:** Hello, 12” G4 PowerBook. I now see that we have something in Macs — why did it take me so long?
**2005-2007:** If you are not using a Mac I have to seriously question why I know you — clearly our differences are too great to reconcile.
**2008-2010:** I remember when it was unique to see people using a Mac. I remember when people thought my having an iPhone was unique.
**2011-Writing of this post:** Congrats on buying your Apple product, yes I know how much you were missing this whole time, yes you were a fool. I don’t want to talk about it anymore, because I don’t want to teach you why clicking the `X` is not the same as `quitting` an app. Yeah, everyone has the same iPhone as you — now take the case off.
**~2000:** Goo…what?
**2001-2008:** This is the company that is going to change everything — the world will be better and more awesome with them. See ya, Microsoft.
**2009:** It’s just Schmidt, once they oust him things will be OK.
**2010:** Maybe they are a two-hit-wonder: Search and Gmail. They are making tons of money anyways, nothing to see here, everything will get better once the Uncle Creepy leaves.
**2011:** Nope, didn’t get better.
**2012-Writing this post:** Were they ever capable of not being *evil*?
**Late 2004:** Poke.
**2005-2006:** What girl do I know who took a vacation to a bikini climate?
**2007:** This is not the same thing it used to be. I miss the days of “poke”. Wait, since when was person A not with person D????
**2008-2009:** `Person X hid a fucking easter egg on your wall.`
**2010:** *Delete.*
**2011-2012:** I can’t believe I ever used Facebook, let alone that people *still* use Facebook.
Nick Bilton: >“Conceivably, an app with access to location data could put together a history of where the user has been based on photo location,” said David E. Chen, co-founder of Curio, a company that develops iOS apps. “The location history, as well as your photos and videos, could be uploaded to a server. Once…
Nick Bilton:
>“Conceivably, an app with access to location data could put together a history of where the user has been based on photo location,” said David E. Chen, co-founder of Curio, a company that develops iOS apps. “The location history, as well as your photos and videos, could be uploaded to a server. Once the data is off of the iOS device, Apple has virtually no ability to monitor or limit its use.”
Anyone know of any apps in the App Store that are actually uploading all the photos to a remote server without the user explicitly asking the app to do so?
This isn’t a *good* thing, but in this one instance we may be making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Jacqui Cheng goes with this headline “Mercedes Benz to integrate Apple’s Siri for hands-free commands”, which made me stop and be all like “no way, rad” then I read this in her post: >According to the IBTimes, Drive Kit Plus integrates with Mercedes’ app called “Digital Drivestyle” that projects the iPhone’s screen onto the car’s…
Jacqui Cheng goes with this headline “Mercedes Benz to integrate Apple’s Siri for hands-free commands”, which made me stop and be all like “no way, rad” then I read this in her post:
>According to the IBTimes, Drive Kit Plus integrates with Mercedes’ app called “Digital Drivestyle” that projects the iPhone’s screen onto the car’s in-car screen. At that point, drivers can use Siri to perform any command that Siri can already do, like make appointments, send messages, and perform Web lookups.
So it actually sounds more like Mercedes is integrating the iPhone as the central computer for the car, not that they are licensing Siri from Apple and thus having Siri integrated into the car.
There’s a big difference between the two.
Gruber asks: >Just me or does it seem like you see a lot more than five iPads per Android tablet in the wild? (A guess: a lot of junky 7-inch Android tablets gathering dust in drawers.) It’s not just Gruber, I rarely see them. My guess: buyer’s remorse.
Gruber asks:
>Just me or does it seem like you see a lot more than five iPads per Android tablet in the wild? (A guess: a lot of junky 7-inch Android tablets gathering dust in drawers.)
It’s not just Gruber, I rarely see them. My guess: buyer’s remorse.
Arment: >It’s magical thinking Indeed.
Arment:
>It’s magical thinking
Indeed.
Ian Delaney on the Official Nokia blog about the [aforementioned](https://brooksreview.net/2012/02/come-on-2/) 41-megapixel camera: >Otherwise, you can use ‘Creative Shooting Mode’ to capture images at high resolution – 38 megapixels; then reframe, crop and zoom to find the best “picture within the picture” after the image has been shot and before saving it at convenient sizes for…
Ian Delaney on the Official Nokia blog about the [aforementioned](https://brooksreview.net/2012/02/come-on-2/) 41-megapixel camera:
>Otherwise, you can use ‘Creative Shooting Mode’ to capture images at high resolution – 38 megapixels; then reframe, crop and zoom to find the best “picture within the picture” after the image has been shot and before saving it at convenient sizes for sharing and storage.
So it shoots the pictures at 41MP and converts that to 5MP to make things more manageable, but there is a mode where you can shoot all out at 38MP. Now that is confusing, but also pretty impressive.
[TinyLetter](http://click.syndicateads.net/2012/02/TinyLetter/brooksreview.html) is the simplest way to send email newsletters. Creating signup forms is a breeze, and TinyLetter even makes it easy to reply to your readers individually. It’s also free. TinyLetter doesn’t have all the features most email services offer. It’s built for people, not business. Just compose your message, send it to your readers,…
[TinyLetter](http://click.syndicateads.net/2012/02/TinyLetter/brooksreview.html) is the simplest way to send email newsletters. Creating signup forms is a breeze, and TinyLetter even makes it easy to reply to your readers individually. It’s also free.
TinyLetter doesn’t have all the features most email services offer. It’s built for people, not business. Just compose your message, send it to your readers, and find out what they think. That’s all there is to it. 
Update: Looks like I was wrong about the camera sensor. However I do think the headline is still misleading, how much of that is the fault of Savov I don’t know. Vlad Savov on *The Verge* ran the headline: “Nokia launches 808 PureView with 41MP camera: hands-on pictures, video, and preview” and then said: >The…
Update: Looks like I was wrong about the camera sensor. However I do think the headline is still misleading, how much of that is the fault of Savov I don’t know.
Vlad Savov on *The Verge* ran the headline: “Nokia launches 808 PureView with 41MP camera: hands-on pictures, video, and preview” and then said:
>The headline spec is that the brand new camera sensor inside it is composed of 41 million pixels, however as you might have surmised, this handset doesn’t take full 41-megapixel stills. Instead, it oversamples — taking the image data from seven neighboring pixels and consolidating it into one pixel’s worth — and generates pictures roughly 5 megapixels in size.
If you knew in the first paragraph that the camera wasn’t *really* 41-megapixels then why did you run with that in the headline? Oh yeah, pageviews.
*Note that [Nokia also is a bit misleading](http://press.nokia.com/2012/02/27/nokia-advances-on-its-new-strategic-direction-rolls-out-range-of-new-mobile-devices-and-services/) in the advertising of this camera.*
Graham Spencer: >One of the biggest benefits of stripping out unnecessarily complex tools and features for Photoshop Touch, is that it really does feel streamlined, with all the (mostly) unnecessary bloat cut out. It *feels* fast and snappy for most of the time (a rare exception to this is when applying a heavy artistic effect…
Graham Spencer:
>One of the biggest benefits of stripping out unnecessarily complex tools and features for Photoshop Touch, is that it really does feel streamlined, with all the (mostly) unnecessary bloat cut out. It *feels* fast and snappy for most of the time (a rare exception to this is when applying a heavy artistic effect to your image), and this makes using the app a much more satisfying experience.
“Fast”, “Removes Bloat”: never thought I would hear that about Photoshop.
An interesting argument from Farhad Manjoo about why Dropbox is a hard sell as a disruptive business: >There are two reasons for this. First, the perfect syncing service needs to do more than simply store files. Second, the perfect syncing service should be unlimited and free, or as close to it as possible. Dropbox will…
An interesting argument from Farhad Manjoo about why Dropbox is a hard sell as a disruptive business:
>There are two reasons for this. First, the perfect syncing service needs to do more than simply store files. Second, the perfect syncing service should be unlimited and free, or as close to it as possible. Dropbox will have a hard time doing the first of these for technical reasons, and if it does the second, it won’t be a very good business.
>This week Shawn and Ben talk about a new RSS app Caffeinated, OmniFocus vs. Things, and rumors of Apple ditching the dock connector. Brought to you buy the fine folks at: [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/) and [Doxie](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php)
>This week Shawn and Ben talk about a new RSS app Caffeinated, OmniFocus vs. Things, and rumors of Apple ditching the dock connector.
Brought to you buy the fine folks at: [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/) and [Doxie](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php)
Whats so fantastic about this post from Marco (besides the fact he is right) is that I feel just about as dirty interacting with a media company as I do touching a public bathroom door handle. ((As a property manager, the guy that is asked to make those signs, I can tell you that they…
Whats so fantastic about this post from Marco (besides the fact he is right) is that I feel just about as dirty interacting with a media company as I do touching a public bathroom door handle. ((As a property manager, the guy that is asked to make those signs, I can tell you that they usually only make the problem worse. What does work is buying a fucking garbage can — but to some building owners such an expense is preposterous and offensive. I usually end up billing those owners more in making/replacing signs than a garbage can would have cost. Such is life.))
Rene Ritchie: >We’ve heard that Apple is getting ready to ditch the dock connector as it’s currently sized and implemented on iPods, iPhones, and iPads. The reason isn’t anything political, like a new desire to conform to an outdated micro-USB standard, but typically Apple: to save space inside the iPhone 5 for what are now…
Rene Ritchie:
>We’ve heard that Apple is getting ready to ditch the dock connector as it’s currently sized and implemented on iPods, iPhones, and iPads. The reason isn’t anything political, like a new desire to conform to an outdated micro-USB standard, but typically Apple: to save space inside the iPhone 5 for what are now more important components.
I’ve been wondering how long the dock connector would stick around.
Peter Burrows, Brian Womack and Hugo Miller for Bloomberg: >Google Inc. (GOOG), which won U.S. approval for its acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI), is close to naming Dennis Woodside to run the business when the deal closes, three people familiar with the matter said. [Florian Mueller reporting on Google’s conference call when they…
Peter Burrows, Brian Womack and Hugo Miller for Bloomberg:
>Google Inc. (GOOG), which won U.S. approval for its acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI), is close to naming Dennis Woodside to run the business when the deal closes, three people familiar with the matter said.
[Florian Mueller reporting on Google’s conference call when they announced the acquisition of Motorola](http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/first-reaction-to-googlemotorola.html):
>Google said in the conference call that it would operate Motorola Mobility as a separate business, but the price Google agreed to pay is not reflective of the value of Motorola Mobility as a stand-alone business: that’s the kind of price paid by a strategic buyer who plans to use the acquisition target as leverage for its (Google’s) own core business.
The big thing is that Google has been pretty adamant that they won’t meddle, that they won’t mess with Motorola. All a long I’ve thought that to be bullshit — well here’s the first meddling: naming Woodside a Google Ad Sales chief to the CEO post at Motorola. That pick says a whole hell of a lot about Google’s goals.
Jeffery Battersby has a nice rundown of the apps that are out there for doing your taxes on iOS, but is it just me or does that seem like a really odd/weird task to be doing on iOS? I know iOS is very capable and can be used in place of a computer for most…
Jeffery Battersby has a nice rundown of the apps that are out there for doing your taxes on iOS, but is it just me or does that seem like a really odd/weird task to be doing on iOS? I know iOS is very capable and can be used in place of a computer for most people, but man this doesn’t seem *right* to me.
Charlie Sorrel: >It’s hard to imagine a scenario where your SD cards would need to be “waterproof, shockproof and magnet proof,” but Samsung has gone and made some ruggedized cards anyway. Available in several speeds and sizes, the brushed metal cards will look as good out of your cameras as they will in it. I…
Charlie Sorrel:
>It’s hard to imagine a scenario where your SD cards would need to be “waterproof, shockproof and magnet proof,” but Samsung has gone and made some ruggedized cards anyway. Available in several speeds and sizes, the brushed metal cards will look as good out of your cameras as they will in it.
I only want them because they look awesome.
I could only find one microSD and one SDHC in 16GB on Amazon right now, but if you buy them with these links I will get a cut. [16GB SDHC](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005TUQVR2/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20) and [16GB microSD](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005TUQUZA/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20).
“But I don’t ever walk there. I just use their software, because it’s good.” — Brent Simmons