They have now caught up (not really) to where OmniFocus was in 2008. Things is nice looking and all, but I really have to question your motivations if you are still using it at this point. ((On a side note, I bet someone on Twitter that we would see TextMate 2 before Things Cloud Sync — we could argue beta verses alpha, but I think I won that one.))
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Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
Grand Seiko SBGX261February 23, 2023
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022
Recent Articles
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Things Cloud Beta
They have now caught up (not really) to where OmniFocus was in 2008. Things is nice looking and all, but I really have to question your motivations if you are still using it at this point. ((On a side note, I bet someone on Twitter that we would see TextMate 2 before Things Cloud Sync…
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The iOS-ification of OS X Spark Notes Edition
I agree with everything Mr. Skoda says in this post. Everything.
I agree with everything Mr. Skoda says in this post. Everything.
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Twitter Updates iPhone App
Matthew Panzarino: >One of the biggest additions is the re-introduction of Tweetie’s swipe actions, allowing you to quickly perform several Twitter functions after a swipe on a Tweet. Hell yeah.
Matthew Panzarino:
>One of the biggest additions is the re-introduction of Tweetie’s swipe actions, allowing you to quickly perform several Twitter functions after a swipe on a Tweet.
Hell yeah.
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Olloclip vs iPro Lens Review
I hate that the iPro makes you use a case. That seems like a bad design decision to me. Nice compariSon though — I had been wondering.
I hate that the iPro makes you use a case. That seems like a bad design decision to me. Nice compariSon though — I had been wondering.
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Some Moom Tips
Gabe over at Macdrifter on the excellent Moom app: >The rest of Moom is great though. Moom is kind of like LaunchBar, but for window management. I don’t realize how much I use it until I sit down at my wife’s mac and curse myself for not installing it earlier. He’s got some great tips…
Gabe over at Macdrifter on the excellent Moom app:
>The rest of Moom is great though. Moom is kind of like LaunchBar, but for window management. I don’t realize how much I use it until I sit down at my wife’s mac and curse myself for not installing it earlier.He’s got some great tips too.
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Google Bypassing User Privacy Settings
Microsoft’s IE blog: >When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too? We’ve discovered the answer is yes: Google is employing similar methods to get around the default privacy protections in IE and track…
Microsoft’s IE blog:
>When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too? We’ve discovered the answer is yes: Google is employing similar methods to get around the default privacy protections in IE and track IE users with cookies.
Yeah, but it’s probably in the least evil way possible… Probably.
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Gabe Glick Reviews Osfoora for Mac
Overall a really nice review by Glick. His ‘random quibbles’ and ‘things I liked’ sections are all ditto for me. I am still using Osfoora, but there are some very large omissions I would like to see added in, such as: live streaming and related tweets when viewing a conversation.
Overall a really nice review by Glick. His ‘random quibbles’ and ‘things I liked’ sections are all ditto for me. I am still using Osfoora, but there are some very large omissions I would like to see added in, such as: live streaming and related tweets when viewing a conversation.
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‘Messages Is Really, Really, Really iChat’
Dr. Drang solves the mystery of why LaunchBar still shows iChat and doesn’t seem to be able to index ‘Messages’ in it’s place. ((Some of you may be thinking: Ben said he was done with posting links to anonymous blogs. This is true, but Dr. Drang is pseudonym and that for some reason doesn’t bug…
Dr. Drang solves the mystery of why LaunchBar still shows iChat and doesn’t seem to be able to index ‘Messages’ in it’s place. ((Some of you may be thinking: Ben said he was done with posting links to anonymous blogs. This is true, but Dr. Drang is pseudonym and that for some reason doesn’t bug me. Likely because I can say that ‘X wrote Y’.))
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Dan Frakes’ Hands on With Mountain Lion Mail
There’s a new feature that Frakes talks about called: VIP: >We all have particular people—our family members, our boss, our bookie—whose messages are more important than others. While Mail in Lion let you use combinations of rules, labels, and mailboxes to make a particular person’s messages easier to identify or view, Mail in Mountain Lion…
There’s a new feature that Frakes talks about called: VIP:
>We all have particular people—our family members, our boss, our bookie—whose messages are more important than others. While Mail in Lion let you use combinations of rules, labels, and mailboxes to make a particular person’s messages easier to identify or view, Mail in Mountain Lion adds a new feature that’s custom-made for such purposes: VIPsI already do this by flagging email based on a rule, but this looks way better.
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Your Title Matters
Nick O’Neill on Forbes “stealing” an NYT article: >I had that experience myself at AllFacebook with this article. It was an article that I wrote following 6 months of research on copywriting. The reality is that in the world of newsfeeds and streams, titles matter more than ever before. The best content in the world…
Nick O’Neill on Forbes “stealing” an NYT article:
>I had that experience myself at AllFacebook with this article. It was an article that I wrote following 6 months of research on copywriting. The reality is that in the world of newsfeeds and streams, titles matter more than ever before. The best content in the world will fall flat without a great title. Nothing illustrates it better than this recent Target article.This is, unfortunately, very true. I written things I thought were just OK and had them blow up because the title was “clever” and then written something I spent days on and it fizzles because the title wasn’t that great.
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(via Instapaper)
A new site: >Instapaper’s most liked articles, as determined by Twitter. Very nice.
A new site:
>Instapaper’s most liked articles, as determined by Twitter.
Very nice.
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iOS Permission Dialogs
Marco Arment: >If I asked most careful people if Instapaper could have their location, they’d refuse, because there’s no obvious good reason. But if the app asks right when they enable a location-based setting from a screen that shows why it’s asking for their location, they can make a more educated decision. Similarly, if an…
Marco Arment:
>If I asked most careful people if Instapaper could have their location, they’d refuse, because there’s no obvious good reason. But if the app asks right when they enable a location-based setting from a screen that shows why it’s asking for their location, they can make a more educated decision. Similarly, if an app doesn’t seem to have a good reason when it asks for Contacts, a skeptical person can decline.
I would love to see more developers put thought into when a user sees a dialog so that users can make more educated choices. I am not holding my breath though. ((There are hundreds of great developers, but thousands of developers that are less than great.))
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‘OMG iOS is being OS X-ified’
Jim Dalrymple still isn’t seeing it: >You see my point? Apple added these apps to iOS because they made sense for those users. That’s exactly what Apple did with Mountain Lion — added apps and features that made sense for that OS. He points out things that clearly came from OS X to iOS. Here’s…
Jim Dalrymple still isn’t seeing it:
>You see my point? Apple added these apps to iOS because they made sense for those users. That’s exactly what Apple did with Mountain Lion — added apps and features that made sense for that OS.
He points out things that clearly came from OS X to iOS. Here’s the problem: OS X came first and iOS is based off of it. So yeah, of course it has elements from OS X. That’s why the above quote proves my point: “added apps and features that made sense for that OS”. Glad we agree.
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The B&B Podcast – Episode 47: Bruce
>This week Shawn and Ben talk about Flickr, the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, and iMessage notifications. Brought to you buy the finest sponsors: [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/) and [Doxie Go](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php).
>This week Shawn and Ben talk about Flickr, the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, and iMessage notifications.
Brought to you buy the finest sponsors: [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/) and [Doxie Go](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php).
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Osfoora for Mac
A nice Twitter client for the Mac. I have only been using it today and I haven’t stopped using it yet — which is longer than most apps last. I am not sure that it is better than the official Twitter app, but it has some great things going for it, like: Instapaper support, Tweet…
A nice Twitter client for the Mac. I have only been using it today and I haven’t stopped using it yet — which is longer than most apps last. I am not sure that it is better than the official Twitter app, but it has some great things going for it, like: Instapaper support, Tweet Marker, etc.. ((The icon is horrid though.))
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Quote of the Day: Stephen Hackett
“When my 3-year-old notices I’ve seen him doing something wrong, he always stops doing it, hoping the whole issue will just go away. Google seems to have the same misconception.” — Stephen Hackett
“When my 3-year-old notices I’ve seen him doing something wrong, he always stops doing it, hoping the whole issue will just go away. Google seems to have the same misconception.” -
‘Mountain Lion Is Not More Like iOS’
[Jim Dalrymple doesn’t like](http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/02/17/mountain-lion-is-not-more-like-ios/) the idea that Apple is trying to make the Mac more iOS like, saying: >Mountain Lion is about familiarity and integration. The new features and apps in Mountain Lion make sense for a desktop operating system. >These claims of Mountain Lion being more like iOS are just shit. Are they? I…
[Jim Dalrymple doesn’t like](http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/02/17/mountain-lion-is-not-more-like-ios/) the idea that Apple is trying to make the Mac more iOS like, saying:
>Mountain Lion is about familiarity and integration. The new features and apps in Mountain Lion make sense for a desktop operating system.
>These claims of Mountain Lion being more like iOS are just shit.
Are they? I don’t disagree with what Dalrymple is saying up and until the last line. Apple is indeed trying to bring some familiarity and integration between the two platforms, but there’s more to it than that.
The way I see it, Apple is trying to simplify OS X and bring to it some of the features from iOS that make sense. To that end Apple is very much making Mountain Lion more iOS like. Take for example these screenshots from [Jason Snell’s preview of the OS](http://www.macworld.com/article/165407/2012/02/hands_on_with_apples_new_os_x_mountain_lion.html):
It’s hard to look at those two images and not be reminded of iOS because not only do they look similar to their iOS counterparts, but the ideas showed up in iOS first. Now, you can certainly argue that this is the ‘familiarity’ angle at play — but how does that differ from iOSification arguments? Both are saying the same things: stuff is being brought from one OS to the other OS in order to make both more uniform and familiar.
I believe Apple is trying to make all their OSes more simple and it just so happens that the most simple OS available right now *is* iOS. Therefore it only makes sense that Apple would want to make OS X more like iOS — in that iOS is far more popular and far more simple than OS X.
Here’s [John Gruber on what Mountain Lion is doing](http://daringfireball.net/2012/02/mountain_lion):
>The recurring theme: Apple is fighting against cruft — inconsistencies and oddities that have accumulated over the years, which made sense at one point but no longer — like managing to-dos in iCal (because CalDAV was being used to sync them to a server) or notes in Mail (because IMAP was the syncing back-end). The changes and additions in Mountain Lion are in a consistent vein: making things simpler and more obvious, closer to how things *should* be rather than simply how they always have been.
Exactly. Dalrymple is right that Mountain Lion “is about familiarity and integration”, but Apple is making those changes by bringing more iOS features *to* OS X. That’s how they are gaining the familiarity.
[Michael Schechter correctly points out how Mountain Lion is moving us towards the future of apps for iOS *and* OS X](http://bettermess.com/responsive-app-design/):
>The expectation would be one unified application that has been seamlessly thought through at all levels, making the distinction between mobile and desktop that much more irrelevant. This could inevitably lead to a unified App Store with truly universal apps that span both OS X and iOS.This is what I see happening with OS X and iOS: bringing both to the point where the average user doesn’t *have* to see a difference between the two OSes, but where there very much *are* differences between the two.
Making OS X more like iOS is not a bad thing — iOS is fantastic — just so long as OS X is made more iOS like in only the areas that it clearly needs to be more iOS like. Thus far, this is exactly what Apple has done.
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TSA Training Instructor Charged With Bribery
Michael Hinkelman reporting: >Federal prosecutors unsealed bribery charges today against a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) instructor at Philadelphia International Airport. The charge: >The charging document said that between August and October 2011 Gilliam took a $200 bribe in exchange for ensuring a passing grade on the mandatory, annual certification exam by taking the test for…
Michael Hinkelman reporting:
>Federal prosecutors unsealed bribery charges today against a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) instructor at Philadelphia International Airport.
The charge:
>The charging document said that between August and October 2011 Gilliam took a $200 bribe in exchange for ensuring a passing grade on the mandatory, annual certification exam by taking the test for a security officer.
This is *clearly* way over blown, it’s not like TSA is ‘protecting’ us from terrorism or anything. ((Actually a bigger deal needs to be made of the people working at TSA.))