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Remember when Android touted the new ‘face unlock’ feature of Android? Remember that they said it couldn’t be unlocked by using a photo of someone? Well turns out you can use a photo, on another Android device no less, to unlock the phone. Be sure to look at [Daring Fireball](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/11/12/giving-them-credit) for some nice claim chowder…
Remember when Android touted the new ‘face unlock’ feature of Android? Remember that they said it couldn’t be unlocked by using a photo of someone?
Well turns out you can use a photo, on another Android device no less, to unlock the phone.
Be sure to look at [Daring Fireball](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/11/12/giving-them-credit) for some nice claim chowder on this one.
I have been using Cloak in beta for a while now and I think it is a really nice VPN service. Their menubar tool allows fast access to privatizing your internet session — as well as a nifty feature that automatically will turn it on when you are not on a secure network. I haven’t…
I have been using Cloak in beta for a while now and I think it is a really nice VPN service. Their menubar tool allows fast access to privatizing your internet session — as well as a nifty feature that automatically will turn it on when you are not on a secure network.
I haven’t used it a ton, but when I have needed it the service just worked and worked very easily. Their plans are pretty reasonable, including a nice free plan that only limits you to two hours a month.
They also [just released their iPhone app](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cloak/id473835722) — which makes using VPN on iOS just as easy as their app for your Mac.
My thanks to Doxie for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. I am pumped to get my hands on one of these new scanners, they look killer. They almost look magic, at the least may be the best scanner to stash at my house. Be sure to order yours now.
My thanks to Doxie for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. I am pumped to get my hands on one of these new scanners, they look killer.
They almost look magic, at the least may be the best scanner to stash at my house.
Be sure to order yours now.
>Shawn and Ben talk about the Jawbone UP and Shawn’s usage of it over the past week, angry people who are on the Internet, distractions while working, email management and email bankruptcy, the lack of a logo on Ben’s site, and various other things.
>Shawn and Ben talk about the Jawbone UP and Shawn’s usage of it over the past week, angry people who are on the Internet, distractions while working, email management and email bankruptcy, the lack of a logo on Ben’s site, and various other things.
To all those who served, and those that continue to serve, I thank you.
To all those who served, and those that continue to serve, I thank you.
Cal Newport: >If you’re chronically stressed and up late working, you’re doing something wrong. A fascinating look at how the “elite” achieve their success.
Cal Newport:
>If you’re chronically stressed and up late working, you’re doing something wrong.
A fascinating look at how the “elite” achieve their success.
Gabe in an email to users: >We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely. *Oops.* At least it wasn’t because someone left a laptop somewhere.
Gabe in an email to users:
>We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.
*Oops.* At least it wasn’t because someone left a laptop somewhere.
The Womply Team about Groupon: >Instead of taking a cut of a consumer’s future paycheck in return for upfront cash, Groupon takes a cut of a merchant’s future revenue. Merchants miss out on this revenue because they serve hundreds or thousands of customers at a steep discount (typically at a point well below their marginal…
The Womply Team about Groupon:
>Instead of taking a cut of a consumer’s future paycheck in return for upfront cash, Groupon takes a cut of a merchant’s future revenue. Merchants miss out on this revenue because they serve hundreds or thousands of customers at a steep discount (typically at a point well below their marginal cost of serving that customer).
This argument is not a perfect fit, but it is a very interesting take on the Groupon business model.
Asus has pulled off something amazing here, because this device looks like both a knock off of an iPad and a knock off of an MacBook Air — in one device. Kudos.
Asus has pulled off something amazing here, because this device looks like both a knock off of an iPad and a knock off of an MacBook Air — in one device. Kudos.
“If we never let go of old technology, we’d be buried in complexity and crushed by outdated crap.” — John Gruber
Don Reisinger: >Citing industry sources, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a…
Don Reisinger:
>Citing industry sources, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock or face termination.
>In order to determine which employees would be asked to give stock back, Pincus and his executives tried to pinpoint workers whose contributions to Zynga–in the execs’ eyes–didn’t necessarily justify the potential cash windfall they could receive when the company went public, the Journal claims.
I mean, what do you expect from company that gives us FarmVille?
The beta I am on substantially improved the battery life on my iPhone 4S. Go get it.
The beta I am on substantially improved the battery life on my iPhone 4S. Go get it.
Claire Cain Miller, reporting for the New York Times, on Google CEO Larry Page’s management style: >“It’s much more of a style like Steve Jobs than the three-headed monster that Google was,” said a former Google executive who has spoken with current executives about the changes and spoke anonymously to preserve business relationships. “When Eric…
Claire Cain Miller, reporting for the New York Times, on Google CEO Larry Page’s management style:
>“It’s much more of a style like Steve Jobs than the three-headed monster that Google was,” said a former Google executive who has spoken with current executives about the changes and spoke anonymously to preserve business relationships. “When Eric was there, you’d walk into a product meeting or a senior staff meeting, and everyone got to weigh in on every decision. Larry is much more willing to make an O.K. decision and make it now, rather than a perfect decision later.”
I’m not a Steve Jobs expert, but I feel pretty confident saying that he didn’t make decisions that he thought were just “O.K.” — he preferred to try and make the perfect decision, even if that meant waiting. That much is pretty clear from reading just a handful of chapters in his new biography.
So Page has decided that any decision is better than no decision — good luck with that.
Marco Arment on the state of the PC industry: >It’s sad, really, that the state-of-the-art in the PC world is attempting to copy Apple. What’s more sad as that these same companies also need to be bribed by interested parties (Intel) before they even attempt to copy Apple. There’s a huge market for a well…
Marco Arment on the state of the PC industry:
>It’s sad, really, that the state-of-the-art in the PC world is attempting to copy Apple.
What’s more sad as that these same companies also need to be bribed by interested parties (Intel) before they even attempt to copy Apple. There’s a huge market for a well designed PC — regardless of how you feel about Windows.
Dave Winer on deleting his Facebook account: >Bottom-line: I know from experience that it’s bad to depend on a for-profit company to give me a free service that is supposed to not feel like it’s free.
Dave Winer on deleting his Facebook account:
>Bottom-line: I know from experience that it’s bad to depend on a for-profit company to give me a free service that is supposed to not feel like it’s free.
And why are we still creating apps/services that require Facebook to login? Is it that hard to create your own login system when you [claim](http://www.subtraction.com/2011/11/10/introducing-mixel) that your app is indeed, also, a social network? I’m not saying the app is bad or good, I’m just saying that I can’t use it. ((By my own choice…
And why are we still creating apps/services that require Facebook to login? Is it that hard to create your own login system when you [claim](http://www.subtraction.com/2011/11/10/introducing-mixel) that your app is indeed, also, a social network?
I’m not saying the app is bad or good, I’m just saying that I can’t use it. ((By my own choice of course, I could sign up for Facebook — I guess.))
The real problem with Siri is not that it (often) goes down, but rather how Siri informs you that it is down — which it does after you have already asked it to do something. Apple, and Siri users, certainly want the service to maintain 100% availability, but with services that rely on so many…
The real problem with Siri is not that it (often) goes down, but rather how Siri informs you that it is down — which it does after you have already asked it to do something.
Apple, and Siri users, certainly want the service to maintain 100% availability, but with services that rely on so many working parts — this is just an unrealistic expectation. So when Siri fails it should do so in the least intrusive way — it just so happens that’s not the way it fails right now.
Typical scenario: Driving home and want to text my wife to let her know that I will be there in 20 minutes. Activate Siri and ask her to message my Wife. Siri comes back to say: something, something, I don’t work.
Siri really should be smarter than this. Siri should tell me from the moment I activate it whether, or not, what I am about to do is going to work. How hard is that?
– Activate Siri.
– Siri checks servers.
– Siri responds: “Sorry, I’m drunk as a skunk right now. I’ll sober up soon.”
That’s really not that hard and offers a far less frustrating experience than the current solution of leading on the user, in hopes that — what — it will be back working by the time I am done speaking?
Dan Frommer on Adobe’s end to mobile Flash: >Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen isn’t a magician, but he’s proving that he’s not a dummy. Today, Adobe — in theory — has a plan. Some good points and Frommer is right — Adobe seems to understand that they need to continue to adapt.
Dan Frommer on Adobe’s end to mobile Flash:
>Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen isn’t a magician, but he’s proving that he’s not a dummy. Today, Adobe — in theory — has a plan.
Some good points and Frommer is right — Adobe seems to understand that they need to continue to adapt.
Turns out there is a benefit to washing sidebar icons in all one color: when you color one of them it can serve as an alert. Nice touch.
Turns out there is a benefit to washing sidebar icons in all one color: when you color one of them it can serve as an alert. Nice touch.
As you have noticed by now there has been yet another redesign for this site. ((My apologies for some of the responsive/layout issues I am having this fixed. Completely my fault.)) When I get it in my head that I hate one aspect of the site ((This go around it was the menu.)) I start…
As you have noticed by now there has been yet another redesign for this site. ((My apologies for some of the responsive/layout issues I am having this fixed. Completely my fault.)) When I get it in my head that I hate one aspect of the site ((This go around it was the menu.)) I start playing with it, what inevitably happens is that I start changing more and more things until — well — I have a new design.
I don’t really think this design needs explanation and I don’t really think it is all that “unique” — what is the biggest change is the lack of “branding” anywhere in the header of the site. Most blogs/sites you visit will have a logo of some sort at the top — identifying where you are — this site used to have that, but it’s now gone.
This has nothing to do with the design of the logo, I quite like the design of the logo — it has everything to do with the design of the site. I could go into some long, really philosophical, explanation of why I dropped the logo from TBR — but that would just be a lie.
The truth is that I dropped the logo on accident when I was designing the new site (forgot to paste back in the relevant code) and I *kept* designing without it. Then I realized it was missing and added it back in, hated it, and I removed it again — this time on purpose.
I just like the site without a logo weighing down the top, right or wrong, it’s really that simple.