The Brooks Review

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Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
Grand Seiko SBGX261February 23, 2023
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022

Recent Articles

  • T-Mobile Also Files Brief in Support of Samsung Against Apple

    Florian Mueller: >T-Mobile just submitted an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in support of Samsung against Apple with respect to a possible US-wide preliminary injunction […] Good luck getting the iPhone.

    Florian Mueller:
    >T-Mobile just submitted an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in support of Samsung against Apple with respect to a possible US-wide preliminary injunction […]

    Good luck getting the iPhone.

  • Quote of the Day: Tim Cook

    “It’s people who deliver innovation.” — Tim Cook

    “It’s people who deliver innovation.”

  • ‘Purpose-Built’

    Paul Stamatiou on the Kindle Fire: >The original Kindle was purpose-built: create an amazing digital reading experience. The Kindle Fire’s MO seems to be create an okay experience for apps, the web, books, movies, music and of course Angry Birds. It’s an interesting question that I don’t think any one short of MG Siegler can…

    Paul Stamatiou on the Kindle Fire:
    >The original Kindle was purpose-built: create an amazing digital reading experience. The Kindle Fire’s MO seems to be create an okay experience for apps, the web, books, movies, music and of course Angry Birds.

    It’s an interesting question that I don’t think any one short of MG Siegler can answer right now: did Amazon integrate the “content consumption” experience well enough to allow consumers to forgive the assumed hit that one takes to readability of the non e-ink screen?

    Secondarily, and more to Stamatiou’s point, does the broader focus of the ‘Fire’ make the device poor?

  • Amazon Silk

    Amazon Silk Team on the new browser that will be running on the Amazon Kindle Fire: >Each time you load a web page, Silk makes a dynamic decision about which of these subsystems will run locally and which will execute remotely. It’s damned clever and might just be *the* thing that we remember five years…

    Amazon Silk Team on the new browser that will be running on the Amazon Kindle Fire:

    >Each time you load a web page, Silk makes a dynamic decision about which of these subsystems will run locally and which will execute remotely.

    It’s damned clever and might just be *the* thing that we remember five years from now. Be sure to watch the video, the part talking about how fast web pages will load if those pages are already on Amazon’s network is key.

    Amazon has just given every web developer a way to make incredible fast and targeted sites for the Kindle Fire. That’s clever. That’s a company that gets it.

  • Kindle Fire

    7″ tablet with WiFi for $199. Pre-order now and ships on November 15th ((I’ve got my pre-order in.)) but what is most interesting is this bit of marketing text from Amazon: >Kindle Fire uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology – similar technology to that used on the iPad – for an extra-wide viewing angle, perfect for…

    7″ tablet with WiFi for $199. Pre-order now and ships on November 15th ((I’ve got my pre-order in.)) but what is most interesting is this bit of marketing text from Amazon:

    >Kindle Fire uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology – similar technology to that used on the iPad – for an extra-wide viewing angle, perfect for sharing your screen with others.

    Did you notice that they mentioned the iPad by name? That signifies one thing about Amazon — the same thing that has always kept them successful: they acknowledge their competitors and respect them. Amazon could have said it is a better screen than tablet X — instead they acknowledged that, yes, the iPad screen is pretty nice and our is similar. Well done.

    I haven’t touched one, but even at that I think there is an argument to be made for buying this over an iPad — I just don’t know what that argument is quite yet.

  • Samsung Takes Android Patent License From Microsoft Rather Than Wait for Motorola

    Florian Mueller: >By taking a royalty-bearing license, Samsung recognizes that Android has intellectual property problems that must be resolved with license fees, and reduces to absurdity the idea that Google is going to be able to protect Android after the acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Mueller also notes that Samsung has over 100,000 patents worldwide, a…

    Florian Mueller:
    >By taking a royalty-bearing license, Samsung recognizes that Android has intellectual property problems that must be resolved with license fees, and reduces to absurdity the idea that Google is going to be able to protect Android after the acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

    Mueller also notes that Samsung has over 100,000 patents worldwide, a quarter of which are U.S. patents — none of which offered them protection in this instance. What Google does with Motorola should be pretty interesting, but it is looking more and more like something that was done just to make a “splash”.

  • Let Us Pay

    Marco Arment: >If the free-update offer still stands when TextMate 2 ships, I will not take you up on it. I’m buying TextMate 2 as a new customer at full price. [I am right there with him](https://brooksreview.net/2011/03/fragility-free/).

    Marco Arment:
    >If the free-update offer still stands when TextMate 2 ships, I will not take you up on it. I’m buying TextMate 2 as a new customer at full price.

    [I am right there with him](https://brooksreview.net/2011/03/fragility-free/).

  • Instagram 2.0 Filters

    John Gruber on the dulling of Instagram’s filters in the 2.0 release: >That’s the bottom line: they made Instagram less fun. I agree, the most obvious change (to my eyes) is with the ‘Kelvin’ filter which used to make the picture hideously orange. I’d welcome back the mandatory borders if it meant we were granted…

    John Gruber on the dulling of Instagram’s filters in the 2.0 release:
    >That’s the bottom line: they made Instagram less fun.

    I agree, the most obvious change (to my eyes) is with the ‘Kelvin’ filter which used to make the picture hideously orange. I’d welcome back the mandatory borders if it meant we were granted use of the old “better” filters.

  • The Small Monitor Experiment

    Last week [I wrote a post](https://brooksreview.net/2011/09/meticulous/) that was a response to [Trent Walton’s post](http://trentwalton.com/2011/09/20/unitasking/) titled “Unitasking”. I hypothesized that my productivity and general computing happiness would rise if I stuck with only using the screen attached to my 13″ MacBook Air, thus forgoing using my spacious 24″ Apple Cinema Display. I committed to do this…

    Last week [I wrote a post](https://brooksreview.net/2011/09/meticulous/) that was a response to [Trent Walton’s post](http://trentwalton.com/2011/09/20/unitasking/) titled “Unitasking”. I hypothesized that my productivity and general computing happiness would rise if I stuck with only using the screen attached to my 13″ MacBook Air, thus forgoing using my spacious 24″ Apple Cinema Display.

    I committed to do this for a week, here we are now well short of a week and I am willing to report back: this was a terrible idea.

    Let me first start by saying that I lasted approximately 5 days — three of which I wasn’t at my office (the only place where I have an external display). So I actually only lasted two days before I decided that this was a terrible idea and went back to using the larger display at work. ((You could argue that had I given it a full week I would have gotten used to it, but I so hated the setup and I couldn’t bear to give it that long.))

    ### Small Screen Usefulness

    None of this should be read as me stating that small screens can’t be as productive as large screens. I still believe that they are a far more focused — and therefore a better — way to work.

    The size and resolution of my MacBook Air’s screen is just about perfect for 99% of all tasks that I do on my MacBook Air. It’s not even those 1% of tasks that caused me to switch back over to my 24″ Cinema Display.

    ### Aesthetics

    This all comes down to aesthetics. Simply put my MacBook Air looked down right silly sitting on my office desk all alone and that, in turn, led me to feel silly using the setup.

    It made my workspace feel awkward at best, and down right annoying most of the time. I hated the way I felt exposed to the rest of the office and how dwarfed everything felt with just that screen sitting atop my `6′ x 3’` desk.

    My decision to switch back came down to two things:

    1. I hated the way it looked.
    2. I hated the way it felt.

    I have always believed that you are far more likely to use, and be productive with, something that you love. I just didn’t even come close to liking this setup.

    At home I just use the 13″ Air and have yet to have a problem and will continue to do so. At my office, I just felt weird the entire time I tried to not use my 24″ screen. ((I did reorganize the entire desk moving the 24″ screen out of site and re-running all the cabling. This was not a matter of a temporary feeling setup.))

  • Facebook Fixes Logout Issue, Explains Cookies

    Nik Cubrilovic: >Facebook has changed as much as they can change with the logout issue. They want to retain the ability to track browsers after logout for safety and spam purposes, and they want to be able to log page requests for performance reasons etc. I would still recommend that users clear cookies or use…

    Nik Cubrilovic:
    >Facebook has changed as much as they can change with the logout issue. They want to retain the ability to track browsers after logout for safety and spam purposes, and they want to be able to log page requests for performance reasons etc. I would still recommend that users clear cookies or use a separate browser, though. I believe Facebook when they describe what these cookies are used for, but that is not a reason to be complacent on privacy issues and to take initiative in remaining safe.

    Sounds like they are now removing any cookies that could identify the user, but are leaving cookies that identify a browser. Read the full post for the explanation as to why. This is much better than nothing and faster than I expected them to respond.

  • More Than 1/3 of U.S. Android Phones Run on 4G

    This isn’t that interesting of data, what would be far more interesting is the number of owners with 4G capable phones that actually use the 4G service. Kim seems to state that the usage is 36.6 percent, but if you read the article it looks like that is the amount “owned”. From what I have…

    This isn’t that interesting of data, what would be far more interesting is the number of owners with 4G capable phones that actually use the 4G service. Kim seems to state that the usage is 36.6 percent, but if you read the article it looks like that is the amount “owned”.

    From what I have seen and heard, most Android users with 4G phones tend to turn off the 4G radios to conserve battery life. This is likely the reason Apple has shied away from 4G data on iPhones and iPads.

  • Amazon Item of the Week: An Aesthetically Pleasing USB Hub

    I purchased this [Belkin 7-port USB hub](http://d.pr/HZ81) at a local Apple store a while back and absolutely love it. It looks fantastic, feels good, and most importantly does its job. I can’t speak to the speed of of the hub because I never test these things beyond the “it feels fine” test. I will say…

    I purchased this [Belkin 7-port USB hub](http://d.pr/HZ81) at a local Apple store a while back and absolutely love it. It looks fantastic, feels good, and most importantly does its job. I can’t speak to the speed of of the hub because I never test these things beyond the “it feels fine” test.

    I will say that I love the look of it and the shape is very handy as you can see here in my home office:

    [](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/20110923-IMG_6603.jpg)

    *As always buying this item will directly support TBR. Thanks*

  • Gowalla 4 and Loss of Personal Milestone Data

    Garrett Murray on the new Gowalla 4 app: >I think this is a terrific idea, and I think it’s something relatively unique in the check-in app space. >But it’s not what I want. It’s not what I want either and I will be switching over to Foursquare for now. Gowalla is great and I love…

    Garrett Murray on the new Gowalla 4 app:

    >I think this is a terrific idea, and I think it’s something relatively unique in the check-in app space.

    >But it’s not what I want.

    It’s not what I want either and I will be switching over to Foursquare for now. Gowalla is great and I love the app, but like Murray said: “it’s not what I want.”

  • Facebook Defends Getting Data From Logged-Out Users

    Facebook has responded to the debacle over the weekend with regards to the company installing cookies that persist on a users computer after they log out, Jennifer Valentino-DeVries has the story: >“The onus is on us is to take all the data and scrub it,” said Arturo Bejar, a Facebook director of engineering. “What really…

    Facebook has responded to the debacle over the weekend with regards to the company installing cookies that persist on a users computer after they log out, Jennifer Valentino-DeVries has the story:

    >“The onus is on us is to take all the data and scrub it,” said Arturo Bejar, a Facebook director of engineering. “What really matters is what we say as a company and back it up.”

    Facebook claims the data they keep is for security and ease of logging back in, after a user has logged out. I don’t doubt that this is true, but such a thing does not make this a ‘best practice’ where, nor instill trust.

  • On the Assumption that a Pundit Knows What Apple “Needs”

    Mike Elgan [wrote a lengthy post](http://www.cultofmac.com/115455/why-apple-needs-a-real-social-network/) for Cult of Mac on Saturday that argues: Facebook is now a major threat to Apple. Elgan sees Facebook’s move towards Movies and Music as a major threat to Apple’s core business: >Facebook is now more directly threatening to Apple’s business model than Microsoft, Google and Sony combined. That’s…

    Mike Elgan [wrote a lengthy post](http://www.cultofmac.com/115455/why-apple-needs-a-real-social-network/) for Cult of Mac on Saturday that argues: Facebook is now a major threat to Apple. Elgan sees Facebook’s move towards Movies and Music as a major threat to Apple’s core business:

    >Facebook is now more directly threatening to Apple’s business model than Microsoft, Google and Sony combined.

    That’s a load of crap. Elgan is assuming that Apple’s core business is content (music and movies), when in reality their core business is hardware — supplemented by software, which in turn is supplemented by content.

    Elgan:

    >Apple isn’t so much a consumer electronics company as it is a media platform. Apple’s success in the last 10 years has all been about changing how people create and consume media and content.

    If Apple is a media company, then it is a small one. Apple is very much a consumer electronics company, to say otherwise is flat out wrong. I agree that Apple’s success has hinged on shaping the way people consume content, but how does one access Facebook?

    Elgan, again:

    >Either Facebook will succeed as a “primary entertainment hub,” or it will fail. If it fails, then Apple has nothing to worry about. But if Facebook succeeds, it threatens Apple’s entire business, and the future of Apple’s stellar growth.

    Even if Facebook’s new initiatives are a massive hit, Apple still wins because Facebook doesn’t have or sell:

    – Computers
    – Operating Systems
    – Cell phones
    – iPods
    – Tablets

    Take those three things away from Apple and you have trouble, but Apple taking a hit in music and movies sales? Meh, it will hurt, but it won’t kill the beast that Jobs has created. What good is buying music and movies from Facebook if you don’t have something great to watch/listen to them on?

    The rest of the Elgan article is how and why Apple should be able to craft such a social networking competitor — Elgan even states:

    >[…]Apple already has the most difficult and expensive parts of a killer social network.

    Elgan wants Apple to build a Facebook competitor because he believes such a competitor could/should be better. The real question isn’t whether Apple needs to build a competitor (it doesn’t), but the question really is: Doesn’t Apple already have a social network?

    I’m not talking about Ping — I am talking about your Apple ID.

    Apple doesn’t copy things that they don’t perceive as working well — they re-imagine things. In that light wouldn’t a better social network — one that more directly helps Apple — be a network that you don’t even know you are using?

    Perhaps the next “big” social network doesn’t have a central domain that you login in to — now that would be a real threat to Facebook.

    ### Last Point ###

    Facebook makes money by selling ads, a business that Apple isn’t all that successful, or interested, in. If Facebook really takes away media sale profits from Apple, why wouldn’t Apple just partner with Facebook to give Apple users better access on their devices (they already have with Twitter)? Thus continuing to compel users to buy their devices to access Facebook on.

  • Run Your Own Race

    Seth Godin on racing and competition: >If you’re going to count on the competition to bring out your best work, you’ve surrendered control over your most important asset. Real achievement comes from racing ahead when no one else sees a path–and holding back when the rush isn’t going where you want to go. This applies…

    Seth Godin on racing and competition:

    >If you’re going to count on the competition to bring out your best work, you’ve surrendered control over your most important asset. Real achievement comes from racing ahead when no one else sees a path–and holding back when the rush isn’t going where you want to go.

    This applies to so much more than just physical races like swimming. If you read the above quote (really you should reads his entire post) then you have to think about some tech companies that failed, and truly continue to fail, in grasping this concept.

    Companies like:

    – Microsoft
    – RIM
    – MySpace
    – Aol.
    – Nokia/Samsung/HTC/Motorola
    – Ebay
    – HP

    There’s many more, those are just a few that pop into my head.

  • There Will Be a Public Alpha Release of TextMate 2, Before Christmas of This Year

    :)

    :)

  • Can You Sign Up for Spotify Without Facebook?

    Darren, a Spotify employee: >Unfortunately you will need a Facebook account to access Spotify from now on, unless you already have an account set up. That is lame. [via Craig Grannell]

    Darren, a Spotify employee:

    >Unfortunately you will need a Facebook account to access Spotify from now on, unless you already have an account set up.

    That is lame.

  • Netflix Secures Streaming Deal With DreamWorks… in 2013

    Brooks Barnes and Brian Stelter: >Netflix will begin streaming DreamWorks films starting in 2013. A good grab for Netflix — but studios need to get a clue. These deals need to happen quicker — more than a year out? That’s crazy.

    Brooks Barnes and Brian Stelter:

    >Netflix will begin streaming DreamWorks films starting in 2013.

    A good grab for Netflix — but studios need to get a clue. These deals need to happen quicker — more than a year out? That’s crazy.

  • Facebook Disconnect

    Brian Kennish created a new Chrome plugin: >Facebook Disconnect blocks all traffic from third-party sites to Facebook servers, but still lets you access Facebook itself. I’d say that is a must have for any Facebook user. UPDATE: [This plugin](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jeoacafpbcihiomhlakheieifhpjdfeo) is a bit more robust in blocking many other services.

    Brian Kennish created a new Chrome plugin:
    >Facebook Disconnect blocks all traffic from third-party sites to Facebook servers, but still lets you access Facebook itself.

    I’d say that is a must have for any Facebook user.

    UPDATE: [This plugin](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jeoacafpbcihiomhlakheieifhpjdfeo) is a bit more robust in blocking many other services.