The Brooks Review

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Recent Articles

  • Logging Out of Facebook is Not Enough

    Nik Cubrilovic on the recent spat of Facebook privacy issues: >With my browser logged out of Facebook, whenever I visit any page with a Facebook like button, or share button, or any other widget, the information, including my account ID, is still being sent to Facebook. The only solution to Facebook not knowing who you…

    Nik Cubrilovic on the recent spat of Facebook privacy issues:

    >With my browser logged out of Facebook, whenever I visit any page with a Facebook like button, or share button, or any other widget, the information, including my account ID, is still being sent to Facebook. The only solution to Facebook not knowing who you are is to delete all Facebook cookies.

    He says he first noticed the problem in November of 2010. In case your didn’t know the standard practice is to delete the sites cookies when you logout of something — Facebook just modifies those cookies from what Cubrilovic found.

  • Apple’s Icons Being Used on Samsung’s Wall of Apps in Italy

    John Paczkowski: >Samsung has not yet responded to a request for comment. Honestly, who at Samsung is approving this and thinking they can get away with it.

    John Paczkowski:

    >Samsung has not yet responded to a request for comment.

    Honestly, who at Samsung is approving this and thinking they can get away with it.

  • Facebook is Scaring Me

    A freaky, but unsurprising, revelation by Dave Winer that Facebook is now allowing sites you visit to share that you visited those sites — all without troubling you by making you press a button. Read Winer’s take on this, it’s pretty creepy of Facebook — what’s more scary is the possibility of Google doing this…

    A freaky, but unsurprising, revelation by Dave Winer that Facebook is now allowing sites you visit to share that you visited those sites — all without troubling you by making you press a button. Read Winer’s take on this, it’s pretty creepy of Facebook — what’s more scary is the possibility of Google doing this to Chrome users.

  • QuickCal 3.0

    Pat Dryburgh has a nice run down on QuickCal 3.0 — a version that he helped to design the UI elements of. I was given a sneak peek at this build and I fell in love with the quick entry window. It doesn’t seek to replace your current calendar the way that Fantastical does, it…

    Pat Dryburgh has a nice run down on QuickCal 3.0 — a version that he helped to design the UI elements of. I was given a sneak peek at this build and I fell in love with the quick entry window. It doesn’t seek to replace your current calendar the way that Fantastical does, it just gives you super fast natural language entry of new events. A great little app.

  • AnyPlay

    Jordan Golson: >The product, called AnyPlay, allows Comcast subscribers to view live television on their iPad as long as it’s connected to their home network; users must have a special Motorola box which, apparently, takes the live cable stream and sends it directly to the Xfinity TV iPad app over a local wireless network. The…

    Jordan Golson:

    >The product, called AnyPlay, allows Comcast subscribers to view live television on their iPad as long as it’s connected to their home network; users must have a special Motorola box which, apparently, takes the live cable stream and sends it directly to the Xfinity TV iPad app over a local wireless network. The service won’t work over Wi-Fi from other locations, or via 3G.

    How long before Comcast and others realize that buying by the channel is dying in favor of paying for good content? (Secondarily, how much of content on Comcast do you think isn’t worth paying for? 90%?)

  • The B&B Podcast – Episode 28: Viticci, We Love You

    Shawn powered down two cups of coffee before recording this, so yeah, he has an 18 minute opening monologue on coffee bean roasting. We did however discover a possible new holiday gift idea from it. There’s also so chatting about iOS 5, the next iPhone, Federico Viticci, and Time Machine.

    Shawn powered down two cups of coffee before recording this, so yeah, he has an 18 minute opening monologue on coffee bean roasting. We did however discover a possible new holiday gift idea from it. There’s also so chatting about iOS 5, the next iPhone, Federico Viticci, and Time Machine.

  • Groupon Restates Revenue

    Shayndi Raice: >Daily deals site Groupon Inc. said it was restating its financial results “to correct for an error in its presentation of revenue,” and said its chief operating officer was exiting after just five months. >As a result of the restatement, Groupon’s revenue for 2010 fell by more than half from what was previously…

    Shayndi Raice:

    >Daily deals site Groupon Inc. said it was restating its financial results “to correct for an error in its presentation of revenue,” and said its chief operating officer was exiting after just five months.

    >As a result of the restatement, Groupon’s revenue for 2010 fell by more than half from what was previously reported — to $312.9 million, down from $713.4 million.

    Oops…

  • The PC Weenies Thoughts on Dual Display Setups

    Krishna M. Sadasivam offers a rebuttal to my theory that a single, small, display is better: >A dual display eliminates the need for me to shuffle back and forth between apps, thereby improving my productivity. The interesting thing for me in catching up with the responses to [this post](https://brooksreview.net/2011/09/meticulous/), is that most people seem to…

    Krishna M. Sadasivam offers a rebuttal to my theory that a single, small, display is better:
    >A dual display eliminates the need for me to shuffle back and forth between apps, thereby improving my productivity.

    The interesting thing for me in catching up with the responses to [this post](https://brooksreview.net/2011/09/meticulous/), is that most people seem to have focused on my loathing of dual displays. In fact I have hated dual displays for years and my post actually was talking about me moving away from large displays…

    Either way Sadasivam’s response is pretty typical to what I have been hearing: “I am a design or a creative professional and need a large display.” Yes, I agree: Adobe’s software is crap to use on a small display. The question in my mind though is whether a large display is necessary and even beneficial outside of a small niche group.

  • Layout Bitching

    I honestly think that an overwhelming amount of people just use Facebook so that they can bitch. ((I mean, get a blog amiright…))

    I honestly think that an overwhelming amount of people just use Facebook so that they can bitch. ((I mean, get a blog amiright…))

  • Screens — Smart VNC

    I want to extend a big thanks to Luc Vandal of Edovia for sponsoring the RSS feed this week, he’s been a great supporter of TBR and of other quality sites. His apps are some of the best out there. Screens is one of the more frequently used apps that I have on my iPad…

    I want to extend a big thanks to Luc Vandal of Edovia for sponsoring the RSS feed this week, he’s been a great supporter of TBR and of other quality sites. His apps are some of the best out there.

    Screens is one of the more frequently used apps that I have on my iPad — it’s just beautiful and dead simple to use. When I need it, I need it. I have tried five or six other VNC/Screen-sharing clients and none can match Screens.

    I just got Screens up and running on my Mac — same great experience. Screen sharing isn’t for everyone, but if you use need it, then you really should be using Screens.

  • That Stuff I Share on Your Site Is Not the “Story of My Life”

    Frederic Lardinois commenting on Facebook’s new timeline feature: >If you really feel the need to share everything you do on Facebook and you think that that’s a good representation of your life, you seriously need to get out and try living your life a bit harder. We never share everything, we never want everybody else…

    Frederic Lardinois commenting on Facebook’s new timeline feature:

    >If you really feel the need to share everything you do on Facebook and you think that that’s a good representation of your life, you seriously need to get out and try living your life a bit harder. We never share everything, we never want everybody else to know everything we do and often enough, we’d rather forget stuff than keep a precise record of it.

    It’s no secret that I loathe Facebook, that said I think the points that Lardinois makes are very fair. I mean when I go to hang out with friends I rarely bring a stack of magazine and newspaper articles that I read…

  • HP’s CEO Revolving Door Will Hurt It in the Long Run

    Dean Takahashi has an excellent take on the HP mess: >Now what is Whitman going to do? Hire all the fired WebOS people back? You should read the entire article.

    Dean Takahashi has an excellent take on the HP mess:

    >Now what is Whitman going to do? Hire all the fired WebOS people back?

    You should read the entire article.

  • A Business Insider Retrospective

    Marco Arment on Business Insider’s practice of linking to everything they can: >But what offends me even more than rewriting my titles and burying my links is how their layout so strongly implies that I’m a Business Insider writer and I endorse my name and writing being splattered all over their site: Same thing happened…

    Marco Arment on Business Insider’s practice of linking to everything they can:
    >But what offends me even more than rewriting my titles and burying my links is how their layout so strongly implies that I’m a Business Insider writer and I endorse my name and writing being splattered all over their site:

    Same thing happened to me and they too wanted me to “syndicate” my posts. What annoys me the absolute most though is [this](http://www.businessinsider.com/author/ben-brooks) — drives me nuts. When they first linked to one of my posts they “reprinted” most of it — it took me several emails to get it down to what you currently see.

  • Hip-Checked

    John Gruber [reminded](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/09/22/cringely-apotheker-whitman) us all that Robert X. Cringley [called Whitman’s hip-check to Apotheker a while back](http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fired-from-hewlett-packard/): >She’ll eventually get around to hip-checking Apotheker and taking his job. This is a terrible move by HP in every respect. It shows a clear lack of direction, strategy, vision, and control. I would guess that when Apotheker…

    John Gruber [reminded](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/09/22/cringely-apotheker-whitman) us all that Robert X. Cringley [called Whitman’s hip-check to Apotheker a while back](http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fired-from-hewlett-packard/):

    >She’ll eventually get around to hip-checking Apotheker and taking his job.

    This is a terrible move by HP in every respect. It shows a clear lack of direction, strategy, vision, and control.

    I would guess that when Apotheker took the job of CEO 11 months ago, he did so by laying out a clear plan of action for HP to the Board. My guess was that this past month was him finally implementing the public side of those plans — his plan was the IBM plan, ditch hardware and consumer businesses and flock to enterprise and consulting.

    Mark Hurd is/was a product guy and he steered HP towards consumer products. He wanted WebOS so that he had a weapon to use against Apple and Google in the hot mobile sector.

    Leo Apotheker is/was an enterprise software guy, he used a slow WebOS start to kill the most consumer friendly products HP makes. Next he spent billions to bring in an enterprise company few had heard of and publicly announced his plans for reshaping HP.

    Enter Meg Whitman.

    Regardless of Whitman’s plans for the future of HP, instating her as CEO shows a complete lack of direction by the Board of HP. Hurd no doubt kept the Board in the loop about his strategy and plans — he may well have still been in power had allegations not been slung his way — and the Board approved his consumer oriented plan. They agreed with his direction.

    Upon Hurd’s ouster the Board hired Apotheker, full well knowing that his plans were the complete opposite of Hurd’s. They consented knowing that massive changes that were about to come forth — they reversed direction and hopped on the Apotheker train.

    Hurd, unlike Apotheker, was fired over ethical concerns. Apotheker, however, was fired for implementing the plan that the Board approved — that’s a big difference.

    Meg Whitman is and was on the Board during all of this. HP’s board is a clusterfuck of stupid and that includes Whitman — who is now President and CEO.

    ### Indecision

    When I was learning how to drive the hardest thing for me was deciding when to slam on the brakes versus when to speed up to make it through a light that had just changed to yellow. My Dad (who taught me to drive) told me this:

    >What ever you do, make a decision and stick with it. Indecision in this moment will kill you.

    That’s exactly what has been going on at HP since Hurd left: indecision and it has been killing the company. This is not the CEO’s fault, it’s the fault of the Board — who for better or worse is now also the CEO.

    HP didn’t give WebOS a chance, the moment it soured they killed it. Likewise they didn’t give Apotheker a chance to transform the company, the moment the stock faltered, they rounded up a scapegoat.

    For the past year HP has looked like a dog being tempted on opposite sides of the room by two treats. Constantly rushing back and forth so as to not lose either of the treats, but never actually getting either of the treats.

    The real question for Whitman now: can she actually get HP to stick to a plan — any plan — for more than a year?

    Is HP capable of making a decision — any decision — and sticking with it, for better or worse?

  • Netflix Split to Set Up Amazon Streaming Merger?

    Larry Dignan on why Netflix had to split out the DVD business before an Amazon acquisition would be likely: >The tax issue is that an acquisition of Netflix’s DVD business would give Amazon more sales taxes to collect. You know what Amazon is 100% opposed to paying: sales tax. This idea isn’t as far fetched…

    Larry Dignan on why Netflix had to split out the DVD business before an Amazon acquisition would be likely:
    >The tax issue is that an acquisition of Netflix’s DVD business would give Amazon more sales taxes to collect.

    You know what Amazon is 100% opposed to paying: sales tax. This idea isn’t as far fetched as the headline makes it seem, now Netflix may not have decided that Amazon is the suitor when they did this — but damn would an Amazon acquisition make a ton of sense.

    Such an acquisition does a few things for a service like Netflix:

    1. Better and faster infrastructure for serving a larger base and scaling.
    2. Access to millions of credit cards.
    3. Gives the streaming service leverage over studios — Amazon has to sell a disproportionate amount of the DVDs which they could easily threaten to stop if studios don’t play nice on streaming.

    I really like the prospect of Amazon buying Netflix.

  • Color Recasts Itself as a Facebook Photo and Video App

    Jenna Wortham: >The primary reason Color fell flat on its face after it was released, its creators say, was because there weren’t enough people using it to make it interesting enough to revisit on a regular basis. Chicken and egg problem here. Apps like Color rely on mass usage to be interesting to users, but…

    Jenna Wortham:
    >The primary reason Color fell flat on its face after it was released, its creators say, was because there weren’t enough people using it to make it interesting enough to revisit on a regular basis.

    Chicken and egg problem here. Apps like Color rely on mass usage to be interesting to users, but users won’t become users if a service isn’t interesting when they sign up.

    An app has 30 seconds from the time I launch it to interest me, otherwise I move right on.

    I gave Color 5 minutes, all of which were spent on trying to figure out what the hell the app was all about.

  • Quote of the Day: Mike Rundle

    “Color reinvents itself as Facebook photo browser. Nice pivot, idiots.” — Mike Rundle

    “Color reinvents itself as Facebook photo browser. Nice pivot, idiots.”

  • Oracle-Google Damages Claims May Be Higher Than Ever

    Florian Mueller: >As always, let’s not forget that damages are only a “B” outcome for Oracle. The “A” outcome for Oracle is a permanent injunction, which would enable it to extract from Google whatever royalties it can command in a situation in which Android might otherwise go down the tubes. In that scenario, court-ordered damages…

    Florian Mueller:
    >As always, let’s not forget that damages are only a “B” outcome for Oracle. The “A” outcome for Oracle is a permanent injunction, which would enable it to extract from Google whatever royalties it can command in a situation in which Android might otherwise go down the tubes. In that scenario, court-ordered damages for past infringement would become only a small part of the overall consideration.

    This statement is actually quite amazing. The judges, media and Mueller all seem to believe that Oracle has a real case here. So what if — *what if* — Oracle’s judgement against Google is so cost prohibitive that Google has no choice but to build a new version of Android that does not infringe on Java patents, or any other patents?

    That is, what if Google must pull Android for at minimum 12 months? Who grabs that market share? Apple? Microsoft? RIM?

  • A Quick Guide to Common Miscapitalizations of Tech Names

    Complete with a TextExpander bundle for you to download.

    Complete with a TextExpander bundle for you to download.

  • Schmidt Admits Google Monopoly in Senate Hearing

    A great breakdown of Eric Schmidt’s Senate hearing by Paul Thurrott. What’s interesting isn’t that Schmidt admitted Google is probably a monopoly, but that he sounds like he is saying: “Yes we are a monopoly, but remember we are **not** evil.” As if to say it is OK for Google to be a monopoly. I…

    A great breakdown of Eric Schmidt’s Senate hearing by Paul Thurrott. What’s interesting isn’t that Schmidt admitted Google is probably a monopoly, but that he sounds like he is saying: “Yes we are a monopoly, but remember we are **not** evil.”

    As if to say it is OK for Google to be a monopoly. I don’t know if that his just how is statements sound, or if that is actually what Schmidt thinks. If I had to guess I would say it is the latter.