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  • The Verizon iPhone 4

    I have read most of the boring reviews — not surprisingly Gruber does the best job. Here’s the thing: if you have no problems with AT&T in your area then the AT&T iPhone is faster. If you need a hotspot right away, then best to get the Verizon phone as AT&T may not get the…

    I have read most of the boring reviews — not surprisingly Gruber does the best job. Here’s the thing: if you have no problems with AT&T in your area then the AT&T iPhone is faster. If you need a hotspot right away, then best to get the Verizon phone as AT&T may not get the feature for a couple more weeks and AT&T still needs to support it. ((Remember how long it took them to support tethering?))

    After reading all these reviews the only thing I can think of is: it must have sucked not to have lived in Seattle from 2007 until, well, today — Seattle has a damn good AT&T network in my testing.

  • “A Cheap Imitation”

    A great write up of how Google caught Bing! cheating. I am a bit late on this, but it is still humorous. Amit Singhal for Google: We created about 100 “synthetic queries”—queries that you would never expect a user to type, such as [hiybbprqag]. As a one-time experiment, for each synthetic query we inserted as…

    A great write up of how Google caught Bing! cheating. I am a bit late on this, but it is still humorous.

    Amit Singhal for Google:

    We created about 100 “synthetic queries”—queries that you would never expect a user to type, such as [hiybbprqag]. As a one-time experiment, for each synthetic query we inserted as Google’s top result a unique (real) webpage which had nothing to do with the query.

    later:

    We gave 20 of our engineers laptops with a fresh install of Microsoft Windows running Internet Explorer 8 with Bing Toolbar installed. As part of the install process, we opted in to the “Suggested Sites” feature of IE8, and we accepted the default options for the Bing Toolbar.

    We asked these engineers to enter the synthetic queries into the search box on the Google home page, and click on the results, i.e., the results we inserted. We were surprised that within a couple weeks of starting this experiment, our inserted results started appearing in Bing.

  • Running an Applescript at Specified Times

    Yesterday I posted about a great Applescript that a Platinum Level reader made for me. Jered gives a link for setting it up in iCal, but that is a rather inelegant solution if you ask me. The last thing I want is some unneeded event in iCal. Instead I use Keyboard Maestro to run the…

    Yesterday I posted about a great Applescript that a Platinum Level reader made for me. Jered gives a link for setting it up in iCal, but that is a rather inelegant solution if you ask me. The last thing I want is some unneeded event in iCal. Instead I use Keyboard Maestro to run the Applescript at any given time that I want, this way the entire process stays hidden.

    Here’s what that looks like:

    Screen shot 2011 02 02 at 2 00 25 PM

    (These times are the times when I am likely to be in front of my computer starting work, or an hour or so before I wrap up work for the day.)

  • Quote of the Day: Kyle Baxter

    “Larry Page’s biggest task is to do what Steve Jobs did for Apple when he came back—clear out the underbrush and give his company purpose again.” — Kyle Baxter

    “Larry Page’s biggest task is to do what Steve Jobs did for Apple when he came back—clear out the underbrush and give his company purpose again.”

  • Why 37signals Is Falling Into Obsolescence

    Sean Coleman reacting to the new 37signals mobile app for devices: The fact that 37signals has decided against native apps puts them one foot into the obsolescence grave. In order to stay competitive, web companies now must provide for all devices.  I don’t agree with this at all, but Coleman brings up some great points in…

    Sean Coleman reacting to the new 37signals mobile app for devices:

    The fact that 37signals has decided against native apps puts them one foot into the obsolescence grave. In order to stay competitive, web companies now must provide for all devices. 

    I don’t agree with this at all, but Coleman brings up some great points in the post.

  • I Just Noticed This

    I just noticed this in TextExpander: I can’t think of a more compelling reason to use it. [Updated: 2.2.11 at 9:55 AM] Also my stats may be broken as I can’t fathom how this is possible. But I’m going with it because I like to think that is true. ((It really is not true as…

    I just noticed this in TextExpander:

    Screen shot 2011 02 02 at 9 40 31 AM

    I can’t think of a more compelling reason to use it.

    [Updated: 2.2.11 at 9:55 AM]

    Also my stats may be broken as I can’t fathom how this is possible. But I’m going with it because I like to think that is true. ((It really is not true as far as I can tell.))

  • The Daily for iPad on the iTunes App Store

    This is hot news — I didn’t watch the press conference nor am I impressed by this. I am happy about the forth coming subscription model. If you want me to shoot from the hip on the new Daily app, here is what it feels like to me: A slightly less annoying Wired app with…

    This is hot news — I didn’t watch the press conference nor am I impressed by this. I am happy about the forth coming subscription model. If you want me to shoot from the hip on the new Daily app, here is what it feels like to me: A slightly less annoying Wired app with slightly more annoying moving parts.

    [Updated: 2.2.11 at 9:13 AM]

    Did they decide that everything needed an animation for this thing — hideous.

  • A Better Way to Track Device Sales

    To all of my readers and to all makers and seller of products: You may think that quoting random sales statistics is a great way to share a device’s success with the masses, but in actuality it is a piss poor method. Let me tell you why: “I have sold 100% of all iPad 2s…

    To all of my readers and to all makers and seller of products:

    You may think that quoting random sales statistics is a great way to share a device’s success with the masses, but in actuality it is a piss poor method. Let me tell you why: “I have sold 100% of all iPad 2s that I have in stock.” Do you get why that is a meaningless statement? Do you get why saying that sales are up 100 fold year over year is stupid? Because if you only had one to sell, or if you sold none the year before, then these relative terms are pretty stupid. Along the same lines saying that ‘we couldn’t make enough’ is a pretty poor statement. What if you were only making 100 iPhones a year — then that changes everything, but if you are making 100 ever half second then that changes the meaning again.

    Here is how I gauge if a product is popular and selling well — which in turn means it will survive — I ask myself if I have seen normal people using the device, in the real world. I knew the iPad was a hit the moment I started seeing people that seem like technophobes using the device. The moment grandparents started buying iPads, is the moment I knew that the iPad was a massive hit.

    Likewise I know the Tab is a failure because I have yet to see one in public — literally speaking I have never seen one outside of my possession in public. So when I read that 15% of Tab buyers are returning the device — guess what — I am not surprised.

  • A Few Thoughts on Readability and Paying for Content

    I am fully on the Readability band wagon, they have created a great service for both readers and writers. My goal with this site from day one has been to keep it highly readable and to minimize the distractions. On the local install of this blog that I have on my MacBook Air I am…

    I am fully on the Readability band wagon, they have created a great service for both readers and writers. My goal with this site from day one has been to keep it highly readable and to minimize the distractions. On the local install of this blog that I have on my MacBook Air I am constantly playing with trivial aspects of the site — trying to make it just a touch better each time I push new changes.

    Now a day or so removed from the Readability announcement I have received quite a few questions from people and I have read some rather interesting thoughts across the web. A few of which I would like to chime in on.

    Rewarding Poor Design

    Shawn Blanc said:

    It seems to me that the sites which I most want my 70% subscription payment to go to are the sites which are already optimized for reading on the web.

    While Justin Blanton more directly said:

    Relatedly, if the service gets really popular, it’s not hard to imagine authors/publishers making their sites slightly more difficult to read in an effort to compel readers to route their articles through Readability (thereby generating a micropayment).

    This presents an interesting problem for the service, the reader, and the publisher. Readability certainly doesn’t want to reward people who are gaming the system by making their backgrounds #FFF and their text #FAFAFA, but how do they separate people gaming the system, from people that just suck at design?

    Likewise a reader doesn’t necessarily want to support every site they visit — especially if it is an eye sore — but how do they avoid using Readability to support a site when all they really want is a better way to read the content? That is: if the site is ugly and I still want to read it with Readability or Instapaper, how do I go about that without generating a micro-payment to that site? The reason you might not want to pay the site is infinite, but let’s just assume it appears the site is gaming the system.

    Lastly, if I am content provider what constitutes crossing the line and how do I get as much of my cut of the money as possible? Do I make the text low contrast, can I make it small? Is it OK just to have the Readability button on my site, what about a link to Readability, or am I supposed to do nothing?

    A lot of questions, none of which I have the answer to right now. Further, I don’t think anybody has the answer to these questions except the last bit. Making your site purposefully more difficult to read in order to generate more Readability hits is wrong no matter how you look at it. In fact when/if sites start doing this I won’t be reading those sites.

    Micro-micro-payments

    Justin Blanton again chimes in saying:

    My $5.00/month spread amongst the thousands of articles I read each month isn’t going to amount to much for an individual author, even in the aggregate.

    No kidding, in fact the payments you should expect from this service is on par with payments you would get from something like Google AdSense: next to nothing. This is doubly true if your site is actually readable.

    The fact is, if you only have $3.50 (after Readability takes their cut) to spread out over 100 sites (my guess as to what a fairly average web savvy reader might read) in a given month then you are only paying each site 3.5 cents a month. Say you have 1000 readability hits in a month at 3.5 cents a hit you will only end up with $35 a month.

    I don’t even know if it is likely that TBR will get 1000 hits on Readability in a month. At the end of the day yesterday I had 16. Which if that stays constant I will end the month with just shy of 500 Readability hits, or at the minimum $5/month level I will get $15 or so — in theory.

    Is that free money? Yes it is, but it would only pay for the VaultPress on this site. Not to mention the fact that I have decided to put 100% of the money I earn from Readability back into Readability to help fund the sites I read. So no matter what I will get $0 a month, my hope being that I get to support all the sites I love for $0 a month.

    There is no way around micro-payments on the web — as bloggers we live off of micro-payments. Sure advertisers and I agree to a sum and there are set rates for RSS sponsorships, but those are all based off of traffic numbers. No matter how you slice it each visitor is given a dollar amount and bloggers are paid based on that. It would actually be more fair to say that each visitor is given a penny amount.

    Readability is just another micro-payment stream for bloggers to try and buy some coffee with. It should not be confused with a way to make a substantial sum of money — not in its current form.

    Smile

    All of this takes a rather negative look at the new Readability model, but I don’t actually hold a negative view of it. Personally I think this can only be good, as readers were already choosing to use Instapaper and the like to read this site — I now stand a chance of getting a touch more money from that habit.

    What I think all publishers should be smiling about was summed up best by Shawn Blanc:

    I’m excited about what users seem to be complaining about. They’re complaining that Readability doesn’t have an even easier way to support and fund the sites they love.

    Amen to that.

  • Time to Clean the Inbox

    Sometimes if you throw a question out there on Twitter an awesome person will answer it for you. This time around I asked about getting an Applescript that would tell me if there were items in my OmniFocus inbox at given times. Jered Benoit made the script and showed how to set it as a…

    Sometimes if you throw a question out there on Twitter an awesome person will answer it for you. This time around I asked about getting an Applescript that would tell me if there were items in my OmniFocus inbox at given times. Jered Benoit made the script and showed how to set it as a reminder in iCal so that the script will be run.

    This is awesome and just what I needed. I forget to process the inbox regularly and this script will keep me from forgetting to process the inbox. (I have it set for an hour after I get up and an hour before I leave work)

    Thanks Jered you get a Platinum TBR membership! ((Again this is a title only membership with only two members so far!))

  • WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 10 – Ben Brooks

    Mike Vardy was kind enough to interview me for the WorkAwesome podcast — I had a lot of fun so be sure to check it out (if podcasts are your sort of thing).

    Mike Vardy was kind enough to interview me for the WorkAwesome podcast — I had a lot of fun so be sure to check it out (if podcasts are your sort of thing).

  • ‘1984’

    A fantastic story from Steve Hayden on Apple’s 1984 Superbowl ad — a story that includes this bit: I continued working on Apple until 1994, when it became clear that there wasn’t a single person left at the company who understood or appreciated the Apple brand. IBM was more interested in being Apple than Apple…

    A fantastic story from Steve Hayden on Apple’s 1984 Superbowl ad — a story that includes this bit:

    I continued working on Apple until 1994, when it became clear that there wasn’t a single person left at the company who understood or appreciated the Apple brand. IBM was more interested in being Apple than Apple was, and I found a better audience in Armonk than I did in Cupertino.

  • Learning OmniFocus

    J. Eddie Smith, IV is moving to OmniFocus (like all the cool kids) and has a post with a ton of great links. ((Not just saying that because he linked to this site.)) He will be updating it regularly so be sure to check it out.

    J. Eddie Smith, IV is moving to OmniFocus (like all the cool kids) and has a post with a ton of great links. ((Not just saying that because he linked to this site.)) He will be updating it regularly so be sure to check it out.

  • Basecamp for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Palm.

    This is a killer implementation of Basecamp on my iPhone — beats any of the apps that you can buy for iOS in the App Store by a mile. I now have everything but a good Backpack client for my iPhone. I hope this is a the route they take with Backpack as well.

    This is a killer implementation of Basecamp on my iPhone — beats any of the apps that you can buy for iOS in the App Store by a mile. I now have everything but a good Backpack client for my iPhone. I hope this is a the route they take with Backpack as well.

  • The Fall of a Titan — So Long Sony

    I posted a quote from Jeff Yang in an article he wrote for The San Francisco Chronicle titled: “How Steve Jobs ‘out-Japanned’ Japan”. It has been noted, that the article really should have been ‘how he ‘out-Sony’d’ Sony’ — much of the article is about Sony with the remaining bits about Apple and specifically Steve…

    I posted a quote from Jeff Yang in an article he wrote for The San Francisco Chronicle titled: “How Steve Jobs ‘out-Japanned’ Japan”. It has been noted, that the article really should have been ‘how he ‘out-Sony’d’ Sony’ — much of the article is about Sony with the remaining bits about Apple and specifically Steve Jobs — the insight he draws into both Apple and Sony makes for an informational read. About a month ago I started to write a post about Sony and how it is quickly fading away in both consumer relevance and technological relevance. I got one sentence into it: “What the hell happened to Sony?”

    The answer to this question starts back in 2007, when I was in Japan visiting relatives. ((I am one-quarter Japanese and can speak 1% of the language, while understanding a far greater percentage.)) I had the opportunity to go into a Sony building/store that was in Tokyo. In this store I saw one of the most impressive pieces of technology I had ever laid eyes on: a 13” (I think, metric system and Japanese writing makes it hard to remember) OLED TV/Monitor. The color and resolution was superb and the device was as thin, or thinner, than an iPad. It was really a sight to see and it cost an arm and a leg (if memory serves it was over $1000 US).

    Growing up I always wanted Sony stuff — their stuff was always the best looking gadget you could buy — Sony seemed to epitomize cool. They made black computers long before it was cool to make black computers. Sony was always at the high end of the market, charging premium prices for premium design.

    They were cool.

    I don’t know when it happened, but if you browse Sony’s website you get a clear picture that they are selling mid-range products with mid-range design. The biggest design element that Sony uses is applying color with reckless abandon to all of their devices. All of the prices seem to be run of the mill, nothing too expensive and nothing too cheap. It all seems so very average.

    There is no one thing you can point your finger at as the problem, except perhaps their CEO. You don’t keep a great company great by saying things like this:

    No — you have to launch [it]. It’s there. Competitive pressures — you read in the papers, so-and-so is the first to release 3-D TV. You don’t want to be the last.

    —Sony’s CEO Sir Howard Stringer [source: Jeff Yang for the San Francisco Chronicle]

    Compare this to what Jeff Yang explains as the idea that Sony’s founder Masaru Ibuka instilled Sony with:

    That statement was simple and to the point: “Sony will be the company that is most known for transforming the global image of Japanese goods as being of poor quality.” It defined Sony by what it would not do — make bad products — making it something of an omission statement, if you will.

    I don’t quote that snippet to imply in any way that Sony has started making poor quality products, but I think they make very average products today. The current crop of leaders at Sony are after two things: profits and market share. I don’t think they truly care which one they get, so long as they get one of them.

    The CEO needs to go. Hell, the senior management needs to go.

    Sony may still make products that are durable and pass Q.A., but what they don’t make is products with quality design. They haven’t made something like that in quite a while.

    I used to waste hours in college looking at Dynamism as they would have the latest computers available in Japan for import to the U.S. We are talking about spending $500-1000 in marked up prices to get the latest cool notebook. Now you browse that site and you have to be left with the feeling of: so what. I remember how cool the Carbon Fiber sony laptops used to look.

    Sony should be the Windows supplier of beautiful computers — instead they let Apple take that away from them with Bootcamp. The competition is between Apple and the PC world, with Sony being lumped with the likes of Dell as just another PC manufacturer. Where Dell used to represent the anti-Sony — Sony has now found themselves lumped in the category of just another computer maker.

    Ibuka has to be rolling over in his grave.

    I just spent about 30 minutes of my time looking through Sony’s US website to see if there was anything I wanted to buy. I came across this:

    sony.png

    I think we all now know exactly what the problem with Sony is. ((Hint: Look at the prices and the fact that they are selling Tape a CD players…still.))

    [Updated: 2.1.11 at 8:37 AM]

    A reader pointed out that he thinks the main mistake was moving to hire a ‘western’ CEO and not a Japanese CEO. I have spent most of my life in the Japanese culture and with that mindset this sentiment makes complete sense to me. There is a huge difference in mindset between the western world and Japanese culture.

    For example Japanese employees typically all do a serious of stretches and a light work out at the beginning of each work day — a western CEO might not think that is important. There is one danger in this line of thinking: if Stringer has this knowledge base then the only problem would be that he is not Japanese — but I don’t think that this is fundamentally a problem. So long as the CEO understands AND respects the Japanese way the company should still be doing fine.

    Sony is not doing fine, so either Stringer does not understand the Japanese culture, or he simply doesn’t respect it.

  • Readability’s new service

    Marco Arment on Readbility’s new service: Today, they launched an entirely new Readability service: you pay a small fee each month, and they give most of the proceeds to the authors of the pages you choose (by using the Readability bookmarklet on them, or adding them in other ways). It’s a great way for readers…

    Marco Arment on Readbility’s new service:

    Today, they launched an entirely new Readability service: you pay a small fee each month, and they give most of the proceeds to the authors of the pages you choose (by using the Readability bookmarklet on them, or adding them in other ways). It’s a great way for readers to support web publishers, big and small, directly and automatically.

    I am signed up to pay $5 a month right now and The Brooks Review is setup to receive funds on Readability. ((My ultimate goal is to end up paying a subscription for whatever I bring in to TBR a month, back to the sites I read. I don’t know what, if anything, that will be right now so I am starting with $5/mo.)) This is so new and I was so excited about it I had to get it setup up right away. You will also notice that the Instapaper buttons are gone — replaced with Readability’s new buttons. On any article that I write you will see a button that says ‘Read’ and gives you two options: now and later. Later saves the article in the Readability back-end and Now gives you a great view of just the content. I am a huge fan and it helps that the colors somewhat match TBR’s colors.

    Marco is working on an iOS app that uses Instapaper’s back-end for ultimate awesomeness. Let me know if you hit any problems, until then hit the link and sign up to use the service and sign up as a publisher if you haven’t already.

  • USAA App for iPad

    Remember how I was saying that USAA is the best bank you can get — well check out their new iPad app. I can tell you from first hand experience that this app is killer.

    Remember how I was saying that USAA is the best bank you can get — well check out their new iPad app. I can tell you from first hand experience that this app is killer.

  • How Apple and Google Probably Won’t Kill the Password

    Mike Elgan wrote an exhaustive piece full of technology day dreams for a world where we can rid the password. He talks about how Apple is presumable pursuing NFC technology and how Android is set to include it. NFC is a word that is going to be annoying for the next few years — it…

    Mike Elgan wrote an exhaustive piece full of technology day dreams for a world where we can rid the password. He talks about how Apple is presumable pursuing NFC technology and how Android is set to include it.

    NFC is a word that is going to be annoying for the next few years — it stands for Near Field Communication. Basically it is like a Bluetooth/RFID system.

    Google likely isn’t going to transform this — adding support for NFC in Android leaves it up to developers to implement the system, which is just asking for crap.

    Apple doesn’t care to do this unless they are getting 30% of every NFC transaction. They do have incentive to use NFC to make interacting between iOS devices and Macs better.

    I like Elgan’s grand thoughts, but they are all pipe dreams that are more than 5 years out (at best).

  • The next Nokia OS: Android or Windows?

    Fabrizio Capobianco debating Nokia’s mobile OS options: The big question is: will there ever be a lot of MeeGo developers? Hard to say, the ship has sailed a long time ago. Developers today build for iPhone first, then Android. If they have a good reason (i.e. Microsoft paying) they build for Windows Phone 7. If…

    Fabrizio Capobianco debating Nokia’s mobile OS options:

    The big question is: will there ever be a lot of MeeGo developers? Hard to say, the ship has sailed a long time ago. Developers today build for iPhone first, then Android. If they have a good reason (i.e. Microsoft paying) they build for Windows Phone 7. If they are in the enterprise, maybe they look at BlackBerry. If they want to support the existing bunch of devices, they suffer and go with Symbian as well. Hard to think they will pick yet-another-OS…

    Capobianco is right, MeeGo has no developers and that means that there will be little consumer interest. I would guess that Nokia tries to launch a Windows Phone 7 and Android phone to see which sells better. As much as I would like them to pursue MeeGo and not license Windows Phone 7 or Android I just don’t see the benefit to it.

  • Egypt. Internet. Stupidity.

    Christopher Mims: In a country where users are ahead of the authorities in terms of their ability to exploit the relatively new “social” media, blunt instruments must be used, and the economic consequences for Egypt could be profound. A fascinating look at Internet filtering versus turning off the Internet completely.

    Christopher Mims:

    In a country where users are ahead of the authorities in terms of their ability to exploit the relatively new “social” media, blunt instruments must be used, and the economic consequences for Egypt could be profound.

    A fascinating look at Internet filtering versus turning off the Internet completely.