The Brooks Review

Top Posts

The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025
G-SHOCK DW-H5600 After 7 MonthsJuly 31, 2025
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022

Recent Articles

  • Apple’s Screen Time Tool

    Let’s make smartphones smart, for a change.

    Something which I was incredibly excited about with iOS 12 was the launch of the Screen Time utility as a native part of iOS. Being able to see how much time I was using the device, impose limits, and break this all down without having to jump through all the hoops other apps made me jump through to see this — well it seemed like Screen Time would be great. Add to that interesting metrics like ‘pick ups’ and notification counts — I hoped that this would encourage many developers and product owners to change the way they juice ‘engagement’ metrics.

    Alas, this tool has changed nothing for me. And is fundamentally flawed — falling into the same trap so many Silicon Valley ‘solutions’ fall into: lots of noise with little impact.

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  • iOS Productivity Report — 3/25/19

    I have no issue with carrying a purse, but it still wouldn’t solve my problem with carrying an iPad mini.

    This week: I find myself asking this one question; I confirm the lack of color in the 1950s, and I talk about living a happier life on iOS. Enjoy!

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Bag Guide 2019

    Some might say I have said everything I can when it comes to bags. They would be very wrong.

    I’ve been writing a lot of emails advising people on bag purchases and pairing. Which I realize now is a completely untapped market with potentially billions of dollars at stake for me. I’ll fill that void. My goal here is to provide an everyday “work” carry option, as well as a travel option, both keeping in mind different styles of dress codes. Unfortunately, this is aimed primarily at men, as I can’t intelligently speak to women’s fashion at all.

    Each category has a few pairing options — pick what calls to you. I’ll note my setup at the end. Godspeed.

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  • Snack Pick of the Week: 3/18/19

    It’s like eating money.

    This week I have an expensive pick for you: Sweetwood Smokehouse’s Beef Jerky. I snagged a pack of these in Denver and am very impressed. I followed up by ordering more on Amazon (they have a 4 pack of all the flavors!) and remain impressed.

    It’s not the world’s best jerky, but for store bought, and Amazon available jerky it is darn good. The issue is the price, because the packs are only 1.75oz which is comical at best and evil in reality.

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  • iPad Productivity Report — 3/18/19

    Sometimes you just need to have really cool DCF products to store your iPad Pro in.

    This week: my top screen mirroring trick to avoid embarrassing notifications, separating out work versus personal devices, how I am fairing with a WiFi only iPad Pro, and end it with a couple interesting pouches I recently picked up.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Finding the Right Backpack Material

    I’m not a huge fan of the way Evergoods bags look, but damn if I don’t appreciate this nerd level of caring.

    I’m not a huge fan of the way Evergoods bags look, but damn if I don’t appreciate this nerd level of caring.

  • My iPad Writing Setup in 2019: Using a Stand, Keyboard, and Ulysses

    Good setup and delightfully simple. But someone get that guy a better keyboard.

    Good setup and delightfully simple. But someone get that guy a better keyboard.

  • Snack Pick of the Week: 3/11/19

    In the past two weeks I have eaten an unhealthy amount of these.

    ‘Tis the season: Girl Scout cookie season that is. I bought my traditional overstocking of the best cookie they make: Thin Mints. And that is our snack pick of the week.

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  • Ulysses 15, Better than Ever

    Image previews for all! Ulysses has always done this polarizing thing among Markdown purists: they previewed images you put in your document. If you step back, this was and is a great innovation and one that I have always loved, but never been able to use. Until now. With Ulysses 15 the app will now…

    Image previews for all! Ulysses has always done this polarizing thing among Markdown purists: they previewed images you put in your document. If you step back, this was and is a great innovation and one that I have always loved, but never been able to use.

    Until now. With Ulysses 15 the app will now preview images from remote web locations, even if that web location is hosted in Australia — truly global.

    Joking aside, this is the one feature they added this time around which has really impacted me in a good way. I love this feature, this app, and it keeps getting better.

    Side note: I complained about how this changed some of the image adding flow. A smart person at Ulysses, let’s call him Max for the purpose of this article, chuckled and wondered why I inserted images the hard way. Turns out if you have an image URL on the pasteboard, you can just paste that URL in any part of the document and Ulysses magically makes this work like you inserted the image. How cool is that? Thanks “Max”, if that’s even your real name.

    Yes, I know you can paste URLs on to text to make a link, I literally never tried it with images I guess.

  • Member Post for 3/11/19

    I’m sorry, but this post is 840 words and only for members.

    This week: an update on USB cables, a new feature I am working on and would like feedback from you, and lastly some additional management tips.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Why Daylight Saving Time Is a Good Thing

    The title of this link is likely to be extremely unpopular among those who read this site. The common belief basically amounts to “fuck daylight saving time” and I certainly have held that opinion for a while. Especially this morning. However this article is an extremely interesting counter point to the common refrain. Worth your…

    The title of this link is likely to be extremely unpopular among those who read this site. The common belief basically amounts to “fuck daylight saving time” and I certainly have held that opinion for a while. Especially this morning.

    However this article is an extremely interesting counter point to the common refrain. Worth your time.

  • Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

    This post is meh, but this quote from Kevin Roose is gold: I even use an app to pretend to meditate. Perfect.

    This post is meh, but this quote from Kevin Roose is gold:

    I even use an app to pretend to meditate.

    Perfect.

  • The Axios Harris Poll 100

    Interesting poll: The Axios Harris Poll 100 ranks the reputations of the most visible companies in the United States. The survey is conducted among 18,228 Americans in a nationally representative sample. Powered by twenty years of proprietary research from The Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, The Axios Harris Poll 100 is a measurement of what real…

    Interesting poll:

    The Axios Harris Poll 100 ranks the reputations of the most visible companies in the United States. The survey is conducted among 18,228 Americans in a nationally representative sample. Powered by twenty years of proprietary research from The Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, The Axios Harris Poll 100 is a measurement of what real people think right now about the companies in our cultural conversation.

    Amazon is at #2, while Apple is down at #32. What’s amazing though is Facebook, which dropped from #51 last year to #94 this year.

    Comcast is #91 this year. Spirit Airlines is #90.

    If you’ve had the misfortune to interact with either of those companies you should be amazed Facebook is lower then them, but also proud that people recognize how shit Facebook really is. The US Government is #100, which seems a tad high.

  • MACV-1s, are they any good?

    Yeah they are ugly, but they are stupidly good too.

    When I wrote my first impressions of the MACV-1s it was a mix of underwhelmed, and pleasantly surprised. But that was many miles ago, and I still wear these boots almost everyday. So it’s about time to answer the big question: are they any good?

    I think for like monetary reasons, you are supposed to not reveal things until the end of the post, but yes they are quite good and worth the money. There’s some caveats to that, of course, but suffice to say I am thinking/wanting to pick up a pair in Coyote as well. I really like them, so let’s dive into the nitty gritty then.

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  • Member Post for 3/4/19

    What if the only way to lower your health premium to an affordable rate was to allow your health insurer access to your Apple Watch data?

    This week I have two topics: the first is a theory that we are coming to a point where we will all be forced to wear activity trackers to be able to get basic services; the second is work;life balance.

    Enjoy.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Misuse of Eastern Ideas

    I don’t love this post from Amy Olberding, because I don’t think it applies s neatly to Marie Kondo as it does to the examples of Sun Tzu in the article (which is misused and the analysis is spot on). With Kondo it is a bit different but bordering on stupidity at this point, that…

    I don’t love this post from Amy Olberding, because I don’t think it applies s neatly to Marie Kondo as it does to the examples of Sun Tzu in the article (which is misused and the analysis is spot on). With Kondo it is a bit different but bordering on stupidity at this point, that said I still think many people I know should read Kondo’s book.

    Anyways, the entire reason for this link is so I can quote this bit:

    Kondo is, in several ways, a Mr Miyagi for the anxious, late-capitalist, consumerist age.

  • Reasons Why Men Should Carry a Purse

    I mean you can just carry a bag, but for the love of everything don’t call it a man-purse or a murse. There’s just no need. You know what’s a good name: ‘hand bag’.

    I mean you can just carry a bag, but for the love of everything don’t call it a man-purse or a murse. There’s just no need. You know what’s a good name: ‘hand bag’.

  • Cutting the Five Tech Giants

    Kashmir Hill on the experience: I’ve just traded one huge corporation seeking to monetize my searches for another, less competent one. I think that’s astute and something most people miss when they try to cut out too many of the big companies. It’s fair to say that you should cut out Google and Facebook as…

    Kashmir Hill on the experience:

    I’ve just traded one huge corporation seeking to monetize my searches for another, less competent one.

    I think that’s astute and something most people miss when they try to cut out too many of the big companies. It’s fair to say that you should cut out Google and Facebook as much as you can. Amazon seems like it will protect your data better than Kroger, and Apple better than any startup. That said, Hill’s series on all of this is worth the read.

  • Changing my Coffee Routine & Setup

    Nope, not Aeropress, that would be funny though.

    I used to really hate coffee, so instead I drank obscene amounts of Pepsi to fill my caffeine needs. But as part of getting healthier I stopped drinking soda at home, but this still meant needing caffeine — so I moved to coffee. My wife and I initially did this with a Starbucks Verismo machine (Erin would like me to clarify that she has liked coffee since college and Spain), which is like half Keurig and half Nespresso. It makes solid coffee, but the pods are hard to find (mostly from Starbucks stores, though now I see Amazon has a ready stock, but they were always on sale at the stores) and very expensive ($1.50 a pod typically). However the convenience was impossible for us to ignore.

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  • Snack Pick of the Week: 2/25/19

    Trust me on this, it’s better than the name implies.

    Alright, you’re going to need to hear me out on this one — but it is one of my favorite go to snacks. It’s just not one that many of you who don’t work from home will be able to easily accomplish. This week’s snack pick is: cold nachos.

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