The Brooks Review

Top Posts

Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022

Recent Articles

  • My Current Everyday Carry

    The stuff I carry in my pockets.

    A lot of what I write about here revolves around my search for finding better things to carry on a daily basis. When I started working from home, I thought it would alleviate a lot of the needs for carrying, but it actually made my struggle worse.

    When you don’t work from home, you tend to leave your house with the notion that you will be gone for the entire work day. This allows you to grab a bag, and slightly overpack, while having little guilt about doing so. That’s certainly how I approached it, and how most approach it given the “EDC” setups I see online.

    (more…)

  • New GORUCK Bullet Ruck Out

    Looks like GORUCK has a new variant of that awesome 10L Bullet Ruck out. The major change seems to be the handle at the top of the bag. It is now the proper GR1 style handle instead of the nylon webbing loop. Very tempted to ditch my bullet to get one of these (if you…

    Looks like GORUCK has a new variant of that awesome 10L Bullet Ruck out. The major change seems to be the handle at the top of the bag. It is now the proper GR1 style handle instead of the nylon webbing loop. Very tempted to ditch my bullet to get one of these (if you want mine to help facilitate this swap for me reach out. I have a Steel color 10L SOLD). After the GR1 the 10L Bullet is my favorite GORUCK bag.

    Rumor has it GORUCK has a 15L Bullet Ruck coming out this summer too.

  • For Sale: Filson Tablet Briefcase (SOLD)

    Only one, go for it.

    I have my gently used Filson Tablet Briefcase for sale. This is no longer produced by Filson and while you can still find some retailers selling them, they are getting harder to find. Only reason I am selling it is because I tend to use backpacks over shoulder bags, and I don’t want to part with my Filson Original Briefcase. Color is Otter Green, the best Filson color. My Review.

    Yours for $130 shipped, only to US shipping addresses. First to pay gets it. SOLD

    (more…)

  • Summer Things That We Buy

    A quick gear guide for summers outdoors.

    Members might recall, last year that I took a car camping trip with a group consisting of 3 dads, and 5 kids. I made a video for that, which showed the absurd amount of gear I alone packed. We are coming up on the second year for this trip, and as such I have been going through a bunch of my gear to get it ready to go.

    With that in mind, and the summer upon us, it is highly likely that many of you are going to end up getting out of the house and this might necessitate some new gear. That’s what this post is about: the gear we buy for summer fun. I’ll be running through some of my favorite gear, and some thoughts I have on gear I am considering.

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

  • No one is opening those emails about privacy updates, and marketers are getting nervous

    Michelle Castillo reporting on this catastrophic trend of people not opting into SPAM: “People are not opting back in,” says Michael Horn, the director of data science for digital marketing agency Huge. “It’s one thing for your customers who don’t have a relationship with the brand to decline and not respond, but you’re also losing…

    Michelle Castillo reporting on this catastrophic trend of people not opting into SPAM:

    “People are not opting back in,” says Michael Horn, the director of data science for digital marketing agency Huge. “It’s one thing for your customers who don’t have a relationship with the brand to decline and not respond, but you’re also losing a sales channel.”

    Not to worry. I’m sure they’ll work out some new type of shit.

  • Triple Aught Design Transport Wallet

    Lots of good ideas, which don’t really pan out.

    A bit ago Triple Aught Design released the Transport Wallet, which is the companies take on a wallet for travel and adventure. I had seen the wallet walked through on Instagram, and at only $35 I decided to buy it right away when they came out. There’s a few stand out features which sold me on the wallet:

    1. Hidden pocket and slots for lockpicks.
    2. A way to store small amounts of cash.
    3. Quick access pocket for the credit card you normally use.
    4. Harder to get to storage for everything else.

    The idea of this wallet, or rather the concept of it, is quite interesting. Everything is in a secure spot, but the stuff you need often is readily accessible in an almost one handed manner. However my biggest concern going into this wallet was that I would instantly find it too large.

    (more…)

  • Your Phone Is Listening and it’s Not Paranoia

    Sam Nichols: With this in mind, I decided to try an experiment. Twice a day for five days, I tried saying a bunch of phrases that could theoretically be used as triggers. Phrases like I’m thinking about going back to uni and I need some cheap shirts for work. Then I carefully monitored the sponsored…

    Sam Nichols:

    With this in mind, I decided to try an experiment. Twice a day for five days, I tried saying a bunch of phrases that could theoretically be used as triggers. Phrases like I’m thinking about going back to uni and I need some cheap shirts for work. Then I carefully monitored the sponsored posts on Facebook for any changes.

    You’ll not be shocked by the results.

    (H/t to Steve)

    Looks like this post has been disputed enough to warrant not reading it. Apologies.

  • iPads, Watches, And Travel

    At the end of this post, I give a mini-review of Dunkin’ Donuts, and I know it’s been a long time coming.

    Going down the rabbit hole a bit this week. Talking about what makes good iPad software, what it would take to get me to switch back to Apple Watch, and a note that I checked a bag when traveling. Dunkin’ Donuts talk too.

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

  • Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

    By GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL LaFORGIAL: “It’s like having door locks installed, only to find out that the locksmith also gave keys to all of his friends so they can come in and rifle through your stuff without having to ask you for permission,” said Ashkan Soltani, a research and privacy consultant…

    By GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL LaFORGIAL:

    “It’s like having door locks installed, only to find out that the locksmith also gave keys to all of his friends so they can come in and rifle through your stuff without having to ask you for permission,” said Ashkan Soltani, a research and privacy consultant who formerly served as the F.T.C.’s chief technologist.

    Only difference: the Facebook users don’t give a shit.

  • Backpacks for Kids

    What a shit-show of a market, here’s what I’ve learned.

    A year ago I was confronted with something I thought would be really fun, but which turned out to be exceedingly frustrating. I needed a backpack for my daughter who was entering kindergarten. I suspect most parents go to Target and let their kid pick something they like, but there’s simply no way I was going to buy my daughter something that wasn’t high quality.

    Since GORUCK no longer makes the Kid Ruck (and they go on EBay for absurd money) I set out researching to find a full-size (all the backpacks she had prior were not full-size, and I define that by “can fit a binder in it”), well made, backpack for my daughter. I hated almost every recommendation that I saw.

    (more…)

  • Day After Thoughts

    A few thoughts on WWDC.

    A few big thoughts on WWDC announcements, Overall I’m pretty happy.

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

  • Mobile Safari is holding the iPad back

    Bradley Chambers: Here’s what the iPads needs: a desktop version of Safari with external trackpad support. Yes, Mobile Safari has a “Request Desktop” mode. There are plenty of websites that completely ignore that request, though. Even for the ones that don’t, many of the designs and navigations are built for a mouse pointer. The iPad…

    Bradley Chambers:

    Here’s what the iPads needs: a desktop version of Safari with external trackpad support. Yes, Mobile Safari has a “Request Desktop” mode. There are plenty of websites that completely ignore that request, though. Even for the ones that don’t, many of the designs and navigations are built for a mouse pointer. The iPad already has external keyboard support and an external trackpad support would go a long way to making the iPad a Mac replacement.

    The iPad comes pretty close with iCab Mobile which is a great web browser when Mobile Safari isn’t working. However that’s not quite what Chambers is talking about here because this is more of a chicken and an egg issue. For instance many ‘modern’ websites rely heavily on the notion that there is such things as drag and drop, hover states, and generally speaking a cursor. Without a cursor a lot of the web doesn’t work, not because technically it cannot work, but because of lazy product design.

    Because some product manager decided that their support response would be “use a desktop, sorry”. I don’t want iPad to have a cursor, because that’s not what iPad is. I want websites to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that there are far more people using mobile Safari than there are those sitting down at a desktop to work. Just as web designers had to learn to design responsive websites mobile first, web application developers need to make their apps work on iPhones and Android phones first and foremost, desktops second. Because if it works on an iPhone, it will certainly work on a MacBook Pro.

  • Things Controlled by Keyboard

    This is quite the can of worms.

    Great overview at The Sweet Setup by Josh Ginter, of a very important new update to Things for iPad. With this update, Things is unequivocally the best task manager you can get. If you are using something else, you’re wasting your time — and isn’t that what you are trying to avoid with your task manager?

    (more…)

  • Revisiting Standing Desks

    Revisiting standing for work, and some of my favorite EDC and bag sites.

    Years ago, I switched to a standing desk when I was working in an office full time. When I left that job to work from home, I worked at a sitting desk for a year before getting another standing desk. But sometimes laziness wins out and it had been sometime since I stood at that desk. A few weeks ago I decided to go all in on it and only stand again.

    Since it has been [some time](https://brooksreview.net/2014/04/standing-desks-how-to-get-going/) since I wrote about this topic, I figured it was time to follow up on it.

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

  • Ulysses 13

    Some fantastic new features. Both fenced code blocks and a new deadline feature for sheets are tops. I’ve been testing this for a while and the deadline feature has a lot of potential. Since I track all my writing in in Ulysses I’ve been setting deadlines as “at most 1,500 words, deadline DATE” this not…

    Some fantastic new features. Both fenced code blocks and a new deadline feature for sheets are tops. I’ve been testing this for a while and the deadline feature has a lot of potential.

    Since I track all my writing in in Ulysses I’ve been setting deadlines as “at most 1,500 words, deadline DATE” this not only keeps me at a reasonable word count but let’s me plan out my writing better. Good stuff, can’t wait to see how this feature evolves.

  • One of My Favorite Lights Available: ReyLight Pineapple Brass AA Flashlight

    I own two, and it’s all I can do to not buy another.

    I own two, and it’s all I can do to not buy another.

  • Here’s Amazon’s explanation for the Alexa eavesdropping scandal

    Weed is legal in Seattle, in case you wondered how they came up with this explanation.

    Weed is legal in Seattle, in case you wondered how they came up with this explanation.

  • Travel Bags for People Who Don’t Pack Light

    Because nobody talks about those in between bags, which I think would help a lot of people.

    I read a lot of travel sites which talk about the best travel bags and there’s typically only two types of bags recommended: roller bags for the pack everything person, or pretty small bags for those who have “figured it out”. What you don’t see much of is bag recommendations for those who don’t want a roller bag, but also who pack closer to how normal people pack.

    (more…)

  • Obscura 2

    Out today is Obscura 2. I had a chance to play with the beta version and came to like it quite a bit, and it has become a home screen app for me. More information on the blog post here. I don’t know what it is about this app, but it’s really stuck with me,…

    Out today is Obscura 2. I had a chance to play with the beta version and came to like it quite a bit, and it has become a home screen app for me. More information on the blog post here. I don’t know what it is about this app, but it’s really stuck with me, I like the controls and the amount of control it gives me — while at the same time working like “normal” when I don’t have time to futz about.

  • Instapaper Temporarily Shuts Down

    Nick Statt: Instapaper happens to be owned by Pinterest as of 2016, which does add a bit of a wrinkle to the situation as it’s not entirely clear what type of data on users’ reading habits or any other behaviors Pinterest may have gleaned from its subsidiary. When questioned by Williams on Twitter about the…

    Nick Statt:

    Instapaper happens to be owned by Pinterest as of 2016, which does add a bit of a wrinkle to the situation as it’s not entirely clear what type of data on users’ reading habits or any other behaviors Pinterest may have gleaned from its subsidiary. When questioned by Williams on Twitter about the subject, Brian Donohue, a product engineering manager at Pinterest, said, “I can’t comment on specifics other than to say that I’m actively working on resolving it.”

    Sketchy.