Recent Articles

Brett Terpstra on the change with iTunes App affiliate links:

> I use affiliate links on everything. I’ve built many tools, including SearchLink to make this easy, and it generates a small portion of my monthly income. Not a lot, but it’s enough to notice. On an average month, I’ll make about $200. With this cut, that same amount of traffic will bring me about $75 dollars. A popular post written for MacStories can earn me $200 in affiliate sales on its own. Again, that’s now $75. And the average post, even with MacStories traffic, earns $20 to $30… which is now $10 or less. It’s a drastic cut to mention in passing just one week before it takes effect.

I mentioned this on Twitter, but I make about $70 a month off what small affiliate linking I do for apps. At this point, with this change, it no longer is worth any effort on my part to be annoyed with making those affiliate links for iTunes. Luckily, I have a [business model which is stable](https://brooksreview.net/join). But this really sucks for a lot of great sites and writers. $200 on a guest post is nothing to bat an eye at — it’s more than most get paid directly for such articles.

Ben Bajarin on why you need mobile and desktop apps:

> The counter-argument is to say it isn’t that hard to pick up your smartphone and open the app and do what you want to do. However, having observed a range of consumers who have both desktop and mobile apps of the same software, there is no arguing that being able to do what you want or need to do on the device you are using is far superior. While it seems easy enough to just pick up your smartphone to use an app you don’t have on your desktop, it misses the reality of the increased friction in that experience.

Mike Isaac:

> In a quest to build Uber into the world’s dominant ride-hailing entity, Mr. Kalanick has openly disregarded many rules and norms, backing down only when caught or cornered. He has flouted transportation and safety regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal loopholes and gray areas to gain a business advantage. In the process, Mr. Kalanick has helped create a new transportation industry, with Uber spreading to more than 70 countries and gaining a valuation of nearly $70 billion, and its business continues to grow.

And to end it:

> But only momentarily. After all, Mr. Kalanick had faced off against Apple, and Uber had survived. He had lived to fight another day.

You likely saw the best part, where he was scolded by Cook, but these two bits are far more telling. The only way Uber stops being shady shitheads is if they face real consequences. They should have been pulled from the App Store immediately.

Well put.

MG Siegler on Amazon:

> Those magical stores where you just walk in and walk out, item in hand, without ever waiting in line to pay, may have some kinks to work out. But those kinks will be worked out. Is there really any question that this is the way this should be done in a world where every single person has a super computer in their pocket? Have you used Uber? Would you bet against this? Would you bet against this company doing this?

If it weren’t for the stigma which surrounds the work-life balance of working for Amazon, I would have to think they would be the single biggest source of talent drain across *most* industries. Astonishing what they accomplish.

Tim Hardwick:

The lawsuit alleges that Bose tracks the listening habits of users when they are wearing headsets like the company’s QuietComfort 35 headphones, gleaning information through the app such as music tracks played, podcasts, and other audio listened to.

Jack Marshall:

The ad-blocking feature, which could be switched on by default within Chrome, would filter out certain online ad types deemed to provide bad experiences for users as they move around the web.

Marshall also notes that Google pays to be part of the “acceptable advertising” program and might actually block all ads on sites with the shady ads instead of just the shady ads.

This is devious as fuck on Google’s part.

They control a major web browser, (47.4% market share in US) and they rely on ads for profits. Now they get to decide which of those ads people who use Chrome can see, by default. If you think for one moment Google is going to block Google ads, then you are wrong. This is a smart business play, but fucking devious.

Om Malik:

What I like about Japan is its subtlety. It is aloof, it is shy and almost silent. And yet when you slow your rhythm to its ways, the slow hypnotization starts to take control of your sense.

Japan is one of my favorite countries, not just because it is a part of my genetics, but in spite of the the fact I loathe most traditional Japanese food. Even still, it’s magic.

To me Japan represents the core of respect, and it can take time to pick up on that. If you do get the chance to go, I can show just exactly what I mean, in a very short time span: go to McDonalds. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but go there and get two things: a burger and fries.

Don’t dive into it like you would in your home country, instead look at it. It looks like the fucking marketing pictures, and it’s astounding. I can’t tell you how many people don’t believe me on this.

Respect. Love Japan. Amazing country.

Will Knight:

The result seems to match the responses you’d expect from a human driver. But what if one day it did something unexpected—crashed into a tree, or sat at a green light? As things stand now, it might be difficult to find out why. The system is so complicated that even the engineers who designed it may struggle to isolate the reason for any single action. And you can’t ask it: there is no obvious way to design such a system so that it could always explain why it did what it did.

Later in the article:

Tom Gruber wouldn’t discuss specific plans for Siri’s future, but it’s easy to imagine that if you receive a restaurant recommendation from Siri, you’ll want to know what the reasoning was.

I get the desire to know how this stuff works, and it seems important while simultaneously not important. If it works, it works, and who cares how it works? If it saves your life, because it found cancer well in time to treat it, do you care?

Likewise: do you really care why Siri thinks you would like a restaurant? Or why Netflix thinks you would like another show? Not really.

Then pull this thread more: when you do a massive calculation on a calculator, do you know how it works? I mean there are mathematical rules, but how do you know if it is right? Surely someone, somewhere knows it is right? Right? Do you know that for sure?

Can of fucking worms.

Interesting look into the “fearless girl” statue. Not a simple thing. I had no clue about any of this. (I mean I knew about the statues.)

Neil Cybart:

The writing is on the wall. Apple will not be able to address its Achilles’ heel until iPad can be used for developing apps. This will involve Apple ramping investment and resources into iPad software, hardware, and accessories

I can’t wait for the day you can publish apps from an iPad, that’s the day we start getting fucking amazing iPad apps. It takes away every excuse “Pros” use for not making true pro grade software for the iPad. Apple included.

Joe Cieplinski:

People argue with me about this, and they’re wrong.

Shit, that should have been the tagline for this site.

This is definitely one of the oddest backpacks I have seen hit the market recently. At first I thought it looked great, but then the more I see of it, the less I like it. Going from 25 liters to 40 liters, by expanding the depth of the bag? I mean, I hate falling over backwards because my pack is 14 feet thick.

What an odd design…

Ina Fried:

The company declined to say why the voice assistant feature was being delayed. However, in demos for Axios and others, it failed to work properly.

Huh, wonder why.

Sandi Doughton on a new early warning system for earthquakes:

For nearby earthquakes, the warning may be only seconds. But for a quake on the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone, the Puget Sound region could get as much as two or three minutes’ warning.

The technology is widely used in Japan, where people receive warnings on their cellphones and bullet trains are wired to come to a stop.

This sounds like the most paralyzingly and terrifying alert to get — I imagine I would be deer in headlights on that one. Still, sounds great, and something I honestly thought we would never get.