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  • Things 3: Beauty and Delight in a Task Manager

    I’m really not a huge fan of Cultured Code in general, but even I must admit that it is fucking beautiful looking. There’s some serious limitations, as noted in this review, but it seems like those are either a deal breaker or a non-issue — no real middle ground on it. For me, the hardest…

    I’m really not a huge fan of Cultured Code in general, but even I must admit that it is fucking beautiful looking. There’s some serious limitations, as noted in this review, but it seems like those are either a deal breaker or a non-issue — no real middle ground on it. For me, the hardest part is the boneheaded decision to not include keyboard shortcuts for iPad users.

    Also the app is expensive as they still don’t have a universal iOS version, which feels, well it feels like I’d rather them charge me a subscription price.

    Anyways, I’ve downloaded the apps and will play with them — and I can say that if nothing else they are lovely to look at.

  • Back to the Apple Watch for a Week

    The Apple Watch sometimes creates more noise and rarely clarifies the signal.

    As I mentioned in my iPad Productivity Report, I attended a conference for a couple days recently, and I think I finally figured out the Apple Watch as part of that conference. But first, some much needed context:

    I have not worn my Apple Watch since some time in early November. However, a few of my coworkers were talking about how much they love their watches, and it spurred me to pull it back out and give it a go for a week. It took most of the first day updating it, but then we were off to the races.

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  • iPad Productivity Report — 5/15/17

    The social stigma of using an iPad out in the wild.

    This past week I spent a couple days at a conference, nothing out of the ordinary, except for whatever reason I started to inventory the devices people were using and trying to pick up on how they were using their devices. (This is also usually the part when I start to tweetstorm about force quitting apps.)

    I think the most absurd of the bunch I observed was a blogger using a 13″ MacBook Pro, an iPhone, and a small point and shoot camera. From what I could tell the main apps being used were: Chrome for Wordpress, Slack, and Photos. The workflow was simple: take some notes in a Wordpress draft, chat in Slack, and take photos of the presenter with the camera, transfer those images to the Mac and upload to Wordpress for an eventual blog post.

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  • News has never been pristine, always entangled in time

    Arthur Asseraf: Blaming any one technology for fake news is a bit too easy. In reality, news has never been settled or stable. In otherwords: it’s not technology which precipitates fake news, it’s humans.

    Arthur Asseraf:

    Blaming any one technology for fake news is a bit too easy. In reality, news has never been settled or stable.

    In otherwords: it’s not technology which precipitates fake news, it’s humans.

  • Trump must be impeached. Here’s why.

    Laurence Tribe: It will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty, for a Congress of the president’s own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry. It would be a terrible shame if only the mounting prospect of being voted out of office…

    Laurence Tribe:

    It will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty, for a Congress of the president’s own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry. It would be a terrible shame if only the mounting prospect of being voted out of office in November 2018 would sufficiently concentrate the minds of representatives and senators today.

  • HP laptops covertly log user keystrokes, researchers warn

    Dan Goodin: There’s no indication the driver package uploads or otherwise distributes any of the logged information. That means the information stored in the log is likely to remain private as long as affected computers and any backups they use remain properly secured. Given this mitigation, comparisons to Superfish, the HTTPS-crippling app Lenovo pre-installed on…

    Dan Goodin:

    There’s no indication the driver package uploads or otherwise distributes any of the logged information. That means the information stored in the log is likely to remain private as long as affected computers and any backups they use remain properly secured. Given this mitigation, comparisons to Superfish, the HTTPS-crippling app Lenovo pre-installed on computers several years ago, are overblown.

    “Properly secured”, yep I’m sure most people do that right after sticking their password to their monitors.

  • Hackers Hit Dozens of Countries Exploiting Stolen N.S.A. Tool

    Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger: The attacks on Friday appeared to be the first time a cyberweapon developed by the N.S.A., funded by American taxpayers and stolen by an adversary had been unleashed by cybercriminals against patients, hospitals, businesses, governments and ordinary citizens. Note: “first time”. Certainly won’t be the last time.

    Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger:

    The attacks on Friday appeared to be the first time a cyberweapon developed by the N.S.A., funded by American taxpayers and stolen by an adversary had been unleashed by cybercriminals against patients, hospitals, businesses, governments and ordinary citizens.

    Note: “first time”. Certainly won’t be the last time.

  • technochocolate: wireless

    Chuck Skoda: Apple didn’t get rid of MagSafe because it’s a bad power connector. They got rid of it because they no longer envision you using your laptop while it’s plugged in. Charging is what you can do with your computer when you’re not actively using it. That wasn’t feasible with a two or three…

    Chuck Skoda:

    Apple didn’t get rid of MagSafe because it’s a bad power connector. They got rid of it because they no longer envision you using your laptop while it’s plugged in. Charging is what you can do with your computer when you’re not actively using it. That wasn’t feasible with a two or three hour battery life, but it’s definitely a reasonable expectation for normal use cases with today’s laptops.

    See also his thoughts on charging the Magic Mouse. Well put. Completely agree with him.

  • When It Comes to Culture, You Can Be Right, or You Can Be Successful

    Luke Kanies: Your culture has the same need to dial into your audience. As the founder, it doesn’t matter what you think of the company’s culture. It’s not for you. But for better or worse, you do get to decide who your culture is for. A lot of these failures of culture are actually the…

    Luke Kanies:

    Your culture has the same need to dial into your audience. As the founder, it doesn’t matter what you think of the company’s culture. It’s not for you. But for better or worse, you do get to decide who your culture is for. A lot of these failures of culture are actually the CEO making bad decisions about who the culture is for.

    Good read.

  • Some Knives for Sale

    I am trying to clear out some old knives. I’ve given many of them away, but this lot has yet to find homes and I believe they are above my threshold in value for gifting to others or Goodwill, or simply not a knife fit for those I would gift things to. So here they…

    I am trying to clear out some old knives. I’ve given many of them away, but this lot has yet to find homes and I believe they are above my threshold in value for gifting to others or Goodwill, or simply not a knife fit for those I would gift things to. So here they are, and all are in excellent shape (and sharpened to a razor edge).

    The list:

    • SOG Aegis $45
    • SOG Spec Elite 1 $50 SOLD
    • SOG Spec Elite Mini $45 SOLD
    • James Brand County $70 SOLD
    • James Brand Folsom $90 SOLD

    All prices are what they are, if you want to make an alternate offer go for it, but yeah, just send me an offer. I can only ship to the USA, and shipping cost is reflected in the price.

  • PDF Expert 6 Adds Powerful Editing Tools and More

    John Voorhees: The Annotate and Edit buttons in the center of PDF 6’s toolbar let you switch between the two modes. Annotate mode includes the ability to add text, shapes, stamps, and handwritten notes to PDFs. You can also highlight existing PDF text and add strikethroughs and underlining, all of which were already available in…

    John Voorhees:

    The Annotate and Edit buttons in the center of PDF 6’s toolbar let you switch between the two modes. Annotate mode includes the ability to add text, shapes, stamps, and handwritten notes to PDFs. You can also highlight existing PDF text and add strikethroughs and underlining, all of which were already available in PDF Expert.

    This looks like a hell of a good update.

  • Death Wish Coffee

    An efficient means of delivery an absurd amount of caffeine. Oh, and it’s organic.

    Yes, this is a post about coffee, which is among the most annoying of topics on generally tech focused blogs. But, let now assure you that I am not a pretentious coffee drinker, I use a Keurig and I fucking love it — so yeah.

    Anyways, a coworker posted a link to this Buzzfeed video of their staff drinking “Death Wish Coffee”, it’s great. I quipped that it looked great, and if it comes in K-Cups, I’d get it to try. And of course seconds later my coworkers delivered, because of course it comes in K-cups.

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  • Google’s “Fuchsia” smartphone OS dumps Linux, has a wild new UI

    Not really a lot to see here except for this exquisite opening from Ron Amadeo: Google, never one to compete in a market with a single product, is apparently hard at work on a third operating system after Android and Chrome OS. That is such a perfect summary of Google.

    Not really a lot to see here except for this exquisite opening from Ron Amadeo:

    Google, never one to compete in a market with a single product, is apparently hard at work on a third operating system after Android and Chrome OS.

    That is such a perfect summary of Google.

  • First Look, Arcido Faroe (video)

    Get it [here](https://www.arcido.com/products/faroe). You must be a member to view this content.

    Get it [here](https://www.arcido.com/products/faroe).

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  • iPad Productivity Report — 5/8/17

    Diving into photo link sharing on iOS.

    This week, I want to talk about images for the internet — when you have an iPad Pro and nothing else. Specifically, I want to dive into how I prep images for blog posts, and how I share a link to an image on services which don’t support native image embedding.

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  • Apple’s China Problem

    Ben Thompson: None of that lock-in exists in China: Apple may be a de facto monopolist for most of the world, but in China the company is simply another smartphone vendor, and being simply another smartphone vendor is a hazardous place to be. That’s really a hard thought to fathom from a US-centric perspective, wow.

    Ben Thompson:

    None of that lock-in exists in China: Apple may be a de facto monopolist for most of the world, but in China the company is simply another smartphone vendor, and being simply another smartphone vendor is a hazardous place to be.

    That’s really a hard thought to fathom from a US-centric perspective, wow.

  • Tim Cook’s CEO Status

    I mean, people sometimes.

    Common argument: Tim Cook should be replaced as CEO, because something something negative about innovation at Apple, or not understanding products. If you ask them who should be CEO, there’s never an answer.

    When I called for Steve Ballmer to be ousted from Microsoft, I did so by showing a series of charts reflecting the stock value of the company — the metric by which CEOs are judged (rightly or wrongly). With Ballmer it was basically maintaining a steady and boring course.

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  • Apple’s (AAPL) dividend alone is enough to buy a third of the companies in the S&P 500

    Jason Karaian: At current prices, Apple’s forthcoming annual dividend alone is worth as much as a third of the companies in the S&P 500. With the money it will pay in dividends this year, Apple could buy up all the shares in companies like Tiffany (free diamond bracelet with every smartwatch purchase), Foot Locker (free…

    Jason Karaian:

    At current prices, Apple’s forthcoming annual dividend alone is worth as much as a third of the companies in the S&P 500. With the money it will pay in dividends this year, Apple could buy up all the shares in companies like Tiffany (free diamond bracelet with every smartwatch purchase), Foot Locker (free VaporMax shoes with every MacBook), or Chipotle (free burrito with every iPad).

    Stupid giveaway ideas notwithstanding, holy shit.

  • Major apps abandoning Apple Watch, including Google Maps, Amazon & eBay

    Neil Hughes: The fact that these high-profile removals have gone largely unnoticed could be a sign that the apps simply were not widely used. In contrast, removing iPad support from an iOS app, for example, would likely be noticed immediately and generate headlines. Largely unmentioned in this post is whether or not any of these…

    Neil Hughes:

    The fact that these high-profile removals have gone largely unnoticed could be a sign that the apps simply were not widely used. In contrast, removing iPad support from an iOS app, for example, would likely be noticed immediately and generate headlines.

    Largely unmentioned in this post is whether or not any of these Apple Watch apps were good, like even passably good…

    The updated, with a statement from Google, makes it seem like Google knows something most don’t. But by in large, the apps listed have no real value on the Watch. Even Google Maps, it didn’t have the level of integration Apple Maps has.