February 2011
Introducing the B&B Podcast Feb 28, 2011
The B&B Podcast is a brand-new technology talk show co-hosted by Mr. Benjamin Brooks and yours truly. It’s a lot of fun and the logo is amazing if I do say so myself. The name B&B is for Blanc and … (More)
[Sponsor] NoteTask Feb 28, 2011
NoteTask is a fast, clean, and simple note taking application that presents your text as tasks, completed tasks, and sections. By default it recognizes lines starting with hyphen and spacebar as tasks, and lines starting with exclamation mark as completed … (More)
An Instagram Website Feb 27, 2011
A website by my friend Josh Ink. Using the API, pretty much anything you can do from within the app you can do on this site (except take pictures and apply cheesy filters to them).
There is now an Annual Membership Payment Option Feb 26, 2011
For those who’ve been asking for an option to pay for their membership by the year instead of the month, I have just set up an annual membership subscription option. It’s $36/year instead of 3 bucks a month and it … (More)
Fruit Memory HD Feb 25, 2011
So get this: I had never even heard of Fruit Memory until Paul Mayne booked this sponsorship to promote it. I like to check out what is being sponsored, and after checking out Fruit Memory it may be my new … (More)
The New MacBook Pros Feb 24, 2011
The new MBPs have “huge leaps in performance”, yet still ship with 5400-rpm hard drives? True, the average consumer still assumes that processor speed is the number one factor to get a faster computer. But performance is more than how … (More)
Lion is Getting Geeky Feb 24, 2011
Versions, Resume, AirDrop… what used to be the geeky power-user’s add ons and hacks are becoming mainstream features.
Thunderbolt Feb 24, 2011
This thing is stupid fast — 20 times faster than a USB 2 connection — plus it supports data, power, and video I/O simultaneously.
FaceTime 1.0 for Mac [App Store Link] Feb 24, 2011
Just a buck in the Mac App Store. I rarely, rarely do video chat on Skype or iChat. And I always text my friends first before calling them on FaceTime. It just seems so personal — much more personal than … (More)
‘Using Your iPad as a Business Productivity Tool’ Feb 23, 2011
Clearly this is the week for launching new projects. Dave Caolo has his first book coming out in just a few weeks: Using Your iPad as a Business Productivity Tool. Dave is a fantastic writer and communicator and he knows … (More)
Stickto’s Feb 23, 2011
Speaking of great companies releasing awesome new products, these Stickto’s just came out today. They’re portable, sticky-note-style to-do list from the awesome guys at Paste. And better yet, they’re for sale at Idea Cafe.
Canned Mail [iTunes Link] Feb 23, 2011
Canned is an iPhone app for sending pre-written text messages, and I use it every day. It’s one of those apps where you’re not quite sure if or how you would use it until you actually do and then it … (More)
Success at Group Events Feb 21, 2011
Seth Godin: By trying to reach as many as we could, we were never intimate enough to generate conversations that mattered or ideas that spread… Seth’s talking about the booth you set up at a trade shows, but I’m applying … (More)
[Sponsor] Fruit Memory HD Feb 21, 2011
Fruit is good for your brain and so is Fruit Memory HD for the iPad. This fun, well-designed, memory-matching app is a great huddle game built to play solo or in groups of up to 4 players. An educational and … (More)
Curator Feb 18, 2011
Many, many thanks to the amazing guys at Resen for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote Curator. Curator is a web app built to simplify and speed up the process of creating presentation docs for your design mockups. … (More)
Shaun White’s Double McTwist 1260 Feb 18, 2011
And speaking of snowboarding, remember this final run at the 2010 Olympics where Shaun already had the gold medal cinched and so his last run of the night was this awesome show-off run where he busted out the Double McTwist … (More)
‘The Art Of Flight’ Feb 18, 2011
God knows I love the mountains and snowboarding. Doing runs like this seems like a dream come true and a nightmare at the same time. The thrill of being up there and being on runs like that, combined with the … (More)
An “Intrvw” with Yours Truly Feb 17, 2011
Ian Hines conducts a fantastic Interview. And his site, intrv.ws is steadily building some top-notch features. This month, you get to read about me, how I began shawnblanc.net, what I do every day, and other interesting tidbits. Thanks, Ian!
Gear Up to Shave Like a Man Feb 17, 2011
You’ve seen the latest episode of Put This On, right? Good. Now read Jim Ray’s post to find out what and where to buy all that awesome shaving gear. That’s what I’m doing.
Behind the Scenes at Pixar Feb 17, 2011
I love that the place was intentionally architected to facilitate spontaneous, bumping-into-people-in-the-hallway type of meetings.
Geckoboard Feb 16, 2011
Gorgeous looking, widgetized stats board based on Panic’s cool status board. This would look great on a big screen in the Web Team’s office. (Via Jimray.)
From the archives: Josh Farmer’s Setup Feb 16, 2011
Speaking of “Desk Envy”, remember Josh Farmer’s sweet Mac setup?
The Mac App Store effect on Pear Note Feb 14, 2011
I love this. Even the “smaller” indie Mac shop, Useful Fruit, is seeing sweet results from the Mac App Store. Chad Sellars: The Mac App Store has more than doubled total revenue from Pear Note, and I’m ecstatic. Sure, others … (More)
[Sponsor] Curator – Create Great Presentations for Client Review Feb 14, 2011
Curator is a great new tool that helps designers and illustrators create nice presentations of their work for client review. Often overlooked, presenting work in a professional manner (even in the early stages of review) can have a serious effect … (More)
AppleScript to Toggle Your Mac’s Sound Output Feb 12, 2011
Similar to Daniel’s Toggle Twitter AppleScript that would activate or hide your Twitter Client of Choice, Jesse Gardner’s Toggle Audio script will switch between the various audio output options you may have. I have two audio output devices: my Internal … (More)
MarkdownNote Feb 11, 2011
Many thanks to Coding Robots for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote MarkdownNote. MarkdownNote is an iPad app specifically designed for those who write in Markdown. And if you don’t write in Markdown, who are you? I write … (More)
Frame & Click Tee Feb 11, 2011
A simple, photography-inspired icon t-shirt by photographer extraordinary, Jorge Quinteros. I’m not even a photographer and I would totally wear one of these. Just $15 plus shipping.
Yours Truly on The Bro Show Feb 9, 2011
The Bro Show is a great tech-centric podcast, and today I had the privilege of being a guest on the show. I talk briefly about the genesis of shawnblanc.net, what I define as “success” for a website, and my thoughts … (More)
The Next Six Months of the Tablet Market Feb 9, 2011
John Gruber: The growth potential of this market is too big to be estimated. I genuinely believe that these platforms are the future of the entire computing industry.
The HP TouchPad Feb 9, 2011
My Good First Impressions Based Only by Looking at the Website: I’ve always thought webOS was an elegant and attractive operating system, and the TouchPad looks like a great device. The Touchstone looks like a very slick accessory. It’s a … (More)
Writers on Rewriting Feb 8, 2011
I’m a sucker for Hemingway quotes: Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do? Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied. Interviewer: Was there some technical … (More)
My Handmade Simple Desk Feb 8, 2011
That desk right there? That’s a man’s desk. 21 square feet of simplicity and awesomeness built from scratch by yours truly.
AppleScript to Toggle Twitter Feb 7, 2011
Daniel Jalkut wrote this clever little AppleScript that will toggle your Twitter Client of Choice between the foreground and being hidden. I’m using it all the time now. And, naturally, it works perfectly with one of the best utility apps … (More)
The Story Behind Realmac’s Courier Feb 7, 2011
“In hindsight Courier is such an obvious name, but only through iterating on our idea did we actually come up with it.”
Nicholas Felton’s 2010 Annual Report Feb 7, 2011
This year it’s an encapsulation of the life of Nicholas’ father, based on artifacts like slides, calendars, postcards, and journals. I never view the PDF; I order the print version every year and always wait for that to arrive before … (More)
Obsession Times Voice Feb 7, 2011
And, speaking of growing as a writer, this 2-year-old article by John Gruber is great inspiration for “anyone who wants to publish or write on the web to pursue their obsessions in a serious way.”
“Perfect Kills Published” Feb 7, 2011
An article by Chris Brogan on writing that complements what I wrote this morning. “Put your words into something so that you can look at them outside of your head.“
[Sponsor] MarkdownNote Feb 7, 2011
MarkdownNote makes it really easy to create notes using John Gruber’s popular Markdown markup language in your iPad. Using live preview feature, you can preview your Markdown markup syntax to HTML on writing. MarkdownNote allows you to create and organize … (More)
Cellphone Usage in America Feb 5, 2011
Some mind-blowing stats. Like: 200 Trillion text messages are received every day. Update: In fact, that’s so mind blowing it can’t possibly be true. 200,000,000,000 text per day, divided by 310,500,000 (the population of the United sates) would mean each … (More)
Hook Your Instapaper Reading Log to Readability Feb 5, 2011
Log in to your Instapaper Account screen and you’ll find the ability to link your Instapaper reading queue to your Readability account. As a side note, last week I mentioned how the sites I most want to support are usually … (More)
The History of Computing Feb 4, 2011
Commodore 64 → iPhone 4. Well, it certainly skips a few, but that’s not the point. (Via Pat.)
HiTask Feb 4, 2011
Many thanks to the guys at HiTask for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. HiTask is a free, web-based, task-management app. There are many task management apps out there, and I believe that these unique and diverse apps are being … (More)
iPhone 4 Breaks All Verizon Sales Records in Two Hours Feb 4, 2011
It’ll be fun to swing by my local Apple store next week and say hi to all the Verizon customers standing in line for their iPhones. Too bad for them the Verizon iPhone isn’t launching in the summer when it’s … (More)
Media Temple’s Upgraded (dv) Feb 4, 2011
Media Temple just upgraded their (dv) hosting service with new hardware, updated software stacks, and better options for scaling and upgrading your hosting once you’re on a (dv) plan. I migrated shawnblanc.net to a (dv) server in September and have … (More)
New Premium Features in Simplenote Feb 3, 2011
New features for those with a premium subscription to Simplenote: (a) Sync via Dropbox if you prefer, and (b) you can now turn a note into a legit to-do list on the iOS versions of the app. The list feature … (More)
The Future of the MacBook Pro Feb 3, 2011
Here are Marco’s speculations on where the MacBook Pro lineup is going. I think he spot on, especially since his guesses are based on the current MacBook Air. These next three paragraphs I wrote back in October when the new … (More)
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Feb 3, 2011
The transcript from Steve Jobs’ commencement address at the Stanford Graduation of 2005. (Via Marco.)
Back to Paper, Back to Work Feb 3, 2011
C.J. Chilvers on why he switched from digital tools back to paper ones for managing his task list. It’s interesting because much of C.J.’s change in workflow was based on the findings in Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows, which hits … (More)
The Nail in Old Media’s Coffin Feb 2, 2011
Marcelo Somers just wrote what may be the most intelligent piece I’ve read all month regarding passionate independent writers, large news conglomerations, and the issue of passion and monetizing content. Big publishers have had their blinders on so narrowly that … (More)
Live Webstream of The Daily Announcement Feb 2, 2011
Announcement of The Daily is live now. (Flash required for the webstream.) Also, live blogged from Macworld.
Fame vs. Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content Feb 2, 2011
Clay Shirky: The economics of content creation are in fact fairly simple. The two critical questions are “Does the support come from the reader, or from an advertiser, patron, or the creator?” and “Is the support mandatory or voluntary?” This … (More)
Justin Blanton on Readability Feb 1, 2011
I’ve been saying all day how sites I enjoy the most and most want to support are the sites I usually read on their website. But Justin Blanton has been piping them through Readability for years. Why? For consistency and … (More)
Flattr Feb 1, 2011
A lot of people have been pointing this out to me today. Before today I’d never heard of Flattr. The payment concept is a lot like Readability’s in that it’s a social micro payment system. The consumers send a flat … (More)
Nate Peretic On the New Readability Feb 1, 2011
This morning, while writing about the payment distribution model in my link to Readability, I made a comment that the sites which I am least likely to read using the Readability service are the sites I most likely want to … (More)
Health, Wealth and Wisdom Feb 1, 2011
Chris Bowler, who regularly gets up at 4:30 every morning, chiming in on the recent conversation about rising early: Many folks believe the benefits are there, but it’s simply not natural to them. Also, this article by Steve Pavlina was … (More)
It Should Be Free? Feb 1, 2011
Daniel Jalkut on paying for good software: But smaller companies don’t often have the variety of products and services that lends itself to such a complex strategy [of giving things away for free]. Given a good product idea and a … (More)
The New Readability Feb 1, 2011
Readability is kicking off their brand new service today with some significant changes. Most notably: their membership subscription model. You can become a subscribing member to Readability for $5/month or more. And as a member, 70% of your subscription payment … (More)
No URL, Just a Search Term Feb 1, 2011
I saw this poster at Denver International Airport when I was flying home last month for Christmas. It’s an advertisement for Colorado Mountain College. To find them online they give you the suggested search term instead of an actual Web … (More)
