May 2011
Lukas Mathis’ In-Depth Review of Windows Phone 7 May 31, 2011
A great look at both the good and the bad of Windows Phone 7 — and it’s a lot of good. In fact, if it weren’t WP7′s lack of such fantastic 3rd-party apps, Lukas would easily be sticking with the … (More)
The Hit List 1.0 May 31, 2011
The task-management app that’s been in beta for years, and which many people thought was abandoned, is now officially a 1.0 release. And it looks great. Moreover, there is a corresponding iOS app (sounds like iPhone-only) that is pending approval … (More)
This Year’s WWDC Keynote Agenda May 31, 2011
Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud. (Which means that, so far, my iCloud predictions are accurate.)
Hello, Weber? How Do I Grill This Squirrel? May 30, 2011
Memorial Day weekend is the busiest time of year for the Weber Grill hotline. It’s mostly men calling in for emergency advice and it’s mostly women who are coaching them on how to light the grill or how to cook … (More)
[Sponsor] Byword May 30, 2011
Byword is a simple text editor with a less-is-more interface and MultiMarkdown support. With the integrated MultiMarkdown features you can create and preview plain text documents containing links, images, citations, footnotes and even tables, then easily export to HTML. Perfect … (More)
Learn To Play Pool In 10 Minutes May 28, 2011
I don’t mind linking to this because none of my brothers-in-law read my site.
Renkara Media Group May 27, 2011
Many thanks to Renkara Media Group for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. I regularly get questions from friends and readers who have an idea or a need for an iPhone or iPad app they want to build but don’t … (More)
The B&B Podcast, Episode 13: I’m Standing Right Now May 27, 2011
Ben and I talk about standing desks, cloud-based remote backups and backups in general, and Amazon’s new Mac Downloads Store. (Note: we recorded early this morning so I had to bring my coffee to the show.) Brought to you by … (More)
Dan Frakes Downloads a Mac App From Amazon’s New Store So You Don’t Have To May 27, 2011
Sounds like the “I’m a PC” guy from the commercials was in charge of the installation experience as well.
Quora Question of the Day May 26, 2011
“Given our current technology and with the proper training, would it be possible for someone to become Batman?” The top answer from Mark Hughes is off the charts.
Amazon’s New Mac Software Downloads Store May 26, 2011
I love Amazon and shop there all the time. But I’m just saying, this feels like if the “I’m a PC” guy from the commercials had switched to Mac and then opened a software downloads store. Also, John Gruber notes … (More)
The Problem — or So It Would Seem — With the Em Dash May 26, 2011
Noreen Malone’s case — please hear her out — against the em dash: What’s the matter with an em dash or two, you ask?—or so I like to imagine. What’s not to like about a sentence that explores in full … (More)
Slaves to the Internet’s Measurements May 26, 2011
Dave Pell hits close to home: I used to feel an immediate sense of accomplishment when I wrote an article or came up with a joke that I thought was good. Now that feeling is always delayed until I see … (More)
Auctioning of the Unabomber’s Personal Effects May 26, 2011
This link is to a Flickr set featuring images of some of the personal effects of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, which are being auctioned by the U.S. Marshals Service. The pictures are curiously interesting and frightening at the same … (More)
Aerial Photographs of Joplin Before and After the Tornado May 25, 2011
Zoom out all the way to see the path of the tornado right through all those homes. It’s heartbreaking.
Keyboard Maestro Pipes May 25, 2011
A big tip by Gabe at Macdrifter regarding my new favorite utility program: Keyboard Maestro supports the Boolean conjunction “or” via pipes for arguments.
Making Inconsequential Decisions Can Hinder Your Ability to Make Important Decisions May 25, 2011
Tony Schwartz: It turns out we each have one reservoir of will and discipline, and it gets progressively depleted by any act of conscious self-regulation. In other words, if you spend energy trying to resist a fragrant chocolate chip cookie, … (More)
Blackberry PlayBook Goes Head-to-Head With the Etch a Sketch May 25, 2011
Because some said comparing the PlayBook to an iPad 2 was unfair.
The Burning House May 24, 2011
In similar fashion to The Items We Carry, The Burning House is: “what would you grab if your house was burning down?” Honestly, Anna and I don’t have anything in this home that we couldn’t do without other than one … (More)
How to Avoid or Remove Mac Defender Malware May 24, 2011
A knowledge base article from Apple themselves.
The Hidden Empire of Amazon.com May 24, 2011
Nice slide deck covering the growth and business model of Amazon.com over the past 16 years. Did you know Amazon.com lost $3,000,000,000 between 1995 and 2003 (see slide 35) and that they’ve introduced a new product category every year since … (More)
Update On the “Previous Entries” Experiment May 24, 2011
Two weeks ago, as an experiment, I removed the “Previous Entries” link on the bottom of the homepage that would take you Page 2 of the site. In its place I put a link to recent articles, reviews, and interviews. … (More)
Issues of Wired Magazine Are Now Half Price on the iPad May 24, 2011
The “newsstand” price for a single issue of Wired on the iPad is $4. You can now subscribe to Wired on your iPad for either $20/year or $2/month. If you subscribe to the print edition (which is also $20/year) you … (More)
The New Nook May 24, 2011
Light as a feather the Nook lasts forever. There is no keyboard, the touchscreen is better.
And the Award for Most Creative Graphics and User Interaction Within an iPad Weather App Goes To… May 23, 2011
Aelios.
“The Best Wire Editor on the Planet” May 23, 2011
David Carr, writing about Matt Drudge and Drudge Report: A big part of the reason he is such an effective aggregator for both audiences and news sites is that he actually acts like one. Behemoth aggregators like Yahoo News and … (More)
Managing Twitter Via Lists May 23, 2011
News to me, thanks to Justin Williams, is that you can add people to a list of your own curating without also having to follow them in your main Twitter timeline. Also, if you follow a list that has been … (More)
[Sponsor] Renkara Media Group May 23, 2011
Do you need an experienced and reliable development partner to help you deliver an iOS application to the App Store? Renkara Media Group builds applications exclusively for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and has successfully delivered over 300 apps to … (More)
30 Minutes With Dieter Rams May 21, 2011
Bradford Shellhammer, writing for Dwell, was at the 60s 606 is 50 exhibition and got to chat with Dieter Rams and Mark Adams for about half an hour. I love this parting shot from Dieter Rams to end the interview: … (More)
CalendarBar May 20, 2011
A huge thanks to Clean Cut Code for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote CalendarBar. CalendarBar is a minimalistic and attractive app that lives in your Mac’s Menu Bar. If you click on the icon or launch it … (More)
The B&B Podcast, Episode 12: DMs and Tacos May 20, 2011
Another action-packed episode of The B&B Podcast! Ben and I talk about Twitter and the new xAuth and OAuth rules, as well as weather apps, and steak tacos. Also, we went ahead and kept the conversation we had for the … (More)
Kevin Kelly Uses This May 20, 2011
Kevin Kelly’s setup: I am a really bad person and keep all of the following programs open all at once all the time: Lightroom, Photoshop, InDesign, Bridge, Word, and Powerpoint. Because I am lazy.
“I Have No Idea What I’m Doing” May 18, 2011
An honest and genuine blog post by Ben Pieratt, founder and CEO of Svpply. I think a lot of people in Ben’s situation (not as CEOs but as “accidentally” successful individuals) feel the same way. (Via Business Insider.)
Netflix Accounts for 30 Percent of Peak Downstream Traffic in North America May 18, 2011
That’s a lot.
Fantastical 1.0 May 17, 2011
I’ve been using Fantastical for a while now, and, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s fantastic. Also, Federico Viticci has a nice review of it over on MacStories.
Also From the Department of Things I Did Not Know May 17, 2011
Devir Kahan points out the iPod app’s Album Art Swipe Trick: You can actually just swipe anywhere on the album art from left to right to push the album art off the screen and slide back to the list view. … (More)
Six Unexpected Uses for the Application Switcher May 17, 2011
I’m embarrassed to admit I only knew 2 of these tricks.
Twitpic of the Day May 16, 2011
Stefanie Gordon gets a snapshot of the Space Shuttle Endeavour launching above the clouds and into outer space as her airplane passed by on its way to Palm Beach.
Productivity Software Bundle May 16, 2011
This is a killer deal for some killer apps, and it’s probably right up the alley for most shawnblanc.net readers. I’m buying it to finally get Keyboard Maestro and PathFinder. If you pick up the bundle with this link I’ll … (More)
Super Stickman Golf for iPad May 16, 2011
Speaking of word-of-mouth app purchases, I picked up this golf game via Marco Arment’s recommendation and it’s a blast.
Brett Terpstra’s Cheat Sheet for App Store Pricing May 16, 2011
Brett Terpstra gives some semi-serious / semi-lighthearted suggestions for pricing your app in the App Store. App pricing (and reviews and ratings) are important for those looking to buy your app who’ve never heard of it before. But I for … (More)
Video of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s Launch into Outer Space May 16, 2011
Incredible. There’s more info on the shuttle and the mission here on NASA’s website, including this video of Endeavour separating from its external fuel tank.
An App-propriate Price May 16, 2011
J. Eddie Smith regarding the $20 price tag of OmniOutliner for iPad: It might sound weird coming from a non-seller of apps, but I like seeing higher prices in the App Store. If the market will support higher prices, that’s … (More)
“The Omni Group Just ‘Gets’ the iPad” May 16, 2011
David Sparks’ fine review of OmniOutliner for the iPad: OmniOutliner is not a simple port of the Mac OS X app. Instead, it is a ground up, outlining application built around the iPad’s strengths (and weaknesses).
[Sponsor] CalendarBar for Mac: What’s next in your day? May 16, 2011
CalendarBar is a unique way to keep track of your events. It shows a list of upcoming events and tasks in your menubar where it’s easy to access from any application. CalendarBar supports Facebook, iCal, and Google Calendar so you … (More)
ICONGOODS May 13, 2011
Many thanks to ICONGOODS for sponsoring the feed this week. These guys have some new “softwear apparel” t-shirts that look great. The shirts feature the well-designed and minimal Glyphish icons by Joseph Wain — I especially like “Joe“. And if … (More)
“Never Punch Someone in the Forehead” May 13, 2011
Episode 11 of The B&B Podcast. Ben and I talk about fighting and cloud-synced music.
Indie Devs Threatened by Lodsys Over In-App Purchases May 13, 2011
Darrell Etherington at GigaOM: The threats accuse devs of patent infringement regarding Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism, but the patent holder appears to be targeting independent developers individually instead of going after Apple itself. Hopefully Apple steps up to help their … (More)
Home in Capital Letters May 13, 2011
Joe Posnanski is one of the best sports writers in America. He moved to Kansas City in 1996 to write for The Star. Now Joe writes for Sports Illustrated and is moving back to North Carolina with his family. This … (More)
Twitter for Mac 2.1 May 12, 2011
Username autocomplete, the ability to “clone” a view into its own window, and other things. Federico Viticci has all the details.
Alfred 0.9 May 12, 2011
Though I don’t get these guys’ version numbering, one thing is for sure: the Alfred team is not leaving any gas in the tank while developing this app. They are working hard to build the fastest, easiest-to-use, and most-feature-rich application … (More)
How Aaron Mahnke Writes May 12, 2011
Aaron’s advice about how he wrote his 100,000-word novel and what hurdles he had to overcome sounds almost identical to how I write my long reviews and the hurdles I face when doing them.
Chart of the Day: iPad vs PC Usage for Personal Computing May 12, 2011
Compared to six months ago, when doing personal computing people are using their desktops less, their laptops less, and their iPads more. More charts from Business Insider’s survey results here.
Twitter’s Updated Mobile Web App May 11, 2011
It looks like Twitter for iPhone, the screenshots are of it running in Mobile Safari on the iPhone, but surely it’s meant for Android tablets: This web app allows us to provide a high-quality and consistent Twitter experience on high-end … (More)
Using TextExpander to Conquer Email May 11, 2011
Elliot Jay Stocks joins the ranks of TextExpander aficionados: My completely non-scientific research has found that the number of times one writes the same thing is explicitly tied to the number of emails one receives. In other words, it’s the … (More)
On Pagination Navigation May 11, 2011
Some food for thought from Jason Kottke which has led me to test something new here. Instead of providing the standard “previous entries” link at the bottom of the homepage (which takes you to /page/2 and onward), I’ve replaced it … (More)
Scott Adams on Entrepreneurialism May 9, 2011
Scott Adams has an article in the Wall Street Journal today. Scott’s a fantastic writer, and his piece for the Journal is a savvy combination of stories, advice, and wit. That’s the year I learned that if there’s a loophole, … (More)
Mike Rohde’s Sketchnotes from the Chick-fil-A Leadercast May 9, 2011
Some great sketches by Mike Rohde from the Chick-fil-A leadership conference held in Atlanta, GA this past Friday, May 6. Mike has sketches and notes from sessions with Seth Godin, John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, and others. I would have liked … (More)
Halftone May 9, 2011
I have been having way too much fun with this iPhone app lately. If you laugh at your own jokes you’ll probably love it too.
‘Page One’ Trailer May 9, 2011
A documentary about the New York Times and the transforming media industry. Comes to theaters June 24.
[Sponsor] Just in time for Summer, new t-shirts from ICONGOODS May 9, 2011
Their “softwear apparel” features the wildly popular Glyphish icons by Joseph Wain and are printed on tagless silky-smooth t-shirts. Use the discount code “SHAWNBLANC” at checkout to get 20% off for a limited time.
An AppleScript for Opening the Current Safari URL in Google Chrome May 9, 2011
I use Safari sans Flash, and so I launch Chrome for times when Flash is needed (which is a few times a week). I was having the same problem as TJ: setting a global shortcut key to launch Chrome via … (More)
“Link, Pull, Response” May 9, 2011
Tim Carmody, who guest wrote for Jason Kottke last week, wrapped up his stint with a post about why he loves Kottke.org and, really, what makes for a great weblog. These [link, pull, and response] are also the elements that … (More)
The Phonetic Field May 9, 2011
In a contact’s entry you can add a phonetic first and last name. This is great for making sure the Voice Command says the names of your friends and family correctly as well as understanding you when you are trying … (More)
KanjiPictoGraphix May 6, 2011
I want to thank Renkara Media Group for sponsoring the feed this week to promote their upcoming app for the iPhone and iPad, KanjiPictoGraphix. Renkara Media Group has been working with Michael Rowley to turn his best-selling mnemonics book for … (More)
Not Your Average Animated GIFs May 6, 2011
Spectacular work by New York photographer, Jamie Beck. I especially love this one and this one. Oh, and this one. Aaaaand maybe this one, too.
The B&B Podcast Episode 10: You Can’t Drink Out of a Pineapple May 5, 2011
With my side recorded via my iPhone from the Big Island of Hawaii, Ben and I talk about writing bad reviews, OS X Lion, and when a good time to buy a MacBook Air will be. Brought to you by … (More)
Popular is Overrated May 4, 2011
Seth Godin: But in general, the search for popular is wildly overrated, because it corrupts our work, eats away at our art and makes it likely we’ll compromise to please the anonymous masses.
Byword May 4, 2011
Lately I’ve been writing the initial drafts of my longer-form articles using Byword and I really like it. Its glory is that it’s a very simple application. When you work on a 23-inch monitor a good full-screen writing app can … (More)
‘Keeping it Straight’ May 3, 2011
Patrick Rhone has just published his first book: Keeping it Straight. I’ve read it, and I enjoyed it. Patrick does a lot of things — he’s an entrepreneur, a tech consultant, a speaker — but first and foremost, Patrick is … (More)
New iMacs Can Be Used as External Displays via Thunderbolt May 3, 2011
Dan Moren for Macworld: Apple has confirmed to Macworld that the new iMacs can be used as external displays via their Thunderbolt ports. However, to do so, you’ll need a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac, such as one of the early 2011 models … (More)
How the Space and Color of a Room Affects Creativity and Focus May 3, 2011
High ceilings, open areas, and light colors help to foster creativity. Lower ceilings, tighter areas, and darker colors help with focusing in on detail-oriented tasks. So is this why I usually am the most inspired and creative in the morning … (More)
Designing Graceful, Gracious, Interfaces for iPad May 3, 2011
Very excellent video presentation by Omni Group’s UX lead, Bill Van Hecke, talking about things they’ve learned porting their desktops apps for the iPad. Bill also shares some of the initial UI sketches and reasonings behind the OmniFocus iPad app. … (More)
[Sponsor] KanjiPictoGraphix: Essential Kanji Mnemonics May 2, 2011
KanjiPictoGraphix: Essential Kanji Mnemonics from Renkara Media Group brings a visually stunning new way to learn Japanese to the App Store. This application contains gorgeous mnemonic visuals, stroke order diagrams, vocabulary words, and a dynamic filtering and sorting system that … (More)
Summary of Amazon’s lengthy outage May 2, 2011
Nice summary on Ars Technica by Peter Bright regarding what led to the Amazon EBS outage on April 21. Amazon’s lengthy (5,600 words) description is available here.
Tools of the Writing Trade May 2, 2011
And here’s another good piece by Surat Lozowick, this one about the tools we use for writing. Isn’t it funny how easily we get caught up in the what and the why of writing (or anything creative for that matter) … (More)
The Paradox of Value May 2, 2011
Surat Lozowick with some good additional thoughts in response to my article about the iPhone as a camera: Expensive gear might perform better, but it also carries a much higher risk. Sometimes a cheap camera or an old guitar are … (More)
Remarks by the President on Osama Bin Laden May 2, 2011
Transcript from president Obama’s address: Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who’ve worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. The American people do not see their work, nor know their names. But tonight, they feel the … (More)
