February 2012
Sponsor: TinyLetter Feb 29, 2012
My thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. TinyLetter is the simplest way to send email newsletters. Creating signup forms is a breeze, and TinyLetter even makes it easy to reply to your readers individually. It’s also … (More)
The 2010/2011 Feltron Biennial Report Feb 28, 2012
Nicholas Felton’s annual reports are one of those things I look forward to every year. There are still things where the print version is far superior to the digital version, and the Feltron Report is one of them. I just … (More)
Upside Down Spike Feb 24, 2012
Episode 48 of The B&B Podcast is now available. Ben and I talked mostly about Things and OmniFocus. Brought to you by this month’s fine sponsors: Jumpchart and Doxie Go.
Thunderbolts and iMacs at TED2012 Feb 24, 2012
Duncan Davidson: For TED2012, there’s a pretty big change in the media room. Instead of dozens of MacPros and piles of SATA drives like there have been in the last eight TED events I’ve been part of, the room is … (More)
350,000 Downloads of Clear Feb 23, 2012
In its first nine days in the App Store, Clear sold 350,000 copies. Next stop: iPad and Mac apps.
An Interview with Mark Jardine Feb 23, 2012
More from Ryan Cash. This time it’s an interview with that pixel pusher over at Tapbots, Mark Jardine. (Local aside about Mark, his was the first ever Sweet Mac Setup. His pixel rig has changed since May 2009.)
Photo Sharing Sites Compared Feb 23, 2012
Photographer Aaron Hockley did a side-by-side comparison of Flickr, Facebook, Google+, 500px, and SmugMug.
Ryan Cash on Flickr and 500px Feb 23, 2012
Ryan Cash shares about the different ways he is using Flickr and 500px, and how Flickr has become his place for photo storage and 500px is his place for showcasing his photography. Ben Brooks and I talked for a bit … (More)
Flickr’s Upcoming Makeover Feb 23, 2012
I’ve been using Flickr for years, but I don’t use it for the social aspect or for discovering new photos — I simply use it to store my own images. Even that I do sporadically. The screenshots of this new … (More)
The Tesla Brick Feb 22, 2012
If the Tesla’s battery ever gets fully discharged not only does the car becomes non-drivable, but the battery becomes completely useless and has to be replaced. A new battery costs $40,000 and isn’t covered by warranty or insurance: The affected … (More)
Apple Confirms Plans for Another Large Data Center in Oregon Feb 22, 2012
Since iCloud is part of Apple’s strategy for the next decade or more how aggressive will they be with building data centers? How long until they have more than Amazon?
The Ultimate Steve Jobs Video Collection Feb 22, 2012
About 75 videos with Steve Jobs. From WWDCs to Macworlds to Stanford to All Things D and more. (Via MG Siegler.)
Full Video of Nightline’s “iFactory” Special Feb 22, 2012
Here’s a direct link to Bill Weir’s special look inside Foxconn that aired last night. The Verge has a bullet-point list of the most interesting facts and information that were shared during the Nightline special. Update: See also Lex Friedman’s … (More)
Things Cloud Sync Now in Public Beta Feb 21, 2012
The cloud sync service for Things is now in public beta. For those who currently use Things, there is a special beta Mac app that you have to download and you can’t just migrate over your current library and flip … (More)
Sans-RSS in Mountain Lion Feb 21, 2012
Brent Simmons points out that according to Macworld’s reviews, RSS support in Mail and Safari are both removed in Mountain Lion. I still check my RSS feeds on a regular basis — as do many who read this site, I … (More)
Nothing in Android Makes Sense Except in the Light of Its Original Vision Feb 21, 2012
Dustin Curtis: Incredibly, despite the mobile device industry experiencing a complete revolution during the past four years, the Android of today is still precisely the operating system Miner described to me in 2008. It has a solid foundation, it can … (More)
Nightline’s Trip to Foxconn Feb 20, 2012
Bill Weir’s report from his 3-day trip to Foxconn (the iFactory): In a three-golf-cart convoy, both Apple and Foxconn reps took us around to a half dozen production lines in Shenzhen and Chengdu, and there were always five to six … (More)
MacStories Interviews Ken Case Feb 20, 2012
Another interview for your Monday-morning reading enjoyment, this time with Ken Case from The Omni Group. The interview is mostly about OmniPlan for iPad, but Ken also shares about other Omni Group apps. I can’t think of any other Mac … (More)
5 Minutes on The Verge: Growl’s Christopher Forsythe Feb 20, 2012
The Verge interviewed Chris Forsythe, the man behind Growl. Chris shared a bit about the history of Growl, its transition to the Mac App Store, and more.
There Is No Spoon Feb 18, 2012
Dr. Drang: I tried to use LaunchBar this morning to start up a Messages session. I hit my LB hotkey, Control-Space, and typed “mess,” figuring that Messages would be one of the top hits and that by choosing it from … (More)
Bruce Feb 17, 2012
Episode 47 of The B&B Podcast. Ben and I talk mostly about Mountain Lion and the new Messages beta app. What else would you expect? Brought to you by this month’s fine sponsors: Jumpchart and Doxie Go.
Doing What You (Don’t) Love Feb 17, 2012
Chris Bowler on how your dream job can have a negative impact on your work/life balance and keep you from pursuing additional hobbies and being present in your relationships: When you do what you love, it can often lead to … (More)
Booting a Thunderbolt External SSD Feb 17, 2012
Patrick Lenz proves that running an SSD over Thunderbolt as your main boot drive is as fast, if not faster, than having an internal SSD: When I had everything wired up to one of the two Thunderbolt ports of my … (More)
Gatekeeper From A Developer’s Viewpoint Feb 16, 2012
Steven Frank: Today’s Mountain Lion announcement introduces an important new security feature, called Gatekeeper, in addition to the “sandboxing” feature that premiered in Lion. I’d like to talk a little bit about it, and why it’s important to all Mac … (More)
Sponsor: InVision Prototyping Tool Feb 16, 2012
My thanks to InVision for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. The UI prototyping phase of the design process is crucial to get right. It’s about figuring out how your product will work, and ensuring everyone is aligned before moving … (More)
More iDevices Sold in 2011 Than All the Macs Sold in 28 Years Feb 16, 2012
Well, when you put it that way.
More on Gatekeeper Feb 16, 2012
Jason Snell with more info on Gatekeeper and how it works. It’s clear that Gatekeeper in Mountain Lion isn’t intended to be some sort of high-security app lockdown. It’s just a tool to encourage people not to run software they … (More)
The Verge’s Mountain Lion Preview Feb 16, 2012
Nilay Patel also has a good overview of Mountain Lion for The Verge, and a includes a good video overview as well. Regarding Gatekeeper, and what the default is for what apps you can install: Mountain Lion will ship out … (More)
An Apple Press Event For One Feb 16, 2012
Earlier this month, John Gruber, along with several other journalists and writers, each were invited to private, one-on-one meetings with Apple to be shown Mountain Lion. John’s account is fascinating. Surely this is the one of most eyebrow-raising, head-tilting product … (More)
Apple’s Mountain Lion Preview Page Feb 16, 2012
Just about nobody was expecting this today. I certainly wasn’t. When I started seeing Jim Dalrymple and Jason Snell linking to their Mountain Lion articles via Twitter this morning I thought it was a joke. But, it’s not. And, in … (More)
Messages Beta Feb 16, 2012
If you don’t have it already, here’s the download link for the new iChat app we all knew was coming sooner or later. For the record I like the new icon, even though it is blue. What I don’t like … (More)
MailChimp’s Brief Profile of Read & Trust Feb 15, 2012
A nice writeup about a nice network of writers.
Repeat Timer Pro: From Idea to the App Store Feb 15, 2012
Artem Lapitski, a designer, had an idea for a repeating timer app. After he concepted his app and finished the Photoshop designs he hired a 3rd-party developer for the coding. Then he did the website, marketing, and everything else himself. … (More)
Engineered for Fat Fingers Feb 15, 2012
Deck is an iPad app with big buttons. And the promo video is hilarious. (Via Cameron Moll.)
Seth Godin on Work / Life Balance Feb 15, 2012
Another link-worthy Godin article: People have discovered that after hour 24, there are no more hours left. Suddenly, you can’t get ahead by outworking the other guy, because both of you are already working as hard as Newtonian physics will … (More)
The Sad Irony of Selfishness Feb 15, 2012
Seth Godin: The irony, of course, is that selflessness (not selfishness, its opposite) is precisely the posture that leads to more success.
Q&A Transcript From Tim Cook’s Speech at Goldman Sachs Feb 14, 2012
A lot of quotable quotes from Tim Cook today. When asked about iPad competitors: Price is rarely the most important thing. A cheap product might sell some units. Somebody gets it home and they feel great when they pay the … (More)
How Samsung’s Super-Sized Galaxy Note Changed Abdel Ibrahim’s Life Feb 14, 2012
The best photo gallery I’ve seen yet showing the phone / tablet in action.
“The Physical Equivalent of the ‘I Am Rich’ App” Feb 13, 2012
Vlad Savov reviews the very expensive Porsche Design P’9981 BlackBerry.
Droplr for iPhone [iTunes Link] Feb 13, 2012
The free iPhone app for Droplr was updated over the weekend to version 2.0 and now works with the service again. Droplr is my link-, image-, text-, and file-sharing service of choice and it’s nice to have the iPhone app … (More)
One Man’s Quest to Bring Good Coffee and Hope to Japan’s Tsunami Zone Feb 10, 2012
Here’s a wonderful and short documentary by Mackenzie Sheppard. He meets and follows Yoshi Masuda as he went around Japan after the tsunami, making coffee for people and sharing the love of God with them. (Via member, Justin Lai.)
BlackBerry Withdrawal Feb 10, 2012
On episode 46 of The B&B Podcast Ben and I talk about iPad 3 rumors and the goods and bads of Kickstarter and discuss some ideas of what projects should do when they get extremely over-funded. Brought to you by … (More)
Another Kickstarter Record: Double Fine Adventure Game Feb 9, 2012
Speaking of Kickstarter records, Double Fine Adventure is on pace to blow every single record out of the water. Sweet mercy. They launched their project just last night, and after 18 hours they are already 200% funded. But here’s the … (More)
Elevation Dock: The Most-Funded Project on Kickstarter Ever Feb 9, 2012
Yesterday the Elevation Dock surpassed the TikTok’s record of $942,578 and became the most-funded Kickstarter project ever. And there’s still two days left to back the Elevation Dock — looks like it’ll break a million. Update: They did break a … (More)
NoMoreiTunes Extension for Safari Feb 9, 2012
Safari extension that halts the iTunes app store from automatically launching when you visit an iTunes Web Preview page. Very nice. (Via Memphis-based blog, 512 Pixels.)
Viticci’s Tweetbot 2.0 Review Feb 8, 2012
Includes side-by-side screenshots comparing the changes between version 1.x and version 2.0.
Tweetbot 2.0 Feb 8, 2012
Tweetbot, the best Twitter app for the iPhone got a major update today. The first thing you’ll notice in Tweetbot 2.0 is that the list scrolling is different and improved. At first scrolling feels slower, but it’s not. It just … (More)
Tech Companies’ Biggest Revenue Source by Percentage Feb 8, 2012
A.K.A. The “Eggs in One Basket” Index. A.K.A. Facebook and Pandora rely a lot on their ad business. A.K.A. Google really, really relies on its ad business.
Sponsor: kooaba Shortcut Feb 8, 2012
My thanks to kooaba for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. kooaba Shortcut is a shortcut between real life and the Internet. Take a picture of what you are reading in a newspaper or magazine and instantly get connected to … (More)
Viticci’s Post-PC Retrospective Feb 7, 2012
Today’s piece by Federico Viticci is one of the best articles I’ve ever read on MacStories. Viticci pulled together a virtual cornucopia of quotes, articles, and data spanning the past two years in order to give a high-level perspective on … (More)
Why Do We Care What a ‘Pc’ Is? Feb 7, 2012
Chuck Skoda: The iPad threw a wrench into the gears of the computer industry. [...] We need to frame the conversation if we want to have meaningful discussions about our industry, and having meaningful discussions about the PC industry can … (More)
Siri Accounts for One Quarter of Wolfram Alpha Queries Feb 7, 2012
Katie Marsal: About one quarter of the queries to the “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha now come from the Siri voice assistant found in Apple’s iPhone 4S. It may sound dorky, but I’ve found the Siri-Wolfram combo to make for … (More)
An in-Depth Look at Wolfram Alpha Pro Feb 7, 2012
The Verge’s Dieter Bohn sat down with Stephen Wolfram in order to write up a nice review of the new Wolfram Alpha Pro that launches tomorrow as well as insight into how the Wolfram Alpha results differ from a Wikipedia … (More)
How to Fold a Dress Shirt Feb 7, 2012
Will: The secret is to fold the shirt in half rather than in thirds. In other words, when the shirt is on its front laid out for folding, turn the sleeve sides over only a quarter of the way, leaving … (More)
A Slightly Better Pedigree of Americanos Feb 6, 2012
Ben and I had to record last week’s episode of The B&B Podcast today. We talk coffee (and discover that Ben likes Americanos), we talk Samsung’s Galaxy Note ad and their revolutionary new S Pen, and we talk Google and … (More)
Samsung Shoots At Apple, Hits The Customer Feb 6, 2012
Trevor Gilber: Samsung is [...] taking jabs at not only the products, but the customers of the products. Yes, Samsung is running attack ads against the people they are trying to convince to buy their products. Brilliant! It was an … (More)
Yes, No, Maybe So Feb 6, 2012
Eric Grevstad’s article for PCMag.com from last November is the best piece I’ve read yet in terms of consolidating the different points of view for and against if the iPad should be considered a PC or not. The 4 points … (More)
What Happens to the Losing Team’s Championship Shirts Feb 5, 2012
The non-winning team’s merch gets donated to World Vision and is shipped overseas to disaster areas and impoverished nations.
OmniFocus Forecast and Start Dates Feb 3, 2012
I learned a few tips during my trip to Macworld and this one from David Sparks during his presentation at the Omni Group’s booth was one of them. Not only did I learn that: (a) you can show tasks based … (More)
Launch Center Feb 2, 2012
I got Launch Center when it first came out a few months ago, but the idea of having quick-access to certain actions in the Notification Center never really stuck for me. But, with Launch Center’s newly-added support of app URLs, … (More)
Novelty Hardware, Commodity Prices Feb 2, 2012
I was a guest on yesterday’s episode of The Bro Show. We talked about Macworld 2012 and discussed if the iPad is a PC or not.
Part III of Ben Brooks’ Smart Alec Backpack Review Feb 2, 2012
For a backpack, I agree that the Smart Alec is nice. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Ben for hauling my iPad, my extra iPhone charger, and my sweater around during Macworld. At first I thought he … (More)
Sponsor: Déjà Vu Feb 1, 2012
My thanks to Déjà Vu for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Déjà Vu is your visual memory. Use the app by taking pictures of things you would like to remember. For example, products you see in a magazine, recipes … (More)
Cobook Feb 1, 2012
Address Book is one of the worst apps in Lion. iMovie may be the worst, but you have to buy iMovie. Address Book is certainly the worst app that ships with Lion — it’s ugly and extremely difficult to navigate. … (More)
“The Apple of Search Engines” Feb 1, 2012
Speaking of “any little differentiator“, Nicholas Deleon wrote a short profile about DuckDuckGo for The Daily: [Gabriel Weinberg] designed DuckDuckGo to address some of the concerns that people have had with Google and other search engines over the years. “We … (More)
Marco Arment on NPR Feb 1, 2012
Great show with Marco Arment on NPR’s Planet Money podcast. I liked this line by Marco: When the market is that big of everybody that uses the internet, any little differentiator can get you enough of a customer base to … (More)
