A generous piece from Andy Ihnatko:
The only way to firmly define Google as a top-tier maker of a mobile OS, as opposed to just another company that cranks out toasters, is to take control over Android and enforce the sort of vision which allows the platform to move forward. Sometimes, you can’t let a market keep building faster and faster horses. You have to start selling cars.
Michael Agger on the challenges of writing:
“Serious writing is at once a thinking task, a language task, and a memory task,” [Ronald Kellogg] declares. It requires the same kind of mental effort as a high-level chess match or an expert musical performance. We are all aspiring Mozarts indeed. So what’s holding us back? How does one write faster? Kellogg terms the highest level of writing as “knowledge-crafting.” In that state, the writer’s brain is juggling three things: the actual text, what you plan to say next, and—most crucially—theories of how your imagined readership will interpret what’s being written. A highly skilled writer can simultaneously be a writer, editor, and audience.
A layered PSD by Jonatan Castro for those needing to do UI mockups.
Terminology is a dictionary and thesaurus app for people who care about words. Concise definitions, deep word relations — paired with a great, modern user interface — make Terminology the best way to explore language on iOS.
Lookup words in Terminology directly from Instapaper, Elements, Mr. Reader and a growing list of third party apps, or use Terminology’s integrated support for apps and web resources to dig deeper.
Get Terminology for iPad or iPhone during our Back-to-School sale, August 15-21.
Not on iOS? Check out Terminology’s online companion term.ly, the best way to browse and share the language on the web.
A simple observation: the Internet is busiest on Mondays.
Like an alarm clock, the Internet buzzes at us on Monday to wake up from our weekend.
“It is time to get busy,” she says. “It is time to hurry up.”
The Internet thrives on the new and the now. She wants us to be concerned about what is happening, what we missed, and what we should know about. What she doesn’t tell you is that the headlines which matter will still be around on Tuesday.
For those who work with their mind, Mondays should be for dreaming and planning. They are the morning of the week, and each Monday brings with it a new beginning, a fresh start, and a sea of potential.
Mondays are my favorite day of the week for the same reason the morning is my favorite time of the day. The morning is when my mind is most clear — there is not yet the accumulation of “mental clutter” from the activities and worries of the day and the whole day looks like a blank canvas.
Hit snooze on the new and the now for 24 hours. Let Monday be a day for dreaming and thinking. Let the week’s potential sweep our imaginations away like a strong wind on open waters.
What will we dream up today? What can we accomplish this week? Where will the days take us?
Shadoe Huard, who spends around 3 hours commuting each day, needed a cheap, portable Mac for writing during those commutes. He picked up a 12-inch PowerBook for $200, and his review of this 7-year-old piece of Macintosh history is fantastic:
Using the 12-inch PowerBook for almost a month now, the most striking aspect of its physicality is how reminiscent it is of using a 13-inch MacBook Pro. Like the Pro, it’s an ideal combination of portability and functionality that, while not enough for some, will be particularly pleasing to a lot of people. Aesthetically, the PowerBook is a machine that holds its own today. Perhaps no longer the pinnacle of design and engineering it once was, there is still a lot to appreciate and enjoy. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the 12 inch form factor is still an excellent compromise between physical dimensions and screen resolution that hasn’t yet been recaptured by a Mac notebook. This machine is a pleasure to carry around and type on, setting the stage for a potentially great writing tool.
My thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote Billings Pro and their new cloud sync.
Billings Pro is a Mac app for anyone and everyone in need of tracking tracking and sending invoices — especially those who work on a team. This app is meant to be used by multiple users. It has a timer for tracking billable hours; you can also keep track of expenses, milage, and more. Moreover, Billings Pro comes with some professionally designed invoice templates.
What puts the icing on the cake is Marketcircle’s new cloud sync for Billings Pro. Basically it means you and your entire team can use the Mac apps and the iPhone apps to keep everyone’s billable hours and expenses logged and accounted for. And for those on your team who may not have a Mac or an iPhone, there is a Web interface.
Billings Pro is professional grade. It’s an attractive app that has won several awards and is still being improved upon. If you work with a team that could use an upgrade in how you manage your time, then you should look into Billings Pro with Marketcirlce Cloud.
It’s free to try for a month (you don’t even need a credit card). And if you’re not sure if Billings Pro is right for you, I suggest you check out some of the testimonials and case studies to see how others are using it.
Ben and I talk about the ups and downs of running a link list on your weblog / web column / wordcast. Also in this episode, I take a crack at reading the sponsorships, who are Paste Interactive and InVision.
Great overview of Amazon’s new Kindle Cloud Reader from Dan Frommer.
Marco Arment received his Coffee Joulies a few days ago (I am still waiting on mine), and it looks like they do very little to actually keep his coffee hotter for longer. Sigh.
Buy a shirt and support shawnblanc.net
Designed by yours truly. I have always liked the use and look of gears in design. They are a fun way to conceptualize creativity as something which requires work, thought, and momentum. Gears are also a great way to communicate the idea of computers as mechanical hardware.
Also, I very much like the slogan “Computers are for Creating”. It rings true for all walks of creative professionals — writers, podcasters, photographers, musicians, designers, developers, et al. It’s a phrase for folks like us.
The shirts are dark grey, 50/50 blend, ringspun American Apparel Tees. These are very high-quality shirts (I prefer them over the 100% cotton shirts), and they offer superior screen printing results.
They will be hand-printed at a professional screen-printing shop located right here in Kansas City.
Orders will be taken until 11:59 PM CST on Tuesday, August 23. The batch will then be printed and will ship around the first week in September.
In June 1997, James Daly wrote a feature for Wired titled: “101 Ways to Save Apple“. Jobs became CEO in September 1997 — three months after Daly’s article — and now that Apple is the most valuable company in the world Rafe Colburn has revisited all 101 of Daly’s suggestions.
Hindsight is always 20/20. There was some good advice, some bad advice, and some sarcastic advice. I like number 91:
Start a new special projects group led by either Jobs or another passionate and creative designer to create the next “insanely great” technology. Good advice. Apple basically just turned the whole company into this special projects group.
Then TextMate would be Minas Tirith:
A once-great but now decaying city. Only the King has the power to renew it, but he is a long absent, indeed half-legendary figure—though there are persistent rumors that he is alive still in some distant land. In his stead, the city slowly falls in upon itself, kept in some sort of working order by its melancholy people. They can repair but not truly rebuild it, and they pray daily for the Return of the King.
Shaun Inman’s newest 8-bit game is a lot of fun. I should know, I’ve been playing it all morning. Just $3 in the App Store.