Author: Shawn Blanc

Things 2.5  →

Nice update to Things for the Mac, that sports a Yosemite-native design and takes advantage of the new Notification Center as well as Handoff and has an “Add to Things” extension. The folks at Cultured Code may have a reputation for being slow at shipping updates, but when they do ship, they ship quality work that is polished and deeply thought through.

Things 2.5

The Tools & Toys Review of The iPhone 6 Plus  →

Josh Ginter wrote an absolutely fantastic review of the iPhone 6 Plus for Tools & Toys.

As an aside, I could not be more happy with the new Tools & Toys. For one, the site’s design is just incredible. I love how well it lends itself to photo-rich, in-depth reviews like Josh’s iPhone 6 Plus review, while also looking so great for our tried and true posts about new and cool paraphernalia. And the content itself has gone up a level in the past week as well.

They say write the internet you want to read. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with The Sweet Setup and with Tools & Toys. I’m doing everything I can to put my money where my mouth is. These sites prioritize quality and integrity over everything else, we sweat the details, and we’re having a lot of fun in the process.

The Tools & Toys Review of The iPhone 6 Plus

Some Awesome Print Magazines

Over the weekend I made some time to catch up on some reading I’ve been looking forward to. I’m a few issues behind in my Offscreen magazine subscription, and I just recently received the first issue of Lagom magazine.

These magazines are just fantastic. Offscreen has always focused primarily on the people behind the pixels. It’s mostly comprised of interviews, profiles, a-day-in-the-life-ofs, original essays, and more. All featuring the folks who many of us know from online.

Magazine seems an unfair category. For one, the quality of paper and printing is superb — it feels more like an extended, special edition comic book than something you’d find on the shelf at Barns & Noble. The advertising is classy and simple — never breaking up an article. And the content itself is meant to endure just as the quality of the paper speaks to the non-disposable nature of Offscreen.

I’ve been reading Offscreen since issue 1 (I was a contributor to issue 2), and the quality has so clearly increased.

This past weekend I made time to read through most of issues 7 and 8 of Offscreen and thoroughly enjoyed them. Issue 7 especially, it had an underlying focus on business and time management — two topics which are at the top of my mind lately.

What’s cool about Offscreen is that it’s filled with the sorts of articles and interviews that you’d almost certainly be filling your Instapaper queue with, except it’s expertly laid out on a printed page with full-color photographs. For a nerd like me who enjoys this type of content anyway, I love the different and experience of reading it in print. Moreover, when I’m done, I can pass off the magazine to a friend and let them borrow it for a while.

Lagom

And speaking of magazines, the inaugural issue of Lagom is now out and wow. I’ve long been a fan of Elliot Jay Stocks’ work. I bought every issue of 8 Faces, I have a copy of Insites: The Book, I bought the first (and last) edition of Digest, and now I’m a subscriber to Lagom.

Note: you can get the digital versions of Insites and Digest for free on the Viewport Industries home page.

Over the years, Elliot has clearly become a master at editing together a printed work and doing the design and layout. If you like Offscreen, you’ll also like Lagom. It, too, has a focus on the people of our creative industry, but with its own unique voice and style.

Elliot’s past work — especially Digest — served as a great point of inspiration for our recent re-launch of the Tools & Toys website.

As a physical object, Lagom is commanding. The book is large and thick, printed on hearty stock with a foil-embossed logo on the cover. Lagom is equal parts entertainment, information, and inspiration. I honestly don’t know what’s better — the content, the design and typography, or the photography.

Some Awesome Print Magazines

Snowboarding Was Originally Called Snurfing  →

In today’s installment of “the more you know”, Sarah Laskow writes for Slate about the history of snowboarding and how it got its name.

Sherman Poppen — the man who invented the first type of snowboard — called it the Snurfer. But when Jake Burton Carpenter invented his own brand of board, he called it a Burton Snurfboard. But Poppen had “Snurf” trademarked, and so Burton changed the name to snowboard and the rest is history. Fascinating.

Snowboarding Was Originally Called Snurfing

TextExpander Touch 3, Now With Custom Keyboard (Sponsor)  →

TextExpander touch from Smile saves you time and effort by expanding short abbreviations into frequently-used text.

Whether it’s a simple email signature or several paragraphs of a standard response, you’ll love how easy it is to use TextExpander to avoid typing the same thing over and over.

With the new TextExpander touch 3 on iOS 8, there’s a TextExpander custom keyboard so that you can expand abbreviations in all your apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Over 60 apps offer enhanced TextExpander support, including Byword, Day One, Drafts, Fantastical, Launch Center Pro, OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, and more.

See the TextExpander touch custom keyboard in this great

(http://macsparky.com/blog/2014/9/textexpander-touch-video) from David Sparks.

TextExpander touch is available on the App Store.

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My thanks to Smile Software for again sponsoring the RSS feed this week, and for being one of the launch partner sponsors at the new Tools & Toys.

TextExpander Touch 3, Now With Custom Keyboard (Sponsor)