The syncing engine that powers Simplenote is now available to developers to use in their apps. Looking at the example uses, Simperium looks fantastically clever, powerful, and fast. It’s currently in free public beta.
Linked
Link Posts
This Advertising Life →
“The emotions of life in advertising as told through gifs.”
Absolutely hilarious. (Via John Pastor.)
When Letraset Was King →
Gene Gable looks back at dry-transfer type and some of the Letraset catalogs of the early 1970s:
I was a freshman in college when I had my first confrontation with dry-transfer type. While every dry-transfer type encounter had a minimal likelihood of success, I somehow ended up with a decent-looking party invitation, which I remember distinctly was set in University Roman.
The Field Notes Dry Transfer “_______ Edition” were my favorite to date.
The Non-Story of Siri’s Nokia Lumia Recommendation →
Dave Caolo brings a voice of reason to this sensationalist link bait post by Robin Wauters at The Next Web, and this flat-out lie from Kevin Smith at Business Insider. Sigh.
You Sound Great To Me →
Episode 60 of The B&B Podcast, Ben and I get sabotaged by Skype (or perhaps TWC) but still manage to talk about cloth diapers and advertising in the Web.
Brought to you by two fine sponsors, Igloo Software and Hover.
‘Paperless’ →
Paperless is a brand new iBookstore book from David Sparks. He wrote it in iBooks Author and, in addition to being full of great information and how-tos, it’s jam packed with slideshows, screencasts, and Retina display graphics. I’ve been slowly working towards setting up a paperless office here at my home, and so I bought my copy yesterday. It’s just $5 in the iBookstore.
Continuing a Proud Tradition of User Hostility →
Pierre Igot installs Adobe CS6. (Via Viticci.)
Adobe Lightroom 4 in the Mac App Store →
This is the first pro-level Adobe app to hit the Mac App Store. Well, unless you count Elements, but ew. Also, this is the best installation process you’ll find for an Adobe app.
I use Lightroom 4. After Noah was born I realized I needed a better photo editor on my Mac besides iPhoto. I gave Lightroom 4 a trial and it’s great and surprisingly easy to use even for a guy like me who does light photo editing with the pre-set filters.
What Makes Corn Kernels Turn Into the Shape of Popcorn? →
After you read about it on Quora, you can see it in action on this video from The Slow Mo Guys of popcorn popping at 10,000 frames per second.
Bartender Replacement Icon →
Much better. (h/t Michael Anderson.)
Why John Carey’s iPad Is Not His Laptop →
John Carey:
I would say a good 90 percent of the debate on the iPads usefulness as a computer is coming from writers and casual users and this is where I find the debate getting a little one sided. Of course a writer would like the ipad. The tools most needed to get their work done are right there for the taking, you can hunt and gather all day long and it does make a fantastic, distraction free space to write in.
John is right. The iPad is very well suited for the sort of work that guys like myself, Federico Viticci, and Andy Ihnatko do.
Isaiah Carew, an indie Mac software developer, has nearly the exact same sentiment:
Speaking personally, my job revolves around: writing and debugging software, manipulating production graphics design, and supporting customers. I’ve tried to do all of these tasks on an iPad, and while all are possible, at least in part. There isn’t any task that’s made easier by the iPad. And most are made much more difficult.
The argument for why the iPad doesn’t work as a laptop replacement is just as valid for why it does. There are a lot of folks, like John and Isaiah, who are using professional-grade software to do design work, app development, photography and video editing, and more. The iPad of today can’t handle that.
What the iPad of today can handle is most all of the standard tasks of most average users. Email, Web browsing, Facebook, movies, music, games, and more. What will things look like 5 and 10 years from now?
I like this summary paragraph from John’s article:
As it stands, the iPad is amazing. I use it every single day for writing, browsing the news, sketching ideas, and reading though email or tech riders and I love every minute of it. It complements my daily life and on days when I don’t need to get any real work done, I leave my laptop at home. But when it comes to honest creative work I can not help but find the iPad as little more than a sidekick. I can say with certainty though, that this is far from the last word on this. I can clearly see a future where touch screen devices such as the iPad become more and more viable for the kind of things I have discussed here today. It is still new territory being explored and I for one can not wait to see where it takes us.
Side note: remember when the conversation was about whether or not the MacBook Air could be your only computer?
What Is and Is Not A Technology Company →
Stellar article by Alex Payne.
Two Universes →
Stellar article by Michael Lopp.
Bartender: Mac Menu Bar Item Control →
Speaking of Mac utilities, this new Menu Bar app is pretty cool. It’s basically a Menu Bar folder, where you can store away some of the Menu Bar apps which are necessary evils. I’ve got a few apps living in my Menu Bar that I keep running but which I don’t need to see. Bartender hides them for me.
Bartender is currently in public beta, so it’s free to try out and if you buy a license now it’s half the price that it will be once it reaches version 1.0. My only quibble with Bartender so far is that the icon options are all blurry in the Menu Bar. If you’re going to have just a single Menu Bar icon, it ought to be crisp and well-designed.
Update: Here is a nice replacement icon by Adam Betts.