Merlin Mann:

Put to best use, Inbox Zero is merely a philosophical practice of learning to be parsimonious about which and how many inputs we allow into into our lives—and, then, to responsibly but mindfully tend to those inputs in a way that is never allowed to hinder our personal commitment to doing the work that really matters to us.

To paraphrase Robert Louis Stevenson: Inboxes are good enough in their own right, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for work.

Nice update to Rego that improves on 2 of my biggest quibbles from my original review. Among other improvements, version 1.1 adds the ability to search nearby locations (using the Foursquare API and Apple’s maps), and it adds an export option.

Shockingly clever and beautiful new iPad app from Panic with one of the best setup screens I’ve ever seen. Be sure to check out Federico Viticci’s review for a good look at what Status Board does and what it’s capable of.

This is a very good and interesting article by Kevin Goldman for A List Apart. Goldman is talking about the skeuomorphic / flat design conversation and how “honest design” (having design elements that don’t pretend to be something they are not) is more prone to be timeless.

The folks at App.net were kind enough to give me a link good for 200 400 700 free accounts. If you want to join this awesome service, you can use the link above to sign up for free (while supplies last).

Update: The free invite codes are now used up.

And once you start looking for ADN clients, I use just one: Riposte on the iPhone. I hear Felix is also fantastic. And on the Mac, Kiwi is all the rage with the cool kids.

A new website from Matt Birchler that gives recommendations of the best alternative to the stock apps that ship on the iPhone. Some great recommendations here — such as Check the Weather instead of Weather, and Checkmark over Reminders — but I don’t agree with them all. For example, I think PCalc is the best alternative to the Calculator, and Simplenote is the best alternative to Notes.

I love the idea behind this site and hope to see it expand to iPad and Mac apps as well.

Instatim is a more personal social network that helps you stay in touch with your closest friends, family and co-workers. Engineered for privacy, Instatim is unlike other social networks because we do not store information about our users’ past activities and locations. Your status is shared securely and only to people you have chosen.

Here’s what you can do with Instatim:

• Status Updates: Keep in touch by posting status updates about what you’re doing (walking the dog, meeting a client, etc.) and reading your friends’ statuses.

• Expiration Dates: Set an expiration for your status so your family knows how long you will be engaged in the activity.

• Groups: Sort contacts into different groups. Share statuses with specific groups to keep the right people in the right loop.

• Location: You can choose to include your location with your status so your friends and family know your whereabouts.

Download Instatim for free in the App Store.

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My thanks to Instatim for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Roger Ebert was such a writer. His work was always a delight to read, and it had an inspirational quality to it that made every reader want to be a better writer of their own.

There’s nothing seemingly extraordinary about his review in passing of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, but it stuck with me and has become one of my favorite lines of his:

It might not be safe to play this soundtrack in the car.

We’ve picked out 3 fine fountain pens — one for starters, one for intermediates, and one for expert users.

Vdio is a new online video service from the guys at Rdio.

However, this is not “Rdio for movies”. Vdio is more like iTunes in that you buy or rent each movie or TV show. I’m curious why Vdio went with the iTunes-type of access model as opposed to the Netflix-esque access model that Rdio uses.

It’s probably that they couldn’t.

At the top of Vdio’s movie list are all the latest Academy Award nominated films, new releases, and many others. Pretty much all the same films sitting on the iTunes home page right now. None of those films are available on Netflix.

I would say that some sort of amalgamation of the two access models would be great: Paying Vdio a monthly fee to get unlimited access to whatever movies and TV shows that they are able to negotiate with studios, and then the ones which are not available that way you can pay extra to buy or rent.

But then I realize I already have that exact service via Netflix, iTunes, and my Apple TV.

As far as I can see, the only leg up Rdio has over Netflix and iTunes is their social network. As they wrote on their announcement post, some of the advantages to Vdio are the social-esque features such as seeing what your friends are watching, and creating “sets” (a.k.a. playlists for TV shows and movies) that you can then share with people.

Vdio has an iPad app, but it can do nothing but play movies you’ve purchased or rented through the Vdio website. You cannot browse Vdio on the iPad app. The app does support AirPlay, so you can play the video on your television via your Apple TV.

But if you’ve got an Apple TV, what’s the advantage of using Vdio over iTunes? The prices are the same, the selection is smaller, and the experience is limited.

If you’re an Rdio unlimited subscriber in the US or UK then you can log in to Vdio now, and they’ve given us each a $25 credit to use for buying or renting.

When Rdio first launched I wasn’t keen on it, but I have since become a huge fan of the music service. So perhaps it’s fitting that I am not currently excited about Vdio. As the service and app stand now, I suspect the $25 they gave me will be the only money I spend there. But you know what? At least they’re building something.