The glance at the new Kindle touch — which which Amazon themselves leaked in their commercial during last night’s game — looks great.
The Mother of all iPhone 5 Rumor Roundups →
Nice work from the MacStories team.
The Setup: Aaron Bleyaert →
Love this answer from Aaron Bleyart, one of the members of Team Coco, to what his dream setup would be:
My dream setup is exactly what I have now: A tremendous group of smart, funny, creative, good looking, talented people. I could always use a better lighting kit, a more expensive lens, more sensitive mics, etc, but all the hardware and software in the world is completely useless without a killer team of people to use it.
One Year Later, the iPad Is Still Harry McCracken’s Favorite Computer →
Harry McCracken:
I’m pretty sure it’s not just journalists who are using iPads as computers. I see people doing it in airplanes. I’ve seen them doing it on the subway. When I’m out and about, strangers run up to ask me about my keyboard. Something’s happening here, and it’s happening quickly — and so I thought I’d update you on my experiences as of the one-year mark.
It’s Going to be a Big Fall for Gadgets →
John Moltz:
Others have noted this, but it certainly is shaping up to be the biggest fall in quite some time.
When I was a kid and I’d talk about the latest and greatest things coming out that we could buy, my dad would always say the same thing — “Save your money.” — and it would drive me bonkers. Dad, don’t you know I make like $1 a week allowance?
Social Me-Me-Media
That’s a line I think I heard Merlin Mann say once in a podcast.
And the way I see it, there are two sides to Social Me-me-media:
- There’s the narcissistic, naval-gazing, ego-centric side. How many followers do I have? Did that popular person follow me back? Has anyone @replied to me, retweeted me, or faved my tweets in the past 30 minutes?
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And then there’s the fighting-against-the-potential-time-sink side. What’s a reasonable number of followers for me to have? How many interruptions am I willing or able to allow? How much time do I want to spend here? How much value am I getting? How much value am I giving?
It is oh so easy to get sucked into the first side and never think once about the second. But now that you are thinking about it, why not give yourself permission to unfollow whomever you want without worrying about hurting their feelings. And to check in, link in, post a picture, or update your status less often without the fear that you’ll be forgotten about.
Make social media about you — not your ego.
Because It Doesn’t Count if You Don’t Ship It →
Continuing on with the subject of doing things differently than most people, here’s Seth Godin regarding how he spends his time:
I guess you make decisions about how you want to spend your time. What you didn’t mention is that I’m America’s worst watcher of television, cause I don’t spend any time doing that, zero. And I’m America’s worst attender of meetings, cause I don’t do any of that, zero. So I know people who do five hours of each every day. So right there I save myself ten hours a day. […]
So I try to sort of strike this balance between doing some things at an insanely quick, prolific rate and doing other things not at all.
The whole interview great; highly recommended reading.
“Are You Building Something Great?” →
On the subject of doing things differently than most people, here’s Jason Fried regarding the slash-and-burn mentality in the tech world:
I think all you have to do is read TechCrunch. Look at what the top stories are, and they’re all about raising money, how many employees they have, and these are metrics that don’t matter. What matters is: Are you profitable? Are you building something great? Are you taking care of your people? Are you treating your customers well? In the coverage of our industry as a whole, you’ll rarely see stories about treating customers well, about people building a sustainable business. TechCrunch to me is the great place to look to see the sickness in our industry right now.
Relatedly, you have read Rework, right?
Most People
“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”
― Dave Ramsey
Most athletes don’t make it to the Olympics. Most startups don’t strike gold. Most writers don’t get on The New York Times’ Best Sellers List.
And that’s okay. We all have our own definitions of success, and global fame and recognition doesn’t have to be one of them.
But how many entrepreneurs get around to taking that risk and starting their own business? Or how many writers get around to writing that book they know they have in them? How many people save for that vacation they’ve always wanted to take? How many people have become far too comfortable paying for just one more toy using the credit card?
Unfortunately, most of us aren’t surrounded by energetic, highly-focused, successful individuals who can set an example for us. Instead our classrooms and workplaces and neighborhoods are filled with folks who are good at spending more than they make while watching television, checking Facebook, and playing video games. Doesn’t it seem silly to think we have a better chance at achieving our goals while living like most people who will never achieve theirs?
Here’s a metric that can help you determine if you’re on track for reaching your goals: are you spending your time, money, and attention differently than most people?
Sponsor: Harvest →
My thanks to Harvest for sponsoring the RSS feed again.
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Some OmniFocus Linkage
The Internet has been bubbling up with all sorts of OmniFocus-related nerdery lately. I realized that one reason to favor OmniFocus over other to-do apps is that a lot of my super-smart friends use it, and they’re always finding or building clever tricks to decrease friction.
Here are a few recent things worth sharing. Listed in order of Nerd Score.
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OopsieFocus: A script that launches OmniFocus if you’ve hit keyboard shortcut for the quick-entry pane but realize that OmniFocus isn’t actually running. Nerd Score: 2/10
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Send the frontmost Safari tabs to OmniFocus: Direct to the inbox with Growl support; or via the Quick Entry pane. Nerd Score: 3/10
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A Keyboard Maestro Macro for linking nvALT notes into an OmniFocus action item: Just what it says on the tin. Very helpful if you keep a lot of reference material, ideas, or whathaveyou in nvALT. Nerd Score: 4/10
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SimplicityBliss on OmniFocus: Sven Fechner’s collection of posts, tips, and tricks on OmniFocus. Nerd Score: 6/10
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A Chair About Running: A Glassboard board for people to share about productivity tips and stories. Nerd Score: 6/10
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Send Favorited tweets to your OmniFocus Inbox: Federico Viticci’s fine use of IFTTT, Dropbox, Hazel, AppleScript, and shell commands. Nerd Score: 9/10
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Create OmniFocus tasks with AppleScript: How David Sparks uses Hazel and AppleScript to automate the creating of a task in OmniFocus related to documents and bills he scans into his computer. Nerd Score: 9/10
The Worst, Worst, Worst Case Scenario →
Ben and I are back after a 2-week hiatus caused by last-minute scheduling conflicts twice in a row (sorry about that). This week we talk about touchscreen desktop computers, Twitter, App.net, and Glassboard, and even the kitchen sink.
It’s Not Just Phones →
Sebastiaan de With showcases laptop design before and after the unibody MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
And since Sebastiaan posted this, Samsung has announced their Series 5 and 7 Slates, which looks a whole lot like a MacBook Air.
N.A.D.D. →
And oldie and a goodie from Michael Lopp:
Stop reading right now and take a look at your desktop. How many things are you doing right now in addition to reading this column? Me, I’ve got a terminal session open to a chat room, I’m listening to music, I’ve got Safari open with three tabs open where I’m watching Blogshares, tinkering with a web site, and looking at weekend movie returns. Not done yet. I’ve got iChat open, ESPN.COM is downloading sports new trailers in the background, and I’ve got two notepads open where I’m capturing random thoughts for later integration into various to do lists. Oh yeah, I’m writing this column, as well.
Folks, this isn’t multi-tasking. This is advanced case of Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder.