Yearly Archives: 2012

Workflows for secure passwords

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Marcelo Somers has a nice write-up on using 1Password. The only nitpick I have is that I would recommend everyone use 1Password — it may be difficult to get used to not using the same simple password for every site, but you’ll be far more secure.

Create a 3D Button in CSS3

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This is cool. I wasn’t all that impressed looking at the picture of the button, but the demo is much better.

Dell leaving the smartphone business

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Dell is definitely pulling the plug on the smartphone business, globally. A tough decision, leaving a market that is expected to reach $150.3 billion in 2014, according to MarketsandMarkets.

Now they just need to quit selling computers and we’re all set.

Anytune 3.5

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Anytune has been updated with a number of new features.

Office no longer an iOS must-have

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Derek Kessler:

Had Microsoft launched Office on the iPhone and iPad early on, they could have furthered the impression that Office was a must-have for anybody serious about anything, even on iOS. But they let years pass, and now Microsoft’s flagship applications aren’t so must-have anymore and Apple isn’t overly eager to accommodate them. It’s easy to imagine that four years ago when preparing to launch the iPhone App Store Apple may have been more willing to negotiate with Microsoft to get flagship apps like Word and Excel on the smartphone. But today? Apple’s doing just fine without them.

Spot on.

About beards

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David Dennis, a man with an impressive beard himself, did a nice write-up on beards. Strange, still no picture of “the beard” in this batch either.

Apple’s new status page

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A new page from Apple that updates users on the status of its services, stores and iCloud.

Google Maps and the battle for Google’s future

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Ian Betteridge:

The fact that Google is, on one hand, creating great applications for iOS and, on the other, fighting tooth and nail for market share against it makes me wonder if the company is divided into two factions, with a battle raging between them over its future direction. On one side, there’s the group who want to promote Android as a coherent product, and beat Apple into a pulp with it.

[…]

On the other side, there’s the “Pragmatists”. These are the ones who realise Google makes its money from advertising, not directly from selling products.

As Ian points out later, Google’s iOS apps have to be good. They’re a company that makes its money from advertising.

Apple pulls one over on Google

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I received the following email from The Loop reader Keith Huss1:

Situation: Apple cannot get Google to update its maps app on iOS. It was ok, but Google refused to update it to include turn-by-turn directions or voice guidance even though Android had these features forever. Apple says, “Enough” and boots Gmaps from iOS and replaces it with an admittedly half-baked replacement. The world groans. Apple has egg on its face. Google steps up it’s game and rolls out a new, free new maps app in iOS today that is totally amazing, I’m sure to stick it in Apple’s face… Ooops

Bottom line: Apple took one for the team (ate some shit) and fooled Google into doing exactly what Apple has been asking for years. Users win.

  1. Printed with Keith’s permission. ↩

Porn books on Amazon? You’re searching wrong

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“I don’t think anyone I was corresponding with actually went and did this search to see what I was finding,” Welter says. She eventually wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and a few days later she got a reply from a representative in Amazon’s Executive Customer Relations department.

“She told me I was searching wrong,” Welter says.

“World’s Best Beer” available in stores for first time

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westvleteren ABC News:

Beer aficionados are pouncing at the rare opportunity to buy one of the world’s most elusive and revered beers for the first — and perhaps only — time in the United States.

It is called Westvleteren XII, and it is often hailed as the “world’s best beer” by reviewers and fans.

Westvleteren XII is produced by Trappist monks in Belgium and sold at the abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Belgian countryside.

First person to compare this to Heineken gets punched in the junk.

Samsung exec: “I’ve always used Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad”

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Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer in the US:

OK, so think about Apple compared to Samsung. I use a Mac, actually, at home. I’ve always used Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad. I also have the Galaxy. So I’m a great example.

If you look at the strengths of Apple, in a way it’s not the product per se. It’s that consumers like their ecosystem such as iCloud. I like that my family 6,000 miles away in Korea is able to see my schedule and see all of my contacts and photos. It is sticky, but it is a proprietary architecture.

I’m sticking with Apple Maps

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The anticipation for the arrival of Google Maps last night was incredible, and rightfully so. However, after using it, I’ve decided I’m sticking with Apple Maps.

1Password 4

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I’ve been testing out the new version for the past couple of weeks on my iPhone and it’s great. 1Password has become one of my most used apps.

Moving from an iMac to a MacBook Pro

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Gabe Weatherhead runs through all the changes involved in his big computer move. As a side note: It always surprises me how clean people’s desks are. Mine is a diaster.