Yearly Archives: 2012

MailTags 3

MailTags 3 is an enhancement for Apple’s Mail client in OS X 10.7 to add powerful tagging and search capabilities. MailTags 3 seamlessly integrates into Mail.app to make the attachment, search, and collation of tags, such as keywords and notes, a powerful part of email management.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about MailTags.

An iPad firestorm about nothing

Apple’s newest iPad hit the market three weeks ago and already their have been a number of controversies surrounding the device. As expected, all of the issues fizzled out because there was really nothing there in the first place.

My latest column on Techpinions.

Samsung ships 5 million Galaxy Notes, but who cares about ‘shipped’ numbers

Macworld:

Samsung Electronics has shipped 5 million units of its “smart notepad”, the Galaxy Note, surpassing most expectations, according to analysts.

How can shipping 5 million units possible surpass anyone’s expectations? That is not the number of Galaxy Notes sold, that’s just the number that Samsung managed to get out of its factory.

Samsung could ship 100 million Galaxy Notes and have them sit in a warehouse somewhere — that doesn’t mean they sold 100 million. I’m never impressed with shipped numbers because they don’t mean anything.

Loren Brichter talks about pull-to-refresh

It was recorded before this became news (about a week ago actually), so it’s kinda weird it came up in this chat! Loren talks about how he came up with it and about the patent itself, but also talks about much more interesting things regarding being an indie dev, supporting your apps, paid upgrades and dispenses some sage wisdom on those topics.

Loren is the guy that came up with the concept. Worth a listen.

Tim Cook visits Foxconn

Reuters:

Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, on his first trip to China as the chief executive officer, has visited an iPhone production plant run by the Foxconn Technology Group, which is being accused of improper labor practices.

Photoshop CS6 beta hits 500,000 downloads

Adobe’s John Nack:

I’m delighted to see that the Photoshop CS6 beta has been downloaded more than half a million times in less than a week! The response I’ve seen so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

The Talk Show: Pre-Amplified

Jim Dalrymple is back with Dan Benjamin to talk about journalist responsibility in the wake of Warmgate, international 4G and things Apple didn’t think of, patents and trademarks and how much care Apple gives them when naming products, guitars, domains, and a major announcement.Sponsored by Studio Neat and AppsFire

Shaan Ware’s photographs

I don’t know much about photography, but I know what I like. I like these, especially “Park.”

DSLR cameras as iPhone docks

Ilya Birman:

The solution: remove everything from the back side of the camera and make it an iPhone dock.

The 10 best startups from Y Combinator Demo Day

TechCrunch:

After talking to VCs and tech moguls, the TechCrunch teamed huddled up and picked these 10 companies as the best. They’re disrupting commerce, evolving how we communicate, and making our phones even more powerful.Here’s a cheat sheet to the startups we think are going to remodel big industries, change the world, or at least make a ton of money.

Some of these you’ll have no interest in but some of them might just peak your interest further.

Your own toilet paper with your own tweets on it

The Next Web:

Most of the tweets you read on Twitter are forgettable, at best. Some of them are pure gold and worth memorializing in some fashion. But how? A favorite? A retweet? Emailing them to a friend?How about printing them out on toilet paper and wiping your butt with them? Amazing idea right?

No…just…no.

The iPad for Photographers eBook

Very nice eBook written by my friend Jeff Carlson: Apple’s popular iPad tablet is an incredibly useful tool for photographers on the go. Instead of hauling a laptop on the road or to a photo shoot, you can tuck the … Continued

I’ll be speaking at the Úll iOS/OS X conference in Ireland this April

I’m excited to tell you that I have accepted an invitation to speak at the Úll Conference in Dublin, Ireland next month.

Úll is a conference for iOS / OSX / mobile web developers and designers. The three day event will include workshops, keynotes, talks and in-depth presentations on all the aspects of building, designing and marketing your apps.

I’ll be joining a nice line-up of speakers including Michael Lopp, Horace Dediu and Matt Gemmell, among others.

iPhoto + iPad + DSLR

Abdel Ibrahim: Since Apple’s first iPad came on the scene in 2010, people have wondered if tablets could stand in for computers. Few would argue they’re not up to casual tasks like Web browsing and emailing, but what about the … Continued

Guitar amp fail

This is just classic. For those that don’t know, the mic is supposed to be on the cabinet on the bottom, not on the amp.

Complaints over iPad 4G marketing in Europe

Eric Slivka for Mac Rumors:

Concerns over the 4G marketing are now getting the attention of regulators in several European countries as well.

This is starting to snowball.

Úll iOS/OS X conference in Dublin, Ireland

Úll is a conference for iOS / OSX / mobile web developers and designers. The three day event will include workshops, keynotes, talks and in-depth presentations on all the aspects of building, designing and marketing your apps.

The conference takes place April 27–29, 2012 and there are still tickets available — I’m looking at making the trip myself. They also have a great list of speakers that includes Michael Lopp, Horace Dediu, Matt Gemmell, and others.

Redesigning a Web site with personality

Aarron Walter:

Redesigning a website can be the seven-layer taco dip of hell. You’ve searched for inspiration on dozens of websites, captured screenshots, jotted down notes, consulted friends and colleagues, maybe even interviewed users. But despite your due diligence, your vision for the new website remains unclear.

Yeah, I’ve been there.

The pull-to-refresh patent

Twitter now owns this patent. I use pull-to-refresh all the time — I even try to use it on apps that don’t have it, which annoys me.

The Masters of Compositing Series

Jeff Foster:

Paul Vlahos, son of Petro Vlahos and co-founder of Ultimatte Corp. in 1976 and continues as CEO. Paul founded iMatte Inc. in 2000 and serves as CEO. He has made many inventions over the years have resulted in over twenty patents. Besides the Ultimatte matting devices used in the broadcast industry Paul pioneered the Virtual Studio in 1989.

The 8 remaining “Worst Company in America” contenders

WOO HOO! It’s time for March Madness! We’re down to the Elite 8!

Final Four? No – we’re not talking about Ohio State, Louisville, Kentucky or Kansas. We’re talking about The Consumerist’s “Worst Company In America” contest.

Companies like Wells Fargo and Netflix, UPS and Comcast, even Apple have been voted on at The Consumerist web site all month. There are only eight wide ranging companies left vying for the title – Bank of America, AT&T, Ticketmaster, Paypal, Walmart, Facebook, Comcast and Electronic Arts.

This is a contest none of these companies wants to win.

Not everyone does big-ass magazines

Craig Grannell:

The net result is that Tap! looks great on the new iPad, largely because it’s using native text rather than rendering to flat images.

Nice.

RIM delays analysts’ meeting

“We decided to make BlackBerry World more focused on customers, developers and partners,” RIM spokeswoman Tenille Kennedy said on Tuesday. “We will hold a separate session targeted at the interests of the investment community later this year, once BlackBerry 10 is launched.”

Translation: We’re so screwed right now and we want to have something — anything — to show analysts.

World’s coolest grandpa and his SR-71

Do you have a cool grandfather? Do you think you are a cool grandfather? Well, you’ll have to go a long way to beat this guy.

He’s built an absolutely amazing remote controlled plane – a scale model of the SR-71 “Blackbird”. Not only did they build its jet engines and include retractable landing gear, the thing sounds amazing.

My grandfather made aquariums. Nice but not nearly as cool as jet planes!

Harry Potter eBooks now available

While J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore web site is still in beta, the store to sell you stuff is up and running.

If you have an EPUB reader and a Harry Potter fan in your life, the Pottermore Shop is the only place you can buy the Harry Potter series digitally.

The EPUB format is “the world’s most popular and open eBook standard” and the files are compatible with the vast majority of computers and devices. The eBooks are also in Kindle format for use on Amazon devices and on your iOS devices.

The individual eBooks are between $7.99 and $9.99 but you’ll want to buy “The Complete Harry Potter Collection” for $ 57.54.