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Mozilla buys Pocket

Mozilla has acquired Pocket, a kind of DVR for the internet, for an undisclosed sum. The nine-year-old company, which makes tools for saving articles and videos to view them later, is Mozilla’s first acquisition. It represents a homecoming of sorts for Pocket, which began life as a Firefox extension before eventually expanding its team and building a suite of apps for every major platform. Pocket has been Firefox’s default read-it-later service since 2015.

Reasons why you should love a cheap kit lens

I tell my students to NOT buy a new lens when they buy their first, beginner DSLR. There’s no point. The kit lens is “good enough” for beginners until they learn how to use the camera and create great images with it. Only once you know what kind of photographer you are should you start looking to buy replacement lenses.

Taking Pocket further with Mozilla

I hope this is good news for the Pocket team. I’ve been a huge fan (and, apparently a heavy user – according to Pocket, I’m in the top 1% of readers for the past four years!) and really like the service.

How Ikea’s Billy bookcase took over the world

These may be the only truly disposable furniture I’ve ever owned. While they are cheap, easy to assemble bookcases, they always seem pretty flimsy. Whenever I’ve moved, I’ve always just thrown out the old Billy and bought a new one.

How to draw an exoplanet

The artist renderings of what these new planets might look like are fascinating.

How to shoot a 360 video

With Ar/VR “on the horizon”, more and more 360 video is showing up. If you’d like to start creating your own content, this is a good primer to help you get started.

Inside Jack White’s new vinyl-pressing paradise

We will never again have a format so wonderfully tactile as vinyl. I have nothing to play records on anymore and have no vinyl but I still have a fondness for the physicality of holding a record.

My other favorite fictional detective

Earlier this week I posted about Jeremy Brett being my favorite Sherlock Holmes. I received a lot of great feedback from that, so I thought I’d tell you my other favorite fictional detective, Poirot.

David Suchet is absolutely spectacular in his depiction of Agatha Christie’s famous detective. I have watched these shows over and over again, enjoying them each time.

Apple addresses unexpected iPhone 6, 6s shutdowns with iOS 10.2.1

For a while now there have been reports of some older iPhone models, namely iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, shutting down unexpectedly. Apple introduced some diagnostics into iOS 10.2 back in December to try and determine what was happening and, with iOS 10.2.1, they’ve rolled out a fix.

Glad to see they figured out what was going on.

Post producing an Oscar nominated short film on Final Cut Pro

In the busy week in the run up to the awards, the director of Timecode, Juanjo Giménez, very kindly answered our questions about the post production process.

What’s amazing to me is that this was his first project using Final Cut Pro.

Google sues Uber over self-driving trade secrets theft

Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit sued Uber Technologies and its autonomous trucking subsidiary Otto in federal court on Thursday over allegations of theft of its confidential sensor technology.

Oh boy.

Apollo 11 space capsule is going on another mission

One of the great museum exhibits in the world is going on tour and you owe it to yourself to go see it if it comes to your area. It will be in Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. I was lucky enough to see it in DC at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum but when it comes to Seattle, I’ll definitely make the trip down there to see it again.

New Top Gear trailer

I’ll always have a soft spot for Top Gear but its first season after the Clarkson implosion was not good by any measure. But I also don’t think “The Grand Tour” was a whole lot better. I’m looking forward to seeing this version of Top Gear with the two-thirds new cast.

Scientists discover 7 ‘Earthlike’ planets orbiting a nearby star

This is an amazing discovery and really cool science but when you hear the media describe it as a “nearby” star, note that’s in astronomical terms. Even though it’s “only” 39 light-years away, it will likely be at least a century before humans can even think about traveling to them.

ColorWare’s colored AirPods

I usually don’t go for these types of colored Apple products, but damn I’d love to have a set of purple AirPods.

Fitbit paid just $23 million for Pebble

The price tag was just $23 million, according to figures disclosed Wednesday as part of Fitbit’s quarterly earnings report. Fitbit also spent $15 million on the assets of Vector Watch, another smartwatch company.

I’m not sure that Fitbit can do any more with Pebble than what Pebble did.

Amazon gives everyone a discount on purchases today

Celebrating its 86.27 score in the Harris Corporate Reputation Poll, Amazon is giving everyone a discount of $8.62 on orders of $50 or more today only. Hey, celebrate whatever you want if I can save money.

Field Notes Utility Edition

“Utility” features your choice of two often-requested but rarely-available body pages: Engineer Graph or Ledger. Engineer Graph features an 1/8-inch grid with bolder lines each half-inch. It awaits your schematics, assembly drawings, geometry homework, or dungeon maps. The Ledger version, of course, is ultra-handy for mileage logs, parts lists, to-do lists, or any sort of handwritten accounting.

I’ve used these notebooks for years for all of my interviews and notes while on the road. I’d highly recommend them.