Links
Was I Wrong About the Samsung Gear 2 Smart Watch?
I may or may not have said that the new Samsung Gear 2 was a wreck (I did, and the word was “disastrous”), but there’s a chance I was wrong. Dan Seifert just reviewed the new smart watch for The Verge and he didn’t hate it. He actually kind of liked it!
Ultimately
Links
Yahoo’s Surprisingly Good iPhone 6S Review
Yahoo is not where I naturally go for tech reviews, but I did want to see David Pogue’s review of the iPhone 6S. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed his review!
Pogue has been one of the premiere tech reviewers for “normal people” and as such, his approach to reviewing products
Links
Apple Faces: Custom Wallpapers for Your Apple Watch
Apple Faces is a new website for finding cool and clever wallpapers to use on your Apple Watch. Apple’s watchOS 2 introduced the ability for users to use any photo from their library as a custom watch face, and these images are built to fit around that new watch face layout.
While I do
Links
Marco Arment Pulls Peace from the App Store
Peace, the most-downloaded content blocker for iOS 9 has been pulled from the App Store, not by Apple but by it's developer, Marco Arment himself.
As I write this, Peace has been the number one paid app in the U.S. App Store for about 36 hours. It’s a massive achievement
Links
I Didn't Know I Wanted to Block Ads Until I Found Your Site
Nilay Patel writing for The Verge:
You might think the conversation about ad blocking is about the user experience of news, but what we're really talking about is money and power in Silicon Valley.
Nilay is correct that this is all a big chess match that’s about more than just readers and
Links
Tim Cook's Apple is Still the Apple We Know and Love
Walt Mossberg writing for The Verge
But this week’s event convinced me that Apple remains the world’s most influential tech company — even as we approach next month's fourth anniversary of the tragically early death of its genius leader, Steve Jobs.
Many people love Apple, others despise it. But, even without Jobs,
Links
Thinking Twice About the New NetNewsWire
Ben Brooks takes a look at NetNewsWire 4 and why he is giving up on it.
The biggest difference with NetNewsWire and most RSS services is that your Mac or iPhone is the device polling the RSS feeds for updates. Whereas with services like FeedWrangler a server sitting in the proverbial cloud is polling those
Links
A Passionate Plea to Bring Back Google's Old Logo
Why You Hate Google's New Logo by Sarah Larson
The new logo retains the rainbow of colors but sheds the grownup curlicues: it now evokes children’s refrigerator magnets, McDonald’s French fries, Comic Sans. Google took something we trusted and filed off its dignity. Now, in its place, we have an insipid
Links
Apple Sticks With You
G. Keenan Schneider writes about his time working at a Apple Store in Leaving Apple:
I truly believe that Apple is people. They are a company, sure, but a company comprised of thousands of people who share a common goal: to enrich the lives of their customers through great experiences. This is something that I
Links
Listen to Chris Lacy's Excellent Podcast, The Blerg
It must be experimentation season for us phone fanatics, because while I've traded my iPhone for a Galaxy phone for the month, Android devs Chris Lacy and Francisco Franco have been giving the iPhone 6 a try. The two discussed their impressions on the latest episode of Lacy's excellent podcast, The
Links
The iPod Wasn't a Hit Immediately Either
Stephen Hall on why he doesn't feel too bullish on smart watches.
And while ASUS, LG, Huawei, and Motorola have some revamped hardware entries coming very soon, I’m just not that excited anymore. Why? Mostly because I just don’t have a compelling need for wearables in their current form. I have
Links
Field Notes Convert One More to the World of Pen and Paper
A Week with Field Notes - Zaid Syed
Sure, they looked good, but what could be so enamoring about them that every writer and designer in the geek world would buy them at a heartbeat?
I decided to find out. And one week in, I’m in love.
I always love reading about people who have
Links
An Incredibly Small View of the World
Johnathan Mann made this really nice video where he discussed viewing himself as a feminist all the while being a terrible feminist at home.
I liked the video but saw that there were a lot more "thumbs down" votes on this video than Mann normally gets. How could this thoughtful, positive video be
Android
Android Running on a Flip Phone
Android Central is reporting that LG is going to release the LG Gentle, a fliphone that runs Android Lollipop 5.0. It's probably not going to be sold in the United States, however,
LG has announced a new flip phone, but the company has opted to load Android Lollipop to give the smartphone
Android
Updates on Android Still Suck, and it's a Security Flaw
This is the summer of link baity headlines it seems. This week’s piece is from Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai: Goodbye, Android. It’s a solid article that I can relate to. I have long been a big Apple fan, but I spent most of 2014 with an Android phone so I can relate to many
Links
Twitter Reports $502M in Revenue, $137M Loss
Twitter announced their quarterly earnings today and they're...okay.
While the company reported $502 million in revenue, which is up 61% over last year. This is great in that it means that more people are engaging with Twitter and that advertisers are paying more to get noticed on the service. Great, they'
Links
Modern Punishment for Kids: TV
Televisons are no longer the screen of choice for kids, according to Advertising Age.
Mobile devices are so popular with kids that nearly half of the 800 parents quizzed by Miner & Co. reported that they confiscate their kids' tablets when they act up and make them watch TV instead, thereby fostering a sort
Links
Comcast Won't Let Their Employees Call You "Asshole" (Again)
Do you remember this story from back in January?
A man named Ricardo Brown got a bill addressed to “Asshole Brown” after his family tried to cancel the cable portion of its service because of financial difficulties. Mary Bauer got a Comcast bill addressed to “Super Bitch” after a series of billing and service problems.