opinion
When to Tell Someone You Hate a Movie/Book/Game/Show They Love
Almost never.
Truly, what are you expecting to accomplish? Will your day be brightened by someone else hating something they used to love?
If someone says, "I love this thing!" and you hate it, don't feel compelled to reply that "actually, it sucked."
I'm not saying to
opinion
Identifying Bias in Yourself and Others
We all have our our biases. If you read that sentance and thought “not I!” then you’re just fooling yourself. We all have things we believe to be true or to be better than other things, it’s just a fact of life. At best we can resist those biases when we talk to
opinion
The End of the Headphone Jack is Not the Start of Proprietary Headphones
There's been a general shit storm that's blown up this week over the supposed removal of the headphone jack off the upcoming iPhone 7. Nilay Patel's piece for The Verge really got people fired up:
Look, I know you’re going to tell me that the traditional TRS headphone
opinion
Can You Get a Genie Back in the Bottle?
Well I sure picked a bad day to spend offline!
Apple caused quite a stir in the past 24 hours by posting an open letter in which Tim Cook states plainly that Apple will not comply with the FBI's request to create a backdoor into the iPhone 5C. For a nice breakdown of
opinion
The Future of iOS is not OS X
OS X + iOS = AppleOS, one app to rule them all — Apple World Today
I do think the two operating systems will merge somewhere down the road into, simply,"AppleOS." The trick for Apple will be to make AppleOS as easy for consumers and newbies as iOS currently is, while still offering features needed
opinion
Tempering the Free App Outrage
Well, another podcast app has gone free, and with it, the gnashing of teeth has already begun.
Here's how developer Supertop worded the decision it in their announcement:
Yesterday, Supertop needed an endless stream of thousands of new customers to sustain our business. From today, we can be successful with a far smaller
opinion
The Days of Physical Keyboards are Numbered
As we continue to dive deeper and deeper into this post-PC world, I find myself thinking more about what things we used to find essential about computers that are being tossed aside as we hurdle towards the future. With this week’s news that Apple is working on a keyboard with literally no moving
iphone
Let's Stop Calling Them "Smartphone Cameras"
Let’s not beat around the bush anymore and start calling the cameras in our phones what they really are, cameras. Yup, they’re just plain old cameras. There’s no longer a need to specify that they’re not a “real camera” anymore. I know it’s semantics, but I think it’s important
opinion
Ad Blocking is the New Pop Up Blocking
Andy Ihnatko on the impact of ad blockers:
[T]hank God that the ad industry is finally seeing large-scale pushback. That’s often what’s necessary. An industry (or a business, or even just a person) assumes that you’re OK with certain behavior and policies unless you somehow communicate that you aren’t.
opinion
Why Retail May be Moving Away from Truly Insane Black Friday Hours
Image via Business Insider
There are many reasons that stores encroaching in on the holidays is bad for employees, and they have been, and will continue to be discussed over the next 2 months. But sadly this discussion in't going to get anything changed. We've been having this same conversation every
opinion
Why I’m Okay with Putting My Podcast on Google Play Music
Google made some headlines this week when they announced that they will be providing podcasts as a part of their Google Play Music service. Podcasters can submit their shows today and the feature will actually go live in the coming weeks.
The big thing I have seen some people bring up is the fact that
opinion
Wake Up and Do the Work
Sometimes we all get a little frustrated with where we are in life. The prospect of The American Dream seems harder to achieve than it was 40, 30, or even 20 years ago. And even if you argue that it is just as challenging as it's ever been, I think you'd
opinion
YouTube Red: Should You Pay for It?
YouTube announced that they will be rolling out a paid YouTube service next week on October 28 called YouTube Red. After years of giving it all away for free, they’re finally asking for a little out of their customers’ pockets.
The cost
At $9.99 per month (or $12.99 if you subscribe from
opinion
Better than a "Real Computer"
Federico Viticci has long been expanding on the merits of Editorial, a text editor for iOS. This app plays a big role in his everyday work and enables him to run his business from his iPad. That’s a pretty stunning statement, and one that many people will tell you can’t be done.
Meanwhile,
feature
Free Podcast Apps Are Nothing New
There was a bit of chatter online yesterday over Marco Arment’s decision to make Overcast free and only make money on it though a patronage program. Essentially, he’s doing the Radiohead model of “pay what you want” for the app. Marco said he did this as a way to make sure all his
opinion
The Tech That Runs My Life
Am I an Apple fanboy? God, I hope not! In the interest of figuring this out, I started to do a mental inventory of the tech and services from the big three tech companies (Apple, Google, and Microsoft) that I use to manage my life.
What I found was that while Apple does dominate the
Game
Why the PS4's New $349 Price Ensures Sony will Win the Holiday Season
It's only October 8 but Sony has just ensured that their PlayStation 4 will win the holiday season. Target accidentally leaked a hint that this was coming, and today The Verge reports that Sony's console will indeed drop $50 starting tomorrow.
Over the past 23 months that they have both been
opinion
Microsoft Releases a Faster Horse
The Surface Pro 4 was just released, and the PC world is basically losing its mind over it. It’s fast, has a nice screen, can be packed with RAM and storage (up to 16GB RAM and 1TB hard drive), and looks relatively nice. On paper, this looks like it blows Apple’s soon to