Unclutter is an interesting new little app from Software Ambiance (makers of the very excellent DaisyDisk). It hangs out invisible until you move your mouse to the top of the screen and scroll down (an action which is user definable in the preferences). You are then presented with a nice dock for a quick note, temporarily storing some files, or seeing (and editing!) the contents of your clipboard.
I could see this being helpful to someone.
The rumor at Apple was that Steve capped many of the teams in Cupertino. Mac OS X and Marketing Communications being two successful teams that had their headcount capped. During the 2000s, while Apple was gaining traction across the planet, the team responsible for getting the word out, Marketing Communications (“MarCom”), was allegedly capped at 100 heads. The reasoning I heard was that Steve wanted to keep the teams feeling small, but, more importantly, I think he wanted to keep them knowable.
You know, this works for software and hardware too. The less features or parts, the more “knowable” it is to you. It is also a good reason to stick with something (or in the above example, someone) for a long time. Anytime you make a replacement it costs not only time but knowledge. On a team, it means that someone has to get caught up to speed in knowledge and trust has to be re-formed over time. Those same things apply to objects as well.
Think about this the next time you are considering that shiny new to-do manager or “minimalist” text editor over the one that you already have and know really well.
It took three weeks – due to the lack of a power-sander up until a day ago – but my upcycled pallet desk is now complete and in my room. Here are some shots of it.
The cords dangling in the background will be resolved as soon as my wire basket gets to my place.
Handsome. I love the idea of re-using a pallet for a desk.
Limelight is a great new iPhone app for tracking the movies you have watched and upcoming ones you want to watch. It also has a built-in social sharing feature so you can share your movie viewing and rating with friends. Above are a few I’m looking forward to. It is very well done.
In less than a minute, there were 5 more kids around. In less than 2 Arnaud did not have access to the iPad anymore, 10 kids were drawing on a turn-by-turn basis. That was the first high point for me: it’s working, it’s working… they’re so into it that they do not care whether it’s a tech or not, they’re just using it.
This whole post is an amazing example of how the iPad is changing the very nature of education. My friend Dave Mendels and his team is on the bleeding edge of this movement. Bringing iPads and technology to the places it can do the most dramatic good.
I am especially gratified by the inclusion of Ink for iOS in this project. To know that something you helped make can surprise, delight, and engage a small child on the other side of the world is a feeling no words can describe. To see the pictures as the kids crowd around the screen to play with it really impressed upon me the idea that the simplest of ideas can spark huge creative interest and growth in the eyes of a child.That the more complexity and features you add, the less accessible you make it to those who, perhaps, might benefit from it most.
Thank you so much for this Dave. You have no idea how deeply it has affected me.
I’ll admit, I’m pretty excited about this. My sister Erin is a pilot with United Airlines. She’s been flying internationally for about 10 years, always with an iPod touch or iPad in tow. I asked her to share some apps and tips with you all, and she was happy to oblige.
Latest in a traveling with your iPhone series Dave is doing. He’s absolutely killing it. Great work.
The more I consider the idea, the more I realize it’s Safari that is a fantastic tool. And unless I feel the need to share my bookmarks and items I’m reading, using Reading List and Safari’s bookmarks is a perfect solution.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the possibility that many of us go running for 3rd party apps because we have never trully taken the time to examine or give the built in ones a fighting chance. Chris does a great job here of explaining why he now uses Safari’s Reading List feature over other “Read It Later” apps.
Related:
- The Loop magazine for iPhone and iPad released
- Welcome to The Loop magazine
- Macstories’ Federico Viticci talks to Jim Dalrymple about The Loop Magazine
I now have two reasons to open up the Newsstand App and in no particular order they’re Marco Arment’s The Magazine and The Loop Magazine.
Yep.
(1999) Steve Jobs Introduces The World to WiFi
Just look at that response over something we take completely for granted now just 14 years later.
Love the camera man over-the-shoulder as the way to show it on the big screen.
And the hula hoop — look ma, no wires! — is just a brilliant, Steve Jobs touch.
“All sorts of devices are going to be able to interact with Airport. We’re just going to be there first and best.”
Having thousands of photos at 3072 × 2304 pixels didn’t make sense anymore especially with limited drive space my new MacBook Air. I wanted to resize those images to something still reasonable but save a few gigs while I was at it. I went straight to Automator, an under-praised utility in Mac OSX, and started playing around. Here’s what I came out with.
This is simply great. And, greatly simple.