August 2011
72 posts
Shrine Of Apple →
Every. Product. That’s our goal – to showcase every product ever made by Apple.
Really wonderful site for Apple product history nerds like myself.
(via 52 Tiger)
Forkbombr — iTunes Match to Offer Downloading and... →
Keen observers will note that I told you this was part of the package in iCloud – Conjecture, Magic, and A Fools Hope and then found it curious it was not announced as a feature when iTunes Match was introduced in iCloudy With A Chance Of Streaming.
So far, I’m pretty comfortable with my “rumor” and “prediction” rate.
Monoprice PoweRocks Universal External Backup...
This is a guest review from my good friend Mike Rohde. Mike is a designer and sketchnote artist based in Milwaukee, WI. He is an experienced designer focused on interface and visual design at Gomoll Research + Design, and runs Rohdesign Studios, a small design and illustration firm. You may know his work as the illustrator of REWORK, the best-selling business book from 37signals.
Mike was in...
Saver ~ the easiest way to track your expenses.... →
Saver is a super simple, yet elegant, app for tracking your expenses. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it is not only and easy way to know how much you are spending but also setting budgets to help you control it. I’ve long believed that setting budgets (especially daily budgets) is the best way to keep from buying things one does not need. This is a very elegant solution...
ScreenFloat - make your shots fly! [Sponsor] →
Speaking of sponsors, I’d like to thank ScreenFloat for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed. It kind of saved my bacon on what was, non-arguably, the biggest week of Apple news in history. The ability to keep a screenshot of reference information floating while I worked in others was essential.
There is a 15day trial version available on the site but it is only $7.99 in the App Store....
Minimal Mac | RSS Sponsorships →
Sponsorship slots for the month of September are now available (well, at least three still are). The price has changed but it is still an excellent value. Don’t just take my word for it. Click through for some quotes from others that have sponsored Minimal Mac in the past.
If you have a product, application, or service that you want to get in front of my smart, engaged, discerning, and,...
What Me Believes In →
Candle by Paddywax. Pencil by Uniball. Notebook by Moleskine. Computer by Apple.
Enough for Mr. Vardy.
Your Tech Weblog: a consumer-technology blog» Blog... →
This would have been walking distance from my house. Really kind of bummed about this.
Enough — The Minimal Mac Podcast –Thank You Steve →
This afternoon, Myke and I stopped the presses on our regularly scheduled edition of Enough to record this special one. We discuss Steve’s resignation as CEO and what it means for the future of Apple. We also share a few great Steve stories we have heard.
Take a listen via the links below:
Download | Subscribe in iTunes | Subscribe via RSS
Steve Jobs and the sound of silence — Tech News... →
And then there are Steve and Apple: a leader and a company not afraid to take the long view, patiently building the way to the future envisioned for the company. Not afraid to invent the future and to be wrong. And almost always willing to do one small thing — cannibalize itself. Under Steve, Apple was happy to see the iPhone kill the iPod and iPad kill the MacBook. He understands that you don’t...
Exclusive: Tim Cook e-mails Apple employees:... →
I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what...
It's The Culture
Thought this would be a good time to link to a few of the things I have written in the past about Apple post Steve Jobs. As I said then, and still believe now, Apple will be just fine under the leadership of Tim Cook. The one pull quote that gets right to why I know this:
Everything will be fine when Steve leaves and Tim Cook takes over, it is the culture that drives Apple’s success, not any one...
“Apple’s products are replete with Apple-like features and details, embedded in...”
– Daring Fireball: Resigned
How Steve Jobs changed Apple | TUAW - The... →
A great reminder of the history of Apple, and the amazing ride Apple has had, since Steve Jobs returned.
Tim Cook: my first-person impression of Apple's... →
You can read his history anywhere. Everyone is writing about him now. So instead I’m going to tell you about the first time I met Tim Cook and why, from that day forward, I have never once worried about Apple post-Steve Jobs.
Great piece.
“While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are...”
– Think Different
“To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if...”
– Steve Jobs
Steven Poole: Goodbye, cruel Word →
For the first time, I no longer have a copy of Microsoft Word installed on either of my computers. That’s some change. I wrote my first two books, and many hundreds of articles, in Word. But I’m writing my third book in an inexpensive yet wonderful piece of Mac-only software written by a single person instead of a “business unit” at Redmond. Scoured of Word, my computers feel clean, refreshed,...
TaskBadges for Mac: For fans of plain text task... →
TaskBadges is a free app that adds the number of open tasks in your plain-text todo list to the file’s icon so that it shows up in Finder and on the desktop.
Works with multiple “styles” of plain text todo including todotxt.com style, TaskPaper style, and square brackets style. For those not bothered by badge counts, it’s a nifty idea.
ScreenFloat - make your shots fly! [Sponsor] →
ScreenFloat is one of those “one thing well” apps. It takes screenshots and puts them into a floating window above all others on the screen without having to switch back and forth or move windows around.
Like many such apps, knowing what it does is not nearly as important as why it does it. The screenshot above does a passing job and the video on the ScreenFloat website does a much...
The Focused MacBook Air « Garrick Van Buren →
In the process of setting it up – I’ve decided to make this new machine a focused, minimal, work, machine. Despite Migration Assistant – I want to start some new habits, not repeat old, bad ones.
Garrick has become one of my most trusted friends. He is also one of the smartest people I have ever met. When he makes decisions I watch with great interest because they are usually reasoned and...
Glassboard Released – inessential.com →
Glassboard is kind of like social networking, in that you share messages, comments, pictures, videos, and locations. The difference is that it’s completely private: what you share doesn’t end up appearing in Google searches.
Very interesting new product from Brent Simmons. Count me in.
Disposable Culture – Surat Says →
We’re more interested in convenience and immediacy than responsibility and lasting value.
This is required reading.
Thomas Brand’s Sweet Newton Setup — Shawn Blanc →
My MessagePad keeps me portable and on target the way no modern computer can. I can’t browse the internet with my MessagePad, I can’t use Twitter, IM, or iTunes. There are no preferences to get in the way of my writing. With my MessagePad I don’t need to be sitting at a desk to be productive. If a thought compels me I can pull out my MessagePad and jot down the idea for later. I have written...
When Elephants Dance, You Better Notice |... →
Let’s consider what Apple’s done. They have the best hardware, the best software, and their prices are lower than competing, lower-quality products, due to Apple’s supply chain strategy, all while their margins are larger. That’s difficult to compete with, and HP has effectively pulled out their white flag. If not HP, then who? Google-Motorola?
I contend not. I contend that it is in the best...
Grandview - Dark Heartfelt [Sponsor] →
I’d like to thank Grandview for sponsoring this weeks RSS Feed. Grandview is a hyper-focused writing environment for those with a love for the beauty of words. It’s available now for only $3.99.
Disruptive
You should know by now that I normally do not get into much “news” around here. Especially when it’s not specifically Mac news. There are a ton of great Mac news sites out there and I leave that job up to them. That said, Chairman Gruber linked to a highly fascinating Wall Street Journal Liveblog of today’s Hewlett Packard conference call today. Specifically, he called out this particular...
2 tags
No is the New Yes by James Shelley →
Until you say ‘no’ to everything else, you cannot say ‘yes’ to something worth fully investing yourself in.
Saying no is simply saying yes to other things.
A Year Traveling With the iPad | Everything... →
I’m well aware that this “review” is really late to the game as the iPad has been out for a while and is already on its second generation. Nonetheless, I’ve had many people ask me if they should take their iPad with them on trips of if they should buy one for an extended around the world trip.
Some pretty good tips here for traveling abroad with the iPad. Especially the tips on how to deal...
Make your own Apple-like OSX Lion USB Recovery...
So, you may have heard the news that Apple has a neat little utility available for download to make any USB thumb drive into a OSX Lion USB Recovery Drive.
But, as an Apple fan, you don’t want just any USB thumb drive. You want a tiny and sexy one like the one that Apple includes with the MacBook Air., right? I get that. Totally.
What you want to get, for only $9.99, is this:
Verbatim Store...
“Discipline — regardless of century, technology or era — has always been the...”
– Choice Anxiety by James Shelley
Saying no is simply saying yes to other things.
Why I Returned My iPad - Peter Bregman - Harvard... →
My best ideas come to me when I am unproductive. When I am running but not listening to my iPod. When I am sitting, doing nothing, waiting for someone. When I am lying in bed as my mind wanders before falling to sleep. These “wasted” moments, moments not filled with anything in particular, are vital.
Saying no is simply saying yes to other things.
WatchGrandview (by Dark Heartfelt) [Sponsor]
So, my little tour of trying out various text editors and writing environments continues with perhaps the most unique and focused of them all – Grandview.
With Grandview, there is no “page”. When you open a text file, there is nothing but you, the screen, and the words as you type them – one-word-at-a-time. You even only see each sentence as you reach the...
With Lion, Apple has made the concept of spaces... →
With fullscreen apps and Mission Control, Apple has made multiple desktops easy to use, easy to understand, and most crucially for me, easy to get started with. While not everyone likes fullscreen apps or gestures, to me, this is an example of exactly what Apple is trying to accomplish with Lion: creating a system where the average user immediately knows what to do and feels comfortable doing...
“I find I print less these days and share electronically a lot more. For the...”
– David Sparks, Macworld.com (via prefs)
Shawn Blanc — Computers are for Creating T-Shirts... →
What we believe in.
(Also: Buy One!)
