Author: Jake

Who are these people? Seriously, do you know anyone who still has AOL dialup? Amazingly, AOL still has 3.5 million dialup subscribers – SplatF I’m truly stunned. I guess it makes sense, given the steady cost AOL has maintained over many years and the recent downturn prompting people to cut back on expenses. Still. I… Read More

Another app that I’d totally buy is one that helped me find street parking and let me know if I could park there or not. In some cities, you need a legal degree to decipher all the parking restrictions. In LA, I recall seeing as many as four signs on a post, with directions about when you… Read More

I’ve lived in several climates where the prevailing wisdom was if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. That’s why I love the idea behind Dark Sky, i.e. accurate, short-term prediction. Dark Sky – Weather Prediction, Reinvented by Adam Grossman Dark Sky is a Kickstarter project, but it looks like they have real, working code already.… Read More

That’s the point right? Technology either makes life easier, which presumably creates more free time, or it provides new ways to entertain us. Are new technologies making us happier? – The Next Web This isn’t as easy a question to answer. On the one hand, technology obviously does what you’d expect. My wife loves Facebook… Read More

Google dropped redesigns of both Reader and GMail this week, and the general reaction has been very negative. So, like any good blogger, I’m going to pile on while the iron is hot, or something. I use Reader all day, every day. It’s an essential tool for me. So, I was actually happy when Google announced… Read More

Some of you will click through on this link and shake your head. Others will understand. Users Illusions – Apple has made some very subtle updates to the… One great thing about the intertubes is that it proves once and for all that you are not alone in the world. There’s someone out there who… Read More

I’m finally upgraded my wife’s original iPhone last week. Despite her protestations that the old one was just fine, she’s in love with the new one, a 4 not 4S. The reason I got an iPhone 4 is, well, they’re easy to find, and I wanted this to be a surprise with instant gratification. The… Read More

Michael DeGusta (@degusta) has an exhaustive chart depicting Android fragmentation. Maybe someone can visualize the data in a slightly easier to consume way, but it paints a good picture. the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support h/t TechCrunch Aside from a minor quibble with the original iPhone’s green status (iOS 4 launched a… Read More

Interesting post about Nest, the thermostat from the co-creator of the iPod, and more broadly about the so-called Apple-fication of other areas outside computing. Nest is a very handsome device that has an impressive list of features that any household could use, mine included. I actually may buy one of these after the initial kinks… Read More

Found this fascinating post by way of Kottke.org, it accurately describes something that has bugged me about areas of OS X Lion, specifically iCal. Apple’s aesthetic dichotomy | Made by Many I use iCal every day, all day, and when I opened it for the first time on Lion I felt annoyed and vaguely patronized… Read More

Oneiric means of or relating to dreams or dreaming. I had to look it up, and the reason I did so was because the latest release of Canonical’s popular Linux distro, Ubuntu, is called Oneiric Ocelot. I made the jump to Ubuntu in July 2008 with Hardy Heron, and for the most part, I’ve been… Read More

As I read this tantalizingly titled post, I found myself nodding like an idiot. I work from home, so at least no one saw me silently agreeing with what I was reading. I Hate My Smartphone The main point is highly applicable to me and to many of you and is pretty much the same one I… Read More

From the same guy who created OmniTouch, which allows any surface to be used as a touchscreen, comes TapSense, which can tell what is touching its display, e.g. fingernail, finger pad, knuckle, fingertip. While this is really cool from a technology perspective, it further complicates the usability issues wrapped up with the diversity of multitouch… Read More

TechCrunch has a long walkthrough of the cool stuff in Android 4.0 and the hardware features of the Galaxy Nexus. I didn’t really expect to have device envy, since the Nexus S is a really nice device, but when I saw “zero shutter lag” and immediately wanted a bump. My daughter is the reason. She’s… Read More

Ever since they were outed, I’ve been fascinated by Google’s self-driving cars. They are a combination of awesome potential and scary future vision. Here’s some interesting information on how they actually work, very cool as expected. How Google’s Self-Driving Car Works – IEEE Spectrum As with any algorithm, there are some interesting tweaks: Sometimes, however,… Read More

Interesting and seemingly simple approach to separating your work and personal lives on your smartphone, h/t Fast Company Design. More to the point, do tools like this even matter anymore? Yes, IT and IS will always want division and security to protect digital assets, but have we moved into an era where people know enough… Read More

Last week, I was complaining about how boring smartphones have become. Check out OmniTouch, which allows pretty much any surface to become a multitouch input, including body parts, walls and notepads. There’s a longer video over on TechCrunch. Now this is cool. The shoulder-mounted unit is a bit clunky, but I can see definite potential… Read More

This is part generational study and part truth. The short version: two kids meet, don’t hit it off, one starts taking secret shots of the other in public and posts them to a fake stalker blog, the other finds out, isn’t pissed and interviews him for a school assignment. That’s as short as I could… Read More

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, you should be. It’s a fantastic way to get your pet project off the ground without pounding the pavements looking for investors. Well, they just reached one million backers and one hundred million dollars pledged. Interesting stuff out there, including projects like TikTok, the svelte iPod Nano watchband which started… Read More

This will sound a bit get-off-my-lawn, but smartphones are too much alike nowadays. Recently, I saw several smartphones laid out at my gym, and I was struck at how much alike they looked, despite being produced by different manufacturers and rocking different carriers and OSes. It’s all black bricks with big screens anymore. I’ve followed… Read More