Bending Spoons acquires Evernote, marking the end of an era - I was all in on Evernote, and don't pay for it any longer. I hope for the product and user base that this next chapter ends up being a productive transition.
It always makes me a little sad when a startup whose work I really liked spirals down.
I wear a lot of black t-shirts. My family makes fun of me for the fact that I pretty much wear a black t-shirt and gray shorts/khakis almost every day. I’m not sure how it started, probably about twenty years ago, but I think a black tshirt and jeans/khakis are the perfect clothing base layer.
My t-shirt drawer is half printed t-shirts and half black T-shirts. I have, right now, black shirts from three different brands in that “varsity” set of shirts. In a lower drawer there is another half drawer of the "junior varsity" shirts.
In my opinion, people who review black t-shirts tend to do it all wrong .
T-shirts should be reviewed like books, worn until they are worn in, and worn out, until the end. Making sure that they hold up and keep themselves and their collar in good shape.
I tend to find a brand that makes black shirts that I like, and then slowly acquire a half dresser drawer full of that brand until the end of that shirt. Like many things in life, all good black t-shirts come to an end.
At one point that preferred brand was J. Crew, and then they went and changed the shirts, and I didn’t like them anymore, no longer recommended. Next was a company called Pact, which also had the advantage of being environmentally conscious. Then, for some reason Pact stopped making black t-shirts altogether for some period of time. When they started selling them again, the new ones weren’t good, no longer recommended. (I still have about 8 of the good ones, but they are starting to wear out, so sad.)
Currently, Ugmonk and Western Rise are the two shirts that I have tested/worn for a length of time, and will buy more of, slowly, these things aren't cheap. The road behind me is littered with other brands that I didn’t like, or which didn’t weather well. Ugmonk are more like the Pact and JCrew ones of those salad days, and the Western Rise shirt is this awesome athletic fabric. If I'm going to wear the t-shirt under something, I usually pick an Ugmonk shirt.
I won’t throw shade at the other companies whose shirts I have tried and discarded, but there are a lot of those. I like the Supreme Tagless Tees Hanes shirts as a knock around, but wouldn’t put those in my varsity lineup. Got a shirt you think I should try? Throw me a line on Twitter, I’m @bump.
Here are some things I've been enjoying recently, in no specific order. I am not compensated in any way, even referral payments, for these links. Hope I turn someone else onto something they enjoy.
This is an equivalent for rowing to Peloton, and by all accounts the best interactive rower on the market. I grew up as an endurance athlete, but I just hate riding stationary bikes, and I find rowing a better workout as well. Hydrow offers great instructors, a great community of people to support you as you progress, and it has worked for me. I know, this thing is crazy expensive, and also requires a monthly subscription, but I was able to cancel my gym membership altogether. We’ve had ours for about 11 months now, and I have worked out on it 300 days. This device, and the service it comes with, which includes guided yoga, pilates and strength classes, has been a key to maintaining my sanity and improving my fitness over the last year. Since we purchased it, I have lost about 26 pounds. (I don’t care that much about weight, I care about fitness, but it’s still an encouraging metric.)
I love this little wireless charging stand that I keep on my desk. It holds/charges my iPhone 12 Pro Max in either portrait or landscape, making it great for my ten hour shifts monitoring the live streaming coverage of our events through our app. It also wirelessly charges my AirPods Pro. It’s a game changer to be able to see your phone screen while sitting at your computer.
You may not be able to find these too far outside of Atlanta yet, but I'm fairly certain that you will be able to at some point. While most cocktails in a can that I have tried have been, frankly, gross, Tip Top came to the table with Old Fashioned, Negroni and Manhattan cocktails in a well designed can that are delicious, and have become a staple for me. In the last month, they added new Daiquiri and Bee's Knees cocktails to the lineup, and these two are both a welcome taste of Summer. I am not recommending their Margarita though. Start this Summer with the Daiquiri, you won't regret it. So great for a delicious cocktail on the go.
This neighborhood burrito joint opened last month in Kirkwood, on the edge of the Atlanta/Decatur line. If you are local, I would recommend joining their mailing list, which gives you ordering access to their Wednesday pre-order an hour earlier than people not in the know. Most burritos are protein-rich breakfast bombs, really flavorful and very filling. Each week they change their menu, introducing a new meat burrito, a new veggie burrito and a new frozen burrito, typically all named in some theme. (This week is Steve Martin themed.) There have been weeks, since they opened, when I have consumed one of their burritos for lunch 5 out of 7 days.
How are you? I’m doing okay given the circumstances, and I truly hope you’re doing well at this crazy moment in history. I should mention that I am currently looking for a job in digital products and you can read more about my background on my LinkedIn profile. I’m long overdue for some sporadic blog posting, so here goes, here are some things I have enjoyed lately.
Something to Read: A great TechCrunch article by Darrell Etherington about improving your at-home videoconference setup on any budget. This article goes into a lot of detail and has excellent videos inline that help along the way. Even if you think you have a great setup, worth a read.
Something to Listen To: I really enjoyed the most recent episode of Switched on Pop, an excellent podcast about pop music. This episode, Why lo-fi is the perfect background music, covers the rise and origins of lo-fi music, including J Dilla’s influence on its origins and Adult Swim’s role in its popularity. I've been listening to a lot of this style of music for a long while, this was a lot of information that I didn't know, and was very interesting to learn.
Something to Listen On: I’m loving my $20 IKEA Frekvens Portable Speaker. It’s become the speaker that I take out to the backyard to work on some project or to the front porch to listen to something while I have a beer and relax. I don’t think you can order them online, but I highly recommend if you have a means of obtaining. The sound is really good for such a little speaker, and the device was created in conjunction with Teenage Engineering. You may have heard of them because of Playdate, but I’ve wanted an OP-1 since basically forever.
Something to Snack On: I discovered Honey Mama’s, I believe, through the Random Show, which is a podcast that Tim Ferris does with Kevin Rose. In any case, these bars, and I love love love the Mayan Spice flavor, are made with honey, instead of refined sugars, cocoa, and other ingredients depending on the flavor. The Mayan Spice are a little spicy and a little chocolatey, are a nice treat. I will say that these are not cheap, and take a little while to ship if you don’t have a store near you. Worth the price and wait, in my opinion, I just had one after lunch.
What went wrong was very simple. We never made enough money.Source: Vesper, Adieu
I really like(d) Vesper, but it never stuck for me. I was a day one user, mainly because I am huge fan of all three of these guys, and also consider their QA lead an internet friend.
I don’t know what they could have done differently, especially with only three of them, I do think that, for their core audience, there are three platforms that matter:
Only Brent, Dave and John know for sure, but from my outsider’s view, this was a part time job for all three of them. I suspect that if even one of them had made this more of a full time job, it might have generated perspective and possibly drive to succeed. Just guessing on that bit, and I could be completely wrong.
I’m currently using Apple Notes as my primary phone/tablet/desktop text tool. iCloud sync has worked great for me.
Since reading Matthew’s review, I decided to jot down a few thoughts on this item as well. I’m not sure when Nock will make it available to regular people via their site, but well, home field advantage. Update: These are going live at Noon today, November 30th, 2015.
I picked up one of these cases in waxed canvas a few weeks ago when Nock Co. had a booth at a pop up shop for American made goods at Ponce City Market here in Atlanta. Like Matthew says in his review, this thing is boss. I like mine so much that it’s become a permanent part of my backpack load out, and I think I want to pick up a second one.
I have been using Field Notes for my Bullet Journal pursuits for the last few weeks, and so this is a good match, I keep a couple of recently filled notebooks, and the next one I am going to use. I have been carrying three pens, each with a different load out.
I also keep a few Frictionless Capture Cards tucked in. Sadly, they went out of business, and once my current supply of these cards is gone, I will probably move on to these Nock Co. DotDash Cards.
I’d read or heard, I think on the Pen Addict podcast, that the case doesn’t quite hold an iPhone 6 Plus, but mine actually does hold one and zip up. That’s actually why I think I might pick up a second Sinclair case, as I have a work 6 plus that I keep in my daily carry backpack monstrosity. Here’s a shot of my 6 plus tucked into the Sinclair.
I’m totally sold on this case, and highly recommend it. Nock Co. makes really high quality product right here in Atlanta, and I’ve never had any issues or been disappointed with anything I have bought from them. I think I might grab a couple of zipper pulls from them after seeing Matthews configuration, but otherwise, this is the perfect carry for my Field Notes, Word Notebooks, and three pens, which is the most I really would use anyway.
I’d also love to see one of these in a larger size that was designed to hold a Hobonichi Techo. There’s such a lack of good cases that are meant to hold the Techo, and it’s gotten more popular. Seems like a real market opportunity to me.
Up until a week ago, my main carry phone was an iPhone 6. I replaced it with an iPhone 6s Plus, which arrived on launch day, but, due to some work travel, I have only had it since Sunday, for five days. Here are some high level observations from those five days of using this new device.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the new device itself, especially the obvious hardware improvements. Having said that, and I have had every iPhone to date, this was the least smooth transition from one phone to another on the software side. I am still working on getting my new phone to the place my old phone already was. This is not intended to be a comprehensive review, I don’t have the patience or time these days to do that.
This phone feels ridiculously fast, faster than my iPad Air 2 even.
The battery life seems a little worse than my couple of months old iPhone 6 Plus.
My initial observation was that this phone is heavier than the existing iPhone 6 Plus, but still comfortable to me for extended use and carry. I purchased an Apple silicone case, I have been very happy with the 2014 silicone case that my work iPhone 6 Plus is in. I am a little disappointed in the 2015 silicone case, it’s got a smoother finish, and feels less grippy in your hand. As a result, I feel the phone slipping in my hand a little when I am not expecting it. I may end up getting another case that has a better tactile feel to it.
I’m a huge fan of Touch ID, and it’s significantly faster with the new phone for both Apple Pay and unlocking the device. It’s so fast, in fact, that I am sometimes accidentally unlocking the device when I wanted to wake the phone up to see the time.
3D Touch seems to have a ton of potential. It turns out that I am a “hard presser” to begin with, and so my long touches are often being interpreted as a 3D Touch. Once I understood the pressure differential, mainly while I was re-organizing my home screen, things locked into place, and now I have the hang of it. It will take even longer for me to get into the routine of thinking to use it.
The camera is noticeably better, and was one of my main reasons for upgrading the phone. Focus is faster, and low light photos look better to me. I am not sure that I am that enchanted with Live Photos, but that may just be that I haven’t taken many yet. Since a lot of what I do with my pictures is sharing via Instagram and Facebook, I am not sure I will use Live Photos much until they are supported on those platforms.
So now a few words about the transition from my iPhone 6 to this new phone, which has not been a good experience. First, I was a part of the iOS 9 public beta this Summer. Not the developer releases, but the public beta. I did this because I thought it would mean a smoother landing when everything came out this fall. I was wrong. They rolled the people in the iOS 9 public beta right onto 9.1. Once you have backed up on 9.1, you can’t restore onto 9. So I had to start with my last good backup from earlier this Summer. I understand what running a beta means, that there may be sharp edges. I think someone at Apple should have thought through the customer experience before just rolling everyone on to 9.1.
The transition between phones for Watch is terrible. You have to un-pair your watch from the phone, deleting everything off the watch, then re-pair it with your new phone, finally restoring from whatever your last backup was, and losing some data pretty much no matter what you do. So much room for improvement here.
Finally, I have relied on the Health app and Activity app as my primary activity and fitness trackers for the last few months. Shame on me for not looking into this more, but that data does not get backed up via iCloud backup. You can back it up by doing an encrypted iTunes backup, which I will now be forced to switch to. There is a way to migrate this data using two third party apps, and I am going to spend the time to try and do that this weekend. Very disappointing from a user experience standpoint though, seems like they are making the customer do too much work. I wouldn’t expect to have to manually migrate this data myself.
Update: It seems that Health and Activity data is in the iCloud backup after all, but some folks, myself included, are having issues with getting it to the new devices.
Tempted by this guy.
I’ve only had my iPhone 6 for about twenty four hours, but here’s some of my first impressions. I upgraded from an iPhone 5S. This is not intended to be a full review, nor do I intend to do one. It’s also not a review of iOS 8, you should read this one if you want that. I went for the iPhone 6 Space Gray, 128 Gb. My carrier is AT&T.
First, the software and data transition between phones was the easiest one I have ever done. I had upgraded my 5S to iOS 8 last week, and did a lot of purging beforehand to make sure my backup was as small as possible. Having said that, I was up and running pretty quickly, and most everything just works today. iCloud keychain, and iCloud backups, have taken this process lightyears ahead of the “old days.”
It’s a fistful of phone for me, but not too big by any means. I can reach all areas of the screen. Your mileage may vary based on your hand size and dexterity, but I am totally comfortable with the size of the phone.
That screen! Wow. The colors, the resolution, it looks amazing. Feels like a substantial upgrade from the 5S screen to me. Not just the size, but also the quality.
The Sleep/Wake button location change to the side of the device went against my muscle memory for the first few hours of use, but today it seems like I’m well on my way to getting used to this change.
It worked, without any obvious issues, with my car kit and other accessories, except for my Elevation Dock, which it doesn’t fit in. (Anyone want to buy an Elevation Dock for their 5S or 5C?)
I went for the Apple Leather Case (Black) because I used the same/similar case from Apple on my iPhone 5S. I’m not disappointed in any way, it feels great. I think that most people will want a case for this phone, it’s very smooth and rounded, and I think, easier to drop than the last four iPhones.
I haven’t taken many pictures yet, but the pictures I took to test looked markedly better than similar shots with my iPhone 5S.
I’m very enthusiastic about this device. It seems better in all the right ways. It’s not really worse in any way that I have found after a day.
This post on MacRumors, iPhone 6: Everything We Know is a great comprehensive wrap up of the current conjecture about the all but confirmed larger screen iPhone we expect to see in late 2014. I don’t really have much to add, but the image above, from the article, really did grab my attention. (The image is from MacRumors, not me.)
Instagram doesn’t have an official iPad client. Who knows why this is? I have used a bunch of different iPad apps, most recently Iris, which is also quite good, to use this service on my iPad. Recently Flow was released, and I really like it, I think it’s the best Instagram client for iPad.
There are a few different reasons why I like this over the other alternatives out there. First, it’s all about the pictures. As you can see from the image above, the app is designed to only be used in landscape orientation, and fits the maximum amount of pictures into the iPad viewport with a minimum of chrome. Second, the app is snappy, and the transition animations between screens are well thought out, pleasing, yet not over the top. Third, they’ve made it easy to navigate the sea of pictures, allowing you to move picture to picture while viewing in detail mode. Also of use, and well designed, are the abilities to search and bookmark specific tags, users and locations. I have a small list that I check on a regular basis, for example #vscocam, which yields a really nice set of pictures. All the expected Instagram functionality you’d expect is there, and well supported.
Flow is free to download, and does not currently contain any advertising, so I am not sure what their long term plan to make this app into a real business might be. I guess I always wonder about this whenever I download a new app these days. I’d just much rather pay for the app than wonder what could happen in the future. In this case, given that Instagram is still figuring out how to make money too, I think I would be a hypocrite to not use this free app when I am already using this free service. The app is not perfect. The lack of portrait support, while not a deal killer, seems like an oddity in an otherwise well thought out application. I’ve also had to fiddle with it to get the pictures to refresh at times, but I do think, in lieu of an official Instagram client for iPad, that this is a really nice replacement.
In no particular order, here are five products/sites/services that I really enjoyed having/using this year. I could have written about more, but I’m lazy.
Feedbin
I am an RSS apex consumer, subscribing to about 500 sites' RSS feeds. I was in a complete panic earlier this year when Google Reader was going away. NetNewsWire and Reeder, synced with Google Reader, were mainstays of my way of staying informed. I used them every day, and rarely declared RSS bankruptcy. Feedbin saved my ass in 2013.
With Google Reader going away, there were a few choices out there, but most of them were free services. That’s not what I wanted to use though. I wanted something that I could pay an honest fee for, that probably wouldn’t be co-opted by other business motives, and I evaluated the options out there and picked Feedbin.
This service hasn’t disappointed me one bit. It’s been consistently improved throughout the year, and client support for it is fantastic. Best of all, their web app, through one of those updates, supports many of the keyboard commands from the legacy RSS reader I used for so long. I read my feeds on every device I carry using this service, using Reeder on iOS, Press on Android, and the Feedbin Web interface on desktop. (Press is awesome, and probably the best RSS Reader app on any platform in my opinion.)
Cool Hunting T-Tech by Tumi Backpack
I own a lot of gear bags because I carry a lot of gear on a daily basis, and I am always looking for the perfect system for carrying things. At work, we support a lot of devices, and I need to have a few with me wherever I am to make sure that I can cover the support from where I happen to be.
I should probably do a post about what’s in my bag when I head out to CES next week. On top of that, I usually carry a camera system of some kind, and then a myriad of chargers etc. Suffice it say, this bag is really really nice, well made, and can hold a lot of stuff. There are a lot of great bags out there, but this has been my mainstay since the day I got it in the first half of 2013. Since it’s made by Tumi, I know that I can count on it. I have had some Tumi luggage for as long as fifteen years under a lot of travel, and it’s held up remarkably well. If you need to carry a lot of stuff, and like the backpack form factor, I highly recommend this bag.
Unfortunately, it seems to be sold out at this point. I’ll be watching Cool Hunting for future product releases, they have great taste and attention to detail.
Apple TV
Not new to this year, but this small device has really become the center of our living room in 2013. It already had a strong lineup of content, and AirPlay from our various iOS devices (my wife and I both have iPhones and iPads) has become a stock way we listen to music. Having a device at the center of our living room that is synced with our ever growing library of content in iTunes helps a lot. Integration with Flickr means that there’s a scrolling slideshow of my most recent Flickr posts happening while we’re listening to music.
I think, however, that there was a major shift that occurred in our home over the summer. This shift was caused by two things. June 19th, 2013, HBO Go came to Apple TV. We have DirecTV, and this meant it was like someone had bought us the boxed set of every single HBO show. The second event was Orange is the New Black coming to Netflix in July. Long time fans of Weeds, we loved this show produced by the same team, and we binge watched until they were all gone. Can’t wait until there are more, but we’re currently binging through Breaking Bad. We’re not going to be canceling our DirecTV service any time soon, but more and more, we’re watching stuff via this device. When we’re not watching, this device is what’s powering other living room entertainment.
Evernote Smart Notebooks
As evidenced by my post a couple of days ago, Evernote Smart Notebooks, in the linked configuration, have been a staple of my productivity regimen in 2013. They come with a three month extension to your Evernote Pro service. At the rate I use them, this means I won’t be paying discretely for Evernote any time soon. It’s that simple. I don’t really use the stickers, but I do take a picture of every page. Just works. I was already hooked on Evernote long before these appeared.
The Wirecutter
It’s rare that I trust a site’s advice completely, but The Wirecutter has earned that trust. Their exhaustive work in specific product categories has led to well informed purchases time and again throughout 2013. They are relentless in keeping their site and reviews up to date. I read through their deals very carefully. Some notable example purchases are our WiFi Router, the pens I use, and the cards in my cameras. I highly recommend that you check at The Wirecutter before any consumer electronic or personal technology related purchase. Here’s their guide on how to use their site.
I’ve had one iPad from every release generation so far. I ordered the original iPad from the hospital on the day my first son was born. In many ways, and most of them that count, my iPad is my primary computer at this point. It travels with me, attends every meeting I attend, and is my constant companion at home. I read my news feeds on it using the newest generation of Reeder. I answer most of the email that I actually answer on it. It’s a work tool, and a personal tool, and, as a result, the yearly release of the new iPads is an assumption of upgrade.
For the last year, I have had two iPads that have seen some amount of use. An iPad 3, only 18 months or so old at this point, and the iPad Mini, which was purchased/provided by my employer. As the year went on, I used the iPad 3 less and less. I love the iPad Mini’s weight, despite the obvious tradeoffs that came with, these are well covered on the web already, and old news, I won’t cover them here. When this year’s iPads were released, it seemed like a slam dunk that I would wait for the Retina iPad Mini, and that would be the penultimate iPad for me.
Oddly, that’s not the way that I went. I purchased a 64Gb Verizon iPad Air, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It weighs about what the Mini weighed, and it’s just so much better for typing. As I have started using the device more and more as my personal computer, the size of the on screen keyboards touch targets has become important to me, I have meaty brawler hands. I’m sure that I could have been happy with the Mini as well.
I got a DDC-101 “DDC Stuff Sheath” because I have been looking for a more flexible cover for my massive and constant usage of Field Notes. It is, in Draplin’s own words “Just a simple little leather sheath to protect yer Field Notes, and whatever else your might have in yer pocket.” The simplicity of it made a lot of sense to me, and at $39.99, it didn’t seem like too much of a gamble.
I’ve found that it works much better for me than the cover style Field Notes holders I have used, mainly because it’s also a good catch-all for the other things that are knocking around in my pockets. Mine currently contains a Field Notes notebook, some cash, my frequent shopper card for Octane, a printed recipe that I picked up somewhere, a couple of blank index cards and some Delta airlines coupons for free cocktails.
I’ve been using it every day since it came in the mail, and, if anything, it’s getting more attractive looking with continued use. The Stuff Sheath is very well made and durable, and I think I will more than likely get bored of it long before I wear it out or destroy it. This thing feels like I could end up passing it on to my kids. Granted, not everyone enjoys the orange, but I do. I find the orange color to be visually striking, and a nice respite from the mostly black gear and covers that I tend to be attracted to.
I’ve carried it in both my front and back pockets comfortably, although with a phone in my front pocket, it’s a little tight. It’s capable of holding quite a bit of stuff, and in my quick testing, the combination of everything I already mentioned plus my passport fit comfortably.
The simplicity and flexibility of this little holder are going to make it a part of my everyday carry for a while. I recommend it. It seems really simple, because it is.
Just got an email this morning that I managed to get myself on the list for one of the first 1000 Sugru + Magnets kits. I’ve been very enamored with Sugru since the 99u Conference this year, where the talk by the founder of the company was one of the conference high points. (You should really watch that talk, it’s great.)
Seems like the possibilities for combining Sugru with magnets are endless.
