Stars and Astral Cars

thisistheverge: Samsung Galaxy S4 review I don’t like...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:42:49 -0700

Samsung Galaxy S4 review

I don’t like holding this phone, and I can’t overstate how much that informs the experience of using it. It makes an awful first impression, slippery and slimy and simply unpleasant in your hand. My white review unit is completely smooth and glossy, with a subtle checkered pattern that looks textured but is neither grippy nor textured anywhere on its body. Even the silver band around the sides, which is obviously supposed to look like metal, is plastic. Everyone I showed the GS4 to frowned and wrinkled their nose as if it smelled bad, before rubbing their fingers on the back of the phone and then handing it back to me.

Build quality. Build quality. Build quality. How about trade some of the ridiculously useless features they added for hardware that doesn’t feel like a knock-off?

parislemon: iheartapple2: CUPERTINO, Calif.—(BUSINESS...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:31:37 -0700

parislemon:

iheartapple2:

CUPERTINO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Apple® today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 10 through June 14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At the five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X®, enabling them to create incredible new apps with innovative features. WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by over 1,000 Apple engineers, hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies, as well as the popular Apple Design Awards, a showcase of the most outstanding apps available through the App Store℠ and Mac® App Store. Tickets for this year’s WWDC go on sale Thursday, April 25 at 10 a.m. PDT.

Interesting logo…

My guess: Some element of live icons for apps in iOS7.

Who Should be the Next Host of Jeopardy?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:17:07 -0700

Who Should be the Next Host of Jeopardy?:

I built this, figured it should be on my blog.

Measuring and Increasing the ROI of Your Content Resources

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:14:12 -0700

Measuring and Increasing the ROI of Your Content Resources:

Do you want to know the value of your content? In today’s post, Mike Pantoliano shares his tips for calculating the real ROI of your content strategy and marketing efforts.

"It might actually be good, or even better than Evernote. But I still won’t use Keep. You know why?..."

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:19:46 -0700

“

It might actually be good, or even better than Evernote. But I still won’t use Keep. You know why? Google Reader.

I spent about seven years of my online life on that service. I sent feedback, used it to annotate information and they killed it like a butcher slaughters a chicken. No conversation — dead. The service that drives more traffic than Google+ was sacrificed because it didn’t meet some vague corporate goals; users — many of them life long — be damned.

”

- via (http://gigaom.com/2013/03/20/sorry-google-you-can-keep-it-to-yourself/)

I don’t know why this sort of thing is a surprise to anyone.

If you choose to rely on a free product, sooner or later decisions will be made that might be completely at odds with your best interests. For Google and their services, that means answering to their real clients - advertisers.

Stream Amok from Atoms For Peace

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:10:14 -0800

‘Only Shallow’ by My Bloody ValentineI’m so glad MBV are...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:24:35 -0800

‘Only Shallow’ by My Bloody Valentine
I’m so glad MBV are back. I love the guitar sings the chorus on this song.

On The Vine

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:46:38 -0800

I love Vine. If Instagram is a $1bn service, I couldn’t even begin to value Vine after they refine the app.

parislemon:

What is it about this particular video app? For me, a small tweak to the capture process is key. You no longer have to tap a button to start recording a video and tap that button again to stop it. (Why are we tapping a “button” that doesn’t actually exist anyway?) Instead, you simply hold your finger on the screen to record a “shot”. Taking your finger off the screen stops the recording. Then you can re-position your phone to take another shot. These are all stitched together into a very short video.

Most user-generated videos suck because the creator is not a filmmaker. They don’t do interesting things with composition or cuts. So you get an overly-long shot that is either boring (static) or vomit-inducing (all over the place). Some of the editing apps that have sprung up (such as Socialcam, which we were also an investor in before it sold to Autodesk) have helped polish the garbage footage with filters and overlays. But the underlying problem with the recordings remain.

Vine changed the equation by making users think about what they were shooting. These people weren’t worrying about “fixing it in post”, as the saying goes. Vine was teaching people Filmmaking 101 without anyone realizing it.

Read More

‘Setting Sun’ by Howling BellsThis song is good...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:28:36 -0800

‘Setting Sun’ by Howling Bells
This song is good and…Juanita Stein

“It’s a genuine Zuni Fetish Doll” #horror #magic #movies vine.co/v/bJ7v63iVBhV ...

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:09:00 -0800

“It’s a genuine Zuni Fetish Doll” #horror #magic #movies vine.co/v/bJ7v63iVBhV

January 27, 2013

‘Soon Forget’ by Pearl JamBefore Eddie Vedder went full on...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:21:59 -0800

‘Soon Forget’ by Pearl Jam
Before Eddie Vedder went full on Ukelele, he wrote this amazing, short song. Listen.

‘Make Up Your Mind’ by Here We Go Magic is my new jam.

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:55:20 -0800

‘Make Up Your Mind’ by Here We Go Magic is my new jam.

OneDogOneBlog: Is Life No Bigger than the Sum of its Treats?

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:53:00 -0800

OneDogOneBlog: Is Life No Bigger than the Sum of its Treats?:

spacetheshiba:

I must go now. Mike has entered the room so I must leave it.

Must-Have Analytics Customizations for Any Business

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:52:27 -0800

Must-Have Analytics Customizations for Any Business

A Web Marketing Consultant's New Year's Resolutions

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:52:17 -0800

A Web Marketing Consultant's New Year's Resolutions

This little guy has been a log all December

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:34:49 -0800

This little guy has been a log all December

Evernote Tip: BCC Project Deliverables to Evernote Email Account

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:23:32 -0800

Evernote is a great tool. I hear from many of my friends that they gave it a shot, but unfortunately never found a way to integrate it into their daily lives. I’m sure this is a common bit of feedback for Evernote. It’s part of why their Twitter account is always sharing “how Person X uses Evernote” articles. Not surprisingly, this tweet literally just entered my Twitter feed as I wrote the first few sentences of this post:

VIDEO: How @verge editor uses Evernote - we spot Evernote 5 on your desktop! ow.ly/g2Z2D
— evernote (@evernote) December 12, 2012

I’ve been using Evernote for years now and I’ve read a number of “how I use Evernote” posts, some of which I’ve implemented into my day-to-day. At the same time, my own little variations have made their way into my Evernote usage. This is a post about one that I like quite a bit.

Use Evernote to Archive Deliverables

I work at an agency as a consultant where I provide strategy and execution deliverables to my clients. Sometimes those deliverables are in the form of traditional Word documents, sometimes they’re image mockups & wireframes, sometimes big Excel documents, or sometimes they’re delivered in good-old-fashioned email.

About 6 months ago I had a client that switched gears a bit and changed my point of contact. Understandably, the new POC wanted to know what sorts of items I’ve delivered in the past, so she could get on the same page. I had a doozy of a time looking through prior emails. Even with some clever Gmail search operators, this was no fun. I could use “has:attachment” and “to:@clientdomain.com” but that was not without its flaws.

From that point forward, I’ve developed a habit of BCC’ing any email that I’ve sent with anything that can be classified as a “deliverable” to my Evernote email address. This has made things super simple. Further, even if you’re giving advice deep in an email thread, you can BCC your Evernote address on just that message.

A quick how-to:

Finding your Evernote Email Address

In Evernote 5, click account info here.

There it is!

Add Evernote to your address book so you don’t have to remember that long address

Now What?

This leads to the second portion of the tip, which is based off of a tip I read long, long ago (original source lost, I’m afraid).

Create a saved search for all untagged notes. Whenever you’re in the processing mood, go through and tag these deliverables as you see fit. I think the most logical would be a tag called “deliverable” and one with the client name.

This will show you all notes without a tag

Save search can be found here

Inbox seems like a good name to me

Tag it up as you see fit!

Searching through all deliverables, or a client-specific set of deliverables just got much easier.

Another Idea

The Evernote email address feature is awesome, and I use it in many more situations than the one above. Here’s a quickie:

When you get travel confirmations and receipts, quickly forward it off to your Evernote address. You can actually tag the note as “Travel” right from the subject line by adding a hash symbol and the tag (“#Travel”). See below:

Get one of these?

Forward it and tag the subject. You can also redirect it (no standard forward formatting like quotes and header info) with Mac’s mail.app with ⌘ + Shift + E.

Hope that was useful!

Finished up some artwork

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:16:38 -0800

Finished up some artwork

The Walkmen - The Christmas Party The only Christmas song I...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 10:15:41 -0800

The Walkmen - The Christmas Party The only Christmas song I actually enjoy hearing every year

The Story of Mr. Indifference - made using @fieldnotesbrand and...

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:15:02 -0700

The Story of Mr. Indifference - made using @fieldnotesbrand and @gifboomapp (Taken with GifBoom)