Year: 2012

New iMacs Cometh →

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The Apple PR Machine:

Apple today announced the all-new iMac will be available on Friday, November 30. Featuring a stunning design, brilliant display with reduced reflection, faster processors and an innovative new storage option called Fusion Drive, the new iMac is the most advanced desktop Apple has ever made. The 21.5-inch iMac will be available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. The 27-inch iMac will be available for order through the Apple Online Store and will begin shipping in December.

Finally.

The Verge Reviews the New Jawbone Up →

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David Pierce:

The Up is an impressively powerful tool for your $129. I spent a week diligently entering everything I ate and tracking every step I took and movement I made (and wondering why Jawbone hasn’t used The Police in its ads), and I really did get a lot out of it. When I drank coffee at night, I didn’t sleep as well. (Shocking.) When I walked around a lot in the morning — walking to the second-closest subway stop instead of the closest, for instance — I felt better and more awake all day. When I read before sleeping, I sleep better than when I watch TV in bed. When I eat dinner late, I sleep poorly. These, and a thousand other little observations, did legitimately give me a way to be healthier, and sleep and feel better.

But it’s a lot of work to get the Up’s full benefit, and honestly I don’t know if I can sustain it.

I feel the same way about my new Fitbit One. It’s great, but I find myself missing the simplicity of the Nike+ Fuelband, even though at the time of my review, I wasn’t thrilled with the wristband.

‘Far from Undefeated’ →

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My old college newspaper editor, Trey Heath:

Every day on the way to work, I get to pass by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The hospital provides some of the best care in the world to kids suffering potentially terminal diagnoses.

St. Jude does all of this, including supporting the child’s family while he or she is seeking care, for no out-of-pocket expenses. Nothing.

Although this is well documented, one thing that is not typically discussed is that St. Jude is far from undefeated.

Every year, parents will come to St. Jude with hope they can do the impossible and despite the best care in the world, they will fail leaving behind one of the greatest tragedies one can experience in this world.

I often think about St. Jude’s track record. While the hospital has eradicated some types of childhood cancer, the world is far from a cure for most types of cancer, including my son’s. We’ve seen lots of his “little friends” lose the battle over the years.

Maybe one day, no one will have to experience that. Danny Thomas founded the hospital with this simple phrase:

No child should die in the dawn of life.

We can help make a change.

Burning Down OmniFocus

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Over the last several months, the number of projects I’m overseeing at work has changed more times than I can begin to count. One of the many side effects of this is that my OmniFocus project list — and overall organization — went to hell pretty quickly.

About a month ago, I reverted to using Remember the Milk for critical tasks. I used RTM for years, and really like it as a service. It’s no where near as powerful as OmniFocus is, but it got me by until this weekend.

When I burned my OmniFocus setup to the ground.

Instead of the nearly dozen folders I had before, I now have four:

  • 512: Anything related to this site, my podcast or LLC
  • Home: Any project related to family, myself or the house itself
  • Nerd: Projects include things like my GTD and data management
  • Work: You know, what pays the bills

Aligning my folders this way means OmniFocus more closely mimics my life, and what I do with my time.

(As before, I’m not using Contexts for anything. I don’t use tags in any software, actually. My brain just doesn’t work that way.)

Moving down from the folder level, I re-worked my projects, combining what I could, and re-naming some to make more sense. For example, I had HR-related tasks and my weekly managerial tasks in separate projects. Now, they’re combined in to one, since these repeating tasks are closely related.

While I still have a ways to go, I feel like — at least with my standard set of repeating tasks — I’ve got a much better grip on things.

New projects will continue to be created, while old ones are marked complete, of course. I hope to keep these as streamlined as possible. For example, instead of having one massive project for all the deliverables my department is working on, I now have separate projects for each item. While this seems counterintuitive to my goal of cleaning things out, it means that my OmniFocus data should more closely reflect what I’m actually working on.

Which is the point.

Reviews Are Weird →

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I was excited to be able to write for Randy Murray’s site, and took the chance to write about writing reviews. Meta, perhaps, but it was a lot of fun. First Today, Then Tomorrow is a great site. If you’re a writer, this should be in your RSS collection.

First!

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This morning, every tech site on the planet reported that Google had purchased ICOA Inc., a provider of Wi-Fi hotspots across the country.

The source? This PRWeb post.

But there’s a snag…

Here’s Arik Hesseldahl at All Things D:

Sources at Google are denying reports that the search giant has acquired ICOA Wireless in a $400 million deal.

And CNET’s Shara Tibken:

According to a press release on PRWeb, Google bought WiFi provider Icoa for $400 million. The trouble is the press release isn’t real, according to Icoa.

The company’s chief financial officer, Erwin Vahlsing, Jr., told CNET in an email that the news is false. He didn’t provide any other information.

This is what happens when reporters rush to hit publish. Something this big deserves to be double checked before publishing.

At least, that’s what they taught us in journalism school. Silly college.

The Paladin →

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I thought I knew about all of Apple’s weird prototypes that had leaked over the years. I recognized everything in this Macworld article except for the Paladin:

In the mid–1990s, Apple tinkered with creating an integrated, all-in-one office appliance that included a computer, telephone, scanner, fax machine, modem, and printer. The result was the Apple Paladin prototype. It combined the guts of an Apple PowerBook Duo 230 (including its grayscale monitor) with a StyleWriter 1200 printer in a sleek white enclosure.

It’s shocking how far off the rails Apple got in the mid–90s.