Year: 2012

Microsoft Chasing Apple →

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Tom Warren at The Verge:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has promised the software maker will continue to compete against Apple. Sparking memories of the fierce battle between Mac and PC during the 1990’s, Ballmer has been touting the company’s advantages at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference this week. Speaking to CRN, Ballmer says “we are trying to make absolutely clear we are not going to leave any space uncovered to Apple.”

Oh, how the tables have turned.

Dropbox Doubles Storage for Pro Accounts →

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Adi Robertson:

Dropbox Pro now offers 100GB and 200GB plans for the price of the previous 50GB and 100GB ones, meaning they’ll cost either $99 or $199 a year. A new 500GB plan will also be rolling out when all the prices are updated tonight, and current Pro users will see their space bumped up automatically.

Yay!

I’m not commenting on this, as I just keep typing the f-bomb over and over in ALL CAPS. →

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Rep. David Dreier, via Igor Volsky:

And I believe my state of California has a structure in place to deal with pre-existing conditions. It’s a pooling process, which I think is one worthy of consideration, because while I don’t that think someone who is diagnosed with a massive tumor should the next day be able to have millions and millions and millions of dollars in health care provided, I do believe that there can be a structure to deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions.

On Pinboard →

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Maciej Cegłowski:

Today is the third anniversary of the site’s public debut.

I really can’t imagine my Internet-based workflow without Pinboard at this point.

I use the service as my end-of-the-road, collect-everything bucket. Instapaper articles all get copied there. Funny cat .gifs get saved there. Links I post on Twitter get archived.

I just keep a handful of bookmarklets on my local computer. Everything else I imported in to Pinboard last year.

Speaking of archiving, I pay for the archiving, so Pinboard just doesn’t save URLs, but the content of the pages as well. So, so worth it.

While the service has loads of social tools, I don’t use them. Everything gets processed as Read and Private upon import. Pinboard is an archive of stuff, there if I need it.

As of this writing, I have 7,336 bookmarks saved.

RSS Sponsor: TextExpander →

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Thanks to Smile for sponsoring the 512 Pixels RSS feed this week! — SH

The new TextExpander 4 from Smile dramatically increases the options for automating your work with advanced “fill-in” snippet types. They are great for creating form letter templates that can be personalized on the fly. Check out the video demo and see the new multi-line text fields, multiple choice popups, and optional text blocks in action.

Registered TextExpander users can upgrade for $15. (There’s no charge for the upgrade if you purchased after January 15, 2012.)

Still haven’t tried TextExpander? Download the free demo! There’s even a new Snippet Creation Snippet to get you started.

Sponsorship by The Syndicate

City of Memphis Launches App →

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Bianca Phillips at the Memphis Flyer:

The app is not only free for users to download, it was also free to the city. Ashley Mooney of local Geospace LLC, the app’s creator, offered to create and run the app for free after he was stuck in traffic on Highway 51 during the 2011 flood. He said, at the time, that he wished there was some way to access city information, such as announcements about street closures, in app form. A few months later, Wharton was a guest on the Drake & Zeke radio show on Rock 103, and Mooney called in with an offer to create the app. The city followed up with Mooney and the app was born.

“It’s free to the city. I just wanted to make a difference,” said Mooney.