512 Pixels

This app makes my whole Dropbox/Hazel/photo thing even more automatic. I just wish it could delete photos from my Camera Roll once I imported them to Dropbox.

When Josiah was diagnosed, our small church rallied around us. For months, we didn’t buy groceries, do our laundry or keep up with cleaning. I’d come home in the middle of the night from the hospital to find a clean apartment and a full fridge, often with an encouraging note, gift card or check on the kitchen counter.

\* \*

As many of you know, my pal Federico Viticci who runs MacStories was diagnosed with cancer a while back. He’s just gotten scan results, and has a ways to go in his fight with his disease. Just reading replies to him on Twitter is more than enough to make me swell with pride from the support the broader Nerd Community is giving him in this time.

\*

I’ve told the story before, but one night a few weeks after Josiah’s initial surgery, I was opening a pile of mail on the living room floor. I was exhausted, but needed to pay some bills before sleeping and returning to the hospital, where my wife had spent the night next to our son. I opened a letter and check from a church in Alabama. Turns out, they had a prayer meeting about Josiah. I know no one in that town, and couldn’t find the church on Google Maps. Yet, they had heard of Josiah’s circumstances and wanted to show their support. The small check they mailed us wasn’t much, but I could feel the weight in the paper, knowing it was a large amount for some.

\*

My high school buddy PJ is three quarters of the way through his chemo treatment. Like so many stories I’ve heard, PJ’s diagnosis was a surprise, and subsequent news wasn’t as good as it could have been. He and his wife just moved out west, and while they don’t have family there, I know many people are in contact with them almost daily. Communication is key while in treatment, and thankfully, PJ is always willing to be honest with me and others about what’s going on.

\* *

There’s something about tragedy and suffering that brings humans together. We am have an in-built sense of what’s right and fair, and when babies or twenty-somethings get a terrible diagnosis, it lights a fire in our chests. We’re compelled to help, no matter how small our encouragement can be. Maybe it’s a tweet, a letter, a check or a meal. Maybe it’s laying on the floor of a hospital bathroom, letting someone cry into your chest. Whatever it is, I know the power of we is bigger than the power of cancer.

So, instead of “just” offering support, do something to solve the problem, too. I’ve added a banner at the top of the site linking to St. Jude. Go donate. There are lots of other great institutions fighting cancer, too. Go donate to them. Do something.

We’re depending on you.

Sometimes with Apple, I’ll disagree with a change but understand it. That’s not the case this time. I really can’t wrap my head around why the company did this.

Brett was kind enough to let me join him on episode 11 of his excellent podcast, Systematic, over on 5by5. We talked about Apple hardware, blogging software and more.

This week on the 512 Podcast, Myke and I fight the Evil Forces of Skype to discuss App.net apps, the iPhone 5 and RIM’s new music video.

Thanks to Squarespace and Drafts for making this week’s show possible.

Aaaaaaaand I’m crying in my office.

Jason Snell, in his excellent iPhone 5 review:

If the white-and-silver iPhone 5 is Gandalf’s iPhone, the black-and-slate model is Darth Vader’s.

Great ideas need to be captured immediately. Scratch for iPhone cuts through the barriers of note taking and gives you a clean slate to get your idea down fast. You don’t have to come up with a title or navigate a long list of notes. Just open Scratch, type, and worry about it later. Scratch remembers everything so you don’t have to.

Once you’re ready to work with the note, Scratch gives you the options you need to move the text where it belongs: Dropbox, email, your favorite text editor or just about anywhere else.

Download Scratch for iPhone today. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Phil Dzikiy at iLounge:

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters that his company needs Apple’s approval before it could bring its Google Maps app back to the iPhone.

I bought the black iPhone, but after looking at these photos, manhandling a white one last night and living in constant fear of nicking the fragile black aluminum, I think I might be regretting it.

Apple’s videos suddenly seem so boring.

Is boring the right word?

Speaking of St. Jude, here’s a video we did with the hospital a couple of years ago.