512 Pixels

Retina Remarks

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I spent a few brief moments with a new “MacBook Pro with Retina display” at the Apple Store, and thought I would share a few thoughts. This by no means is a fair review (or by type of review, really), but just a handful of impressions.

  • The machine is crazy thin. It reminds of me of seeing the Titanium PowerBook G4 after the PowerBook a G3 had been around forever. It is crazy thin.

  • I wish my MacBook Air had HDMI out.

  • The lack of the “MacBook Pro” badge below the LCD is weird.

  • The screen is slightly more glossy than my MacBook Air’s, but doesn’t seem as shiny as the glass-covered MacBook Pros or iMacs.

  • Finally, the Retina display is simply stunning. Text looks super crisp, as do the built-in applications. (Of note, the overlay Apple uses on their store models for customers to use to alert the staff they need help looked like crap.) It is as impressive as the iPhone 4 or new iPad were. Web sites re-worked to target the new iPad should look fine on this machine. 512 Pixels looked sharp, as did Apple’s site. CNN and other sites featured clear text, but blurry graphics.

  • As good as this laptop looks, I can’t imagine going back to a 15" machine after using the 13-inch Air for so long.

Concerning ‘Ungeniused’

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Myke and I, over on the 70Decibels blog:

When we started Ungeniused last year, we wanted to explore the rabbit holes on Wikipedia. We haven’t met our goal, and there’s lots left to explore. We could record forever, never running out of topics.

That makes the rest of this letter awkward, so we’ll cut right to the chase.

Ungeniused is being retired.

I want to stress that there are no personal reasons behind the show’s retirement whatsoever. I’ll still be on the network (in fact, I’m taking Myke’s spot in a few weeks when he goes on vacation). From a cost/benefit standpoint, continuing the show at this time just isn’t an option. We want to deliver a quality product every week, and we don’t feel like we can do that currently.

This was a hard decision, but one Myke and I made together, as friends and business partners. We will continue doing the 512 Podcast, and are both excited about the future of that show.

To all of the fans of Ungeniused, thank you. Your emails, suggested topics and reviews were humbling. We’re sorry to disappoint you, but we hope you understand.

The iOS 6 NDA Cheatsheet

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David Smith:

This year I decided it would be helpful to put together a cheatsheet by going through the public websites and keynote video and collect all the topics that are publicly displayed. I can then talk with some freedom about these topics. Collecting all the topics on one place will hopefully help keep me clear on what I can talk about.

If it wasn’t in the keynote, or isn’t on the website, don’t write about it.

Where Readability’s Money Went

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Shawn Blanc figured that seven percent of money collected “for writers” actually made it to writers.

Seven. Percent.

I signed up for the service (hey, income is income!), but never saw a dime. Shawn closes his article with this, and I couldn’t agree more:

As a writer whose sole publishing platform is the Web, I now find myself uncomfortable and saddened by Arc 90′s attitude of entitlement over my original content (not the least of which is the new Readlists service and its emphasis on exporting, repurposing, and distributing of someone else’s original content into an eBook).

Good riddance, Readability. We’re better off without you.