posts

Amazon has a new Echo for preorder starting today. The $229 device does all the same voice-driven stuff as the traditional Echo, but includes a 7-inch touchscreen. With that, Amazon is adding things like video conferencing, feeds from supported IP cameras, YouTube playback and video updates from news sources.

I — like most people with an Echo — use Amazon’s product in the kitchen, often when I have my hands full. While adding a screen to the experience is certainly interesting, I’m curious how often I would take advantage of it.

Continue reading ⇢

The late-night comedian responds to criticism of his recent monologue about his son and healthcare in this country:

Continue reading ⇢

The day I wrote about in this blog post took place eight years ago today:

It was one of those typical hospital sofas.

The rubbery, terrible green, squeak-when-you-move jobs. It was long enough for a couple of people to sit on, but too short for any normal sized person to lay down on. The cushions were made of some type of foam that probably should be reserved for things like dampening vibrations in car doors.

Continue reading ⇢

This is good news, but that cut is still going to be felt as fewer and fewer apps use the paid-upfront model.

Continue reading ⇢

Holy moly.

Continue reading ⇢

Dan Moren, writing at Macworld:

Apple was so concerned about transforming the 2013 edition of the Mac Pro into an elegant, radical piece of machinery that it lost sight of what made that product appeal to its users. In a rare moment, the company even admitted it had taken the wrong approach.

But what about Apple’s portable Macs? With this week’s announcement of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop—of which there is very little that’s radical—it seems as though Apple’s notebooks may have missed a beat by being too focused on pushing the envelope. Maybe what we’re looking for is a faster horse.

Continue reading ⇢

My thanks to iStumbler Labs for sponsoring 512 Pixels this week. iStumbler provides detailed information about Wi-Fi Networks, Bluetooth Devices and Bonjour Services around you. Plug in the Oscium WiPry 5x and see detailed 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrum analysis for the first time on your Mac!

Continue reading ⇢

Rumors have it that Apple may ship its Echo and Google Home competitor as early as WWDC.

The timing would be classic Apple: let the early players work out the kinks in the market, then come in with something you think is more nicely designed and works better than the devices that founded the category.

No doubt a Siri Voice Canister would look better than the $179 Amazon Echo. I love how the slightly cheaper Google Home looks, but I found its touch surface to be a little lacking.

Continue reading ⇢

Devin Coldewey:

The Apple I, you may or may not remember, wasn’t much of a hit. Only 200 were made — by hand — and it wasn’t long before the company put its hopes in the Apple II, which would go on to be more popular by far. One of the Is, however, Jobs kept in his office as a demo machine for industry people.

When Jobs left in 1985 he left in a hurry, and this I was left behind on a shelf. Don Hutmacher, one of the company’s first employees, grabbed it and it stayed in his possession until he passed away last year. His wife generously allowed the museum to take care of it, and you can imagine their gratitude.

Continue reading ⇢

Sarah Kliff at Vox:

The bill would likely cause millions to lose health insurance coverage. We don’t know how many because the latest version of the Republican plan has not yet been scored by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to estimate how many people it would cover and how much it would cost. The most recent score for the bill, before new amendments offered in recent weeks, found that 24 million more people would be uninsured by 2026.

Continue reading ⇢

Apple:

The numbers tell the story. Apple is one of the biggest job creators in the United States, responsible for two million jobs in all 50 states. Last year, we spent over $50 billion with more than 9,000 U.S. suppliers and manufacturers. Since we launched the App Store in 2008, U.S. developers have earned over $16 billion in App Store sales worldwide. And we’re just getting started.

No doubt the company feels like it has to play defense as Washington chants “Buy American; Hire American.”

Continue reading ⇢

One of macOS’ best tricks is the ability to print anything to a PDF. This is accessible from any system print dialog box:

Apps can put their own items in that services menu, but selecting “Save as PDF…” will let you pick which folder you to save your newly-minted PDF to.

Most of the time, I’m creating a PDF with this method to upload to something like Freshbooks. I just want to save my receipt to the Desktop as quickly as possible. Waiting for the Open/Save window just slows me down.

Continue reading ⇢