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RSS Sponsor: Sendy⇢

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Sendy is a self hosted email newsletter application that delivers your emails via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES).

Compared to hosted newsletter services, Sendy is an app you can install on your own server. That means, you don’t have to pay monthly fees just to maintain your account. As Sendy uses Amazon SES as the sending engine, deliverability is high at a very low cost.

Sendy uses multi-threading to deliver your emails to Amazon SES, Amazon in turn enable your emails to pass SPF & Sender ID policy checks enforced by many ISPs & DKIM-sign all outgoing emails to ensure high deliverablity rate.

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MG Siegler, on the Surface RT⇢

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Ouch:

Look, the Surface is not as awful as I’m making it sound. But in no way is it good. And for this price, in this market, it needs to be. And really, it needs to be great because Microsoft is once again playing catchup. I’m sure the Surface will improve over time — and I suspect the Surface with Windows 8 Pro will be a much more useable machine — but only because it has nowhere to go from here but up.

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Fraser Speirs, on the iPad mini⇢

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While initially unhappy with the device, he’s changed his mind:

So, to wrap up: despite myself, despite my initial impressions and despite my expectations, I love my iPad mini and I find it’s really working well for me. I’m a much heavier iOS user than most people and it has handled everything I’ve thrown at it. I have no doubt that it will work perfectly for a huge number of people. I remain a bit sceptical about pupils using it all day every day in a 1:1 situation in schools. For that application, I still think a 9.7" iPad will be easier and more comfortable to use.

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On System Extension

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In July, I launched System Extension, a magazine-like counterpart to 512 Pixels. It’s been a moderate success, but as this is the week for such news, I’m announcing today that I’m putting the project on ice.

It’s been a lot of fun covering oddball stuff for the magazine, but everyone is better served to have that content on the site itself. (In fact, my Pippin article was slated to be in this month’s edition.

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On the Apple PiPP!N

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With the Wii U’s release this weekend, I thought it would be fun to look at Apple’s foray in to the gaming console market. Long before the iPod touch was the “funnest iPod ever,” Apple tested the waters with the PiPP!N project.

(For sanity’s sake, I’ll be using the far-easier-to-read “Pippin” nomenclature.)

History

In 1994, Bandai, a Japanese game maker approached Apple about partnering on a scaled-down Mac for CD-ROM based gaming. The company asked for a stripped-down Classic II, with the ability to play Macromedia Director-based games. Bandai suggested that Apple build the internals, and that they would handle the casing, controls and packaging.

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TechCrunch Reviews the New Fitbit One⇢

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Chris Velazco:

If you’re looking for a neat (and unabashedly geeky) way to keep tabs on how active you are, the Fitbit One is a wonderful choice — as long as you don’t mind keeping track of all those accessories too.

I’ve been wearing mine since Friday, and it just reinforces my thoughts on the Nike+ Fuelband.. While I’m working on a review, I’ll go ahead and spoil it now: I really like my Fitbit One.

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Wii U Reviews Roll In

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David Pierce at The Verge:

Nintendo’s facing an unfortunate chicken-and-egg problem. Developers won’t devote the time to making their Wii U games sing unless a lot of people buy the console, and plenty of shoppers will skip over the console unless the games are great. Nintendo can’t rely on its lead-in, either: Wii sales have plummeted in the last year, falling at a much faster rate than its even-older Xbox and PlayStation competitors. The novelty factor of the Wii may have worn off, as customers demand more media features and a better gaming experience — Nintendo has to prove once again that it’s a real competitor.

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