September 6, 2021

📘 Book Review – Losing the Signal The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry

The fall of RIM/BlackBerry is directly related to the rise of Apple and iPhone. As one took off, the other crashed and burned. While it barely registers today, several years ago, RIM and the BlackBerry were THE phone of choice. It was small, efficient, and did it’s job extremely well. It had good battery life, you could check email, and send short text message on a serviceable keyboard. All of this on a low bandwidth signal. It was amazing, right up until the point it wasn’t. In many respects, the BlackBerry thrived because of it’s unique functionality and lack of competition. It was the first, so it was the best. It worked in the Enterprise and had strong support from high level CEOs. Big corporate deals were made using the BlackBerry. When the iPhone came on the scene it barely made a dent. There was little momentum, so it wasn’t a threat. As famously and ignorantly noted, it didn’t have […]

August 30, 2021

📕 Book Review – Jony Ive The Genius Behind Apples Greatest Products

More biographies. More Apple. Jony Ive, who’s been working inside Apple since the days of the Newton, has changed the way we view and work with computers and electronic devices. His new approach to the look, feel and interaction, has shifted us away from “beige boxes” to devices of gleaming white plastic, translucent materials, funky colors, aluminum, and who knows what’s next. His concepts of design language and aesthetic has influenced industries far beyond “tech.” Going from near obscurity in the “basement” design lab of Apple, Jony reached celebrity status. Apple has gone from bulky, uninteresting devices to what many consider works of art. Through this journey we see his process. A process open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. It worked in the past, but it can be done better for the future. Jony iterates over a design hundreds of times, making changes, re-evaluating, and going in different directions if need be. When starting, everything is […]

August 23, 2021

⌘ Alfred or Keyboard Maestro? Productivity at it’s finest.

Since they overlap, which tool should you get, Alfred or Keyboard Maestro? Yes to both. Even though they share some features, they provide enough different and complimentary functionality that you won’t regret using both. Use Alfred to quickly launch apps, find files, and perform focused searches. Use the Workflows feature to unlock snippets, clipboard history, quick calculations, access to handy system functions, and customized autocomplete. Those features are built in and ready to use. If you want a bit more power, download application workflows or spend a little time with Shell, Javascript, or AppleScript, and write your own. This is a bit more complex, but can yield some incredible results. Even with a small bit of AppleScript, you can accomplish a lot. Just as easily, call out to Java, Groovy or Python for more complex tasks. Next, use Keyboard Maestro to build custom workflows and application macros. Add batch processing to applications that don’t natively support it. Use the building […]

August 19, 2021

📕 Book Review – Tim Cook The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level

Continuing my biographical reads, I decided to dig a little deeper into Tim Cook, the man successfully pushing Apple through the trillion dollar stratosphere. What we get is a man who comes from humble beginnings who mastered the art of Just in Time inventory. In fact, he took the concept some say was perfected at Dell, and advanced it by leaps and bounds. Not just implementing the process, but improving, enhancing and adapting it. We also see a CEO with more worldly and charitable views that Steve Jobs. Let’s be honest, Jobs wasn’t concerned about or interested in charity. He felt his contributions to the universe were more than enough. Not Tim. Through Apple, he’s donated hundreds of millions of dollars to different organizations. And not in foreign countries like others, but right in his own back yard. Million to education and other projects. Jobs wasn’t too involved with the environment either. Under Cook, the goal is to make products […]

August 16, 2021

🖼 Adding CameraBag Photo to my image editing toolbox

The application CameraBag Photo, which I’ve never heard of before, came up in a new releases feed and the description intrigued me. CameraBag lets you instantly apply one of hundreds of beautiful presets to your photos (and videos with CameraBag Pro), and then dive deeper with ultra-intuitive professional adjustments. Among the over 200 included fully-adjustable presets (including landscape, classic film emulation, vintage looks, modern photo styles, and more) are presets specifically designed for portrait photography, and other tools perfectly suited for editing portraits. Wait, that sounds like Lightroom… Turns out, it is. CameraBag is a cost effective, high performance alternative to Lightroom. And by cost effective, it’s $30. At that price it has to be a toy, a cheap knock off, right? No, it’s exactly what Lightroom used to be before it went off the rails and increased in price and bloat. CamerBag Photo is all about color adjustment using Tones, Curves, Saturation, White Balance, and Exposure. Those can be […]

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