The last time the $2.99 email app appeared in the iOS App Store was February 12th, while the $9.99 Mac app was last available on February 13th. The Mac app, however, is still available from Sparrow’s website directly. The last time the iOS update received an update was October 2013 to add iOS 7 compatibility. The Mac app never saw an update. At one point, Sparrow was the most popular app on the iOS App Store. It is to be seen if Google will launch a dedicated, native Inbox application for the Mac to replace Sparrow.
Like many Mac & iPhone users, Sparrow was easily my favorite email client for quite some time. As I said a couple weeks ago, Gmail for iOS is horrible and best, and Sparrow was the closest thing we had to a good Gmail client for iPhone. Today, I use Mailbox exclusively on Mac and iOS. It works for what I need. Sad to see the last note of Sparrow’s song die out after years of near silence.
It begin nearly a year ago when we entered the IBM Watson Mobile App Developer Challenge with a unique concept: a toy that could learn and grow with a child. Winners of the challenge would receive access to IBM Watson — IBM's powerful cognitive supercomputer - which is one of the elements necessary to create a truly transformational toy.
Yes, David, Teddy has arrived. Just what we need, a dinosaur with access to IBM’s “powerful cognitive supercomputer” in every home teaching our children to submit to their no-longer-extinct overlords. Cool concept, but I will not be buying one.
I think the same thing is happening right now in the computer and mobile devices industry. Computers and phones have historically been sold based on performance, screen size, and battery life. The slow march of technological progress through the 1990s and 2000s was obvious to anyone who knows the word “megahertz”. But in the past couple of years, I think we have finally reached the 1945 equivalent in automobiles: all devices sold today can do everything any reasonable customer would want. The computer is now feature-complete. Almost all model segmentation is now based on the personality of the customer.
Something that my PC-loving, Android-using friends haven’t recognized yet: the spec don’t matter to the average consumer. Even as a tech guy, the specs seldom matter. When I bought my new MacBook Air last year, the only thing I upgraded was the RAM, knowing that I couldn’t upgrade that down the line. The 128 gigabyte SSD was more than enough, the processor was more than enough, and the graphics were more than enough. I know that I can get a more powerful computer if I go with a MacBook Pro. I know that I could have a Retina screen if I went with a different line of Macs. But I wanted the 11" Air because of the size. Simple as that.
It will be interesting to see what the pricing scheme is with the Apple Watch. Will there be different storage sizes? Will the two different screen sizes have different prices? Will a band come with the watch or will you buy that seperately? We’ll know in less than two months.
For the watch, it was a year before Ive settled on straps that clicked into slots. Ive later tested watchbands by wearing them outside the studio with other watches. The shape of the body, meanwhile, barely changed: a rectangle with rounded corners. “When a huge part of the function is lists”—of names, or appointments—“a circle doesn’t make any sense,” Ive said. Its final form resembles one of Newson’s watches, and the Cartier Santos, from 1904.
Love the simple logic of it. So many competitors to the Apple Watch let function follow form. A round watch has an interface designed to be round, but the moment you have an interface that scrolls, that round screen becomes the bane of your existence. A rectange just makes sense.
And this great piece on Steve Jobs:
Jobs’s taste for merciless criticism was notorious; Ive recalled that, years ago, after seeing colleagues crushed, he protested. Jobs replied, “Why would you be vague?,” arguing that ambiguity was a form of selfishness: “You don’t care about how they feel! You’re being vain, you want them to like you.” Ive was furious, but came to agree. “It’s really demeaning to think that, in this deep desire to be liked, you’ve compromised giving clear, unambiguous feedback,” he said. He lamented that there were “so many anecdotes” about Jobs’s acerbity: “His intention, and motivation, wasn’t to be hurtful.”
Those close to me know that I share a personality type with Steve Jobs. INTJ. I too see the value in being unambiguous in feedback. Be clear. Vanity has no place in this line of work. If all members of the team care to produce the best product, being clear about what is wrong about it is most important. If people care more about themselves, feeling get hurt too easily over something that has nothing to do with feelings. I just try to be a bit less of an ass than Steve Jobs could be. Sometimes I success. Sometimes I don’t.
If beating you with a leather strap until you cry is what gives him pleasure and he asks you to do it despite your distress because it turns him on and then plays the victim to explain it all away, there is no soundtrack in the world that should quiet the voice in your head that yells out that love and romance were never in the picture and they never will be.
Please, my precious children, know this: Love is gentle. Love never takes. Love does not demand. Love waits for consent. Love doesn’t need helicopter rides and expensive gifts. Love is enough.
Always love this channel’s content, but this one and the first part are absolutely awesome and full of nerdery. What’s awesome about this one, to me, is how clear the One Ring and Sauron are an image of Satan. The Ring tells it’s bearer lies, trying to convince them that they can overthrow Sauron and be a great hero. A temptation that almost no one can resist, though the Hobbits, in their humility, are as close being able to resist it as possible.
Thompson's complaint suggests Cawper is capable of barking at 128 decibels through double pane windows. According to Purdue University research, that would mean Cawper is louder than a chainsaw, a clap of thunder and just a hair quieter than the takeoff of a military jet.
Some people will claim that there is something valuable to be gained by having multiple sexual partners before settling down for lifelong monogamy. These misguided souls completely miss the point. Sex is not a technique to be mastered but a means of communicating. Sexual intercourse is a non-verbal expression of profound commitment, openness, and trust. Having multiple sexual partners as a means of preparing for marriage is like mastering the art of lying in order to become a paragon of honesty.
Society pays a price when we teach men to be turned on by women in pain. 89% of scenes in mainstream pornography today depict violence against women and this is spilling over into the mainstream media. As a result, sexual violence is on the rise in our military, in our best universities, and on the street. When we make violence sexy, it is no wonder that these are the consequences we face.
Women, you cannot fix men that want to hurt you. Only Jesus can fix them. You, you’ll likely end up dead or wounded physically and emotionally for a long time.
This spontaneous anti-green-bubble brigade is an interesting example of how sometimes very subtle product decisions in technology influence the way culture works.
I love the intersection of culture and technology. It’s facinating to me. Strike up a conversation with me about the Apple Watch and the cultural impact of wearables is all I’ll talk about for a couple hours. Well, apparently Apple has done a great job ostracizing those that don’t have an iPhone, or at least in the view of many iPhone users. Green is mean.
