Author: Bob Martens

Categories
Technology

A Single Computer

Right now I work between two (sometimes three) different machines.

In the past I worked mainly on a single laptop, my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011). Admittedly, this is a minor gripe, but an annoying part of using one machine between work and home was that I had no less than six cables to plug and unplug each time I moved desks.

Thunderbolt dock

However, something like the CalDigit Thunderbolt station might be exactly what I am looking for to alleviate those minor issues and maybe force me to using a single machine both at home and at work.

A single Thunderbolt cable handles all of the following:

  • Thunderbolt
  • HDMI out
  • USB 3.0 (2x back, 1x front)
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Audio In
  • Audio Out

That’s pretty nice and essentially handles all of my peripheral needs. Have a USB 3.0 port on the front is an added bonus. The only thing missing would be a FireWire 800 port, but those peripherals are hard enough to find.

That would be really cool. A single cable and you are up and running.

Of course, the real issue is whether it would work or not. I’d like to get my hands on one as soon as it is released … so time will tell.

Categories
Gaming

Wii U Receives System Update

Polygon reports that the Wii U received its system update last night, and I can confirm that it is true … because I installed it just about an hour ago.

Wii U Update

That’s just a picture of my son and me playing Nintendo Land.

So far, the speed update is noticeable. Wait times are down and things seem more fluid than before,  but there is always room for improvement. iOS has forever broken me, and lagging interfaces are now grating.

I haven’t had time to really dig in at all and take a look at some of the other improvements, but it is always good to see an update come down.

I’m still very satisfied with my Wii U and it has been a lot of fun to see my son improve drastically over the past months. We have a lot of fun with it, and that is the idea.

Categories
Bob Speaks

Episode 9: WWDC Fallout

WWDC Sold Out

WWDC 2013 sold out in around 2 minutes on Thursday, April 25. That’s crazy.

So this week I am talking WWDC tickets. Here are the articles I talked about in the podcast:

Once again: my opinions mean less than nothing because I have no skin in the game and no real reason to be giving voice to this anyway. However, it has been four months since I did one of these so I thought I’d record instead of write.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:30 — 12.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
Technology

Instapaper Sold to Betaworks

Last night, Marco Arment announced that he had sold Instapaper to Betaworks.

I have been a big fan of Instapaper for quite some time, but recently I have been looking around at alternatives because it seemed that Marco had moved onto other things (The Magazine being the main one) and did not have the interest in Instapaper anymore.

This made me quite sad because part of the reason I had supported Instapaper was to support the independent iOS development scene. Now, with Instapaper being sold to “A New Medium Company” (that’s directly from Betaworks’s header on their website), I don’t feel nearly as bad about looking at other applications.instapaper-screenshot

Betaworks has quite a few products, including Digg and bitly, which really makes me fear what a very focused application like Instapaper might become in the future.

On the plus side, it looks like Instapaper will be getting some love in the near future. On the minus side, it is now in the hands of a much larger company with a still-unclear future.

Of course, I don’t bemoan Marco’s decision at all. It is his product after all and he is free to do as he likes.

As a user of Instapaper, this makes me more nervous than before. For now I am trying out Pocket, but there are issues I have had with Pocket as well. I’ll probably look at Readability and might even end up back with Instapaper, but I won’t have the same loyalty to the app as I used to have.

Categories
Technology

WWDC 2013

WWDC 2013

Just announced this morning, WWDC 2013 will be taking place June 10-14, 2013. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, April 25, at 10:00 am PDT. This is a change, announcing the ticket sales the day before, so we will see how fast they sell out.

An interesting change about the recorded sessions can be found on the More page:

Can’t make it to WWDC?  We’ll be posting videos of all our sessions during the conference, so Registered Apple Developers can take advantage of great WWDC content.

The emphasis is mine above. Even though I won’t be going, it will be fun to see the sessions soon after they are done that week.