Now, Exhale

Christmas Season 2012 is over. The flurry of family, food, shopping, wrapping paper, and gifts has subsided, leaving behind almost strange feelings of stillness and peace. The supposed end of the world has not come to pass, and life returns to normal.

Today was spent putting our house back in order. Dishes have been washed and put away. Piles of wasteful packaging and other trash have been thrown away. Brendon's new toys have been sorted into two groups: "Keep" and "Donate". Anything worth keeping has been stored in its proper place, while everything else will be taken elsewhere.

The grandparents (meaning, my parents and in-laws) had their fun unloading a mountain of toys on our son, thinking to get their "revenge" on us for having lots of noisemakers when we were children, but what they don't yet know is that we made a certain decision a long time ago: we're going to limit the number of things Brendon owns and get rid of anything unnecessary as he grows up.

Not that we want to be mean about it of course, but in a day where children are constantly bombarded by advertisements and peer pressure, I feel it important to make sure we avoid instilling any sense of entitlement. I see too many kids and teenagers taking to Twitter every year, complaining about not getting the exact gift(s) they wanted. Or even getting the right gift but not the right color (such as a white iPad vs a black one). It's sickening.

For now, we will choose for him which things will be kept or given away, but as he gets older he will be asked to pick out which older toys to donate. These won't be blind donations though. He will be taken to see donation centers and homeless shelters in order to see and understand why it's important to donate to those in need. Even our lower middle class lifestyle is one of comparative opulence.

But I digress.

As 2012 winds to a close, I find myself excitedly thinking ahead to 2013 and what it holds. In years past, I've often done what many others do, making a list of New Year's resolutions and not keeping them, but something about this year feels different (yes, I know people always say that).

While I obviously can't predict the future, I have this oddly optimistic feeling that some sort of positive shift is about to take place in my life. Maybe it means I'll finally be able to write for this site full-time as I've so dearly hoped. Or perhaps some other big opportunity will present itself.

Whatever the outcome, I sense that 2013 is going to be huge for me. Can't wait.

Speaking of Flickr...

They're offering all users 3 months of Flickr Pro for free. Existing Pro users will simply have their service extended by 3 months. If you've ever thought about checking out the service, now is absolutely the time.

Head over to flickr.com/holidaygift to activate your Pro benefits. I've been on Pro for a while and I'm extremely happy with it.

'Long Live Flickr'

Jeffery Inscho on the new Flickr app:

"Feeling nostalgic for my glory days of the web, I downloaded the app to see what all the fuss was about. And the fuss, in my opinion, is justified. With one fell swoop, Flickr has injected itself back into the conversation of web relevance."

This is a perfect way of putting it. Flickr's diehard fans have long expressed worry that the service is waning and that Yahoo! hasn't paid enough attention to it even though it's likely their best product.

Now that Marissa Mayer is manning (womanning?) the helm, Flickr seems to be setting itself up for a resurgence. I'm still amazed at how good the new app is, and I've noticed a few subtle design changes taking place on Flickr.com itself. Despite following a large number of tech bloggers and photographers online, I have yet to see a negative statement about anything Flickr is doing right now.

It's pretty wild that a single app update on a phone can cause public opinion about an entire company to sway suddenly and drastically in the opposite direction. Any app developers out there not taking their work seriously would do well to consider that.

'The Best Astronomy Images of 2012'

Phil Plait, astronomer and writer of the Bad Astronomer blog, has assembled some truly fantastic images from the world of astronomy in 2012. I highly recommend checking them out.

Relatedly, Phil also wrote about an image taken from the dark side of Saturn. Make sure to head over there and click for the big version because it's magnificent.

The First Year

Tomorrow is my son Brendon's first birthday. I can hardly believe it's already been a whole year.

Right about this time one year ago, we had been in the hospital for 13 hours, not knowing we had another 8 ahead of us before our son would be born. Nor did we know we'd be spending the next week living at the hospital (all the way through Christmas) because he had to be kept in the NICU after birth, due to an infection and labored breathing.

That was a very tough week for us. It's also a story for another time. For now, I'm only thinking about all the amazing things that we've had a chance to witness in the last year.

His first smiles. The first time he really looked into our eyes clearly. The way he immediately took to the rest of the family. The first time he could sit up straight without assistance. His first trip to the beach. The first time he copied a word we said, or a note we sang.

The way he springs awake every morning and crawls all over our faces and giggles until we wake up and play with him. The first time he pulled himself up on my leg while I was sitting down, and just stood there blank-faced like he hadn't just done the coolest thing ever. The funny way he taught himself to crawl, dragging one leg while pushing off with the other.

The fact that he's almost ready to walk right now. The way he babbles at us incessantly as if carrying on a conversation. The way he latches onto a new word every week and uses it to describe everything he points at (some favorites: moon, cloud, light, dog). The way he gets excited and shouts "BROO CROOS" (Blue's Clues) whenever he sees Netflix loading on our TV. The fact that he already knows how to do things on our iPhones (bring up Siri, swipe between photos, etc).

I can honestly say that this has been the greatest year of my life. When I was younger the thought of having a child was the scariest thing I could imagine, but I wouldn't trade being a father for anything. I have friends who are still as terrified as I used to be, so I feel a certain duty to allay their fears and assure them how much they're going to love it.

I won't say that every moment is perfect. Far from it. There are times when I want to tear my damn hair out, like when he gets into that completely inconsolable state every parent has to deal with at some point. But the high points MORE than make up for the lows, and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

Happy birthday, son.

Pause

Today has been a little crazy after flipping the switch on membership subscriptions, but I couldn't help talking about this wonderful piece by Patrick Rhone:

"Are you getting the point here? This is where writing begins. All of these experiences, stories, circumstances, details, and observations.

Your life is full of them. Write about your morning coffee. Write about your messy desk. There’s a hundred stories in every seemingly boring moment if you simply take the time to notice them. And all of those stories are connected to each other in beautiful ways. Each one by itself is an essay. Yet, find those woven threads and they just might make an interesting book."

This story serves as a good reminder to pause and enjoy your surroundings even when life feels hectic. I think it's a common thing people forget to do in today's fast-paced digital world, myself included.

Relish these brief moments of clarity. Life can be a beautifully complicated mess, but it doesn't get any simpler than this advice: Go outside. Breathe.

Tentative Steps

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it." - Leo Rosten

I created this site back in October 2010. It started out as a fun hobby, posting the (very) occasional blurb about stuff I was interested in. In the last two-plus years it has grown from a side hobby to something much more.

Rather than posting once or twice a month, I now write every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. I write during downtime at my day job. In the evenings, after my wife and son have gone to bed, I sit down in a comfy chair with some sort of drink and I write. Even on days when I don't post anything, I'm still writing behind the scenes.

It appears that I've finally stumbled onto my life's passion, and because of this, I've had an idea burning at the back of my mind for a while. Perhaps it's time to think about turning Unretrofied into a full-time job. Or at least taking steps toward it.

The idea of doing such a thing both excites and frightens me.

The Why

I'm at a point in my life where I need a change, career-wise. I've been working at my current job for over four years, and while it's not a bad gig, there's no challenge anymore. I can't remember the last time I learned anything new from this job, and I'm still in the same exact position as when I started. On top of that, the nature of my job keeps me away from my family a lot more than it should.

I've long dreamed of having a career based on my creative work, rather than stepping into an office and performing monotonous duties all day. All of my "real" jobs to date have entailed some sort of customer service. In the last 6 or 7 years, I've spent most of my waking hours trying to make customers/end-users happy, rather than doing what I want and allowing my creative mind to flourish. Not very satisfying.

My most creatively-fulfilling moments are when I'm taking photos and writing articles. I have doubts about going professional with my photography, and therefore it will remain a fun hobby for now, but writing is something I think about all the time. I think about it before going to sleep, when I wake up, and every moment in-between.

Before rediscovering my love for writing, it had been many years since I'd felt compelled to master a new skill or seek a drastic new direction in my life, but now I've got the itch, and I'm determined to make my goal a reality.

Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I'm not the type to leave my stable job and leap into the unknown like this. But I'm tired of letting fear rule my life, and my gut keeps telling me that I'm making the right choice. The only choice.

Luckily, I have a supportive wife who understands how much this dream means to me, and she has urged me to pursue it. You only live once, after all.

The How

This is where you, the reader, come in. If I'm going to do this thing I'm going to need your help, which is why today I'm making membership subscriptions available to anyone interested in supporting the site.

There are two options:

• Monthly — Just $3 a month. As Shawn Blanc puts it, it's "like a good cup of coffee."
• Annual — $30 a year. Same benefits as the monthly subscription, but you save $6.

I'm still working out the details pertaining to members-only perks and such, and I promise that I'll announce something special in due time, but for now the membership is simply a means of directly supporting my writing.

I want to stress right now that this is not some sort of scheme where you have to pay to view my articles or get access to a full-content RSS feed or anything like that. Unretrofied is and will remain a free web site.

My hope is that, if enough of you find it in your hearts to part with a few of your hard-earned dollars each month, I can eventually devote myself to Unretrofied full-time and still support my family. It costs only a small amount to you but helps me so much.

If you read this and choose not to subscribe, that's okay! I'm still glad to have you as a reader. Nobody should feel pressured into this thing, it's simply an option for people who enjoy supporting independent creators. I already do the same for a dozen other writers myself.

All I ask is that you consider it. It would mean the world to me.

'Inbox Intentions'

Shawn Blanc:

"But when we interrupt our own time with habitual checking of email, Facebook, Twitter, et al. then it’s like having micro meetings all day long."

I'm guilty of this sort of thing myself. Sometimes I'll be in the middle of writing and receive a Twitter notification, and instead of ignoring it I pick up my phone to see what it is. Somehow or another, this leads to me "catching up" on my Twitter feed since I last put it down, which of course leads to checking other feeds like App.net, RSS and email.

One of my goals for 2013 will be to cut back on these kinds of addictive distractions. I probably won't be doing a "digital jubilee" the way Shawn intends to, but I do intend on scaling back on who/what I follow online.

Simple Tip For Motivation: 'Encouragement.txt'

I often have a hard time staying motivated. It's something I struggle with constantly. Some examples:

• I sometimes start an exercise routine and quit within two weeks because I'm not seeing results quickly enough.
• After working at a job for a certain amount of time, I can become bored from the lack of challenges and turn into the guy from Office Space who works just hard enough not to get fired.
• If a personal project is taking too long to complete (such as an extremely long essay), I might become frustrated and quit.

Other people would probably read these and ask, "What's so hard about that stuff? What's wrong with you?" The answer is, I don't know. I just know that I have a harder time maintaining a positive outlook than other people. I'm naturally pessimistic, which is one of my least favorite qualities about myself.

To combat this, I've started keeping a log of compliments given to me by other people. Let's call it 'Encouragement.txt'. This idea ties into yesterday's brief homage to the text file.

Anytime someone decides to give me some positive feedback on what I'm doing, I put it into this text file. When I'm feeling down, or my creative energies are depleted, or whenever I'm thinking about quitting, I reference the file. It's difficult to articulate how amazingly helpful this has been for me, and I encourage you to give it a try yourself.

Want an example from my file? Here's a compliment I got from someone recently that actually pertains to Unretrofied:

"I was reading your Drafts review then started to skim your blog. You've got a lot of really good stuff up there and I really like your style. Keep it up man, you could be the next Gruber (without the smugness and dicknose)."

As someone who has looked up to John Gruber for years now (and no, I don't think of him as having a dicknose, although that bit made me laugh), this simple compliment made my entire day. And that's exactly why I'm keeping it for later.

On Dropbox and iCloud

Ben Brooks:

"Dropbox is a power user tool/service/feature — a damned good one — just not something the average user is going to leverage in the way that others do. iCloud is a consumer level feature. It’s good enough for power users if they are willing to relinquish control and trust Apple, but mostly it’s a drop-dead simple solution for everyone."

[...]

"In that light I truly believe that Dropbox is the past and not the future of cloud based file storage. Managing files is just not something that a user should need to do any longer."

I think Ben is onto something here, but I have reservations about this idea going around that Apple will build iCloud up to the point that nobody needs a service like Dropbox anymore. People have been saying the same thing about other Apple services for years.

Safari's Reading List, Podcasts.app, iOS camera improvements, Apple Maps, iMessage...these are all products that were expected to put entire swaths of 3rd-party services out of business, but it hasn't panned out that way because Apple isn't trying to cater to the same niche markets as those services. They want to reach the broadest possible audience, a tactic that works very well for them, but there will always be a group of people that demands more features and greater control than Apple likes to provide.

I think a key word Ben used in his piece is "trust". Users have to trust that their data is safe with another company, knowing that they have absolutely no way of interfacing with any of it outside of specific apps. iA Writer, an example used by Ben as a fully self-contained solution, could go out of business someday. What happens to that data? Does Apple allow you to export it for use in other apps?

Of course one could say the same about Dropbox, but at least those files exist in a place where you can see them, such as your computer. They're easily copied/pasted elsewhere, and can be backed up in the manner of your choosing. Most users may not care about this, but the aforementioned group of demanding power users will always care about it.

If Apple is really going to put Dropbox out of business, they'll need to allow users more direct control over their files, and that's simply not going to happen. One of the big selling points of iCloud is that it does away with all that muss and fuss.

iCloud and Dropbox are simply two products for two different crowds, and that's okay. There's plenty of room for both to exist.

'Our Relationship With Free Services'

"If we’re going to use free services, we have to realize that nearly all bets are off."

That's true, but the "if" at the beginning of the sentence is the major factor. If these kinds of services begin using my information or my content in ways I disagree with, I'm free to leave at anytime and I will exercise that right unreservedly.

I'd rather pay upfront to use a service than become an unwitting walking advertisement, especially without compensation.

Consider the Text File

The text file is a versatile thing. It's been around since the beginning of computers and is just as powerful today as it was then. It can be read on any platform of your choice by a seemingly endless number of applications. It's easy to move around between folders and even other devices.

It can contain just about anything—your daily thoughts, a task list, your monthly expenses, article drafts, backups of those articles, a love letter, the book you intend to publish...the list goes on. If you run a blog, you can write your articles in Markdown syntax, which is both human-readable and easy to reformat as HTML. There are scripts that can take a simple text file and turn it into something far greater.

The text file has been around this long for a reason, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. It's just about the most future-proof type of file around. It has become indispensable in my workflow, and it can do the same for you. In a world full of incredible apps, people often forget about the building blocks that got us this far, which is the point of this piece. Consider it a reminder that even the simplest tools can often be the most powerful.

Go ahead, open up your text editor of choice. The possibilities are endless.

Review: Twitterrific 5 for iPhone

For quite a while now, I've been a dyed-in-the-wool Tweetbot user. I've tried just about every major Twitter client out there over the years, but for me, nothing ever really came close to the experience produced by the guys at Tapbots. Until recently, it had a permanent slot on my iPhone dock.

Well, nearly two weeks ago another contender entered the ring: Twitterrific 5. I took this as an opportunity to do an experiment. I've grown perhaps too comfortable with Tweetbot, so I decided to remove it from my phone entirely while I gave Twitterrific 5 a shot, thereby preventing me from succumbing to temptation and switching back at will.

Before I get to the review, I should briefly discuss the history of Twitterrific. The original Twitterrific was the first Twitter client to be released for the Mac. The later-released iPhone version was a landmark in app design, in fact the winner of an Apple Design award in 2008. It originated several Twitter conventions we now take for granted, including the use of birds in its imagery, the word 'tweet', and even the character counter displayed while composing tweets. You can view a timeline of the app's UI progression here, put together by the developers themselves.

Up to speed now? Good.

With Twitterrific 5, The Iconfactory has overhauled the entire design from the ground up, and it's beautiful. I usually don't enjoy dark themes in apps because they tend to make me recall some awful, awful Winamp themes from my teenage years, but Twitterrific 5 pulls off the dark look very nicely. The use of various pastel colors on a black background creates a pleasant Star Trek vibe.

Even if I hadn't enjoyed the dark theme, the developers have graciously included a light theme that switches the background from black to white. There's a setting to auto-switch to dark mode at night, if that's your thing. Other colors (i.e. text) are unfortunately not configurable, but the app is surprisingly theme-able otherwise. There are five typefaces to choose from: Helvetica, Proxima Nova (my current choice), Signika, Museo Slab (my 2nd favorite), and Calluna. You can also change font size, avatar size, and even line spacing.

Animations are fluid for the most part. One standout is the pull-to-refresh animation, which features an egg hatching into a bird that flaps its wings as the timeline loads, then teleports into nothingness when finished. Some people have expressed distaste for this animation, but I find that it supplements the app's charm.

What I can't get over is just how simple it feels to get around in the app. Switching between multiple accounts is a breeze (simply hold down on your avatar for a couple seconds and the list appears), your lists are only a tap away, and the main navigation buttons (Home, Mentions, Direct Messages, Compose) are prominently displayed at the top of the screen for easy access. Tap to highlight a tweet, and you'll be presented with several methods of interaction, like retweeting or even translating the tweet. Tweetbot-like gestures have also been included: swipe right on a tweet to reply, swipe left to view conversations/responses.

There are all sorts of other tips and tricks I won't go into here, but they're all listed under [Settings > Help] if you want to check them out.

Twitterrific finally handles blocking correctly, as opposed to other apps out there. With most Twitter clients, if you block someone it won't remove their previous tweets from your timeline, it will only prevent future ones from appearing. In Twitterrific 5, blocking someone immediately removes all of their tweets from your sight. Not a feature I use a lot, but it's nice to see it implemented correctly for once.

Of special note is the new icon, designed by The Iconfactory's own David Lanham. I've been a big fan of his work for years now, so it's a pleasure to have one of his designs sitting on my iPhone's dock.

As much as I love the app, there are a couple issues to mention. While they nailed the fluidity of animations within the app, it still takes an oddly long amount of time to refresh the timeline or other pages. Tweetbot always felt nearly instantaneous in this regard, so the extra several seconds it takes for Twitterrific to complete the same actions is mildly irritating. I'm spoiled, I suppose.

Another oddity is that my DMs tab hasn't once displayed anything since I purchased the app. It's just an empty black screen, no matter how many times I refresh. I re-downloaded Tweetbot just to make sure I'm not crazy, but my DMs are indeed showing up there. Hopefully Twitterrific fixes this in a future update.

One last thing I should talk about is how this is definitely not an app for power users the way Tweetbot is. According to the developers, it was specifically designed to be a casual Twitter experience and power users would do well to stick with Tweetbot or something similar, especially if they like to manage their lists.

Lists are viewable in Twitterrific 5, but you can't edit them, create new ones, or add users to existing lists, at least not that I'm aware of. There are also no push notifications or "streaming" features, two things I know are already keeping certain users away. Doesn't bother me personally, though.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this app to anyone but the most hardcore power users. What started as an experiment of going without Tweetbot for a while has turned into having a new favorite Twitter client in its place. It's a breath of fresh air in an otherwise overcrowded marketplace.

As of this writing, they're still having a 50%-off launch sale, meaning the app is going for $3. It's universal app as well, so it's basically a steal at that price. Go check it out.

iTunes 11 "Simplicity"

Lukas Mathis analyzes the new iTunes design:

"You can’t make a complex application simple by adding a veneer of simplicity on top of it. in fact, that will just add to the confusion, because now you’re sending the user misleading signals about what’s really going on. Apple promised a «dramatically simplified new interface». They were right; the interface does look more simple. Unfortunately, this just makes the rest of iTunes all the much worse."

Stephen Hackett linked to that same piece, adding this:

"Even after a couple of weeks of daily use, I’m still uncomfortable in the new iTunes."

I agree with both of them. I've been playing around with iTunes 11 for a couple days, and it's been one of the least enjoyable experiences I've ever had with the app. As someone whose history with iTunes has mainly taken place on Windows PCs rather than a Mac, that's saying something.

I'm lucky since I rarely need to use iTunes anymore now that I'm reliant on streaming services like Spotify, Netflix, and Hulu, but I sympathize with anyone who has bought most—if not all—of their content from iTunes.

Bringing Back the Magic

Anil Dash wrote what is probably today's most poignant piece, regarding the state of today's social web versus that of yesteryear.

"[The tech industry and its press] seldom talk about what we've lost along the way in this transition, and I find that younger folks may not even know how the web used to be."

This is a topic I find myself thinking about more and more as I become more involved with the blogging community. Anil is nicely articulating thoughts that have been bubbling under the surface of my mind for a while.

I sometimes wonder if the social web's golden age peaked during the early- to mid-2000s, a time when Flickr was king and lots of exciting things were being built, including a myriad of blogging platforms. A lot of this stuff happened before I took a serious interest in the web, and in retrospect I feel like I missed out on so much.

This is why I like occasionally poring through the archives of my favorite blogs. It's the next best thing to time-traveling back to when these people were having those thoughts and ideas, whether or not they're still relevant today.

It's also why I relish the fact that Flickr may become popular again. Flickr is one of the few communities from that era still chugging along, and I'm excited to potentially be a part of the same community that loved it originally.

Am I living in the past a bit? Maybe. But the web could use a little more magic again, and if bringing back these older communities is what it takes, then count me in.

App Store Best Of 2012

Tons of fantastic stuff to browse through here. Loren Brichter's game Letterpress even came in as runner-up for iPhone Game of the Year. Congratulations Loren!

'I'm Sticking With Apple Maps'

Jim Dalrymple:

"After typing in the name of the restaurant, Google Maps took me to India, which is on the other side of the world from where I am."

Yep.

One Night, Two Major iOS Releases

First up, Google Maps.

I've been playing with this app for the last hour, and I have to say that it's pretty nice. Animations are smooth, most settings are easy to find, and the voice navigation works well. One really cool feature: when using Street View at a particular location, tap the little double-arrow icon at the bottom left, and you can move the phone around to pan the camera on-screen, augmented reality-style.

One setting I disabled immediately was the 'Shake to Send Feedback' option. I won't be sending feedback to Google about incorrect map data enough for this setting to be useful, and in fact might be a hindrance if triggered accidentally. Also, when I first opened the app, I had the option to uncheck a tiny box that sends data to Google automatically. It's got to be one of the most difficult checkboxes I've ever attempted to tap.

In the end, I don't have any real reason to switch back from Apple Maps, but very nice work by Google here. Also, it seems that this app is only available for iPhone, no iPad version yet? Odd.

Next, 1Password.

Developer Agile Bits has released an entirely new version of their popular password generator/storage app. Everything has been redesigned from the ground up, and it looks great. Kinda reminds me of a Tapbots app, really (which is a good thing). The new icon is especially lovely. Currently on sale for $8, over 50% off from the normal price.

If you're at all concerned about password security, or if you're the type to use the same password for everything, you should get this app. You'll wonder how you lived without it before.

If you want a super-detailed review, Macstories has you covered.

Kind of a crazy day, what with these two apps plus Flickr's wonderful update earlier.

Marco's "Master Plan"

"The last thing I’d want is for a bunch of The Magazine lookalikes to flood the App Store with mediocre articles that haven’t passed through an editor and should just be (or already are) someone’s mediocre blog posts, just so they can easily charge for a subscription. There’s a time and a place for less-formal, less-polished blog writing — here and now, for instance."

I briefly touched on this point recently, and I'm glad Marco agrees. While it's exciting that new tools will soon enable people to publish their own magazines, it's important to stress that they shouldn't go around ripping off Marco's work.

Unfortunately, my hunch is that those same publishing tools will probably also enable lots of copycats. I hope I'm wrong.

New Flickr App for iPhone

This morning saw an update to Flickr's maligned and oft-ignored iPhone app. Until today, it was basically usable for browsing photos and maybe uploading here and there, but the experience wasn't all that great. With this new update though, Flickr has decided to bring their 'A' game.

Clearly the new UI has been inspired by Instagram, right down to the addition of photo filters. As popular as Instagram has become, I guess it was inevitable that Flickr would one day see them as a competitor.

While the old app was a big sluggish and weird, the new app is sleek, beautiful, and quick. Photos load nearly instantaneously, and scrolling through the gallery of recent uploads by my contacts has been a joy. The new photo filters aren't too bad either. This was my first test shot:

I only recently started getting back into Flickr after years of neglect, but it feels like I'm late to the party because I don't see as much activity going on around there as I used to. Of course, there are still a few remaining diehard fans who have poured years of their lives into the service, but the rest? Who knows.

Now, with this fantastic update, I can imagine lots of people returning to their Flickr roots and I'm honestly pretty excited about that. It's Yahoo's one killer service and I think it deserves a chance to stick around for a long time. It's certainly been the topic of discussion on my Twitter feed today, and I'm taking that as a good sign.

Either way, I'll certainly be spending even more time on the service.