Chrome Horizon (View bigger at Flickr)
My favorite photo Stacey took of me from our vacation. God how I miss that pool. My office doesn’t hold nearly as much water.
Maniacal Rage
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Rate iOS Apps Friday
It’s that time again: Take 10 or 15 minutes out of your day today and rate/review some of the apps you use on your iOS device in the App Store. Most people have tons of apps, many of which they love, but we’re all guilty of forgetting or not bothering to review them in the store.
Today my ratings included Osmos (5★), EpicWin (3★), Dunk (4★), Articles (5★) and Reeder (5★).
razorsharp asks: "I'm sure you'll be posting more about your vacation in Turks and Caicos, but I was curious how you found the balance between development and "nature" on the island? I know it's becoming a more popular tourist destination, and I'm hoping that my wife and I aren't missing the chance to visit it in its prime."
I’m not sure how to answer this, because our vacation consisted entirely of sitting on the beach then sitting by the pool then eating then sitting by the beach while eating and drinking and then swimming in the pool and then running over to the ocean and drinking while swimming after running over to the pool to lie down and drink. Seemed pretty “prime” to me.
“But what about this?” (View bigger at Flickr)
Stacey’s argument in favor of going to the pool before the airport on our last day in Turks and Caicos.
The Problem with Facebook’s “Places”
Here’s the thing about Facebook that really gets under my skin: They are slowly incorporating the features from every other independent web application on the internet. This is not inherently a problem—companies get bigger and they begin to have the resources to widen their feature set—the issue is that Facebook doesn’t do these features any better. They win simply due to how many users they have. It feels like mass-produced mediocrity.
When Facebook launched Photos, they immediately became the largest photo-sharing site on the internet, eclipsing Flickr nearly overnight. The problem is Facebook’s Photos functionality isn’t nearly as nice as Flickr. They became the largest photo-sharing site immediately because they already had those users who, by and large, spend more time on their site than anywhere else. These users aren’t going to venture out to Flickr if they can just dump their SD cards into Facebook.
The same thing goes for Videos (sub-par compared to Vimeo and even YouTube). Vimeo is one of the best video-sharing applications in the world but it will never have nearly as many users as Facebook, so most people use Facebook instead.
And, most recently, Facebook launched Places, competing with Foursquare and Gowalla (my favorite). Places launched and 20 minutes later nearly everyone in my Facebook friends list had already checked in. It’s not that Facebook’s Places feature is bad, it’s just that it’s boring. It’s nothing special. They didn’t do it better than anyone else.
That’s the problem with Facebook. They are slowly destroying independent web applications with boring versions that immediately win due to Facebook’s population (which at this point is the 3rd largest country on earth). There’s no demand for excellence.
Devour.com
Awesome hand-picked videos from my friends at Uncrate. They sail the turbulent seas of YouTube to find the best videos and present them all in HD and iPhone- and iPad-friendly formats.
Balcony Beach View (View bigger at Flickr)
We spent last week in Turks & Caicos. Prepare for several picture posts over the next few days. The island was beautiful and the hotel was amazing. This was the view from the balcony of our room. You can see how I might be having trouble re-acclimating.
You can view other photos from our trip in my Turks & Caicos set on Flickr.
Lady Gaga’s Poker Face Read By Christopher Walken
Honestly, this makes coming home from vacation a whole lot easier. OH!
