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You may see that as a problem, but I really see that as an advantage. I have my home screen set up to just be single icons (no icon groups) and that’s exactly what I want. My most commonly used stuff, ready to go. No distractions, no humongous widgets. I enjoy the simplicity. It’s not perfect, but ultimately, I find most Android skins as a big waste of time and battery life. WP8 is kind of appealing to me, but the lack of apps is a big sticking point.

I know Android can just be a big app grid, too, but on that side, I find the lack of small, flagship phones a dealbreaker. I can’t fit big phones into certain pockets, so they’re just not for me.

about 19 hours ago on Jony Ive's iOS 7 redesign reportedly eliminates 'heavy textures' for a flat, 'black and white' design

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I tried Mailbox, but it didn’t really help anything. The reality is that I don’t have a problem with inbox zero. For me, inbox zero means that I’ve read all my mail. Anything that I haven’t responded to that I want to respond to, I mark as unread. All Mailbox did was set up a bunch of irritating filters that messed with the way Mail.app on my Mac was accessing my mail.

I still prefer the iOS built-in Mail to everything else. GMail’s lack of a unified inbox is a deal-breaker for me, and the built-in notifications in iOS for VIPs is definitely a big bonus.

I prefer a fully unified inbox with virtually no sorting. That’s what search is for. In Mail.app, setting up a search folder is so easy, it’s a complete waste of my time to sort anything by hand. And google DOES search, right? That’s their thing? Just search for what you want. It’s way more powerful.

2 days ago on Mailbox launches an iPad app, but Gmail poses a greater threat than ever

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It’s really mind bending when you start considering all the afflictions we have related to food and whether or not it’s our gut microbiome that’s responsible.

For instance, I’ve got high cholesterol. I’m an active, mid-30s guy that competitively cycles, eats lots of vegetables and doesn’t eat a tonne of saturated fat. Meanwhile, I have a friend that’s a bit overweight and doesn’t exercise, loves eating bacon, and he has perfect cholesterol levels. Genetics? Or meta-genetics?

Celiac disease? Obesity? Lactose intolerance?

I also have a friend that recently ended up with C. Difficile from a run of antibiotics. They kept her on antibiotics for a while until it was clear it wasn’t working, and then they did a fecal transplant. A day later, she was back on normal food again, and C. Difficile wasn’t an issue anymore.

Can I get a gut microbiome transplant to fix my lactose intolerance or cholesterol levels? It’s exciting stuff.

8 days ago on Your body contains 100 trillion bacteria, but that's a good thing

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Why would Google do that? They even shut down active services that people use every day. You think they’re going to resurrect something that nobody owns that didn’t work terribly well to begin with?

9 days ago on New Google Music app breaks compatibility with ill-fated Nexus Q media streamer 1 reply

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I find myself using Zite more, since it makes better recommendations. Flipboard is for stuff I already know I like, but there’s virtually no discovery there. I use both daily, though.

16 days ago on Flipboard brings iOS magazine features to Android

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It debuted on iOS, and the Android version has previously been criticised for not being up-to-date with iOS. They could eliminate the mention of iOS, I guess, but it’s actually still fairly central to the whole context of why this matters at all. The review video is still of the iOS version, for pity’s sake.

Try not to let it ruin your day.

16 days ago on Flipboard brings iOS magazine features to Android 1 reply 1 recommend

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Well, the hats have an actual effect on the gameplay in the end, don’t they? I play to make enough money to buy things so I can play more effectively.

22 days ago on Indie iOS darling 'Punch Quest' finally lands on Android 1 reply

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Apple stopped doing the YouTube app themselves, but they certainly let the Google-made version onto the app store. They also switched to a new map infrastructure (for many reasons, really) but Google Maps was back on the app store pretty soon after. Apple doesn’t really have to accept these applications (there’s already a provision that you can’t too closely copy functionality that already exists in iOS, as I recall) but they do because it would be suicide, otherwise. Look how many people switched to Google Maps after the Apple Map debacle. Better that those people stay with an iPhone than end up on an Android, right?

22 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all? 2 recommends

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6 feels a bit better than 5, but yes. It’s getting slow. It’s not so slow as to be unusable for me, obviously, but it’s definitely not super fast anymore. I find the problem is more pronounced in startup times than anything.

22 days ago on HTC M4 leaks as a 4.3-inch miniature One

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I did two things when teaching myself:
1) I used little sticky bits of paper to tape over what was on the keyboard. This was only marginally successful.
2) I kept a little image of the dvorak keyboard on the screen, down in the corner. This was much more effective.

If you’re a touch typist, it’s hard to stop yourself from reaching for the wrong key. The first couple of days were the worst, but I was useless for a couple weeks. You can’t half-ass it, though. Switch and stay switched if you really want to learn. After you become good, you’ll find that you can switch back to qwerty after about 10 minutes of hunting around a bit. And because you (probably) see the qwerty keyboard every day when you’re looking at your phone or whatever, it’s kind of embedded in your brain already.

I never found a good non-qwerty keyboard that wasn’t fabulously expensive. If you’re careful, you can lift the keys off a normal (flat—ergonomic ones have specially shaped keys) keyboard and swap them around, though.

Good luck!

22 days ago on BlackBerry Q10 review: revenge of the keyboard

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Consider that for the $20 that you paid them, it costs them a fraction of a penny to handle your text messages. Last I read, it costs about 1/1000 of a cent to send a single text message, and the text message actually piggybacks on other data. It’s almost impossible to quantify how LITTLE it costs for a carrier to send it.

So IF you send 1000 texts this month, the carrier has pocketed $19.99 in pure profit.

23 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all? 2 replies

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Google makes money from its services, not its phones. They don’t care what phone you’re using, as long as you’re using their services. Android devices are effectively a big lever that forces Apple to accept Google’s apps, lest people leave the Apple ecosystem so they can get better Google services. Google really can’t lose.

23 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all? 2 replies 2 recommends