A wonderfully detailed look at Newsblur »
Gabe Weatherhead has a massive — and mega-detailed — review of Newsblur, the RSS aggregator:
Newsblur offers direct import from a Google account. The import preserves all of the folders (or tags). After the import, I ended up with all of the subscriptions I had in Google Reader.
Newsblur can also import from an OPML file. I exported my feed data from Fever and imported directly into Newsblur. This worked perfectly. Every feed came over organized just as I had it in Fever.
But here’s where Newsblur already starts to impress. Browsing through the feeds, I noticed several with a yellow exclamation mark. Clicking that icon shows that the feed is broken, but Newsblur offers up a couple of solutions. You can choose to either retry or use a new feed. If Newsblur already knows about another feed for the site it will suggest the alternative. This fixed several of the dead Feedburner feeds cluttering up my list as people flee Google.
If you’re still looking around for a Reader replacement, Newsblur looks like a nice option. I’ve got my heels dug pretty deep in Fever, and I think I’ll stick with it. But at least now I know that Newsblur is a legitimate alternative and crafted with a lot of care.
Putting your Mac to sleep with Drafts »
David Sparks has a great tip for putting your Mac(s) to sleep using Drafts on iOS.
This is how it works:
I type “MB sleep” in Drafts and save it to the standard Drafts folder on Dropbox. (In my case it is located at Dropbox/Apps/Drafts.) I use “MB sleep” because I’m going to add a second one for putting the iMac to sleep.
Point Hazel at the Drafts folder and tell it to look for a file that contains the terms “MB sleep”
When Hazel sees the file, it deletes it and runs an AppleScript to put the Mac to sleep.
Read David’s whole post for the AppleScript bits. He goes on to explain how you can make this easier with Launch Center Pro —credit to Milosz Bolechowski:
Milosz had another great idea of using a URL scheme to further automate this. If you want to take it a step further, set up a URL scheme in Launch Center Pro as follows:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep
This is a great tip, but this stuck out to me:
Then when you tap the button in Launch Center Pro, it opens Drafts and fills in the text “MB sleep” for you. You just need to send it to Dropbox for the Magic to happen.
If instead, you make a Dropbox Action in Drafts, and use a slightly different custom URL in Launch Center, you can have Drafts do everything.
In Drafts, make a Dropbox Action called MB sleep. Add “MB sleep” to the template area so that is autofilled when the rule runs. Again, make sure this is pointed to your /Apps/Drafts/ folder. Then in Launch Center, use this URL scheme instead:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep&action={{MB sleep}}
With this, Launch Center Pro will kick you to Drafts, the MB sleep text is filled in, and will be sent to Dropbox where Hazel will pick it up. Nice thing is you don’t have to do anything but hit the action in LCP.
Here’s a little bonus if you want to be kicked back to LCP in the end:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep&action={{MB sleep}}&x-success=launchpro://
Rdio 2.2 Gets Improved Search »
Federico Viticci at MacStories:
A feature highly requested by Rdio’s userbase, label search allows you to view top albums and artists of a specific label; if you want to see more artists or records, there are links to view a complete list — which, surprisingly, doesn’t support the tap & hold menu for quick actions that was introduced a few updates ago.
In the refreshed sidebar (also available on the iPad) a new Find People functionality allows you to find friends and artists you can follow by simply tapping on their profile pictures. It’s unclear how Rdio is determining user suggestions, but it’s likely that the service is looking into data provided by Twitter and Facebook accounts configured with it.
The updates for Rdio — specifically on iOS — keep getting better. I’ve been using it since launch, and it’s been my favorite service of its ilk by far.
How Toothpaste Makes Orange Juice Taste Bad »
I’ve legitimately always wondered this.
The Alton Browncast coming soon to Nerdist »
Alton Brown, on his blog:
A lot of you have been inquiring via Twitter and Facebook as to the current condition of my podcast a.k.a. The Alton Browncast. Many of you took part in our initial recording session back in…well…a while ago and you rightfully deserve to know what the heck is going on.
Well, there is good news. Our podcast is going to be part of the famed Nerdist network of podcasts. We’re joining up with Chris Hardwick and his gang because they’re swell folks and seem to always be having a lot of fun and fun is good. So, the Alton Browncast will be available at Nerdist.com and on itunes as well as the new AltonBrown.com which is coming to an internet near you.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
—link via Mark Siegel
Add a list to Things using Drafts »
This is a great x-callback tip from Andrea Patruno on getting a list into Things from Drafts. One thing that always drives me nuts is that Things’s URL scheme is crap, to put it bluntly, and doesn’t allow adding more than one item at a time.
Andrea’s scheme uses Drafts’s built-in List in Reminders action to send a full list — with one task per line — over to Things, provided you have Reminders integration turned on. Everything will show up right in your Inbox. The post is a little hard to understand since I don’t think English is Andrea’s native language, so here’s the scheme:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=[[draft]]&action=List%20in%20Reminders&x-success=things://
Wish I would have thought of this earlier.
The One-Person Product »
Marco Arment has a great piece looking back on his time at Tumblr, and giving us a look inside.
David always had a vision for where he wanted to go next. I was never the “idea guy” — in addition to my coding and back-end duties, I often served as an idea editor. David would come in with a grand new feature idea, and I’d tell him which parts were infeasible or impossible, which tricky conditions and edge cases we’d need to consider, and which other little niceties and implementation details we should add. But the ideas were usually David’s, and the product roadmap was always David’s.
Read the whole piece. It’s incredibly interesting.
Flickr reborn »
The official Flickr blog:
At Flickr, we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality. No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat. We’re giving your photos room to breathe, and you the space to upload a dizzying number of photos and videos, for free. Just how big is a terabyte? Well, you could take a photo every hour for forty years without filling one.
And yep, you heard us. It’s free.
A terabyte. Holy crap. Big week for Yahoo.
The Impromptu #61 — Spiraling Web of Insanity »
I’m finally back on the show with the larger group (sorry!) and we talk about Facebook Home’s weaknesses, then get on to iOS 7 craziness as we creep toward WWDC. Listen in, and if you have a minute please rate the show in iTunes. It’s greatly appreciated!
Google's Big, Closed Target »
Harry pretty much nails it here. We don’t always agree on everything when it comes to Google, but he’s absolutely right; they need to stop acting like they’re different from everyone else. It’s okay to control your ecosystem.