T-Mobile isn't Cheaper than Sprint →

Chris Zeigler writing at The Verge

Ultimately, it might come down to old-fashioned dollars and sense. If you're picking up a new phone, you'll pay more per month thanks to T-Mobile's monthly payment plan, granted, but other carriers don't offer the inverse (discounting plans for not buying new hardware). At $70 for unlimited data, T-Mobile undercuts Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon considerably, and it doesn't hurt that it's got a brand-new LTE network that it promises to ramp up quickly.

Based on my calculations comparing T-Mobile's new $70 per month plan1 versus Sprint's $80 per month plan2 shows that in order for T-Mobile to save you money you would need to keep your device for thirty-nine months. If you choose to upgrade your device at the normal two year interval any potential for savings goes away.

Ultimately why does it matter that Sprint doesn't offer a discout once you have fufliled the terms of your contract if it takes an additional 14 months to see any savings at T-Mobile.

1. This plan includes unlimited talk, unlimited messaging, and unlimited data with 500 mb of tethering↩

2. This plan includes 450 min of talk, unlimited messaging, and unlimited data with no tethering↩

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On Apple's new iPhone Marketing Strategy →

John Gruber writing at Daring Fireball

You can’t market against your rival when you have no rival. Now Apple does, so now they are. The last thing Apple should do is ignore Samsung, to just sit there and take it, stoically. I think Microsoft took that stance against Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign and it hurt them.

This is basically the same point I made on the last episode of the iOS Docked Podcast. It is a positive step to see Apple go after its largest rival without mentioning them by name, the only piece of this new marketing push that I can't explain is the interview Phil Schiller gave a few publications on the eve of the Galaxy S3S S4 launch event. My only guess is that it wasnt reported on in the mannar Apple expected it to be.

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Create a Local Evernote URL on the iPad with Pythonista

I have recently decided that I want to get back into using my iPad as my main mobile computer. I loved my MacBook Air but the hassle of managing two computers even in 2013 was more than I wanted to deal with. My first action was making sure that the workflows I had adapted to a Mac back in July of 2012 could be moved back to the iPad. Most were simple but a few centered around Omnifocus and Evernote created a small challenge.

The workflow I want to detail today is creating an Omnifocus action with a link to an Evernote note. I use this because I frequently get email with attachments or rich formatting that I need to access from an Omnifocus action. The Evernote client on the Mac and PC allow you to copy the local URL to a specific note but on iOS you can only get a web sharing link.

This link does work but on iOS it opens the specific note in the browser rather than the native Evernote app. The URLs, both shared and local, are long and filled with gibberish but the main ID number for the specific note is the same in both. This allows me to use code to change a shared or web URL to a local URL.

Lets break down a evernote local URL that I have created below (this is a fake url used for this example)

evernote:///view/1778308/s11/e9763a2b-4671-46a0-8asff-c6e4d28erla8/e9763a2b-4671-46a0-8asff-c6e4d28erla8/

There are 3 important parts. First the evernote URL handler or identifier "evernote:///", what I believe is the user ID "1778308", and the note ID "e9763a2b-4671-46a0-8asff-c6e4d28erla8". if we look at a shared evernote URL below we see the same note ID "e9763a2b-4671-46a0-8asff-c6e4d28erla8" along with other information.

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s11/sh/e9763a2b-4671-46a0-8asff-c6e4d28erla8/20d43dfghdfg456546d54fghhfe6461729312e

The Python code below takes the note ID from a shared URL and transforms it into a local URL. The only data you need is your user ID which you can get from a local evernote URL in the Mac or Windows Evernote client. The code builds the URL as follows.

evernote:///view/"User ID"/s11/"Note ID"/"Note ID"

The actual script lives and runs in Pythonista. This app is amazong and opens up iOS to many advanced workflows like this one. Pythonista has a robust URL scheme allowing me to launch this script from Drafts and add an action to Omnifocus using the following URL Action. The script in Pythonista expects some text imported from Drafts and an Evernote share URL on the clipboard. Replace "SCRIPTNAME" with what ever you name your script in Pythonista.

pythonista://SCRIPTNAME?action=run&argv+[[draft]]

Since the output of my script is an Omnifocus action I also capture the text of the Draft in line 8 of the script. The final line of the script uses Omnifocus's URL scheme to add a new action with a title containing the contents of my draft and a note containing the local Evernote URL.

If you don't use Omnifocus or just want some variety you can modify the script to place the local Evernote URL on your clipboard for simple pasting into other apps.

South Texas Nature

This is my favorite photo from a recent group of shots I took around South Texas where I live. This peir is as a place called Indian Point that I pass every morening on my way to work. The rest of the shots in the gallery are from a huge park in Corpus Christi, TX that is right by my office.

 
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Comment

Why the new iPad has a larger taper than the iPad 2

I have wondered since the first leaked shots of the new iPad's rear shell hit the web what the purpose of increasing the taper on the back was for. Typically Apple does not make design changes just for changes sake, they make a change for a reason. After seeing this tweet it hit me.

Apple needed more battery capacity to compensate for the extra power consumption of the retina display and the LTE chip set. Apple had to increase the thickness of the iPad to accommodate this larger battery. I believe that Apples intention was to keep the design identical. In order to allow all iPad 2 cases to fit the updated model they added extra taper.

Any loose fitting case would not be an issue but tight rear shells would need some extra room to stretch and compensate for the extra 0.03" of thickness on the new iPad. The added taper gives tight case the room they need to stretch and still fit the new iPad. I love Apple's attention to detail.