By Jason Snell

May 17, 2016 9:19 AM PT

Associate, a simple iOS app for Amazon links

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Affiliate links are one way that people who spend a lot of time linking to stuff on the Internet can make money. From bigger enterprises like the Wirecutter to smaller ones like Six Colors and The Incomparable, it’s great to recommend a product and get a bonus if someone in your audience ends up buying it because of your recommendation.¹

Linking to products on iTunes or Amazon with the appropriate affiliate tags takes a little more effort than making a generic link. I’ve got a bookmarklet that does it for Amazon and there’s a web page that Apple offers that does the same thing. But if I’m working on iOS, there are a couple of apps that can make the process of generating these links much easier.

New on the App Store today is Associate: Simple Affiliate Linking for Amazon, a $5 app from John Voorhees that wraps any Amazon link you provide in the proper affiliate codes, and can even look up the name of the product and embed it in a Markdown link.

With this workflow, I can browse a product page on Amazon, choose Associate from the Share Sheet, and the Associate interface will slide in. With a couple of taps I’ve got a Markdown link on my clipboard. For example, I read and enjoyed Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which just won the Nebula Award for best novel. That link was generated by Associate. (Unfortunately, Affiliate has to use the full Amazon product name, which is often full of SEO junk text, so I had to edit the text of the link to make it more readable. Does anyone really want to link to Uprooted: Naomi Novik: 9780804179058: Amazon.com: Books? Yuck.)

Associate follows on the release of Blink: Better Affiliate Links, a similar $5 app from Voorhees that does the same thing for iTunes affiliate links, including the links I made in this story to both apps. The snake eats its own tail, I guess.

Anyway, these apps are both great little additions to the workflow of anyone who does a lot of product blogging on iOS.

By Jason Snell

May 12, 2016 1:30 PM PT

2016 MacBook review: A laptop with a point of view

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

The MacBook isn’t just a laptop. It’s a statement.

It doesn’t happen with every Apple product, but every so often the company creates a product that comes with a point of view so strong, it’s like a statement of personal belief—if a technology product from a many-billion-dollar corporation could ever be that.

It’s impossible not to look at the MacBook and see its idiosyncrasies. Size and weight have been prioritized over everything else. It’s as narrow a laptop as can exist while still having a full-sized keyboard; it’s so thin that the key travel on the keyboard is minuscule. This is the laptop designed like an iPad, fanless and thin and with a single USB-C port.

Continue reading “2016 MacBook review: A laptop with a point of view”…

By Dan Moren

May 11, 2016 11:42 AM PT

The mystery of OS X’s haunted input volume slider

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Usually I prefer to post my head-scratching technical mysteries after I find an answer for them, but on this one I’m stumped–and I’ve been so for some time now.

I’m on a lot of podcasts, and while I’m no audio engineer, I do pride myself on recording decent sound. My Yeti USB mic may not be the top of the heap, but with a shock mount, pop filter, and boom arm, it serves me quite ably on the hardware end.

But it’s the software that’s been confounding me. I’ve taken to recording most podcasts with OS X’s Sound preference pane open, because for some reason, OS X–or one of the apps I’m using (more on that in a bit)–has taken to automatically adjusting my audio input level as I’m recording. Like this:

(That GIF is a slightly sped up version of a chunk of today’s Clockwise podcast.)

I have to assume that it’s intended as a helpful feature: correcting your audio so that it doesn’t get too loud or too soft. But I already have hardware gain control on my microphone set to the level I like. Moreover, sometimes this auto-adjusting phantom seems to act according to its own nonsensical rationale.

It’s unclear to me just how much effect it has on the recording itself. Jason, who edits many of the podcasts I’m on, says that it isn’t pronounced, but I’ve recently noticed a couple blips during shows that I’m editing which I suspect can be attributed to it.

The other problem is that the input level fluctuations affect how I’m hearing myself through my headphones, which are plugged into the Yeti’s monitor port. When the input level drops, I have a harder time hearing myself; when it goes up, I sound too loud. So of course, I innately try to compensate, talking louder when I can’t hear myself. As if that wasn’t distracting enough, I inevitably end up trying to fiddle with the input level as I’m recording.

I’ve spent a long time investigating this phenomenon, which has been around for at least a few versions of OS X, and other friends have told me they notice the same thing.

Casting around online has found a variety of likewise frustrated people, but no solution. Some lay it at the feet of Skype, which does have an auto-adjustment option in its preferences–but I’ve had that unchecked for ages.

And the problem’s not limited to when Skype is running, either: I’ve also noticed it while doing shows via Google Hangouts. (I’ve tried some fiddling with my browser there to turn off any auto-adjusting that may be done by the Hangouts plugin, to similarly no avail.) Hence my conclusion is that something in OS X itself is adjusting the volume.

Though it seems to come and go at times, what I’ve noticed in recent weeks as I’ve been paying closer attention is that the problem only seems to rear its head in Skype on calls with more than two people. When Jason and I record the Six Colors subscriber podcast, for example, the input slider stays where I put it. It doesn’t seem to be until a multiparty call that it goes nuts. Weird, right? (Update: Not longer after I wrote this post, we recorded this week’s episode and, sure enough, I still had the phantom slider doing its thing. So much for that theory!)

And so, my quest for a good solution continues. Whether it’s disabling some aspect of OS X’s audio system that’s doing this (presumably to “help” record better sound) or finding an app that will let me lock input volume into place, I shall not rest until I banish this poltergeist back into the netherworlds from whence it came.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Glenn Fleishman

May 11, 2016 11:35 AM PT

Medium’s latest intriguing publishing experiment

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

The recent launch of a paid membership option for publications hosted at Medium, a publishing platform, has me thinking again about what it takes to sustain an independent editorial effort — like the one you’re reading right now!

As the editor and publisher of The Magazine — I can’t bring myself to say “former,” though it’s been shuttered for nearly 18 months — I have a passionate and ongoing interest in how small-scale editorial operations can be funded. This site’s fine proprietor mixes annual subscriptions, sponsorships, and podcast advertising with his own freelance work and book writing to allow him the freedom to post regularly, have Dan Moren as a regular contributor, and let some freelancers like me opine.

But it’s hard work to pull all the pieces together to publish for both mobile and desktop readers, and pull in some net revenue to boot. This is where a new initiative from web-publishing platform Medium comes in. Medium isn’t offering a solution for all woes. Hell, with its track record, it might only provide this service for a year or two, before moving on to something very different. But it’s trying something new, and its effort may convince other hosting platforms to build or enable recurring revenue without the overhead required today. (I’m looking at you, Squarespace.)

Medium is bringing enough separate pieces together seamlessly and with a high aesthetic quality that it might work to sustain some sites, or even let them grow.

Continue reading “Medium’s latest intriguing publishing experiment”…

By Jason Snell

May 9, 2016 2:44 PM PT

Review: Logitech Base

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Logitech’s $100 Base is the first product to use the iPad Pro’s Smart Connector that isn’t an Apple Smart Keyboard or the Logitech Create keyboard. Compatible with both sizes of iPad Pro, it’s an aluminum stand with integrated charging via the Smart Connector.

I like the construction of the Base, which is solid aluminum that looks and feels like an Apple-caliber accessory. The iPad connects magnetically to the base, aligning automatically to the Smart Connector pins on the left side of the iPad’s case. The Base bends around to provide support for the iPad a bit higher up on the case. A Lightning connector on the back of the Base provides the power for charging.

When attached to the Base, the iPad is only slightly reclined. In my kitchen I’ve got a wooden iPad stand from Chef Sleeve that I use a lot; it’s got two angles, and I use both based on how far below my eyeline my iPad is sitting. The Base’s angle matches the taller of those two orientations, meaning that when I’m writing on the bar in my kitchen with the iPad in the Base, I can’t stand—I need to sit on a barstool in order to get a comfortable viewing angle. It’s also a bit too upright to do much typing on the software keyboard—this is an angle suited more for watching video than anything else.

The Base isn’t adjustable, so if the angle doesn’t work for you, you’re out of luck. It strikes me as being a better angle for video viewing than for using with a Bluetooth keyboard, but your mileage will vary.

I was impressed with how solid the iPad feels when it’s docked in the Base. There’s no wiggle or sense of instability. My biggest complaint about the usability of the device is actually related to its unique asset: You can’t attach the iPad to the stand without peeling off the iPad’s Smart Cover or Smart Keyboard, both of which also attach on the left side of the iPad.

The Logitech Base is solidly made and does what it says on the box. This is a product that’s been designed for someone who wants an attractive stand and doesn’t want to fuss with plugging and unplugging Lightning cables to charge their iPads, and is willing to pay for the privilege. On this, the Logitech Base delivers.

The question is really about its limited utility. For $99, you get a very nice aluminum iPad stand that charges via Lightning. You can probably get a simpler stand for a lot cheaper and just plug the same Lightning cable into your iPad rather than the back of the Base stand. For most people, that’s a better—and cheaper—option, unless you’re wowed by the novelty of charging via the Smart Connector.