I couldn’t be more excited about the update to Simplenote this week, and in recognition of this update to an already great app, Patrick Rhone asked us all, “What’s in Your Simplenote?”

Here’s my list:

1. Notes I take during important phone calls.
2. IP addresses, server names, account setup instructions, folder paths, and other miscellaneous “IT” configuration-related snippets.
3. Quotes.
4. Any piece of “unstructured” reference information that I want to remember that doesn’t neatly fit into 1Password, TaskPaper, a “document”, email, or contact management apps. This stuff is almost always one word, one sentence, or one paragraph in length.
5. Useful snippets of Applescript.
6. Travel confirmation numbers.
7. Various reference lists that haven’t yet been promoted to my TaskPaper master “someday / maybe” or “lists” document.
8. Blog post drafts.
9. The draft of this list.

Great idea, Patrick.

Kindle and iPad Displays: Up close and personal. | BIT-101.

This is a really interesting post.  Keith Peters compares the font rendering of a Kindle, iPad, newspaper,  magazine, and a paperback book under a USB microscope.

I wonder how many years before e-ink becomes indistinguishable from paper media.

Let’s be honest. “Sent from my iPhone” really means “I’m not going to bother to proofread and correct this because it would take me an extra 30 seconds.”

via Insight: Let’s be honest. “Sent from my… – (37signals).

This made me laugh out loud.  So true.

When to use i.e. in a sentence – The Oatmeal.

Another great comic from The Oatmeal.

I’ve heard this explanation a million times, but it’s amazing how injecting a little humor into it solidifies the usage rules into your brain.

via Newsweek: Back Story: Books vs. E-Books

Nice infographic from the folks at Newsweek.

Amazon’s strategy is as sensible as any I can think of for the Kindle–make it more like a book and even less like an iPad, thereby catering to all the folks who want the equivalent of a relatively cheap, highly portable digital paperback rather than the costlier do-it-all device that is Apple’s tablet. For all the people who do their electronic reading on the iPad and/or smartphones like, um, me there should be plenty of customers left who want a dedicated device–at least for now.

via New Amazon Kindle: Even Kindle-ier and Less IPaddish.

Bingo.  Pre-ordered mine last night.

Today wasn’t a day for paradigm-shifting product announcements from Apple, but you’ve got to be impressed nonetheless.  Every product that was updated or launched today showcased the company’s attention to detail, the consistency of its design philosophy, and the complementary nature of its product line.

With the release of the Magic Trackpad, you can feel Apple’s swagger as it pushes the industry down the path of touch as a primary user interface.  It started with the iPhone, then the iPad Touch, the multi-touch MacBook Pro, the iPad, and now the Magic Trackpad.  This is steady, incremental innovation and Apple’s discipline to execute against a consistent design philosophy over a multi-year period is impressive.

Then take the seemingly mundane Apple Battery Charger.  On first glance, it is barely interesting enough to get your attention, but upon further review, you realize that Apple pulled “an Apple”.  It took a 1980s technology and improved performance, all the while making it a perfect complement to the existing wireless Apple products.  Apple has instantly created what is now a best-in-class family of wireless input devices when the Apple Battery Charger is placed alongside the Magic Trackpad and the pre-existing Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard.

And the updated iMacs, Mac Pros, and 27″ Cinema Display?  All great upgrades to existing products.  In this group though, the nod has to go to the Cinema Display.  Yes, it is a “monitor”.  Yes, it is an expensive piece of hardware,  but who wouldn’t want one if you own an Apple computer of any sort?  Whether you own a MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, iMac, or Mac Mini, the Cinema Display feels like it was designed specifically for your computer.

The Apple product line is now a matrix of  products that are so complementary of each other, that it is hard to imagine customers leaving the Apple ecosystem once they have dipped their toe into the water.

The New York Times published an article yesterday which tells you just about everything you need to know about the state of the Kindlesphere.

On e-book sales:

Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books.

In that time, Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.

On the Kindle in an iPad world:

One reason Kindle book sales have held their own is that owners of iPads and other mobile reading devices buy Kindle books, which they can read on computers, iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys and Android phones. But, except for the free uncopyrighted books, Kindle owners must buy or download content via Amazon. “Every time they sell a Kindle, they lock up a customer,” Mr. Shatzkin said.

Some industry analysts say that many people do not consider the iPad to be a reading device the way the Kindle is, and see a need to own both. Amazon’s latest sales figures are “clearly an indication that the iPad is complementary to the Kindle, not a replacement,” said Youssef H. Squali, managing director at Jefferies & Company in charge of Internet and new media research.

And the impact of the Kindle price reduction:

The growth rate of Kindle sales tripled after Amazon lowered the price of the device in late June to $189 from $259.

Every single one of these larger trends mirror my personal experience to a T:

• I’ve pretty much abandoned buying hardcover and paperback books.  If a book isn’t available on the Kindle, I almost always wait it out and instead find another e-book to read.
• Owning an iPad hasn’t decreased my Kindle usage, it has actually increased it and also made me more aware of the value of the platform.  There was something about seeing my Kindle content show up on the iPad, that just cemented the entire value proposition around its ubiquity.  And it goes without saying that trying to read on the iPad’s LCD screen both in bright sunlight and for an extended period of time only makes you appreciate the Kindle’s e-ink screen even more.
• Since the Kindle price has dropped and Kindle deals have been abound on everything from woot.com to Amazon’s own refurbished sell off, I’ve only been thinking more and more about Kindles as viable gifts for friends and family.  I’ll be shocked if there’s not some sort of Kindle charged to the credit card before the year is out.

This is all great news for the Kindle.  Keep your fingers crossed for an August Kindle refresh.

Anyway, I think we should build nothing but shrines there. One of every kind of church. Spare no expense. I thought they should move Shea Stadium there. Thats another kind of shrine. No serious business at Ground Zero from now on. Just contemplation, prayer, reflection and baseball. When they try to blow it up they’ll seem like the spoiled sports and sore losers that they are.

via Scripting News: A mosque at Ground Zero.

Earlier tonight I was catching up on my RSS feeds and stopped in my tracks when I read this paragraph from a recent Dave Winer post.   Not two minutes later I saw Marco Arment excerpt this exact quote on his blog.

I’ve realized over time that a lot of my favorite bloggers read each other’s content, and it results in an echo chamber of sorts around good posts.  I don’t mind it all that much though.  If nothing else it is an affirmation that I’m in good company, and I’m reading content from people who are interested in the same stuff I that am.

So while I have a little guilt that I’m mainly just adding to the echo chamber with this post, I just loved Dave’s sentiment and felt I had to share.

What I’d really like is improved handling of event reminders. Including a way to keep my laptop, iPad, and iPhone from all buzzing an event reminder at the same time if they’re in proximity to one another, as well as syncing the dismissal of on-display reminders.

via David Chartier on MobileMe Calendar Beta – Shawn Blanc.

Great idea.  This definitely passes the “never knew I needed it until I saw it” test.