Jonathan Markevich

All that Snoo

  • Steam Controller

    The visible and eminently tactile part of the Steam hardware experience is the controller. Steam took a leap and designed something significantly different from the standard twin stick/d-pad “standard”. The fundamental reason for doing this is that Valve is designing a controller for their platform and not for a subset of games that are already suited…

  • AppleTV Updated

    Finally, Apple decided to update the AppleTV – and promote it to the product menu bar on the main site!  This common, and popular, device had been overlooked for four years! The changes are exactly what I was wishing for… but somehow not enough.  The main thing I wanted was apps.  It seemed kinda dumb…

  • My Keyboard Journey

    As a professional developer, I spend a lot of time with my hands on a keyboard. Many many years ago, I was privileged to use an IBM Model M keyboard.  I really enjoyed it, but trends changed.  Microsoft came out with a fancy looking ergonomic keyboard and I had the chance to try it out.…

  • iDon’tCloud

    The recent update of iOS and OS X brought along Apple’s new cash grab photo organizing scheme framework.  To be honest though, it is very slick.  It makes photo storage and access very secure and ubiquitous.  You don’t need to worry about where your photos are and you (probably) don’t need to worry about having…

  • Clone a Clone

    So I had yet another WD MyBook die on me a couple of days ago.  And I still went out and bought another one (what was Einstein’s definition of insanity, again?)… This one was only two years old but these things are still quite cheap and very convenient to get.  Maybe someday when I have more…

  • Swype and iOS keyboards

    I have experimented with replacement keyboards on Android from time to time.  Though I had SwiftKey installed for a year, I mostly used it as a regular keyboard. So it wasn’t a real thrill for me when Apple announced third-party keyboards on iOS 8.   I found the iOS keyboard quite good, the design was really…

  • Pebbled

    When the Apple Watch was released, I was highly intrigued. I’m an on-again off-again watch wearer. I tend to lean to analog watches, though, something about the “liquid” display of time is very interesting to me. My last watch was a cool analog Timex chronograph. It had the capability to work as a stopwatch but…

  • Maglite Solitaire LED Conversion

    I got a Maglite Solitaire LED flashlight this summer, but I already had two regular incandescent ones.  Once you get used to the LED one, the incandescent one is so… dim… and yellow.  It’s really really convenient, though, and I’d hate to just drawer it, or worse yet, junk it. I got a cool little…

  • MacDVDRipper Pro 5

    I was a fan of RipIt and DVDRemaster a couple of years ago, I had a nice workflow going where I could convert my DVD TV series discs into MP4s for the Apple TV  (We have a lot of discs).  I discovered MDRP since then, and I have been very happy with it, just a…

  • Freemium Free

    It began with an outright refusal to pay extra to play more of a game. Freemium games are now dead to me. I should define more early what I mean. In this context I don’t mean a full game or app with add-ins, like extra levels or “pro” functionality. I figure each level is very…