ClaytonMorris
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Speed-reading app ReadQuick shrinks down for iPhone
How much do you read in a day? Is there a backed-up queue of articles, documents and stories that you'd tackle if you had more time -- or if you could read more quickly? ReadQuick, a US$4.99 iOS app produced by the husband and wife / TV journalist team of Clayton and Natali Morris and programmed by Pablo Quinterros, aims to up your reading speed gracefully. The new version adds iPhone support, a longstanding request from fans. The original version of ReadQuick, launched last year to generally solid reviews, was only available on the iPad. It features an accessible, sleek interface (if you like Instapaper, one of ReadQuick's content sources, you'll like the Wondersauce-designed RQ look) and the ability to adjust reading speed from the default 250 words per minute down to a plodding 100 WPM or up to a blazing 800 WPM. The app delivers stories from Pocket, Instapaper or a collection of featured specialist, news and tech sites in a very specific way: one - word - at - a - time. You get a preview of how long reading the story will take, helping to optimize your reading time. There's also a "timed playlist" feature, checking how long your full set of stories will take to read, and a statistics page with your reading performance. This chunked content delivery -- an implementation of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP -- has shown promise in some research contexts for improving reading speed without a proportional drop in comprehension. For me personally, RQ is a great way to enforce focus and attention on what I'm reading; if I look away, daydream or get distracted, I'm going to miss something. Aside from feeling like you can only blink one eye at a time, it's actually quite immersive. The iPhone version is just as effective as the iPad; in fact, the smaller screen makes the single-word UI seem more appropriate. ReadQuick is a solid combination of brain training and handy story aggregation. For the cost of a grande latte, you can try to widen your personal information bandwidth, and who couldn't use an upgrade?
Daily Update for September 7, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Fox News: New iMacs are imminent
Fox News "Fox and Friends" host Clayton Morris is a huge Apple fanboy like us, and he's reporting today that "the iMacs are coming." His take is that delayed in-store pickup of the 27-inch model -- which TUAW reported on last week -- as well as multiple sources telling him that a "new lineup of desktop machines from Apple is imminent" is enough to run a story saying that the company is going to "unveil (a) new lineup of desktop iMacs." Well, that will happen eventually. But whether or not it happens at the September 12 Apple event is another question. Yes, all of us would love to see a Retina display iMac with the new Ivy Bridge processors and better graphics chips, USB 3.0 and a thinner design thanks to no optical drive. But is Apple going to spoil the fun at the iPhone-dominated event next week with a throw-off announcement about a product that doesn't contribute a whole lot to the company's bottom line? A quick check showed that the availability of both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models for in-store pickup is now showing "Available Sep 19" across the US. A wild guess? That is probably the date that new iMacs might be announced and available, as to not take any of the shine off of the iPhone announcement. What's your take on the iMac story? Are the new machines imminent (next week), or do you think that Apple will wait another week (September 19) to unveil the new desktops? Leave your comments below.
Growing up Geek: Natali Morris
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have CNBC technology contributor, Natali Morris. These days I spend more of my time raising geeks than growing up as one. I gave birth to my daughter just seven weeks ago, so there is little time to geek out, but the force is still there. Temporarily dormant. I am a TV journalist who specializes in geek, as a technology contributor to CNBC. I got an early start in television. I was Miss Fremont 1984. Maybe you recognize me from the parade float with Sylvester and Tweety Bird? No? Odd. That's me on the left with my younger sister on the children's show Romper Room in 1984. Question: When we talk about my geeky childhood, do we mean that I had special geeky talents? Because I'm not sure I was a geek as much as I was a nerd. I was a rule follower. An overachiever. I always got the best grades in my science classes, had my term papers written weeks in advance, and always kept my textbooks covered with brown bag paper the way school policy required. I also had braces and headgear. And bangs. So what do you think? Geek or nerd? Or idiot? Actually no, I didn't always follow the rules. I used to cheat on the Nintendo Power Pad by pounding on the pressure sensors with my hands instead of my feet when I was feeling lazy. I used the code to get 30 extra lives on Contra. Although is it really cheating if it is built into the game? But I digress.
Apple event this month to focus on iTunes U and textbook initiative
Yesterday, TUAW reported on a rumored Apple media event to be held in New York City later this month. Shortly after that post blessed the Interwebs, TUAW followed up with further detail from sister site TechCrunch. The word from the TechCrunchers was that the January event will focus on iBooks and publishing. Now Fox & Friends anchor Clayton Morris is quoting "sources involved" and saying that the event will focus on iTunes University, education, and an electronic textbook initiative. Morris provided the following bullet points on his blog: This event will focus on iTunes University and Apple in education I learned of the event back in September when it was originally scheduled for late Fall in New York but it was eventually postponed. The event will be in New York rather than in the Silicon Valley because New York is more centrally located for textbook and publishing. This initiative has been in the making for years. The announcement will be small in size but large in scope: a big announcement in a demure space. I expect at least two large project announcements as they relate to Apple in education. Steve Jobs was intinimately involved with this project before his passing. He gave a hat tip to the textbook side of this project in the Isaacson biography. This will not be a hardware-related announcement. TUAW will be keeping an eye on the news about this event and we'll make sure you hear about as soon as we do.
Growing up Geek: Clayton Morris
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a new feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we're happy to have Clayton Morris, host of Fox & Friends, Gadgets & Games, and longtime friend of Engadget. I can't remember a time in my life without gadgets. Born on New Year's Eve in Bicentennial Philadelphia, just three days before Apple Computer added an "Inc." to its name, my crib was filled with toys that buzzed, beeped, and burned through batteries. Don't tell Child Services, but I'm sure the soldering iron in the 'build your own radio set' wasn't safe for babies. Boring wooden toys were cast aside in favor of Speak & Spell, Simon Says, and Verbot: the voice controlled robot (although I could never get that damned thing to bring me a drink). There have been two phases in my life: pre-Atari and post-Atari. Even though I was only two, everything changed the day my mom and dad brought home an Atari 2600 in 1978. I could barely walk or go to the bathroom by myself, but I could play Pong with the Atari's paddle controllers and blow up tanks in 'Combat.' On Easter Sunday my sister Nicole and I would get 'Demons to Diamonds' and 'Pitfall' instead of chocolate bunnies.
iPhone 4 takes great pictures, breaks up robbery
There are many iPhone 4 photos already populating the Interwebs, but relatively few of those galleries end with law enforcement activity. Fox & Friends weekend anchor Clayton Morris (also the host of the Gadgets and Games Web show, where I'm pleased to be an occasional guest) was heading home from his early shift on Sunday, and he decided to avail himself of the fine morning light to snap a few 5 MP shots with the new and improved camera. He produced a nice gallery of pictures (especially the downstairs shot of the Broadway Apple Store), but the last three are a little bit oddly composed. It kinda looks like a guy running away from something, and that's exactly what it was; Morris happened to walk by a store robbery in progress (!) and snapped a few pictures of the suspect fleeing the scene. He also used his iPhone to call 911 and followed the perp long enough to guide the police in for an arrest. It's likely that these are the first iPhone 4 photos of a crime -- but if you've got one-of-a-kind iPhone pics to share, let us know in the comments!
