Mr. Reader Replaces Reeder
I admit it. I am a RSS junkie. When it comes to reading websites for information, I cannot get enough. Fortunately, there are a number of RSS readers that allow me to quickly scan through multiple sites.
To date, I had been using Reeder ($4.99 - iTunes Link) as my primary RSS reader on my iPad. That is no longer the case as I have transitioned to Mr. Reader ($3.99 - iTunes Link). Why? Simply because it allows me to scan the multiple feeds quicker and it renders the web pages clearer and faster.
When I lazily want to scan the feeds like a magazine, I use Flipboard (Free - iTunes Link). But when I want to make short order of the feeds, it is my new friend, Mr. Reader. By the way, Reeder is still my choice on my MacBook Pro...for now.
My IOS Photography Workflow
Lately, I have been using my iPhone as my primary walkaround camera for casual photography. I am quite happy with the photographs that it can capture. As I have discussed in the past, my camera application of choice is Camera+ (itunes link, $1.99). While Camera+ has some nice post-processing capabilities for quick editing and sending to Facebook or Twitter, sometimes I want more advanced editing. That is where two additional software products become important: one for the iPad (Filterstorm Pro - above) and the other for both the iPad and iPhone (Pics - below).
Processing the Photo on iPad
I really like the iPad for post-processing of my phones, but the camera on the iPad is terrible and not suitable for photography. My new favorite photography program on the iPad is Filterstorm Pro (itunes link, $14.99). While a pricey app as iOS goes, Filterstorm Pro is like a combination of Lightroom and Photo Mechanic for the iPad. Obviously, it is not as feature-rich as those software programs, but it accomplishes much of the same tasks on the iPad.
It includes various features such as batch processing of images to edit IPTC metadata and transmit multiple images to iPad photo library, FTP, Flickr, Dropbox and email. Filterstorm Pro's editing tools include the standard items like cropping, rotationing and straightening as well as curves, white point and black and white tools. You can use masking tools to apply filters to different areas of an image.
How do you get the image to the iPad?
You won't be taking the photos with the iPad camera. However, you can load photos through Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit (Apple Store link - $29.99). That is great if I want to unload my photos from my Nikon, which is a discussion for a different blog. What about if I want to get my photos from my iPhone?
Enter Pics (iTunes link - $1.99). Pics is a critical photo management app for iOS that allows you to sort you photos into different albums, protect them with a passcode and most importantly transfer them to your computer through Wifi connection AND to your companion iPad/iPhone via a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection. Now, I can take photos on my iPhone with its outstanding camera and transfer it to my iPad without having to move them to my MacBook Pro! And the app is an universal app so you only need to pay once.
The software has a sync capability over the P2P connection; though I have not yet tested the functionality. Also, there is a Mac application called Pics Assistant (MAS link - Free), but I haven't been able to get it to consistently work effectively.
A Powerful iOS Photography Workflow
The combination of Camera+, Filterstorm Pro and Pics has really changed the way I handle my iPhone photography. If you are serious about yours, I suggest you check out this winning combination.
Lighttrac - A Must-Have iPad App for Any Outdoor Photographer
By: Stephen Terlizzi
Shortly after I received my new iPad 2 several weeks ago, my first activity was to search for some great iPad Photography apps. While the cameras in the iPad 2 (unlike my iPhone 4) are eminently forgettable, it is definitely a great platform for planning your photography and reviewing the resulting photographs. If you are an outdoor photographer, one application that is a must-have is Lighttrac by Rivolu Pte ($4.99 - iTunes Link).
LightTrac helps you find the perfect lighting for your outdoor photos by giving your the information you need on the available light from the Sun and Moon based on the time and location anywhere in the world. LightTrac calculates and plots the angle of Sun and Moon on top of a map, for any location and can save multiple locations and easily switch between them.
As you can see from the above picture, I can get information about any location (in this case the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco) including Sunrise/Sunset and Moonrise/Moonset as well as the angle of the Sun or Moon at a given time. You can choose the date, time and location in advance to plan your photo shoot.
You can save the information for later retrieval and change the map from satellite to Google Street Maps as required. Finally, you can export to email a KML that can be used in Google Earth, Google Maps, etc. It would be nice to have some other export options such as Dropbox.
Also, the application is a universal app and is available on the iPhone, too. In short, if you do outdoor photography and care about taking outstanding photos, this is a must-have application.
Geektool Unleashed
With three screens on my office configuration, I have a lot of workspace to use. Over the holidays, I did some geeking out and configured one of my screens with Geektool. Geektool allows you to display on your desktop various kinds of information. In the picture above, the to-do list on the left, the post-it note, stock quotes, bible quote, webcam picture and the date & weather information are all embedded in the desktop using Geektool. Download Geektool here.
It is a preference pane module that allows you to display the contents of a file (e.g. the Post-It note which is simply a note that exists in Notational Velocity), an image from a webserver (e.g. the webcam image or the weather image) and the most powerful outputs from shell commands (e.g. my Omnifocus to-do list cut off on the left or the extracted Bible quote from Daily-verse.com). Also, don't forget to customize your desktop image to work with the Geektool elements like the old paper and yellow post-it on my school blackboard.
You can find many Geektool scripts (and images of some very tricked out Desktops on the internet). Just Google Geektool! For the Omnifocus Geeklets to embed your overdue and due soon items on the desktop, please click here.
As for the Bible quote, that is a Python Script written by my good friend Nilesh that extracts a daily bible verse from the website daily-verse.com. You need to install Beautiful Soup, which is a Python HTML/XML parser, and it can be found here, http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/ .
The script is:
from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup
import urllib2
page = urllib2.urlopen("http://daily-verse.com/")
soup = BeautifulSoup(page)
thequotation = soup.h2.prettify()[12:][:-15]
thesource = soup.h3.prettify()[5:][:-7]
print thequotation + "\n" + "\n" + thesource
I used a Corsiva Hebrew Bold Font 18 points and full justification. Also, you need to remember to force carriage returns in Geektool.
Have fun customizing your desktop! Enjoy!
RSS Feeds Live with Reeder!
I am a news addict. I admit it...politics, technology, current events...I love reading about what is going on in the world. And I want it from multiple perspectives which means in this age of biased reporting...multiple news sources. To keep on-top of the information, I am a big user of RSS feeds. What is an RSS feed? Geek alert ahead...skip next paragraph if you want.
According to Wikipedia, "RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds. RSS allows users to avoid manually inspecting all of the websites they are interested in, and instead subscribe to websites such that all new content is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes available."
Geekiness aside, it is a way to have changes from website come to you in a reader rather than you going to various websites. I had been using NetNewsWire on my Mac and iPhone combined with Google Reader to provide syncing. But no longer!
I have moved to a new package on both platforms, Reeder. You can find Reeder for iOS in the App store as a released product and Reeder for Mac in beta, here. Previously, it was unbearable to scan my RSS feeds on my iPhone and now I can make quick work of them on the road. When I am at my mac, it is easy and quick to review the feeds, read the interesting articles and send it off to various sites, like Twitter or Instapaper, or email the link.
I suggest that you check out Reeder if you are a heavy RSS user.
Divvy, Keyboard Maestro and Multiple Monitors
My current MacBookPro setup has three monitors on my desk. In addition to the standard laptop screen to the right, I have a Gateway FPD2485 LCD display serving as my Main Screen and an additional LCD screen from my old retired Dell desktop on the left. The Dell LCD display is connected to my Mac through a Diamond Multimedia DisplayLink BVU195 USB Display Adapter ($89.99). The setup gives me some serious screen space to do my work; however, it also makes management of my windows problematic.
I solved the problem by using two different software products - Keyboard Maestro ($36) and Divvy ($14). I reviewed Divvy, which is a window management tool in a previous blog entry. Keyboard Maestro does many things by allowing you to create custom macros for automation. Using Keyboard Maestro, I made three macros - one for each screen - that allows me to move the window of the front application to the various screens using hot keys. The main problem with Divvy is that one normally needs to mouse to the appropriate screen to move the window and then hit the Divvy shortcut.
To solve the problem, I create a KeyBoard Maestro macro as seen above that moves the mouse to a certain location relative to the Main Screen's Top Left Corner (see top). Then, I simulate the typing of F5 that brings up Divvy's shortcut options (see above). I select the appropriate shortcut for the size of window I want and voilà the front application window moves to the appropriate monitor with the appropriate size. Two keystrokes and it's done...very efficient.
You just need a Little Vitamin R
I am big believer in David Allen's "Getting Things Done" approach to To-Do Lists. The concepts of getting everything you need to do out of your brain an onto a list and then organizing that list into projects and contexts works great for me. On my Mac and my iPhone, I use Omnifocus to manage my To-Do list. The trap that may people fall into is that they spend more time organizing and less time doing. Moreover, most GTD applications don't help with the execution part of the "Getting Things Done".
Well, Vitamin R from Publicspace.net focuses on changing just that. It is a tool that helps you break down large tasks into a series of short time slices. It helps you focus on the task at hand, usually 15 to 30 minutes in length (e.g. Pomodoro Technique). That is important because our brains are not meant to multitask; in fact, excessive multitasking leads to less efficiency.
To avoid distractions, Vitamin R can hide or quit unnecessary apps during a given time slice. After a time slice is completed, you can evaluate the effectiveness of the time slice on how distracted or how "in the flow" you were. A quick "Now & Later Board" can allow you to quickly dump ideas that occur while accomplishing a time slice without breaking your concentration.
Finally, Vitamin R can integrate with Omnifocus. By dragging an Omnifocus task into Vitamin R, you can automatically close the task complete in Omnifocus once it is done in Vitamin R. Very cool for closure. In short, Omnifocus+Vitamin R are an excellent combination of GTD and Pomodoro techniques.
Vitamin R is $19.95 for a single user license. They have a free trial so you can try to out yourself.
20% off Ergonis Software
Ergonis Software, the maker of PopChar X, KeyCue, Typinator and SharewarePublisher, is offering a 20% discount off any purchase by using the coupon code BackToWork when you check out. This offer will expire on September 30, 2010.
I regularly use KeyCue by Ergonis to quickly remember keyboard shortcuts. According to Ergonis, "KeyCue helps you to use your Mac OS X applications more effectively by displaying a concise table of all currently available menu shortcuts." For users new to Mac OS X, this application is a must-have at 19.99€. You will be amazed by the improvement in your productivity.
However, you should buy from Ergonis because of the company. About a month and half ago, they upgraded KeyCue from V5.0 to V5.1 and presented me with a $10 fee for upgrade. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. It turns out they migrated from a "time-based" upgrade policy to a "release-based" upgrade policy. After several back and forth with customer service, who do I get an email from? The CEO of the company, who proceeds to explain the issue in detail with me and then reminds me of a second KeyCue license that I got as part of a MacUpdate bundle that I forgot about. This license is entitled to free upgrades until the end of the year and will probably take me to the next major release. I was quite pleased with the attention I was given and, quite frankly, ex-post I probably was acting a bit petulant.
Anyhow, you should take advantage of the current BackToWork coupon code to get KeyCue if you don't have it. It is a great product from a responsive company.
MacJournal For iPhone
About two weeks ago, I replaced Journler with MacJournal, which I received in the latest MacHeist NanoBundle. I have added the new MacJournal iPhone application and it has improved my journaling tremendously. I can now write my journal entries at any time, any place. When I am on the same wifi network as my Mac, I can then synchronize it.
As much as I like the MacJournal for the iPhone, there are a number of improvements that need to be made. First, remote syncing via MobileMe and/or Webdav would be great. I can do it with Omnifocus today and would love to see it with MacJournal. Also, better tagging capabilities is a must as well as support for rich datatypes like voice, photos and video.
One particularly annoying bug is, when a sync is initiated, you need to determine how the sync will run - i.e. who overwrites whom or sync differences - at the Mac. This requires you to be at your Mac when you sync. Since I can remote-trigger macros using Keyboard Maestro and its iPhone application, I can wake up my Mac, start MacJournal and then initiate a sync from my MacJournal on the iPhone. However, it doesn't run because it depends on an input on the Mac. Please fix soon!
Nevertheless, for a first release of an iPhone app, it has a lot of utility. I just want to see more features, particularly given its $4.99 price.
Airport Express, Airfoil, iTunes and Remote
Since I haven't been doing much traveling lately, my old Airport Express B/G hasn't been getting much use. I finally got around to hooking it up to my Bose stereo in the living room to share my iTunes library. Thanks to AirPort Express and iTunes I can listen to Rush, Zeppelin and Warren Zevon anytime...much to the dismay of my wife.
What makes it even better is the addition of the Remote app on my iPhone. You can use it to control your iTunes library from any room in the house. Browse music, control the volume and turn on the speakers in the living room are all possible. Also the price is right...free. Since I already had all the equipment, I have created a "poor man's" Sonos music system.
The kicker was the addition of Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba for only $25. This software allows you to send any audio from your Mac to the Airport Express as well as other devices such as Apple TVs, iPhones and other Macs and PCs. Now, I can not only send iTunes wirelessly through the house, but also web-based audio from Pandora and shared music services such as Spotify. All very cool!
I consider this a very successful Sunday afternoon project.
Replacing Journler with MacJournal
For years, I have used Journler as the journaling software on my Mac. So many thoughts - happy, sad, innovative, mundane, mature, shallow, etc. - have found residence in my virtual journal. Consequently, I was said when I learned that the software would no longer be developed, but like an old comfortable pair of sneakers I keep with the software.
This week I received as part of the MacHeist NanoBundle2 a copy of MacJournal and made the transition. MacHeist runs for only another 6 days. I migrated my Journler entries over to MacJournal by copying my Journler "Journler Entries" folder to the sidebar of MacJournal. The only problem was the links to the videos would call up Journler so I needed to right-click on the links in the corresponding Journler entry and show the original video in Finder and then copy it to MacJournal. Fortunately, I didn't have many videos to migrate.
My first impressions of MacJournal? It will be an adequate replacement. Also, I hope the upcoming iPhone app will make it even better. So goodbye my friend Journler and hello MacJournal.
Use Ning for social networking for your local club
In addition to my Web site wearephotographers.com that we developed using Drupal, I am now the Web site master of my local camera club in Los Altos, www.losaltosphoto.com. When making that Web site, I used Rapidweaver for the main site and Ning to create the social networking component.
It was extremely easy to get a functioning site within a week. I highly recommend that strategy for anyone needing to get a simple Web site up and running for their local club or organization.
f.lux for your Mac
When you sit in front of a computer for as long as I do, your eyes get strained. Moreover, the later into the night you work, the more it disrupts your sleep. Well, I found this freeware software, f.lux that adapts the color of the computer’s display to the time of day, warm at night and sunlight-like during the day.
There is a switch that disables it for an hour when I need to do color accurate stuff, like processing my photographs. I can tell you that my eyes don’t hurt like they did before.
There is a version for Windows and Linux, too. Download it here.
HoudahGeo: For your geotagging needs
Are you looking for an easy way to geotag your photographs? Look no further than HoudahGeo.
You have the ability to geotag in three different ways: (1) using your GPS tracks, (2) using the basic map and (3) using Google Earth. Also, you have a number of different export options, including the EXIF data, Google Earth, KML files and Flickr. Also, the software is integrated with iPhoto so you can geotag photos that are already imported into iPhoto.
This software is definitely worth $30 and is a regular part of my photography workflow.
Tiffen Dfx - Filter Options Galore
I recently purchased Tiffen Dfx V2 Standalone Edition for my Macbook Pro. It comes with over 1,000 filters and special effects for post-processing your photos. While many effects can be recreated in Adobe Photoshop, the ease-of-use to try different effects makes this program a winner at only $99.95 for the standalone edition. It is the equivalent of buying 2-3 actual filters to put on your camera.
There is too many different filters to describe here, but the filters are categorized by filter function: Film Lab, Gels, HFX Diffusion, HFX Grads/Tints, Image, Lens, Light, Photographic and Special Effects.
So what can this software do? Let’s look at these before and after pictures. I took a quick grab shot of a raven at the top of the tree. It is not an exciting photo, but some interesting composition with the location of the bird and the branches of the tree.
Before 
After
I used several filters to create the after image. First, I used the “day for night” filter to make the image look like it was taken at dusk. Then, I added a layer and used a Gel filter to darken the blues in the photograph. Another layer with a grain filter gave it the feel of a film shot and finally, a vignette filter caused the blur and darkening at the edges.
The software allows you to compare different filters easily and to select and mask where necessary. Also, you can change the opacity of each layer. It is a very flexible program that unfortunately does have a Windows legacy and can be seen in some of the menu structure. Nevertheless, definitely worth testing on its 15 day trial; though I warn you that you might likely end up buying at the end.
MacHeist Bundle Update (2)
Update on the Update! (4/6/09): MacHeist 3 Bundle is fully unlocked. They are over $500,000 in donations to charity so The Hit List and Espresso have been unlocked. There is only one day left for the Bundle Sale so act quickly to get 14 applications for $39.
Here is another update on the MacHeist Bundle 3.
BoinxTV has reached the unlocked stage as the sales promotion has generated over $400K in charity donations. The new mega-unlock point for the final two applications (The Hit List and Espresso) is $500K and there are two days left on this application promotion. As of Sunday 4/5 AM, there is about $95K to go.
If you are on the fence on this promotion, now is the time to act. We can all get the final two applications. I can tell you from experience that I have used these applications much more than I expected. LittleSnapper has replaced Skitch...Picturesque is my quick phone beautifier...and World of Goo has wasted too much of my time already! Finally, I have used WireTap Studio, Kinemac, and BoinxTV to help with my new Web startup, WeArePhotographers.com.
MacHeist Bundle Update
Update on the Update! (4/4/09): MacHeist has just added for all customers another application to their bundle, Times. It is an unique RSS reader that organizes the feeds into a visual newspaper format. Normally, it sells for $30. I will give it a look; though it will be hard to get me to shift from NetNewsWire due to the iPhone client and synchronization with NewsGator.
You will need to hurry though. There is only three days left in the MacHeist 3 Bundle!
Just a quick update on the MacHeist 3 Bundle. They have added two additional applications to the bundle: Delicious Library 2 and Multiwinia. If you have purchased the bundle and tweet about it on Twitter, you receive the gifts. Don’t be surprised if you are hit with a bunch of tweets saying:
I bought the @MacHeist 3 Bundle. 12 Top Mac apps worth $900+ for just $39 AND I just got Delicious Library 2 FREE! http://mhtweet.com/g4Flrc
So what are these new applications?
Delicious Library 2 is a great way to catalogue all your media. It won tons of awards several years ago and can use the iSight as a bar code reader. My entire book library is organized using Delicious Library 2. I highly recommend it.
Multiwinia is a shooting war game where you command stick figures to fight your friends online. I haven’t tried it out yet, but it looks fun. Certainly, it will be an attraction to buyers who have complained that there isn’t enough fun applications in this year’s bundle.
Picturesque is very cool!
I really like Picturesque which I recently picked up as part of the MacHeist Bundle. It isn’t a full-fledged photo editor, but allows for quick enhancement of a photograph. It does four things really easy and well: (1) creating cool 3D perspectives, (2) producing awesome reflections without any need for layers, (3) introducing some curves to the photo without using masks, and (4) adding shadows, glows and frames around your picture.
For a presentation that I was preparing, I needed an image to illustrate something happening every 12 seconds. I took out my Nikon D40 and took a picture of the stopwatch on my iPhone on a blank piece of paper using daylight from the window. With Picturesque, I added some of the enhancements I mentioned above and made an awesome image with significant impact. This tool won’t replace Photoshop, but it is great for blogging, newsletters, presentations, etc.
MacHeist 3 Bundle
Update (3/31/09): MacHeist has juiced up their bundle by adding Cro-Mag Rally for all customers. While a little “retro” (i.e. dated), Cro-Mag Rally is made by Pangea and has seen a revival with its iPhone version. Another reason to purchase the bundle if you are into prehistoric rally games!
I recently purchased the MacHeist 3 Bundle that is currently for sale. There is an excellent mix of applications in the bundle and it is definitely worth a look. At only $39 it is practically a steal if one or two of the applications are of interest. Here are the applications in the bundle and my take on them:
iSale ($39.95)
iSale is a application for eBay that allows you to make a professional-looking auction. I am not much of an eBay person and have not testing the application.
Picturesque ($34.95)
Picturesque is a cool-little application that allows you to easily manipulate photographs by changing its perspective, adding a reflection, creating a frame, etc. It is not a full-fledged photo editor, but adds some neat tricks. I would not pay $34.95 for it, but, as a bonus application, it is a winner.
SousChef (30.00)
I haven’t loaded SousChef, because I am already deeply into MacGourmet Deluxe. I didn’t think that I would be into a recipe management software, but it has been a real benny in the kitchen.
World of Goo ($20.00)
World of Goo is cool. A must play. Enough said.
PhoneView ($19.95)
My iPhone has become my lifeblood. This application allows you to get at the data stored on it in an easy fashion. That is a winner in my book.
LittleSnapper ($39.00)
LittleSnapper lets you store and annotate screenshots or web page captures. Previously, I was using Skitch for this functionality, but no longer. LittleSnapper is much better and made by Realmac Software, the company that makes Rapidweaver - the software I use for this blog.
Acorn ($49.95)
Acorn is a simple-to-use photo editor. I haven’t tested it out, but I won’t be using it. Instead, I will stay with Pixelmator - the software I got from last year’s MacHeist bundle.
Kinemac ($299.00)
At $299, Kinemac was definitely included in order to bump up the value of the bundle. However, it looks like an easy 3D animation package. I will be using it to create animations for videocasting with BoinxTV and uStream TV.
WireTap Studio ($69.00)
If you want to record any audio which is being played by your Mac, then Wire Tap Studio is the software. I can see how it would be very useful for podcasts, capturing Skype conversations and for making custom ringtones. This app was unlocked when the charity contribution hit $100,000.
BoinxTV ($199.00)
I really want BoinxTV. It is a great software to create and edit videocasts in a live-to-disk or live-to-internet method. Right now, this application is not yet unlocked and requires $400,000 in charity sales. I am hoping that we reach this level before the sale ends.
The Hit List ($69.95)
The Hit List is a software package for to-do lists and “Getting Things Done.” I already use Omnifocus for this and won’t be changing, particularly since The Hit List doesn’t have a iPhone client. This application is also not yet unlocked and its unlock level has not been announced.
Espresso ($80.00)
Espresso looks like an excellent new web development tool that will compete with Coda. I am sure that this one will be a big draw for people if we get close to the unlock level. It will be unlocked at the same time as The Hit List.
I recommend this bundle. I think there is a lot of good applications in it at a very favorable price. Here is my referral link to the bundle. For full disclosure, if two people buy through my link, then I get two additional applications: Ambrosia’s Pop-up and Koingo Utility Package. By the way, any bundle customer who refers two additional purchasers can get this software as a bonus.
Slow Syncs with Omnifocus and Your iPhone
Fortunately, Omni Group is planning a new version of Omnifocus for iPhone that will solve the problem, but hasn’t appeared yet in the App Store. If you can’t wait like me, there is an AppleScript workaround provided by Omni Group at this link.
It solved the problem and I am happy again. If you are a serious GTD user, you should check out Omnifocus.
UPDATE 8/13/08 --- Omnifocus V1.0.3 is now on the App Store and supposedly fixes the Sync problems.
Fluid & Google: The Death of Office?
If you are an Apple user and frequently use sites like Facebook, FriendFeed, Google Docs, etc., then Fluid is a technology that you need to investigate. Fluid allows you to very easily to run your favorite web applications as separate Cocoa applications on your desktop.
I created a separate application for FriendFeed, Facebok and Google Docs. Why? To manage my workflow easier and to prevent the situation where an error in one tab kills my other tabs. The combination of Google Apps and Fluid is very powerful and has the definite potential to make Microsoft Office irrelevant someday. I am not yet ready to abandon Office; however, the sharing and search capabilities of Google Apps are very appealing.
I recommend that you download Fluid and try to make some Site Specific Browsers. I think you will find it very helpful in the move to web applications if you are use to the desktop application workflow.
Evernote and ShoZu
Lately, I have been using the beta of Evernote as a way to organize my notes on the MacBook Pro as well as to have an online copy. While still a little immature, the synchronization, search and OCR on photos are very impressive. Also, the integration with various platforms (Mac, Windows and Windows Mobile) is cool.
One thing I was not happy with was the resolution of the snapshots done by the Evernote Windows Mobile client. As an alternative, I could take a higher resolution photo and then email it to my Evernote email account; however, it would take a lot of steps. Enter ShoZu.
By making Evernote email my one-step account in ShoZu, I can quickly take a photo and send it to Evernote online. Evernote will store it, OCR it and, when I synchronize with my Mac application, provide a copy on my laptop. It is quite cool.
I recommend that everyone should try Evernote and ShoZu. They are an excellent combination.
"A Tale of Two Upgrades"
To quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” This week two long-awaited upgrades arrived for Mac users: RapidWeaver V4.0 and Delicious Library 2. Both have offered some free upgrades to its installed base.
RapidWeaver allows any registered RapidWeaver 3.6 customer, i.e. a Serial Number starting with RW3SN. RapidWeaver is an excellent Web site creation tool and is the one used for this blog. For me, the upgrade was a snap and now I am using RapidWeaver 4.0 for this entry. I will report on my impressions of RapidWeaver 4.0 in a later blog entry, once I have had the opportunity to explore it further.
Delicious Library has stated that any customer that bought Delicious Library 1 on or after December 1st 2007 would be entitled to a free upgrade to Delicious Library 2, when available. Here is the actual blog entry. Delicious Library is a cool application that allows you to “catalog your books, movies, music, software, toys, tools, electronics and video games”. However, unlike the RapidWeaver upgrade, this upgrade is not going as well. The Delicious Library 2 installation and migration of my library has gone flawless; however, the new version does not accept my Delicious Library 1 license key. Consequently, my instance of Delicious Library 2 is running in demo mode and will NOT allow me to scan in any new items.
There are no instructions on the Delicious Monster Web site on the process to get a free Delicious Library 2 upgrade license key and I contacted Delicious Monster by email two days ago about the problem. I have yet to receive a reply.
My hope is that Delicious Monster will be honoring their commitment to the installed base. In any event, they are not handling the situation as well as RapidWeaver. I am wondering if we will see a rerun of the YazSoft PR disaster?
UPDATE 6/4: Good news. I found the free upgrade path for Delicious Library. You simply need to go through the normal purchase process embedded in the software and they will credit you the $20 upgrade fee if you qualify. Unfortunately, I needed to find this on my own and there is no real explanation on the Delicious Monster Web site. Nevertheless, I never received a direct response from Delicious Monster.
UPDATE 6/18: I finally got an email from Delicious Monster with my free license key. Clearly, they have honored their commitment to existing users; however, it is more than three weeks since the product announcement.
YazSoft Makes Good on Their Offer to MacHeist Customers
Happily, YazSoft has come to a final resolution on the issue and it is very good. Kudos to MacHeist and YazSoft to fix the situation for the best interests of the customers. However, time is short to take advantage of the upgrade so read below:
• This offer will last a total of 14 days from today (expires March 27, 2008).
• All MacHeist II bundle purchasers interested in Speed Download 5 can get it for free by entering username/email on this webpage. Once your info is validated, you'll receive your personalized Speed Download 5 info via email.
• Those of you who get Speed Download 5 for free will only get one Speed Download 5 license (not two). That free Speed Download 5 license will not qualify for discounted pricing or a free upgrade to Speed Download 6 when it's released.
• All MacHeist II bundle purchasers who've already purchased the Speed Download 5 upgrade for $15 before the start of this 14 day arrangement have 2 options:
you can do nothing and keep the two Speed Download 5 licenses you received as well as get Speed Download 6 for free when it's released
- or -
you can request for a refund from Yazsoft, in which case the 2nd Speed Download 5 license supplied to you will be de-activated and the free upgrade to Speed Download 6 removed
• All MacHeist II bundle purchasers who'd like to purchase the Speed Download 5 upgrade for $15 to show their support (during this 14-day period) will continue to get a 2nd Speed Download 5 license for free. If you choose to do this you'll also get Speed Download 6 for free when it's released.
• All MacHeist II bundle purchasers users that would like to purchase the Speed Download 5 upgrade for $15 to show their support (after this 14-day period) will continue to get a 2nd Speed Download 5 license for free. A free upgrade to Speed Download 6 will not be offered however.
YazSoft also has information at their Web site http://yazsoft.com/content/macheist.html.
My Trusty HP12C Calculator...on my Mac
One key different between HP12C calculator and others, besides the reliablity and excellent keys, is the use of reverse polish notation (RPN). In short, rather than inputting "1+1=" to get an answer, you input "1 enter 1 +". It uses the concept of a stack to store intermediate values. For a simple equation like "1+1", it is not relevant, but, for complex equations like (5+6)*(42-23)+24, RPN is much more effective. Of course, once you start using an RPN calculator, you become totally dysfunctional with a regular calculator beyond a simple "1+1="!
Not normally a problem since I have the trusty 12C; however, it always was a problem with standard calculators on PCs. Not with Leopard on my Mac! The standard calculator in Leopard can be easily converted to RPN with a simple Command-R. Nevertheless, it is not the same layout as my HP12C and doesn't come with all the same functionality.
That has changed...enter nonpareil for Mac OSX.
Nonpareil is a simulator of vintage HP calculators that was originally written for Linux. At this site, you can get a version for Mac OSX for your favorite HP calculator. Enjoy!
A Little Software to Trick Up Your Mac
Definitely check it out. It is a great, free application. Also, the developer accepts donations thru Paypal.
Anatomy of a PR Meltdown
So where is the PR meltdown? Let me tell you a little story. I am using Speed Download Version 4 from my MacHeist bundle purchase last month and am quite happy with the product. Today, when Speed Download starts, it tells me that there is a new update for the software and starts an automatic download. Turns out, that the update is NOT a free update and loads a demo version of the software. Moreover, it won't accept my MacHeist bundle license when I entered it.
After looking at the MacHeist forum site, I found out that the MacHeist Bundle License wouldn't work so I tried to downgrade back to Version 4. Guess what, the Version 4 on Yazsoft's Web site was also a demo software that wouldn't take the MacHeist bundle license, but now it wouldn't download at all. The trial period was expired. Now, I couldn't download at all! Luckily, I was able to save the day by restoring from Time Machine!
I found out something else while at the MacHeist forum site. Even though Yazsoft was giving their MacHeist customers a discounted upgrade fee as they did with other Version 4 customers, it was giving customers who bought the software since January 1st the upgrade for free. Despite assurances that the version that was bought last month with the MacHeist bundle was a full version --- later confirmed by MacHeist on the forum ---, Yazsoft decided to change the rules and consider its MacHeist customers as promo software customers, different from their other customers. Unlike Circus Ponies who clearly stated that their V2.0 product would not be a free upgrade for MacHeist customers, Yazsoft never clearly stated their intentions.
Consequently, the MacHeist forum is ablaze with unhappy customers that feel that they have been cheated. Moreover, in addressing their concerns, Yazsoft's responses have been very defensive and evasive. They have blamed MacHeist for the misunderstanding and have pretty much alienated more than 40,000 new customers from the MacHeist bundle. One can follow the entire situation at the MacHeist forums. Moreover, the bad publicity is now spreading into the mainstream Mac bloggers (see Macmerc.com).
Whether or not it was an unethical business practice (bait and switch comes to mind) or simply incompetent marketing, this is a clear case of how NOT to do marketing in today's web marketing world. Yazsoft should have been upfront with the status of the MacHeist customers during the bundle sale. Now they face the need to make a drastic change in their policy or risk permanently destroying their reputation with a broad vocal group within the Mac user community.
Pimp your Mac with Gelaskins
They claim it is for protection purposes and, while it does protect against scratches, it only protects the top of your computer due to heat flow issues. Nevertheless, if you want to get noticed at the coffee shop while surfing the Internet, this is definitely the way to go!
They come with various types of artists; both traditional from Monet to Hokusai and new young artists such as Nathan Ota and Aya Kato. The skin on my MacBook Pro is The Great Wave Off Kanagawa from Katsushika Hokusai. It is part of his famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji wood block series from around 1831. Hokusai is world-renown as the best at Japanese woodblock printing; also known as ukiyo-e. In fact, his work was very enthusiastically collected by French impressionists, such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.
Finally, if you looked closely at the photo, you will see that my 3rd Generation iPod Nano is also tricked out with a Gelaskin. Yes, they have them for iPods, iTouchs and iPhones, too! It is a skin of work from a young artist in Los Angeles, named Nathan Ota. His illustrations are very cool!
Leopard Version of MenuCalendarClock for iCal
It is a great replacement for the standard clock on the menu bar. When you click on the menu bar, it gives you a complete view of the monthly calendar. The days where you have appointments are highlighted and if you mouse over the day, it shows your appointments for the day. It also shows your to-do items within iCal. It is a very cool tool.
One negative is that it has a clunky dock icon that normally must exist on your dock. Search the Internet and you'll find out how to get rid of it, too. The software comes in a freeware version as well as a paid version with additional functionality.
http://www.objectpark.net/
Please Buy the Excellent Mac Bundle using Another Link
LaunchBar really fills a gap between a true launcher and Spotlight. Previously, I had been using Quicksilver, but its future development is suspect. Moreover, LaunchBar is actually easier to use. Notebook allows you to arrange all your information into a flexible, notebook format.
I have been fortunate that two of my friends have bought through my referral link so i do not need any more referrals. However, there are a large number of people that either are looking for someone to buy with their link or are about to buy and are willing to trade referrals. I recommend that you go to the MacHeist forum to buy.
So please do not use my link below, but rather go here:
http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=6697
Excellent Mac Bundle at MacHeist
The bundle costs $49 and 25% of the sale price will be donated to a charity that you can choose out of a 10 options. All the applications are unlocked at the time of this writing, except Pixelmator. However, it is close to being unlocked, too. Click on my referral link to get to the site.
https://www.macheist.com/buy/invite/52696
SRS iWOW V2.0
The product costs $19.99; however, it was included in a recent promotion bundle from MacUpdate that I discussed last week. In addition to the improved quality, the software has automatic presets that will automatically change the settings based on the genre classification in iTunes. Finally, the product comes from SRS Labs who has a long pedigree in quality audio products. If you listen to audio on your laptop speakers, you should get this product.
Edit 10/23/07: Bad news...it turns out that SRS iWOW interferes with iMovie HD audio playback. Consequently, I have removed it from my computer; however, if you don't use iMovie HD, it is still a good product. Also, there may be other incompatibilities out there.
http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/iwow-plugin.asp
My Ten Favorite Non-Apple Software Packages for My MacBook Pro
1) Journler --- Journaling software
http://journler.com/
2) Rapidweaver --- Website and blogging software
http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/
3) iGTD --- Getting Things Done software
http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/
4) Sapiens --- Interesting mouse-based launcher
http://www.donelleschi.com/sapiens/
5) Inquisitor for Safari --- Spotlight for the web
http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/
6) MacTheRipper --- DVD Ripper for Mac OSX
http://www.mactheripper.org/
7) Quicksilver --- Comprehensive application interface
http://www.blacktree.com/
8) Slingplayer --- Watch your life TV on your MAC
http://www.slingmedia.com/
9) VMware Fusion --- Run Windows in a VM
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
10) SecuritySpy --- Watch your IP Surveillance Cameras
http://www.bensoftware.com/ss/
