Posts Tagged → sponsor

Sponsor: MindNode for iOS and Mac




I’m pleased to welcome MindNode as a new sponsor at MacSparky.com. While I played with mind maps for years, I never fully appreciated them until I got an iPad. Now I’m a true believer. I’ve come to rely on MindNode for all of my mind mapping these days. It has a simple, clean interface and syncs over iCloud with zero hassles. Using MindNode, I can start a mind map on my iPad, polish it up on my Mac, and then add a few nodes over lunch on my phone all without any file management.

I keep MindNode in my iPad dock and spend time in the app every day as I plan ideas and big projects. Currently, I’ve got MindNode mind maps for the next MacSparky Field Guide, an extended letter I have to write for the day job, two legal briefs, and a series of articles I want to write for Macworld. Jumping into MindNode for little bursts of brainstorming allow me to properly cook all these ideas and projects before I start digging in on them. I’ve written about MindNode before. MindNode is an essential tool for me and if you haven’t got on the mind mapping bandwagon yet, go get yourself a copy and try it for yourself. 


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Sponsor: Drafts




This week I’m welcoming a new sponsor to the site, Drafts. With the emergence of mobile computing, we are still figuring out exactly how to make these pocketable devices work for us. Drafts is one of those applications that just bangs you over the head with its obvious utility.



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At its most basic level Drafts is an app that presents you with a blank screen and a keyboard every time you open it. Think about that for moment. When you are meeting a person or something brilliant occurs to you, there will be no friction between your brain and writing it down. There is no fiddling with the new file buttons or file naming. Just you and the cursor. Tap the drafts icon and start writing (or dictating through Siri). Drafts sits on the far right of my iPhone and iPad dock. I pop in there multiple times a day to capture ideas. This alone would make Drafts worth the price of admission but there is more.

Developer Greg Pierce has made Drafts one of the leaders of inter-app communications on iOS. Drafts is loaded with tools for you to easily do things with those bits of text right from the app. I can send them to emails and text messages but even this function goes deeper than you’d expect. You can set up common recipients and route texts or emails without any further work. For example, I’ve got a group of friends that have a Drafts texting action. I can dictate a message into Drafts, push a button, and send the text to everyone in that group. That is a simple example though. I could also send text to OmniFocus, process it in Markdown, create a calendar entry, send to Day One (my diary app), send to Byword, or process in Tweetbot. The interactions with Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive are just crazy. Also, your data will sync between your iPhone and iPad so you can capture on one device and process on another. I use the badge trick to make sure I process all my drafts every day.

Drafts has become one of my most important apps. It helps me get through the day and I’m privileged to have it as a sponsor. If you haven’t tried Drafts yet, you owe it to yourself. Head over to their website and check it out.

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Sponsor: Hoban Cards




This week MacSparky is sponsored by Hoban Cards. Hoban Cards specializes in in minimal calling cards. This is a less expensive way to get into letterpress printing. Pick from among fifteen beautiful, typographic calling card templates. They now have designs as low as $50 (pictured below) so there really is no excuse. These are perfect for individuals or businesses looking for a unique and classy alternative to conventional, mass produced, soulless business cards. I’ve heard from many readers that love their new Hoban Cards pressed out of Hoban’s 1902 letterpress machine. I sure love mine. 

Use ‘MacSparky’ during checkout to receive free shipping.


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Sponsor: Middle Davids Artisan Candles




This week I’m pleased to introduce a new sponsor, Middle Davids Artisan Candles. Dan and his team at Middle Davids understand the use of rituals to help with productivity. We all like our good coffee (or tea!), our ergonomic chairs, and our clean work surfaces, but what about scent?

I burn candles while I write and I always feel that the ritual of lighting the candle is a way to tell myself “it is on” and get to work. After I’ve worked a few hours, I blow out the candle and take a break. You’ll be surprised how well this works. My favorite is the Northwoods scent, that smells like a fir tree. We don’t have native fir trees in Southern California and I love it.

Dan, the proprietor, is a candle geek and obsesses on candles like I do productivity apps. The candles are 100% botanical soy wax, not paraffin (which is a petrochemical) and the wicks are cotton woven (no metals).

Middle Davids has a subscription plan that gets you two candles a month with 40 hours of burn time. That’s two hours of focus a day. You also get a box of wooden matches, and a sample of the next month’s scent. Give it a try. You’ll surprise yourself. Use the code “MacSparky4” (or “macsparky4”) for 10% off.

Sponsor: Rocket Matter



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My thanks go again to Rocket Matter for sponsoring MacSparky.com. Rocket Matter is the best online law practice management solution and it just keeps getting better. Rocket Matter’s new advanced search makes it even easier to find information from multiple categories. This week Rocket Matter is sharing a free ebook to MacSparky readers, Cloud Planet: The Mobile Lawyer. Go download your free copy and check out Rocket Matter.

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Sponsor: Rocket Matter Turns 6



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Rocket Matter, the premier web-based law practice management application, just turned 6. Rather than sitting around and eating cake, the Rocket Matter engineers have been hard at work. 

Rocket Matter has just announced a seriously upgraded search, called “Galactic Interdimensional Search”, which is a pretty awesome name.

To further celebrate, Rocket Matter is giving away a free ebook to MacSparky readers, The Law Firm of Tomorrow, that does a pretty good job of describing the cloud-based service business for just about anyone of tomorrow. Check it out.

Thanks Rocket Matter for supporting MacSparky.com, and happy birthday.

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Sponsor: Rocket Matter with Free Evernote Book


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This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by Rocket Matter. Rocket Matter is a fantastic cloud-based solution for running a law practice. You set up an account and log in and get back to work. You don’t need to buy your own server. You don’t need to install local updates. You just work and let Rocket Matter do all that back-end stuff for you. Rocket Matter continues to grow with some great features like billing, document storage, calendaring, and more. If you are putting your documents somewhere else on the cloud, like Box, Dropbox, or Evernote, they’ve got full integration with those services. They even have an iPhone app that lets you accesses and manipulate all of your data.

But there is more! This week there’s a free ebook. Heroic Lawyering is all about running a cloud based service business like a boss. If you are interested in the cloud, his book is worth checking out. Go download the it now and check out Rocket Matter for yourself.

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Sponsor: Doo.net



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This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by Doo.net. Doo offers a complete paperless solution. With your free Doo account you’ll get high quality optical character recognition with automatic language detection and the ability to make your document editable.

Doo also works offline. The OS X version holds all your files locally (and the mobile versions hold all the meta data in a local database) so if you are out of Internet range, you’ve got no troubles. 

Doo is on all major platforms including OS X, iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, and Windows. Finally, I’d like to congratulate Doo on its recent “Best of 2013” award from iTunes for the iOS iPad version of Doo. Spectacular work by spectacular people. Learn more at Doo.net.

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Sponsor: Hoban Press



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Are you about to go visit someone for Christmas empty handed? Why not offer to buy them some custom letterpress calling cards? Hoban Press is sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. I’ve heard from many readers that love their new Hoban Cards pressed out of Hoban’s 1902 letterpress machine. I sure love mine. Evan and the gang are expanding.

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Hoban Press specializes in custom letterpress printed items like Business Cards and Stationery. This is the best choice if you need to use your own logo or artwork. They also provide design and layout services.

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Hoban Cards specializes in in minimal calling cards. This is a less expensive way to get into letterpress printing. Pick from among 12 beautiful, typographic calling card templates. These are perfect for individuals or businesses looking for a unique and classy alternative to conventional, mass produced, soulless business cards.

There is no doubt I’m a geek but I have to admit I really love handing out letterpress cards … like a gentleman. Use ‘MacSparky’ during checkout to receive free shipping.

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Sponsor: Doo Document Management



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I’d like to thank Doo.net for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. Doo offers a soup to nuts paperless document solution with applications for all of the major platforms (iOS, OS X, Windows, and Android) that lets you manage your paperless documents locally or in the cloud. Using Doo’s multiple apps you can than manage and access your documents from any device. There is a lot to like about this service including the ability to access your existing documents on your local drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and even your email accounts. I also like what they’ve done with intelligent tagging that gives you the benefit of your existing folder structure plus Doo’s tags. It’s like having your cake and eating it too. Check it out at Doo.net.

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