We’ve published a few Mac Power Users episodes since I last checked in:
MPU 332: Other Uses for Keynote
Keynote is a great app for giving presentations but it can do so much more. This episode explores many uses for Keynote beyond presentation day.
There are so many different services and features available from Amazon. Who can make sense of them all? We do in this episode.
In recent months 1Password has added subscription plans for families and teams. It’s only natural that now they’ve added one for individuals. Dave Teare from 1Password made a post at the 1Password blog that gives all the details. For $2.99 a month, users get access to all the 1Password apps plus their cloud services.
As 1Password explains in their blog post, subscribers get all the 1Password features plus:
I get in hot water every time I write this, but I’m okay with productivity app makers adopting subscription plans. Upgrade pricing isn’t realistic anymore and Apple doesn’t even provide for it the the iOS and Mac App Stores. If you want good productivity software, productivity software makers have to stay in business.
With 1Password’s plan, you’re getting all of its apps plus the above features for $36/year. Purchasing 1Password licenses (which is still possible) has always been (and remains to be) quite a bit more expensive than that. Moreover, if you get in on the launch special, you get six months for free.
I’d recommend subscribing to 1Password. It’s a great service and will keep you more secure in an increasingly insecure world. Learn more at 1Password’s blog.
Disclosure: 1Password has been a sponsor of Mac Power Users for years. I’ve been a 1Password customer even longer and happily currently pay $5/month for my 1Password family plan.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I like to use mind mapping to plan out projects. For several years now, my weapon of choice for mind mapping has been MindNode. MindNode, for me, is the right balance of features and ease-of-use. MindNode’s easy to pick up, syncs over iCloud, and I use it all the time. I’ve done a set of five screencasts using MindNode explaining the why and how of mind mapping from my perspective and you can watch them all over at the MindNode website. Below is the first video. Enjoy.
The new version of the OmniFocus Video Field Guide (v1.1) is now available for download.
The new version includes several updates for new features that have been added to OmniFocus since version 1.0 shipped. There’s also an additional 40 minutes of content on OmniFocus Automation.
If you purchased the OmniFocus Field Guide already, you should have received an email last night with a fresh download link.
Below is a little sample of some of the new automation materials. Check it out.
I’ve been working the last few months on an update to the OmniFocus Video Field Guide. I’ve updated it for several new features and gone deep on the iOS Automation and URL linking. I’m making final edits and additions over the next few days and intend to publish it sometime Sunday (probably late). The update will be free for people that have already purchased the field guide. However, please note that for new buyers the price is going up to $19.99. So if you want to get in on the current $9.99 price, do so between now and Sunday afternoon when it goes up.
I was at a professional gathering recently when the subject of email security came up. I was surrounded by a group of lawyers that knew next-to-nothing about technology and it made me curious about their thoughts on email servers. Going around the room, I found that just about everyone was maintaining their own email servers because they felt it was “safer”. There is this bias when it comes to data that somehow privately owned servers are safer despite the fact they are connected to the same Internet populated with the same bad guys everybody else is facing.
While I think there may be some private servers out there that are as well protected as the more reputable email providers, I think that is the exception, not the rule. My impression is that most of these private servers are instead on aging Dell box in a closet connected to the Internet that may (or may not) have the most recent security patches installed and may (or may not) have an IT person baby-sitting it once in awhile. I think there is this impression that despite this lackluster security, they are somehow safer than email services that have full time professional staff holding the barbarians at the gate 24/7. As the Democratic party found out, they’re not.
Yesterday, John Gruber linked to an article by Josephine Wolff that agreed.
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“The DNC is never going to be the equal of these companies employing thousands of engineers and managing millions of email accounts when it comes to security, so perhaps it should stop trying and let the experts take over.”
If you’re running your company’s email on a private server and haven’t been compromised (or at least not aware of being compromised), there’s a good chance that the reason for your good fortune is not because of your security but instead the fact that you are not as juicy of a target as the DNC. Maybe it’s time to reconsider.
Bastille Networks ran an experiment where they tried to intercept transmissions of some wireless keyboards. This would let the bad guys capture a user’s keystrokes from a remote computer and even inject their own keystrokes on your device. It all comes down to poor encryption. They’ve got a list of keyboards they were able to intercept and it’s pretty spooky. Apple’s not on the list but there are several recognizable vendors.
Speaking of Jason Snell, his Six Colors website did a bang up job on coverage of Apple’s quarterly earnings call today. Not only does Six Colors make pretty charts, Jason’s knowledge and vast experience covering Apple make his commentary some of the best there is. It’s nice to see iPad results improving. I hope this translates into Apple putting more muscle into iPad productivity.
Today I’m launching a new podcast with my friend Jason Snell called the Free Agents. As the show description explains:
David Sparks and Jason Snell spent their careers working for the establishment. Then one day, they’d had enough. Now they are independent workers, learning what it takes to succeed in the 21st century. They are… free agents.
This show is all about how to pull off being an independent worker in the modern world. Since going out on my own, I discovered I like it … a lot. It is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying and I love every minute of it.
I enjoy being indie so much so that I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make this work over the long haul and continue supporting myself and my family as an independent worker.
One of my best friends on this journey has been Jason Snell. For years Jason and I would get together for meals while I was working in the law firm and Jason was the editor of Macworld magazine. We shared our experiences and eventually came around to the idea that maybe we’d be better off on our own. For a long time, we would prop each other up give each other a shove in the right direction and then get back to work. Eventually both Jason and I managed to successfully get launched as independent workers. So when the idea started percolating about making a podcast about being an independent worker, it seemed only natural that I would do it with Jason.
So today we launch the Free Agents podcast on the Relay Network. Free Agents is a podcast for people who work independently or are thinking about working independently. The show will be a mixture of topics and guest interviews dealing with the challenges and joys of working independently.
The first show, The Temptation of Yes, deals with the issue of scope. One of the challenges you’ll have working independently is deciding when to say “yes” and when to say “no”. It’s hard. Jason and I share our experiences and advice on how to limit scope while still keeping the lights on. We have a whole list of topics like this and this show will have a lot of useful content. We are also going to do occasional interviews seeking insight from people who have gone independent or are thinking about going independent.
Our goal is to keep the content shows to about 30 minutes and the interview shows to about 45 minutes and we’ll be releasing new episodes every two weeks. It’s been a long time since I launched a new podcast and I hope you’ll subscribe and enjoy the Free Agents.
