This week, Wally Cherwinski joins us to talk about documentary video and how to do a multi-camera shoot with a few iPhones at your next family event.
The EverDock Stand
My well loved EverDock
My podcasting compadre KatieFloyd blogged about her new EverDock yesterday. I’ll second Katie’s endorsement. I got in on the original Kickstarter. I ended up ordering two of the Duos. This lets me simultaneously charge the phone and iPad. I’ve got one at work and the other on my night stand. I’ve been using it since it shipped (which I believe is about 6 months).
The EverDock remains tight against the surface and absolutely stays connected when I lift my devices out (several times a day). However, it is not as tight as it was when the device was new and it felt like I was going to need a crow bar to get it off the table. I suspect I may need to clean the micro-suction surface.
Occasionally, the Lightning cable starts to get a little wobbly in its housing, requiring me to pry the device off the table and pull the cable back down tight. Interestingly, you can see the cable tops listing to the right and left based on the channels I’ve pulled them to underneath. It is noticeable on visual inspection but doesn’t seem to be a problem when housing the iPhone and iPad.
This morning I took it apart and inspected the Lightning cables. I’m sure getting bent around the EverDock and having the strain of me pushing and pulling against it to repeatedly seat my iThingies is damaging them. They looked okay though. (If only the good Doctor lived closer, I’d let him experiment on my cables and write 3,000 words about it.)
The EverDock is the first third party dock I’ve stuck with. It does a great job holding my devices and when I lift them out, the dock stays put.
In Defense of Tim
Dan Frommer has a nice piece up about Tim Cook.
“In many ways, Cook is running Apple better than Jobs ever did.”
I think anyone following Steve Jobs has the deck stacked against him. Nevertheless, looking at all the news from WWDC, I also think Tim Cook is the right guy to follow Steve Jobs. If you think Tim is under heat now, just wait until Apple actually releases a watch or fitness band. That market is much smaller than the iPhone market. Even a product pitched by Steve Jobs with his reality distortion field turned up to full power is not going to touch iPhone numbers. When this inevitably happens, all the long knives will come out for Tim in the tech press.
Home Screen: Ian O’Flaherty
This week’s home screen post features Ian O’Flaherty (Twitter) (Website). Ian is the developer of Trial Pad (App Store) and Transcript Pad (App Store). Both of these apps are essential to me in the day job and I’ve met Ian several times at various technology conferences where I’ve observed him obsessing over making some of the best legal software out there. So Ian, show us your home screen.
What are some of favorite apps?
Besides the obvious bias towards my own apps, TrialPad and TranscriptPad,Keynote is a favorite. It can assist anyone to create great looking presentations. I use Keynote not only for presentations, but also to create fully functional mock-ups of new app ideas, or to see how a new user interface element might look within one of my existing apps. I thinkGoodNotes is one of the better note taking apps, and is ideal for my needs. Besides note taking, I use it to bring in screen shots of apps to draw on and sketch various user interface changes or ideas, especially with its shape recognition mode. My RSS reader of choice is Mr. Reader as I like the way you can organize and skim through your feeds, and I’ve recently started usingPocket to save interesting articles to read later when I have more time. I have tried various podcast apps but keep coming back to Apple’s own Podcasts to listen to great podcasts, such as Mac Power Users 😉
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
I’m not a fan of social media because I constantly see it used in an unintended spirit in legal proceedings. Everything you say (i.e. type) on any social media can, and will, be used against you if you ever find yourself in a courtroom. Having said that, I do use, and have a twinge of guilt, every time I open Instagram. I like the simplicity of just sharing a photo and comment with my family which is strewn around the world. And my teenage daughter has taught me that crafting the perfect caption is just as important as composing the perfect photo if you want to get the right number of “Likes”.
What is the app you are still missing?
A calendar app! That may sound strange considering how many beautifully designed calendar apps are available. I’ve bought most of them, and each has certain strengths, but I keep reverting back to Apple’s Calendar app. I feel all the calendar apps could offer more, such as the ability to hide certain hours in the day or week views (e.g. midnight to 5:00AM) unless I have an appointment during that time. Maybe there’s one out there that I just haven’t found yet, or maybe a calendar has such a personal requirements that no one calendar app is going to satisfy all users.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
My iPhone is always with me, and my iPad isn’t far behind. I always have my wallet and phone with me, but if I forget one as I leave the house I’d have to turn back for my iPhone. I can buy a coffee at Starbucks with my iPhone, but I can’t call anyone, check my email, or get driving directions with my wallet.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
I can’t pin it down to just one feature. I believe the ability to access your data or work, while being mobile, gives me a better work/life balance. I can zip through a dozen emails while in the waiting room at the pediatrician. The iCloud integration that’s permeated so many apps that I use every day has been key to being able to get things done. Starting something on my Mac, and having it available to read, add to, or edit on my iPad or iPhone is invaluable. This is only going to get better with the new handoff feature coming in iOS 8 and Yosemite which will take it to another level. And Siri, in combination with the Reminders app, is another favorite feature. Just being able to tell Siri to “Remind me to…when I get home/leave the office/at a certain time” is such a convenience.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
Being at WWDC again this year and meeting so many smart and talented Apple engineers, designers, and segment managers, makes you realize that anything you’d want to add or change has already been thought of and already is in the works, or has been dismissed for reasons you didn’t even know you should have considered. However, I’d like it if Apple allowed developers to charge upgrade pricing (not for minor updates or bug fixes) as opposed to forcing us to coming out with a new version of an app or utilize in app purchases in order to have a recurring revenue stream. This is particularly important in specialized apps meant for very narrow verticals. The fact is that there’s a growing professional app space, and niche professional apps don’t have the massive audience of game apps, maybe a Professional category for truly professional apps?
What’s your wallpaper and why?
My lock screen changes constantly to feature my wife or children when they have a birthday or special event, but the wallpaper on my home screen is plain old black. I like the way the text for the app names pops, and the icons are shown with a negative background so I can quickly find what I’m looking for. You may have noticed that my apps are all in alphabetical order because I like to have a logical reason for their placement. I only have two screens on my iPad, so if an app doesn’t make it into the twenty on my home screen it’s placed into organized folders on the second screen. I’m not a swiper.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Having owned a Mac since 1989 (a Macintosh IIcx), and having spent a brief stint on the dark side (Windows), it’s great to see the innovation coming out of this iconic American company. Also, my family tries to make Sunday a “no tech day” so that we don’t turn into that family you see at a restaurant who are together physically, but engrossed in their iPhones, seemingly finding better company and conversation elsewhere.
Thanks Ian.
MPU Episode 200 Live on Sunday 10am PST
KatieFloyd and I will be recording episode 200 of the Mac Power Users this Sunday June 22 at 10am PST. We’ve got lots of plans for this show and we’ll be broadcasting live on 5by5. You can find more information, including how to listen remotely or alternate timezones at 5by5.tv/schedule.
Show 200 is going to be out of the ordinary and fun including a look back on Mac Power Users over the years. If you have any general questions for David or I, curious about the show, or just want to share some of your favorite MPU moments or how the show has helped you, please send those to feedback@macpowerusers.com and we’ll try to include them.
Brett Terpstra on “Alpha” Personalities
“It’s also used to explain the behavior of people who are, in reality, just assholes.”
Can I get an Amen?
Giving the WiFi a Kick
There’s a bench about 200 yards from my office that I’ll sit and work at a few times a week. The trouble is that it is just close enough to hold a really poor WiFi signal. When the iPhone has a WiFi signal, it is pretty resistant to dropping it, even when you’d be better off on LTE. My solution is to give the WiFi a kick. I just flip up Control Center and press the WiFi button twice, essentially toggling it. Even though the WiFI is off only a fraction of a second, the office signal is so weak that my iPhone knows better than to try and connect and leaves me on LTE. If I just turn the WiFi off, I inevitably forget to turn it back on when I return to the office and end up using cell data when the phone stops connecting to WiFi. By toggling, I temporarily drop the WiFi but get it back when I return to the office.
Name Your Own Price Bundle with PathFinder and Fantastical
StackSocial’s got a new “Name Your Own Price” bundle. With these bundles, they pull together a collection of great Mac software and then allow customers to submit their own price. This particular bundle includes some favorites including Path Finder, Fantastical, Gemini, Disk Label, and more. If you pay over the average price, currently $10.31, you get the whole package. (The recommended price is $49). If you pay less than the average price, you’ll get just three apps.
This deal is pretty remarkable even at the recommended price considering I paid $40 for Path Finder (and considered it a bargain in light of its utility). Head over to StackSocial and check it out. I’m going to buy in for the Gemini and SyncMate licenses since I’ve been thinking about both apps for some time now. This is an affiliate link so I’ll get a small cut if you buy through this link. Thanks for that.
The Miles Davis Film
Don Cheadle is doing an Indiegogo campaign to fund a movie about Miles Davis. Miles has both the brilliance and flaws required to make an interesting movie. I grew up obsessed with his older music and not so interested in his then-modern fusion stuff, which I’d argue really hasn’t held up over the years the way his early stuff does. I finally got a chance to see him live and he spent the entire set playing his red trumpet and facing the drummer. Only Miles.
The movie’s campaign description says they’ll be focussing on a “very specific point in his life”, which seems to be the way people do bio movies these days. I actually prefer this. They can go a lot deeper with the characters when focussing on a short period than the usual “… and then he/she did this” biopic. I hope this gets made and portrays Miles honestly, red trumpet and all.
Can Apple Deliver on the Promised New iCloud Services?
Now that WWDC is over and we’ve all had a chance to digest Apple’s announcements, I’ve been thinking about Apple and the cloud. Right up until WWDC, there were several questions in my mind.
1. Does Apple realize how important cloud data is to the future of iOS and the Mac?
This question seems silly in hindsight but right up until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t even sure this was on their radar. It seemed as if every few years Apple announced some new semi-cloudy initiative but things never really changed. It felt as if this were an issue that received lip service but no actual attention. That changed this year with Apple not only announcing some very aggressive cloud tools but also committing to use these very cloud tools for their own software tools (including picture management).
2. Is Apple working on catching up with cloud services?
I use the term “catching up” intentionally. While there are many areas for which Apple remains an industry leader, providing fast, reliable cloud services is not one of them. Moreover, because they are so secretive, we had no idea whether they were taking steps to improve the situation or sitting around convincing each other this isn’t a big deal. (See point one above.) 2014 WWDC’s announcements including iCloud Drive, CloudKit, and the initiative to store all of our photo libraries on their servers answers this question. They have been working on it and they’ve got some pretty big aspirations, which leads to the last question.
3. Can Apple deliver worry-free cloud services?
All of the promise of WWDC will be forgotten if these new services are slow, unreliable, or otherwise not up to snuff. This is the part we are waiting on. While the narrative that Apple can’t do the cloud is fun enough, it’s not really true. They serve a lot of data every day through their app stores. Pieces of iCloud, like contact and calendar sync, have always reliably worked and they include millions of users. Apple’s cloud problem, in my mind at least, has always involved pushing big blocks of data. Does anybody remember how bad iDrive was at moving anything bigger than a Pages file?
In fairness, this question will not get a definitive answer on day one when all of this goes live. You can’t reliably load test these types of services for hundreds of millions of users. You do your best, stock up on duct tape, and then you push the green button and stand by. I’m certain there will be some hiccups. However, at some point in the not too distant future, we all will make a decision whether services like iCloud Drive are just as reliable as Dropbox or not. Only in that final judgment will we be able to answer this last question.