I’ve been turning some friends and family onto online backup lately. It just makes a lot of sense for me, who will have to deal with data loss as the resident nerd. Backblaze has a nice promotion running right now that gets you a free month if you refer a friend and they sign up.
MPU 194: Workflows with Tom Merritt
This week episode of the Mac Power Users features Tom Merritt from The Daily Tech New Show and the Sword and Laser podcast. Tom is a busy guy and has some great idea for managing vast quantities of information. I also got to talk about my unique pronunciation of the word “sword”, which is always fun.
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.
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.
iWork Collaboration in the iCloud
This week, Apple released some pretty nice upgrades to the web-based iWork apps in iCloud. The improvements include more fonts, more chart options, and the ability to handle larger sized files. The experience really is quite remarkable. If you haven’t yet, log into your iCloud account and create a document in iCloudy-Pages. You’ll be surprised. You may even forget that you are doing this all in a browser. One of the other updates was the ability to have up to 100 collaborators. It was this bit that had me most interested.
Google Documents really is the standard for online document collaboration. I’ve used that tool for years and, while it isn’t all that pretty, it absolutely nails the ability to have multiple people typing on one document at the same time. While Apple is now moving this direction, it hasn’t got there yet. Yesterday I had a small writing project with a Mac-savvy client and I decided to do it collaboratively with him using iCloud Pages. I figured that if the application can support 100 collaborators, it should be pretty solid with just two. It still isn’t.
While the experiment ultimately worked and he could see what I was typing, it was hardly simultaneous. Basically, we discussed and I wrote and he waited for the changes to show up, which happened about 30 seconds after I typed. If he typed anything on his side (even just a space bar), I got a conflict message on my end and had to pick a version to become gospel. While I think Apple is nailing the “productivity app in a web browser” part, they still have work their work cut out for them on the collaboration part.
Home Screens – Todd Olthoff
This week’s home screen features my pal Todd Olthoff (Twitter)(Website)(YouTube). Todd is a pastor by day and OS X Server guru by night. Todd has a really great YouTube channel with many Mac tutorials, including an excellent series on Mac OS X Server. Most recently Todd agreed to guest on the Mac Power Users and tell us all about it. Okay Todd, show us your home screen.
What are some of your favorite apps?
Some of my favorite apps are replacements for the built in Apple Apps. For calendar I use the incredible Fantastical. Fantastical is one of those applications that simplifies my life not only on my iOS devices but across my Mac devices as well. Nothing like using natural language to set up appointments. Another app I use often is Cobook for my address book. The way Cobook pulls in all of my contacts from not only my address book but from social media as well and puts everything in one place is incredible. I also like the ability to see what my friends have been tweeting about lately just by looking at their contact in Cobook instead of having to go out into another application. It will be interesting to see what happens with Cobook now that it has merged with FullContact.
For social media and keeping up on tech news I use Tweetbot for twitter, Reeder for RSS feeds, Pocket for my read later content, and Downcast for all of my favorite podcasts (like Mac Power Users, of course). I also have a general social folder for all of the other social media sites I touch base with like Google Plus and Facebook.
Being a true Mac geek I love being as productive as possible on whatever device I am working on so I use tools like Drafts to quickly get text based items into my system for later action. I use Launch Center Pro as my starting point for my daily review and other tasks. Putting all of the items I normal check with various swipes and taps in one place has really helped me cut down some of the time it takes for me to get things done. I would also have to add 1Password into my attempt to stay productive and secure on my iOS devices. I just can’t put a value on being able to access all of my passwords in one place to quickly login to websites in a secure manner.
As far as dealing with writing and information, I am a huge fan of Day One for my daily journaling and capturing life events or thoughts on the run. For more serious writing I use Daedelous Touch. It’s combination with Ulysses on my Mac make it a killer app for me now that I am writing in Markdown (thanks to you David!). For storage and archive I am a big fan of Devonthink Pro Office and I use their companion app to take files and documents with me on the go for easy access when I need them.
And of course, being a Pastor for my day job, I love being able to carry the whole Bible in one little app in my pocket. For this I use the YouVersion App (Which I think is still smaller than one MacSparky Field Guide Book).
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
Being a guy who likes to play around with OS X Server, one of the apps I have found a guilty pleasure is Server Admin Remote. This app let’s me access my server’s vitals from my iPhone. I can check to see how my network is behaving, power usage, storage and what services are running. I can also start and stop services remotely and view log files from my server. Though it hasn’t been officially updated for the most current Server OS, I have found it still works for me under 10.9. A great app if you need to keep up with your OS X Server.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
Honestly I use my iPhone more times than I would like to count. It serves as my time piece so I am always pulling it out to check to see what time it is. I also use it to stay in touch with co-workers & family. The iPad I am trying to work into my workflow and find I use it mostly for media consumption, taking notes in places where using a laptop is not convenient, or when I want to travel light. I still heavily rely on and love my 13 inch Retina Macbook Pro! So overall, I am constantly using my iPhone and occasionally use my iPad for tasks needing a bigger screen.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
If I was in charge at Apple I would like to see more cross app collaboration so developers could tie into each other’s apps a little easier. We see with what Readdle has been trying to do with their suite of applications and how they communicate with one another, what can happen when you allow this kind of integration. I know it goes against the current rules, but it really would make the experience of an iOS device more seamless in my opinion.
What’s your wallpaper and whys?
My wallpaper usually changes over time depending on my mood. I have a wallpaper application called Wallpapers 2 that uploads some nice stuff. I usually browse through there from time to time when I get bored of the wallpaper I am currently using.
Anything Else You’d Like to Share?
Thanks so much for the opportunity to share my home screen David!
Thanks Todd.
Inconceivable
I was reading Steven Frank’s excellent piece (via Daring Fireball) about growing up and playing Dragon’s Lair and there was one passage that struck me where he wrote about ordering a strategy guide from some guy who’s name he found in the back of a magazine.
“I begged my parents. Weeks later, my strategy guide arrived (a few black and white photocopied sheets of paper stapled together), and I began studying.”
I made the same observation last month when my 12-year-old daughter got a Rubik’s cube. I was “of age” when Rubik’s cubes were a big deal and I had one. (Although mine was a smaller knock-off attached to a keychain.)
Learning to solve the Rubik’s cube was a spirit quest for me. I spent hours spinning that thing, learned tips from friends, and kept little notecards with spinning recipes. (Yes. Notecards.) Even then, I didn’t know anyone that could solve the later stages. I felt I may never solve it and then I heard of The Guide. The Guide was talked about in hushed whispers at Vina Danks Junior High. Most of us believed it existed but none of us saw it. Its existence was an article of faith.
Then Jamie’s older brother got his hands on The Guide and a meeting was arranged. The Guide was a piece of paper that had been passed through more hands then the map Indiana Jones uses at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It bore smudges and dirt and stains and what I thought was blood but, in hindsight, was much more likely ketchup. It was beautiful. After a two month journey, The Guide helped me finally solve the Rubik’s cube. More notecards were made.
My daughter solved her Rubik’s cube in 2 days. The only reason it took so long is because she was too busy to go on YouTube the first day. To 1980 me, the idea of the Internet and the ability to find solutions to the Rubik’s cube on my telephone was inconceivable. I wonder what will exist in 35 years that is inconceivable to my twelve-year-old today.
OmniFocus for Mac, Version 2
Today the Omni Group released OmniFocus for Mac, version 2. I’ve already bought my upgrade license for the pro version. I’m going to write up why and how I use this app in greater detail in the near future but for now you can read this piece I did on the OmniFocus website.
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.
NosillaCast on Cooking Ideas
Speaking of podcasts, this past weekend I joined Allison Sheridan’s NosillaCast to talk about one of my favorite topics, cooking ideas. Allison did a great job with the interview.
Mac Power Users 193 with James Floyd Kelly
In episode 193, writer of many books James Floyd Kelly talks about how he gets it all done and shares some excellent geek dad tips, including how to build your very own wireless Atari 2600 emulator including controller. Check it out.