This week’s episode of Mac Power Users features an interview with Brooks Duncan where we talk about recent developments in Paperless technologies and more Mac geekery.
Collaboration with LiveNote
The killer feature in Google Docs is the ability to simultaneously work on the same document with other people. The iWork cloud feature isn’t as good and Google has always, in my opinion, led the pack on this useful feature. It seems to me that this feature will inevitably find its way into Pages and Word. In the meantime, Aditya Patadia and Hardik Pandya have already built a free version of an online text editor that pulls this off at LiveNote.org. If putting your data with Google creeps you out, this is a good solution for one-off text collaborations.
Home Screens: Moisés Chiullan
This week’s home screen features Moisés Chiullan (Webite) (Twitter), one of my favorite 5by5 hosts with shows includingGiant Size, The Critical Path, and Screen Time. So Moisés, show us your home screen.
What are some of your favorite apps?
I can’t live without 1Password, to which I have recently converted in a literally religious manner. I say prayers that I added something to it when I desperately need it. I’m dedicating part of this weekend to dumping all my remaining passwords into it. Combined use of TextExpander Touch, Drafts, Squarespace Blog, Launch Center Pro and Screens is the only reason I can keep up with posting content at ArthouseCowboy.com regularly (or at all), especially with the LayoutEngine integration in Squarespace’s new app. Things is the simple, straightforward, (finally) cloud-syncing to-do app that gets what I need done. The only reason I like Apple’s Mail app is that I can flip switches on or off to hide accounts that movie industry publicists send hundreds of distribution list emails to daily (thanks SXSW!), except for when I need to find a specific one.
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
A tie between two games: Letterpress and vConqr (no longer available but you can get RISK). The former is great when people don’t resign or disappear on turn three, and the latter is a really basic ripoff of RISK that gets my brain back into tactical action mode.
What is the app you are still missing?
A podcast app that I don’t want to cast into the darkest corners of hell. Instacast is only there until I export my OPML data into Castro.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
Too many and not efficiently enough. You should have asked my wife. She’d have just said “lost count”.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
Over the air data sync and intra-communication of apps as implemented by third-party developers. Technically, I guess that means a wellspring of talented, smart third-party developers who are always trying be miles ahead of the curve. I wish Apple made app-to-app interaction work better from the user perspective.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
I used to work for them, and respect NDAs even when I never expect to work for someone again…however I can say it’s inexcusable that listening to audio on my phone drains the battery completely in under a half day. If I could change one thing, it would be the 20-year-olds at the Genius Bar assuming that I have Push enabled on all my apps, a dozen Exchange accounts, and that I’m a liar and/or an idiot. Apple Stores have gotten more like sneering, cattle-wrangling hipster hangout joints and less like the oasis they used to be.
Extrapolating that as a general note, they need to focus on reinvesting into the businesses they’re in across the board before they “redefine” anything like TV and further water down their standard of “it just works”, which is now down to “it generally does what an unspecified significant amount of people will tolerate”.
Anything else you’d like to share?
In addition to The Critical Path, where I’m second banana to the inimitable Horace Dediu, I host two other podcasts on 5by5. Screen Time is a panel show that looks at all parts of the video media ecosystem, from production to consumption.Giant Size is a panel show where John Gholson and I guide new, veteran, and lapsed comics readers through characters, creators, and stories worth reading. We want to make getting into comics less intimidating. Both of them include interviews with people from across the entertainment world, from Guillermo del Toro, Peter Weller, and Star Trek designers Mike and Denise Okuda to Stan Lee and Kelly Sue DeConnick. I also recently did a pilot for a new show about the world of customer service called Thank You For Calling!, and as of this writing, it’s available as 5by5 Special #23.
Thanks Moisés
Matias’s New Clicky Ergonomic Keyboard
Today Matias took the wraps off its latest keyboard. I used a Matias keyboard for several years and it was built like a tank. Now they’ve got a $200 two-piece ergonomic keyboard for sale that looks pretty nice if that is your thing.
Getting Started with GarageBand
Having GarageBand on your Apple devices without opening it is kind of like having Star Wars in your DVD collection without ever watching it. Even if you’ve never read a note of music or picked up an instrument, there is a lot in there for you. Chris Breen has started a series at Macworld that should be the gateway drug for anyone.
Habits Apps Article at Macworld
With the arrival of the new year, I took a look at some habit apps for Macworld.
Dictation Sans External Mic
One of the cardinal rules of computer dictation is that you always must have a high quality microphone. This was drilled into me years ago. A funny thing happened though. The software and hardware got a lot better. About six months ago I started dictating frequently on my retina MacBook Pro without an external microphone. Instead, I’m just talking to my computer without anything plugged into it. This works remarkably well. I know that Apple added a noise canceling microphone with this most recent batch of computers. Your mileage may vary depending on what machine you’re driving but if you’re using a recent Mac, and you haven’t tried dictation without a microphone, you should.
That’s a Lot of Apps
In December, consumers downloaded almost 3 billion (with a “B”) apps from the iOS app store and last year consumers spent over $10 Billion in the App Store. There are a few things you can take away from that announcement.
1. Apple is doing just fine.
2. The Mobile future is for real.
3. Apple needs to double down on the the server side of the Internet. All of these mobile apps need an Internet backside and it needs to be rock solid. I don’t know how Apple will do it but they need to get damn close to Google’s ability to deliver through the Internet. This is becoming exponentially more important every year. The common logic that Apple simply isn’t built for that sort of initiative needs to be disproven.
MPU 171: Photo Management
This week Bradley Chambers joins Katie and me as we talk through some of the best solutions for photo management. This is a problem I’ve been dealing with at home for awhile now and I’m pretty happy with my current solution (though I’d much prefer Apple to solve this for me).
The Fog Horn
It is interesting to see the permutations as the publishing world gets reinvented. There is a new magazine in the Apple Newsstand called The Fog Horn, four fictional stories per month from talented writers. The model reminds me of the 1950s era science fiction magazines and I’ve subscribed.