David Chartier is definitely one of the class acts in the Mac community and a super-nerd with some great ideas. This week he joins Katie and I on the Mac Power Users.
Home Screens: Me, iOS 7 Edition
I thought it would be fun to post my home screen again, since it has changed quite a bit with iOS 7
My Home Screen Apps
Apple Mail
I’ve been working with a lot of third party mail apps lately. I really like Dispatch but I keep coming back to Apple Mail, which got some nice improvements with iOS7
Camera App
The Camera App’s new features with iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s make it my default camera application.
Logacal
I’ve been tessting Logacal out as a quick way to get lists of appointments. I’m not sure yet whether this one will stay but there is a lot to like about it’s simple layout. I do wish it was smarter about scrolling the list more. As it stands, it defaults to the today view with the first morning appointment even when I’m opening it in the evening.
Byword
Byword (iOS App Store) (Mac App Store) remains my most used text editor. I love the way it displays markdown text with syntax highlighting and I love the way the iCloud sync works. I keep about ten active text files in it at all time and peck away at them on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
Notesy
Notesy is what I use to sync my Dropbox text folder. These are the same files that sync to nvALTon my Mac. I keep switching between WriteRoom and Notesy for this purpose. It feels like WriteRoom syncs faster but Notesy looks really great in iOS 7.
Twitterific
I’m currently using Twitterific on iOS and Tweetbot on my Mac. There are some features I prefer on Tweetbot but I really like the way Twitterific displays tweets on my phone. This one is a running battle for me right now.
Sonos
Yes. All of those emails, tweets, and comments got to me. I’ve now joined the Sonos cult. I’m not in too deep yet but I can see where this is going.
Instacast
I switched back to Instacast when they released the Mac app. I listen to podcasts as much when I’m doing busy work on my Mac as I do when driving around so this was a good move for me. I know for some, the choice of podcatcher is a holy war. Instacast is working for me. For now.
Audible
I’ve been an audible subscriber for three years and have a nice collection of primarily fiction that are great doing errands. I treat that entire third row as my audio stuff. My fifth row is for remotes.
Hue
I’ve got a set of Hue lightbulbs that are a lot of fun. My kids and I rotate the light colors. The neighbors think we’re weirdos. I can definitely see a future where these things get cheaper and way more common.
WeMo
We also have a few WeMo switches. One of my favorite uses is a lamp in our front room. When we come home at night, we turn on the lights in the house before entering. WeMo has added a lot more devices including additional lights and wall switches. I haven’t tried those yet.
Reeder 2
I’ve been a huge fan of Reeder since it first released. Version 2 is great. My only complaint is the way it puts Feed Wrangler smart collections at the bottom of the screen instead of the top.
Remote
The Apple TV is used more than ever in our house and I spend so much time with the Remote app, that I finally decided to just put it on my home screen.
The Dock
My dock holds some of my most beloved apps, including OmniFocus and Drafts, that I’ve been writing about here for years. I’m sticking with the Apple Calendar app for now because the way it displays today’s date. I’ve been noticing, however, that I don’t actually look at it for the date often so I’m in the process of going through my calendar apps again (I’ve bought ~10 of them over the years) to pick a new one.
Page 2
Another nice thing about iOS 7 is that folders have multiple pages so I am able to put all the rest of my apps neatly an alphabetized set of folders. Yes. I’m that guy.
What Feature Would I Add?
I do a lot of dictation. I’d really like the iPhone to display my words as it interprets them rather than making me dictate everything before showing me any words. This is one feature where Android is ahead of Apple
How About That Background?
It is a simple blue gradient I created with Grad.
iTunes.com/DavidSparks
There is a popular meme about how Apple doesn’t give much thought to the little guys as it moves forward with its platforms. My experience with the iBookstore has been the exact opposite. I found out yesterday that I now have my own page on iTunes. Who would have thought that the world’s biggest company would take care of the world’s smallest author so kindly.
Trucks and Cars
In 2010, Steve Jobs made the analogy between PCs and mobile devices with the original trucks and cars. He explained that when we were an agrarian nation and automobiles were new, everybody wanted a truck. Automobiles were expensive things and you only bought one if you needed it to do heavy work. That, however, was temporary. Eventually, people began buying cars and before you knew it most people bought cars.
As the analogy goes, the desktop PCs are the trucks and the emerging classes of tablets and pocket computing devices, such as iPhones, are the cars. When he made the analogy, it made a lot of sense to me but I felt like it was still something pretty distant into the future. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Looking at my new iPhone, it has a 64 bit processor and is more powerful than anything I could’ve imagined just a few years ago. Moreover, software developers are getting smarter about ways to implement these touch devices in a way that’s quick, efficient, and just better than a traditional PC. (Don’t believe me? Check out Editorial.) I don’t think the desktop Mac is going away but I do feel the swing as more people decide their phones and tablets are “enough”.
This was brought home for me today with some reporting by Horac Dediu. Including iOS and Android devices with traditional computers, in Q3 2008, there were 92 million units shipped, 90% of which were running Windows. Jumping to Q3 2013, using the same devices, there were 269 million units shipped of which Windows was 32%. There were more traditional computer shipped in 2008 than in 2013. You don’t even need fancy statistics to verify this. Just look around you, and you’ll find several people that get by just fine with a mobile device alone.
I’m not saying that laptops and desktop computers are going to go away entirely. There’s a big group of people that are always going to want that kind of power, including me. However, the shift from trucks to cars is in full swing and as the mobile devices get even better hardware and smarter software, this is going to become even more obvious.
More on Microsoft Office for iPad
I’ve written so much about Office and the iPad that I almost feel obligated to pile on every time we get something new. I was all set to do that today (and even started a draft) until I read Jeff Richardson’s post. All I can say now is, ditto that.
October 22 iPad Event
AllThngsD is pretty reliable about predicting Apple events and new iPads on October 22 makes a lot of sense. The one part of this scoop that really grabbed my attention is the idea of an iPad mini with a retina screen and A7 chip. I wonder how Apple could do that at the mini’s current price. Maybe it is a scale thing. Maybe it is entirely fictional. Either way, if they do deliver that product, I am 100% in.
Nest Protect
Today Nest announced its new product, the Nest Protect. It is a combination smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm that received the same love and attention the Nest thermostat did. It has an app and connects to your WiFi. It gives you a warning before it goes off and if it a false alarm (I burn toast, often), you can waive your hand in front of it and it will go off.
I think the tricky part is the price. All of the smoke detectors in my house combined didn’t cost the $130 price tag of one Nest Protect. I suspect the people at Nest aren’t aiming for Home Depot bargain hunters here and I suspect they’ll do just fine with this new product.
Have you noticed the way all of these connected devices are slowly pulling us into the smart-house of the future? I’m loving it.
Dalrymple on Schmidt
Sometimes Jim brings his unique perspective to tech executives in a way nobody else can.
MPU 158: iOS Gems and Delights
Episode 158 of the Mac Power Users is up. In it Katie and I cover some of our favorite iOS 7 tips and workflows along with our favorite iOS 7-ified applications.
Sponsor: Rocket Matter and Free Evernote Book
This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by Rocket Matter, the premier cloud-based law practice management solution. The folks at Rocket Matter get how to run your business in the Internet age and Rocket Matter is the place to go when you’ve finally had it with the expense and pain of trying to do it yourself. This week Rocket Matter is giving away a free ebook, Cloud Planet: A Lawyer’s Guide to Evernote. This book is full of tips and advice to get the most out of Evernote, no matter what you do for a living. Go download the book. You won’t regret it.