Transporter Sync


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Transporter just released a new device called the Transporter Sync. It is a $99 device that you can attach to any USB storage device and turn it into Transporter cloud storage. It has all of the benefits of the traditional Transporter device of your own personal cloud storage with no subscription fees. The difference is it gets rid of the built in hard drive and attaches to your existing storage. You can plug it into a thumb drive, an external drive, or even something really big like a multi-terrabyte Drobo. All of this costs you exactly 99 bucks. I think I’m going to buy one and attach it to my Drobo and put it all in my personal cloud. We could have our 12 years of digital photos on all of our devices this way. Crazy. If that isn’t enough for you, there’s a Sandwich Video.

Apple Mail and Gmail

There is quite a bit on the web the last few days about Apple Mail’s support (or lack thereof) for Gmail. Joe Kissell has been at the front of this over at TidBITS. In my mind Apple Mail and Gmail have never been like chocolate and peanut butter together. They are, in reality, much more like oil and vineger. Apple Mail has matured and developed into a pretty terrific IMAP email client. The rules engine is unmatched and features like VIP and Smart Mailboxes have become essential to me.

The problem is that Gmail is not an IMAP service. Neither is it POP. Gmail is something entirely … well … Google. While in the past people have been able to get Gmail working in Apple Mail it always involved copious amounts of scotch tape and chewing gum. Apple has never had any interest in building in support for things like Gmail labels and inbox filtering to Apple Mail. Why would they?

If you use Gmail, you should be using all of its features. Google has done some really useful things in their email sandbox over the years. You will never be able to use those features in Apple Mail. So my advice is to get over it and move on. Use the browser for your Gmail accounts or something like MailPlane, designed around Gmail.

 

ChargeKey


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I’ve been looking for an ultra-portable Lightening cable. This Indiegogo project looks like the one. I just backed it. 

∞

Home Screen: Ben Carter


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This Sunday, the Mac Power Users will publish a workflow show with Ben Carter (website) (Twitter). Ben started a law firm and is now doing a short run podcast on it called, “Let’s Start a Law Firm”. It’s a great little show and useful to a lot of people running small service-based businesses. Ben was telling me about some of his favorite apps so I decided to make it official.


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What are some of favorite apps?

My three favorite apps that your readers may not be using are:

1) Deli Radio allows users to create custom playlists of musicians that are performing in or near a specific geographical area within a specific date horizon. For example, I have a playlist that plays indie rock bands that are playing within 50 miles of Louisville, Kentucky in the next month. It’s a great way to discover new music and support live music. Also, one of my best friends is their general counsel. It is also a web app, so you can listen at your desk.

2) Songza offers users pre-made playlists that may be appropriate for certain activities at specific times of the day and week. It tells you: “It’s Wednesday morning. Do you want music for: a) waking up happy, b) waking up with energy, c) rolling over and hitting snooze, etc. etc.? It will then present you with six or so genres of music. After choosing a genre, you get to pick one of three playlists. I’ve found some great songs on Songza and love all of the new ways we have to listen to music. In another life—if I do this one well—I hope to come back as a musician. Songza also has a web app for at-work listening, but I mostly use Spotify at my desk to explore some of the bands I’ve found using Deli Radio and Songza on my phone. I pay the 99 cents a week for the ad-free version of Songza. Worth it.

3) Avocado is a really fun app that I use with my girlfriend. Designed as a kind of social network for two people, Avocado is basically a beefed-up text messaging app with a few awesome twists. When I started dating my girlfriend, she was living in Manhattan and I was in Louisville, so a lot of our relationship was in text messages. Very early in the relationship it occurred to me how much of the inside jokes and meaning-making was evolving in text messages that were trapped on our phones, so I began to look for an alternative that might allow me to export our text-exchanges and found Avocado. It allows you to use your photos to set custom emojis for certain emotions (I have a fist bump, a look of dismay, and a high-five emoji), create and update shared lists, and share, caption, and draw on photos. It’s a really fun app that (again), has a web component. So while I’m at my desk, I can text her on her phone using my computer keyboard, which is really nice.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Facebook. I wish I didn’t like it so much, but I do.

What is the app you are still missing?

I don’t really feel like I’m missing apps so much as I feel like I’m missing some functionality in the apps I already use. I use Sparrow as an email client even though I know I’m living on borrowed time following its acquisition by Google because it has a “Send and Archive” feature. I love “Send and Archive”. More email clients should offer it.

Also, I wish Songza made it possible to save songs to playlists that I could create rather than only offering me their playlists. Instead, I’m snapping screenshots of good songs and adding them to Spotify playlists.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I run my law practice through my phone. My iPhone is my office phone. I use Soulver to calculate mileage, balance my books, and double-check the math that loan servicers have performed when offering or denying my clients loan modifications. I track my time when I’m on the run using Rocket Matter’s iPhone app. I navigate to rural Kentucky’s courthouses using Google Maps and listen to Roderick on the Line on my way there using Downcast. Even when I’m standing at my desk, I’m just as likely to log on to check my bank balances on my phone as on my computer.

So, is “constantly” an answer?

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

IT IS A COMPUTER. IN MY POCKET. I feel really lucky to be old enough to remember computing in the mid–80s and hope I never stop feeling grateful for the nerds that make this all possible.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I practice consumer law, which basically means that I’m representing people who have been duped, defrauded, or otherwise misled/screwed by a business. I wish there were an easier way to export text message exchanges. In a surprising number of my cases, text messages are going to be evidence in a trial. Screenshots? Come on.

Anything else you’d like to share?

If you’re a guitar player, I really recommend the ultimate-guitar.com app for iPad. I use it on my Mini and it really makes finding, storing, and playing music easy and fun.

Thanks Ben.

 

iPad mini or iPad Air?

It has only been a few days since the new iPad event and I’m already getting questions from listeners and readers about which iPad I think they should buy. Not having laid hands on either of the new ones yet, it seems to me that Apple has made the decision much easier. Specifically, they have leveled the playing field between the two devices. It used to be that you either got the big, fast, heavy one with the great screen or the little, light, slow one with the pixelated screen. That’s not the case anymore.

They Are Both Fast

Both iPads have the same A7 chip inside them so you don’t have any processing speed trade-off with either device.

They Are Both Light

While the big one is obviously a bit heavier, not much. Apple has done a great job of removing a lot of the weight from the larger iPad. Moreover, they’ve added a retina screen to the mini without dramatically increasing its weight which brings me to my next point.

They Both Have Beautiful Displays

They both have retina screens. Since they both have the same pixel count, the iPad mini screen is actually slightly better now than its bigger brother. The non-retina screen was my biggest complaint with the mini.

One is Big and One is Small

The only difference at this point is that one is nearly 10 inches and one is nearly 8 inches. With this as the only deciding factor, for a lot of people this will make the decision really easy. They will know immediately whether they want a large one or the small one.

For those who are not certain, I’d ask you to look at the ways in which you use your iPad. If you primarily use it for consumption, such as reading websites, books, and other basic computing tasks, you should look closely at the iPad mini. It’s great for those tasks. If on the other hand you’re working on documents, using the on-screen keyboard a lot, and doing tasks that are more content creation focused, you may want to look at the iPad Air. I’ve been watching my wife, a technology-muggle, using her iPad the last few months and she does a tremendous amount of work with the on-screen keyboard. I don’t think the iPad mini would ever work for her.

I currently own both, an iPad 3 and an iPad mini. When I’m at the office or in court working on a lot of PDF files and mindmaps, I really appreciate the larger iPad’s bigger screen. When I’m on the road, attending conferences, or even just banging around my house, the portability of the mini is really useful. The iPad mini is also really great for small day trips in that it fits in a much smaller bag than the iPad Air. (The iPad mini is also really great for driving wireless presentations.) Everybody’s different and everybody’s going to have to make their own decisions. I’ve grown so accustomed to having both that I’m seriously considering selling my prior devices to help offset the purchase of an iPad Air *and* retina iPad mini. Tim Cook must love me.

 

AppleScript and the New iWork

Early reports on the new iWork are not good. The general consensus seems to be that in order to make everything compatible, they dumbed down the Mac versions. I’m trying to finish a book right now and preparing for a closing statement on Friday so as you can probably guess, I’m kind of busy. I haven’t had time enough to test the new versions fully.

Clark’s Tech Blog explains there is a significant regression in AppleScript support in the new iWork. I’ve always felt that one of the ironic points about iWork was its general lack of support for AppleScript. Microsoft Office does a much better job of supporting AppleScript and Microsoft even went to the extent of hiring one the best people in the business, Ben Waldie, to write a lot of their automation tools for the Mac version. In this regard, Microsoft is heads and shoulders above Apple.

It’s concerning to see that this new version of iWork has not only not moved forward on automation but instead backwards. I don’t use a lot of AppleScript in iWork and, frankly, I don’t know what the percentage of people is the do. However, for those people that do use AppleScript, it is huge.

On the subject of iWork, I did spend a half hour playing with the new collaboration features and while the feature works as demonstrated during yesterday’s keynote event, they certainly are not as fast as they were during the keynote event. I’m going to have a lot more to say about this in the coming days.

 

Transporter 2.0 on iOS

In the midst of all the hubbub of the last few days, Transporter released version 2.0 of their iOS app now with the ability to upload pictures from your phone or iPad to your Transporter storage. (Katie Floyd writes it up and takes credit all in one post.) 

There are increasing numbers of vectors to get photos from iThingies to cloud storage and this is opening a lot of new solutions for the geekier among us. I’m working on just such a system right now and plan to do a Mac Power Users episode on it in the not too distant future.