1Password Version 4



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Today marks the release of 1Password, version 4. Agilebits has been hard at work on this update for some time. I jumped on board in the middle of the beta and have been using it on a daily every since. If you’re already a 1Password user, you are really going like this update. If you’re not a 1Password user, shame on you and go get it now.

This update includes over 90 new features aimed at reducing the distance between security and convenience with password management on your Mac. You can get a full description of the updated features at the Agilebits website. There are couple, however, that I already find indispensable.

1Password mini

Before I could only access my 1Password data through the Safari plug-in or the full on application. Now they have a nice little menubar application that lets me get this data. You can trigger it with a keyboard shortcut and if you’re like me, you’ll be using it quite often.

iCloud Sync

This only works with the Mac App Store version but if that’s how you roll, you’re going to really like this new feature. Now I can attach my 1Password data to the device without my Dropbox password. I’ve been using iCloud sync now for two weeks without any issues.

Shared Items

I can now share entries (or entire 1Password vaults) with my wife. No longer do I have to struggle through what to do when she asks me to email her the password for banking website.

There are a lot more features than this. If you bought version 3 from the Mac App Store, this upgrade is free. That’s how I would recommend buying this application if you’re jumping on with version 4. It has allowed me to share the application with everyone in my household and enables iCloud sync to my iOS devices. If you want to get it directly from the developer, you can do it here. Either way, this is a really nice upgrade to an already fantastic application. Make sure to check it out.

 

Marked 2 Now Available



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I’m a little late to this party but last week Brett Terpstra released version 2 of his Marked application. Marked is the last word in markdown preview on the Mac. I’ve already purchased mine and am using it.

Marked 2 tracks your file changes and updates the preview as you go, even automatically scrolling to the point in the file where you’re currently working. The new version is faster and more accurate. I know there is a lot of work behind that speed improvement.

The application also supports MultiMarkdown 4.2 (including footnotes), better search, Fountain support, MarsEdit and system clipboard previews. You can also export to DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, RTFD, and paginated PDF. This is just a taste. Brett’s gone crazy with great features. If you routinely write in Markdown, you’ll have use for Marked 2. Get it from Brett directly.

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EverDock Kickstarter Project

I’ve been a lot more skeptical about Kickstarter projects lately but this EverDock Duo solves a problem for me. I charge my iPad and iPhone on my bedside table and this looks perfect. Moreover, there are no included electronics so I’m betting they are much more likely to ship on time. I ordered one.

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More From Apple This Fall

Macworld’s Dan Frakes and Dan Moren give a nice rundown of what Apple may still have up its sleeve this fall. If we are to get new iPads in October (which seems likely), it is pretty impressive that nobody really knows whether the new iPad mini will be retina or not.

One item the article left out is a retina-like cinema display. With Apple about to sell Mac Pros that can drive multiple high-density monitors, I wouldn’t be surprised if they started selling those too. Such a product would also be a nice add-on for the new retina MacBook Pros.

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Sponsor: Timeline 3D



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This week I’d like to welcome a new sponsor to MacSparky.com,  BEEDOCS Timeline 3D. I’ve been using Timeline 3D for years as my timeline application. BEEDOCS is an artisan software company in Seattle focused on developing useful and elegant products. 

I love the way Timeline 3D presents data cinematically. I can spend just a few minutes building a Timeline and then show off something that looks like it should have taken hours (or days) to build. Attorneys, students, educators, genealogists, and anyone else that wants to elegantly present chronological data should add Timeline 3D to their tool belt. There are versions for the Mac and for iOS. Go check it out.

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1Password Weighs in on Touch ID

There is a good post in the Agile forum about the potential of using Touch ID with 1Password on iOS. Until Apple opens this up to third parties it is all academic but it looks like they are at least considering the possibilities.  

I’ve read a few of the articles about spoofing Touch ID and they all seem pretty difficult and at this point it seems to me far superior to a 4 digit unlock code.  These are, granted, early days with this technology so it will be interesting to see where this goes over the next year. 

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Evernote Essential, 4th Edition


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Brett Kelly, the Czar of all things Evernote just released the fourth edition his Evernote Essentials book. The update includes some great new content. Brett also now has an iBooks version.

Even though I’ve spent a lot of time explaining how I don’t use Evernote much, the service is increasingly finding its way into many of my workflows. For example, anytime I get an email from a listener that I may want to include with feedback, I send it to my secret Evernote email address with a subject lines that automatically files it in the appropriate notebook. I then share that Evernote notebook with Katie so we both have access to it. This is much faster than my older workflow.

Anyway, if you want to get going at Evernote, go check out Brett’s book.