ScanSnap iX500 now Scans Wireless to Your Mac


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This week Fujitsu released a software and firmware update for the ScanSnap iX500 that lets you scan to you Mac (or PC) without a USB cable. I updated my scanner last night and it works great. Now I’m rethinking the location of my scanner. I could put it anywhere in the house and free up some valuable desk real estate. I’m already eyeing flat surfaces throughout my house. Perhaps even a corner in the kitchen. I can see it now: mailbox, kitchen scanner, recycle bin. If you’ve got an iX500, run your update and try it for yourself.

 

The Moving Timeline Keynote Trick

While attending the World Domination Summit I got to finally see (and meet in person) Nancy Duarte. Nancy is a remarkable communicator and helped many high profile clients with presentations, including Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth presentation.

During the presentation she did some timelines where the timeline would move while she spoke. During the WGS geek lunch afterward, several people were asking how she did it. I was happy to explain this is a nut I have already cracked. In order to create a timeline that moves, you simply need to make a timeline bigger than a single slide and then stack them next to each other. Then you can use the Push transition to make it appear as if the timeline itself is moving when all you are really doing is transitioning from one slide to the next. For instance I will take the following three slides. Each one represents a small piece of a larger timeline.


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When creating this timeline, start out with one slide and get your timeline set exactly where you want it. Then duplicate the slide as many times as you need. If you need to make adjustments to the actual line, be very careful that you don’t move it vertically or it completely ruins the effect. I also usually add a small dot the beginning or ending of the timeline drawn with a keynote graphics element.

Then I will place them next to each other as they will appear in Keynote’s presentation. When assembled this way you can see it looks like one single timeline even though it’s three individual slides.


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After that it’s simply a question of setting transitions using the Push animation and setting a reasonable length so the audience can follow with you as the timeline tracks across. If this isn’t making any sense to you, I’ve made a short presentation that you can download here demonstrating the effect.

So many of the tricks I use in Keynote are just hacky little visual tricks like this.

 

Stop Motion Donkey Kong

Techhive pointed me to Guiz de Pessemier, who decided to build his own stop motion version of Donkey Kong using Perler Beads. Blink. I watched the whole video because growing up, Donkey Kong was my game.  It was the game we played every time we got our hands on a few quarters. My best friend and I would call each other and make that great Donkey Kong jumping sound and hang up. There was no discussion whatsoever. No chance to make excuses or “ask my mom”. The recipient of the “jump call” then had no choice but to mount his ten-speed and race to the Donkey Kong machine at the corner of Vine and Holt. It was a matter of faith. On a recent family vacation I stumbled into a Donkey Kong game and played it with my daughter until, once again, I ran out of quarters.

I have a couple of complaints about this most excellent stop motion though: 

1. Unless my dementia has gone off the rails, I’m pretty sure he has the levels out of order from the original coin-op machine.


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2. I really wish he had included the jump on level three that, if timed perfectly, let you skip most of the level. My friends and I simply called this “the jump” throughout our childhoods. My friend Scott would nail “the jump” every time. Not surprisingly, Scott is now an executive in the video game industry. 

So here it is, my precious  Donkey Kong.

Leap Motion and Better Touch Tool

About a year ago, I saw the demo for the Leap Motion controller and I ordered one. I wasn’t even sure how I’d use such a device but the idea of a control surface in the air in front of my Mac intrigued me so much that I parted with $80 anyway. When it arrived last week I was feeling a lot more sheepish about that expenditure as I looked through Leap’s Airspace store. It looks like there are some clever games and demonstration-type software, allowing you to dissect a virtual frog for instance, but nothing really grabbed me. Then Don McAllister told me Better Touch Tool has Leap support. Now we are talking.


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If you haven’t downloaded Better Touch Tool yet, go do it right now. BTT is the result of a lot of hard work by Andreas Hegenberg. It’s free but Andreas accepts donations. You will end up giving Andreas some money because this application is really useful. Better Touch Tool lets you customize the touch pad with, for lack of a better word, finger macros to let you pull off more than Apple thinks you should with your trackpad and magic mouse. For instance if I rest my index and fourth finger on the trackpad and tap with my middle finger, it closes the application currently under the mouse. (This even works in Mission Control view.) If I rest my third and fourth fingers on the trackpad and tap with my index finger, it triggers ⌘-W, which closes the active window. (This is great for closing out Safari tabs.)

As you can tell. I already have a lot of affection for Better Touch Tool and Leap controller functionality is icing on the cake. So I’ve spent some time playing with this new feature and I’ve now got several gestures I can do in the air in front of my Mac. If I put one finger in the air and move it up, it closes the application, just like the gesture in iOS 7. If I put one finger in the air and pull it down, it closes the window just like my gestures I explained earlier on my trackpad. If I put two fingers in the air and swiped the left, I move right one space. Putting two fingers in the air and swiping to the right moves back one space to the left. All of this is a lot of fun. I’m only adding new gestures as I internalize the prior ones.

The process of taking my hands off the keyboard to wave them in the air to perform a gesture which I could do just as easily with keyboard shortcut, however, seems counterproductive. This is part where the Leap controller starts feeling like a novelty device. There are, however, times that I sit in front of my computer and I don’t have my hands on the keyboard. For instance, when I dictate. I’ve got a keyboard shortcut across all of my Macs that toggles the mic on and off in Dragon dictate, which is Control-Option-Command-M. It is easy to trigger when my hands are on the keyboard. But when I’m dictating my hands aren’t on the keyboard and the process of getting situated on the keyboard and finding the right keys takes time. So now I have a Leap gesture (two fingers up) that presses the magic key combination and turns my mic off or back on again. It’s more intuitive while dictating and faster. I’m also going to set one up to mute my mic while podcasting.

There is an artform to activating these leap gestures in Better Touch Tool. You can’t simply flick your wrist and expect it to pick up your finger movements. Instead you need to use your whole arm. I can see how that would get tiresome but the contexts that I’m using this in are infrequent and I’m not going to be spending hours manipulating my computer Minority Report style.

I don’t see the Leap technology replacing my mouse and trackpad but I do see it as an enhancement to them. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t use the Leap controller when it makes sense and ignore it when it doesn’t. I don’t regret purchasing this Leap device and I’m looking forward to seeing where this all goes.

Back to Instacast

There are two podcatchers which seem to command a lot of loyalty, Instacast and Downcast. I started out with Instacast and then migrated to Downcast about a year ago. A few months ago, Instacast released a Mac client that brought me back into the fold. I decided to wait awhile before writing about it to first make sure that the switch would stick. It did.


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The Instacast user interface has improved since the last time I used it. A lot. The interface on both the Mac and iOS clients gives you a list of podcasts you’ve subscribed to and episodes available for download. The settings let you determine exactly what to do with each podcast you subscribe to. Some may only download the latest episode and others may download all unplayed podcasts. It’s up to you. (You can even download episodes over a cell network, which is really handy about 10 minutes before boarding a plane.)

In addition to the standard view, you can also create lists and smart lists. I use several smart lists including Partially Played (to help me finish shows I paused) and Most Recent.

The big reason for my switch was the release of the Mac app and the ability sync podcasts. I spend a lot of time behind a Mac. The Mac, iPad, and iPhone sync flawlessly. I can now listen to a show while at my Mac and pick up later in my car from my iPhone exactly where I left off on my Mac. Instacast doesn’t just sync listening position. If you delete an episode entirely, that also syncs between the devices. I like to clear out my feeds as much as possible and I particularly appreciate this feature.

With the switch back to Instacast, I didn’t find many WTF moments. Every thing works as I’d expect it to and I’m happy with the switch. There are rumblings that Downcast will get it’s own Mac app and I’ll probably be checking it out. Honestly though, I have all the features I need from a podcatcher and I don’t see a big reason for moving again.

 

Mavericks and Tagging

Every since Apple announced Mavericks, I’ve been meaning to write a post about tagging. Today Brett Terpstra did such a great job at it that I can cross this off my list. One of my big hang ups with tagging has always been the way it felt like such a hack. Apple didn’t really support it and I always worried that Apple would break third party solutions with the next OS update and my tagged files would just become an unorganized mess. 

Now that Apple is supporting tagging, that problem is solved. There still isn’t iOS support but I have to think that is on the road map. Either way, this development has me much more interested in a tagging system. I’m looking forward to reading Brett’s follow up post.

Home Screens – Ian Byrd


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Recently I attended a 5by5 meetup in Santa Monica where I met several Mac Power Users listeners, including Ian Byrd (Website) (Twitter). Ian is an experienced gifted-student teacher that got inspired to try something else. He did just that with his website, Byrdseed.com, where he writes about gifted education and develops videos to help teachers and parents of gifted children. Ian is also a big Mac nerd. So Ian, show us your home screen.


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What are some favorite apps?

I love Reeder. I use it as inspiration for lesson ideas as well as for pure entertainment. It’s fast, syncs with my iPad, and connects beautifully to Twitter and Pocket.

Instagram has become my favorite way of seeing what friends and family are up to. But, since I’m not too comfortable with it as an archive, I use a couple IFTTT recipes to grab photos I post or that I like and store them in my Flickr account for safe keeping. Mint is a seriously fantastic tool for tracking family spending, and I use Outright to stay on top of my business’ finances.

Moves is awesome for passively tracking walking, running, or cycling.  Much simpler than starting and stopping a dedicated exercise app. Plus, I love getting the weekly summary notifications.

I keep a folder of web shortcuts to my Byrdseed sites, stats pages, and a related app I am perpetually developing.

Finally, I’m a Downcast man for podcasts. 

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Definitely Foursquare. While I’m not too interested in competing for points or becoming a mayor, I do love tracking where I’ve been, especially when I travel. And I always look forward to landing at a new airport and unlocking the next Jetsetter badge! 

What is the app you are still missing?

My websites run on WordPress installations that I’ve tricked out quite a bit, but I can’t really access all of that power from my iPhone. The official WordPress app has improved a lot for writing posts, but lacks the level of control I need for organizing and managing everything. I always end up using MarsEdit on my Mac because of its great custom field support or simply logging into the web’s admin panel. I’d love a more flexible WordPress app that lets me control my sites on the go. 

What Is Your Favorite Feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I’ve accepted that my memory’s best days are behind me, so I love whenever my phone can act as a second brain. I set timers for everything. I have a Reminders list for library books I want to check out. I use Things to capture tasks on the go. I take photos of my parking spots, hotel room numbers, and receipts when I travel. And I’m hoping Siri continues to improve, because she makes it so easy to get the mundane into my phone.

Anything Else You’d Like to Share?

Just happy to contribute to MacSparky! Love everything you do for the community, David. Thank you!

Thanks Ian