It’s already January and Macworld/iWorld is just a few weeks away. If you are near San Francisco at the end of the month, you should go. Macworld is one of the highlights of my year, every year. It is a place where Mac geeks rein supreme and the guy behind you in the sandwich line just may be able to teach you some AppleScript.
I’ll be posting again as the event gets closer about my goings on. For now, I’m certain I’ll be at the OmniFocus Setup and Debut on Thursday the 31st, my Macworld session on iBooks author Friday February 1st at 5pm, and at the Smile booth Saturday February 2 at 3pm. I’m doing more and will post it all when schedules get set.
In the meantime I’ve got access to this magic link that gets a free exhibit hall pass or an iFan pass for just $50. (The iFan pass is the way to go, by the way.)
I know I sound like a broken record on this last point but if you do go, make sure to make new friends and introduce yourself to people. If you see me, I expect a “hello”. At Macworld you are among family.
We’re back from the holidays… slightly heavier; slightly more determined. We have goals. We have resolutions. And we will make them happen.
… we think.
Sure, clearing out your inbox is a great intention – but finding a sustainable solution for business collaboration is better. While it might be tough to change the way your teams work together, now is the right time to move past the frustrations of yesteryear.
This week Fujitsu released its latest desktop ScanSnap, the iX500. I was provided an early review unit and I’ve been putting it through its paces for the last several weeks. This is a really nice upgrade.
When I first heard there was going to be a new desktop ScanSnap, part of me wondered how it would differ from the successful S1500. I’ve been using an S1500 for years and that scanner is a real trooper. The iX500 is not an iterative improvement. Fujitsu made some big moves with this new scanner. To begin, The iX500 works on both the Mac and the PC. Fujitsu is now officially off the separate Mac and PC product trains which makes things easier for multi-platform users.
Mobile Scanning
One of the best new features is the ability to use an iOS or Android app to scan directly to your mobile device. The iX500 includes a built in WiFi radio and, once mobile scanning is enabled and you’ve got it on your network, you can scan to your iPad, iPhone, or Android device by setting in the paper and pushing the button. To enable this you first need to install the ScanSnap to a Mac or PC and download the mobile app but after that, you can go completely mobile. Your Mac doesn’t even need to be turned on. Fujitsu made a nice video showing off mobile scanning.
More Reliable
The ScanSnap has always been good at detecting when it grabs more than one sheet. This newest version improves upon ultra-sonic sensor technology to make it even more reliable. The new ScanSnap also does a better job with long documents and plastic cards.
The ScanSnap also got upgraded software. The newer software makes it easer to set up custom scanning projects and send data to local and cloud storage services. In short, the Quick Menu is better and more customizable. It includes all of the usual suspects like Dropbox, Evernote, Google docs, and SugarSync. There is also a new card scanning app for Mac, CardMinder. I’ve always appreciated how Fujitsu supports the Mac. The software works great, is fast, and doesn’t feel like an afterthought. (I can’t say that for all third party hardware makers and the Mac.)
If you’ve got an existing S1500 should you be upgrading? Probably not unless you want the mobile scanning. If you have been on the fence, however, now is the time to buy a new Fujitsu scanner. Learn more from Fujitsu.
Disclosure: Fujitsu is a sponsor of the Mac Power Users. That does not color my opinion of their ScanSnap scanners. If they were junk, I’d tell you. I gladly paid $450 of my dollars to buy my personal ScanSnap many year ago and it still works great.
I’ve always prided myself on using cheap pens. I scoffed at Parker and passed on Mont Blanc. Why get some fancy-pants pen I’d lose or break when I can get Pilot G2’s by the dozen at Staples.
Things started to go south, however, when Michael Lopp came on the Mac Power Users and pointed me to Jet Pens, a website that pushes all of my pen-geek buttons. I started buying the Zebra Sarasa pens, which are not much more expensive than my G2s and really nice. Little did I know they were my gateway drug.
About six months ago, I found the Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen. Finally, an expensive pen I could really get behind. I’ve been using it daily now since I first bought it and it gives me more joy than a pen should while at the same time instilling an irrational fear of losing it. There is no way I can justify the purchase but I do love using this pen. Pen Addict summarizes it much better than I ever could.
Good Habits is just the right mix of practical and fiddle for my taste. I’ve got a nice list of habits I’m working on in there and I find it very satisfying keeping my momentum going as I open it at the end of the day and check off things. Several of my daily tasks from OmniFocus have transitioned over. These include things like flossing teeth, checking banking site, logging food, and doing something (anything) on a MacSparky Field Guide. These never felt like tasks so much as habits and I’m glad to have them out of my OmniFocus database.
Anyway, the app is free and if you are looking for a way to give yourself a little geek-motivation, I recommend it.
There is a lot to like about the Omni Group’s OmniFocus Mail Sync service. I’ve written about it before and it is amazing. Forward an email to a certain email address and a task built around that email just shows up in your inbox Omni-Synced OmniFocus database.
It gets even more interesting when you start automating email. You could, for instance, set up an Apple Mail rule that automatically forwards an email from your cable company to the the Sync Service and files the original email in your archive.
Think about that for just a moment. An email arrives, a task is created, the email gets filed. Your total involvement: zero.
You could also use something like IFTTT to do the same thing. The IFTTT hooks in Gmail give you enough control to pull it off. Create a rule that examines incoming Gmail for a particular recipient (like your cable company). Next, have Gmail forward the email to your magic Omni Sync address.
Unfortunately, this only works with Gmail. IFTTT’s IMAP email account support doesn’t give you enough control.
There are several local and web-based mail services that can forward an email for you. For instance, if you are working for “the man”, you could set up the auto-forward in Outlook. Use a little creativity, this should work for everyone.
We talk about this on the upcoming MPU episode but it is worth linking here. Mike Vardy made a nice template emergency kit to help people out with your 1Password data in case of emergency. Do it today and give yourself a gold star.
TextDrop is a Markdown friendly web based text editor that looks at everything in your storage. It is fast, easy, and magical. MacDrifter did a thourough job of writing up the latest update. I’ve only been a paid subscriber for a few weeks but I’m already hooked. If you want an easy way to access your text from any computer, this is worth it. If you spend any time sitting at a “work PC”, this is an absolute no-brainer.
