Apple is celebrating five years of the App Store by giving away some really great apps including my beloved Day One. A few of the other free apps include the Barefoot World Atlas, How to Cook Everything (with over 2,000 recipes), and one of my favorite games Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP. To get in on this, open iTunes on your nearest iThingy and start downloading.
Fireworks Photography
Just in case you are going to be near some fireworks tonight and want to take pictures, get yourself a tripod and a camera that can keep the lens open to catch all that light. Everyone on Twitter points to Slow Shutter as a way to pull this off with your iPhone. I wrote a few years back about how I like to do this with sparklers. If you want a soup to nuts explanation, read this tutorial at Digital Photography School.
World Domination Summit
My wife and I have had a lot of fun telling our friends and family that we are attending the World Domination Summit together. When they get that look on their face, we make no explanation and move on to the next subject. In truth, I’m not sure what to expect from the World Domination Summit but a lot of people I really respect say it’s a great experience so I’m attending. I’m not speaking. I’m just hanging out in Portland starting Friday. If you are attending WDS, won’t you please say hello?
4,100 Mac Lawyers
Six years ago Ben Stevens created the Macs in Law Offices (MILO) forum. There are a lot of great lawyer jokes and many of them are well deserved but Mac Lawyers are a different breed. Ben’s little forum has now swollen to 4,100 members. If you are a legal professional and interested in using Apple technologies, this is the place for you.
iPad for Photographers, Second Edition
You may have heard of Jeff Carlson before. He’s written several technology books and is a true gentleman. (Jeff even did a home screen post.) Jeff is also an accomplished photographer and just released the second edition of his iPad for Photographers book. The book, which is beautiful, includes some great tips for using your iPad to get great photos. Jeff’s going to be a future guest on the Mac Power Users but, in the meantime, you should bone up and check out Jeff’s book.
Reeder ♡ Feed Wrangler
Well … sort of. Today’s Reeder for iPhone update supports Feed Wrangler. It does not, however, support Feed Wrangler’s Smart Streams feature so for now you just get one big master unread list. I understand that drawback is temporary. Even with this limitation, it’s nice to have Reeder available again.
MPU 144: Workflows with Chris Breen
This week Chris Breen joined the Mac Power Users. Chris is a professional musician and writes for Macworld. During this episode, Chris talks about the way he handles project management on a day-to-day basis, some great writing workflows, and music.
Google Reader Export Help
If you haven’t already exported your Google Reader subscription, today is the day. Google is pulling the plug on Monday. If you are still flummoxed as to how to export your Google Reader feed list, Katie Floyd made an excellent tutorial (using MPU sponsor Clarify) to show you the way.
My RSS Setup
I was a bit coy in the MPU RSS show about exactly what I’m doing about RSS as the big change is upon us. Here it is, plain and simple.
The Engine – Feed Wrangler
Feed Wrangler is innovative and exactly what I was looking for with this change, something to move the ball forward. I’m not sure if I’ll still be using Feed Wrangler in a year but I suspect I will. Creating Smart Streams that serve me up posts I’m particularly interested in is great. Letting me create filters to automatically mark posts including words like patent, lawsuit, and Ballmer as read so I never see them is magical. (If you are trying to wrap your head around Smart Streams and Filters,Shawn Blanc explains further.) Feed Wrangler’s developer explains they are going to put even more logic into these features so I can create filters that contain Boolean logic terms (e.g., Filter: Samsung AND commercial). There are other tempting services out there but for me, Feed Wrangler scratches the itch.
The iPad – Mr. Reader
I most often check RSS on my iPad. I took a few cheap shots at Mr. Reader’s icon yesterday on Twitter and received a mixture of scolding and agreement. I can’t help it. Those RSS eyes creep me out. Once you open, Mr. Reader though, it is a really nice experience. I’m using it for now. When Reeder lands on the iPad with Feed Wrangler support (which is promissed), I’ll switch back to my precious Reeder unless Mr. Reader wins my heart in the interim, which isn’t out of the question.
iPhone – Wrangler App
I know Reeder is coming but have yet to find an attractive app for the iPhone. The free Wrangler App is not a long term solution. I suspect a lot of good RSS app developers are consuming vast quantities of coffee right now.
Mac – Wrangler Website
The Feed Wrangler website isn’t bad. It has keyboard shortcuts, runs fast, and is in your browser so you can quickly open articles in additional tabs for sending to your read later service. Again, I’m not convinced this is a long term solution. I just bought ReadKit and am playing with it as a possible replacement. I also expect we’ll get back Reeder for Mac when they add Feed Wrangler support.
In Summary
As you can see, this is still a bit of a work in progress but even with the juggling I’m doing on the client side, the Feed Wrangler Smart Streams and Filters have me feeling really great about Google’s decision to pull the plug. Innovation in RSS is back.
nvALT Wiki
I recently discovered nvALT’s ability to link notes by simply including the name of another nvALT note with double brackets [[like this]]. As a result, I’ve started creating links between notes and I’m loving it. For instance, I’ve got links between notes that have related legal text and forms. I’ve also got another note listing every case I have set for trial and the trial date. This gives me a quick way to make sure I don’t double book myself when the lady in the black robe is bearing down on me. Now these lists are linked to the notes with all the details related to the particular cases.
For instance: [[Donald v. Daffy]] – October 1–15, 2013
I’m just starting to wrap my head around this trick which I discovered here via a link by my pal Brett Terpstra.