Instacast for Mac

Vemedio just released a public beta of its Instacast for Mac app. Now that I think about it, a podfeeder for the Mac (syncing with my phone) makes a lot of sense. I’d no longer have to set the phone down next to my Mac (or fiddle with unsynced web versions) to listen to podcasts. If they get syncing right, they are on to something.

I have to admit feeling a little snake bit by Instacast though. I’ve paid for it several times with their various upgrades and I prefer DownCast on my phone. Nevertheless, syncing to my Mac may be enough to bring me back into the fold.

History of “Workflow”


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In MPU 133 (about Alfred 2), I speculated about this word “workflow” and how we now hear it everywhere. The first time I heard the word was in relation to professional photographers but it turns out I was way off. Listener Mark, a confessed word geek, dug deeper and shows it in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1950:

work flow n. in an office or industrial organization, the sequence of processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.

He also found uses of “work flow” going back to 1950 with a book by I. A. Herrman, Office Methods, Systems, & Procedures vii. 131 “Work flow diagrams are effective in solving various kinds of problems.”

There was also an instance in 1976, National Observer (U.S.) 19 June 2/4 “Byrd is a master of legislative detail with a reputation as a fair-minded manager who accelerates the work flow.”

Mark dug even deeper with Google’s Ngram Viewer (above) demonstrating that the word took off around 1992 and the combined form “workflow” (vs. “work flow”) has got some legs.

I know the word seems overused but it just seems so appropriate for the process of getting our work from coneption to delivery that I can’t stop using it.

Thanks Mark

Home Screen: Eddie Smith


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It’s been a long time since Eddie Smith first showed his home screen here on MacSparky. I thought it was time for an update so he shared one. In case you don’t know them already, Eddie writes the Practically Efficient blog and is one of my best nerd friends. We even wrote a book together. So Eddie, show us your home screen.


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What are some of your favorite apps?

Every app on my home screen is a favorite in some way. They range from really sophisticated task managers like OmniFocus to single-feature gems like Lighty. In fact, Lighty, my favorite flash light app, is one of the most important apps on my phone. I use it all the time, and it’s probably saved me real dollars in the foregone cost of replacing batteries in little flash lights around my house.

Productivity Apps:

One notable trend on my iPhone in the last year is the inclusion of more and more Google apps. Until the last year, I felt like Google intentionally avoided putting development resources into its iOS apps, but that seems to be changing.

I tried very hard to use the default Apple Maps app that debuted with iOS 6, but I’ve found the search in Google Maps (Google’s response to the new Apple Maps) far more intelligent. Given that I use maps apps primarily for location and phone number searches, the Google Maps app is a better fit on my home screen.

I use Google Voice as my voicemail solution—partly because it provides a convenient text transcription of voice messages and partly for the entertainment value in how poorly it often transcribes those messages.

Google’s Gmail app really sucked until version 2.0 came along. It seemed like a slow, laggy mobile version of the full Gmail web UI. 2.0 is much better, and while I’ve tried using the default Mail app, Mailbox, and others, the Gmail app suits me best the way I use email on my phone—which is mainly to process incoming mail and search for archived mail.

Another notable Google app I’m using (that isn’t on my home screen) is the new Google Drive app. For the first time, I feel like I can reliably edit Google documents and spreadsheets from my iPhone and iPad. In fact, I think the spreadsheet interface in Google Drive is the best mobile spreadsheet interface I’ve seen so far.

Enough on Google.

If the Gmail app is my favorite app for pulling email, Drafts is my favorite for pushing email. In fact, I’m composing more and more of all kinds of things in Drafts. I just love the simplicity of having a single point of entry for text on my home screen. I think of Drafts as a more natural human way of entering text—more like a sticky note in the pre-digital world.

While most digital interfaces for text entry—from email clients to task management systems—encourage you to “title” something and choose its destination first, Drafts encourages you to get the message or content down first, then choose its destination. I would love to see this design concept bleed into other mobile and desktop interfaces.

Day One, Evernote, and Notesy give me access to most of my personal information. I love tracking simple goals in Day One. Evernote is like a paperless filing cabinet in my pocket. Notesy gives me access to all of my plain text notes in Dropbox.

Soulver is my favorite calculator app, not only on the iPhone but on my iPad and Mac as well.

For task management, I mainly use OmniFocus. The OmniFocus iPhone app is really useful for capturing inbox items. I’ve starting using Drafts to send things to OmniFocus instead of starting with OmniFocus, though.

I use the built-in Reminders app for short-term but important reminders that I want pushed to all of my devices (e.g. “Put jeans in the dryer” when I really need to remember to do that.)

I’m glad this is a home screen post because I would be embarrassed to show you how many weather apps live elsewhere on my iPhone. Today is my current favorite for checking current weather and daily forecasts. The new Forecast.io and Dark Sky, however, both get a lot of use, too.

While we’re talking life management, it’s worth noting that I have two calendar apps on my home screen. I really like Fantastical’s natural language entry system, and I use it a lot—mainly in situations where it’s not appropriate to speak aloud to Siri. I can’t bring myself to remove the default calendar app because I really like having today’s date displayed on my home screen.

Entertainment:

I prefer to read on my iPad, but I actually read way more on my iPhone because it’s with me all the time. I’ve really been digging Newstand in the last year. Marco Arment has done a great job with The Magazine, which lives in Newstand along with the New York Times app and The Economist. The Times app is easily the best news app I’ve ever used. If they would get rid of ads in the paid version, it would be even better.

Tweetbot, Reeder, and Instapaper live in my News folder. Tweetbot lets me capture important links on Twitter, and Reeder is my favorite place for following RSS feeds. And Instapaper, of course, my favorite place to read the articles I find in Tweetbot and Reeder.

I listen to a lot of audio through my iPhone. Virtually all of it comes from Instacast, my favorite app for following podcasts, and Pandora.

What app are you still missing?

I’m really looking forward to see how Google’s killing of Google Reader will change the way we subscribe to websites. I would like to see someone develop web services and apps that make it easier to not only follow newly published information but that also make it easy to subscribe to archived information. For example, I wish there was a way to browse older content more easily when I find, say, a blog that’s already been active for years—kind of like working through a box of old Life magazines.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks for having me back. It’s always a pleasure working with you, reading you, and listening to you.

Thanks Edddie.

Instapaper: Under New Managment

Marco Arment’s sold Instapaper (at least most of his interest in it). It appears, however, he didn’t pull this off by finding the biggest company willing to write a check with the largest number of zeros but instead sought out a company, in this case betaworks, willing to shower love on Instapaper as he did.

I sure hope there is some anal-retentive person at betaworks willing to sweat the details like Marco does. I’ve been using Instapaper since it was just a web service. With the arrival of the iPad, my infatuation turned into love and Instapaper still is one of the most used apps on my iPad.

I get overcommitment and I can’t wait to see what Marco creates next. I wish him luck but I doubt he needs it.

Drafts 3.0, Better and Better

Drafts 3.0 (iPhone) (iPad) is out and this app just keeps getting better and better. I know there are some other applications claiming to do the same thing as Drafts (quick text capture and processing on iOS) but I’m so in love with Drafts. First, in creating Drafts, Greg Pierce filled a huge void in the iOS market that I didn’t even realize existed. Second, he just keeps raising it to new levels.

At version 2.5 he added some really useful Dropbox workflows. This new version 3.0 gives the same treatment to Evernote. There is more though. Libraries of tasks are easier to manage, there are URL schemes, and other bits of trickery to pull off automation on iOS that makes my nerd-heart go pitter patter.

For a really good review, go check out Federico Viticci’s write-up at MacStories. For OmniFocus geeks, go check out this trick from Sid O’Neill that lets you add multiple OmniFocus tasks from Drafts. If you’re still not sold on Drafts, listen to Merlin Mann and I wax poetic on it in MPU 132.

Going on Offense with OpenDNS

My 8-year-old niece slept over our house over the weekend. As I was watching her sit behind the family iMac, I saw her search for “My Little Pony”. Her first hit was an OpenDNS blocked porn site. You see, searching “My Little Pony” does not always return the results you would expect. However, instead of being exposed to something that 8 year olds should never see, she got the OpenDNS block screen and moved on. I have to admit I was shocked (though I probably shouldn’t have been). My niece didn’t even realize what had happened. In a few minutes, she had found the site she was looking for and was very pleased with Pinky Pie. My takeaway is that now, more than ever, perfectly innocent kids can find all sorts of things they shouldn’t see without trying. In short, I believe in OpenDNS now more than ever.

If you’re not familiar with it, OpenDNS is a free service that offers to replace your local Internet service provider’s domain name server (DNS). (DNS is, essentially, the address book of the Internet connecting words like “macsparky.com” with the ones and zeroes behind the Internet.) A lot of ISP’s have pretty crummy DNS services and OpenDNS is usually faster at getting you between where you are and where you want to go.

OpenDNS does more than just DNS service though. It also does tracking and, if you please, filtering. I’ve got the “moderate” filter turned on preventing any computer, iPad, iPhone or other iThingy in my house from connecting to porn sites or other red-flagged security threats. It is really easy to set this up. My pal Katie Floyd even made a video showing you how (below). They also have video tutorials and walkthoughs for every major brand of router. This isn’t rocket science.

The only downside that I’ve ever heard is that some people report streaming content through iTunes (like movies) is sometimes slower when using OpenDNS than when using your local ISP. One clever friend explained this is because Apple will pick the streaming server based on your location and OpenDNS doesn’t give them that. I’ve not noticed a difference between OpenDNS and my local cable company for streaming iTunes so it is not an issue for me.

Not only do I think anyone that has kids on their network should enable OpenDNS, I also think us alpha nerds should be pushing this out to our family, friends, and loved ones. I’ve decided I’m going on offense with this and am going to start setting it up for friends and family on their home routers. Kids should be able to search “My Little Pony” without finding something that would give me nightmares.

Configuring OpenDNS from Mac Power Users on Vimeo.

Earth Day Sale on Paperless



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I’ve never really properly celebrated Paperless winning one of Apple’s Best of 2012 awards last December. Earth Day seems like the right time to do so. Through this Saturday, Paperless is $6.99. If you know someone that that could use some Paperless help, send them along.

∞