Sixteen-year-olds Connor Koehler and Max Greenwald wanted a stop watch that could start, stop, and reset without them having to look at their iPhone screens. So they built one. The app doesn’t look like a high school project. I’m hearing increasingly from young developers. As an old guy I’m always impressed by the gumption required to create a product when you are in high school. I’m equally amazed how it is even possible for a few teenagers to have a good idea and get it in front of a global audience.
Help Protect Podcasters
The latest patent attack is against podcasters. A patent holder is claiming that any distribution of episodic content requires a patent license and is now enforcing that against podcasters. I can tell you from experience that podcasting is something you do for love, not money. If producing a podcast starts meaning you are going to have to deal with patent litigation, a lot of good podcasts will go away.
If you enjoy podcasts, please skip your next meal out and contribute to the EFF. I just contributed quite a bit more than a meal.
Home Screens: iThoughts HD’s Craig Scott
This week’s home screen comes from Craig Scott (Twitter) (Website), the developer of iThoughtsHD, the app that finally convinced me to start making mind maps. So Craig, show us your home screen.
What are some of your favorite apps?
From a dog food eating perspective, it’s got to be on my home screen.
This is a really nicely designed app and a pleasure to use. I use it like a private Facebook. I try to add one entry per day (usually with a photo) to act as a simple diary. What I’d really like, however, is the ability to add a short textual comment to pictures in my standard photo library – then have them sync back to iPhoto etc. Once in iPhoto (or Apple TV) the text comments would appear with the photo in slideshows. There you go Apple – you can have that one for free.
Who would have thought it would be so useful to have a torch with you all the time?
I spend a lot of time ferrying my kids to various after school clubs and sitting around waiting for them. Trashy novels help keep me sane. I try to avoid having techie books on my iPhone. Not sure what side of the brain stories use – but it’s different to the logical techie side I use most of the day and it needs exercising!
The de-facto secure storage app. Not keen on the actual app design, but I love the fact that I can sync it via Dropbox with my Mac version and have access to all my stuff. Previously I used Yojimbo but they wouldn’t support data entry via their iPhone app, so I had to jump ship.
BBC iPlayer (Link not available for US)
On the odd occasion that I get sufficient 3g coverage then I may try to catchup on some TV. I still feel guilty streaming video over 3g even though I don’t have a data cap – it just feels wrong – like I’m using up some finite fossil based resource!?
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
I have two – the first is Reeder. It started out as a time SAVING thing, to reduce the time I spent trawling through my favourite websites. Trouble is, it saved me so much time I decided to include more websites in my list. Google killing their RSS feed thing is probably doing me a favour. My other guilty pleasure is the TED app. I can justify this on the grounds of it being educational – but it sure can eat up an afternoon.
What is the app you are still missing?
I can’t really think of one – but that’s more down to my lack of imagination than anything else. I can still remember arguing with my friend about how pointless it was to put a camera in a phone and how music downloads would never replace CDs. I’m not a great barometer for the future of innovation…
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
Sad though it sounds, it’s the first thing I look at in the morning and last thing at night.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
Physically, I guess it’s the camera – it’s the only one I use nowadays. From a software perspective I really appreciate the consistency of the UI and the visceral feeling that the OS and apps strive to achieve by way of animations etc.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
Tricky one since a lot of the things that bug me about Apple are what makes Apple, Apple. However, if I had to pick on one thing then I’d argue that they need to rethink their whole approach to files. They seem to want to remove the whole concept in order to keep it simple for users. Personally I believe that files and folders are a perfectly good ‘metaphor/abstraction’ which also benefit from having real world counterparts understood by everyone. Their current approach (keeping information siloed within apps) is not good – it drains much of the value from that information. It also results in services like iCloud… </rant>
Anything else you’d like to share?
Am I the only person who would like an iPhone5 with an iPhone4 sized screen?
Thanks to David for asking me to do this – it’s been fun.
Thanks Craig.
Workflow: Beyond Productivity
“Productivity” is such a loaded word these days. I even wrote an article about it. It is really easy to spout off tips about how to print faster. I do it here all the time. There is something much deeper to this productivity schtick dealing with underlying gut-level motivations and emotions. For the last two weeks, I’ve been working my way through Kourosh Dini’s new book, Workflow: Beyond Productivity, and this book is the real deal.
Kourosh Explains it best:
“What you will not find is a series of quick fixes or how-to lists. However, you will find an in-depth examination, from basic concepts to an advanced understanding so you can build the secure foundations needed to truly develop meaningful work.”
Kourosh writes with a patient voice that is perfect for this material. The book is $30. That is an introductory price that goes up on June 1. I encourage you to go download the preview and decide if it can inspire you as much as it did me.
The Sketchnote Typeface
Mike Rohde, author of the Sketchnote Handbook and recent MPU Guest, just released the font he created for his book. In my opinion, 99% of all “handwriting” fonts look terrible. Mike’s font fits in the 1%. There is even a web-friendly Typekit version. I plan on putting this font to use as well. For instance, this font is perfect for a Keynote presentation that I want to make feel informal. I’m also not beyond printing out a note card with this font and signing it, as if my printing were this good.
TextExpander touch Snippet Winners
Last week Smile released version 2.0 of TextExpander touch, which I really dig. Yesterday Smile gave me five free download codes to give away for the new app. I put the word out on Twitter to send in favorite snippets for codes and got some really great ones. In fact, I got too many and feel bad about leaving some people out but here comes the winners. Thanks everyone for playing along.
1. MultiMarkdown? Yes thank you.
Sayz Lim submitted a MultiMarkdown snippet to maintain a figure tag in MultiMarkdown. One of the things I like about this snippet is the way he uses the same fill-in snippet twice. I do this often too and I’m not sure everyone knows you can do that.
![ [%filltext:name=Figure Caption%][] ](%clipboard)
[%filltext:name=Figure Caption%]: %clipboard
2. Let Me Know
Trent sent in this simple yet useful script.
ppp = Please let me know if you have any questions.
3. The Breakfast Club Special
Reader Oscar is an educator and needs to send out notices for students that get Saturday detention. He uses this in conjection with an AppleScript that pulls a list of names from a Dropbox text file and works its magic.
The following students have zeros in %fillpopup:name=Classname:Physics:Aquatic Science:default=Forensics% for the week of: %@-9D%m/%d/%y:
%fillarea:name=Student Names%
They need to be assigned to Saturday D-hall on %@+3D%m/%d/%y.
4. Testing, Testing
Michael has a snippet that looks very useful for testing stroke victims. It uses pop ups and several other features. This may not be useful to you but I’m betting there is something in your life that would get easier if you made your own snippet like this one.
NIH Stroke Scale %snippet:.date% %snippet:.time%
1a. Level of Consciousness:%fillpopup:name=1a.:default=0 (Keenly responsive.):1 (Arousable with minor stimulation):2 (Requires strong stimulation):3 (Comatose)%
1b. LOC Questions:%fillpopup:name=1b:default=0 (Answers both questions correctly):1 (Answers one question correctly):2 (Answers neither question correctly)%
1c. LOC Commands:%fillpopup:name=1c:default=0 (Performs both tasks correctly):1 (Performs one task correctly):2 (Performs neither task correctly)%
2. Best Gaze:%fillpopup:name=2:default=0 (Normal):1 (Partial gaze palsy):2 (Forced deviation)%
3. Visual:%fillpopup:name=3:default=0 (No visual loss.):1 (Partial hemianopia):2 (Complete hemianopia):3 (Bilateral hemianopia)%
4. Facial Palsy:%fillpopup:name=4:default=0 (Normal):1 (Minor paralysis):2 (Partial/Central paralysis):3 (Complete paralysis)%
5a. Motor Left Arm:%fillpopup:name=5a:default=0 (No drift for 10 seconds):1 (Drift without touching):2 (Some effort against gravity):3 (No effort against gravity):4 (No movement):0 (Amputation or fusion)%
5b. Motor Right Arm:%fillpopup:name=5b:default=0 (No drift for 10 seconds):1 (Drift without touching):2 (Some effort against gravity):3 (No effort against gravity):4 (No movement):0 (Amputation or fusion)%
6a. Motor Left Leg:%fillpopup:name=6a:default=0 (No drift for 10 seconds):1 (Drift without touching):2 (Some effort against gravity):3 (No effort against gravity):4 (No movement):0 (Amputation or fusion)%
6b. Motor Right Leg:%fillpopup:name=6b:default=0 (No drift for 10 seconds):1 (Drift without touching):2 (Some effort against gravity):3 (No effort against gravity):4 (No movement):0 (Amputation or fusion)%
7. Limb Ataxia:%fillpopup:name=7:default=0 (Absent):1 (Present in one limb):2 (Present in two limbs):0 (Amputation or fusion)%
8. Sensory:%fillpopup:name=8:default=0 (Normal):1 (Mild to moderate loss):2 (Severe loss)%
9. Best Language:%fillpopup:name=9:default=0 (No Aphasia):1 (Mild to moderate):2 (Severe aphasia):3 (Mute or global aphasia)%
10. Dysarthria:%fillpopup:name=10:default=0 (Normal):1 (Mild to moderate):2 (Severe dysarthria):0 (Intubated or other)%
11. Extinction and Inattention:%fillpopup:name=11:default=0 (Normal):1 (To one modality):2 (Profound loss)%
5. The Moxy Award…
… goes to Barry for this.
NTET = Need TextExpander Touch
Are you still waiting to check out TextExpander touch 2.0? Shame on you. You should be watching this clever video.
TextExpander touch 2.0 from David Sparks on Vimeo.
OmniPresence: A New Option for Syncing Data
For a long time, syncing files was a huge pain. It involved portable disks of one sort or another and lots of walking and fiddling. Then a few years ago cloud syncing services showed up and Dropbox quickly became the solution to most of our syncing problems.
Then Apple jumped in with iCloud and the idea that documents could just sync across multiple devices without opening the Finder and endlessly pressing “Sync” buttons.
Around the time that iCloud first showed up, I spoke with Ken Case, president of the Omni Group, about syncing between the Omni Group apps on my iPad and the Mac. The Omni Group did not jump on the Dropbox or iCloud bandwagons. As Ken explained it to me, the Omni Group prides itself on providing the best experience to their customers and if they were going to start syncing data between their apps, they didn’t want to rely on anyone else. Specifically, they didn’t want to be on the phone with a customer only to say, “Sorry. The app is working right. Your syncing problem is Dropbox or Apple.” The Omni Group wants to own your experience with their apps soup to nuts. Now they do.
The Omni Group built its own sync engine. It’s called OmniPresence and it is great.
On the Mac, OmniPresence installs to your menubar. When you first set it up, it adds a folder to your Mac, just like Dropbox. (Though don’t locate your OmniPresence folder in your Dropbox folder. That’s like crossing the streams.) You can drop any OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, or OmniGraph Sketcher file in that folder and it immediately gets synced up to the cloud. The icon animates with three dots when there is network activity and clicking on it gets you quickly to your OmniPresence folder.
Then when you install the app on your other Macs, those same files get synced to your magic OmniPresence folder. Because this is just another folder on your Mac, the OS X Versions and Auto Save features just work.
The Omni Group has also built in OmniPresence syncing to the current builds of the OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniGraph Sketcher iPad apps. Those apps also see the files in your OmniPresence folder.
Using OmniPresence you can have a file open on your Mac and iPad at the same time and changes made on one platform automatically populate over to this other platform. This part is just like iCloud.
They even made a clever video.
OmniPresence Intro from The Omni Group on Vimeo.
That’s the thing about OmniPresence. It’s Dropbox and iCloud all rolled up into one. And then when you have a problem you can call Omni and they control all the pipes to make it right.
The Omni Group also has a more extensive tutorial that is worth the three minutes it takes to watch.
OmniPresence Tutorial from The Omni Group on Vimeo.
The whole thing is baked right into the Omni Group’s Omni Sync service. That’s how I use it. However, if you want to install it on your own server and keep your data private, you can. OmniPresence works with any properly configured Apache server, which means you can host your own data without having to install any special software from Omni. It even works on HIPPA-compliant services like SwissDisk. The Omni Group has also open sourced the syncing code for iOS apps at github so expect other app developers to start using it too.
Ken Case explains this best. “OmniPresence is not yet another proprietary syncing solution just for syncing Omni apps. On the Mac, it’s designed to work with documents from any other OS X app that supports Auto Save and Versions–such as OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniGraphSketcher, or even Apple’s built-in TextEdit app.”
There are many nice little touches to OmniPresence. For instance, you can sync multiple folders to different accounts so you can keep your work and personal documents separately.
While OmniPresence is just at version 1.0, I think this is going to become a big deal. It offers a legitimate third options to users and developers to sync data between devices. Its combination of syncing in real time without having to press “Sync” buttons and simple folder accessibility on the Mac make it compelling.
You can learn more from the OmniGroup. If you already have an Omni Sync Service account (you should), I encourage you to log in and enable OmniPresence and check it out for yourself.
MPU 139: Workflows with Ethan Schoonover
This week Ethan Schoonover joins us to talk about his workflows. In addition to creating amazing things I use, like Solarized and, a few years ago, Kinkless GTD, Ethan is smart, curious, and charming. In this episode, he talks about how he gets work done as a professional graphic designer and how he has tricked out his home using a Mac mini to create an entertainment and security system. Enjoy.
Memorial Day Bratwurst
Happy Memorial Day everybody.
I have to admit that in addition to obsessing on geeky MacSparky-ish things, I also love grilling. A few years ago I ditched my gas grill for a Weber charcoal grill. I love it. I know the dig against charcoal is that you have to heat your coals but is it really all that bad? I use a chimney and light up the bottom of it with some crinkled up newspaper. Then I go spend twenty or thirty minutes preparing my meat while the chimney heats my coals. The end product just tastes better, noticeably so. Moreover, a Weber grill only sets you back $150, which is a lot cheaper than most gas grills.
Since this post has already completely gone off the rails, here is the recipe for my Memorial Day Bratwurst.
Ingredients
1. Johnsonville Bratwurst
2. A bottle of beer
3. A jar of sauerkraut
4. A few green apples
5. Suitable rolls or buns
Directions
Slice up the apples and put them in a tin pan along with the beer, sauerkraut, and bratwurst. Put the pan on the grill and shut the lid for 20-30 minutes. When the brat starts looking like it’s cooked, pull them out and put them on the grill. Remove the tin pan and drain the beer. Just grill the brat for a few minutes then serve on buns with some spicy mustard, the sauerkraut, and apples. Delicious.
Home Screens: Hardik Pandya
This week’s home screen comes from Hardik Pandya (Twitter)(App.net)(website), a consultant, student, blogger and photographer from the Netherlands that writes about technology and other issues of interest. So Hardik, show us your home screen.
This has to be one of the most used apps on my phone. I have started logging my life for last year now and I have about 500 entries. I use Terpstra’s Slogger tool and even make hand-typed entries twice or thrice a day. This one is for the lifetime.
Kind of a no brainer for everyone. I wrote my whole Masters thesis in this app and managing documents has been so much easier. A hat tip to Evernote Essentials from Brett Kelly too!
Perhaps the easiest to use music manager for my huge music library. Always on on my MacBook Pro.
The best App.net client out there. Developer Bill Kunz is almost always present on App.net and is a nice guy. Plus the experience of the app is super sleek.
The mandatory weather app on the home screen! I actually like their interface and multiple location handling. Plus hour by hour forecast is all I need so this one is fine.
Did someone roll\ his eyes? Yes I still keep Simplenote on my phone because it’s fast, their sync is not bad at all even though those problems in the past. Also, it works perfectly with my huge nvALT notes database on MacBook Pro.
For all those little chores that might get slipped through the cracks and who do not deserve the prestigious OmniFocus project/task status.
I recently started using Pinboard.in and I love it. The tagging feature, speed of use and it’s support across the apps is just amazing. Using it on iPhone is made simple and easy by this app.
Mail: I use FastMail for my personal email and have ditched Gmail over suggestions from Marco Arment and others. FastMail only offers IMAP and not a lot of apps support FastMail at the moment. I have decided to stick with the native Mail app from Apple. It works great and serves the purpose.
1. What are some of your favourite apps?
I love to listen to podcasts and I get my source of weekly nerdery from there. That is why I love Pocket Casts – my favourite podcast manager. Another one of my favourite has to be Reeder. Lovely interface with continuously enriching functionality and easily the best source of news for me every morning.
2. Which app is your guilty pleasure?
I think Flipboard has to be the one for me. That is why it’s hidden in the news folder there. If I see it, I have to open it and I just get lost in the flow of content that is available inside. Sometimes it’s too much. But I still love it.
3. What is the app you are still missing?
I publish my blog via Squarespace. Their apps are not up to the mark. When I see the polish of the apps for WordPress publishing (e.g. Poster), I really miss that functionality in Squarespace apps. They are not bad but they do not offer everything. I have at times lost whole blog posts due to draft syncing issues. They could work on it a bit. So that is the app I miss the most.
4. How many times do you use your iPhone?
I am writing my thesis at the moment. I do that in Evernote. I get my news through RSS and Twitter/Flipboard. I listen to podcasts (almost 2 a day) and I communicate via WhatsApp etc. I manage tasks through OmniFocus and Due. So you can say I have my iPhone with me all the time. Apart from when I go to take a shower of course!
5. What is your favourite feature of your iPhone?
My favourite feature of my iPhone has to be the amazing touch experience while typing. I have used Android and BlackBerrys but have never experienced the same level of polish on the touch screen. This almost works silently in our daily lives but saves us countless hours on mistypes and double taps.
6. If you were in charge at Apple, what would you like to change?
I would make the cross-app integration of data/files much simpler and easier. That would immensely increase the value of the apps and attract the developers to integrate more and more sharing services in their apps.
Thanks Hardik.