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.

Day One

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.

Evernote

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!

Spotify

Perhaps the easiest to use music manager for my huge music library. Always on on my MacBook Pro.

Felix

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.

Today

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.

Simplenote

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.

Due

For all those little chores that might get slipped through the cracks and who do not deserve the prestigious OmniFocus project/task status.

Pinbook

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.

Replacing Photoshop with Pixelmator

With Adobe’s new subscription model, a lot of people are asking if they should switch to something less expensive. I’ve been using Pixelmator for years and it has a lot more firepower than I need. Since you can buy Pixelmator for $15, which is just a few months of an Adobe subscription, Pixelmator’s looking even better. Michael Cohen at TidBITS did a nice article looking at this very question and came to the same conclusion I did: For most people Pixelmator will get the job done.

Put Your Mac to Sleep with iOS Drafts

Occasionally, I have sensitive things on my Mac’s screen and occasionally I leave an office, or conference room, or courtroom and forget to shut the lid on that Mac. While I’ve got my Mac set to lock itself down after a few minutes, I thought it would be nice to have a way to force the issue. Mac Power User listener Mariusz wrote me about Polish Mac Geek Milosz Bolechowski who pulls this off with Drafts, a Dropbox File, and Hazel. I thought it was pretty clever so I duplicated it tonight.

This is how it works:

I type “MB sleep” in Drafts and save it to the standard Drafts folder on Dropbox. (In my case it is located at Dropbox/Apps/Drafts.) I use “MB sleep” because I’m going to add a second one for putting the iMac to sleep.
Point Hazel at the Drafts folder and tell it to look for a file that contains the terms “MB sleep”
When Hazel sees the file, it deletes it and runs an AppleScript to put the Mac to sleep.

This is a really simple script.

tell application “Finder”

sleep

end tell

Once you set this up, open Drafts and type “MB sleep” and save it to Dropbox. Within a few seconds, your Mac goes safely to sleep.

Extra Credit

Milosz had another great idea of using a URL scheme to further automate this. If you want to take it a step further, set up a URL scheme in Launch Center Pro as follows:

drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep

Then when you tap the button in Launch Center Pro, it opens Drafts and fills in the text “MB sleep” for you. You just need to send it to Dropbox for the Magic to happen. The below screenshot gallery gives you the details.

Update

Extra Extra Credit

On Twitter, @Eiscik points out the following Launch Center Pro action performs the Dropbox upload for you with no further taps.

drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep&action=Save%20to%20Dropbox

Screen Shot 2013-05-22 at 9.10.57 PM.png

Screen Shot 2013-05-22 at 9.11.02 PM.png

Markdown to .docx on iOS

Craig Scott, the developer behind my beloved iThoughtsHD has started releasing a series of iOS apps that feel, to me, a lot more like iOS Automator Actions than apps. The first app, makeDoc, takes the contents of your clipboard text (including Markdown) and spits out a Microsoft Word file. The other, makeSlides, does the same thing to create a PowerPoint file. I don’t have much use for making PowerPoint files. (Indeed, I have an irrational dislike of PowerPoint.) But making Word files is, sadly, a regular thing for me. Craig’s little app makes it possible for me to do this with any Markdown text on my iPad.

I like the idea of these little utility apps to solve an iOS problem. I hope Craig keeps making them and other developers follow suit.

TextExpander touch 2.0

The new version of TextExpander touch is now available for download and it’s fabulous. The big new features are rich text and fill in snippet support. Although this is a version 2.0, it is free for people who already purchased the prior version. The fill-in snippet support is huge for me. I use fill-in snippets every day. Federico did a nice extended review at MacStories and I made a short screencast showing off the new version. Enjoy.

TextExpander touch 2.0 from David Sparks on Vimeo.

Fifty-Seven Bucks Per Visitor

Horace Dediu breaks down the Apple Store numbers to figure out Apple earns $57 for every warm body that walks through the door. ($12 of that is profit.) So how does the popular press turn that into a call for Tim Cook’s head?

MPU 138: Syncing and Sharing

After 4 years, Katie and I go back to the subject of syncing data on this week’s Mac Power Users episode. In it, we cover the relative merits of Dropbox and iCloud and also expand the discussion to syncing all sorts of data between Macs and iOS devices. This is also the episode where Katie threatens to eviscerate me with a Klingon pointy-sword.

∞