There is no question that MacSparky readers and Mac Power Users listeners are all amazing. I received further proof of this recently when Andrew & Sarah Spear sent me their children’s book, My Little Geek (all the way from New Zealand). It’s a wonderful little book beautifully illustrated. I’ve been reading it with my two year old nephew and it is way too much fun. I just wish this book had existed when my girls were small.
I recently received an email from reader Jonas Bergenudd with a really clever workflow. Jonas has things in his life that occasionally require replenishment, like batteries. So Jonas created stickers with QR codes on them using OmniFocus’s URL scheme to add a new task to his OmniFocus list.
For example, scanning this QR code takes your phone to the following URL – omnifocus:///add?name=buy%20aa-batteries.
Go ahead, hit it with RedLaser. You know you want to.
OmniFocus captures that URL and creates a new task, “buy aa-batteries”.
You could create a series of these stickers and place them on things around your house and then zap them when they start getting low. Is it faster than stopping and typing an entry in OmniFocus directly? I guess it depends on how often you need batteries. Is it geekier and cooler knowing you can zap a QR code with your phone and add a task. Most definitely yes.
If you are looking for an app to generate QR codes, there are several in the Mac App store.
Lately, I’ve been reading Sam Spurlin’s blog. (Website) (Twitter) Sam has some great content and I like his voice. Sam’s also got an iPhone and some definite thoughts about his home screen. So Sam, show us your home screen.
What are some of favorite apps?
My hands down favorite app right now (and has been for a long time) is Instapaper. I’m a Ph.D student so I spend a ton of time reading things for class and research which means I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and read other, fun, things. Instapaper is almost single handedly responsible for keeping me a semi-rounded individual. I’m very good about throwing interesting articles I see into the app and I love that I can use weird snippets of time to work through a personal reading list. I’ve also really been enjoying Circa for kind of the same reason, actually. I like how well summarized and broken down the articles are. You can tell there is some serious thought and care taken to do that well. The app is also just really well-designed and fun to use. (D-Nice find)
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
Probably Facebook at this point. It seems to be one of the main ways my classmates like to communicate so I’m obligated to keep it around to some degree. It’s also a good way to stay in touch with my family on the other side of the country. It has become much more bearable ever since I unfollowed almost everybody who I wasn’t “real” friends with. Now my News Feed is (mostly) filled with updates from people I actually care about. I suppose my other one is the NHL’s video streaming app, NHL GameCenter. I’m a huge hockey fan and it’s nice to be able to catch a Red Wing’s game if I’m stuck in a lecture…I mean, not near my computer for a completely legitimate reason š
What is the app you are still missing?
This is where I make a corny joke about an app that will write research papers or do my homework, right? While I love Mendeley for PDF storage/citation management on my Mac, the iPhone app is pretty terrible — to the point where it’s basically missing. I eventually plan on getting an iPad or iPad mini and at that point I’m going to have to figure out an app or system of apps to keep the PDFs I read and annotate/highlight on my computer automatically synced with my iOS devices. I’m sure there is something out there that will work great but I haven’t spent the time to figure it out, yet.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
I have an iPhone 5 and I love how thin it is. I upgraded from a 3GS so the difference between the two was striking. My phone is the hub of much of my productive life (Fantastical, Things, and Evernote being the main trifecta) as well as much of my leisure time (Instapaper, Reeder, Twitter, Comixology, Letterpress, etc.). Being able to always have it in my pocket and not feel oppressed by its size or weight is important to the way I use it.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I don’t remember where I originally read this or if it was some kind of original thought, but I try to use my home screen as inspiration. I look at my phone many, many times every day and I decided that I want the apps that help me be a better person or create something new in the world to be what I see most often. That’s why I keep WriteRoom, Drafts, and Ink where I do. Instead of turning on my phone and being greeted by a bunch of games or mindless social networks I wanted to see apps that require me to engage with them on a little bit more intellectual level. Even if I’m not turning to my phone to draft an article or sketch a picture, keeping those apps front and center help me keep my mind on the fact that this phone can be a powerful tool if I decide to engage with it properly. I’m obviously getting away from this somewhat (see Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, etc.), but it’s something I try to be mindful of.
Thanks Sam
With Mother’s Day this weekend, Mrs. MacSparky reports she wants a new Kaboo Bag for her iPad. Kaboo makes some nice purse-looking technology bags. This will be the second one we’ve purchased for Daisy and the first still looks new.
Pixelmator, my photo and graphics weapon of choice, just got a really nice update. There are a lot of new features in this update.
There are shape tools and pallets, with dozens of built in shapes. (Watch the video)
There is an intriguing new “convert text into shape” feature, to apply apply gradients, shadows, strokes, or even reshape individual letters.
There is a new paint selection tool to speed up selections with a brush stroke. (Watch the video)
They’ve also added a light leak effect for retro-illuminated images. (Watch the video)
It’s a free upgrade if you’ve already purchased the app. If not, I recommend getting a copy of Pixelmator. It is a really powerful photo tool for just $15.
Here is another group of my TextExpander snippets.
My date snippets fall in a few categories:
Shortcuts
Why type August when “xm8” is faster?
Date Math
I don’t remember when TextExpander added this feature but I really like the relative date function. If I want yesterday’s date for instance, I type “d–“
Date Stamps
Because I date stamp notes from conversations in nvALT notes and they are always a heading two, I have two different versions of the date stamps, one with and one without markdown headings.
AppleScript Date Snippets
These are magic.
xdnm gets next Monday
xdnw gets the date range next week
xdns gets next Saturday
xdnf gets next Friday
I’ve written most of these and collected others from the Web. All of the AppleScript based date snippets are courtesy of Ben Waldie. Also honorable mention goes to Tim Stringer, who sent in his list. If you think you’ve got me licked with something better, send it in and I’ll include it with the next update.
In 2008, after the launch of the iPhone 3G, I wrote:
If you haven’t got it already, it’s time to move your head to this place: iPhone OS is Apple’s mainstream platform for 2012 and beyond.
That’s the world we now live in.
Fraser Speirs is one clever fellow. His latest piece on what iOS 7 needs to take the mobile operating system to the next level is great. What Fraser appreciates (and a lot of people don’t) is that iOS needs to keep its simplicity as a condition of moving forward.
Mac Power Users episode 136 is live. In it Katie and I go in depth on Drafts, Launch Center Pro, and the emerging class of iOS automation applications.
I’d like to thank RocketMatter for sponsoring MacSparky this week. RocketMatter provides lawyers web-based practice management tools and it is fantastic. This week RocketMatter has a new guide to 60 Apps Every Lawyer Needs to Know. It’s free and its great.
I’m trying to figure out where App.net fits in my life. Until Twitter started getting weird I was very happy with my “social media strategy”. 1. Write silly things on Twitter. 2. Facebook? What’s that?
But as the Buddha explained, everything keeps changing. I signed up for App.net because I was curious about what they’d do and I didn’t want some other nerd claiming “MacSparky”. I’ve now been using it (off and on) since launch and ā¦ well ā¦ I’m confused.
The service is great with luxurious post lengths and what feels like a more intimate level of engagement with other geeks. In that way, it feels a lot like Twitter did when I signed up for it in 2007.
The problem is having two things. When I just had one thing, Twitter, it was really easy. Two things always make things four times as complicated. Also, there is an ethic to this that I still haven’t figured out. If you go on App.net and post something similar to what you say on Twitter, there is a group of people that call you out for cross posting. However, if you go on App.net and don’t post stuff you say on Twitter, there is a separate group that will never hear your most recent pearl of wisdom.
Vexing.
I don’t have any answers but do acknowledge I haven’t been using App.net enough to have an experience-based opinion. So I am going to try and spend more time on App.net for the next month to see if how it fits in my life. The good news is if you’d like to join me, I’ve got some freebies to get you in the club.
Just Click Right Here and the nice people at App.net will set you up. As is the nature of most free things, that link is not going to work forever so get to it.
