Looking at Ulysses III

I was provided an early release of Ulysses III and my first impression was “wow”. The developers have really created something different with Ulysses and for the first time I was really tempted to try and write a big project with it. I particularly like the baked-in sync with their iOS text editor, Daedalus Touch.

Yesterday Ulsses III went on sale in the Mac App Store and I bought in. (It is on sale, $20 this week and will go up to $40 next week.) I spent several hours yesterday trying to move the next Field Guide’s text into Ulsses III and testing the syncing link to Daedelous Touch on my iPad.

Ulysses III is gorgeous. The way it renders text and iterates on the three pane view is truly remarkable. However, ultimately, I am not going to be writing a Field Guide in it, at least not this version of it. I experienced some wonkiness in syncing tests to the iPad, I really need a global search, and it just feels not quite there yet. I think Gabe Weatherhead’s views are pretty similar to mine.

I don’t regret buying it though. I think this app is on the right track and I really want to see it get better. In my book, Ulysses is definitely one worth watching. I’m going to be keeping up with the updates.

Macworld/iWorld moves to Late March 2014

Next year’s Macworld/iWorld expo, previously scheduled for Superbowl weekend (January 31-February 2), just moved to March 27 through March 29, 2014. Macworld.com has the full story. While I have to admit I’d have no problem giving up the Super Bowl for Macworld, I’m not sure everyone would agree. I think this move is a good one. Moreover, the new date means I don’t have to leave town on my wife’s birthday.

I’ve written before that I believe Macworld has found its groove since Apple left. Moving the date further helps draw the distinction between the Macworld of old and the Macworld of now. It’s no longer competing with CES. Instead, it takes place months later.

So now we’ve all got a year’s notice and no excuse not to make plans to attend next March. It’s just not right how much I enjoy attending Macworld every year.

Apple’s Enemies

I’m 100% on board with Brent Simmons’ post at Macworld yesterday.

“Instead, Apple’s enemy is Apple itself. It must attract and retain talent. It needs to get strong where it’s weak—particularly with syncing and online services.

It needs to retain that awesome balance between cautious incremental updates and the occasional, mind-blowing new.

It’s not easy. But nobody does it better than Apple.”

I tried to make a similar point in my Macworld article about the culture of fear in the Apple community. We are not going back to a world where one platform gets 96% of the market share. We no longer need to be worried about our beloved fruit company shuttering its doors. It is now up to Apple to continue to deliver.

1Password Browser Extension Update

Agile today released an update to the 1Password Safari browser extension that adds a nice little animation as it fills in web forms. People sometimes ask me why I trust 1Password to manage my passwords. When they sweat litle details like this, you can rest assured the big details are well in hand.

∞

iCloud Two-Step Authentication

Yesterday Apple announced two-factor authentication for iCloud accounts. I immediately enabled mine and it was no trouble at all. Apple still is really good at taking complex technologies and making them simple to understand and implement.

The idea behind two-step authentication is that you need two things to reset your password or get access to your account from a new device. In this case, you would need your iCloud password and a secret code sent to your iPhone or iPad or a double-secret code they send you that you are hopefully locking away in your 1Password database.

In my initial draft of this post, I recommended that you wait a week or two before enabling this so we could make sure all the kinks were worked out. But after having done it personally, I think this is good to go. Enable it on your account and make sure to sent this along to your non-geek friends and family members. If you need any help, MacStories did a nice walk-through. Apple also has a FAQ.

Wow


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Yesterday was a great day for the MacSparky Field Guides. Markdown launched with a lot of success. I really enjoyed the twitter stream and feedback about the book. I particularly liked the tweets and email from people who always wanted to try Markdown and found this book the way to get them over the hump.

When Eddie and I first decided to do a book on Markdown, several nerd-friends told us we were nuts and that Markdown was such a niche topic that nobody would care. I think just the opposite. I think Markdown is a technology that needs to find its way to non-geeks and that’s why we wrote the book.

At a deeper level, I enjoy writing and distributing these books so very much. In a lot of ways, it feels like the best work I’ve done of my lifetime. Thank you everyone for supporting me in this.

What’s up next?

I am going to issue an update to Paperless. Several technologies and workflows have changed since the last update last September. You can expect that pretty soon.

As for the next big Field Guide, I’ve already got a big pile of words towards it and I’m looking forward to really digging in. The subject is another one of my personal crusades and I can’t wait to share it with you. You’ll probably see it sometime in the summer (hopefully early summer).

Thanks again everyone for supporting me on the MacSparky Field Guides.