If you’ve been sittting on the fence about this bundle, that gets you Path Finder, TextExpander, TaskPaper, Trickster, and more for just 30 bucks, don’t wait much longer.
Sponsor: Colugo
My thanks to Colugo for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. As an aside, I’m looking forward to trying this out with family during the holidays.
Colugo is the easiest way to share photos privately with your friends and family.
Colugo is a simple solution to a simple organization and communication problem. Colugo doesn’t use gimmicks like other apps do. No “magic” albums or location based sharing or other features that may sound cool in theory, but when you actually use them you find they are not very useful (at best), and a privacy nightmare (at worst). Colugo is private photo sharing done right.
Want to share some of your photos publicly and others privately – in a single app?
With Colugo you can! Make one album for the world to see, and “publish” it. Keep your other albums private, viewable by only those you invite.
Tired of returning from a party and having to contact all your friends for pics?
With Colugo you won’t have to. Partygoers can take pictures directly into a party album you create and you all share.
Colugo. Simple.
Sponsorship by The Syndicate.
Using Failure to Get Big Projects Done
Today Michael Schechter published an article I wrote about getting big things done on his website, A Better Mess. In reality, I kind of hijacked the subject and spent a lot more time writing about failing to finish big things.
Christmas Time is Here
Want a little holiday cheer? Here is a my 11 year old daughter and I covering one of my favorites, Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here.” (Wikipedia) Sarah sings. I play the piano. (The bass, vibes, and drum were also all accomplished with my MIDI keyboard.) The whole thing was produced in Garage Band (both iPad and Mac versions). Enjoy.
Cost of Pennies
Growing up with depression-era parents, being thrifty (and picking up pennies) was always drilled into me. When you consider the actual value of a penny, my parents’ advice in this regard is getting sketchy. Today What If? sets the record straight.
iOS Owners Still Buy More Stuff
This is a variation on that thing I wrote last year but it looks like it still rings true
MPU 113: Photography Workflows with Derrick Story
Derrick Story is one of the smartest Apple-focused photographers out there. He joined us on the most recent Mac Power Users episode to talk about his photography workflows and the best tools and practices for managing your photographs using Apple technologies.
Shopping?
I hear this is a pretty good day to start your holiday shopping. Did you know I have a page with some of my favorite things?
The GroovBoard
I get a lot of work done on my iPad. In addition to using it to manage my life, I also find it a great place to get serious writing done. One trouble I do have, however, is getting comfortable with it while sitting on the couch or in bed. I had pretty much given up on being able to use my Apple Bluetooth keyboard with my iPad in these situations until I received my GroovBoard ($119). The GroovBoard is a piece of milled lumber with grooves cut in it for holding the iPad, Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and a stylus. It is manufactured so you can hold in a variety of positions.
For example, while sitting on a couch, you can set a Apple Bluetooth keyboard on it and have it prop up the iPad and go to town.
If you work with your knees bent, you can lay the iPad against your knees and set the GroovBoard underneath it, where the GroovBoard will hold a Bluetooth keyboard so you can start typing.
The device also has a series of holes in it to hold a stylus. I don’t use those very often since I’m not a big stylus user. I find it just as easy to tap screen commands with my finger and that’s one less thing for me to lose. However, if you’re an artist, I can see how this would be handy.
The GroovBoard actually comes in two pieces. They are connected with a series of strong magnets and pins to keep everything in line. I generally use the whole thing put together. However, if you’re not using the keyboard and simply want to use it as an iPad holder, remove the extender.
The GroovBoard is manufactured in a small shop in Germany. They come in a variety of woods including alder, apple (Yes, I know), ash, cherry, maple, oak, plum, and walnut. (I like the walnut. It’s no secret that I do a bit of woodworking myself and I really like my GroovBoard.
Sponsor: Sendy
My thanks to Sendy for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week.
Sendy is a self hosted email newsletter application that delivers your emails via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES).
Compared to hosted newsletter services, Sendy is an app you can install on your own server. That means, you don’t have to pay monthly fees just to maintain your account. As Sendy uses Amazon SES as the sending engine, deliverability is high at a very low cost.
Sendy uses multi-threading to deliver your emails to Amazon SES, Amazon in turn enable your emails to pass SPF & Sender ID policy checks enforced by many ISPs & DKIM-sign all outgoing emails to ensure high deliverablity rate.
The features you get with Sendy are what you’re familiar with other hosted services, like lists & subscriber management, giving your client access, beautiful reports, custom fields, autoresponders and so on.
Find out more about Sendy or get your copy at sendy.co.