Brett Terpstra joins this week’s Mac Power Users episode as we talk about collaborating on the 60 tips book and some of our favorite Mac tips and tricks.
IFTTT ♥ Withings Scale
IFTTT continues to automate my life. Now when I hit specific target weights, fun things happen. If you haven’t played with IFTTT yet, you should. The service is no more than a set of pipes hooked to increasingly useful web services. Spend 15 minutes setting up some recipes and you’ll be hooked.
Tweetbot for Mac
There is something about Tapbots’ apps that I can’t resist. They weild little sound effects and whimsey the same way Dr. Jones does that whip. Despite Tweetbot’s nightmare-inspiring icon, I use this app as my weapon of choice throughout iOS and am happy to be doing so now on my Mac as well.
Sponsor: Sifter
Sifter is a simple project management tool for small teams. It frees you up to focus on shipping better software instead of checking in on team members.
It’s perfect for serving as your team’s central location for capturing and managing all of a project’s issues, questions, bugs and new features. No more swimming through emails or multiple applications to check on the status of an issue. Sifter’s powerful search and filtering make sure you can easily find what you need.
Also, by keeping things obsessively simple, Sifter helps ensure that even the least technical team members feel welcome and comfortable participating so that they can be actively involved in both development and testing without any training.
The result is increased participation working hand-in-hand with a focus on accountability to ensure projects get delivered on time and that nothing slips through the cracks.
MPU 107: Workflows with Jean MacDonald
A recurring question we receive on the Mac Power Users is, “how do I get started programming?” We have tried to address this in past episodes when interviewing veteran programmers. I think we finally cracked this nut last week when we interviewed Jean MacDonald and she explained her journey on becoming an iOS programmer. Jean is just starting this journey and from that unique perspective she has a lot of good advice. She also talks about how she uses her marketing savvy to help Smile Software and scolds me about my lack of Facebook participation. Good times.
Send PayPal a Letter
And there lies the first (and probably) last legal advice you’ll ever read at MacSparky.com.
Scapple Beta
Literature and Latte (The Scrivener Developers) are about to release a new application, Scapple, which looks to be a sort of brainstorming tool (that will work with Scriviner). I’m just starting to play with the beta and you can too.
Music Concierge – Songza
I recommended Songza on the Mac Power Users a month ago and I’ve received several emails thanking me for it. It is a free music service that will select music for you based on the time of day. I prefer their music selections over Pandora and I use it all the time.
Access the Downloads Folder By Key Combination
One of my favorite tips in the 60 Tips Book is a list of all the keyboard shortcuts you can use in the OS X Save/Open Dialog box. For example, ⌘+D goes to the desktop.
I just learned a new one from Dark Sky’s Jack Turner.
⌥+⌘+L goes to the downloads folder.
Hazel Tutorial
Andreas Zeitler from Mac OS X Screencasts just released a 1-hour Hazel tutorial for 10 Euros. If you’re flumoxed by Haze, now is your chance.