BBEdit ♡ Automator

While I’m not sold on using BBEdit for my writing workflow, I’m really impressed with its Automator support. There are so many services I could cook up with these toys. Where to begin?

Home Screens – Jorge Pedroso

This week’s home screen features my newest friend from Portugal, Jorge Pedroso (Twitter). Jorge is one of the two developers that created my current favorite simple text editor, Byword. Jorge loves his iPhone and agreed to share. So Jorge, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

  • Instacast is filling my recent addiction to podcasts—thanks a lot, 5by5. It made the podcast subscribing+listening experience much more pleasant. Streaming is a killer feature and the iTunes and iPod apps simply don’t cut it.

  • Droplr I use to quickly share iPhone screenshots and video over-the-air with co-workers. It’s a great way to quickly show issues in the apps as we develop when one of us is working remotely.

  • RTP is how I keep up with portuguese news. These days, the news coming are mostly not that good but the app is pretty great.

  • Tiny Wings for casual gaming. Perfectly designed, relaxing, challenging and different every day.

What is your favorite app?

Mobile Safari. For me, it alone revolutionized the mobile internet and made it a first class experience on handheld devices. When I’m on the go, I find myself using it all the time, directly or indirectly through other app.

Mail and Twitter for iPhone deserve honorable mentions for being my most used apps.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Ranky. I can’t help it. Having apps selling on the App Store puts one in constant desire of checking the App Store ranks. I hope this gets better with time.

What is the app you are still missing?

Not missing much but I’ve been looking for a simple, yet comprehensive, personal analytics app. A smart writing app with Markdown capabilities would be nice for the go too. Just saying.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

As many times as I hear it emitting a sound. I check Mail and Twitter on the iPhone and Metaclassy’s customer support comes through those channels. I’m not complaining (yet). I love my job.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I’ll pick two, if I may. One on software and another on hardware.

On software, it’s iOS in general and the App Store in particular. They destroyed so many barriers, both for users and developers. I thank iOS for the overall quality of most apps and the App Store for the simplicity of getting those same apps.

On hardware, it’s the Retina display of the iPhone 4. I still remember the wow moment when I first had it in my hands. For weeks, it made it really difficult for me to use an iPad frequently again (or any other mobile device for that matter). I got used to the differences but I eagerly wait for the day where pixels are no longer human-detectable squares in our screens.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

Well, I hate it when I’m laying down in bed/couch, reading or something, and the iPhone slips and falls on my face. So, I’d consider adding Velcro on the iPhone’s back and a glove. Skin magnets could work too. Needs research.

Other than that, giving high priority to all radars (issues and improvements) I submitted to bugreport.apple.com would be pretty cool.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I’m eagerly anticipating the next year, as a developer and as a user. After the mobile shift, it seems everyone is already undergoing another shift in personal computing where data is supposed to come full-circle seamlessly across all devices. MacSparky was spot on calling multi-platform as a feature at the center of it. Consequently, data portability and interoperability will increasingly become features/concerns to look out for. For me, it will be yet another busy year—in a good way.

Thanks Jorge.

To read more home screens, clicky here

Managing Spammy Friends

Spam is usually a simple problem for me. Somebody sends me a spammy e-mail and they get the honor of a special rule in Mail.app that looks something like this.

Basically, anything from that person goes straight to trash. Problem solved. SpamSieve also helps.

However, I have unique problem with a few friends and relatives that think I actually give a damn about their newly found web collections of humorous kitten photos (“Oh, Shit”) or their hokey political rants. Unfortunately, these people sometimes also send me information that I actually need. In other words, I can’t simply give them my usual spammer=delete rule. So how do I get rid of their spam but still get their non-spam mail?

The solution lies in the fact that spammers – even friendly ones – are not capable of sending spammy type e-mail to just one person. These objectionable e-mails are always copied to my spam friends’ other contacts, usually several of which are complete strangers to me. This is the key to this hack.

I created a rule that looks for e-mail from my spammy friends with copies to a stranger that shows up in prior spam-type e-mails. The rule sends those to the trash. If my spammy friend then sends me an e-mail with actual substantive content (which wouldn’t be copied to the complete stranger), the rule doesn’t catch it. The rule looks like this.

I explained this rule and talked ad nauseum about e-mail in a recent MPU Episode.

Markdown Reference Links Revisited

Following recording the most recent MPU episode, I got serious about Brett Terpstra’s Markdown Services. These are a really nice collection of tools that I’m completely incapable of replicating with my usual bag automation tools and chewing gum. I used to do this with TextExpander. I talked about this a little bit during the show but since recording, I’ve particularly picked up on using the services that convert inline links to reference links and the other that assembles reference links from open Safari tabs. Think about that one for a moment: Write an article, open Safari and find your links, run the service. Boom. It’s a service so it works anywhere you write text.

I’m not alone, since the episode hit the airwaves I’ve received several e-mails from bloggers and web-writers explaining how this changed their workflows. Nice work Mr. Terpstra, indeed.

Dr. Drang also covered this today and talked about how he pulls off these tricks with TextMate. (The good Doctor also is the first to publicly unmask me as a tramp.) While I get that you can do a lot more with a tools like TextMate, at this point I’m thinking Brett’s services plus Byword are enough for me.

Home Screens – Darren Rolfe

Darren Rolfe (Twitter) is the genius behind the MacSparky and
original Mac Power Users logo. I’ve known Darren for years and consider him a friend. (Darren also loves his daughter, Ella, very much.) In addition to his amazing graphic design work, Darren pens his own online comic, The Mighty Monocle. So Darren, show us your home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

I think Planetary is the one of the most interesting, original and beautifully simple apps I’ve seen yet. It was a gift from a fellow iPad owner. The best way to describe it, is that it’s an intergalactic visualisation of your iTunes music library. You need to see it, to believe it!

Sketchbook Pro is also an interesting and extremely powerful app. I’m still adjusting to using the iPad for drawing. For my web comic I still use traditional ink and paper and I doubt if that will ever change. But, I want to be able to try and sketch rough panels/ideas on my iPad when I’m commuting. 

What is your favorite app?

Well I’m fairly new to this new-fangled iPad shenanigans. But so far, my favourite is the BBC iPlayer (UK only) app for the iPad. It gives you access to the some of the latest and greatest BBC television and radio shows. 

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I don’t think any of my apps are “guilty pleasures”. However, I did push the boat out and blow the budget on the case for my iPad. I opted for the DODO case. They’re hand-crafted in San Francisco with traditional book-binding techniques. Essentially it’s a moleskine outer cover with a precision cut bamboo inlay. I love it!

What is the app you are still missing?

Alas, I can’t think of one. Which frustrates me immensely! I could be rich… Mu, ha, ha, mu, ha, ha!

How many times a day do you use your iPad?

All the time! I usually take it with me on my commute. Later, when I get home it is always being used by someone in the house. Me, my wife or my 6 year old daughter. 

What is your favorite feature of the iPad?

The sheer versatility of the device. As I mentioned I’ve only recently jumped on the iPad bandwagon. But now I have, I truly had a “lightbulb switching on” moment when I started to use it. What can’t you do with it? 

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

Firstly, SORT OUT THE LACK OF FLASH SUPPORT ON THE IPAD!  

I don’t know how? Buy Adobe or develop something else I don’t care, just make it happen. 

Secondly, I’d create a “Long Term Loyalty to Apple Award” for all those people who stuck with Apple through those dark, dark days back in the late 80’s. Me included! Perhaps, something along the lines of a gold-plated SE?

Anything else you’d like to share?

You can find my web comic “Mighty Monocle” at www.mightymonocle.com. It currently updates once a week. 

One last thing… The background wallpaper for my iPad home screen was designed for me by my daughter using Granimator for the iPad. Granimator is another fantastic FREE app that combines music with these surreal pieces of artwork!

Thanks Darren.

For more home screen posts, clicky here

Easy Timeline from BeeDocs

(Disclosure: BeeDocs, maker of Easy Timeline is a sponsor of MacSparky.com. I’ve used (and paid for) BeeDocs’ products long before they started sponsoring the website.)

I’ve always been a fan of BeeDocs Timeline 3D. As a lawyer, I find its powerful timeline tools useful and often take advantage of Timeline 3D to quickly create professional looking timelines for use in the “day job.”

Put simply, I’m a believer in BeeDocs and their products. I’ve even switched some lawyer friends to Macs solely based on my Timeline 3D timelines. One legitimate problem for potential Timeline 3D users is, however, its price, $65. I think the price is right, especially considering how often I use the software. However, if you are just making a few timelines, $65 can be steep. Users spoke and the gang at BeeDocs listened.

BeeDocs now publishes, through the Mac App store, Easy Timeline, $20. Easy Timeline is a simple to use timeline application.

In addition to offering a lower cost alternative, Easy Timeline also gets a BeeDocs timeline product in the Mac App store and all the user convenience that comes with that: easy installation, no license key, multiple installations.

Creating timelines with Easy Timeline is a snap. The app ships with several color schemes and layouts you can choose among when creating a new timeline. (You can also change the look after you start building your timeline)

Creating new timeline entries is intuitive. Click the New Entry button and start filling in data. You can drag and drop multimedia on timeline entries, including images, movies, and audio. The date formatting is flexible from within the timeline.

As you add additional entries the page automatically adjusts itself to fit your data. I used to spend hours building timelines in complicated excel and graphics apps before discovering BeeDocs products. When the timeline is complete you can share it as a PDF file or display the timeline from inside the app. Easy Timeline includes Timeline 3D’s three dimensional display mode. This lets you use the arrow keys to move forward and backward on a timeline in three dimensions. It looks fantastic for audiences (and juries).

Differences with Timeline 3d

The more expensive Timeline 3D, $65, includes a lot more import and export options. Timeline 3D, imports events from many other applications, including iCal, Aperture, iPhoto, OmniFocus, Basecamp, and Skitch. Timeline 3D also publishes timelines to websites, YouTube, Keynote, and HD video with advanced rendering features such as motion blur and audio soundtracks.

Both Timeline 3D and Easy Timeline have the same data format so you can move timelines between both products.

Summary

Put simply, Easy Timeline takes a lot of hard work out of making timelines and creates a final product simply not possible without many hours of time with more complicated software. If you’ve been holding off on BeeDocs timeline products, now is the time to get in.