The most recent episode of the Mac Power Users is now up. In it we interview George Starcher and discuss the relative benefits of the OpenDNS and Google DNS services. We also interview Paul Kent as my Macworld giddiness starts to kick into high gear.
The Macworld feature speaker list is looking pretty good. If you are heading to San Francisco next month it is time to start filling in your dance card.
Thursday, February 11
9:00am – 10:00am = Late Night with David Pogue
11:00am – 12:00pm = Macworld DEMO: Best of Show, Matt Marshall to host
2:00pm – 3:00pm = Q&A with Kevin Smith
4:30pm – 5:30pm = The Photoshop 20th Anniversary, David Biedny to host
Friday, February 12
9:00am – 10:00am = Revolution from the Rest of Us, Guy Kawasaki
2:00pm – 3:00pm = Macworld Live! with Leo Laporte
4:30pm – 5:30pm = The Gruber 10: Apple’s Top Issues, John Gruber
As Mac users we are always trying to give the operating system that additional little tweak. While watching the advertising blitz for Windows 7, I must admit one feature I was a tiny bit jealous of was the ability to drag a window to the side of the screen and automatically have the OS resize it to fill half the screen. Apparently someone at Irradiated Software felt the same because they have released a small application that brings this resizing trick to OS X called Cinch.
Using Cinch you can set the top, right, and left edges of your screen as “hot zones.” It is pre-configured the first time you open it. By dragging a window to the menu bar and holding it a second, Cinch allows you to fill the entire screen. It works the same on the left and right giving you a half screen. If you want to put two Finder windows side by side, it is very simple. If you drag the window away from the side, it returns to the original size. It doesn’t support keyboard shortcuts. It also doesn’t replace Mercury Mover for customizing window layout but is great for the quick resize.
If you are using spaces you, it also supports moving windows to other spaces and the timing is adjustable. Using Cinch with a multiple monitor set up takes a bit of finesse but works. A license for Cinch costs $7. When I try some software it may take me the full 30 day trial period before I decide if I want to buy it. For Cinch it took me five minutes. You can download it at IrradiatedSoftware.com.
You can listen to this review on the Surfbits Mac ReviewCast.
PGP 10.0 is now out of beta and shipping for Snow Leopard. The new version includes several nice upgrades including support for Boot Camp, Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit), and Linux support. I’ve been running the beta a few months and had no troubles. Encryption and decryption are faster and PGP reports there are additional safeguards against boot disk corruption. If you have sensitive data on your Mac, I’ve found no better solution than PGP.
This week, I’m featuring another international home screen. This one belongs to Bart Busschots of Ireland. Bart is a prolific podcaster contributing to the International Mac Podcast, the Mac Roundtable, and Allison Sheridan’s NosillaCast. Bart also blogs at BartB.ie. Bart was kind enough to share his home screen and a few of his thoughts.
The app I’ve come to rely on most heavily is ShopShop. It’s an app that does one thing but does it very well – it lets you create shopping lists. It remembers items you’ve bought before, so it rapidly auto-completes when you add things to your list, each item in your list can be checked off as you go around the shop – and you can have as many different lists as you want. I used to never end up buying the right things. I’d buy stuff I already had in the fridge, as well as coming home without loads of really important stuff. The reason this works so well for me is that I always have my iPhone with me, so as soon as I see we are out of something I instantly grab the phone and quickly and easily add it to the relevant list in ShopShop. Then, when I get to the shop, I just open up the app and grab everything I need and nothing more than I need. It’s not glamorous, it’s not cool, but it really helps me day in and day out!
What is your favorite app?
It’s so hard to pick a favorite! But, if you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose I think I’d pick StarMap. I just love star gazing, and it’s fantastic to have a full planetarium app in your pocket when you’re out under the stars. It really uses the multitouch interface well, and it has a night vision mode too!
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
As sad as it sounds – it’s Solitaire! If I’m ever in a queue anywhere I just whip out the iPhone and fire up solitaire. Same goes for plane or train journeys.
How many screens full of apps do you have?
I have 5 screens but they are not all completely full. If I were to fill every screen I’d say I have about 4 and a half screens full.
What is the app you are still missing?
What I’m missing isn’t so much an app but a crucial missing feature. I need a common space on the app where files and be stored and retrieved from any app. The Photos folder does that for photos and videos, but I need something like that for generic files.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone?
Too many to count. It’s the only phone I use, the only iPod I use, and I consider it as a portable computer with a lot of apps on it I use many times each day.
What is your favorite iPhone feature?
The interface wins hands-down. Directly manipulating thee things on the screen by touching the screen is just such a wonderfully natural way to interact with technology. The fact that when you flick things they have realistic momentum really adds to the feeling that the things on the screen are real, and you really are moving them around with your finger. This is what Apple have done so so right with this device, and what no one else seems to have done as well yet.
If you were Steve Jobs, what would you add to the iPhone?
Storage. It doesn’t have to be a traditional file system, but something. In fact, a database driven storage area could be a lot better. If the files had metadata to describe what they are, and apps were allowed to specify what they could and couldn’t do, then it would be easy to only ever present you with the files that are relevant to you in what ever app you are using. A word processor would only show text documents, an image editor images, a video editor videos etc.. General purpose apps like email could show all the files, as could Spotlight. We really do need to be able to store and access more stuff more easily on the iPhone.
Anything else you’d like to share?
The app store review process really worries me. I don’t have any confidence that Apple have my best interests at heart in how they vet apps. I don’t want Apple telling me what is and is not appropriate for me to do. I’m an adult, I don’t want to be mothered by Apple!
Thanks Bart!
Since Filemaker released version 3 of Bento, I’ve been using it quite a bit. Today the company released an attractive and useful set of contact management templates definitely download worth.
Lately I’ve been setting up my travel arrangements through the Kayak.com service. I’m impressed with their 2.0 iPhone application. It makes things easy to manage and arrange. Also, the trip management service (with a free Kayak account) is handy.
Strange quote from Jon Rubenstein. If I was in the smart phone business, I’d be spending lots of time with competing handsets.