I have agreed to do a few public speaking gigs in preparation of my Macworld sessions. They should be a lot of fun in a geeky, propeller beanie sort of way. If you are in southern California and interested, you can get the details here.
Free iPhone Games – Appvent Calendar
There is a popular iPhone game promotion this holiday season at appventcalendar.com. Every day they unveil a new (normally paid) iPhone game that is marked down to free for one day. Thus far, all of the games have been good and it is always fun getting free stuff.
TextExpander Learns New Tricks
Today TextExpander released a particularly tasty update. For Gmail jockeys, there is now support for rich text and image expansion in web-based tools. I’ve already shown how to do this in Apple Mail.
My favorite new feature allows you designate a portion of your snippet to be selected following expansion. So what does this mean exactly? Well if I create the following snippet…
Your %|(Windows 2000)%\ PC has a virus.
… when you expand it, the term (Windows 2000) will be selected. You can then type in something else, i.e. “Windows XP”, to insert a different name.
Take a look at your existing snippet library. This is really useful. My latest text expansion project is building a library of my most frequent OmniFocus entries (more on this later). The new syntax is going to make this even better.
Scrivener Power Tip – Binder Symbols
One of the great features of Scrivener is the binder, in which you can dump research, web pages, pictures, and video. When doing legal research I will often collect case decisions as individual research assets. I like to insert little symbols into the entries to help me remember. An arrow up for a positive case or down arrow for a negative will suffice. This could be used for other writing applications as well. To insert the symbols, activate the Character Viewer in the Language & Text/Input Sources preference pane and you are good to go.
Gift Recommendation: 1Password
I wrote up a small bit about 1Password for ThinkMac.net. Giving a password app as a gift you ask? Well friends, that is just how I roll. There are some several gift ideas there from other Mac podcasters as well.
Macworld 15% Conference Discount
Macworld has kindly set up a 15% discount for me to share with attendees. The coupon is good for all conference passes excepting the one day user conference. Simply use the coupon code “DSPARKS” when signing up. My sessions are here. Also, if you are attending, let me know. It is always fun meeting fellow Mac users and readers at Macworld.
MacSparky RSS Update
As part of the domain transfer, the name of the RSS feed has changed just enough to have lost hundreds of subscribers. I’ve switched the Feedburner address and installed handy buttons to the right. In the meantime, if you are not getting these posts in your feed, please re-subscribe. That is all.
OmmWriter Initial Thoughts
The word processing renaisance continues. The most recent entry is OmmWriter. This is another distraction free writing application in the vein of WriteRoom. It features very simple and nicely done controls, limited features, and a soundtrack. That is right, a word processor with a pleasing background music. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet but it is in beta and worth checking out.
Main Menu Contest Update
The Main Menu developers have now provided 10 licenses to give away. If you haven’t already entered the contest, do it now. Send an e-mail to david@macsparky.com with the words “Main Menu Contest” in the subject line. I’d also ask that entrants head over and download the free trial of Main Menu and read my review.
MacSparky Amazon Shop
Attention Black Friday shoppers. Want to help pay for MacSparky bandwidth and hosting costs? Do your Amazon shopping through the MacSparky Amazon shop. I’ve picked out a few of my favorite geeky items but don’t stop there. If you click any of the items on the page and head off to buy something else in Amazon, MacSparky.com still gets a small percentage. Go crazy, and thanks.