Delicious Library 2 Review

The last few years a term of art has been floating around the Mac community. You may have heard it. “The Delicious Generation” This phrase comes from a specific application called Delicious Library that released a few years ago and made a lot of people rethink Apple software design. Well recently the folks at Delicious Monster released Delicious Library 2 and it certainly lives up to the high standards set by its predecessor.
So what is this precedent setting software you ask? In essence, it is a home inventory system for your books, CD’s, video games, electronics, tools, toys, and other things precious. I know that doesn’t sound all that exciting but that is what makes Delicious Library 2 so impressive. It does home inventory with panache’. So let me walk you through it.
Loading up Delicious Library 2 there is a little scanning button. With a click , Delicious activates your iSight camera. You can then take your toys (such as a DVD) and hold the UPC code up to your iSight camera. You hear a satisfying “beep” and then Delicious goes and fetches your title from the internet. It reads the name of your DVD and literally pours the contents on a virtual wooden shelf showing a copy of your DVD. It just doesn’t pull down an image and name though, Delicious grabs tons of metadata ranging from actors, dates, reviews, and even points you to other similar titles you may enjoy. That really is all there is to it. When I scanned in Star Wars it told me “I am your father.” I sat my six year old at the Mac with a stack of DVD’s taller than her and she had them all scanned into Delicious Library 2 in about 30 minutes. Child labor laws aside, getting your stuff in Delicious Library 2 is easy. It was no different loading up the video games and books. Before long, I had most of the family library recorded. You can purchase a separate bluetooth hand held scanner that would probably be a bit faster, but I found the iSight scanning to be very convenient.

Not all of your stuff is going to have UPC codes however. For instance, some of my movies started out as DVD cases inside cardboard boxes with UPC codes on them. Well the cardboard boxes are long gone along with the UPC codes so I had nothing to show my iSight camera. Delicious Library has a text entry search that found all of them very quickly and added them into the library. It appears you can catalogue just about anything Amazon sells. Likewise, Delicious Library will grab all of your iTunes library. That is not just the music. It also gets movies, TV programs, and audiobooks.
My library currently only holds about 300 items without breaking a sweat. One of the changes made in Delicious Library 2 is the switch from XML to SQL which should make management of large libraries more efficient.
So by now you are wondering why bother with an application like Delicious Library? There are several practical reasons including things like insurance records and personal inventories but I have to admit I am hooked because it is just fun. I’ve set up smart libraries with different genres of books. I’ve also got them categorized by where they are located which is excellent for someone like me who is easily befuddled. You can manually fill your shelves or use the “Smart Shelves” feature which allows you to set up specific criteria very similar to smart playlists in iTunes.
Delicious also allows you to publish your library to the web or share it with friends. I am working on setting up a shared book library with several of my local friends so get our own informal library running. One of the export options is an iPhone or iPod optimized version so you can put it your library in your pocket. This could come in handy for trips to the bookstore if you have a large library. Another nice feature is you can drag a Delicious Library item on a contact in the OS X address book and it will add a note they they have borrowed an item and add an entry to your iCal. I really wish I had that when I loaned my Indiana Jones DVD collection out a few years ago. Delicious Library will also go onto the Interweb and figure out what all of your stuff is worth (in multiple currencies) and even, if configured, help you sell it through the Amazon store.
You can get a free trial at Delicious Monster. A new license will cost you $40 and an upgrade from version one will cost $20. Delicious Library 2 is one of those applications that I feel in my bones could never exist on a windows box. Even if you are not interested in creating an electronic inventory, download the trial so you can see for yourself how software looks when it is done right.

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Apple Design Award Winners Announced

Apple announced its 2008 design awards. I was pleased to see several of them went to applications I have positively reviewed this year. In particular Screenflow and Timeline 3d. I also noted the OmniFocus iPhone application won an award. I am counting the days until I can download that one.
Best Student Runner Up: Flow
Best Student Winner: Squirrel
Graphics and Media Runner Up: Fotomagico
Graphics and Media Winner: ScreenFlow
Leopard User Experience Runner Up: CheckOut
Leopard User Experience Winner: Macnification
Leopard Game Runner Up: Command and Conquer 3
Leopard Game Winner: Guitar Hero 3
Best Leopard Application Runner Up: TimeLine 3D
Best Leopard Application Winner: ScreenFlow
Best iPhone Web App Runner Up: Associated Press
Best iPhone Web App Winner: Remember the Milk
Best iPhone Game: Enigmo
Best iPhone Entertainment App: AOL Radio
Best iPhone Social Networking: Twitterrific
Best iPhone Productivity App: OmniFocus
Best iPhone Health App: MIM

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MobileMe and the Future of the Apple Cloud

I wrote about MobileMe back when it was just a rumor. Now that Apple has lifted the veil, I thought I’d take a moment to share my thoughts about the actual product.

Push Technology? Thank You Very Much!

This feature makes my life easier. Requiring me to cable sync my iPhone to get calendar and contact data is frustrating. Add to this the fact that I use two different Macs and the resulting increased likelihood of a sync meltdown and you can see why I am very ready for this feature. That being said, I’m pretty hip to these technologies and, frankly, I’ve expected at least this much functionality for some time. For a lot of people this will be revolutionary. Regardless, it is essential.

Web Applications

The ability to have your calendar, contacts, and email at any computer in a familiar interface is fantastic. I think it is intriguing how different the approaches are between Apple and Google. I will probably catch flak for this but I find the screenshots of the Apple Web applications more appealing than Google’s. That probably arises from familiarity but I also think Apple spends more time on design. I’m not sure how useful picture syncing will be and I’ll address the iDisk below.

Windows Love

There are a lot of iPhone users out there that do not own Macs. There are also a lot of Mac Users that sit behind a windows box at work. This is a necessary and welcome addition. I also wouldn’t be surprised that, if properly implemented, MobileMe acts as a sort of gateway drug for pulling switchers over to Apple.

iDisk

The bump to 20 gigs is excellent. I also like the ability to share large files easily. The web interface for the iDisk, however, does not do much for me. As a SugarSync subscriber and general syncing nerd, I just feel they could take this further. I get that I can do syncing with an iDisk but it is slow and only works on the local copy of the iDisk. Furthermore, the local copy is a sparse image and not easily searchable or replaceable. The SugarSync solution, which goes and syncs your files from their native locations on your drive is much more elegent. For instance. I keep my Bento database synced using SugarSync. It is automatic. I don’t have to think about it. Doing this through the iDisk requires several steps where I would have to drag the database to the iDisk on the computer I’m leaving and drag it off the iDisk on the computer I’m about to work on. If I forget, then I will end up with two different sets of data. Ugg. Likewise, why can’t we access the files on the iDisk from our iPhones? If it can open a Keynote file as an email attachment why not directly from iPhone iDisk access? Put simply, I think the iDisk could be much more.

Server Capacity – Can Apple Keep Up?

My biggest gripe with .Mac is its speed, or lack thereof. This thing is slow. As a totally non-scientific example, sending a 300mb file up over my home network (cable modem) took me 50 minutes last night. Is the capacity of an already slow system being increased to handle millions of “push” transactions? I guess we’ll find out in early July.

Name Suckage

Apple is getting slammed for the name “Mobile Me.” I think this is based on a variety of issues ranging from the affiliation to the dreadful Windows Me to people who are generally unhappy when Apple takes the “Mac” out of anything. Trying to seperate myself from the “geek”, I can see the name Mobile Me being pretty effective with a general consumer who really doesn’t understand cloud based computing and enterprises but knows what a pain it is to remember what time the dentist appointment is when you are in your car and left the details on your computer at home. So I really am not griping about the name.

Additional Functionality

I’m actually pleased with promise that MobileMe provides. The push technology alone will be of tremendous benefit to me. I’m hoping, however, that this is only the begininng. I don’t know about you, but I always got the impression the .Mac service was the ugly step sister at Apple. It occaisionally got lip service but it never really got that special attention that Apple generally brings to its products. I’m hoping that changes with MobileMe. I’d love to see it take on more aggressive file syncing like the SugarSync service. I’d also like to see it serve up video and music so I could park gigabytes of music on video on the MobileMe server and then listen to them from my 3g iPhone. I think we are all headed toward cloud computing and this is probably just another small step in the long march. If Apple gets aggressive with this, it would serve them (and us consumers) well.

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iPhone OmniFocus: It Lives!

I was very pleased to see the blogosphere light up with news of OmniFocus for the iPhone. This is the one iPhone application I’ve been lusting after since … well … since the first OmniFocus beta. I’ve reported on it before and begged for it at MacWorld. Now it appears the folks at Omni have come through with a great looking application. Merlin Mann covered it here.
One feature I never would have guessed is location awareness. I *think* this means that I can open my “Grocery List” context and it will tell me where the nearest grocery store is. There simply isn’t enough information out yet to know more detail than that.
On the Omni blog, it is confirmed to run fine on 2g or 3g iPhones and the iPod touch. There is no official word yet on whether it will be a separate license (my guess is it will). Between push calendar and OmniFocus, my iPhone just became even more indispensable. If Omni now announces they also have OmniOutliner for the iPhone in the works, my head just might explode.

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3G iPhone Thoughts

This fancy new gadget has already been dissected in the blogosphere but being the narcissist that I am (along with the fact I am too tired to organize my thoughts on MobileMe), I thought I’d add my two cents on the 3G iPhone.

The Look

I’m not particularly excited about them dropping the aluminum back. I suspect this has something to do the the 3g and GPS antennas but plastic is, in my mind, cheaper. I took a look at the plastic on the back of my iPhone and it actually has held up quite well (I don’t use a case). Hopefully they use something of similar quality on the 3G phone. I’m glad they are making a black phone, ambivalent about the white and regret they aren’t doing a few more colors. I’m sure that will happen eventually.

The Speed

What is not to like about faster? I still think John Gruber has it right and there will be a processor bottleneck at some point. I also am very curious to see the real world battery tests. It will be interesting to see how they compare to Apple’s initial reports.

GPS

I still really like my Garmin NUVI. I am not that excited about GPS in my phone because I’ve never seen it work any good. This feature may be more important as developers incorporate it into new software. Perhaps then I’ll feel a need for it but in terms of finding my way around, I am not getting rid of my Garmin anytime soon.

The Memory

I was really hoping for a 32 gig machine. With all this great new software coming out, storage will be more important than ever. That being said, using smart playlists I still have plenty of room on my 8 gig phone.

The Price

Apple is going to grab a ton of market share with that price point. Price is a large part of the focus in this upgrade. It was not about making the camera better or adding video. It is about getting 3G and lowering the price enough to grab market share. However, The lower price point may not be as rosy as it initially appears. AT&T is, according to some reports, subsidizing that price to get it so low. That means you will end up paying more on the back end for your contract. Reports are already surfacing confirming this.
So all of the above being considered, I am not certain that I will be upgrading immediately. I’m not going to say I won’t because I get sucked into the Apple product launches like like the pre-Subway Jarod into an all-you-can eat buffet. That being said, it is not a “sure thing” for me. It may make sense to wait until they get a bit more memory. Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly) my daughter is pushing hard why I should get one and “deserve” a new phone. Think that has anything to do with her thoughts about getting the old one? Perhaps a little bit.

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Snow Leopard and Eating Crow

Some famous errors..

“This should be no problem .. we won’t need any reinforcements .. where are my medals?”
– George Armstrong Custer
“A little sip wont kill me.”
– Socrates
“I think it would be really odd for them[Apple] to release a new OS without having some sexy new feature to brag about.”
– MacSparky
Well, nobody is perfect. So just a few days ago I wrote how certain I was that Apple wouldn’t update Leopard without adding some new features to tempt consumers. Now Apple announces that is exactly what they plan on doing. (To all the readers who emailed me today about me getting this wrong … thanks a lot – smirk.) I am okay with that. All geeks are. We really get excited about things like processor speed and system efficiency. I still think Apple is going to have its work cut out for it though. The non-geek Mac users (and there are quite a few of those) are going to wonder why they should be shelling out for something that doesn’t have any fancy bells or whistles.
Think about it. An upgrade just for geeks. You could chart it against something like “people with iStat menus installed” or “people who have opened terminal intentionally” and you would know exactly who will be bringing the Snow Leopard home.*
Well even though I am admitting I was wrong on this one, I still think Apple marketing will spin this as more than simply “security and stability” fixes. Indeed, the campaign has already begun. According to Apple, Snow Leopard is already listed as a “Quantum Leap” with built in Exchange support, 64 bit bells and whistles and a brand new Quicktime — and that is just after the first day. By a year from now the list will grow. I’m still pining away for a ZFS file system.
If the world has learned anything from Vista, it is that we don’t need our operating system to cure all sins, it just needs to be rock solid for our applications. I “get” where Apple is coming from on this and am looking forward to see what happens next.
* Another question in my mind is “will Snow Leopard be 10.6?” I didn’t read about anyone at Apple calling Snow Leopard 10.6. The Apple website just refers to it as the “next major version” but never calls it 10.6. Maybe they will have a reduced price and give it a different number … 10.5.?. That would be an interesting turn of events indeed.

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Haiku to Bluetooth Keyboard

I know I’ve beaten this drum before but I figured with less than 24 hours until WWDC I would voice my wish for bluetooth keyboard support on the iPhone just one more time. My medium for this appeal is haiku:
Oh Bluetooth Keyboard
On the iPhone we desire
Does Apple permit?

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The Case Against the iTablet at WWDC 2008

I’ve written before about my hopes for an iTablet. I’ve received several emails from readers asking my opinion as to whether or not I expect to see the fabled device on Monday. I know Apple is unpredictable, but I’m thinking about snowballs in very hot places when I say, “no.”
I believe there is such a product in development but I don’t see it making its public debut at the developer’s conveference. There are a few reasons for this:

1. It is a “Developer’s conference”

This is the event for the code jockies. This is where the people who make their living making Apple software get help and a peek at things to come. This is not a consumer event. If there is an iTablet cooking, release at MacWorld makes much more sense than WWDC.

2. The time is not right for an iTablet

Apple has made huge strides towards the mobile platform with the iPhone and iPod touch. Still, they are are just getting out of the gate. I don’t see them giving the iPhone programmers an entirely new platform right out of the gate. Also, Apple needs to get all our money for those fancy new 3g iPhones* before they start tempting us with the iTablet. Part of the magic of Apple is the very careful way in which they build the consumer experience. I think they have a very clear idea of what products they will release and when they release them. And, in my guts, it just doesn’t seem time for the iTablet, yet.
So I’d love to be wrong but I just don’t see the iTablet making its appearance until later, maybe MacWorld 2009.
*Although this probably merits a separate post, I’m also a bit skeptical about WWDC being focused on the 3g iPhone. I could see them talking plenty about the new software and virtually ignoring new hardware. The new iPhone could easily get its own event.so it

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Timeline 3d Review

It wasn’t so long ago that I reviewed Bee Docs’ Timeline application. In case you didn’t catch that review, it followed my general survey of OS X timeline applications and I found it the winner for the ease of use and the outstanding final product. I still use it often in my day job to great result.
Timeline is the brain child of Adam Behrenger. I have to admit I love using software developed by small companies like Adam’s. As a user, I know my comments and suggestions are going directly to the guys writing the code. As a result, the software seems tighter and you can feel the sense of pride in the final product that you often don’t get with software designed by committee.
As an example of this, Bee Docs has recently released Timeline 3d. The big difference with this new version is 3d presentation. A universal problem with using timelines is that you either have to dumb it down to a minimum number of events, or it gets too crowded and difficult to read. This is especially true when rendering in two dimensions. Adam came up with a way to take your timeline to 3 dimensions by virtually tilting it on your screen.

Once you drop your timeline into presentation mode you can press the spacebar that essentially tilts the timeline at an angle in a perspective view. You can then see much further down the page. It all looks very impressive, like something right out of CNN. You can then manually move forward or backward down the timeline and it advances the page and three dimensionally pops out the current event of focus.
These very advanced effects are stunning. Just a few years ago, this would have required some serious programming mojo. Using Timeline 3d, you just press the space bar.
Timeline 3D also will export your timeline to Keynote. It doesn’t draw out the animations but does allow you to snap between each step in your three dimensional timeline. I haven’t had an opportunity use this in the trenches yet but I’m thinking I’ll probably just leave the timeline active in Timeline 3D and command tab to it from Keynote when necessary. I like the more fluid transition and the ability to easily go backward and forward.
Timeline 3D can be found at beedocuments.com and is sold as a separate product from the standard Timeline application. You can download a trial and, if you have use for this sort of thing, I strongly recommend you give it a try. The standard edition costs $40 while the 3D version costs $65. There also is an excellent video at the BeeDocs website explaining how he came up with the idea for Timeline 3D on the Beedocs blog.

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Return of Humpty Dumpty

Every year, about early June, I volunteer at the local elementary school where I give a presentation about how laws are made and the role of the courts and lawyers. This all started when my oldest daughter was in fifth grade and the teachers keep asking me to come back. I love it. It is so fun going over these topics with the kids and they ask such good questions. Once I finish my dog and pony show, the kids have their own mini-trial where they all play roles like the judge, attorneys, witnesses and jury. The trial is about Humpty Dumpty. We all know he fell, but why? Was it an accident? Or was it Murder! The kids conduct their own trial and the jury returns a verdict.
In terms of Mac geekery, the presentation is built in keynote and presented off my MacBook Air into the school’s projector. I use all sorts of flashy word effects and transitions. It is much more glitzy than my normal jury presentations. I think all the motion seems to keep the kids interested. I seem to have lost my third-party remote since my last trial so I had to use an Apple remote which worked fine.
It really was a blast to do it again this morning. My favorite question was one tiny little girl who asked, “Is it fun to stand up and yell objection?” to which I enthusiastically replied, “Yes!” If any of you would like the trial materials or the Keynote presentation for the fifth graders in your life, drop me a note. I even have a quicktime clickable version for those of you stuck with Windows laptops. I’ve seeded this out to lawyers and teachers all over the country the last few years and love to hear it is getting used.

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