I’ve been using the Sneaky Peak of OmniFocus exclusively now for several weeks for task management and I’m very pleased with the progress Omni is making with this program. If you have any interest in it, get yourself over to the Omni Group web site and get your name on the list. It is “different” from what I was doing in iGTD, but generally better for my workflow with a few small (hopefully temporary) annoyances. It is still just Alpha after all.
I’ve been having fun making the screencasts and decided to give them a podcast feed. Granted it is nothing near the quality of Don McAllister’s excellent “ScreencastsOnline”, but I’m having fun making them. I’m really figuring this out as I go along so I’m sure there will be changes. Moreover, it will not be a weekly podcast but as more along the lines of a few a month.
I have an email from Apple saying “MacSparky Screencasts” has been approved and is on iTunes but I sure can’t seem to find it except for using Apple’s link right here. I’m using a PodBean account, at least temporarily, to host it which can be found here. I’ll keep you posted.
If you would like to hear my dulcet tones, this review was broadcast on Surfbits Macreview Cast #115.
This week I’m going to talk about a newly released product that you might have heard about, the iPhone.
Those of you that have visited my blog have read about me explaining how I had no plans to buy an iPhone and was going to try and stick it out with my Treo. Well between that outstanding video on Apple’s website and all the excitement I got sucked in.
So I braved the crowds and actually made a few friends on iDay and got myself a shiny new iPhone. I have now been using it for almost a week. Since just about every web site on the Internet has reviewed this gadget I thought I would just talk a bit about how I use my iPhone.
Setting up the iPhone was a breeze. I plugged it into iTunes, electronically pledged my business to AT&T for two years and picked what data I wanted synced over. It took about 10 minutes. Once it was done I unplugged the iPhone and started using it. There was no manual configuration at all, it was already done. My three email accounts, photo albums, calendar and video were all set up. As of the time of this writing I still haven’t bothered with the manual.
The user interface of this phone is nothing less than stunning. If you haven’t already, watch the 20 minute video at Apple’s website. It has to be seen to be believed.
I know a lot of people have been saying the iPhone is not a “business” phone but I’m not really sure that is true. I have been using my new phone to keep in touch with clients and my office via email like never before. Email is just easier with the iPhone. I particularly like the built in word/excel/pdf attachment viewer.
Also, for the first time in my career I can go to legal websites without a laptop. For example I was standing in the hallway talking to an attorney who said a certain statute supported his argument. I pulled out my iPhone, fired up Safari and found the statute right there which, coincidentally did NOT support his claim.
I’ve never had a GPS device and google map integration doesn’t track where I am, but it certainly is nice getting directions to some of the far off places I drive too, even if I have to click it at each turn. Living in Southern California, the live traffic is great.
It is also a joy finally being able to sync with iCal to my handheld device. Everytime I used to sync my Treo I would knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder and a host of other rituals in effort to please the sync gods. Now I just plug in my iPhone and it is seamless.
Of course it also has a phone. I haven’t noticed any real difference in switching from Verizon to AT&T. I think both have pretty good coverage here in Orange County. I really like the user interface and visual voicemail is great since I usually have quite a few messages. It is really much nicer than my old phone.
There are a few things about the iPhone that I would change to accomodate my work. First, I wish it would support my portable bluetooth keyboard. I’m actually okay with the on screen type pad but I have a portable bluetooth keyboard that is really convenient for banging out text while sitting on a plane and not worrying about the lady next to me spilling her juice and nuts all over my MacBook. While it works fine with the bluetooth hands free device in my car, it appears the iPhone does not support blootooth keyboards .. yet at least. Second, I would really like to have a program on the iPhone that holds secured data. I have some text files with sensitive information and I can’t put them on my iPhone without some sort of security. This is a feature that goes way back on the Palm and should be on the iPhone. Finally, where is my task list? The calendar is fine but it should get my tasks out of iCal. I’ve solved this last problem by emailing myself pdf print outs from OmniFocus. Fortunately all of these problems are software based and, hopefully, temporary.
Play on the iPhone is a complete Joy. The screen is so vivid, my pictures look fantastic as well as my little vignette videos of my kids that I occasionally use to torture friends and colleagues. I watched the last Harry Potter movie on it and it was an enjoyable experience. I never really cared much for movies on my wife’s video iPod. I never really paid much attention to YouTube but now that it is on my phone I must admit it is a guilty pleasure to sit around and watch some of those crazy videos … has anyone watched Chad Vader?
There has been a lot of talk about the inferiority of the Edge network but fortunately I’m nearly always around an accessable WiFi spot. A few times I’ve done some browsing with WiFI turned off and it is doable but not nearly as fast as WiFi. I really don’t have many complaints on that issue.
In summary the iPhone is not perfect but has been a huge upgrade for me. It really is the Macintosh experience on a phone and that, in itself, is a wonderful thing.
Here is my second screencast. This one features a short explanation of how to create encrypted sparse image drives to hide your secret files. It is all built right into OS X. Enjoy!
You can Download it Directly Right Here
or better yet subscribe in the iTunes store
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Well today was the first time I used my iPhone for work and a busy day it was. I had to wake up at 4:30 am and be in Court about 100 miles away from my home. The gogle map application got me there without benefit of a printed map (a first for me) and web browsing while waiting for the judge to show up was too fun. There are a few warts but I am enjoying this phone. Ill be reviewing it this weekend on the MacReviewCast in detail.
One relic of my Dell days is my laptop case. It actually is very nice. It is sturdy, holds plenty of computer gadgets and is built like a Sherman Tank. It even has wheels! Unfortunately, it is also nearly as heavy as a Sherman tank. That is fine for my PC days when I just used my laptop for work but now I use it for so much more. I’m carting it along to family gatherings, the apple store, and a variety of other places and I wanted something lighter.
Well fortunately my kids got the hint and for Father’s day I received a brand spanking new InCase Sling Pack laptop case designed for the 17″ MacBook Pro. I’m very happy with this case.
The fit and finish of the case is very nice. It is constructed of a heavy black nylon material. The actual laptop cradle inside the top loading bag fits my MacBook Pro and has two sheets of dense, but not particularly thick, padding to cushion my MacBook. The laptop fits into it perfectly and does not slide around at all. One feature I really like is the way it suspends the laptop cradle inside the bag so there is a gap between the bottom of the bag and the cradle. I’m actually considering putting some additional foam in that gap but maybe I’m just a little bit crazy. It is clear they thought a lot about the design of this bag specifically in relation to the Apple laptops.
In addition to holding the laptop, the Sling Pack also has numerous zippered compartments and pockets to hold everything you need to run your machine and just a bit more. In my Sling Pack, I’m currently carrying my laptop, two western digital passport drives, a magazine, about a half inch of work related paper, a mouse, the power unit and a variety of other necessary and not-so-necessary plugs and adapters. There is still room to spare. It even has a hidden pocket in the back which is nice for quick access to documents like plane tickets. There is also a nice little padded pocket on the strap that is perfect for holding a digital camera or iPod. It even has a little rubber grommeted hole for your earphones
The strap is wide and padded and includes a quick release clip that frankly scares me a bit. I don’t want this bag popping off accidently. It also has a nice rubber and nylon handle to carry it from top the top when not over your back.
You can get this bag from Apple for $70 and it only comes in black. I can’t get over how light this bag is in comparison to my other case. I use it most of the time now. There still are occasions where the “Tank” is needed but generally, this Sling Pack is my primary case. I am pleased to recommend this bag to anyone looking for a sling bag for their Apple laptop.
Well after all my yacking about sticking with Treo I got sucked into the iDay hype and ended up buying an iPhone. I’ve spent a few hours with it now and love it. It doesn’t do anything particularly new, it just does everything much prettier and easier. I’ll probably do a more thorough review for Surfbits but for now I’m having too much fun.
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a fascination with Jazz music. Throughout High School and College I played piano and saxaphone with numerous bands and even did studio work before falling into law school. It is a standing joke around my house that when everyone was listening to Duran Duran, I was listening to Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck. I first heard Thelonious Monk when I was about 12 but my piano teacher wouldn’t let me play his music. Well it took me nearly 30 years but here I am stickin’ it to the man. This was done in one take so there are a few funky notes but … ummm … those are correct .. it is Monk after all. Enjoy friends.
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While I’ve been a member of the OmniFocus “Sneaky Peek” for some time now I hadn’t really embraced it yet. This is a result of the fact that things have been very busy lately and I’ve got such a smooth workflow with iGTD that I, frankly, wasn’t all that motivated. I then began a series of email correspondence with Robin Trew, who is, by they way, much smarter than I. Rob put together an amazing apple script that yanked about 250 tasks out of iGTD and dropped them into OmniFocus in as much time as it took me to brew and consume a cup of green tea.
Rob having saved me the tedium of transferring data, I began playing in earnest with OmniFocus a few days ago and it looks like I’m not going back to iGTD. I’m not taking anything away from iGTD which is a very good application (and free!). Indeed, with Quicksilver triggers and other features I think iGTD is, in several ways, superior to the current OmniFocus alpha I’m working on. However, after a few days usage I can already see the writing on the wall. Frankly I’m willing to have a little less efficient input in exchange for other benefits in OmniFocus. Specifically, I find the ease of use in moving and copying task groups, the better data management, the ease of use in designating projects with concurrent or subsequent tasks and the general fit and finish of the program have me hooked. Rob also explained the data security in OmniFocus is better. Being that I was an arts major and I still leave cheese out at nights just in case there IS a little mouse inside my Mac on a wheel, I’m simply going to paste Rob’s explanation here.
“The iGTD approach of storing everything in a single binary (SQLite) file does introduce a slight vulnerability – a binary file can be quite hard to retrieve things from if it gets corrupted. Omnifocus also uses SQL internally, but it stores everything on disk as a cloud of (gzipped) XML files – one for each transaction, which is inherently rather robust. (Regular backups are streamed out as single XML files, which, like the small transaction files, become human-readable as soon as you gunzip them in the Terminal).
There is a more lucid and authoritative account here.”
So it looks like I’ll be talking more about OmniFocus and less about iGTD. Unless, of course, OmniFocus is not up to the task and then you will hear all the gory details right here. For those iGTD faithful I say stick with it. If it weren’t for OmniFocus, I certainly would. I don’t think questions as to which tool you use to accomplish your productivity is really, at the end of the day, all that important. The question is whether you actually are productive.
I’m happy to post my first screencast. It took me about 5 minutes to record it and about 5 hours to figure out the fancy graphics for the entry. At least it gave me an excuse to learn to use Motion.
This screencast is about how to use Quicksilver to append text files. This is a trick I use frequently so check it out.
I also linked some other great quicksilver tutorials here.
You can Download it Directly Right Here
or better yet subscribe in the iTunes store
