Posts filed under "apple"
Das Keyboard For Mac - I have to say I’m jealous of Merlin Mann and John Gruber’s clickity clackity keyboards. It’s like when someone eats a burger on TV and you have this amazing craving for a burger…same sort of thing. This Das keyboard is the closest I’ll get, but I honestly don’t know if I can cheat on my aluminium Apple keyboard, which honestly is a thing of beauty.
App Icon Template - Excellent resource and something that I’m hoping to be using in the not too distant future.
Bill Gates Interview - Excellent interview with Bill Gates. It goes into some details with regards to the comments Steve made in relation to Gates.
iBooks Author - It’s a mixture of Microsoft word and Indesign but you get the added bonus of being able to publish and sell your wares on the Apple iBookstore…it’s going to be fun to see what comes out of this.
iPen - Don’t own an iPad (yet, I’m holding out for the 3rd revision, always wait a couple of versions on a new Apple product), but when I do get one, this will be a key accessory for me.
Noah Case - I like this case, but it’s extremely pricey to even think about. Still it’s nice little niche projects like this that are inspiring (via minimal mac )
The Insanely Great History of Apple - Great print. Can you imagine the research that went into this!
http://www.brokenkode.com/the-insanely-great-history-of-apple
10 more useful iPhone tips & tricks - Seriously amazing list. If you have an iPhone, do yourself a favour.
So the new version of TaskPaper (version 2.2.3) is out, offered at a great discount, which is nice for us original buyers. Also the latest version of Notational Velocity is also out (Beta 5)
Now I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Hog Bay Software, but I think I’ve finally seen why Notational Velocity works for me and the reasons why TaskPaper, although an excellently put together application, really actually never clicked, even though I tried, really hard to get into it.
Workflow
The workflow is probably the single most significant aspect of Notational Velocity’s success with how I want to write things. The secret sauce is the single input text field at the top of the application.
After a few years with Google Chrome I am now completely programmed to use an application using a single text input field. I now crave the single line input text field that also offers search and inputing text flexibility, within that same space in all of my applications.
I guess the single essential innovation that works for me on Google Chrome that I miss the most when I flip over to Safari, is that input text field. Sure I love the tabs at the top, but the input field is far more essential and without it I feel like something important has been disrupted.
The thing is TaskPaper is great in it’s own right. It really is a well crafted piece of software, and one that has a lot of quality oozing everywhere, the problem is that there is a fundamental problem with regards to how it was conceived to be used.
Also another important feature is how titles are generated in comparison. While both pretty simple, the fact that the first thing you write in the text field before pressing return is the title, again just works.
Synchronisation
One of the things that NV has over TP is the seamless integration with Simplenote and Dropbox. It seems that Jesse wants to get this done for the iOS version, however the sad truth is that this doesn’t exist at the moment. You can synchronise using simpletext.ws, which has a pretty horrible web interface. So much so it’s distracting.
While the web version of simplenote has the clever search bar at the top and visually reminds you of the software on your mac. I guess because I write notes at work on my windowz machine, and then edit on the fly on my iPhone and then do the heavy writing on my Mac at home, the integration works so much better for me.
From the comments in the post it does seem like it’s on the cards, but basically taking too long, the free versions have won me over (even though I’ve paid for both the Mac and the iOS versions).
NV wishlist
Don’t get me wrong, I still think there are a few things that I would like Notational Velocity to have before it honestly becomes the perfect text editor. In particular is markdown integration.
I’d like to be able to write in markdown and have the words change in front of my eyes, if it’s an option that I choose to activate. Leave the text exactly as it is (so all the original markdown text will be available when I view it in Simplenote) but this would be an excellent feature. I don’t really want a separate generator, just let it update then and there.
While this isn’t a feature request, I would like some of that animated polish that is found in TaskPaper to find it’s way back into Notational Velocity. I know that Zachary Schneirov is already taking some queues from TaskPaper (such as the lists and @done), so some other little interesting visual animations would add to the polish (as in when creating formatting etc).
So will I be slapping down some cash on TaskPaper? No, because it doesn’t fit my workflow and I’ll be deleting it off my iPhone as well since it’s just not something I’m likely to use now that I have established my workflow with the NV/Simplenote note taking combination.
The “q” trick - Posted over a year ago, but I’m only now starting to get into Notational Velocity and Simplenote so it’s all starting to make sense now.
So I’ve been on an iPhone for a little over 7 months, and I’ve kinda stumbled my way through most things on my first iDevice. As of late, I’ve decided to sort myself out and by extension sort my iPhone out as well.
Email and Calendar Sync
The first thing that I sorted out was converting my email/calendar to a push notified Gmail account. The way you do that is not by using the Gmail option to creating an account, but rather using the Microsoft Exchange option on the iPhone which basically does that automatically. That I’ve found to be completely awesome as opposed to the Fetch protocol that I was using before, with my Mail app being updated every hour or something.
The next thing that I needed to sort out is my calendar options. I will use my Google Calendar on occasion, but will rarely use iCal really. In fact I probably use my office Outlook more than I’ve ever used my iCal application, it’s just not something I’m used to doing at home. Calendars are definitely something I do throughout the day, rather than the evening.
Photos Mess
The last part of the puzzle that needs to be sorted out is my photos. What a complete and utter mess these things are in at the moment. The thing is they’re also taking a whole slew of space on my iPhone as well. Ever since I migrated over to my new macbook install I basically put aperture…big mistake. Thought I was doing something clever. As it turns out I screwed myself as Aperture doesn’t allow for the files to be deleted from the iPhone when you’re synching. There are other options, but honestly I’m not all that enamoured by Aperture and it’s just as slow as iPhoto (so I’ve not gained much in way of performance).
I need to get a few older files from my previous back, get iPhoto up and running on my mac, migrate back to iPhoto completely and then clean up my photo folder.
iPhone Applications Purge
Once that’s done I just need to clean up my Files folder and also my Scanner Pro folder as it’s got a bunch of additional stuff that doesn’t need to be there, and I think my minimal setup is complete.
It’s also probably time to purge a few applications off the phone as well, as the number of applications creeps back up to 45, which obviously I don’t use all the time.
Also while I’m talking about iPhone applications, there are a couple of serious keepers for the forseeable future:
- Piggie: This is a direct change from MoneyBook
- Simple Note: Just can’t believe I did without this application for so long. It’s basically the gmail of notes. I’m finally bloody organised enough to have all of my notes with me all the time in a way that is clear and synced across my machines. Game changer.
- NightStand Central - The only alarm application that you will ever need. Or at least till something simpler comes along, but I have to say I love this application and the way it uses the hardware is excellent.
Since I started with a new slate on my macbook (ie just reinstalled everything and started from new), the one breakout piece of software that will forever become a part of my computer experience is Notational Velocity.
They say that the best things in life are free, well this is definitely one of the best applications that I currently have on my machine. The reason for it is simple. It’s does one thing, but it does it better than anything else on the mac.
It takes notes and allows you a level of customisation and has been thought out soo well. It’s completely unobtrusive and it’s one of the lightest programs you’ll ever run. The thing is nearly instantly loaded.
I currently love having the note titles on the left hand side, with the actual notes located on the right hand side.
I remember downloading this years ago, and then just uninstalling it pretty quickly. I just didn’t understand the beauty of the simplicity.
Everything is achieved through shortcuts, which are pretty easy to learn.
J and K for up and down
Tab for flipping between the omnisearch bar and the notes
Esc for clearing the ominsearch bar
Return for adding a new note
Cmd R for renaming a note
And that’s about all you need to know.
It syncs to Simplenote with a free iPhone application, which is awesome. The actual application is super simple, nothing overly complicated, and it’s blindingly fast. Seriously fast in syncing. It’s not instant or live, but it might just as well be.
For my needs at the moment, which is basically putting down ideas and thoughts, it’s nice and simple and extremely convenient. If you tried this application years ago and didn’t know what to do with it (like I did), I seriously think you should check it out again, it’s worth your time.
A selection of Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts - For my own purposes, wish this was done as a pdf as well.
http://www.brokenkode.com/a-selection-of-mac-os-x-keyboard-shortcuts
RSS5000 - Damn I want an iPad just for that (well and a bunch of other things, but I’m waiting for the second if not the third generation). Shame about the name, what is this? A pun on The Terminator?
Also, Minimal Mac, eh, very nice.
There really isn’t much of a “tablet” market - Excellent post by Marco Arment, who is definitely taking the place of Gruubs in the go to Apple guy (hell he even mentioned it slightly in the recent ‘Talk Show’ podcast. To be clear, I actually really love what Gruubs has done and honestly didn’t think there was space for another similar kind of blog, but Marco’s is definitely one of them.
http://www.brokenkode.com/there-really-isnt-much-of-a-tablet-market
The Web Designer’s Guide to iOS Apps - This should be an interesting read. Not heard much from anyone about this, but I’m sorting out my wishlist, so this is definitely on there.
http://www.brokenkode.com/the-web-designers-guide-to-ios-apps
TeuxDeux - To do lists are one of those things that every person does in a different way. What’s funny in my mind is that there definitely seems to be a trend of white and red apps designed in a certain way, Calvetica is another solid example. Strange that they’re created by two completely different parties, although the Calvetica app is slightly more polished I feel.
5by5 Studios - Thought I’d post about the podcast network that I’ve been listening religiously for the last few weeks now. Dan Benjamin has really made a great set of shows with some very interesting characters. The ones that I love a lot include:
The Pipeline - Which is Dan interviewing a whole slew of great people
The Talk Show - With Gruber. Usually a continuation of what Gruber writes on his blog. Everyone’s got off days and I think Gruber’s was last week, so don’t bother downloading that one.
Build and Analyze - Great little podcast with Marco Arment, who’s my favourite iOS developer now, even though I don’t own Instapaper (don’t use it) but I love hearing his insights into the whole process. I wish the guys at Brushes took a page from him.
The Big Web Show - Typically love the guests, although I find Zeldman’s not as warm as Benjamin.
What I love about the website is the simplicity with which it’s been built, in terms of the url structure. You have the title of the podcast and then / the episode number. Beautiful. It’s probably the best podcast network currently on the web.
Busy couple of days for Google. I didn’t see any of it coming and it’s Google’s fault.
Well, that’s not completely true, as I was kinda expecting the Nexus S and Gingerbread around about now, but all the rest of the stuff doesn’t feel as well structured. I’ll explain what I mean by drawing that analogy that everyone and their dog has been drawing for like a few years now.
With Apple we now have a pattern as to when they typically present their latest products. It’s a pattern that has developed over the last few years, there have been some alterations, but typically Apple has been pretty consistent.
Early summer is all about the iPhone
September is all about the iPod (not sure why an iPod is considered a back to school item)
October/November is all about the Mac.
January/February used to be about OSX, but I guess now it’s all about iOS and the iPad maybe?
In any case there is a pattern that any Mac boy can tell you pretty quickly. With Google, it just all seems less formal. Don’t get me wrong, I love Google. Until the very day that I decided to get my iPhone I was contemplating getting an HTC Desire (one of the reasons could easily be for something like this - I sooooo want cached Google maps.).
It’s a different philosophy at play here. Apple feels organised in every step they make. Google on the other hand feels like the important thing is to get the basics out there (even if no product is shipped). Just the information in an unusable format and then build anticipation and excitement and sometimes animosity, until you finally ship the product, even in a slightly unpolished way.
It happed with Android and it’s happened with Chrome OS.
I’m not saying which is better, because I generally like both companies and what they do, it’s just interesting to see how their philosophies while may have started pretty close to each other have no definitely moved apart as they battle for supremacy in the mobile market.
For those wondering, watch www.youtube.com/googlechrome later on today for when Google releases information about their browser operating system and the machine’s they’ll run on…. 1 year after they officially announced this. How much changes in a year eh?
Google eBooks - The other Google news. Can’t get excited about this, because it’s only available in the US, which is why I can’t get excited about something like Google Voice either. It’s annoying, because I WANT to get excited about this stuff, but I can’t…that and I don’t own an ebook reader (and no an iphone is not a book reader, you’re starting to remind me of those twats on Mac|Life who snuggle up to watch a movie on their fucking iPhones), it’s just silly. I can’t read it on my computer because I’m not used to that action. I am considering a Kindle because of the low price point and the form factor, but still waiting for the next generation of iPad, maybe a third generation or something would be good.
Nexus S - The new Android phone from Google. Not that it matter to me as I’m set with my iPhone for the next 3 years I would imagine. The thing is it’s always interesting to see what Google is up to because they’re the only real competition to the iPhone, and if they get better then you know Apple will need to up their game. Currently I think it’s all about the software, and iOS does a ton of stuff well, but needs a ton of stuff to make it better.
What do I think of the industrial design of the S? I personally don’t like it. I loved the Nexus One (and the Desire). HTC have something that Samsung really don’t. Samsung always have this really plasticy feel to their stuff, from their TVs to this high end smart phone. Plasticy.
iPad Sketch Elements AI - If I used Illustrator and made iPhone or iPad mockups, this would definitely be something i would use…unfortunately I do neither, at the moment.
While it’s been pretty quiet over here on the site, it’s mainly because life has gotten in the way. This includes work, finding a house to buy, sorting out a wedding and a few public holidays with family obligations have all had their toll on my time.
One thing that has happened in the last couple of days however is the fact that I’ve finally started using my iPhone for something other than consuming data and information. It’s now become something I am creating art on….I know. I basically bought Brushes, which after testing out Sketch Pro and Adobe’s Ideas is by far the single best art creating software app in the app store. Simply because of the work follow process and the fact that the creators seem to understand how someone using the iPhone would go about creating art.
One of the things that I absolutely love is the fact that in contrast to something like Photoshop the toolset is limited (as you would expect) but having less things to think about, actually means that by limiting yourself you become more inventive with how you show things, you stop depending on the software and trying to solve a problem by thinking. One thing I’m thinking is stuff life layer effects. Apart from transparency there isn’t much more you can do. You can merge layers down and rearranging them, and that’s about it. The limitation increases the boundaries.
My current tool of choice is the Pogo Sketch Stylus. It’s a tiny little thing, beautifully designed, although I’m honestly all that sure about the nib. I know, the most important part right? Well the nib on this is a fluffy spongy ball, which is pretty responsive. As I’ve not seen or tried any alternative I have no idea which one works better. I would have imagined that a hard rubber tip to be better for this sort of thing, but without a sample from somewhere I can’t tell. I might ask someone to lend me an old Stylus (nopefully something that’s a little meatier than the traditional thin metal strips that came with most Palm handhelds.
Speaking of limitations, I think the size of the actual phone means that feature creep will be limited, but hopefully they will provide additional features. Personally I would welcome the following features:
More layers. I think 4 just isn’t enough. I know the iPad version has 6. While I like the fan formation of the layers, doing them in a row might save on space and allow for additional layers.
I would like to be able to move things around on a layer easily. The way this could be done is within the layers view.
The ability to choose a colour and add them in a favourite dock (I think the iPad version has this, which really means they need to bring that somehow to the iPhone. As I am using the same colour palette for the project I am working on, I’ve created a layer with the colours I generally use, how it’s a whole layer, and when you’ve only got 4 it’s creates an additional limit, which I can see they’ve resolved on the iPad version..
One thing I hadn’t realized was that there is a Mac viewer which provides to things. The first is a much higher resolution of the drawing you’re working on and also a video with all of your steps as you created the drawing, which I think is really great fun to see the process in front of you.
Since I bought this app, it is by far my most used one on my phone. The blog is pretty quiet at the moment (they’ve not posted anything since August) which is a shame as I’m sure there is a ton of stuff that people have been creating since then.
How many images have I created so far? So far it’s 5. I’m aiming for a minimum of 1 a day. I don’t think it’s too difficult as some of these images I’m able to create pretty quickly. There is a purpose to all of this. It has nothing to do with my main graphic novel, which has been coming along slowly but surely. It’s great to see the pages slowly taking form, but this is a side project that provides me with a great deal of liberation and pretty quick gratification of creating a character, then another, then a world that they live in, all within a week.
Watch this space as I will be talking about this a lot more in the coming weeks and months – I honestly have a good feeling about this.
So yesterday I made to purchases. The first was the Pogo Sketch stylus. The second was Brushes. The obvious reasoning is to start making a comic on my iPhone. I know probably not the best medium for this thing. Maybe getting an iPad for that sort of thing would be better, but I’m not getting a first gen iPad (that’s another post for another time).
I’ve actually have several drawing applications on my iPhone, but I’ve found that Brushes is the best for actually creating, even if the icon sucks many many balls. Adobe Ideas doesn’t provide you with enough options for the brushes (you have one), and Sketch Pro (from Autodesk) I found to be incredibly annoying with it’s unresponsive zooming in and out. This is a major issue on a small screen as you’ll be doing that a lot to get the finer details. Also the layer system on Brushes just works nicely and five layers should be about enough to deal with things.
All of this is my attempt to create a daily comic from my iPhone. I’m going to try and build a few weeks worth of material (don’t even know what I’m going to be drawing at the moment) but hopefully it’ll be fun while I continue to toil away at my other comic book work (on the 7th page of my second draft, slowly but surely people, slowly but surely).
So I’m looking for an iPhone stand, and I happen upon this little thing, the iAngle. Clicking around to see how it actually works, I came onto the little quote from Mac|Life magazine:
The “iANGLE charms me by pulling double duty. One side lets you coil up your earbuds as usual, but the other side serves as an iPhone holder that props it at a nice angle for vegging out to a movie”
Who the fuck does that? Vegges out to a movie on their iPhone…seriously. I can imagine you watching a few clips or whatever on the move…what a bunch of idiots.
Still haven’t found my idea iPhone stand btw.