Synology 1815+ I’ve used the Synology 1812+ for 2 years and upgraded to the 1815+ the day it was released. The 1815+ is an 8-bay NAS device powered by the Synology DSM software and is currently around $1,000 on Amazon without any drives. The 1812+ originally cost me about the same amount and I’ve had no issues with it since the original purchase.
Why upgrade Does anyone ever really believe their reasons for upgrading?
Coda is the one of a kind development app for the Mac. I’ve used it since version 1.0 but the latest update to 2.5 brings back some of the excitement of that first release.
Coda 2.5 for the Mac greatly improves the application interface but one of the big new features is addition of Panic Sync. With Panic Sync, the iOS and Mac apps will contain all of the same sites which can be a pain to do manually.
Who’s not a fan of animated GIFs? But it’s a pain to collect, organize and get easy access to a URL when you need a cheeky reply to something benign on the Internet.
I’ve been a very happy customer of both CloudApp and Droplr in the past. But I always felt like I wanted to own and control more of how I shared images, text and files. I have my own server through Webfaction and I’m familiar enough with using S3 that I’ve used it for sharing trivial stuff in the past.
When I was eleven, I had a “beach cruiser.” It was a steel and chrome behemoth of a bicycle. It was two times too big for me and I’m pretty sure it weighed more than my mom’s Datsun. But, I road that behemoth five miles every day to a great fishing pond. That bike held two fishing poles, a tackle box, a lunch pail and a boombox.1 The ride up the hill was torture but the ride back home was like a two-wheel limo.
There’s a beautiful update to iThoughts for iOS available now. There are a number of bug fixes but two of the biggest new features are x-callback-url support and highly customizable map themes.1
The formatting options in iThoughts are as simple or complex as I want to make it. At the simple end of the spectrum, I set some basic attributes like line shape, layout and callout styles and apply the rainbow spectrum for coloring.
Big, awkward and beautiful. Those are three adjectives. They also happen to describe the iPhone 6 Plus perfectly.
It seems very clear that our communication devices are turning into something different. I’m not happy about it but I’m also willing to accept that I may not represent the rest of the market.
Against my better judgment and personal bias I purchased a 6 Plus. This is a summary of what I like and hate about the device.
I’ve used and enjoyed two iPad keyboards in the past. The Logitech K760 and the traditional Apple Bluetooth keyboard. In both situations I found the Origami stand to be an excellent option for supporting the iPad while typing or reading.
When I find something that I like, I usually stick with it. However, as the Logitech K570 enticed me away from the Apple keyboard, so the Zagg Cover Keyboard convinced me to try something new.
I may have tested a dozen RSS services in the past six months. Of all of the options, I liked NewsBlur, Feed Wrangler and Feedbin the best. I’ve primarily used NewsBlur for its intelligent filtering of my feeds. I’ve also maintained my Fever server but it has begun to lose my interest as development has dried up.
Each of these services have matured over time. While Feedly continues down a slippery slope I dislike, NewsBlur, Feed Wrangler and Feedbin continue to provide an honest service for an honest fee.
Every month it gets easier to be a nerd. For too long the playground for iOS development was task apps and text editors. Now I’m happy to see some creativity returning to bookmark managers, one of my favorite category of nerd tools.
Pinswift is the latest iPhone app for managing Pinboard bookmarks and it brings some new tricks to a burgeoning area of apps.
The Basics As with any good Pinboard manager, Pinswift is able to load my large bookmark library and still feel fast.
MindNode 3 for iOS is out now and it’s a huge update.
I’ve been working in concept maps on a daily basis for several years.1 Any project or reasonably complex endeavor starts as a concept map. So I am very particular about the applications I use. MindNode 3 for iOS is one of my favorite applications for working through an idea. It has fluid action for panning and zooming, a gorgeous design and an unbeatable outline view.
