OmniFocus from Windows
There's no doubt that OmniFocus by the Omni Group is the quintessential mac app. It's elegant, easy to use and simply makes work easier. It has nearly solved the digital ubiquitous capture problem. It's an iPhone app, it's an iPad app, it's desktop app, it's a whipped topping. Unfortunately it is not a windows app (yet).I spend most of my work hours on a Windows machine. I have developed a couple of rountines that allow me to integrate OmniFocus with my workflow on Windows.
Hazel by Noodlesoft is a really fantastic little helper application. It's really what folder actions should have been. It's the rare example of how Apple missed the target and an independent developer really nailed it.
I'm going to skip the Hazel tutorial and get right to the main show. I wanted a system for ripping DVD's of all kinds. Typically this is a manual process where I rip a disk image to my harddrive and then extract the video at the appropriate resolution.
It's an interesting dichotomy. As screens get larger and resolutions higher, screen real-estate gets more valuable. There's been a dramatic uptick in the number of native OS features on both Mac and Windows to provide tools for maximizing a workspace. Windows has window snapping. OSX has Spaces. Recently there has also been a variety of new utility applications for OSX that provide some additional assistance in moving and resizing your workspace windows.
I think a large number of folks have already established the Pinboard.in is an excellent bookmarking service. Now, comes the task of getting immediate and convenient access to those bookmarks. I have been happily using the app DBD Delicious Bookmark Discovery ($1.99 on the Apple app store) for that very purpose. While the name indicates that it is a tool for Delicious bookmarks, it is a top notch tool for accessing Pinboard bookmarks.
No one should complain that there are not enough choices for web browsers on the Mac. Each one is unique and has its own merits. The only logical thing to do is to run them all, right. Well at least a few. Here is an abbreviated list.
Safari Firefox Opera Omniweb Camino Shira Devonthink
The problem comes when you start to gather bookmarks and cookies in different browsers. You end up with a rats nest of info and no way to find that bookmark to that site with that guy that was once in that movie (you know, that guy).
Not long ago I purchased TextExpander from Smile On My Mac. It’s a handy little program that inserts long snippets of text when you type an abbreviation. Like when you type “ddate” TextExpander can automatically insert the current date instead. This can be very handy for coding or writing HTML.
Sure, the software is nice, and the price was not ridiculous, but what really impressed me was the email I just received.
If I had any doubt that technology was not living up to my expectations, I'm a believer now. I just installed iPhone Remote on my Mac Pro and all I can say is WOW! My iPhone can control my Mac over the Edge network. iPhone Remote is brought to us by the good people at Google (code named Telekinesis). Maybe they got tired of waiting for the gPhone and decided to make the iPhone the device dreams are made of.
The iPhone firmware now stands at 1.0.2. No real info about what is contained in this update. I’m sure it will make my life approximately 10% more complete than before. Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, Software
Do you have a bunch of bin files laying around your documents folder from your PC days of using Nero Express. You know, those arcane disk images that fly all over the net. They’re still out there. There is quite an endless supply on the old torrent-sphere. Well if you have a mac, you can open them right up and convert them to an MPEG-4 video file suitable for playing on your iPod or iPhone.
What if your Mac is stolen? How much personal info do you have just sitting there on those hard disk platters? My Mac has Tax info for the past seven years, copies of bank statements, credit card PINs, and receipts for almost everything I have bought (see this post about archiving it all). It’s rather disturbing to think of all that info falling into mischievous hands.
Up until about 4 months ago, I was using Apple’s FileVault (see this post).
