Software
I don’t seem to be really ready for Strictly this year. Maybe it’s just that I don’t recognise the new celebrities, maybe it’s that I refuse to accept we’re in September already. But to get me back in the mood, I’m thinking about getting some advice from the Dutch National Ballet – and my iPhone.
The iPhone app costs £2.49 UK or $3.99 US and is here.
And here’s a little documentary about the app: part one, part two.
You may not have a choice: I just found that my copy has been updated automatically. Reportedly this update was released “inadvertently” and wasn’t intended to launch until iOS 8 arrives in a few days.
The reason I know this is that the update in the App Store says so. It also says that people have been finding problems with it on iOS 7 and that therefore The Omni Group is working to resolve things.
But in my casual use of OmniFocus 2 for iPhone tonight I’ve not hit any snags. Plus, I’m updating to iOS 8 the instant it’s available so the worst that can happen is that I stick to OmniFocus on my Mac and iPad for a little while.
So. If you can avoid the automatic update, do. If you can’t or you haven’t, hopefully it’s a shrug. But at least you’ll know why if you hit a snag suddenly.
Bell Labs was right about so many aspects of video chatting.
They were right that it would a little bit awkward. That it’d provide “an enhanced feeling of proximity and intimacy.” That people would use it as a way to get out of tiresome business trip. That, someday, really, we’d all use it.
They were just wrong about how much anyone would be willing to pay for it.
In 2014, video chatting is one of the clearest “hey-it-really-is-the-future” features of day-to-day life. But it was first commercially available 44 years ago, when Bell Labs debuted the private “picturephone” in Pittsburgh in 1970.
And it’s going to look a lot like OmniFocus 2 for Mac. These are good things.
The Omni Group just announced:
Well, we’re very happy to share that OmniFocus 2 for iPad and OmniGraffle 2 for iPad have been submitted to Apple for review. And they’re both incredible.
OmniFocus 2 for iPad has some great new features and a brand new look. We’ve added a few useful extensions, too, like Sharing and a Today view. You can even create perspectives in Pro.
And finally. Expect each of those extensions in OmniFocus 2 for iPad in OmniFocus 2 for iPhone. As a free update, of course.
Just a short bit about a few apps and iOS 8 – Derek R., The Omni Blog (12 September 2014)
I’m not sure what that bit about extensions means. The full piece has a little more about iOS 8 which notably adds this new type of feature called Extensions but I’m not clear that’s what this is about. If it is then it means we’ll have OmniFocus functions available within other or all apps. That’s got to be good: that might add to the Mail Drop capability of adding tasks from Mail.
But we’ll see. And whatever the extensions are, I will have bought OmniFocus 2 for iPad before reading to the end of the sentence that says it’s available.
You know how when you need something, it seems to be everywhere? I’m going to be working on an app and so everywhere I look I am reminded of this.
Sometimes it’s useful, as in references on various podcasts. Sometimes it isn’t, as in Community season 5, episode 8, “App Development and Condiments”.
Look out for it.
And then there are times when it’s handy. As in tonight, when there’s a Mac app called Prototypr that has briefly gone free. Usually retailing for £6.99, it’s for building a kind of demo version of your app idea: showing the screens and what it will look like without it actually being able to do anything.
It means you can try things quicker and get to the design you need sooner.
Have a look at Prototypr. I’ve not used it, but while we were talking, I was downloading it.
What is this, sale night?
Actually, what is this? Photo Reminders for iOS is now (say it with me: briefly) reduced to free. But I’m not sure what it does. Maybe you have to be more visually minded than I am to appreciate it. If so, draw me a pitcher some time. Meanwhile, this is what it says it does:
Voice memos + Photos + Text
Ideal application for those who value their time.“Photo Reminders” is the opportunity to make a reminder quickly and clearly about any event: a meeting, a birthday gift purchase, a concert, an important call or simply an evening walk with your pet.
It’s enough to * Choose the photo from the Photos app, * Make a photo or * Record a voice message”.
“Photo Reminders” enables to create reminders instantly, without spending time for the description of the forthcoming event, which is also convenient while driving.
How does “Photo Reminders” work?
For example, walking around the city, you can pay attention to the poster: premiere of the long-awaited movie. You get the phone, take a picture by the means of this application – at the necessary moment the program will inform you that it is time to buy tickets. The application remembers everything for you!
That’s script as in handwriting, not script as in coming soon to a cinema near you. MyScript Smart Note is for handwriting on iPads and I’ve no compulsion. Again, I enjoy typing.
But this isn’t really a sale as I think for it to be called that, the maker has to be selling it for something. And at the moment, MyScript Smart Note is free. Take a look on the App Store.
I haven’t used it in centuries but those who do tell me that Dragon Dictate is very, very good. Not only in the way I would’ve imagined – that you can, you know, dictate into it – but also in that you can control it by voice. Nip up a paragraph, skip to the end of a page, right a bit, left a bit, fire.
I’m still not going to get it because I really enjoy typing but if you’ve been thinking about it, go get Dragon Dictate now for half price. Cult of Mac has a deal running where it costs $99.99 instead of $200.
First you think Evernote is just another notebook app. Then you wonder how you use it. Next thing you know, you are completely incapable of living without it – or able to explain to anyone why it’s so great.
The Verge has a good go. If you’re havering over whether to Evernote then the short answer is yes, do it. The slightly longer answer – about 5’46” – is this:
Note that the mobile version of Evernote has been somewhat radically updated since the one you see here and I like it much more.
…wait, let me tell you what those are. They are gorgeous. Now read on.
Okay. OmniFocus is my beloved To Do task manager and it comes up a lot on this site. If you’re not sure what it does, wait ten seconds and I’ll have a new mention of it. Keyboard Maestro is different: I have mentioned it but usually in passing or when it’s been on sale. It’s one of those tools that you set up and forget, so I rather set it up and forgot about it.
Keyboard Maestro lets you tap a couple of keys and set your Mac off doing all sorts of things. I have a key that opens OmniFocus. (Told you.) There’s a fault on my MacBook Pro where the Q and W keys don’t work and it looks like getting it fixed would be both expensive and time consuming. So I’ve told Keyboard Maestro to type a “w” when I press Command-1. And similar for capital W, q and Q.
I think there are more, but you come to believe that your Keyboard Maestro setup is just a normal part of your Mac. I’d need to go to another Mac and use it for a while before I could tell what Keyboard Maestro does by seeing what that Mac doesn’t.
But I have been the very smallest, slightest user of this software and that will change by about a pixel today as I’ve discovered a way to use it to solve an itch:
Using Keyboard Maestro, I was able to create a script that, when executed, creates and sends a custom-built email to my OmniFocus Mail Drop—and containing a direct link back to the original Mail message.
Specifically, here’s what the script does:
It executes a Keyboard Maestro script called “Get Message URL” which calculates the URL to the currently selected Mail message. (That script simply executes some AppleScript, which I’ve included below.)
Prompts me for a short text to be used as the todo title.
Sets a variety of Keyboard Maestro variables.
Creates an email message whose subject and body content are built from those variables—including the link to the original message—and then sends that email to my Mail Drop address.
Archives the original Mail message—since at that point, I’m done with it.
Did you get that? The full feature has much more of an explanation plus diagrams – I should have more diagrams on this The Blank Screen, shouldn’t I? – and it’s also got the specific details you need to use this yourself.
Which is the specific detail I am this very minute taking in order to do this myself.
Nearly forgot: Keyboard Maestro for Mac costs £23.05 in the UK and is available here.
UPDATE: Done. Took me 17 minutes by the look of it. From a standing start, an “eh?” to running, working and using this.