Software

Software

OS X Yosemite beta release now out – think about it

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That’s think about it in two senses. On the one hand, OS X Yosemite looks like it’s going to be rather excellent. In that sense, I wouldn’t hesitate, I’d download instantly.

But.

On the other hand, this is beta software. If you get this, it will go wrong. Hopefully in some minor way you don’t even notice. But you could lose work. It’s highly possible because it’s a beta.

Don’t get it if you haven’t got a spare Mac to run it on. I have a semi-spare one so right this moment, I am downloading that beta.

I’d really recommend that you don’t. Not yet. Wait until tomorrow, watch the many YouTube videos there will be showing you it in action and either decide then or wait until the final version is released properly in a couple of months.

But I can’t resist. Can’t. Wish me luck and call me stupid.

If you really want to do this too, run to the official website here. Only the first million people who apply will get it and if you think a million is a lot, you’re wrong.

Fantastical 2 for iOS updated

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Fantastical 2 for iPad and iPhone is today updated to version 2.1 and unless you’ve taken steps to stop it, the app has already updated itself on your iOS devices. Because it’s automatic, it’s easy to not realise that it’s a significant upgrade or actually to notice that it has happened at all.

But the maker says that this version:

ONE NEW APP, MANY NEW FEATURES
• Reminders!
– See your events and dated reminders together in the main list
– Add reminders directly from the Reminders list or new event screen – just flip the switch to toggle between events and reminders
– Set dates, times, and geofences (when I arrive/when I leave)

• Significant new parser features, including:
– Create reminders by starting your sentence with “reminder”, “todo”, “task”, or “remind me to”
– Expanded, expressive repeating events such as third Thursday of every month, every weekend, last weekday of the month, and more
– Create alerts with phrases such as “remind me tomorrow at 3PM”, “alert 1 hour before”, or “alarm 3PM”

• All-new event details, including a map to show your event’s locations and better repeating event options
• An elegant week view when you rotate your iPhone to landscape
• Background app updating allows events, reminders, and alerts to be pushed to Fantastical 2 even if you don’t launch the app very often
• An extended keyboard when creating new events or reminders, providing instant access to numbers and symbols for dates and times (only for 4″ screens)
• Birthday options – tap on a birthday to see contact information or send a quick greeting
• TextExpander support
• Many other refinements and improvements

I don’t use Fantastical 2 for reminders and this won’t change my habits. But otherwise I swear by this app and recommend it hugely.

Plus, for a brief introductory period, the new version 2.1 is reduced in price by 50%. (Just like the Mac version.)

So that makes Fantastical 2.1 for iPhone currently cost just £2.99 UK or $4.99 US and Fantastical 2.1 for iPad now £6.99 UK or $9.99 US.

Fantastical for Mac (briefly) half price

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This is the Mac version of the genuinely acclaimed calendar software. I use Fantastical 2 for iPhone and iPad a lot and it took a lot to get me to try it. Apple’s iPhones and iPads ship with a calendar that I’m happy with so to even get me to look at another, less then getting me to change over to it, tells me a lot about how useful Fantastical is.

And yet I’ve not bought it on the Mac yet. On iOS devices, it works in the same way as the regular calendar – its functions are better, I would say, but it’s an app and it fills your screen, it’s the same in that sense. On a Mac, though, not so much. Back in April when I had realised my love for Fantastical 2 for iPhone was true, I explained my reasons for not buying the Mac one thisaway:

I don’t need Apple’s Calendar any more. Not on my iPhone and iPad. It’s still the calendar I use on my Mac: currently Fantastical for Mac is a menu drop down and I think I heard it may become a more fully-fledged app so while I continue getting used to it, I’ll stick with what I’ve got.

Three Calendars, No Waiting – William Gallagher, The Blank Screen (11 April 2014)

We’re now a few months on and Fantastical 2 for iOS has been updated, there’s no sign of a new version for the Mac. Plus, the current version looks rather good. I should bite a bullet and try it – and now is the right time since it’s on sale for half price.

That makes it £6.99 UK or $9.99 US on the Mac App Store.

Read more on the official site which also has this explanation of what Fantastical does:

The Mac calendar you’ll actually enjoy using

Creating an event with Fantastical is quick, easy, and fun:

Open Fantastical with a single click or keystroke
Type in your event details and press return
…and you’re back to what you were doing with a shiny new event in your calendar!

Fantastical’s natural language engine is expressive and intelligent so you can write in your own style. Even better, Fantastical automatically recognizes the location of your event and can even invite people from Contacts (Mavericks and Mountain Lion) or Address Book (Lion and Snow Leopard) to your event.

Fantastical for Mac – official site

Gizmodo on the apps we thought were cool

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Oh, the shame. Today I use apps like OmniFocus and Evernote to get serious work done. Back when all this started in 2008, our tastes were less sophisticated. And I thought I was above all that as I read through Gizmodo’s mocking list of ex-cool apps like the iBeer and the pocket lightsabre.

And then I saw the last one on their list. I used that. I liked that. I am shamed.

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It’s Bubble wrap:

Just like its real-life counterpart, Bubble Wrap was a delight to those doing the popping and soul-crushingly obnoxious to everyone else. And yet—always satisfying.

The 9 Most Popular Apps No One Uses Anymore – Ashley Feinberg, Gizmodo (21 July 2014)

Please read the full list and share in my shame.

At last – Facebook adds Read It Later feature

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Or it will. Currently this is rolling out across Facebook’s eleventy-billion users and I haven’t got it yet. When it comes, it will definitely let you mark an interesting update and save it to read sometime later. It’s going to be for those updates you don’t have time to read right now but you’re doubtlessly also going to use it for bookmarking favourite updates.

What I’m hoping for – and can’t tell until we get to play with it – is this will finally be a way to deal easily with bleedin’ invitations. You’ve had this: pop, someone’s invited you to something. Unless you decide right then that you want to go and also that you can, invitations are a pain. I have ignored invitations just to postpone having to make that decision. I’ve come off Facebook to postpone either making that decision or losing track of the event.

There is a way to handle this and I’ve shown you before. But with the best will in the world, what I showed you was a cludge.

If Facebook’s new feature will just let me tap a Save for Later button, that could all be solved. Except that I’d need to remember to look at my saved items regularly.

Here’s Facebook’s announcement.

Dayflow productivity app (briefly) free

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This isn’t for me, but it may well be for you: Dayflow is for alloting time to specific tasks or goals. The example given is that you want to read for an hour every day. So you set that up and this app reminds you to do it, then tells you when you have.

I’ve been thinking about allotting time to particular projects so that I did keep them going, tootling along, so I’ve grabbed the app while it’s free. Usually Dayflow costs either 69p/£1.99 UK and 99c/$2.99 US so if it’s right for you, it’s bargain even if the brief sale is over by the time you click just about here.

Free (and paid) week planners for creative people

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The site Productive Flourishing makes a good point:

After years of struggling with the planners designed for and by office workers, I figured out that it wasn’t me that was the problem: it was the design of the planners.

Creative people approach their work differently. Most of us don’t work 8–5, and we don’t have projects that we can plan to get done during the same times each day. The limiting factor for us is not the amount of time we have available, but rather the type of time we have available.

One size does not fit all when it comes to planners. Check out the planners below to see which ones best relate to what you’re trying to do, and give them a try!

Free Planner – no credited author, Productive Flourishing (undated but July 2014)

And here’s an example of what one such plan looks like. This is a month’s action plan:

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The full article contains very many such free planners but also links out to a set of paid premium ones.

A better – lovelier – Lorem Ipsum

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Maybe you have a classical education and lorem ipsum brings back memories to you. Probably more likely, though, is that you’ve seen it in word processor and page design software where it’s used everywhere as sample text. The words fit designs better than “abcdefg” or certainly “xxxxxx” would.

It’s so common that if you have the right version of Microsoft Word, open a document now and type exactly this:

=lorem()

You’ll get a tonne of lorem ipsum filler text spewing out like a Latin-crazed TextExpander.

But.

If you do know Lorem ipsum, you also know how much it has been burnt into your head. You might not be able to quote any of it beyond those first two words, but you know it, you recognise it.

And now a company called Hyperakt has created what it calls Social Good Ipsum. Same idea, same easy-to-generate, just different text. You go to their website, say how much text you want, tap a button. It all flies out and then there’s a simple copy button to grab it all for you.

I just tried it and asked for 20 words. I got this:

Educate solve, sharing economy political connect our ambitions Global South. Dignity combat malaria; legal aid, integrity investment clean water; forward-thinking.

I like it. The process isn’t flawless: the Copy button didn’t work for me here on an iPad and the first time I asked for 20 words I actually got none at all.

But next time you need some Lorem ipsum, use this.

Via Swiss Miss

Just a thought about software

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It’s easy to hear that you can speed up your work with tools like TextExpander or Keyboard Maestro and then either feel overwhelmed with trying to learn them or just find that you spend so much time playing that you don’t write enough.

Take on one new piece of software at a time. When it becomes like breathing, then try the next one.

And for each you try, don’t study them. Read the examples of what they can do, pick one that sounds useful to you, use that. Nothing else.

It sounds wrong: you spend a tonne of money and you’re only using it for this one piddly thing? But studying software doesn’t work. Needing it for a particular job does. When you need the software to do more, use it for more. You learn it because you’re actively using it for a purpose, you absorb it because it makes sense to you.

And remember above all else: using software is a lot easier than writing.