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LFM: Massively seeks a new columnist and freelancers
Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member and a set of freelancers for the site: a new multipurpose columnist and West Coast freelancers. Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed. These positions would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!
MMO bloggers band together to encourage new writers
Have you heard of the Newbie Blogger Initiative? It's only the latest and greatest craze to hit the MMO circuit. Basically, several experienced MMO bloggers decided to band together to encourage and support players in trying their hand at starting up a new blog. During the month of October, the NBI will be raging across blogs, on its website, and especially on its forums. Veteran MMO bloggers have gathered to offer advice through posts, mentoring, Q&A sessions, and promoting start-up blogs. Yours truly will be a part of this, as will Storybricks' Brian Green. If you've thought about starting up an MMO blog, then this is the perfect month to do so. Sign in, peruse the forums, get posting, and enjoy the resources that the blogging community is setting up to give you the best possible beginning! The NBI should interest all MMO players, as it's a great central location to find interesting and entertaining blogs both new and old.
The Game Archaeologist: WAR's biggest battle was with itself
Who would have thought that on WAR's fifth anniversary and just days after I dropped a few favorite things about the game, Mythic would be announcing a closure instead of an exciting celebration? While we can all say it that Warhammer Online's upcoming sunset was expected, nobody predicted that the news would go down on its fifth birthday. Maybe someone over there likes order more than chaos and sees a nice symmetry in this. Personally, I think it felt a little bit mean to do that to the remaining community that was patiently sitting there hoping that the studio would toss them even a small bit of recognition. But facts are facts, and after December 18th, the game of public quests, the Tome of Knowledge, "bears, bears, bears," Slayers and Marauders, RvR and scenarios, exploding squigs, and drunken Dwarves will be no more. There are a few months left to experience the game if one so desires, but the end is finally here. It's caused many of us who were invested in the game back in 2008 to take stock of our memories and deal with the last chapter of this strange, wild rollercoaster that started with a strong IP, a studio steeped in PvP MMO development, and a pair of white sunglasses. In the end, WAR's biggest battle was with itself -- and it lost. Today, let's look at the whys, the what ifs, and the community reaction.
WordPress app update adds new Native Reader and improved account management
Wordpress has updated its iOS app to version 3.7 to provide readers with an improved browsing experience. The app's new Reader is designed to enhance the user experience by being rebuilt from the ground up with 100 percent native code, an improvement from the original Reader's blend of JavaScript and native code. Account management has also been improved, although it may take some users a while to notice as the improvements are entirely under-the-hood. Visually, the app looks the same, but WordPress owners Automattic have improved how the app connects to the various services used to manage WP sites. The iOS app now does a better job of connecting to Jetpack, the online Reader and notification features. In addition to these improvements and the usual bug fixes, version 3.7 changes how the View Admin feature works, at it now opens a page in Safari instead of inside the app. Finally, the update is rounded out with the addition of Thai language support. WordPress is already working on the iOS 7 version of the app, and has launched a new blog for fans to follow the progress of their mobile development. You can find version 3.7 of the WordPress app now in the iTunes store.
Ask Massively: The better to stalk you
Long-time reader and podcast-listener Avaera recently posed a question to the Massively staffers clearly designed to send our egos into the clouds: Is other any chance for Massively itself to somehow integrate the wonderfully reflective and personal blog entries that you and the other writers maintain separately from their paid work? Even a round-up style column of some of the best MMO blog posts of the past week, or on a particular theme, would be fascinating. My first thought was that most of us put most of our work on Massively because if we can get paid to write, we'd be fools not to do so! I didn't think there'd be enough writing material to even justify a roundup, and that's probably true; I update my own ranty blog only every other month, for example. But who's to say blogs are the only interesting thing we do? So I polled all of Massively's staffers about where they write their writings, video their videoings, and tweet their twitterings. If you have a serious urge to stalk us, you're in the right post!
Dog Days of Summer: A blogger and his dog
TUAW blogger Richard Gaywood is admired by many in the Apple community for his insightful, well-reasoned, and often mathematically rigorous treaties on a variety of tech topics. But what his fans don't know is that Richard has a writing assistant who provides both input and editing expertise. When we began the Dog Days of Summer series, Rich was kind enough to share this image of himself with his assistant at his side. Regretfully, I have forgotten both the dog's name and breed, and I'm hoping that Rich's assistant will pop into this post and add that important information soon. [UPDATE: Rich here. I can confirm that my dog's name is Jake and that the commenters guessing at greyhounds and whippets were close -- but not quite there. He's a lurcher, a cross-breed of sighthounds with pastoral working dogs. They're quite common here in the UK, having originated in Ireland where they were traditionally used for poaching. Jake was rescued by the RSPCA from a litter born in 2004, so I'm not sure exactly of his ancestry; some border collie, and some greyhound, but also a bit of deerhound. You can see this in his size -- at almost 65 pounds, he's quite a bit heavier than most sighthounds -- and also his beard and shaggy coat. You can see more pictures of Jake and his sister, Daisy, on my personal blog.] We'll have at least one more picture of this intelligent [Rich again: he's actually as dumb as a box of hammers, but I love him anyway] pooch in the near future; meanwhile, if you have a photo of your favorite canine at work or relaxing with an Apple product, we'd love to see it. Please remember -- your submission has to have some sort of connection to Apple products... For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link.
How we write for TUAW: A look at blogger workflows and tools
I love it when another blog comes up with a great idea that we can borrow, and that was the case over at iMore when Rene Ritchie published a post over the Memorial Day weekend titled "How we write for iMore: Our workflows from Mac to iPad to iPhone and back!" Not surprisingly, just about every one of the iMore writers and editors has his or her own method of writing on specific devices and then moving that work into the Drupal 7 content management system that is used for that blog. Here at TUAW (part of AOL Tech) we have our own powerful Blogsmith CMS to work with, so I decided to see what tools and workflows our blogging team uses. Here are our stories: Steve Sande, Features and Hardware Editor I learned my lesson the hard way a number of times -- you usually don't want to write a post directly into our CMS. Whether it's caused by a network outage or simply forgetting to save a post before accidentally navigating to another page, it's really easy to lose a lot of writing. That's why I started writing all of my posts in Markdown using Ulysses III on my iMac or MacBook Pro. On either device, I have a relatively big screen that makes having several windows open quite easy -- perfect for doing research in a browser window and typing away in Ulysses in another. I love the way that Ulysses keeps everything saved all the time, so even if I were to unplug my 27-inch iMac accidentally, I'd lose virtually none of my work. I have Ulysses storing all of my work, both in progress and completed, in iCloud. Ulysses also connects to an iOS product from The Soulmen, Daedalus Touch, syncing documents through iCloud (or Dropbox). Many times I've started a post on my iPad or iPad mini, fleshed it out on my iMac, done last-minute editing on my iPhone while eating breakfast, and then posted the final document to Blogsmith from my MacBook Pro. I'm also a fan of Drafts when I know I'm going straight from the iPad to Markdown and then into our CMS, and that doggone Megan has me trying out Byword now... Ulysses III, Daedalus Touch, Drafts, and Markdown (oh, and Byword...) are all I need to get my work done wherever I may be. I'm planning on blogging from a long trip I'm taking this summer using nothing but an iPad and one of the billion iPad keyboard cases I've reviewed this spring. Megan Lavey-Heaton, News Editor My workflow emulates Steve's a lot. If there's something that needs to be written extremely fast, I'll use our CMS, Blogsmith. But any long post is written in Markdown on Ulysses III. Because of my day job, I'm switching among a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and an iMac, so using Ulysses allows me to have my work anywhere. I haven't invested in Daedalus Touch yet, because I had just purchased Byword for iOS and really liked it, so I didn't want to replace it just yet. I don't do a lot of TUAW writing on my iPad mini, but I wouldn't dream of typing on it without using a keyboard, in this case I'm still using the Logitech Ultrathin that I reviewed in March. I only use my iPhone if I need to jot down a really quick note, and for that I use Evernote, which also helps me move reference files from one computer to the next. I also have a fondness for traditional paper and pen, and my arsenal of choice there is a standard Moleskine notebook and Lamy Safari fountain pen. While I don't write any articles by hand, it's great for taking notes and keeping track of to-do lists. Mike Schramm, Games Editor Despite Steve and Megan's warnings, I try to streamline as much as possible, so most of my posts go directly into Blogsmith as I write them (and I've learned to save often and double check constantly). I like manipulating the text and HTML directly, and I appreciate seeing the post in preview form as I write it. So generally I just open up Blogsmith in Chrome, open up any other related links in tabs (including any source information, backlinks, or other research), and then put the post together as I go. Outside of Chrome, again, I try to keep things simple, so I use Voila ($29.99) for grabbing any screenshots or video I need to include. Any notes or transcribing I need to do offline just goes into TextEdit. And while I've tried a number of iPhone and iPad apps for to-do lists, I've found nothing works better than a reporter's pad and paper for marking down what I need to do and when, and then crossing it off throughout the day. It's a simple workflow, but it works great for me. Kelly Hodgkins, App Review Editor My workflow is not too complicated -- a 13-inch MacBook Pro, an iPhone 5, an iPad mini and a handful of software tools. If I need to take real-life photo or video, I switch between a Nikon D5100, a Panasonic Lumix GF5X and a Panasonic HCV700M video camera. I use Chrome as my web browser and keep between 10 to 20 tabs open at a time. I use Markdown Pro as my writing tool, TextExpander to make writing repetitive phrases mindlessly easy and iClip to store longer pieces of text as well as my clipboard contents. I use Evernote when researching information for an article, though I do loathe the web clippper as it never keeps me logged in. I do all my writing offline in Markdown and then copy/paste the text into the CMS. Almost all of my writing is done on my Mac. I use my iPhone and iPad for on-the-go communications and for reviewing apps. I don't think I have ever used my iPad for writing more than the occasional post, and I don't have a dedicated keyboard for it. I use OS X's built-in screen shot feature (cmd-shift-4) to grab desktop screenshots, and Pixelmator to crop and resize images. When I grab a screenshot of an iOS app, I use Instashare to send the images from my iOS camera roll to my Mac. Tweetdeck is my conduit to the world of breaking news, technology news and developer chatter about new and exciting apps. I use Postbox for email, and Things to keep track of my ToDo list. NotesTab Pro and Fantastical sit in my menu bar and are my go to apps for calendaring and quick note taking. Google Drive and Dropbox are my chosen cloud storage services. I use Drive for documents and Dropbox for everything else. Almost everything I do is digital, online and synced between devices. At this point, I would be hard-pressed to find a paper notebook and ballpoint pen if I needed one. Victor Agreda, Jr., Editor-in-Chief My workhorse text tool these days is Byword. I store articles I'm working on in Dropbox via Byword, so I can work on them on my iPhone, iPad or Mac. Best of all, Byword is great with Markdown -- although I frequently use Marked to live preview what I'm working on. I paste Markdown into our CMS and add some pics, and voila, a post is born. I should note that Drafts is on my home screen because I do use it to quickly jot stuff down, then I shoot it over to Byword, Evernote, Clear or Fantastical as needed. I have been known to carry a Moleskine notebook, but the cheapest, smallest ones because I hate filling up my pockets with stuff (I still use the card-and-rubber band wallet Simple gave me). Instead I use this when I'm traveling, because I can use it during takeoff/landing and it needs no batteries. Beforehand I do research in Safari, then use Tablinks to push my URLs into Markdown form and paste those into Byword. Sometimes I'll use DEVONthink if an article requires a good deal of research (and there's a web clipper for it, but I just drag and drop the URL into the Inbox). I actually don't keep a lot of research in Evernote, but for those rare times when I'm away from a Mac for composing I might have the forethought to put something there. Overall I find iCloud tabs work great -- I can research on my Mac then go to the iPad to pick up where I left off. For images I still use Skitch for screenshots, begrudgingly. I tried using a DSLR for photos, but the process of lighting, setting up and then transferring was a pain, so now I have an area set aside for product shots, and use my iPhone 5 for photos. I use PhotoSync to quickly move them to my Mac. Then I use Pixelmator for editing. As I have the luxury of working at home, my hardware is pretty basic. I switch between a 13" MacBook Air and an 11" model, and use an iPad 3 and iPhone 5. Sometimes you'll see one of my older iPhones in a shot for a post, but I don't have the budget to buy every iteration of Apple gear -- and TUAW doesn't get loaners from Cupertino. This is all a fairly simplistic setup, but I find that sticking with fewer apps leads to less confusion when news is hitting and I'm wondering "where'd I put that draft?" These days if an app doesn't have a version for iPad, iPhone and Mac, I'm far less inclined to use it. Erica Sadun I type into Blogsmith. Chris Rawson My workflow: Browse Reeder for the week's dumbest Apple rumours. Star them for later retrieval. Copy all article links into TextEdit and add colour commentary where appropriate. Once the draft is done, I copy-paste into Blogsmith and do a final review/edit in browser. Simple, though I am going to have to find an alternative to Google Reader very soon... Richard Gaywood My workflow revolves around Dropbox and Markdown. I use various text editors -- TextMate on OS X, Writing Kit on iOS, and (rarely) Notepad++ on Windows. I vastly prefer using OS X for writing. I find even the very best iOS text editors marred by slightly clumsy text selection, which slows my edit cycle, and small delays switching between browser and editor mode, which slows my research. I'm highly intolerant of even tiny rough edges in my workflow; I'm aware I'm weird that way. Images are assembled when I drop the post into Blogsmith, using Brett's bookmarklet to transfer the Markdown formatted text over. My longform posts are often, although not always, roughed out in iThoughts HD for iPad before I start writing. I like lounging on the sofa when I'm brainstorming, and I've always liked mind mapping tools for planning the spine of a piece of work; they just made sense to me, I guess. Ilene Hoffman Ok, here's my 2 cents: When I review a product, I make notes in TextEdit. I use BBedit to write the review and spell check. I paste the finished article into Blogsmith and clean up. I mark placement of URLS with brackets and XXX (easy to search) in BBedit. So, it would look like: The such and such product by this company XXX [url here] is a great buy... etc etc. I also mark where graphics go with XXX. (So, it would say insert XXXproduct graphic.jpgXXX). (I can search XXX to make sure I get all the graphics and URLs inserted correctly.) I keep snippets of code to reuse either in a text file or iData (haven't set up definitive system yet). Your center tags seem to be surrounded with p tags, so that's one snippet. Steve likes more dashes in compound words than I do, so I'm working on a list of those also. Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd My workflow is pretty much 100% cockroached from Brett Terpstra: I write in NVAlt, Textmate or Byword in Markdown. Those articles which are synced to a folder on Dropbox called "TextFiles," so when I hit iOS I can write in Byword, Writing Kit, Drafts...whatevers pops the socks with all the linkery provided by Brett's MD Services and Blogsmith Bundle. Every day I have a Ruby script that runs and backs up new new text files to Evernote and Day One. Processing happens with TextExpander, Marked and Blogsmith and Jim Beam. Dave Caolo, News Editor My workflow isn't very impressive. Large articles like reviews start out as a mind map in MindNode. From there, I export as an OMPL file and import into Scrivener. This makes a "chapter" or section for each branch of the mind map in the Scrivener file. Then I write the article up in Markdown and finally drop it onto Marked, which compiles the Scriverner project, converts the Markdown to HTML and copies it to my clipboard. From there I'm a paste away from being done. Less involved articles are written in Markdown with Byword, which I adore as if it were my own child (The one I like. Not the other one). If the Byword article is meant for my own blog I publish right then and there. If it's meant for TUAW, I use the "paste Markdown" functionality in our CMS.
Google Blogger for Android gets tablet support
Blogger clearly benefits from a larger screen, yet Android tablet owners haven't had a native editing space since the Blogger app launched on their platform. Thankfully, Google is rectifying that problem today: the Android release now occupies a tablet's full screen space while users compose and review their posts. The refresh also offers WYSIWYG editing for current entries, regardless of the screen size. However much they'll use the improved workspace, would-be Android auteurs just have to swing by Google Play for the update.
Massively seeks a new Guild Wars 2 columnist
Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member for the site, a Guild Wars 2 columnist to keep up the quality of our GW2 coverage as produced by past experts Lis Cardy and Rubi Bayer and our interim Flameseeker Chronicles video guru Richie Procopio. Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed. This position would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of Guild Wars 2 experience, availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!
The Loop's Jim Dalrymple takes on WWDC 2013 expectations
When he's not hanging around with rock stars (like Guns 'n Roses guitarist Slash, at left above) or controlling the Northern Hemisphere's supply of Heineken, Jim Dalrymple (right) is talking about Apple and those other things at The Loop. Jim's been an industry insider for quite some time, so when he talks, smart people tend to listen. Today Jim did all of us in the Apple blogosphere a favor by outlining what he feels are reasonable expectations for what we'll hear and see during the WWDC 2013 keynote. Some of the highlights from his prognostications include: "The important thing to remember about WWDC is that it is a developer conference. It's not a place where Apple is going to show off the newest iPhone or iPad," followed by the admonition to bloggers that, "If you are going to write an article that Apple will release the new iPhone or iPad at WWDC, don't do it." "...Don't expect an iPhone or iPad at WWDC," followed by the brilliant footnote comment "If you write a story after WWDC stating that since there was no iPhone or iPad, the keynote was a bust, you are just stupid." "For me, the Mac products fit well with a Tim Cook keynote at WWDC. That's all I really expect from Apple in the way of hardware at the conference." Regarding the rumored "flat design" of iOS 7: "Personally, I don't think that Apple will take it as far as what some might think. The way I envision iOS 7 is more of a modernization of the look and feel of the operating system. Kind of like what Apple did with OS X over the years." There's quite a bit more on The Loop, so head on over to read Jim's post. And dude, I owe you a Heineken or two for writing most of this post for me.
Dear Uncle TUAW: What's the best way to blog while backpacking?
Dear Uncle TUAW: Over the next two years my husband and I plan to hike El Camino de Santiago in Spain. I'd love to keep family and friends up to date on our trek by blogging on the trip, but since we want to keep our backpacks at less than 14 lbs. total weight, I'm not sure I want to carry an iPad and I know for sure that a laptop is going to be too heavy. Since weight and space are issues, what would you blog from if you were in my hiking boots? Your loving niece, Susan Dear Susan, I'm glad to hear that you're going to be out walking. Too many of you young whippersnappers spend all of your time on your keisters in front of those fancy HDTVs instead of getting good, clean exercise in the great outdoors. Your Aunt and I used to do a lot of hiking. Remind me to tell you about our experiences in Bhutan in 1958... Anyway, my first choice for lightweight blogging would be to grab an iPad mini and one of those newfangled keyboard cases, but if you're really trying to keep things light, why not just use that iPhone of yours as a small tablet? With that phone, you can not only grab great photos, but use them in your blog. While you're hiking, you can even talk to that Siri lady and she'll take down your notes like my old secretary Mabel used to do back at the munitions plant. Without the backtalk, of course. And the bad breath. But that's another story... When you get to wherever you're setting up camp for the night, you can while away the hours cleaning up her dictation. Yes, I had to clean up Mabel's dictation, too. Frankly, I'd take along a lightweight keyboard of some sort if I were you. Since you won't want to worry about charging batteries on a keyboard, one that's powered by the sun might be handy. Speaking of charging batteries, you can also take one of these crank-powered things with you on your hike to give your hands something to do. Charge up the battery pack by hand-cranking it, then use it to charge your iPhone while you're trying to sleep at night with all of those other pilgrims snoring around you. No need to look for a power outlet or carry along those pesky international power adapters. That's all I'll say about hardware, which referred to nuts and bolts in my earlier days, but what about blogging software? If you don't have a travel blog already, MapQuest's Travel Blog app is free and includes free hosting of your text and photos. Got one of those WordPress blogs? Their free app isn't too bad, either. You can be really smart and take all of your pictures with the iPhone so you don't have to carry a separate camera with all of its weight and bulk, and they'll go right into your blog. I'm rather fond of that Tumblr service for travel blogging myself, although please don't tell your Aunt about my "Tumblr After Dark" adventures in Amsterdam last year... Stay safe; watch out for blisters; and have a good trip! Hugs and kisses, Uncle TUAW
WordPress 2.3 for Android gains Holo interface and menu drawer
Bloggers have been getting plenty of love on Android as of late, and if WordPress happens to be your platform of choice, you'll be glad to know that your time in the sun has arrived. Similar to Tumblr's recent overhaul, WordPress was just updated with a new Holo interface, and it's really quite the looker. First and foremost, you'll notice that WordPress now looks like a proper Android app, complete with an action bar for tasks such as creating posts and sharing to other apps. With a flick of the thumb, you'll also notice a menu drawer that's accessible from the left-hand side, which replaces the old school dashboard interface that was found in previous versions of WordPress for Android. We can't say the new features will help you overcome writer's block, but at least you'll have something pretty to look at while you ponder your next great post.
Ask Massively: How I mine for games journos
In the last few months, the Ask Massively inbox has received several letters about breaking into the games journalism industry and employment at Massively specifically. This first one came from a reader named Vernon: I rarely see current journalists write or blog about their own experiences of getting into the industry. I always told myself I would try to figure out how to make a go of writing about games if the opera thing did not work out. So, how did you get there (Editor in Chief), and how do you get there now? Short answer: the two skillsets rule.
Tumblr Android app update brings tablet support, new 'following screen'
Tumblr users have been managing their online repositories via mobile apps for a while now, but that software has been tailored specifically for smartphones thus far. The latest version of the blogging service's Android app has changed that, however, finally adding support for tablets, as well as a new "following screen" and tweaked design. Unfortunately for iPad users, you're still stuck in iPhone / iPod view, as Tumblr hasn't gotten 'round to releasing a slate-supporting update for iOS yet. It's strange that such optimization was omitted from the recently launched native app, but for now, both platforms have exclusives to boast about -- tablet support for Android, and Tumblr's Photoset app for iOS.
Preparing Blog Images with Automator
Automator's the perfect tool for streamlining some of the repetitive things you do on a daily basis. One thing it's great at is doing basic manipulation to lots of image files. Need to resize a bunch of images or convert them from one format to another? No problem, Automator is ready to help. In this post, you'll build an Automator workflow that prepares images for your blog by renaming them sequentially and then scaling them down in size. Don't have a blog? Well, this workflow could also be used for preparing images for insertion into a Word document, or to send in an email. Feel free to adjust to your specific needs. Building the Workflow Note: If you have any trouble following along, you can download the complete workflow here. 1. Launch Automator (in your Launchpad or /Applications folder) 2. When the workflow template panel appears, select Service and click Choose. By creating a service, you'll be able to run the workflow on selected files in the Finder. Creating an Automator Service workflow 3. At the top of the workflow (on the right side of Automator's window), set the Service to receive image files in the Finder. By setting this, the Finder uses its contextual knowledge to only let you run the workflow when you have image files selected. Setting the workflow to process images in the Finder 4. Search for the New Folder action and add it to the workflow. Enter Scaled for Web into the Name field and leave it set to create the folder on the Desktop. Note that this action has some hidden functionality. First, it knows not to create the folder if one already exists. Second, it receives the selected image files as input when the workflow runs, and it copies them into the newly created folder. This ensures that any manipulations are done later to duplicates, and your original images remain unharmed. The New Folder action copies your selected images in the Finder into a Scaled for Web folder on the Desktop 5. Find and add the Get Folder Contents action to the workflow. This action retrieves any files in the Scaled for Web folder. The Get Folder Contents action gets the duplicated image files for processing 6. When Automator processes files, it doesn't always do so in the order you expect. This can be a problem if you want to rename files sequentially. To solve the problem, you'll tell the workflow to sort them. Locate the Sort Finder Items action and drag it to the workflow area. Configure the action to sort the files by name in ascending order. The Sort Finder Items action makes sure your images are renamed in the proper order 7. Search for the Rename Finder Items action and drag it to the workflow. Automator warns you that this action changes the names of files, and suggests inserting a Copy Finder Items action too, in order to preserve the original names. The first step in your workflow already copies the original images. So, there's no need to copy them a second time. Click Don't Add to tell Automator not to insert the additional Copy Finder Items action. Automator often warns you when files are modified and suggests working with copies From the popup menu in the upper left corner of the action, choose Make Sequential (note that the name of the action in your workflow changes to Make Sequential). Set the action to add a number to a new name and enter a dash, followed by the desired name. Configure the other settings to place the number after the name, to separate by a dash, to start numbers at 1, and to make all numbers 2 digits long. Configure the Rename Finder Items action to sequentially name your images 8. Next, you'll tell Automator to add the date to the beginning of each image's name. Since the Rename Finder Items action doesn't include this option, you'll use a variable. Click Variables at the top of the action library and locate the Today's date variable. Automator variables let you insert values that are calculated at runtime into your workflows Drag the Today's date variable to the beginning of the new name field in the Rename Finder Items action. By default, this variable is set to the format M/D/YYYY. The Finder, however, doesn't like slash characters in file names. So, you'll configure the variable to use dashes instead, and to be formatted in YYYY-MM-DD format for better sorting. Click the triangle button on the right side of the variable and choose Edit... The date variable is editable Choose Custom format... from the format menu in the Variable Options window that appears. Custom formatting allows you to specify a precise format for a date variable Drag year, month, and day components together into the editing field and separate them with dashes. Click the triangle to the right of the month and day components, and set them to appear as two digits. Click Done when you're finished. Formatting the Today's date variable as YYYY-MM-DD 9. Find the Scale Images action and drag it to the end of the workflow. Again, Automator warns you about modifying your images. And, again, since your workflow is already working with duplicates, you should be safe. Click Don't Add so the Copy Finder Items action isn't inserted too. Automator really, really, really wants to protect your files. If you get annoyed by these alerts, click the checkbox to prevent future ones from appearing. Configure the Scale Images action to resize your images To Size (pixels) and enter the desired pixel size. Note that this is on the longest side of the image. The Scale Images action resizes your blog images 10. Save the workflow as Blog - Scale Images. Automator installs it where it needs to go. Saving the workflow as a Service makes it accessible in the Finder Running the Workflow In the Finder, select a bunch of images and right click to display the contextual menu. Choose Services > Blog - Scale Images to run the workflow. Your workflow appears in the Finder's contextual menu when you have image files selected The workflow runs, creates a Scaled for Web folder on your Desktop, copies the images into the folder, renames them sequentially, and scales them the appropriate amount. The renamed and scaled images are copied into a Scaled for Web folder on your Desktop Now, with the help of your new Automator service, you can get back to writing, and spend less time editing images. Happy blogging!
Google's Blogger app updated with iPad support, landscape composition mode, Google+ integration
Google's Blogger app has hit version 2.0, bringing a visual revamp and a handful of new features to its iOS and Android flavors, in addition to iPad support. Now, users can compose posts in landscape mode, share to Google+ and view scheduled post times. In addition to a grab bag of unspecified bug fixes, the update brings the app's total number of supported languages up to 30. Eager to start tapping out posts? Hit the source links below for the appropriate download.
Tumblr iOS app updated, now completely native
Finally jumping headfirst into iOS with a redesigned experience, the updated Tumblr app is now live on the App Store. Whereas the previous version relied in part on simplified web views to replicate the Tumblr feel, the new experience is 100 percent native to iOS. After playing around with the new app for a few minutes, it's obvious how much faster it is compared to the previous version. Flipping from screen to screen is quick and responsive. Composing a post actually feels like something you might want to do on the go, now that there's no frustrating lag. The app has undergone a pretty significant redesign with larger photos, new blog portraits, additional gesture controls for ease of use and -- gasp -- animated GIF support. These new bullet points are great additions, but it's hard to believe it's almost 2013, and the Tumblr iOS app just now added the ability to play animated GIFs automatically. I mean, have you ever logged in to your Tumblr account and not viewed at least a dozen adorable cat GIFs? It's just us? Oh... [Via TechCrunch]
LinkedIn branches out with new blogging and 'following' features for select group
LinkedIn has always been based on the notion of "connections" rather than "followers," but the social network has made a bit of a break with that tradition today. For the first time, it will let users follow people they aren't connected to, although their choice of people is initially limited to a group of 150 individuals that LinkedIn deems to be "thought leaders." What's more, the company is also giving them access to some more advanced blogging tools that will let them publish longer posts with pictures and videos. Of course, while it's fairly limited in scope now, LinkedIn is clear that this is only their first step in this direction. It says it will continue to expand its group of "influencers" over the next few months (it's taking suggestions), and LinkedIn's Dan Roth told TechCrunch that "eventually we want to allow all people to follow each others." In the meantime, you can get the full rundown of what's in store at the links below.
TUAW TV Live: Bloggers talk about blogging tools
Good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on what part of the world you're coming in from! Today we're going to be talking about blogging tools on TUAW TV Live. I consider personal journals to be a kind of self-blog, so those tools will be covered as well. Of course, I can't use every blogging app out there, so I'm looking forward to hearing what the denizens of the chat room have to share. I'll also have a special guest on the show today -- former Cylon sensation Mike Rose. Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. You'll be watching the show in glorious HD! Based on a suggestion from Doc Rock last week, I'll be "chirping" URLs for applications and sites discussed during the show using the Chirp app. To receive the chirps, download and install the app on your iPhone by clicking the icon below. If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat. We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM: Blogging tools overview
Whether you're keeping a private journal for yourself or publishing a blog for the whole world to read, blogging tools of various types are proliferating in the Apple world. Join me this afternoon for an hour of chatroom banter and demonstrations of some of my favorite tools for keeping a personal journal or sharing my life with others. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes early to receive instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. The chat is on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.
