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Yojimbo 4 brings syncing, highlights iCloud woes
Good news for Yojimbo fans: version 4 is now available, and it syncs across Macs. (Pause and wait for for chorus of 'hallelujahs' to subside.) I've been a Yojimbo user for years, but in case some of you don't know what it is, I'll start by quoting Bare Bones' own website which describes it this way: "Yojimbo makes keeping all the small (or even large) bits of information that pour in every day organized and accessible. It's so simple, there is no learning curve. Yojimbo's mechanism for collecting, storing and finding information is so natural and effortless, it will change your life, without changing the way you work." Yojimbo is not meant to hold your entire PDF collection, or all of your images, or all of your bookmarks. It isn't meant to replace Google or the Finder or even Spotlight. It's meant to be that place which is always in reach where you can put something, anything, when you don't want to lose it but you can't (or don't want to) deal with it right now. It's easy to get things into Yojimbo, it's easy to get them out again, and it's easy to search and categorize what you have there. Yojimbo is often referred to as a "digital junk drawer" but to me it's more like the stuff I keep piled on or around my desk but don't put away because I don't want to lose or forget about it. It's that digital 'inbox' where you can throw anything that you might need to sort through later without thinking too much about it now. This is an important role which is easily underestimated. The reason I know that is because I have become aware of the fact that I don't have one now – which means that I have several. See if this sounds familiar: I have a text file with some quick notes that I've jotted down. I have some 'flagged' emails which I hope I will remember means I need to followup on them next time I see them. I have some articles that I saved to Pinboard and some PDFs that I saved to my "To Read" folder and some files on the Desktop, not to mention a few things I tossed into OmniFocus. Too often things go into one of those 'buckets' and I forget about it, mostly because there are too many of them. More than likely I waste time trying to decide where to save them, and I know I waste time trying to find them, if I even remember to look. One of the great things about Yojimbo was that it did syncing of a variety of different kinds of information. Unfortunately, that's also been a major thorn in its side lately. Sync, sank, stunk When Yojimbo was introduced, it used MobileMe syncing to bring your data across your Macs. Way back in 2006 Yojimbo was described as having "Seamless .Mac syncing" and that syncing was always an essential part of the app. Unfortunately, it relied on MobileMe, which Apple eventually shut down. It seems to be a pattern with Apple that web services don't have a very long life and never really get the attention and "polish" that people hope for when a new product comes along. By the time Apple finally killed off MobileMe and the loathsome, atrocious iDisk, few people were sad to see it go, and we were all encouraged to see Apple's new efforts towards iCloud. Until it arrived. What iCloud does extremely well is file syncing. You save a document in Pages on your Mac and a few seconds later it will show up on your iPad or your other Macs. It's fast and easy, not to mention free for the first 5 gigabytes. What iCloud does not do well is database syncing, or in technical terms: "Core Data" syncing. Now, I'm not a developer and I won't pretend to be here, but if you have been paying any attention at all, you have probably heard Mac and iOS developers complaining about iCloud. If you missed it, allow me to direct your attention to Ars Technica which featured this issue in an article almost six months ago Frustrated with iCloud, Apple's developer community speaks up en masse. Bare Bones Software's Rich Siegel is featured prominently in that article, but he also echoes many other developer complaints about the way that iCloud works. He also explained why Dropbox is not an viable option (again, Dropbox does file syncing very well, but not database syncing). If after all that you want an even more thorough, yet easy-to-understand explanation, you can read Rich's Tumblr post The Gathering Storm: Our Travails With iCloud Sync from earlier this year as well. He also links to several other developers who spoke about the problems they faced with iCloud syncing. The bottom line is this: Dropbox doesn't have the necessary tools (yet?) to sync databases, and iCloud is supposed to have the necessary tools, but it doesn't work. Which left Bare Bones with only one viable option: a 3rd-party sync solution. Sync Rises If you are familiar with Evernote, you know that it syncs via its own service, not iCloud and not Dropbox. The same is also true for OmniFocus and several other applications. DEVONThink can sync to Dropbox, sort of, but it requires that you go into Dropbox and turn off automatic syncing and sync things manually. (I tried when they first introduced it, and quickly abandoned the idea as more trouble than it was worth. You'd get roughly the same effect if you just copied your data to Dropbox when you quit the app.) Bare Bones has decided to offer a syncing solution which will cost US$3 a month. The syncing is handled through Wasabi Sync which describes itself as "Core Data cloud syncing done right" (as opposed to, say, the way that iCloud currently wörks). The first 30 days are free so you can try it and see if it works for you. You can also try Yojimbo 4 free for 30 days by downloading the demo from BareBones.com. Before anyone complains about Yojimbo syncing, let me remind you that it is still cheaper than Evernote. Also note that Yojimbo for iPad still happens over your local Wi-Fi network, so you do not need a sync subscription for that. (Before you ask, no, you cannot directly sync Yojimbo for iPad from your Wasabi sync account. When I asked Rich Siegel whether that would be added, he politely declined to make any 'forward looking statements' but certainly left the door open for that possibility. One thing at a time.) Final words, for now In a perfect world, Yojimbo would have been able to sync via iCloud and the BareBones folks would not have had to spend the past year of their lives trying to make it work before eventually giving up and implementing their own solution. But right now iCloud just does not work for database syncing, and you don't have to take my word for that, there are lots of developers who will (and have) shared their frustrations. Again I would refer you to both Frustrated with iCloud, Apple's developer community speaks up en masse and The Gathering Storm: Our Travails With iCloud Sync and remember that syncing files is a lot easier than syncing databases. Yojimbo is a great Mac app by a great Mac development team who sweat the details to make something excellent. That's why BBEdit has been around for over 20 years and still growing strong. Yojimbo is not DEVONThink or Evernote, nor are they Yojimbo. They do different, if similar, things. If you have been frustrated by having little bits of your digital life spread out in several different places, I would strongly encourage you to check out Yojimbo. I'm very happy to have it back in my dock.
Productivity Tip: Read the manual, or take a class
There was a time when Mac owners scoffed at their PC-loving counterparts, who had to pore over paper manuals to grok the essentials of a software program before they tried to use it. When graphical user interfaces were introduced, a lot of focus was on making software intuitive and easy to use. There were also hardware constraints -- not much CPU power or memory, minimal storage, low-resolution displays -- that forced applications to be simple by design. Modern applications, whether on the desktop or on mobile, have a lot more room to maneuver, and consequently may arrive with a much steeper learning curve While your average iOS app may seem simple enough, quite often there are bells and whistles you might not know about. iPad apps may use the increased screen real estate to add more (and more obscure) options, and Mac or web applications can be far more complex than anything available on mobile platforms. While it might seem like cheap advice to "read the manual," I find very few people actually do. There's an entire industry built around learning software tools, like the Take Control series, which I find immensely helpful. Granted, most software manuals are written in plodding, feature by feature style and not as entertaining "here's how you solve this problem" books, but even that dry documentation can be vital to your efficacy when using the software. When I started using iBank, shortly after its debut, I was lured in by its accessible design. "This seems simple enough," I said as I started entering transactions. Over time it became apparent that I had barely scratched the surface of iBank's functionality. I eventually gave up on the program -- only to return over a year later, armed with more clues. This time I read the manual, in no small part because almost every question I looked up on the IGG Software Knowledgebase had an answer in the manual. Another example: Productivity software. While applications like Things are simple enough, there's often a lot of functionality hidden in the manual. You may not understand how to tap into these features if you're just reading "This does that" in the documentation. This is where additional help may be required. In my case, for task management I use OmniFocus (after trying every other "to do" application under the sun). OmniFocus isn't a simple list maker; it is a powerful database which can help you sort through mountains of tasks to allow you to focus on what exactly needs to be done next. You could likely spend days reading the manual and still come away with the "what now?" feeling. You could buy a book, but sometimes books on niche products turn out more like dry manuals. There's another answer, however. For deeper, more powerful applications, I recommend paying for additional learning materials. I bought an excellent book on DEVONThink Pro from Take Control and I no longer feel overwhelmed by the powerful software. For OmniFocus, I knew I needed to use it better, so I upped the ante and bought into the Asian Efficiency series of posts on using OmniFocus. Take Control books are great, but (for me) sometimes the low cost can cause a lack of motivation. Asian Efficiency is more like an online course, and the cost is much higher than just a book. It's a powerful motivator to know you're wasting more than an evening of poker's amount of money with a course if you ignore it. This goes double for any app that's crucial to your business workflow; if you're earning your rent with Adobe's CS suite, don't stint on the training or courseware as you move from CS 5 to CS6. The hour you save searching for that missing dialog box or hidden feature might be billable. We're starting to see some really amazing ebooks arrive on the iBookstore, too. These leverage all the multimedia functions in iBooks and if you're a visual learner, they can be vastly more effective than reading text alone. A great example is Markdown by David Sparks and Eddie Smith (our review here). By using video and audio in addition to text, there's almost no chance you'll walk away scratching your head. The downside is these media-enabled iBooks will quickly fill up your iPad's storage. I also recommend going to focused conferences, or events like Macworld/iWorld, where there are sessions aplenty on various software packages and workflows (several TUAW folks have given talks at Macworld). Often these give you a bigger picture and show you how to integrate multiple tools into a consistent workflow. You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions of speakers and attendees, and this can often be the most helpful thing of all as you share tips and tricks and learn what matters most to you. Finally, don't be afraid to seek out a guru who knows the app backwards and forwards. Many app experts share their tips and training suggestions on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus, or on application-specific forums hosted by the developer or third-parties. Be polite, show that you've done your legwork first (if the question could have been answered by a fifteen-second scan of the manual, it's not a good use of your time or the guru's wisdom), and you might be able to draw on some help from above. This is the first in a series of weekly productivity tips here on TUAW. If you have any of your own, send them in via our feedback page.
DEVONThink 2.5 brings database sync out of beta and more
DEVONThink, the productivity app for Mac that stores all your documents, PDFs, bookmarks and information in one easy-to-find place, has been updated to version 2.5. According to the Devonian Times, the update now officially supports database synchronization between "multiple computers and locations either directly or via Dropbox, WebDAV, file servers or just any mountable disk." The update also allows you to share databases with PC and Linux users through a web browser. Other notable features include smarter scanning of a stack of papers in a time-saving manner (first odd and then even, saving you from feeding each page individually), improved tagging and more standard editing tools. There's also a whole load of interface tweaks, too. Further details can be found at Devon Technologies Devonian Times. The update is recommended for all DEVONThink users. DEVONThink is available through the Mac App Store (US$49.99) or directly from Devon Technologies.
Best of 2011 Nominations: Mac productivity apps
During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011. Today's category for Best of 2011 nominations is Mac productivity apps. These are the apps that help you get work done on a daily basis, and include such apps as Pages, Evernote, Microsoft Office, and Marked. Maybe you're a devotee of DEVONThink or the incredible OmniFocus and want to single out one of those apps for an award. Just leave a comment below with your nomination for the best Mac productivity app of 2011, and if we get enough interest in a specific app, it'll be included in the voting in a few days. Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 10, 2011.
Mac software deals for this Thanksgiving weekend
We're on the lookout for great deals this Thanksgiving weekend! Mike Schramm has already put up two posts on iOS apps which are on sale, and I've got a few Mac software deals to tell you about. The first one is Soulver, which is an app I've had my eye on since Marco Arment mentioned it on Build & Analyze. Soulver lets you do all sorts of mathematical calculations using words as well as numbers. Speaking as someone who isn't very good with numbers, I love Soulver because it lets me calculate things the way I think. It does conversions, currencies, file sizes (bytes to gigabytes), and yes, it can even calculate tips. To really get sense of how it works, watch the video. Soulver for Mac is on sale for $12 (50% off). The iPhone version is $1 (75% off) and the iPad version is $2 (66% off). This deal is only good the 24th and 25th. Mariner Software is offering a deal through Saturday on Paperless for Mac for $30 (40% off the usual price of $50) through their online store. Check their site for details on what scanners it works with. DEVONtechnologies is offering 25% off their apps DEVONthink, DEVONagent, and DEVONnote. Note that this deal doesn't start until Friday and ends Monday. These are great apps for searching for and storing information. Marked, from our own Brett Terpstra, is on sale starting Black Friday (and going through Sunday) as well, at 50% off. It's a terrific Markdown tool for previewing your work from any text editor. Speaking of Brett, if you look closely you can spot him in the team picture over at the AgileBits site (he worked there once upon a time). The company is offering a 50% off discount on all its products through 11/30, including the indispensable 1Password -- if you get it through the Mac App Store, you'll be upgraded for free to the forthcoming version 4. And, just in time for Advent, the premium version of Glo Bible is available for $35. If you order through their website they are offering a free movie on DVD, as well as 3 DVDs worth of content which allows you to use most of the Glo Bible off-line. They won't even charge you for shipping. You can download the "lite" version of the app for free and try it out first. Have you spotted any great Mac deals? If so, let us know in the comments! (Just a reminder, we have comment moderation turned on to stop the flood of spam comments we were getting, so your comments might not be visible right away, especially on Thursday!)
NaNoWriMo: Some helpful hints and tools
This morning, I noticed a tweet from @rvbelzen that said, "As a NaNoWriMo veteran, do you have any tips for this NaNoWriMo newbie, maybe an article you wrote about it?" Most of the posts that I've done about National Novel Writing Month for TUAW have focused on the tools, not on the technique. Based on the tweet, I thought I'd give you some hints from a three-time NaNoWriMo winner (that means you wrote a 50,000-word novel in the month of November) about how to prepare for the writing marathon. Helpful Hints For Writing Your NaNoWriMo Novel 1) Make sure you have a broad outline of your plot and characters in your mind or on paper. This was the hardest part for me the first two years I did NaNoWriMo, as I had a story in my head but didn't spend the time to think of characters or how the story was going to evolve. As a result, those first two novels were only about halfway through the total plot line when I got to 50,000 words. What I suggest is sitting down with your favorite writing tool -- whether that's TextEdit, Word, Storyist, Story Mill, Scrivener, or another other writing tool, and just write a quick outline of how the story is going to unfold. Come up with character names and a rough description, locations, etc., and write them down as well. 2) At some point on November 1st, sit down for an uninterrupted spell of writing. In order to write 50,000 words in a month, you'll need to average 1,667 words a day. I find that setting aside time to write in a place where I'm not going to be interrupted by talk, TV, or tweets is essential. If you're enthusiastic about your story, that 1,667 words is going to flow out of you, and you'll find that some days you're writing 2,500 words. Go for it on those days, because you'll have other days when you need to take a break. My favorite place to write NaNoWriMo novels? The kitchen table. The chair is uncomfortable, so I need to write quickly so I can get out of it ASAP. 3) It's all about words, not about tools. I've noticed over the last few days that I see more and more tweets about "which tool should I use?" There are debates going on about the merits of Storyist versus Scrivener, or using one of the many minimalist writing tools. Here's my take on the writing tools: don't go out of your way to buy a new app that has lots of bells and whistles, because they'll get in the way of writing your novel. Many of the novel-writing apps have ways to write outlines, build character cards, etc. I found these tools to be so incredibly distracting that I finally just started using minimalist tools. You can easily write a NaNoWriMo novel in Pages or Word -- you don't need an "author's tool" unless you really think it will help you. My second NaNoWriMo novel was actually written in TextEdit. 4) Have fun writing. If NaNoWriMo turns into a chore, you're not going to make it. For me, writing fiction ends up being so much different from blogging and writing tech books that it's an absolute joy. I love thinking up characters, putting them in odd situations, and then trying to get them out of those situations while moving the plot forward. Are they well-written novels? Probably not. But it's been a blast writing them. To make writing fun, think about something that either excites you or makes you laugh, and then use that as a key launching point for your novel. This year, I'm resurrecting a character from last year. He's a private detective in the near future (about 10 years from now) who gets involved in some rather bizarre situations like a locked-room murder on a space station and (this year) being injected with nano-particles that cause him to grow. 5) Start fast. Seriously, try to beat your 1,667-word goal every day for the first 10 days. That way, you might be halfway done with the novel by the time November 10th rolls around. What does that mean? You can take a break from writing if you absolutely feel like it, or take more time focusing on a key point of the plot. My wife was a NaNoWriMo winner last year and she totally amazed me by writing almost half of her novel in the first five days of November. I like to start fast and finish at a comfortable pace. 6) Don't focus on spelling or grammar. Once again, this is all about word count. It doesn't have to be perfect. You just want to get the story out of your system and onto the screen (or paper, if you so desire). When you're done at the end of the month, you have a working rough draft that you can then spend time cleaning up. So turn off the spell and grammar check, or ignore the red underlines that mean you misspelled something. Chances are very good that you're not going to publish your book anyway, so who cares if it is filled with misspellings and lousy sentence structure? As long as you're happy with it, that's what counts. 7) Keep your writing to yourself. There's nothing worse than thinking that you're doing a bad job when you're writing. It will absolutely defeat you from getting your novel completed. One of the biggest mistakes you can make during NaNoWriMo is to let somebody else read what you've written. Why? Well, everyone's a critic these days, and the reader will have no hesitation telling you that what you've written is horrible or pointing out mistakes. Wait until December 1, 2011, and let them read it then. Don't even talk about your novel with other folks, unless you're just telling them how much fun you're having and how far along you are. 8) Work through writer's block. Here's something I had issues with the first year I did NaNoWriMo. I was about one-third of the way through the novel and just lost focus. I had thought a lot about the beginning of the book, but didn't have a clue where I was going. Preparation (see hint #1) will help this, but realize that you're going to have days where you just can't get the brain to wrap around writing! What do I do on these days? Try to write anyway. If I need help, I pick up a favorite good book and read parts of it, carefully noting the way that the writer crafted certain phrases or created a twist that caught my attention. That's usually enough to motivate me to write more. Also consider taking a walk or doing something to clear your mind. I find that walking is a great way to get my mind to focus on developing plot points or thinking about dialogue. 9) Back up your novel every single day. I've been lucky -- I've never lost any of my writing. But can you imagine how depressing it would be to get two-thirds of the way through your novel and then lose the file? It would be enough to make you never want to write again! I highly recommend doing multiple backups of your novel file every day. My base document is always sitting in a folder on Dropbox, which means that it's also downloaded to the Dropbox folder on both of my Macs. That's three copies right there, plus I always have a Time Machine backup going. That's four. Am I paranoid enough? Probably. 10) Keep your eye on the goal. That's going to motivate you more than anything. Thinking about getting to that 50,000th word is a daunting thing, but you'll be surprised just how quickly your words will add up. Take the writing one day at a time, try to stretch your daily total over the required 1,667 words, and you'll be a winner before the end of the month. I have to admit that there's no better feeling than wrapping up a NaNoWriMo novel, even when I know that nobody will probably read it. Having done this three times, I'm confident that I can write another novel, and I'm looking forward to that sense of accomplishment at the end of November. Tools Of The NaNoWriMo Writer When you're thinking about which tool to use to write your novel, keep hint #3 in mind -- it's about writing, not about tools. I really do get irritated with the annual debates over which app is better than another, but then again I'm an antisocial curmudgeon. I've tried 'em all, but the two apps that I find work the best for me are TextEdit and Microsoft Word. Get a blank piece of digital paper and start writing. I haven't tried Pages, although I'm sure it would work swimmingly in the "typewriter" Lion full-screen mode. Maybe this year? Most of the writing tools that people spend their money on before tackling NaNoWriMo fall into two camps -- the "Swiss Army Knife" apps that have all the bells and whistles, and the "Minimalist" apps that just give you a blank page and a word count. Here are some examples of both types. "Swiss Army Knife" Writing Apps I think I've tried each and every one of these apps at one point or another, and even though I've used them to start NaNoWriMo novels, I've always just transferred my text to another app within a day or two. Your mileage may vary, and you may make use of all of the many features of these apps. I won't go into a lot of detail about each of the apps; the developers have info for you and in many cases will let you download a trial copy: Scrivener (US$44.49) Storyist ($59.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPad) StoryMill ($49.95) Manuscript ($39.99) Ulysses ($19.99) CopyWrite ($24.99) DEVONThink ($49.99): Actually more of an outlining tool, but can be used for writing. OmniOutliner ($39.99): Once again, an outlining tool that is perfect for writing. Also available on iPad for $19.99. Minimalist Writing Apps WriteRoom ($24.99): available for both Mac and iOS ($4.99) Ommwriter Däna ($4.99): available for both Mac and iPad at the same low price! Byword ($9.99) Clean Writer ($0.99): available for Mac and iPad Writer ($2.99) Grandview ($4.99) iAWriter ($9.99): also available for iPad ($0.99) I'm sure there are a lot more tools available, but I'll leave this as an exercise for TUAW readers to go out and do some research. If you find any, please let us know in the comments. Also, if you're a NaNoWriMo winner and have some additional hints and tips, be sure to write a comment. By the way, in case you're wondering how long this post is, it's 1827 words. That's more than a person needs to write every day to be a NaNoWriMo winner. YOU CAN DO IT!
MacLegion 2011 fall bundle now available
MacLegion has announced their fall bundle for 2011. This year's bundle features 10 Mac apps worth US$639 for the low price of $49.95. The apps in this year's bundle are: Corel Painter Essentials 4 RapidWeaver 5 BannerZest Pro 3 Postbox 2.5 DEVONthink Pro 2.2 Swift Publisher +Extras 2.3 Disk Drill Pro 1.4 CheckUp 3 Voila 3.1 Fumy 1.5 The sale runs until September 28, and the first 9,000 customers who buy the bundle also get a copy of CleanMyMac (a $29.95 value) for free. The MacLegion bundles also entitle buyers to full after-sales support as well as valid upgrade paths for software releases, just as if you had bought each app individually from the developers.
ScanSnap Manager updated for Snow Leopard
Fujitsu has finally updated the ScanSnap Manager app for Snow Leopard. "Version 2.2 L12" is available for download for the following models: ScanSnap S300M ScanSnap S510M ScanSnap S500M ScanSnap S1500M Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason they require that the previous version be installed before installing this version, which means that if you did a clean installation of Snow Leopard (like I did), you will have to download and install the old, incompatible version first, and then run the new installer. The installer also forces the ScanSnap manager into your Login Items which is only slightly less obnoxious than forcing itself into your dock. Also, if you use FineReader for ScanSnap S1500M and S510M, the Snow Leopard update is still not available, but you can sign up to be notified when it is released. Thanks to DEVONtechnologies for the heads-up!
MacHeist offers free licenses for DEVONthink via Twitter promotion
MacHeist is calling it a "TweetBlast," we'll call it savvy marketing, but you'll probably just call it "free software, woo!" In an effort to pump up the number of Twitter followers for the MacHeist challenges & software bundle, the team is offering followers (who are willing to post a promotional message) a free license for DEVONthink. The software, normally $50US, allows you to store your files and personal data in lots of structured, tagged and classified ways -- Brett previewed the 2.0 beta in December. Getting your free copy is pretty straightforward; you'll have to follow the MacHeist Twitter account, and then as noted you're required to tweet a promo message for the TweetBlast itself; not sure whether that's 'recursive advertising,' a recession-buster special or plain ol' viral marketing, but free apps are free apps. When you get DEVONthink, you'll also get Hyperspaces and Overflow as well. Also, participants should know that the DEVONthink licenses are for the soon-to-be-obsoleted 1.x version of the app, but if you want to roll your copy forward to the upcoming 2.0 version you'll be able to do so for the upgrade price of $20. Full details are at the MacHeist website.
Beta Beat: DEVONnote/DEVONthink 2.0
It's certainly no secret that I'm a sucker for file and data organization programs, and have collected more than I use. Long ago, I received a copy of DEVONnote as part of a bundle, and have since upgraded to DEVONthink Pro. The program has long been intriguing to me -- auto-classification of files and advanced search relationships are great -- but various aspects of the app have kept me from really diving into it; a lack of pleasing aesthetics not being least on the list. You can call me superficial, but ... no, you'd be right. However, the public betas of DEVONthink 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0 just came out, looking great and adding a bevy of useful new features. DEVON Technologies states that the 2.0 versions represent an almost complete rewrite of the database core. With improved search (including advanced Boolean and proximity operators), a universal inbox accessible from multiple databases (DEVONthink versions can have simultaneous databases open) and a complete revamp of the user interface (including Cover Flow and much-improved overall aesthetics), this beta is a huge step forward. For me, the most important change is the file storage method. The applications now use a bundle format and store files "as is" on the drive, accessible by external applications and recoverable if anything happens to the database. Add the support for file templates and a wide range of new filetypes (Word, OpenOffice, iWork, Skim ... ), and DEVONthink just became a whole lot more useful to me. Check out the release notes for DEVONnote and DEVONthink 2.0 for more details on the changes. The betas are available on their respective pages (DEVONnote | DEVONthink). Upgrade pricing is available for existing customers (customers who purchased DEVONnote or DEVONthink, or cross-graded after July 1st, 2008 are eligible for a free upgrade). DEVONthink comes in three flavors: Personal ($49.95US), Professional ($79.95US) and Professional Office ($149.95). DEVONnote, which is more or less a lightweight (but very useful) version of DEVONthink, is available for $24.95US.
Last day to buy MacHeist Bundle
Today is the last day to buy the much coveted MacHeist application bundle. MacHeist has decided to sweeten the deal by unlocking SoundStudio early and offering $5 off any Insanely Great Tee. If you are a registered member of the MacHeist site you can also get early access to Headline (an RSS reader).The MacHeist Bundle currently includes the following Mac apps: VectorDesigner DEVONthink XSlimmer CoverSutra Awaken iClip Overflow Cha-Ching WriteRoom Enigmo Bugdom 2 Nanosaur 2 TextExpander SoundStudio The MacHeist Bundle costs $49 and 25% of your purchase will be donated to your choice of charity. Currently, MacHeist has sold over 4,000 bundles and raised over $50,000 for charity. You can purchase a bundle at the MacHeist website.
DEVONthink gains Spotlight support
The guys over at DEVONtechnologies have announced updates for a number of their applications. Most importantly the entire line of DEVONthink information managing software (along with DEVONnote) now natively support Spotlight. They note that this allows you to search multiple DEVONthink Pro databases at once from Spotlight. In addition they've updated their line of freeware applications to be compatible with Leopard, including the handy menubar folder utility XMenu.[via MacMinute]
Get organized: a survey of digital junk drawer apps
A while ago I decided to bring some sanity to the way I do things and organize all my stuff. I'm working on a design thesis in my multimedia undergrad degree, I'm constantly doing research for my blogging work, and I have countless other projects and ideas that were growing in both size and disorganization in my Home folder. When I decided to finally start getting organized, I realized I might not be the only person in this position, and I figured I would turn my research and testing experiences into a post; a sort of survey of what some call 'digital junk drawer' applications.What follows is a pro and con summary of four of the most popular junk drawer apps I looked at, but read this post with a few of my criteria in mind: I like keyboard shortcuts. I like them a lot. Being able to highlight a chunk of text in a browser or a PDF I'm reading and hitting a couple of keys to send it to a junk drawer app is far more efficient and less workflow-intrusive than having to use a mouse to drag and drop it to some far corner of my display. I decided not to touch apps that employ entirely different paradigms such as the wiki-like VoodooPad; I'm not denying the usefulness of these other ways of working, but adding that entirely new level to this survey would've meant putting this post on the back-burner for longer than I would like. I'm using a MacBook Pro 2.0 Ghz with 1.5 GB RAM, and while I synced my notes library across these apps to gauge performance 'n all that jazz, my library is a mere 500 notes (URLs, PDFs, etc.) strong, so your mileage may vary. With that said, check out my survey of some Mac OS X apps that could help you bring order to your digital chaos, and feel free to post your thoughts or mention apps that should've made this list, and why.
