OmniGraffle
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OmniGraffle 6 lands today in the Mac App Store
Omni Group recently updated OmniGraffle, its workflow diagramming app, to version 6.0. It was a major update that included a brand-new UI, Retina display support and a ton of new features. When it launched, version 6 was only available on Omni Group's online storefront. Omni Group announced that starting today, a Mac App Store version will be available for you to purchase and download. The Mac App Store app has all the features of the store-bought version. It even includes upgrade pricing via an in-app purchase. Omni Group is selling the standard version of OmniGraffle 6 in the Mac App Store for US$99, with an in-app purchase to unlock Pro features like AppleScript, Visio import/export and more. The amount of this in-app purchase will vary based upon whether you own a previous Mac App Store version of OmniGraffle. To receive the upgrade pricing to the Pro version, current Mac App Store customers must install OmniGraffle 5 from the App Store. Once version 5 is installed, you need to purchase version 6 from the Mac App Store for $99. Then open the newly installed OmniGraffle 6 app and select "Upgrade to Professional" from the menu. The app will ask you to locate your OmniGraffle 5 install. If you own the standard version of OmniGraffle 5, then you'll be prompted to spend $50 to upgrade to the Pro version. If you already own the pro version of OmniGraffle 5, the in-app upgrade to enable to the pro features of OmniGraffle 6 will be free. You can download OmniGraffle 6 from the Mac App Store starting today. A trial version is available from Omni Group's website.
EazyDraw: A hidden OS X gem of an app
We last covered EazyDraw back in 2006. Flash forward to 2013, and the age of Mountain Lion -- and this can-do app is still roaring. Selling for US$140 for a full license from the developer's website or $95 from the Mac App Store, EazyDraw is now shipping in version 5. In a world where customers complain about $2.99 apps being "overpriced," does this app have a place on your Mac? I'm happy to report that yes, it may indeed. You can think of EazyDraw as MacDraw on steroids. It offers a wide range of vector drawing tools, it supports layers, offers calibrated colors, supports SVG and PDF and more. For an interface that at first glance appears quite simple, it hides an enormous feature set. When I sat down to test the app, I kept finding hidden gem after hidden gem. Each tool I needed was there, was easy to use and offered fine detail tweaking. Each inspector appeared in conjunction with the task I was performing and fit the job. If you're looking for a highly featured drawing app, you should certainly consider EazyDraw. It's perfect for anyone building logos, creating web graphics and designing illustrations for books. In terms of flow charts, I think I'd still give the nod to Omnigraffle, but for any other kind of free-form geometry-based drawing, I feel comfortable recommending EazyDraw.
OmniGraffle for iPad 1.4 out now
For those of you who don't know, OmniGraffle for the iPad (also available for the Mac) is a tool that helps you turn complex ideas and processes into clear, easily understood drawings, diagrams, charts, and the like. Basically, it's a great tool to illustrate stuff that would otherwise take too long to explain in words (for more information, our own Erica Sadun took a hands on look at the app back in April). Fans of OmniGraffle for iPad can now rejoice because its latest update has just been approved for the App Store. OmniGraffle for iPad 1.4 is iOS 4.2 ready. That means that when iOS 4.2 is released, OmniGraffle will support iOS multitasking and AirPrint. Additionally, this update introduces a whole host of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. Some of the highlights include: an enhanced Document Browser with improved filtering and sorting, better stencil management (and you can make your own custom stencils from scratch), a new and improved Font Inspector popover and remote file syncing to iDisk (MobileMe) and WebDAV. That's just to mention a few. For owners of OmniGraffle, the update is available now through updates on the App Store. A list of all the new features and fixes can be found at the OmniGraffle website, here. And in case you missed it, The Omni Group has committed to developing for the forthcoming Mac App Store, too. All the details can be found here. [via Mac Stories]
Omni Group commits to Mac App Store development
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Omni Group has jumped aboard the Mac App Store train. Omni has long been a popular creator of Mac applications and has done pretty well for itself with the iOS apps that it has already released, with more on the way. On the day after the Back to the Mac event, Omni Group CEO Ken Case tweeted that the Mac OS X versions of all five of the company's Mac apps will also be available on the Mac App Store. That group includes the ever popular OmniOutliner, plus OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniGraphSketcher, and OmniPlan. OmniFocus and OmniGraffle are already available for the iPad, with OmniGraphSketcher and the others promised soon. In all likelihood the vast majority of Mac developers will move into the App Store, with the likely exceptions of Adobe and Microsoft. For most developers, having an outlet built into the OS and avoiding the hassles of payment systems just seems like too good a deal to pass up. [via MacObserver]
Hands on with OmniGraphSketcher
Retailing for a relatively hefty US$14.99, OmniGraphSketcher may initially leave you scratching your head and wondering exactly who the app's target audience is. OmniGraphSketcher offers a free-form drawing application for creating graphs and charts. With it, you can illustrate many kinds of numeric information, just as you would by using the chart features in a normal spreadsheet. However, OmniGraphSketcher isn't powered by spreadsheets. It's powered by human drawing, and that's a rather odd combination; it's also the application's main feature. There's not a lot you can customize creatively when working with a standard spreadsheet graph. OmniGraphSketcher helps build persuasive illustrations that break the cookie-cutter sameness of pie-charts and bar graphs and hopefully brings design excellence to the table. This app isn't about mathematical precision, it's about beauty. You choose the axes, the labels, the drawing style, and so forth. Like OmniGraffle, most of the functionality is placed into a pair of modes (line drawing and filled drawing, which I used to create the graph at the top of this post). An inspector popover lets you customize how each feature is colored. The software is, clearly, first generation. I ran into a fair number of bugs both before and after Omni issued a bug-fix 1.1 release. Even now, you cannot easily move labels within a shape. I worked around this by creating separate labels and dragging them to where I wanted them to be rather than where the app wanted to put them. I could not order my objects back to front, but I realized that deleting a shape and undoing that action moved each shape to the front. (I initially drew the shapes purple, then red, then green, but wanted them ordered in the sequence you see above.) I admit readily that I'm an engineer, not an artist. (The picture shows this quite clearly.) While the idea of creating artistically enhanced illustrations appeals to me, I have no talent whatsoever to really make the most of this application. I'll stick with spreadsheets, I'm afraid. For anyone who does have that artistic spark, you may find that this application will help you build those persuasive graphics, even when you're on the go. %Gallery-91459%
Hands on with OmniGraffle for iPad
Long a Mac desktop staple, OmniGraffle for OS X offers an interactive editor for laying out charts and diagrams. It's a useful tool for planners, managers, and designers. I have not been a serious user of the product, nor do I own the latest OS X version, but I have used the software enough to recognize that it has made its own niche in the Mac ecosystem. The desktop versions I've used have been solid, robust and, most importantly, they've gotten the job done when the job is to lay out and edit organizational wiring diagrams. Hearing that OmniGraffle was coming to the iPad surprised me. It wasn't the kind of application that I'd expect to move smoothly to a touch based interface, given its reliance on a vast number of menus, palettes, and other tweaking elements that let you manipulate your creations just so. The Omni Group developers thought otherwise. They envisioned a "back of the napkin" style application that would let you create diagrams on the go, whether at a business meeting or sitting on an Airport shuttle. They created an iPad application that depended on fingers rather than mice or styluses, to allow users to create high-quality editable and manipulatable presentations. %Gallery-90847%
iPad apps: defining experiences from the first wave
There are now over 1,348 approved apps for the iPad. That's on top of the 150,000 iPad-compatible iPhone programs already available in the App Store. When Apple's tablet PC launches, just hours from now, it will have a software library greater than that of any handheld in history -- not counting the occasional UMPC. That said, the vast majority of even those 1,348 iPad apps are not original. They were designed for the iPhone, a device with a comparatively pokey processor and a tiny screen, and most have just been tweaked slightly, upped in price and given an "HD" suffix -- as if that somehow justified the increased cost. Besides, we've seen the amazing potential programs have on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and webOS when given access to a touchscreen, always-on data connection, GPS, cloud storage and WiFi -- but where are the apps that truly define iPad? What will take advantage of its extra headroom, new UI paradigms and multitouch real estate? Caught between netbook and smartphone, what does the iPad do that the iPhone cannot? After spending hours digging through the web and new iPad section of the App Store, we believe we have a number of reasonably compelling answers. Update: Now includes Wormhole Remote, TweetDeck, SkyGrid, Touchgrind HD, GoToMeeting, SplitBrowser, iDisplay, Geometry Wars and Drawing Pad.
New screenshots of iPad apps start to make this thing seem less like a giant iPhone
We already knew that the iPad would be getting a few pieces of software that haven't shown up on its tinier, phone counterpart -- but now that a few screenshots of forthcoming apps for the device have reared their head, we're getting a clearer picture of just what this thing will feel like. If these shots of the new Yahoo! Entertainment, Bento, OmniGraffle, and Brushes are any indication, the iPad will be doing a lot more than just zooming up your Facebook profile. There's definitely an emphasis on content creation, file exporting (if not saving), and syncing with desktop versions of some of these apps, and Yahoo!'s work (alongside Brushes') shows that we've only begun to scratch the surface of what interfaces will be like on this device. We're sure the next week will be filled with all sorts of these kinds of leaks, but for now you can cherish the moment when you first laid eyes on your new way to check a TV schedule. A few more shots after the break, and lots more at the sources.
Omni Group bringing the Omni apps to the iPad
Famed OmniFocus developer The Omni Group has given a brief peak at their development roadmap. The Mac Observer reports that Omni will release OmniFocus, OmniPlan, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner and OmniGraphSketcher for the iPad. The Omni Group is pretty excited about what all the iPad has to offer saying they feel that, like the original Macintosh, the iPad will be the computer for the rest of us. Omni has already begun porting OmniFocus and OmniGraffle for the iPad and will start working to bring their other products to iPad beginning in the next few months. Omni is being very candid about their plans for the future of their products and it is refreshing to see a well-known software company keep their users informed. Omni admits that the iPad work will delay future release cycles for the Mac versions of their software but is confident that this is the right decision. [via The Mac Observer]
OmniGraffle 5 shipping now
The Omni Group has announced that OmniGraffle 5 is final and available for download and purchase. OmniGraffle is a brilliant template-based diagramming application that makes it a snap to draw up a flow-chart or schematic. As we noted when the first beta of version 5 was released, the latest OmniGraffle adds many important new features including support for Visio formats, a new layout engine, support for Bézier lines and shapes and much more. OmniGraffle comes in two versions, a standard version for $99.95 and a Professional version for $199.95 with an extended feature set (e.g. greater Visio support, subgraphs and more). Upgrades from previous versions are $39.95 (Standard) and $139.95 (Pro), with other options available for family pack licenses.Update: To upgrade from a previous Pro version to version 5 Pro it's $74.95; it's $139.95 to upgrade to version 5 Pro from any previous version of Standard.
OmniGraffle 5.0 beta 1
The guys over at Omni are on a roll, they just released a beta of the highly anticipated GTD application OmniFocus and today they announced the availability of the OmniGraffle 5 beta. The new test release is Leopard-only and has a bunch new features, headlined by a completely new layout engine, with new tools (including a Quick Look plugin), and native support for the Microsoft Visio file format (VSD) as well as stencils (VSS) and tools (VST).OmniGraffle 5.0b1 is available for download from Omni. Pricing and final availability have not yet been announced.
OmniGraffle 4.2 is available
Earlier today, The Omni Group released OmniGraffle 4.2 (we've written about OmniGraffle before). If you're unfamiliar, it's a diagramming and organizational tool that can be used with almost any project - from mapping out you servers and routers to creating a flow chart for next weekend's yard sale.Changes in version 4.2 include: Updates to Microsoft Office Visio import/export Updated shape combinations Localizations for Japanese, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Simplified Chinese OmniGraffle requires Mac OS 10.4 or later and starts at $79.95US.[Via MacMinute]
Leopard's iChat Theater could change the way we do... well, everything
It's things like the iChat Theater page at Apple's Developer site that make me just fine with the delay of Mac OS X Leopard. They say 'good things come to those who wait,' but from what I'm reading at the iChat Theater page, that phrase is more like 'fantastic, amazing and mind-blowing things come to those who wait' when applied to the new technologies coming in Leopard. While most of that page is geared towards developers, offering things like code snippets to get them excited and motivated to build their apps to work with Leopard's iChat, the first two paragraphs are enough for 'the rest of us' to get a mouth-watering glimpse of just how much the new iChat could change the way we work and play once Leopard does arrive.In short, iChat Theater is a new feature that will allow the broadcast of, and collaboration on, just about anything we do on our Mac. Of course, a developer will have to design their app specifically to incorporate these new features (hint: submitting feedback and feature requests is a good thing), but just consider the possibilities: instead of having to jam pack all your tech support calls into that once-or-twice-a-year family holiday trip, you can fire up Leopard's iChat and show mom and dad how to make a slideshow in iPhoto over the web, with both video and audio of yourself and iPhoto. Now expand a little: is your job on the verge of granting you telecommuting privileges? Or perhaps you're a teacher or a technology scout for an educational organization? This new Leopard feature opens doors much larger than the one for mom and pop; with iChat Theater, teachers and businessmen alike will be able to work their magic in entirely new ways, and not just with the tools Apple provides. The beauty of iChat Theater is that it's an open platform, so to speak; want to brainstorm in OmniGraffle with a colleague on the opposite side of the country? Need to teach a last-minute digital art class in Lineform for a friend halfway across the world? No sweat. Although I have no idea whether The Omni Group or Freeverse have already hopped on the iChat Theater bandwagon, plenty of comments and requests from their users could probably ensure they do.iChat Theater is gonna be a big'un boys and girls, and I already have a couple handfuls of reasons as to why I can wait for Apple to take their time and (hopefully) get it right.
Graffletopia
OmniGraffle is fantastic. Its useful, shiny, and it allows me to show people what my thoughts look like visually, even if it scares them a bit. Perhaps one of the most useful applications of OmniGraffle is for plotting out infrastructure of some kind; network maps; flow charts; company hierarchies. The only issue with OmniGraffle out of the box is that it comes with a fairly paltry selection of symbols and shapes to use when creating your masterpiece. Is that purple square the Executive VP of Finance, or is it the refrigerator in the break room? Lucky for those of us too lazy to go looking for images on our own, Patrick Crowley of iCalShare has setup Graffletopia, as site dedicated to OmniGraffle stencils. (A stencil is a collection of reusable images or symbols.) Some of the stencils available are amazingly well done, and include such specific categories as Cisco network switches and Sun server hardware. All stencils are provided free of charge, and users are encouraged to submit their own.
The Omni Group hints at new product
The Omni Group has begun hinting at a new product on their blog by offering clues on their blog as to what it is not. In posts like A trickling of inklings, they have let us know things like the product's sub-$20 price, that it is not a replacement for Mail and that it has nothing to do with the iPod. They also have plainly stated that they have other new products and updates for existing products planned for 2006. This should be good news for those of you who (like me) are fans of their excellent offerings like OmniGiraffe OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner. Here's hoping they don't keep us in suspense for too long.
Omni Group adds tshirts to product list
Not to be out done by Panic, the Omni Group has decided to enter the tshirt fray. They are offering three different designs (my favorite is WWOGD?) each for $24.95. Not only that, but the blog post announcing the shirts hints at a new Omni product that will be available shortly.I hope it is pants.Thanks, Dan.
The Omni Group has a blog
The Omni Group has an Omni Mouth - their new blog, that is. Developers of such fantastic apps as OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle, The Omni Group is joining the ranks of software houses with blogs who want to offer up some insight into being developers, as well as thoughts on the more humorous side of their business. One post dated yesterday presents a statement from their CEO on the ground-breaking Boot Camp announcement and what it means to their app development, while another post transcribes some of the more unusual phrases heard from their support room such as: “Bananaphone," “OMG I’M IN UR BASE KILLING UR DOODZ” and, of course, “There’s a new Strong Bad email.”While it probably won't be the hottest place to find the latest Mac-related news and juicy tidbits (*ahem*), it should be a good blog to add to your newsreader if you're curious about the inner workings of one of Mac OS X's most prominent and well-known developers.
Omnigroup releases free Intel updates
Hot on the heels of yesterday's announcements, The Omnigroup has released free universal binary updates for registered users of the majority of their applications, including OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniDiskSweeper, OmniObjectMeter and OmniDictionary. These will all run natively on the new Intel-based iMac and the MacBook Pro. Grab your copies now for that sweet new MacBook Pro you just ordered.
Applescript for OmniGraffle to create graphical map of music taste
Another day, another slick new tool for graphically viewing artists in your iTunes library. OGMT (OmniGraffle Musical Taste) is an applescript that will generate an OmniGraffle file containing a graphical map of all of your artists, emphasizing the ones you play most.For those who aren't familiar with OmniGraffle: it's a really popular and powerful app for diagramming and flow-charts. Using OGMT to create a functional, graphical map of your iTunes library sounds like a great way to gain a unique perspective on the music at the top of your list. Too bad I didn't bring any of my music home with me on the PowerBook over the break. Anyone care to give OGMT a try and post some thoughts?[via Ranchero blog, image via DrunkenBlog]
