bare bones
Latest
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.
Star Trek - Infinite Space launches website with stellar promotion
We've been watching Star Trek - Infinite Space ever since eyeballing it at E3 earlier this year, and we're happy to say that Gameforge's upcoming title has taken the next step toward the final frontier by launching the official website for the game. The site is somewhat bare-Bones right now, with a sign-up to receive more information, screenshots, the trailer, and a news blog. What's interesting is that Gameforge is offering players an incentive to enlist in Starfleet by offering the chance to reserve your name, get beta key priority, and receive an exclusive item once you enter your retinal scan (or, y'know, fill out the form). Star Trek - Infinite Space is on display at this week's Gamescom, and we look forward to hearing more about this action-based free-to-play MMO.
WWDC Interview: Bare Bones Software
In this interview, Neil Ticktin of MacTech talks to Bare Bones Software co-founder Rich Siegel about the WWDC keynote, and also potential issues with the Mac App Store going forward. Bare Bones produces BBEdit, TextWrangler and Yojimbo (see our coverage of Yojimbo here and BBEdit here). TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC 2011 about the keynote announcements and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. We'll bring you those videos here, MacTech.com and MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here.
Shuttle H7 Pro, H3, and XG41 HTPC hands-on
Shuttle's diving headlong into Sandy Bridge to shore up its ever-expanding line of barebones HTPC systems at CeBIT this week, showing off the H3 model (pictured above) featuring support for up to 16GB of DDR3-1333 RAM alongside one PCI Express x16 slot, one x1 slot, and another mini-PCI Express x1 slot -- but considering that you've got HDMI and eight-channel HD audio on board, you won't likely use all three. Moving on, they've got a re-upped version of the H7 -- aptly named the H7 Pro -- with two built-in USB 3.0 ports and a pair of 6Gbps SATA connectors. Finally, there's the slim, sexy XG41, though it's on the aging G41 Express chipset; needless to say, it's the lowest-power (both in terms of electricity and capability) of the three. See galleries of all three models below! %Gallery-117854% %Gallery-117852% %Gallery-117855%
WeatherCal adds weather forecasts to iCal
WeatherCal is a nifty Preference Pane app from Bare Bones (of BBEdit and Yojimbo fame) that adds the ability to get weather forecasts in iCal by creating all-day events for each day with the relevant information (forecast plus high and low temperatures). You can add different cities, each of which gets its own iCal calendar and you get forecasts up to 4 days in advance. And since iCal events obviously sync to the iPhone, you can take the forecast with you. WeatherCal is $10 from Bare Bones Software; a demo version is available for download. [via Macworld]
Mailsmith 2.2 beta universal
Mailsmith is an old-school, text-only email client from Bare Bones (of BBEdit and Yojimbo fame), that has long had a cadre of devoted users, but which has also really been showing its age of late (version 2.1.5 was released in March 2005). Yesterday, however, Bare Bones' Rich Siegel announced a public beta of Mailsmith 2.2 that brings the application into the Intel age as well as adding a variety of other changes, including substantial changes to disk storage formats which preclude downgrading back to 2.1. Siegel emphasizes that 2.2 is not yet for sale and is completely unsupported, but if you're an old Mailsmith user who moved away in the Intel age you may want to check out the announcement.[Via Daring Fireball]Update: fixed links to the announcement. Here's a FTP link to the demo of Mailsmith 2.2 (via Hawk Wings)
Yojimbo 1.4.1
While it isn't a major release that adds big features like tagging or AppleScript support, Yojimbo 1.4.1 does fix a lot of miscellaneous bugs that users have been battling. A full changelog is here, listing fixes for things like crashes when viewing web archives and some scripting operations, as well as an auto-save fix to make sure your most recent un-saved changes don't get tossed out with the bath water when you quit. Yojimbo 1.4.1 can be had from from Bare Bones's Updates page.
BBEdit, TextWrangler updated
Attention, Bare Bones fans. Maintenance updates have been released for both BBEdit and TextWrangler. You can grab them both here. Since these are maintenance updates, don't expect new features or extra bells and whistles, just a general tidying up of things. Both are free updates.[Via Macworld]
Yojimbo 1.4 released with AppleScript support
Bare Bones Software has released version 1.4 of Yojimbo, their "effortless information organizer" that is oh so popular with the kids these days. To summarize the press release, the main new addition is long-requested "extensive" support for automation via AppleScript and Perl. Also in this release is a new "Untagged Items" factory smart collection to go along with the still somewhat new tagging feature they released with v1.3. Of course, plenty of bug fixes and refinements also made it into this release, all of which you can view in the release notes. You can snag the new version from Bare Bones' updates page.
Yojimbo 1.3 brings tagging, loads of new features
Late last week, Bare Bones released an update to their excellent junk drawer app, Yojimbo, bringing it up to verison 1.3. I was going to post about it, but a hiccup in my database was preventing me to use the new version (I blame recent .Mac errors, as I'm having all sorts of syncing issues with other apps). Now that I've settled everything, however, I can honestly say this is one of the most pleasing and significant updates to a strong application. In addition to the typical bug fixes and behavior tweaks (you can see the extensive list of changes here), one of the many major additions is tags - users can now tag notes in Yojimbo, complete with support for searching by tags and smart tag collections (and a new Tags management panel in the preferences. Peep the screenshot:As you can see, not only did Bare Bones add tag support, but they did it right. Tags are separated by commas as opposed to restrictive spaces (I'm looking at you, del.icio.us), and yes - that's a Tag Collection you see below my Serial Numbers group (bonus points for still allowing users to change a Tag Collection's folder icon via the Inspector). I honestly can't say enough good things about the addition of tags to Yojimbo, but I need to leave room for the other major additions I mentioned, such as list and table formatting in notes, easy link creation (for both URLs and file system links), a new UI for the Item Details bar (which you can see includes an area for tags), and much, much more. If you're a Yojimbo user, or someone who's still looking for a good junk drawer app, I highly recommend this new version, as Yojimbo is really beginning to shape up well.
BBEdit 8.5.1
Barebones has just updated the recently released BBEdit 8.5 (it is now 8.5.1). This is a maintenance release, but there are a few additions, mostly to snippets, so check it out. You can also be sure some bugs are squashed, and that stability has been increased.Text hackers, get to downloading!
Yojimbo: Made possible by Tiger
The Apple Developer Connection spoke with the folks at Bare Bones about Yojimbo, their application for organizing just about everything, and how Apple technologies made it possible. Core Data, Sync Services, and Cocoa created the perfect storm, in the form of Tiger, that combined to form Yojimbo, after some work in Xcode and Interface Builder that is.An interesting article about a very clever app.
MiniPC goes Core Duo with the LF800
Japanese consumers looking for yet another Mac mini-style PC will soon be able to pick up the LF800 from miniPC, which won't run as silently as the ED612E we recently saw from this same company, but delivers a much more impressive set of specs. Instead of that pokey 1.2GHz VIA Eden processor powering the last offering, this model throws down a Core Duo T2300, while also doubling the RAM to 512MB and jacking up the hard drive capacity from 40GB to 250GB. If that particular configuration doesn't suit your needs then you're in luck, because you can also pick up a bare bones model that includes integrated Intel graphics, a PCI-Express x16 slot, and CF reader, along with gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, USB 2.0, S/PDIF, and S-Video ports. Both the fully assembled rig as well as the DIY version will be available sometime this month, with the former going for around $1,080 and the latter priced just under $600.[Via Impress]
Bare Bones Software releases Yojimbo 1.2
Yojimbo, the information collection app from Bare Bones Software that helps you 'master the onslaught', has been updated to version 1.2. Among the additions and improves are a Quick Start movie for new users that launches on first startup, search term highlighting, browser bookmarklets for one-click bookmarking or web archiving in Yojimbo, AppleScript importing and much more.A 30-day fully functioning demo is available, while Bare Bones offers full single user, family and educational licenses for $39, $69 and $29, respectively.
