NotationalVelocity
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Notational Velocity ALT adds Markdown support and widescreen view
The runaway success of the iPad has provoked significant demand amongst people who want to seamlessly edit cloud-synced files across their iOS devices and their computers. We've seen a lot of apps vying to be the iOS part of that solution (such as SimpleNote, Elements, WriteRoom, Edito and a whole lot more), but that's only part of the puzzle -- people need something on the desktop end, too. One popular tool for this is Notational Velocity, an open source program by Zachary Schneirov. However, many people aren't entirely satisfied by Notational Velocity's UI and feature set. Because it is open source, developers are free to take the source code, modify it and distribute their changed version -- this is generally called forking in the open source world. We've seen a number of Notational Velocity forks over the years (for example, this one by Steven Frank of Panic or this one by "elasticthreads"). Two days ago, a new edition appeared: from TUAW's own Brett Terpstra comes Notational Velocity ALT (nvALT). nvALT adds several new features to the baseline Notational Velocity app.
TUAW TV Live today at 5 PM ET: Writing tools for Mac
Monday was the start of NaNoWriMo, the annual writing fest in which authors from around the globe attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. I've started on my third novel, and as usual I'm having a blast thinking up characters, situations, plot lines, and just how I'm going to wrap up this entire story. There are a number of wonderful writing tools for the Mac, so on today's episode of TUAW TV Live, I thought I'd introduce to you at least 10 of them. You don't need to be a budding novelist or screenwriter to benefit from the power of some of these tools, so if you do any sort of writing I think you'll enjoy this afternoon's show. We'll start at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT) sharp. Just drop by TUAW about 5 minutes before the start of the show and you'll find a post with a livestream viewer and chat box. You can also join us or watch old episodes of TUAW TV Live at ustream.tv/tuaw.
Notational Velocity, Simplenote, and Dropbox bring child-like wonder
The phrase "game changer" is no doubt cliché and overused, but every now and again it just fits. I had heard about Notational Velocity when Merlin Mann posted about it on 43Folders. It changed how I use my iMac, MacBookPro, and iPhone, bringing them all together in a very cool way. The app has been around for awhile (we talked about it five years ago!) but some new features and new technologies make it well worth another look. It took me a minute to understand why I'd want Notational Velocity, it because it sounded like yet another "everything box" like Yojimbo, which I was already using. Notational Velocity does save notes, either in ASCII, RTF, or HTML, but with the latest version, Notational Velocity syncs with Simplenote or WriteRoom for iPhone. It also easily syncs via Dropbox if you follow the important configuration notes here. Imagine if Apple had created an over-the-air method of syncing Notes and it all Just Worked. That's what Notational Velocity has achieved. Notes on my iPhone, my iMac and my MacBook Pro. Edit a note anywhere, and the changes are synced nearly instantly and appear everywhere. It's fast, it's seamless. Thinking about getting an iPad? That's only going to make this setup even sweeter.
Good icons? You're soaking in it.
Giles Turnbull is pondering icons, more specifically what makes a good one. This is an interesting question since most of us spend a good deal of our time staring that this little masterpieces (unless you're one of those freaks who auto-hides the Dock).Giles lists a few icons that he likes (Notational Velocity,Spotlaser) but he admits that he is no designer. He turned to John Hicks (designer of FireFox's icon) and Jasper Hauser (creator of Camino's icon) to give their opinions about icons and list a few of their favorites.I have always had a soft spot for the Finder icon, though I suppose that one is fairly obvious. How about you? Fire off a comment letting us know what icons you like the best.
