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Adobe's Lightroom for iPad makes a brief appearance, Google acquires a Nest, and other news from Jan. 12-18
With so much news and so many stories flying around every day, we here at TUAW thought it might be good to offer a quick "executive summary" of some of the most important news events from the past week. How do we measure the criteria for this round-up? Well, it's a work in progress, but the basic formula goes like this: "No rumors, no speculation, just news. If someone had been cut off from the Internet all week and came back today, what would be the stories you'd want to make sure they knew about? Or, to put it another way: what are the news stories from this past week that I'm likely to still care about in another week?" Obviously there's a certain amount of subjectivity in picking any kind of list like this, so we'll leave the comments open for awhile, in case you would like to suggest some bit of news we left off. Adobe's Lightroom for iPad briefly surfaces It looks like Adobe's Lightroom is making the leap to the iPad. 9to5Mac briefly spotted a listing for the software, with a subscription price of $99 a year, briefly on Adobe's site. When they inquired about it, Adobe pulled the link. With the release on the horizon, maybe there's hope that Apple will eventually do the same thing with Aperture. Adobe demonstrated a prototype for it in 2013. 9to5Mac says the software will sync with the desktop version of Lightroom. Apple's Anti-Trust Ebookcase The saga of Apple's anti-trust ruling in the eBook case continues to make the news. Apple sought the removal of court-appointed antitrust monitor claiming a litany of unnecessary expenses and inconveniences, but this week the judge ordered Apple and antitrust monitor to play nice. The whole thing still smells funny to many of us. Salon described it as Amazon's bogus anti-Apple crusade which didn't have the negative consequences anti-trust suits are meant to avoid. Dropbox down, but not hacked Dropbox experienced a rare bit of out downtime this week. Some well-timed pranksters tried to claim they had hacked the site, but Dropbox explains they had brought it on themselves. They outlined the problems in a post-mortem. Your Dropbox data was never at risk, but if it had been, the fine folks at Agile remind you that your Master Password is your defense from Dropbox breaches, real and imagined. Google bought Nest to the disappointment of the entire Internet Google bought Nest this week, which seemingly disappointed the entire Internet, and flooded Twitter with thousands of variations of approximately three jokes about a future update requiring a Google+ account to change your temperature. The Verge explained Why is everyone disappointed by Google buying Nest? in case you need someone to explain it to you. But my favorite response of the week was Joy Of Tech showing how Google/Nest had finally "disrupted" the market. Software Updates of Note The OmniGroup released OmniOutliner for Mac version 4. It requires OS X 10.9, and can be purchased either from the Mac App Store or directly from OmniGroup. You can download a demo from OmniGroup's website. (As always, I recommend purchasing directly from developers unless you must have iCloud. Developers can give you upgrade pricing, which Apple seems not to want to offer.) The Pro version is $100 ($50 upgrade) and the standard version is $50 ($25 upgrade). They also offer educational pricing. If you have any interest in making eBooks, you should check out Vellum which tackles the difficult process of making eBooks which are compatible with the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. You can download and try the app for free. You only pay when you want to generate the actual files. This week they announced unlimited eBooks can be made for $300, or you can make 10 for $150, or 1 for $50. The unlimited version includes all future updates to the app. Some deals you don't want to miss There are no shortages of deals around. You can find them at http://deals.tuaw.com/ or by following our daily deals, but I did want to make sure that I made special mention of two: Save 50% in Take Control's Post-Holiday Ebook Sale: "Through 25 January 2014, you can add any number of our ebooks to your Take Control library for 50 percent off. All books are DRM-free and available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats, so you can read wherever, whenever, and on whatever device you like." Get the all new Box for iPhone and iPad + 50GB free (Active Jan 15 - Feb 15, 2014). See the support page for nuts and bolts.
Omni Group starts shipping OmniOutliner 4
Omni Group announced today the availability of OmniOutliner 4. The outlining app helps you organize your to-do list, keep track of your expenses and log your notes. Like most Omni Group updates, the latest version of the app is a significant improvement over earlier iterations. OmniOutliner 4 has a bucket list of new items that are too numerous to mention. On the UI side of things, OmniOutliner 4 has been overhauled with a new UI. The biggest change you'll notice is the new sidebar, which replaces the old-style drawer from OmniOutliner 3. There's also an improvement in the way the app handles styles and themes, which brings some consistency when you are working on documents that are shuttled between the OS X and iOS app. Other smaller features include zooming, a new Resource Browser and redesigned Inspector window. The functional highlights include the inclusion of Smart Match technology, which is also present in OmniFocus. This feature will offer predictions as you type text into a pop-up List. An attachments option now allows you to append images, video, audio and even other OmniOutliner files to any Outliner document. For convenience, URLs are now clickable and will open in your default browser. If you don't like this auto-open, you can turn off this feature in the preferences. OmniOutliner 4 is available now from Omni Group's storefront and from the Mac App Store in the coming weeks. OmniOutliner will be available for US$49 for the standard version and $99 for the Pro version. Anyone who purchased OmniOutliner 3 since January 2011 will get a free upgrade. Customers who purchased OmniOutliner outside of this window will get 50 percent off the list price of $49.99 for the standard version and $99.99 for the Pro.
OmniGroup overhauls OmniOutliner, OmniFocus and OmniPlan for iOS 7
The OmniGroup has overhauled its iOS apps for the iOS 7 release, including creating a completely revamped OmniFocus on the iPhone that is just a joy to use. OmniOutliner 2 adds a number of keyboard shortcuts and a redesigned Doc Picker, as well as new templates. The Doc Picker makes its way over to OmniPlan 2 as well and adds an in-app purchase for importing Microsoft Project files. For those who have had their OmniGroup apps from day one of their original release -- for me, that would be going all the way back to 2008 -- you will have to make a new purchase in order to upgrade. OmniFocus 2 for the iPhone is US$19.99; OmniOutliner 2 for iPad is $29.99; and OmniPlan for iPad is $59.99. The older versions of these programs have been removed from the App Store. I've been testing all three of these apps for the past week and will be presenting reviews on each within the next week.
Omni Group teases OmniFocus 2, OmniPresence and more for 2013
Those planning to make a New Year's resolution to (yet again!) get more organized should be glad to hear that Omni Group is planning a major update to its popular Mac-based task management software, OmniFocus, in 2013. The developer intends to take the wraps off OmniFocus 2 for Mac at an event on January 31 during Macworld in San Francisco. Omni's Ken Case took to the company's blog today to offer up some advance details on the app, the design of which will be informed by the iPad version of OmniFocus, including Forecast and Review modes. Case also revealed that OmniOutliner for Mac, the firm's organization tool, will finally see a fourth version released in 2013 (version 3.0 was introduced way back in 2005). Omni is working on a way for those who've purchased OmniFocus and its other products from the Mac App Store to register them and receive discounted upgrades from their site. Finally, Case announced OmniPresence, the company's new automatic document sync offering that will work with all of its products and which it will make available for integration into apps from others. What's more, it will allow users to utilize multiple cloud services -- including its own -- to sync different types of documents, or even host their own private cloud servers. OmniFocus 2, OmniOutliner 4 and OmniPresence are all due in Q1 2013. We'll have more details on them this time next month.
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!
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me take notes at school
Dear Aunt TUAW, Now that most of the country's college students are going back to school, I need recommendations for note-taking software for my Mac. In the meantime, let me say, "Boo-hoo Microsoft for not making OneNote for OS X." Sincerely, Kenny M Dear Kenny, If you're looking for an OS X app that hits many of OneNote's sweet spots, consider the US$39.99 Pear Note from Useful Fruit. Developer Chad Sellers tells TUAW, "Pear Note is often looked at as a more focused Mac alternative to OneNote." If you record lectures as you take notes, Pear Note may be the app for you. It integrates your typed notes with audio, providing many of the same kinds of note-taking features as OneNote. Timestamps for each keystroke allow you to associate what you typed with what was being said at the same time. Just click on the text notes to jump to the point in the recording when you typed it, and start listening again to that topic. If you plan to use an iPad and a Mac, the upcoming Pear Note for iPad will coordinate with the Mac version via Dropbox. Do recognize, though, that Pear Note is for creating notes, not organizing them. Sellers says, "I wanted people to be able to use whatever organizational tool they like with Pear Note. So, some organize their notes in folders on the filesystem, some throw them all in Documents and use search to find things, and some use Yojimbo, Together, or Evernote to organize them." Now, if you're more of a visual scribbler than a listener, Auntie suggests the $29.99 Circus Ponies Notebook. Notebook shines in its ability to add diagrams, flow charts and sketches to any page and provides full stylus integration. You can import PDF documents and add notes on top of that material. Plus, you can "...'clip' selections from web pages and other apps straight into your Notebooks," according to Circus Ponies' marketing text. Notebooks stores the URL with the clip, allowing you to return to pages that you've taken notes on. Perhaps your prefer an outline approach? Auntie's got a suggestion for you, too. How about the $39.99 OmniOutliner? It provides excellent outlining tools. OmniOutliner lets you collect and organize information using a traditional outliner on steroids. With it, you can build multi-columned documents that include many spreadsheet enhancements, so your outlines can come to life. If you're a bullet-point style note taker, OmniOutliner probably provides all (if not more) the functionality you need for in-class organizing. Got another OS X note-taking app to recommend? Drop a note in the comments, because Auntie loves hearing from you. Hugs, Auntie T.
OmniOutliner for iPad is now available
The Omni Group has brought OmniOutliner to the iPad. The app is more of a collection of functions that allow you to gather, categorize and later reference a variety of information. In fact, you can use OmniOutliner for spreadsheets, documents and even photo management. Putting all of that power on the ultra-powerful iPad will appeal to many people. OmniOutliner can be as simple or as involved as you like. Start with simple lists. Move on to hierarchical documents and tables. The iPad version offers the thoughtful design you'd expect from an app by the Omni Group. For example, you can indent rows with a tap while making a list, or utilize handy tap-and-hold contextual menus, like those found in OmniFocus for iPad. When it's time to share your data, OmniOutliner lets you export to your iDisk or WebDAV server, email your files or sync them with iTunes File Sharing. As for export formats, choose from plain text, simple HTML, dynamic HTML, or OPML. We'll have a more in-depth look at OmniOutliner for iPad soon. It's available now from the App Store at US$19.99.
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]
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]
Omni Group posts OmniOutliner screencasts
OmniOutliner is arguably the Photoshop of the note-taking industry; it's endowed with a plethora of powerful abilities that are wrapped in a well-designed experience, and it wears many hats for its many users. It only makes sense, then, for the Omni crew to team up with ScreenCastsOnline to produce a series of free tutorial videos that demonstrate some of OmniOutliner and OmniOutliner Pro's key features. If you've ever needed a crash course on everything you can do with this powerful app, these videos range in topics from a basic introduction, levels and styles, columns in notes, embedding files and exactly what's so special about the Pro version. As one would expect from a website that makes a living out of producing screencasts, these tutorials are very well produced and a great resource for users both old and new.
OmniFocus Sneak Preview
OmniGroup today hosted a special event at the flagship Apple store in San Francisco to give users a sneak peak into their upcoming GTD productivity software OmniFocus. TUAW was there and brings you this special bulleted report! OmniFocus, unlike its predecessor KinklessGTD will feature an instant data propagation across the app, thus doing away with the need for a "sync button," and ensuring your data is always where you expect it to be. OmniFocus will have a simpler and more streamlined interface than OmniOutliner, on which KGTD was built. Users will be able to view multiple or individual projects and contexts in either a single window or multiple separate windows. OmniFocus will support existing KGTD QuickSilver inbox-entry actions. OmniFocus will also feature a standalone proprietary quick-entry method via keystroke, similar to Yojimbo. Future versions will support user definable smart folders. The first version of OmniFocus will not require 10.5 Leopard, but all following versions will due to the use of Leopard only technologies. Like KGTD, OmniFocus will support syncing with portable devices through iCal. OmniFocus will be fully applescriptable. Future versions will support integration with OmniPlan. Future versions will support universal action creation from other applications (such as turning an email message or iCal to-do into an action). Future versions will support attaching or tying of files to actions and projects. OmniGroup is planning to release OmniFocus within the next few months.
Hawk Wings lists 10 Mac OS X tools for Getting Things Done
Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings has compiled a list of ten Mac OS X tools that can help you implement the Getting Things Done philosophy in the way you work. The tools are broken down into three categories: email clients, dedicated GTD apps and web-based solutions for that ultimate cross-platform effect. Mail.app, of course, starts off the list. Once combined with a few Smart Folders and the powerful Mail Act-on and MailTags plugins, Mail.app can become a most powerful GTD tool indeed. Other featured tools include kGTD (an OmniOutliner Pro template), a Todo.txt script for the ultimate in plain-text GTD, EasyTask Manaager (a stand-alone app without the GTD learning curve), iCommit (a web-based PHP tool), Backpack, Gmail and even wikis. Check out Hawk Wings' list for more ideas and tools to help you, well, get things done.
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.
OmniOutliner, OmniOutliner Pro 3.6 released
The Omni Group has finalized version 3.6 of OmniOutliner and OmniOutliner Pro, their "amazingly flexible program for creating, collecting, and organizing information." The final version itself doesn't usher in any mind-blowing new features aside from the built-in help being fully localized, but check out their release notes for all the new features they rolled out in previous 3.6 beta releases if you haven't been keeping up.Version 3.6 is a free upgrade for existing 3.0 customers, and is available from the Omni Group's site.
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.
