productivity
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iStudiez Pro helps to get you back on schedule
It's been a long summer, and students everywhere are starting to head back to universities and colleges around the country. It's not easy to get back into a daily grind of classes, assignments and activities but a new application called iStudiez Pro [iTunes Link] is here to help! Created by Andriy Kachalo and Michael Balashoff, iStudiez Pro is designed to help you take charge of your own schedule by always keeping you on top of where you need to be and what needs to get done. With an intuitive interface, the application promises to make sure "you never miss another course, lecture, and lab, track tasks and deadlines, plan homework, arrange assignments and much more." Some notable features include: Smart day view that automatically displays summary of currently classes and tasks Detailed schedule planner to break down classes and assignments A view to suit everyone including expanded month and week views, with colored labels for each course Specific icons for different types of classes Supports iPhone features like touch gestures and device rotation Integrated address book keeps your contacts and professor's information close at hand The application, available for both iPhone and iPod touch, is selling for $2.99 on the App Store. If you're looking to snag a copy of this app for free, the developers are currently offering a deal that if you see the demo version of iStudiez Pro being used in an Apple store and take a picture, they'll send you a free promo code! Here's a couple images of iStudiez Pro in action: %Gallery-70083%
Put Things Off is an iPhone task manager worth owning
I'll admit to being a productivity geek. For me, getting things done is almost as fun as fiddling with my system. After trying every app I could, I've come to a conclusion: Paper is where it's at.There's nothing more flexible and full of potential. You can make arrangements to meet a friend or solve a serious network issue with paper and pen. Most of the apps I used tried to mimic the ease of pen and paper, but none match the flexibility.For me, the iPhone adds another hurdle with the touch keyboard. Here's the bottleneck: I write faster that I type on a full-sized keyboard, and I do both faster than I use the iPhone keyboard. Some iPhone productivity apps require lots of typing, categorizing, tapping and clicking. Tally up the time spent being "productive" with your iPhone and it's not worth it. Just grab a small notebook. It only makes sense that I'd love the app from a man who shares my love of paper. Put Things Off for iPhone and iPod touch is a mobile productivity app that I'm happy to use. The initial window (see gallery below) is nice and sparse. To add a new task, click the arrow and type something brief like "Email Tom Re: website." Select a due date and hit Save. A small "card" appears on the To Do List desktop that you can put in one of four boxes: Inbox (the default), Today (determined by your due date), Put Off and Done. In fact, you might not have to do any clicking at all. The Today box is self-populated, the Inbox is the default and the Done box fills itself as you kill off tasks. Which leaves the Put Off box. In the app's preferences, you have an option to delay tasks for a certain amount of time. I've opted to put things off for 7 days, just in time for my weekly review. Therefore, items without a specific due date show up weekly, just in time for my weekly review. GTD'ers can think of it as a dynamic @readandrevew or @someday/maybe list.What I love about Put Things Off is that it comes very close to mimicking paper and pen. I open a note, jot a task and add a due date. Exactly what I do in my notebook. The Put Off box works wonderfully with my weekly reviews and there's no ballet of clicking, categorizing, tagging and whatnot to accompany every entry.Some will call it "under-featured," but I think it's perfect. Try it out and see if I'm wrong. Put Things Off is available in the App Store now for $2.99US. %Gallery-69610%
The Big Mean Folder Machine turns 2.0
Oh, Big Mean Folder Machine 1.5, we hardly knew ye! You joined the Mac world in October of 2008, and now you're gone, replaced by your new and younger sibling. Big Mean Folder Machine 2.0, from publicspace.net, is the newest version of the great Mac file manipulation application. BMFM 2.0 continues the tradition of allowing you to split files from different folders into new folders based on a set of criteria, or merge files from multiple folders into a new folder while taking care of naming conflicts. So what's new with 2? Publicspace.net has redesigned the user interface, built in an automatic update engine, and streamlined BMFM for better performance. The application also does an even better job of resolving file name conflicts. The Big Mean Folder Machine's droplet capability, which lets you take custom folder merges or splits and save them as for future use as standalone apps, has also been improved.This is a free update for owners of previous versions of Big Mean Folder Machine, or you can purchase the program for €14.95 (about US$21.25) from publicspace.net. If you haven't used BMFM before and you're intrigued by what it can do, a free trial is available for download.
Friday Favorite: Scrivener
Not long after I bought my first personal Mac in late 2004, I stumbled across an article that mentioned Ulysses, a text editor geared toward creative writers -- essentially the marriage between a word processor and project management software. It allows you to have all documents within a writing project at your grasp. As a journalist and author, Ulysses was a dream come true, but expensive. Costing more than $100 at the time, it didn't fit into a journalist's salary. I wound up using CopyWrite for a time and was fairly satisfied with it until I read in a forum that people were having luck with a program which, at the time, was called Scrivener Gold. I gave the free beta a try and was blown away by the program's potential. When the full-fledged release of Scrivener came out in early 2007, I bought a license as a birthday gift for myself. Scrivener pulls all the things needed for a complete writing project -- be it writing a script, novel, research paper or newspaper/blog articles -- together in one location and has so many features that even after nearly three years of use, I don't think I've fully explored all that it has to offer. I recently started work on writing my first graphic novel, and have really gotten the chance to flex Scrivener's muscles.
The Freelancer's iPhone: Productivity solutions for independent professionals
Last summer I started to fantasize about working for myself. I pictured a home office, afternoons with the kids and life as the boss. My employer maintained a similar fantasy, and a few months later they went out of business and left 120 of us high and dry. Synchronicity is cruel. Thanks for that, Carl Jung.I've learned that working solo is 1 part thrilling, 90 parts horrifying and 9 parts educational. Also, I've found the best setup for my iPhone to help me through my self-employed day. Here I'll describe the apps, settings and hardware that I've found most useful. Feel free to share your own.
First Look: Documents to Go for iPhone
Documents to Go from DataViz has been known for years to the Palm and Blackberry community, and it finally comes to the iPhone -- filling in the need for a built-in Word (and soon Excel) editor that truly turns the iPhone into a mini computer. There are currently two versions of Document To Go. The $4.99USD version [App Store link] features Microsoft Word editing alone and the $9.99 version adds Microsoft Exchange support. You can also view and synchronize Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDFs, HTML pages and iWork '08 documents ('05, '06 and '09 are not supported at this time, though I do imagine that iWork '09 support will be added later). A free upgrade is part of the deai; when purchasing Documents to Go now, you net the ability to create and edit Excel documents when that feature becomes available. For an in-depth look of the app itself, click through. Please note that this review covers the $4.99US version of the app sans Microsoft Exchange. %Gallery-66042%
WWDC Live: Andrew and Phil from Evernote
This video is from a chat I had with Phil and Andrew, CEO and Lead Mac Developer for Evernote, respectively. We covered Evernote when it first came out a while back, and it's been fun to watch it evolve since then. We talked about WWDC and recent Apple news, as well as some upcoming improvements in Evernote for both Mac and iPhone (searchable voice notes! UI improvements!). The interview ended up running quite long, and while it's still a bit lengthy, this version is cut to about 1/4 of the full video. I think I got all of the important bits in, though. Enjoy. Update: This video has been moved to YouTube and is now watchable. Due to YouTube's length limitations, the video has been split into two parts, both embedded here.
Quickoffice for iPhone impressions
Quickoffice is no stranger to the mobile Office space. Indeed, the software itself has been around in one form or another since 1998. Most recently, however, the app has strolled into Apple's App Store, and we'll be taking a closer look at what may possibly be the most serious productivity app to sashay over to the iPhone OS. Priced at $19.99, the app certainly isn't inexpensive, but it offers a few luxuries that businesspeople and Office mavens alike may not be able to live without. We're talking real, unadulterated editing of Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and text files, not to mention a fairly robust file management system as well as a PDF and JPEG viewer. Care to find out what we thought after taking it for a spin? Hop on past the break.
Friday Favorite: Transcriva
If you have a photographic memory, you may recall an article I wrote for TUAW about a year ago describing how to use AppleScript to make it easier to transcribe QuickTime movies and audio. In the comments for that piece, a program was pointed out to me (thanks imnotjesus) which has become a valuable tool in my toolbox. Transcriva is a single-purpose program for transcribing video and audio clips with a rich set of features certain to make your life easier. If you're doing professional transcription, recording audio notes in a class or a meeting for later reference, preparing sub-titles for a movie, or anything which involves copying what's being said or shown into text form, Transcriva has tools to fit, and pricing I find very reasonable. The main window of Transcriva offers a library view of your transcriptions, a media playback bar and your current transcription. With user-configurable keyboard shortcuts, it's possible to comfortably operate during a transcription without your hands ever needing to leave the keyboard. It even works with a foot pedal, if you're set up with one. You can control playback speed and set it to match your typing speed, as well automatically jump back a configurable number of seconds when you pause and resume playback. Of all of the features available, Follow-Along is my favorite. It allows you to play back your audio after you've transcribed it, and highlights the appropriate sections of the transcription as the playback head moves through them. More importantly, clicking on an area of the transcription jumps to its related point in the playback, allowing you to quickly review the audio associated with a note or transcription. This is important because that's exactly how I use Transcriva, taking notes from audio recordings or even during a recording when I'm using the built-in record features. Then I can review my hastily typed notes and immediately hear the audio that was happening at the time I took the note. It's great for recording meetings and annotating recorded Skype conversations. I imagine it would be an amazing tool in class, if you were in a situation where recording and typing were allowed. I haven't been to school for a while. The functionality is similar to Pear Note, but at $29.99US, Transcriva comes in $10US cheaper and packs more features. Transcriva can handle just about any type of audio or video you can play on your Mac. It uses QuickTime, and with Flip4Mac and Perian installed, you can extend the possibilities to include WMV, AVI, DIVX, FLV and more. When you're done with a transcription, you can export it to RTF or Word formats for sharing, publishing or continuing editing externally. I use Transcriva to recap interviews I do over Skype, and take my notes in an "outline" format which I can, with a little finagling, turn into a mind map or outline for an article. Transcriva has made my life exponentially easier and is a tool I'd gladly recommend to anyone with similar needs. My direct experience with the developer has also been great, with quick response times and a single bug report resulting in a new build within a couple of days. Transcriva is free to try, $29.99US to buy. You can download the trial at the Bartas Technologies site. If you hurry, it's even discounted to $19.99US in the MacUpdate Promo today.
Another fistful of apps: Ember, Headspace, myMovies, Nozbe, Juglir and LiveView
According to my completely unscientific research, about 90% of the TUAW mailbag is comprised of iPhone app announcements. In our continuing effort to not deluge you with iPhone app reviews, I present another "fistful of apps": 6 iPhone app reviews in one post. If you don't have an iPhone, you only have to skip one post. For the rest, this is some serious bang for your blog-reading buck. I don't play games much, aside from the occasional word challenge, so the apps I've chosen to review are definitely of a more utilitarian ilk. I'd classify them as productivity apps, including a Campfire client, a 3D mind mapping app, a movie cataloger, a task-management solution, a multi-status updater and a nifty tool for developing iPhone interfaces. Read on for the nitty gritty.
OmniFocus 1.6 checks off bugs and adds new features
The Omni Group just released OmniFocus 1.6, and it's a big, big update. Current users are going to be pleased, even if they don't bother to page through the extensive list of new features and fixes in the release notes. I've never said anything to the contrary, but this is proof that Omni is listening carefully to users and working hard to evolve with user demands while still maintaining their original vision. For the uninitiated, OmniFocus is one of the top contenders for your task manager dollar. Among the commercial options -- along with Things and up-and-comer, The Hit List -- OmniFocus is considered to be the powerhouse, at least as far as features. It's been a bit too much power for a number of people looking for simplicity in both form and function, but for those who need the extra power, it's a solid choice. When I say "extra power", I'm talking about advanced sorting based on just about any criteria, saved filter sets called "Perspectives," AppleScript support, integration with Mail, iCal sync, iPhone sync (with separately purchased iPhone version) and some advanced capabilities to help you determine your "next action" with less input than some of the others. Things and The Hit List are still contending for my ultimate love, but I've used OmniFocus extensively and can honestly say that the only reason I tend to drift away from it is complexity -- both in the UI and in general functionality. As I mentioned, the 1.6 release notes are extensive, and the vast majority of the entries are of very similar importance, making "highlights" hard to do. There are changes and additions to the filtering options, a new "Flagged" collation type for Context view, a prodigious number of bug fixes and enhancements to existing functionality, UI improvements, AppleScript fixes and improvements ... seriously, it's a long list. If you're a current user, you should be notified of the update within the application (check your update settings in Preferences), and new users can download a free demo. OmniFocus will hit your pocketbook for $79.95US ... competitive in the GTD arena and fitting for the punch it packs.
MyCal: custom calendars for your iPhone
Here's the question: what day of the month does next Friday land on? You pull out your iPhone, turn it on, unlock it, navigate to the Calendar and switch to Month view. Got it. March 20th. Of course, being the self-proclaimed efficiency expert that you are (isn't everybody?), you quickly decide that was way too many steps for such a simple task. If you regularly need this particular type of information, you're going to have to find an easier way. You could (A) carry around a printout of the calendar for the month, or (B) check out MyCal. MyCal is a single-purpose app from Chillix, the same developers to whom our faithful readers offered their offbeat to-do lists a while back. It allows you to pick a background -- from a wide variety of built-in images or from your own collection -- select a calendar style and set transparency levels. When you're done, it outputs a wallpaper image you can use to get a quick view of the month without even unlocking your phone. To be clear, it won't show you any appointments or tasks, just a good-looking calendar that's readily accessible. A recent update to the application fixed some issues with blurriness, and I give it two thumbs up for simplicity and usefulness. If you fit into the description in the first paragraph, you might just want to check it out. The user's guide offers a comprehensive preview, and it's available in the App Store for 99 cents (US). Chillix has built up a fairly extensive collection of iPhone apps; check out their website for some other gems.
The Hit List 0.9.3 introduces repeating tasks
Potion Factory's The Hit List introduces repeating tasks to the GTD-style client, but in a pretty neat way. Instead of the traditional method of indicating how often a task should repeat, users can type directly into the "repeating" field, using natural language to describe when and how many times it should reoccur. For example, if I wanted a reminder to return my library books, I simply would type in "every 3 weeks on Wednesday." Then a short menu appears indicating how often I'd like for that particular task to repeat itself. Once I complete that chore, it'll jump ahead to the next date it's due.Repeating tasks is something that's been requested since the program debuted, and I really like how you can dig into the specifics of creating them. Potion Factory's Andy Kim acknowledges in his blog entry that the one huge drawback to this feature right now is localization. It's just not there at the moment, but that issue will be resolved once the code itself has been hammered out.Other features in this update, as seen on the release notes, include: AppleScript support. Different way to tweak tasks including smart-folder-like capabilities and disabling the auto-completion of parent tasks when sub-tasks are finished. Duplicate any list, folder, or smart folder by right clicking in the source list. When emails are dragged and dropped into a task, it adds the sender's name and email address in addition to the subject. Various keyboard shortcut tweaks. Many more bug fixes and small features than we have room to list here.
Evernote meets Curio, you save some money
Right around Macworld-time, Zengobi released Curio 5.4, which included a healthy dose of Evernote integration. I had fallen for Evernote before I really figured out Curio, but lately I've found both to be key elements in my organization arsenal. I especially like Evernote's mobile capabilities and cross-platform sync. At home, I organize nearly all of my projects and related materials in Curio. Now, with Curio 5.4 and Evernote's very thorough API, we get the best of both worlds. All of the notes I take on my iPhone by photographing, recording and typing show up automatically -- and with full search capabilities -- when I sit down at my Mac. I also do a lot of research on the web, and this new integration means I can clip web pages to one place -- Evernote -- and have the information immediately available in Curio. Evernote's various software clients are free, and premium accounts (allowing for any filetype and much more storage) are available for $5/month or $45/year. Curio is more pricey; the standard version is $99, and the pro version is $149 (there are significant academic discounts available). If you're already a Curio user but not an Evernote user, I'd recommend you sign up for a free Evernote account and start enjoying the benefits of the integration. You can always upgrade to a premium account if you find it indispensable (a fairly common occurrence). If you're an Evernote user considering Curio, use the coupon code EVERNOTE at Zengobi's online store (or Academic Store) to get a 20% discount on a Curio purchase. If you use neither, and don't want to, shouldn't you have given up reading this about a paragraph ago? Nah, thanks for sticking around.
Google's Tasks list on the iPhone
When Google Labs introduced "Tasks" to Gmail in December, we were eager for a mobile version; yesterday, the Gmail team announced an optimized Tasks web UI for mobile devices including the iPhone. Setup is simple. First, log into your Gmail account and click "Settings." From there, click "Labs" and then the "Enable" button next to "Tasks." As Jeff Goldblum said, "There's no step three." You'll see a link to Tasks in the left sidebar of your Gmail account. Now grab your iPhone and point Mobile Safari to http://gmail.com/tasks. Once you've logged in, you'll see the tasks you created on your Mac. Of course, you can create a task on either device, as well as multiple lists, mark items as complete and clear completed tasks. It's nice and snappy over EDGE and Wi-Fi. Here's a great example of something that works perfectly well as a web-based app. In the rush to create iPhone/iPod touch apps that do everything under the sun, we've seen a crop of replacements for web apps that weren't 100% necessary (I still use Hahlo on occasion, if only for its speed over EDGE). If you want a free, no-frills task manager, and you already use Google for email or other services, this could be it. [Via Phandroid]
Tags takes organization to a new level
The idea of tagging files as an organization and project management method has been around for some time now, and we've mentioned applications in the past (FileSpot, TagBot, Punakea ... ) which touched on some useful applications for the tagging method. A truly seamless, system-wide implementation, however, has been hard to find. Back at WWDC, Gravity applications gave me a taste of a new application which takes the concept to a new level. Tags, finally released yesterday, provides a hotkey-triggered HUD which allows tagging and searching from a wide range of applications, including: Finder and Path Finder Mail Address Book iPhoto Safari Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) Adobe Photoshop Xcode Rapidweaver Omnioutliner Pages and Keynote Quicktime The list goes on. Basically, any application which can tell AppleScript what the current context is will work with Tags. Those that don't can also have their items tagged from Finder, which is especially easy if they have a "Reveal in Finder" shortcut. Tags uses Spotlight metadata instead of the old Spotlight comments method. Files tagged with Tags are immediately indexed in Spotlight, allowing for searches and Smart Folders outside of Tags, as well as integration with other Spotlight-enabled applications. Its keyword storage method is directly compatible with Ironic Software's Deep, and the same method is planned for use in Leap, eventually. Ironic has actually just announced OpenMeta, an open source library for accessing and modifying this kind of metadata (more on that coming soon). Read on for more on the concepts behind Tags.
The Hit List enters public beta
A few weeks ago, Brett wrote about his first impressions with The Hit List from Potion Factory, a task management application that goes toe to toe with OmniFocus and Things. He was extremely impressed with what the release, then just entering private beta, offered. "We haven't seen a lot of waves in the advanced, visually polished task manager wars lately, but this one is going to storm the gates," he said then. I have to agree.Brett is a power user for this sort of program, but I'm brand new to it. After investing $100 into the OmniFocus applications only to wind up frustrated with them weeks later, I had started to look to Things when the private beta for The Hit List came out. I wanted a place where I could keep complicated to-do lists for projects alongside simple lists for basic tasks such as a to-read list and what books I wanted from the library.The Hit List hits that sweet spot where it's got enough features for power users, but the absolute beginner can tailor it to their own needs -- much like Literature and Latte's Scrivener for the writing crowd. Some of the included features that beta testers enjoyed include being able to navigate the program almost completely via keyboard (think Quicksilver) and a slick timer that lets you know exactly how much time you've spent on a task, a tagging system that syncs well with iCal (at least from my experience), tabbed interface and more.The Hit List is moving from private to public beta with the official release candidate now available. A Google Group for users has also been set up. The Hit List will retail for $69.95, but the pre-order price is $49.95 and will be available at that price until version 1.0 is released. The Hit List's future does include an eventual iPhone app. And, a great little Easter Egg: While examining the package's contents, I discovered audio cues set to Super Mario Bros. and Star Wars. I haven't figured out where in the application they're used yet, but if you've tested it and figured it out, let us know in the comments!
Things 1.0rc now available
Cultured Code has issued the 1.0 release candidate for Things, its popular GTD application, a little more than a week ahead of its official launch on January 6.Things 1.0rc has a huge list of changes including new icons, the ability to reorder to-dos in the Today list across project and area boundaries, the ability to edit titles and reorder projects in the sidebar (my biggest pet peeve prior to this), fixes to syncing and compatibility issues with the iPhone version of Things, and numerous big fixes. A complete list can be found here via MacUpdate due to site difficulties with Cultured Code. An official mirror detailing the release notes can also be found here.Things 1.0rc is available at the mirror of the Cultured Code website, since the main site is either being sluggish or not responding at all due to demand. An alternate download location can be found through MacUpdate, along with the complete list of changes. Full price for a Things license is $49USD, but a coupon for 20% off can be used until January 15 - even if you missed out signing up for the newsletter. That code is THINGSPRESALE20.Things requires OS X 10.4 or later. It is also recommended for those who own the iPhone version to update to version 1.3 once it becomes available through the App Store.
The Hit List takes aim at OmniFocus and Things
The Hit List, from the Potion Factory, is a new task management application set to go head-to-head with Things and OmniFocus. We haven't seen a lot of waves in the advanced, visually polished task manager wars lately, but this one is going to storm the gates. I tend to get overexcited about new productivity apps, but after test driving the beta release of The Hit List for a day, I'm convinced it's worthy of all the excitement I can muster. A few of us here at TUAW, in fact, have been trading notes and are in agreement that this one is a serious competitor. The Hit List combines my favorite aspects of Things with some of the niceties of OmniFocus, and then adds some visual polish and usability tweaks. It works in a single, tabbed window; nice, because I've always been bothered by the floating palettes in OmniFocus. Beyond my personal tastes, though, the interface is beautiful both in aesthetics and simplicity. I can see immediately what each item on the screen means and infer what each button is going to do. For those with advanced needs, The Hit List provides a full-fledged tagging system, filtering and sorting, contexts and projects, notes, links ... the only thing I haven't seen yet is repeating tasks, but the application is still in development. Despite its beta status, though, it's been stable and highly usable. The system-wide Quick Entry window is as simple and powerful as any on the market, and the tagging and context system is based on keyboard symbols ("/" and "@"), so adding them is easy: you just type them at the end of your task name. The interface is almost 100% keyboard-navigable; tasks can be moved and filed with a few keystrokes, and tags, contexts, start and due dates can be added to a highlighted task with their respective shortcuts. A projected retail price of $70 places it between Things and Omnifocus on the cost scale. Given the features and ease-of-use it provides, I'll gladly pay in that range. The biggest problem for The Hit List is going to be that most of its target users have probably already shelled out for Things and/or OmniFocus. I think that a test drive will prove pretty convincing for a lot of folks, though. The Hit List just went into private beta recently, but Andy from the Potion Factory is welcoming new testers. If you have the time to file bug reports and feature requests, head over to Google Groups and sign up for the discussion and get the download. [Google Groups link fixed, sorry!]
TaskPaper 2.0: serious task list mojo
TaskPaper, a list management application from the author of WriteRoom, was recently updated to version 2.0. Back at version 1.0, it was an instant favorite among some TUAW bloggers. Beyond simple list management, it's really a very full-featured task manager which revolves around the idea of utter simplicity. It uses plain text files which become easily-navigated, well-formatted project and task lists within the application. I've always appreciated plain text lists for their compatibility with, well, everything. They're malleable with just about any scripting language, copy and paste-able into everything from mind maps to online documents, and ever so simple to edit (I also had a lot of fun with the GTDAlt bundle in Textmate). Despite being loaded with new features, TaskPaper 2.0 maintains everything there is to like about working with plain text lists. If you like AppleScript, though, you get an extra boost: TaskPaper's new AppleScript dictionary is brimming with classes and elements which alleviate the pain of AppleScript text manipulation. You can quickly and easily find tasks, grab selections, add and remove tags and more. Like Things, TaskPaper has an extremely flexible tagging system (including the addition of values to tags, e.g. @priority(3)) which, with or without script-fu, allows you to create a system which works for you. The 2.0 release also improves on the interface, and brings those plain text lists to life with user-configurable styling. The new search syntax allows for complex searches based on projects, tags and tag values, in addition to text content. The drag handles and shortcut keys also add a level of elegance to the editing and use of your text-based lists. You can try TaskPaper out for free, or pick up a license for $29.95USD. As further proof of my "compatible with everything" claim, check the bottom of the TaskPaper page for a list of compatible projects for Vim, TextMate, BBEdit, online task managers and even... Windows (sure, why not?).
