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Daily iPad App: You can't go wrong with Write
There's no shortage of text editors available for the iPad, and if you're someone who uses your tablet for word processing on a regular basis you've probably been through at least a few of them. Write is one such app, and while its straightforward design masks a lot of its bells and whistles, it proves to be one of the most capable productivity apps available. Write features full Markdown support, allowing you to compose a document using syntax and then preview the final result in real-time even as you're still editing. You can activate the standard text editor features you'd expect - like bolding, italics, etc - as well as more advanced features like in-document tables via a slim toolbar just above the keyboard. This makes composing a document a smoother overall experience than when using most other word processor apps, simply because everything you need to complete your work is readily available on your screen at all times. One of the slickest features that helps set Write apart is its various swipe controls. Depending on your individual settings you can swipe downward on the screen to delete or save a document, swipe to the right to view works you've previously saved, and swipe to the left to view all available sharing options. Speaking of sharing options, Write has perhaps the most comprehensive list of sharing tools available on an iPad text editor. You can email your document as an attachment, HTML, plain text, or PDF. You can shoot your text out to the world via Twitter or Facebook, or save it to Google Drive, Evernote, or PasteBin. Oh, and the app offers automatic syncing via Dropbox and iCloud. When it comes down to it, text editor apps aren't particularly sexy, but if you're looking for an extremely capable word processor for your tablet you just can't go wrong with Write. The app is priced at an almost laughably low $1.99, which only makes this recommendation even easier. If you type on your iPad, you should probably get Write.
Snow Leopard and Lion neck and neck on Thunderbolt file transfers
Macworld has been doing some more testing in Thunderbolt performance, this time between the Snow Leopard and Lion operating systems. The results say that if you spent that $30 on Lion just so your Thunderbolt connection would go faster, you probably wasted your money. Results weren't that different, coming in only a few megabytes a second apart but still well within the optimum speed for the various transfer services. In general, Thunderbolt's going to be fast no matter what operating system you're using it on. Macworld also did some testing between the MacBook Air and the 17" MacBook Pro, and again, while the Air's flash memory gave it the edge in a file writing test, most of the speeds didn't differ more than a couple of megabytes. In other words, there are quite a few other, more important considerations to keep in mind when you're looking for a system, besides just how it runs Thunderbolt. If you're looking for what will really limit or boost your file transfer performance, you'd do better to look elsewhere.
Breakfast Topic: Relieving stress
Usually we think of WoW as a way to relieve stress that we acquire in real life. Yet sometimes stressful things happen in WoW, and we need to find ways in real life to relieve them. I find that whenever something like this happens in the game, from battleground whining and insulting, to trouble finding good roleplayers, it does me a world of good to write about it on WoW Insider in some constructive manner. Not only do I address the problem in myself this way, resolving my own attitude towards it, but I do something that, I hope, helps other people who are experiencing the same problem in their own gaming as well. Many WoW players have blogs of their own, and I presume writing there has a similar effect.What do you do in real life to relieve stress from WoW-related problems?
WriteRoom
Despite the fact that I have a shaky at best grasp on my native English tongue, I am paid to write things. Unfortunately for my paycheck, a combination of ADD and a constant barrage of notifications from NetNewsWire, Mail, Colloquy, and Adium conspire to distract me from my duties. Until of course, Michael at binarybonsai posted about a simple little program by the name of WriteRoom. WriteRoom does one thing, and does it well; it makes you focus on what you are writing by making the entire screen a text field. Merlin Mann at 43 Folders posted a hack a few months ago to accomplish this using Backdrop, but WriteRoom makes de-cluttering your workspace as simple as opening the application. Of course, now that my computer doesn't have anything to distract me with, I find myself looking longingly out the window at a beautiful San Francisco summer afternoon, but thats besides the point. WriteRoom is available as a free Universal Binary download.
DV Guru reviews Montage - Mac screenwriting software
Our pal Ajit Anhony at our sister blog DV Guru has reviewed Montage, a new screenwriting app from Mariner Software, makers of the popular MacJournal. Overall Ajit is satisfied with Montage and sees a bright future for this app in a (finally) growing industry of Final Draft competitors. However, Ajit can't help but compare Montage to his personal favorite, Celtx, especially since Celtx's price of $0 and innovative feature set make it hard to beat.Check out Ajit's review for in-depth details on what this new screenwriting app can offer.
