Poser has come a long way from the last time I used it, right around version 4. We're now at 10 for the basic edition (retail US$299.99) and Poser Pro 2014 (retail $499.99) has become a powerful animation tool in its own right. I got to look at some of the new features rolling out today and they are impressive, putting Poser on par with many animation and modeling suites costing much more.

A problem with any humanoid character is how the "skin" folds when you bend it. Poser now offers Pixar's OpenSubdiv libraries, which means subdivision surfaces anywhere you need them. I was impressed with the accuracy and speed at which Poser created subdivisions, which add greatly to the realism already available in Poser. There are also some new characters, both realistic and cartoonish, to help get you started. For basic work the stock characters will keep you busy for quite a while, but there's also a great third-party market for Poser models should you need more.

One pain point for many digital artists are the hair and clothes for models. Getting those to "fit" properly can take a long time. Poser Pro now offers a "fitting room" which speeds up this process. Poser already has a cottage industry of third-party models and props, including clothes and hair. Now with the fitting room you can quickly fit those accessories to your basic models faster. Sure, you've still got the morph targets you've come to know and love, but Poser Pro now offers five specialized tools for interactively loosening, tightening clothes while retaining their physics properties (rigid or soft-body deformations).

Both the Pro and basic editions now offer Bullet Physics, which simulates rigid-body and soft-body dynamics. Applying regions of soft-body dynamics is as easy as painting on your character, and the results are truly impressive with very little learning curve for newbies.

That's the power of Poser, really. Many of the trickier elements of 3D modeling and animation are done for you (if you've ever rigged a biped using IK you know how tedious it can be!), leaving you to "play" with the models, lighting and accessories to get just the right look. With models already rigged, and now with Bullet Time, it has become easier than ever to get realistic animation out of the box with very little effort.

Poser has become a powerful tool for graphic novelists as well, allowing artists to quickly pose and render characters. The latest addition offers a Comic Book Preview mode which allows artists to dial in the correct amount of lines and shading throughout a scene, even animated. Doing this in your 3D tool counts for a lot, and the examples I saw were impressive and fast. If you've ever set up a scene, added a cartoon render and discovered lines going funky when you animate, you'll be pleasantly surprised by Poser's ability to lock down lines and shaders in Comic Book mode.

In addition to all this, there's a more capable Morph Brush for enhancing models, and a Live Simulation preview which allows you to quickly render ray traced models or preview animation using Bullet Time. Poser has become more capable and faster -- exactly what you want in a 3D modeling and animation tool.

While the cost isn't cheap, Smith Micro is offering a deal through June 30. Poser 10 will be available for $239.99 and Poser Pro 2014 will be $399.99. If you're upgrading, check the Poser site for more details. Compared to 3ds Max and other tools, Poser is a steal at those prices. If you find yourself needing character models (for medical illustrations, graphic novels, stock photos, etc.) I think the basic version will make you very happy. If you need animated characters with lifelike skin, hair and clothes, Pro is simply brilliant and priced very competitively for what it delivers. No, these are not hobbyist tools exactly, but they are accessible to anyone and powerful enough to be used in professional situations. Check out Poser if you need a reliable solution to character animation or modeling needs.

Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014 available, bringing new characters, physics and more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was lucky. My mom and dad had me while they were finishing up their graduate work in the 1970's at North Carolina State University. My dad was, at the time, a bit of a gadget nut. Of course, back then "gadgets" were more commonly found in the kitchen and came from companies like Ronco. My dad was more into the electronics side, and I remember seeing TAB books about building robots around the house. We never built those robots, but my dad did buy two pieces of tech which changed my life forever. One was an HP programmable calculator, the other was an Apple II.

For those who don't remember, the early programmable calculators from HP had less than 4 kilobytes of memory on them. My dad would program the equations needed to solve various math problems (he was getting his Ph.D in chemical engineering at the time), then he'd let the HP crank away on the math over the weekend. So yes, computers were a little slower back in those days.

While the HP lived at my dad's office on campus, and I only saw it a few times until he graduated, the Apple was a Christmas present for the whole family. He bought it in a bicycle shop, as there were no real computer shops at the time. In the back of this bike shop there was a hobbyist's corner filled with old computers like the Altair, and various electronics kits and projects for the budding "computer" hobbyist. As the Apple II had a keyboard and available software, it was an easy sell.

I still remember plugging it in to our color TV and hearing that beep as we loaded up Integer BASIC and tried out a game of Star Wars using a casette to load the program. We had 2 paddles to play, and Star Wars was hard to play with those paddles; one controlled your X-Wing's X-axis, and the other the Y-axis. That is no way to fly, for sure. More fun was Breakout, and later a Star Trek game where we obliterated ASCII Klingons in turn-based play. Even more fun than that: getting to program our own applications using AppleSoft BASIC, made from a little shop called Microsoft and licensed by Apple for use on the platform (the sad story of why AppleSoft BASIC for Mac never made it to market will have to wait for another day).

Within a few years I was happily using BASIC and fastidiously entering lines of code from books and magazines to make games, "screen art" and other fun things. When we moved to Tennessee I wound up getting a Laser 128, which, along with an external disk drive, allowed me to use some of the best software on the market -- for kids and adults.

Some of the software of the 1980's also had a big impact on me. Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set featured a visual interface for easily building virtual pinball tables. Music Construction Set similarly allowed the Apple II to turn into a synthesizer. Adventure Construction Set, while primitive, was used to make entire interactive worlds using little sprites and your imagination. All of those were from Electronic Arts, a rambunctious little gaming startup at the time. Then there was Broderbund, who brought me Lode Runner and The Print Shop. Lode Runner (still around today, sort of), had a level editor that allowed total freedom. I made dozens of levels; later, when I taught game design at a technical college, the lessons in game balance I learned from play testing those Lode Runner levels were not lost on me.

Then there was The Newsroom by Springboard (there's an archived review for the Atari here). Of course Broderbund made a killing with The Print Shop -- a simple software package which allowed anyone to easily print (on dot matrix!) posters, banners and other things. Every school in my town had a copy of The Print Shop, and judging from Kodak Disc photos of birthdays back then, I think most of the parents had a copy as well. But The Newsroom was like an advanced version of Print Shop. It was basically a desktop publishing package, complete with layout options, text editor, "image" editor, plus a couple of floppies worth of clip art. The Newsroom used the metaphor of an actual newspaper, complete with layout room and copy desk, to guide kids through the process of making newsletters. It was a powerful piece of software, and required several floppies (front and back!) to create and print your work.

I was also fortunate to grow up in a small East Tennessee town with a couple of taxpaying big companies located there. Eastman Kodak and Mead Paper had operations where I grew up, and because they paid so much in local taxes our schools were quite good. I remember attending computer programming camp where we worked on the Apple IIe at a local elementary school one summer -- apparently this was not common, and certainly rare in an otherwise agrarian locale. Along the way I got Microzine, a brilliant digital magazine available on floppy disk from Scholastic.

When my dad got our first Mac, it was an SE/30. The SE/30 was a great machine, but more importantly we got our first modem with it. Naturally, I was the first in my family to infect our computer with a virus. The virus came from a downloaded sound pack (remember when you could customize sounds on Mac OS?) featuring Monty Python noises. Virus writers definitely knew their audience. If you were on the Internet back then you'll also fondly remember how it was primarily a text interface, and "finding" stuff was largely done via print or word of mouth. Ah, BBS -- back when trolls were smote daily by mods.

I recall a youth filled with electronic toys, too. I still have a Speak & Spell, and a Entex Electronics Soccer game, briefly seen in TRON: Legacy. My dad was nice enough to get me several Erector and Capsela kits, and those awesome 100-in-1 electronics project kits, the old ones with springs and a million colored wires which inevitably became tangled up. Perhaps my most prized possession was Verbot from Tomy, a voice-recognizing robot which you could order around the house by shouting commands into a microphone. Verbot worked almost as well as Siri, so there you go.

In high school I helped our yearbook staff modernize. Mine was the first class to skip the old pasting methods, creating the yearbook digitally with Pagemaker (from Aldus at the time) and Freehand. I still have Freehand 1.0 on a disk somewhere. We also bought one of the first affordable color printers, which used thermal paper, and I remember being disappointed by the quality of the images.

One big side project in high school involved taking correspondence classes in electronics from NRI. My specific degree was to be in electronic music technology, but I only took the courses up until I made a mixer and a really terrible PC. The mouse was so cheap as to be non-functional by design. Building your own PC way back then gave one an appreciation for the fit and finish of Apple products.

It was also during high school that I continued my fascination for building things in software. I was never very good at it, but when HyperCard came along I churned out dozens of choose-your-own-adventure games. Often I was the only one playing them, but it further ingrained a sense that computers were the fastest way from thought to created reality.

By the time I was in college, and after switching from Electrical/Computer Engineering to Communications, Apple had started cranking out lots of Mac models. My first personal Mac was a Centris 610, the "pizza box" variety. I wanted a Mac TV, but had to wait until I treated myself to a graduation present of a PowerMac 8500. Until then I was an active member of several boards on Prodigy, took some time to make a fake ID with my Mac, and published a 'zine using, again, PageMaker. I remember not having enough RAM to load some of the photos.

The early-to-mid 90's were not exactly kind to Apple, but there were some important innovations. I watched my first QuickTime movie on a double-density disk in my Centris on afternoon in my dorm room. It blew my mind. That's also what got me into the video streaming business way back in 1999, at a now-defunct dot com startup. By then I had enough experience to know that if you could create something in the computer, you could *publish* that content in any form.

Now that video could be shown on a personal computer, the final wall had been broken. Of course I didn't consider bandwidth concerns, etc. but that was the origin point for my former stab at a multimedia shop, Superpixel.com. I founded Superpixel having grown up making stuff in computers, either in BASIC or hand-coded from a book, or in a construction set. Using software like HyperCard, and building electronics, printing yearbooks and editing video on a computer early in life also prepped me for the work I was to do later in life, both in education and blogging.

With a PowerMac 8500 under my arm, and After Effects 3.0 and Premiere 4 loaded onboard, I set off to film school. The 8500's analog output resulted in some hilarious attempts at visual effects. I spent far too much time painting fire and lightning effects frame-by-frame in Painter, and not nearly enough time writing scripts in Final Draft (still one of my favorite word processors ever). Still, by the time my final year rolled around the blue and white G3 had become available, so I grabbed one of those, a Canon XL-1 and an ultrawide SCSI hard drive with a whopping 8.5 GB of storage on it. With this setup I shot my final project, a sort of live action Robot Chicken, with a slight touch of Tim and Eric Awesome Show.

I briefly worked in the video industry, assisting AVID editors (who used Macs) and making labels and other assistant-editor duties on an ever-evolving lineup of candy colored iMacs. By the time I left that industry Apple was on the verge of releasing the first iPod.

After a brief stint making commercial websites and internal software solutions, all on Windows machines, I wound up teaching multimedia, then game design, again mostly on Dell computers. Still, 3ds max only runs on Windows, so I was quite fortunate to graduate from Bryce, Poser and Ray Dream Studio on my Mac to a "big boy" 3D toolset. While teaching I honed my skills in Photoshop, Director and Flash. Yes, this was back in the earlier part of the century when Flash was actually useful.

While teaching is awesome, there are times when you're sort of waiting around. During those times I would log in to Slashdot, or dial up a new site called Engadget. Phillip Torrone was a podcast host at the time, and I remember going from Phil's Flash hacking blog to Engadget. Through Engadget I discovered TUAW, where I wound up becoming the top-ranked commenter -- go figure! In 2004, Ryan Block wrote up my iPod case made from a milk jug (which hack-a-day had posted first). I also wound up writing a concept for a Mac mini-based home studio, much as Barb Dybwad did on Engadget, and that's how she and I met.

Eventually, the company then known as Weblogs, Inc. decided to launch a software blog, so Jason Calacanis asked David Chartier and I, along with Jordan Running and Marc Perton, to write for the new site. I learned a lot from or first lead, Marc, who went on to work at Consumer Reports before landing at gdgt. Funny how things come full circle, as gdgt is now also part of AOL!

Anyway, Download Squad was a sincere effort to find and review the best software out there, and report on the industry. What we didn't realize was that the industry would be forever changed as the concept of "software" became more mobile, more pervasive, ultimately morphing into "apps" with a huge growth curve in mobile. Download Squad was closed by AOL just a couple of years ago, but I like to think there's still a market opportunity in quality software reviews, covering all platforms that matter.

Once AOL acquired Weblogs (not long after the launch of Download Squad, incidentally), I started full time as a programming manager, in charge of several sites at once. I assisted in the administration of all of the foreign Engadget sites. I oversaw BBHub (a BlackBerry blog, can you imagine?), DVGuru and some of the rogue, hyper-niche sites we used to have -- like a site about web radio, and The Unofficial Yahoo Weblog (yep, that was a thing).

The rest is history, I suppose. As AOL shifted focus and CEOs, I kept working on making the sites great. We launched DIY Life at some point, with an eclectic and somewhat geeky bent, but that was folded into Lifestyle and is more home-focused now.

I'm incredibly proud of the team at TUAW, as many of us have been here for several years. Dave Caolo was at TUAW before me, in fact, and now he's full-time with AOL to make sure the trains run on time every morning. We were fortunate to have Laurie Duncan introduce us to Mike Rose, as his editorial love, deep knowledge and brilliant mind consistently bring clarity to the team and the site. (Mike's a damn fine writer, too. This farewell tribute to Steve Jobs is one of the best things I've ever read.) Steve Sande just joined AOL full-time as well, although I sometimes think he was installed as a patch during some overnight update -- the guy knows his Apple tech!

Oh, I also made a fart app video.

I've also been lucky to have worked with some amazing TUAW talent, now elsewhere. Brett Terpstra is now a developer with AOL Tech, but he produces a podcast and writes some amazing software. Drew Olanoff is kicking ass with TechCrunch. Christina Warren is with Mashable, but before she was big time, here's her interviewing David Pogue. I practically watched Nik Fletcher grow up! All amazing people, and there plenty of other, equally amazing ones I haven't listed because I'm afraid I'll forget someone -- it's been that great a ride.

Over the coming months I'll let the rest of the team tell their origin stories as well. Stay tuned for those, and lots more good stuff to come here on TUAW.

Origin Stories: Victor Agreda, Jr. originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of the problems with giving people advice is that certain topics are so... personal. Our previous experiences, current technology and outside pressures inevitably corral us into a particular line of thinking or acting. So it is with the debate over paper vs. software solutions. Personally, I've found a mix of both to be handy. A quick poll of the TUAW crew indicates a similar divide: Some of us use paper almost to the exclusion of software, whereas some of us went digital once we found enough apps to deliver us from dead trees. Most of us use a blend of both, however. In this week's productivity tip, I want to discuss when you might want to use paper or an app, and some specific apps and resources for both.

Paper (and whiteboards, etc.)

The thing about paper is that you have to write on it. That seems simplistic, but for some that's actually a big deal. I happen to learn by doing something, and I find I remember notes better if I write them out versus typing them. The other (obvious) thing about paper is that it isn't connected to distractions like social networks and calendars, push notifications, etc.. If those are your problem, maybe switching on Do Not Disturb and sitting outside with pen and paper are a way to really focus on whatever you're trying to capture.

I'm also a big fan of mind mapping, and while there are apps for this (discussed below), I have yet to replace my large format rolls of paper with an iOS device. There's something primitive and powerful about scrawling ideas and notes on a giant canvas, then seeing what patterns you can divine.

Another advantage to paper is that you can hang the stuff wherever you want so things are always top-of-mind. Steve uses Post-It notes for reminders. Megan uses a Moleskine for capturing checklists -- and she correctly notes that there's something satisfying about actually drawing a line through stuff you've done. Dave has written a great post on Unclutterer about using a notebook for the ARC system.

As for me, I can just do more with paper in certain ways. As this post from a time before the iPad notes, "paper is just more usable than a computer monitor." Sure, I can make annotations on a PDF, but it's not as easy in a PDF app to tear off 3 pages and line them up side-by-side to examine them.

Similarly, as you can see in the image at the top of this post, I've created a simple "task board" when apps like 30/30 and OmniFocus weren't really nailing a certain workflow for me. In this case, I have a certain number of things I have to do regularly, but they can't be called a project per se, they're more like categories. I also don't have to do every one of them every day, so I pull these (I call them pommes, which is why they have little apples on them) out of an envelope each day and set them up on the board. When I complete one, I put it below the middle of the board (hence the "Done" with a down arrow).

Each one of these "pommes" typically maps to a context in OmniFocus (and GTD, for that matter), and they represent the many hats I wear at TUAW. Each one is meant to be completed (more or less) in under 30 minutes. Some days I don't feel like digging into a lot of research, or maybe I just want to focus on writing. By putting them up on the board and being able to easily see them right there in front of me, I'm quickly able to see how much I've done or not done. Yes, I have tasks and projects in OmniFocus, but this allows me to structure my day around types of tasks, and greatly reduces the stress and feeling of being overwhelmed with "too much to do." I'm still working on this system, but on my most productive days it's a good way to batch my time.

Some other low-tech things I do, sometimes with a high-tech twist:

• Use a whiteboard for mocking up web pages and quick mind mapping. Then I take a pic to save in Evernote.
• In my kitchen I use a whiteboard calendar so my kids can easily see the stuff that is relevant to them. Often this means writing stuff from my Google calendar on the board, but there are worse things in life -- like the stress of kids not knowing what they are walking into when they come stay with me.
• Use Moleskine notebooks when I travel. Often power is at a premium, and I like to travel light. Plus, during takeoff and landing I can't use my iDevices. Again, I try to capture this digitally later, either in OmniFocus, Evernote or a mind-mapping app.
• Big ideas beg for a big canvas. I keep very large rolls of paper and oversized sketch pads in my house so I can periodically clear the kitchen table and go to town with ideas and connecting them. Sometimes this requires stitching pics together before dumping into (you guessed it) Evernote.
• Cornell has a notes template here if you're in a meeting and worry about capturing things.
• Lastly there are times when you just can't avoid using paper. Coupons I get at the self-checkout are printed, though I wish I could add them to Passbook (if Kroger ever hops on that wagon). But when I see a poster for a show on a telephone pole, I snap a pic of it. Nothing jogs the memory like seeing that pop up in your Photo Stream.

You can also use something like the iNotebook, Inkling or LiveScribe's offerings to write and capture to digital. I've only used the LiveScribe Pulse, but I find that adding complications subtracts from the organic nature of simply using paper. These also add considerable cost.

Digital

Obviously there are lots of limits when it comes to paper. Sharing among a distributed group is somewhat difficult. Contacts are better handled digitally when you get an email and can quickly add phone and address to your address book, or if you use a business card scanner app and text recognition. Speaking of recognition, natural language parsing has come a long way, so adding reminders and calendar events via Siri or Fantastical or Google Calendar is just so easy I will never use a paper calendar again.

When I was in middle school I used FastTrack Schedule to plan projects. Now I use a combination of DevonTHINK Pro (for research materials) and OmniFocus, but there are a good number of capable project managers out there, including Merlin and OmniPlan. If I were handling larger projects, I am sure I would rely upon those heavily.

Notes can absolutely have an advantage in digital form if you're busy linking things, as you can do in a wiki or software such as VoodooPad, which is excellent. There's also nvALT and a host of other note applications out there which can cross-link and insert multimedia in ways you can't replicate on paper.

When it comes to capturing ideas, Doc uses Drafts and voice recognition to quickly capture items. Similarly, Siri does a great job for adding Reminders. Fancy tricks like geolocation are all but impossible on paper.

The only problem with all of these: You have to know how to use them. Everyone knows how to use paper, however.

Some digital tools I use that attempt to simulate or replace paper-based equivalents:

• SimpleMind for mind mapping (this has sync so I can access my maps on my Mac), although MindNode is good and Grafio allows a sort of scrapbooking.
• Passbook as much as I can for plane tickets and customer loyalty cards. Some folks in team chat mentioned Lemon Wallet as well. I just hate fumbling for a paper ticket while I wait for first class to board.
• Fantastical for scheduling (Mac and iOS) and BusyCal on my Mac instead of iCal.
• Sketch Club for sketches, although Autodesk's SketchBook is good (just overkill for my needs usually), and Paper on iPad is simply wonderful. I also use Procreate (and a Pogo Connect) when I want to make a really great drawing.
• Now that Penultimate is integrated with Evernote, it's hard to beat. That said, I kinda like Sketch Rolls when I don't have access to my paper at home.

But when to use what?

Well, this is really a personal choice. What I tell people is to try both and see what fits you best. It's hard to argue that digital contact management is a bad thing, and calendars are another one which paper doesn't do better than digital tools.

When it comes to notes and creating tasks, it all depends on how much you have to share with others and your own personal style. If you are building a spaceship, you're probably going to need some pretty complex project management tools, and paper will likely reduce your efficiency. If you juggle a couple of things a day, it's really satisfying to whip out a sheet of paper or note card and start crossing off tasks through the day. I used to use the heck out of these DIY "hipster" planners, and Dave Caolo points out these awesome productivity tools you can print courtesy of David Seah.

Try this: Pick one or the other for a solid week and see how it feels. If you get into the groove of reviewing your tasks in OmniFocus and you find satisfaction in clicking check boxes, there you go. If, on the other hand, you feel more accomplished writing down tasks and scratching through them, paper is your friend. Because we all work in such different ways, this sort of A/B testing is critical for determining your preferences. Hint: Use a simple to do app to prevent having to read a huge manual.

Conclusion

While I love gadgets and technology, we simply aren't in the Diamond Age just yet. I'd love to have an iPad which really felt like a book, but that doesn't exist yet. Yes, I'd love to save some trees, but there are times when my old monkey brain just wants to poke at a sheet of paper with a stick filled with graphite. There's still a case for paper. That said, I turn 40 this year and maybe I'm just wed to a particular workflow. In the end try out the tools and make an honest assessment of what works best for you.

Let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments below!

Productivity Tip: When and how to use paper vs software originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 May 2013 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While the Origin Stories series has typically focused on products, in the coming weeks we're going to focus a bit more on the people and personalities behind the products. In this episode I spoke to Saul Mora of Magical Panda during the MacTech Conference in 2012 to learn about how he got started in iOS development.

Origin Stories: Saul Mora, developer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's time for this week's Productivity Tips column. While I use OmniFocus for just about everything, there are times when I prefer other task managers to handle certain things. Many productivity gurus advise against using more than one tool to list tasks, but I don't like putting short-term list items into OmniFocus.

More to the point, I use specialized list tools for specialized tasks -- groceries, kid chores and the like. While you can put all of that into OmniFocus and see it only when you want to, there's something to be said for specialized tools which are tuned to a specific purpose, and may offer features not found in a more general-purpose product like OmniFocus.

You can always use one task manager to rule them all, of course, but there are limitations. OmniFocus, for example, isn't where I store my recipes. If I want to create a grocery list in Sous Chef, it's a relatively easy affair. Better yet, I can plan a week's worth of meals and then make a grocery list easily from those menus. To do this in OmniFocus (or other general-purpose task managers like Remember the Milk), I have to do a lot of copy and paste work -- which sort of defeats the purpose of using these magnificent technology products, doesn't it?

If I need a short list for a short period of time, I use a "punch list," which requires no contexts or setup. Sometimes an app with a narrow focus has so many great features that I can't help but use it. I've also found geofenced reminders in OmniFocus to be less useful than I'd like, but that's another story. Here are a few ideas for when to use specific task managers, and some of the ones I use.

Punch Lists

A punch list -- the term comes from the construction industry -- is the stuff you need to do in sequence, right now or by a specific deadline. It's often used for the "fixes" that accumulate towards the end of a project, with only a few loose ends or tweaks to finish off. For quick turnaround projects, it may be all you need.

As I tend to use OmniFocus for bigger/long-term projects, I do also sometimes use it for these punch lists, but only when a series of steps will take me longer than an hour or so to complete. If I'm making a quick list to prep for my kids coming over to stay for a weekend, I use a short-term list tool (I don't always have to do the same things each time they come over).

Apps: For general, short term lists I love Clear. If I have 3 or 4 things to do in a given hour, and I'm just coming up with that list on the fly, I'm likely to use Clear to quickly set those up and knock them down. Quick, short-term lists are great with Clear, which also syncs with my Mac. Wunderlist is a great solution as well, and so is Remember The Milk if you need to collaborate. There's also iOS/OS X Reminders, but I have wired most of my reminders to go to OmniFocus because I want to capture once and process later.

When it comes to making lists that need to be in cold storage for a while (like Christmas wish lists), or lists of info which I need but not on a regular basis, I use Evernote. Evernote makes it easy to find lists I've made earlier, and add to those from anywhere.

Kids or pets

As a divorced dad, I have to keep up with a lot of info on my kids. From wish lists (often generated while we are at a store -- the old "daddy I want this!" cry) to favorite foods to blood types and other medical info, my puny brain can't keep it all. We've also started a chore chart, and I wanted to use something a bit friendlier than OmniFocus.

If you have pets, there are a number of things to track and keep on top of, from vet visits to dietary needs and more. Luckily, there are a few apps for that.

Apps: If you have pets, check out PetMinder, which will track all sorts of things about your pet including vet appointments and allergies.

If you have those other household inhabitants known as "human children" I have been loving iAllowance for their chores. iAllowance allows me to use Dave Ramsey's system for saving, spending and giving, and handles all the math and checklists for me. I can even sync with my iOS devices, so I put the iPad on a table and as kids finish items they come and mark them off.

Travel

Do you really want all those shops, restaurants and tourist sites in your task manager along with all your work stuff? Aren't you supposed to be on vacation? Just like how I use Firefox for work stuff (well, and Chrome) and Safari and Opera for personal browsing, I like to keep my vacation info and work info very separate.

A great example of a punch list, too, is your typical packing list. Again, you could keep a list of potential packing items in your task manager, but that could add hundreds of items that you may only need once in a while. I find packing lists are an easy win when testing list apps, not to mention there are some great special-purpose apps for this.

Apps: Travel apps could be an entire month's worth of posts, so all I'll say here is that if you frequently travel for leisure you'll want to look into the "to do" aspects of Foursquare and Yelp. By creating accounts and using the app's bookmarking features as your wish list of stuff to do, you can quickly get directions and reviews in the app, saving you time.

If you want a packing list, PackingPro is one of the best, and Stow features a clever Q&A method for using templates. If you're collaborating on a list with your partner or spouse, Avocado's one-to-one messaging includes a flexible list feature as well -- good for those last-minute pretrip items.

Food

There are some outstanding apps for wine and beer out there. To replicate those databases elsewhere would be onerous at best. So if you're a fan of touring wine country and want a list of wines to check out, you're more likely to use one of these special purpose apps here.

Everyday cooking and food shopping are greatly enhanced when using one of the dozens of great cooking apps available. I am still in the process of finding my favorite, but most of them offer features out of the box that would be a pain to replicate in a general "to do" app.

Apps: When it comes to food, I use Sous Chef or Groceries. If I haven't planned my meals, Groceries has a nice interface and makes it super easy to add items (even those not in its database). Sous Chef is my go-to for meal planning and recipe-keeping.

Fitness

Along with food, there are some great fitness apps out there with lists of exercises or tools to track your weight, food, etc.

Apps: I don't actually use a lot of fitness apps, but I have used 30/30 to create a workout routine and it's great. 30/30 can also be used for daily routines, and I love the interface and experience. I used Lift for a while, and if you're trying to get into a habit of doing something, it's quite good.

My only problem with Lift was that the entire interface was completely dependent on a network connection. Given AT&T's coverage where I live (and in many cities where the networks are clogged), I found that the simple act of loading the basic interface would sometimes fail -- which isn't very encouraging. That said, there are lots of options here for goal-setting apps, and they are all essentially list tools.

DIY

There are a number of awesome apps available to help you plan construction projects or minor repairs at your house. Like a food app, these take a project and break it into a parts list -- again something which you'd have to copy over to another tool.

Along with DIY home projects, anything involving crafting, knitting, sewing, etc. will result in a specialized list. Do you need that list of yarn for that one project forever archived in your task manager? Probably not.

Apps: DIY is another huge topic, but as an example of specialized apps, I like to point to My Measures and Woodcraft. My Measures will create a list of dimensions for a room and its fixtures. Woodcraft will create a list of wood you need for a given project. Both are quite excellent, and getting that data into another app is onerous and not that useful. I'm sure there are similar apps for sewing and other crafty stuff.

Daily Routines, Location-Based Reminders

While OmniFocus is pretty good at most things, I have resisted using it for daily repeating actions. For one thing, I keep running into a repeating item that starts multiplying itself over time (no, I don't need to balance my checkbook 4 times a day!). Also, there are tools out there which are more aimed at motivation (like the goal-setting apps mentioned in the fitness section) vs. plowing through a set of tasks. If you are self-motivated a one-size-fits-all approach might work for you. If not, check out some recommendations below.

Lastly, OmniFocus does have a pretty good location system but I found it a bit onerous to use (espeically on the desktop) and annoying in daily use. No, I don't need to be reminded to fix something every single time I pull into my driveway. But I do need to be reminded to put out the trash when I arrive home on Wednesday mornings. For this, I use Siri and it's the easiest method I've found so far. "Remind me when I get home to..." just sounds like the future, doesn't it?

Apps: For daily routine stuff I do wind up using my squishy brain for a lot -- but I also have a variable schedule. If I have a set of routines for a day, I hop into 30/30, where I have a list. I also use Due to remind me about repeating items. Due is very insistent, but makes it easy to move an item to another day, plus it sync with my Mac.

Conclusion

I do not use a separate app for inboxing items. I do believe that this is important, because the more complexity in your task management, the less likely you're going to get things done. I still use OmniFocus+Siri to capture stuff. In rare cases I use Clear to make a quick list, but that list is very quickly sorted and knocked out, eliminating the need for messing around in OmniFocus for those tasks.

Similarly, if you find yourself needing one-off or specialized lists, consider looking at a specialized tool. While OmniFocus and other power tools can be bent to your will, sometimes an app offers features you would have to spend a lot of time replicating elsewhere. And that's what this is all about, really: Getting things done and saving you time. Isn't that what technology should be doing?

Shout out your favorite special-purpose apps in the comments below and we here at TUAW will try to review any we haven't looked at before.

Productivity Tip: Using specialized lists for specific use cases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 May 2013 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've always been a sucker for soundscapes -- those looping sound effect CD's that whisk you away to the beach, or a rainforest or whatever. As I have a hard time "shutting down" my brain, these sounds give me something to get lost in and focus on, helping relax me. I think it's the same way for a lot of people, but when I introduce them to Naturespace's audio by way of their app, they are blown away. Naturespace captures incredible 3D audio and puts a vast library of it at your fingertips.

If you've never tried the app, I highly recommend you download it. The free samples which come with it are enough to get you started, but since the App Store's debut the Naturespace team has consistently grown the in-app purchase content. There's now a dizzying array of sounds, from the real to the imaginary. In fact, there are now two apps but one, Thunder God, focuses solely on thunderstorms.

Naturespace, at our request, made a video to explain where they got started. It actually began before the iPhone. But I'll let them tell the story in this fantastic edition of Origin Stories.

Origin Stories: Naturespace originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you've ever used index cards to organize lots of notes or ideas, take a look at Index Card by Dennis Vogel. Available for iPad and iPhone, Index Card is ideal for researchers and fiction writers who need to put cards on a wall, but need that wall to go with them. A good example of skeumorphic design, Index Card is pretty much exactly like what you would use in real life, cork board background included.

In this episode of Origin Stories Dennis tells us how he came to create Index Card.

Origin Stories: Index Card helps organize your notes like its real world namesake originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 May 2013 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Why create a browser for iOS when Safari ships with every device? Creator Dave Wilson explains the numerous features in Graze, a browser for iOS. It has a very different user interface, and adds gesture controls and additional browsing oomph for iOS that has yet to be seen in Apple's Safari. While there's always the risk Apple will adopt some of the best ideas in Graze, if you want power user features, the app is a good deal (and there's a free version to try out).

Origin Stories: Graze is an alternative browser for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've run into this issue a number of times while producing comedy shows: I want to play intro music for a comedian, but I don't have a staff available to sit there and punch buttons on my iPad. Enter Tango Remote, a handy tool which allows you to remotely control your playlists from iOS to iOS device.

Now I can use my iPhone to not only queue up songs, but change the volume on the fly. It's not only very responsive and robust, it's designed well and easy to use. Tango Remote has saved my bacon a few times, and every time I use it I wonder, "why doesn't Apple build this functionality in?"

In this episode of Origin Stories, we learn about how Tango Remote came to be.

Origin Stories: Tango Remote allows you to control music using iOS devices only originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 May 2013 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you were a kid in the 1980's you may remember the oddball consumer gaming console called the Vectrex. Notable for it's use of vectors instead of bitmapped graphics (like every other console), the Vectrex never quite took hold but before it was discontinued a number of fun retro games were made available. Enter Rantmedia Games, which took the aging catalog and ported it to iOS.

In this Origin Stories learn about the nostalgia-driven passion behind the creation of Vectrex Regeneration. In addition to the catalog of old Vectrex games, there are actually new games made for the app, available as in-app purchases. Read our review here.

Origin Stories: Vectrex offers nostalgic gameplay originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This past weekend in Seattle a small group of tech folks gathered to talk about the work they do while away from the computer. Unlike a lot of tech conferences, there were no discussions of APIs or frameworks, no in-depth analysis of App Store sales figures or phoney-baloney social marketing doublespeak. 360|intersect was about the people, their passions and getting inspired to do great things.

I might be a little biased, as I was the first speaker, but my talk on magic and technology had less to do about technology and was more about astonishment -- that fleeting feeling when you see something magical and your brain flips out and you feel like a kid again. Similarly, speaker after speaker came up to talk about their passions outside tech, with practical lessons they have applied in their careers in tech.

Robi Ganguly spoke about how he grew up with asthma, but wound up training for a marathon. Kirby Turner took a long break from work to hike the Long Trail. Michelle Yaiser from Adobe races cars as a hobby. Doug McCune created several types of physical art for the event, all around his passion for geographic data mapping. Jon from Orbotix talked about how working on a top-selling fart app landed him a job making games for the Sphero. Josh Michaels (maker of Magic Window and other apps) spoke about customer support and the art that goes into his products. Mike Lee closed out the event with a passionate tale of his journey from before and after his stint at Cupertino, and the challenges of making great games with limited budgets and bouts of insane hubris.

In addition to the talks, John and Nicole Wilker, the folks behind the 360 conferences, arranged a fun tour of Seattle aboard a duck (a modified Army truck that is amphibious), and a couple of dinners for the attendees. What's great about a small conference like this is that everyone gets a chance to talk to each other, and the outings are focused, but fun.

If you're looking for something beyond the normal tech conference and events like SXSW are too big or expensive, I encourage you to keep an eye out for the next 360Intersect. While all of the 360 conferences are useful, I think Intersect is really special for the community and inspiration it gives attendees and speakers alike. But don't take my word for it -- attendee Jay Baird wrote a great piece on his experience, as did Kirby Turner. I hope to see you at the next one!

360intersect inspires techies without getting technical originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 May 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While the iPhone has GPS, and it's good enough for most people, performance-oriented athletes may find the precision lacking. Enter EpicSesh, makers of the Xensr line of "sports motion-sensing devices." While it looks like the sensors are still undergoing testing, the promise is that athletes will get more accurate data to help training. If you've ever wanted more accuracy than that blue circle allows, Xensr is what you've been looking for.

If you're a bicyclist, you can precisely track your rides to see where you slowed down. Windsurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding and others can also track their precise movements to see what works and what doesn't. The Xensr records the full range of 3D movement very precisely. Even if you're not a performance athlete and just want to improve your times, Xensr is a promising technology I can't wait to see made available.

Until then, learn more about the Xensr from one of its creators, David Troup in this episode of Origin Stories.

Origin Stories: EpicSesh aims to improve sports tracking with Xensr originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 May 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hopper is a Mac app for deconstructing binaries for analysis and debugging. If you're not a developer, it's probably not for you, but it's a cool tool nonetheless, built from scratch by a developer who built it himself. Once again a developer needed something, didn't like what was out there and built what he needed then used Apple's storefront to sell it in case others needed the same thing. In fact, in this case there were only some Windows tools, clumsily ported to Mac in some cases, so Vincent built Hopper to his standards.

Origin Stories: Hopper originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In the past couple of installments of TUAW's productivity tips, I've discussed a number of ways to keep you focused on your tasks. Managing those tasks will be the next big-picture topic, but this week I wanted to keep it short and simple, just like your breaks should be.

Yes, you should take breaks, especially if you are a knowledge worker and/or you have to focus on tasks which require a great deal of problem solving. There's a lot of evidence that shows our brains need frequent rest in order to function at their best, so don't skimp on the breaks even if you are worried about a deadline.

Why is this important?

Aside from how you should really be taking a vacation, your brain can suffer from decision fatigue. While you're busy processing your inbox or responding to emails, your brain is getting quite the electro-chemical workout. As with any of our organs, after a while it tires out. Just like a physical workout, you should allow for a cool-down period to let your brain rejeuvinate itself.

At AOL we're quite fond of naps, too.

Timing breaks

As I discussed in my article on timers, you should aim to take a quick break after a period of intense focus. Pomodoros are set up for this purpose, giving you 25 minutes of task time plus a five-minute break. I've read of 90-minute work sessions followed by a 30-minute break time (which allows time for a walk or run or yoga), but ultimately you'll have to experiment and see what works for you as a person and in your job. I like to take frequent breaks.

The key to timing your breaks is definitely scheduling them around those periods of intensity. Again, your brain gets worn out after too many decisions in a fixed amount of time -- let that thing cool off! The time of your break should be somewhat proportional to the period of intensity, however. Five minutes after 25 makes sense, as does 30 after 90. Taking an hour nap after 20 minutes of email is a bit much, however.

Types of breaks

Now, do you need to rest or do you need to re-energize? One allows things to cool down, while the other is more like a warm up.

Often we just need to rest our eyes, or just stretch to shake off the tightness of sitting for too long. For short breaks I tend to make sure I have a bottle of water, then go gaze out a window for a few minutes. Or, since I work at home, I'll go spend a few minutes washing dishes (a very peaceful activity, honestly). These short breaks help refocus you later, and serve as a brief cool-down for your brain. Be careful not to overdo it; tidying your desk or going to the break room might seem like a quick rest, yet you're still making all sorts of decisions, leading again to decision fatigue.

A better short break fully disengages your brain for a bit. Staring is actually good. Stretching is even better, and there are lots of exercises you can do, even in a cubicle. The more you allow your body to work, the better it will be able to assist your brain. Anything that literally "takes your mind off of things" is good, which means social media checking is likely bad as you're likely to see things which make you angry as well as happy on any given day.

Naps are excellent, but most people don't use them correctly. Here's a great primer, and here are some tips from the Mayo clinic. I have found that a 25-minute or less nap has made me feel more energized in the afternoons if I am not already sleep deprived. If I haven't had enough sleep that day already, I tend to get a headache later and feel sleepier. That said, naps can be very effective when done properly.

I have found a short walk or run, or even time with a Kinect game, helps the afternoon doldrums significantly. A few jumping jacks or standing on your head can also get the blood flowing.

Apps to help

For simple breaks, I like to use Due's timers and have set a 5, 10, and 15 minute timer as default break times. Siri can do this in a pinch as well.

For naps I use Naturespace (which has a timer), or Pzizz, a longtime Mac app which was ported to iOS some time ago. Pzizz is, in my opinion, the best napping app; it guides you into a restful state much like hypnosis, can be set for various times, and can be configured in numerous ways while still using a set of sounds and tones which help lull you to rest. Other TUAWers enthusiastically recommend Andrew Johnson's apps and audiofiles for guided rest periods.

Meditation is a good rest plan, and we've already mentioned a few apps for this. I'm currently using Mind, which is as simple a meditation timer as you're likely to find.

There are also a number of exercise apps on the store, including some niche products like Healthy Break, which adds simple stretches to a break timer. I haven't had much success with these, as I tend to look up things online, learn them, and have a few I do over and over again. It's best to discuss your options with your doctor or trainer (if you're lucky enough to have a trainer).

Conclusion

While you can push through a day with no breaks, you will wind up making worse decisions as time wears on, and as those decisions wear you out. As your productivity and quality of work decrease, you become less efficient.

The best way to combat this: get plenty of rest to begin with, and allow yourself breaks through the day. By setting timers for breaks and having a collection of short activities to break to, you'll set yourself up to stay productive longer than before, with better results.

Productivity Tip: Take a break originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sock Puppets allows just about anyone to quickly and easily create short animated movies using not only sock puppet characters, but (via in-app purchases) aliens, politicians and Halloween characters. The adorable app is from a software company Smith Micro -- not exactly known for its consumer wares. Sock Puppets is powered by Anime Studio, however, and some time ago the company bought up applications like Poser, and now offers some cool specialized visual artist tools.

As for Sock Puppets, I can tell you the app is a lot of fun. My kids have already created a number of short films with it. The free version comes with a few basic sock puppets, but for about $5 you can unlock all the added characters, plus extended recording and the ability to save to your camera roll. There's also a fully unlocked version of the app for $4. It's well worth it. Basic recording time is 30 seconds, but extended is 90 -- just enough time for kids to get in enough story.

Creating animated puppet shows

To create a video you select your puppets, a background, some props and tap the record button. The app detects voice, and attempts to move the mouth of the puppet along with the vocals. The puppet animations are well-done although more than once the audio clipped, causing a small glitch in some movies.

Since this isn't a pro app, you're not going to see extensive support for phonemes or the ability to separate vocals from music -- it's just mostly going with the overall sound. Still, it's quite good and looks fluid and natural. Combined with the animations used when moving a character around, it's a lot of fun to see.

While recording you can move your puppet around, not just side to side, but in a pseudo-3D which scales the puppets up or down, depending. Not all puppets can do this, as the sock puppets are locked into sideways motion only. In-app purchased puppets like the aliens and Halloween characters can move all over and can be resized during the animation. My kids enjoyed scaling a creature up or down as if they were shrinking or growing.

What's cool is you can just tap and move any character at any time, and pinch to scale them.

Sock Puppets alters your voice as well on a per-puppet basis. You can tweak the settings of the voice changes, customizing them to your liking. I found the defaults to be quite pleasing and well-done. They matched the look of the characters, especially (my favorite) the aliens.

Recording is easy enough, as there's a record button available while you move stuff around, but saving your masterpiece to the camera roll will require an in-app purchase. You can share your video to YouTube without this, although the export can take a while.

Conclusion

While there are a lot of apps to distract kids out there, I found Sock Puppets easy to use and a lot of fun. My kids agree -- they created over a dozen short movies within a few days, and all of them looked excellent. If you're willing to spend $4 you can buy the "complete" version with all characters, sets and utilities unlocked. I'm hopeful Smith Micro will expand Sock Puppets with more characters in the future, but it also has me more intrigued with their pro apps (which was perhaps the goal as well). We'll keep an eye on the consumer efforts from the company going forward, especially if Sock Puppets is an indication that the company is looking to provide more of these fun tools.

Friday Favorite: Sock Puppets originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I grew up with rudimentary typing tools on older computers, but TabTyping aims to improve your typing on the iPhone's screen. The developer had to get creative when creating the app, so hit up the video for the story behind TabTyping's creation.

TabTyping is free and offers in-app purchases for additional lessons if you want to train your fingers to fly across that glass screen with unparalleled accuracy. TabTyping also provides a wealth of stats to track your progress, including your accuracy in certain parts of the keyboard on your screen.

At WWDC 2012 I spoke to Adam Wolf about TabTyping in this installment of Origin Stories.

Origin Stories: TabTyping originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you are already a Skitch user and happen to have an Evernote Premium account, a new update now allows you to annotate PDFs using the app. Once you open a PDF in Skitch you'll get a 30-day trial of the premium PDF annotation feature. All users see a new way to add graphics to documents in Skitch: stamps. Like map markers, these can be used to call out specific points with an icon and text for easy viewing. There are many icons available for call outs, like an exclamation point or heart, and you can add text next to the stamp.

Skitch has always been a handy tool for quickly marking up an image for collaboration, but the PDF features add to Evernote's suite of tools for managing, storing and now altering documents. Other PDF improvements include a text notation tool, plus all the shapes you could add to images. There's a summary feature of annotations for PDFs, which adds a page to a PDF you share, cleverly pulling out the marked sections and displaying them in a summary page. I can see this saving a lot of time when sending and marking up large documents. Again, any PDF over 25 MB will require a Premium account.

Skitch is a free app but Evernote Premium is $5 a month or $45 a year.

Skitch update (iOS and Mac) includes PDF annotation, stamps originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've been slowly learning the Mac version of iBank and had all but stopped using the iPad version due to some quirks. A lot of those quirks have been ironed out in the latest version of iBank for iPad, released today. There are also new tools for setting and working with reminders, plus enhancements for people who have various investments.

After a quick run-through I can say that current customers will enjoy the vastly improved reminders. You can now edit them, and easily add or remove them. The app feels faster now as well, and the budget setup assistant has had an overhaul. If you're a current user you'll love these additions, and if you've never used iBank now is a great time to start (just after taxes!).

Full PR below.

iBank for iPad updated with more than 50 enhancements originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In order to stay productive, you must accomplish tasks. Unfortunately, as communications have sped up and become omnipresent, our focus has been sliced and diced to the paper-thin setting.

How many times a day does a calendar invite, Facebook update, email or Tweet send you off your task and down a rabbit hole? Remember when your car didn't have a phone, web browser and fart app in it? In this productivity tip I argue for a cone of silence and a focus on really doing -- by focusing.

The timer

As I mentioned last week, you should set a timer for each task on your to do list. I like 20-25 minutes, but I also acknowledge that there are tasks which might take more time. Just remember that your brain does get fatigued, which is why Pomodoros are set to 25 minutes each.

The cone

Hey, see that Do Not Disturb button on your iPhone's Settings? Activate that when you are going "periscope down." I'm not a huge fan of Apple's VIP email, so I tend to not use it to alert me to new emails from certain people. I'll handle email in some posts down the road; it's a huge topic in itself.

If you're on your Mac, did you know you can quickly turn off notifications from Notification Center? If you option-click a Notification Center icon in your menu bar, it will toggle on / off those pop-ups which may distract more than help.

Oh, and if you're worried about missing an appointment, here's how to avoid that anxiety: Set your timer to end with plenty of time before your next appointment. It seems simple, but if you are carving out actual focus time, you should first look at your calendar and ensure you have plenty of time. A quick glance to remind you about that meeting at 4 PM will allow you to set your timer at 3:30 for 20 minutes, giving you plenty of time to pick up and head down to the conference room. (Like email, calendar management is something we'll handle later; it's a huge topic.)

If you've shut down your iDevices from making noise and distracting you, and you've got notifications under control on your Mac, it's time to focus.

The workspace

Without getting too far afield of TUAW's main beat, I'll just say that a clean workspace, proper lighting and a healthy body will aid your focus time immensely. But what about music? What about full-screen apps? What about a program that locks you out of social networks for a specific amount of time?

Music

I personally don't recommend music if you really need to focus. Sound, on the other hand, can help you focus. An app like Naturespace not only tunes out distractions by providing a seamless, repeating audio landscape, but can also help keep your mind and body calm by simulating the outdoors. I listen to music when checking email or doing reviews, but when I have to focus on numbers or edit words, I find a simple audioscape blends into the background, helping my focus without a melodic hook to distract me.

Full-screen apps

Full-screen apps are all the rage since Apple started featuring them in Lion, but will they help you focus? In my opinion they will, if you let them. An application running in full-screen mode will obscure that funny desktop picture, and obliterates any dock alerts or menu items. So if you find those keep nagging at your mind, use full-screen mode. Still, it's easy enough to Cmd-Tab to another app and get distracted, so I'm not convinced this alone will enhance your focus time.

Social networks

Better still, particularly if you have Facebook on speed dial, is an application which will (virtually) smack your hand when you access your social sites -- or cut off access altogether, if you're incorrigible. If you are constantly wondering what George Takei is posting, or how many likes, favorites or retweets that clever thing you posted 30 minutes ago received, you may need something to force you to ignore the big social world out there for a while.

Since I do research online, I can't fall back to the old "turn off the internet" trick. Instead, I rely on apps to help center my attention -- and working at home introduces a whole raft of distractions we'll cover another time. There's a good roundup of "focus" apps here at Mac.AppStorm, but I want to point out two that can really help: Anti-social and Houdini.

Houdini will automatically hide applications after a set amount of time, and it's free. If you combine this with an app like Backdrop, which will hide your cluttered desktop (well, mine gets bad after a day's work but yet again this is a topic for another day), you'll soon find you have drifted into a focus zone. That's because whatever you're working on is the only visible application and desktop distractions are minimized. If you routinely have more than six applications open on your Mac at a time, this can be a timesaver versus going through each one and hiding the app (Cmd-H).

My favorite app for focus, besides my timer, is Anti-Social. It costs $15, but if you find yourself instinctively reaching for Twitter or Facebook in your browser everytime a pithy phrase pops into your head, Anti-Social will force you to stay focused. The application will block the social sites you specify for a set amount of time. If you want to tweet before the time limit (which you set) expires, you'll have to reboot your Mac! Of course, you could always use your phone, but let's pretend you're putting that away during focus time.

Easy does it

To prevent procrastination and ensure you're making time to focus, schedule time on your calendar. Turn off notifications. Turn on social blockers or enable a timer and stick with it. The simpler you make your cone of silence, the more likely you are to ensconce yourself in it at least once a day.

While there are times for multi-tasking, there are many more times where it behooves you to carve out focus time and stick with it. I believe that you'll find you get more done in less time if you stick with one task at a time. As for task management, guess what? Yep, that's what we'll handle in an upcoming post.

Productivity Tip: Focus time originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mailplane 3 just came out of beta, and it's great. I've been using the beta for a while, and saw stability and speed improve with each iteration.

While Gmail works great in a browser, there's something about having a dedicated application, as opposed to a Chrome SSB or Fluid instance. Mailplane actually is a wrapper for Gmail, but it's a bit like having a browser just for Gmail with access to many OS X goodies and 3rd party add-ons.

Before Google added multiple account switching, for example, Mailplane allowed you to easily switch between different Gmail accounts (it still does, and it's easier than ever using tabs). I still find this handy, although a better solution is to start using one inbox -- something I'll discuss in a future Productivity Tip.

Some notable features new to Mailplane 3:

• Google Calendar is just another tab in the interface, so it's easy to get there. Also, calendar invites link to that tab, saving you mouse clicking time.
• AwayFind (which many of the TUAW crew swear by) and RightInbox support are built in. And there's also the previous support for other 3rd-party add-ons like Rapportive, Boomerang, etc.
• As an application, Mailplane offers OS X services, Notification Center integration and AppleScript support.
• Resizing and compression of image attachments is handled within MailPlane.

While it took Mailplane a long time to get to 3, a lot of the enhancements deal with the efficiency and optimization of the software. You might not notice all the little touches at first, even if you've been a previous Mailplane user for a long time. Still, Mailplane 3 is a must-have upgrade if you live in Gmail. If you've never tried Mailplane, you can take it for a spin for 15 days and see if you like it. Personally, I think it is worth the US$24.95 price tag for an individual.

Note that there is no iOS version of Mailplane, and it will only handle Gmail accounts. Of course, you can always get Gmail to handle all of your email, but that's up to you.

Mailplane 3 now available originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Do you perform on a stage with a setlist? Most bands do, and even some comedians. Enter Setlists, created by a group of musicians as a virtual piece of paper for their setlist to display on the iPad.

Setlists offers all the flexibility of a digital display and text in a searchable system with the style of an actual written setlist (only much more legible). While you probably won't be giving this away at the end of a show, Setlists offers you a more flexible system for making setlists. There's a search feature for finding which songs or bits you wish to perform, and the ability to show lyrics along with the list, or re-order the list at any time. Plus, the app works on iPhone and iPad.

In the video below I speak to developer Cieplinski about how Setlists came to be in this episode of Origin Stories.

Origin Stories: Setlists originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every day you have the same 24 hours as the rest of us to get what is likely a crushing amount of work done and out of your way so you can spend some time relaxing. Or, as one author has framed it, you have 168 hours in a week to accomplish what you want and move forward toward your goals. How do some people manage this while others are constantly rushing around late to everything? I was certainly guilty of this until I started minding my time in small chunks. Here are some ways to get those tactical moments -- the day-to-day stuff -- managed and under your control.

What are you doing?

At any given time, what are you doing? Probably the most significant thing you aren't doing is being mindful of the time you are spending on tasks. While the Pomodoro technique might not be for everyone, simply setting a timer to keep track of how long you're working on a given task is absolutely vital. At the end of the day you will have a better idea of where your time went, and by not getting bogged down in one or two things during the day, you'll find you can better cope with the myriad items you happen to be juggling.

Think about it like this: How many times have you become engrossed in your work so much that you "lost track of time?" While being in a state of flow and working on something for a long stretch can be beneficial, over time you'll find that you tire easily and get "burnt out" after too many of these marathons sessions. You'll also find smaller stuff starts slipping through the cracks. Brain scientists and productivity experts agree that there are good reasons to break up marathon work sessions into smaller chunks. This is to avoid fatigue, primarily, but also so that you are making sure you get to all the stuff you have to do in a day, not just the one thing you're communing with that morning.

Mindfulness

Guess what? There's an app that ships with every iOS device currently made which will help you be mindful of your time on tasks. The Clock app has both a stopwatch and a countdown timer. If you use Siri, you can easily set a timer just by telling your iDevice for how long. But of course, there are dozens of timer and productivity apps on the store to help you out. First I'm going to explain what you should be doing, then I'll list some apps to help you out.

Mindfulness has a specific meaning for Buddhists, but I'm really referring to the awareness aspect. By becoming more aware of how quickly time passes while our minds are engaged in a task, we can start to feel more in control of our daily tasks. Even emergencies (which I'll handle in a moment) won't throw our life into disarray if we have the knowledge of how our time flows at any moment. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be mindful of your time, and this doesn't mean checking the clock every hour or setting a chime. Being mindful of your time means you are setting the rules, you are taking control and you are paying attention.

In the book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam, one of her first suggestions is making a log of your time for an entire week. Everything, from brushing your teeth to making your bed to your commute and break times should be logged. While it sounds onerous, logging everything you do in a week is much like a very thorough physical exam. In this case you are getting an x-ray into your life.

By seeing how much time you spend in the morning making espresso, you can determine whether that time is well-spent. A lot of what we do is wasted time, maybe because we're not familiar with a tool we use or maybe because we're still doing things manually when they could be automated. In any case, a complete time log is the first step to awareness and will lay bare which parts of your day are being spent doing wasteful things. Note that I'm not referring to recreation time, which I feel (like family time if you have kids) is a necessary thing. So is sleep, although I have yet to accomplish 8 hours a day of sleep as Vanderkam claims is possible!

Once you see what you are doing and how long it takes you, it's time to start forcing yourself to be more mindful of your time. If you are the shortcut type, you may skip to this next part without a week's worth of data...

Set a timer

After you are done reading this article try an experiment. If you don't already time your tasks or use a countdown timer, try this: Choose a task to tackle next, something that's part of a project but not something you know will just take a couple of minutes, then set a timer for 20 minutes and see how far you get towards finishing that task. Pomodoros are 25 minutes, and then it is recommended to take a 5 minute break. Personally I like to go in 20 minute sprints, then take 10 minutes to read, make coffee or a snack, or just get up and walk. I find, since I work at home, that 10 minutes is enough time to handle light chores in-between work tasks.

So that's it! Set a timer for 20 minutes, then get to work and do not look at the timer.

If you were really engrossed in your work, that 20 minutes didn't exactly crawl by, did it? It never does. If you were bored, you likely kept wanting to look up to see how much time you had left.

This is how time escapes us, as the perception of time is fluid in our brains. Once you begin to time yourself, you begin to really manage what you are doing, and time becomes just a metric for focus. The joy for me comes in knowing that, in an hour, I can likely work on two tasks (possibly to completion) and get a couple of chores done. Now multiply that by 8 (not that any of us works a mere 8 hours a day) and all of a sudden you are making steps towards completing all sorts of larger goals by forcing yourself to march to a drumbeat of small time chunks. If you pace yourself, you can go anywhere with this, just like a march in real life. Don't forget to budget time to be social, however.

Emergencies and schedules

What about emergencies? I have tried a regimented schedule, and frankly, it isn't for me. I'm not the guy who gets up at 6am every day, refreshed and ready to start another day carefully portioned out in hour-long blocks. For one thing, my life is messy. For another thing, the news business isn't really conducive to careful planning of one's day. Instead, I needed a way to handle the numerous emergencies at work and in life with my larger schedule and long-term goals. Here's how.

First, you have to have goals. We'll cover this in another post, but for now let's just say it's impossible to know where you're going if you don't have a destination. All of your tasks are just steps toward that finish line. Next, you have to have priorities for those goals. As I said last time, I use OmniFocus to help me sort through all the things I have to do to determine, based on priority and time, what I need to do next. Only when you know what has to get done can you plan to do it. Yes, that sounds simplistic, but I find that a couple of times a year most of us could benefit from a housecleaning of our tasks and goals, otherwise we find ourselves swimming upstream with a constant torrent of downstream asks which can overwhelm us.

If you know what you have to do each day (again, something we'll work on in future posts), handling emergencies actually becomes a lot easier. Yes, you will have to shift things around. No, you will not have to freak out about it.

The secret is simple: Be mindful of your time. Also give yourself a break every so often. As an example, let's say you are going through email in a 20-25 minute block. You've set a timer, you dive in, and about 5 minutes into the task you see an email from your boss with the ominous, all-caps subject URGENT: RESPONSE REQUIRED. Knowing you have to respond to this, you open the email (still part of your "check email task") and read it.

It takes another 5 minutes or so to read the email and scratch down a quick list of what needs to be done. As you look at the list of 3 things needed, you can break down what is needed to accomplish this emergency goal -- or not! If it's a report "due tomorrow without fail" you can probably finish your email session and then get to work. If it's due by the end of the day, it's time to reset that timer, take 5 minutes to clear your head and then restart the timer and get back to work!

Again, if this is an emergency then everything else is on hold. By keeping at it in small, 20-25 minute sprints toward the finish broken up by short breaks, you can stay focused. You might even throw in a 20-minute "do something else" task if you start getting tunnel vision. The brain can only take so much, depending on your age, etc. Above all, don't panic. Know that like a brick mason laying brick by brick, over time your tasks will build towards the goal. Unless you are really terrible at what you do, you'll get there. Over time you'll learn to see how your pace is affected by longer sprints.

At the end of the day you'll find you can say "I spend X hours on this" and you will feel good about the fact that you put the time in. If you didn't get that emergency handled, you'll probably know why that happened, too. It wasn't because you weren't focusing on what needed to be done!

The other thing about emergencies is that we have to push other stuff we had hoped to accomplish in a given day back, which leads to stress. By knowing you can only spend so much time per day doing something, you'll feel less stressed knowing those time blocks will be there tomorrow, and whatever derailed your plans for today can hopefully be cleaned up for a fresh attempt in the morning.

As for schedules, we'll talk more about them in another post, but for now it's important that you stop thinking about your day in terms of appointments, and think more about what you're trying to accomplish every day. Do your best to minimize distractions on your calendar, as in your life. Timers help you focus, as long as you don't get distracted during those times.

Apps that can help

I've tried a number of timer apps but have settled into only using a few. As you can imagine, too many choices means you'll just trip up on what to use, and when. So I keep it simple, but I'm mentioning a few apps I think may be interesting to some of you, since you're not all as loose with a daily schedule as I am.

On iOS:

Clock

Well, this is free and from Apple and you have no excuse not to use the Timer function starting today. While Apple's Clock is a no-frills affair, you can set your own alert sound and the timer is Siri-enabled, if you're into that sort of thing.

Untime

I love this timer app for a number of reasons. It's free, it's fast and it looks cool. Not only that, the dots on the screen are like sands in an hourglass, showing you at a glance how much time you have remaining without numbers (until the last 10 seconds, when a countdown appears). I love that the numbers go away, so your brain only sees how "much" time you have remaining. The alarm is pretty great as well, and the whole app reminds me of something Tron might use. Untime is simple, elegant and cool -- just how I like my apps.

Due

My favorite across platforms, Due has been covered before. iCloud sync is a huge time saver when setting up task timers, however. And yes, I set multiple timers because a task of playing with Legos on the weekend with my kids takes longer than an email sweep -- this is called keeping your life balanced!

30/30

This might not be for everyone, but if you have a number of items to accomplish in a day that you do often, 30/30 is a very nicely designed app that helps you structure the order of those tasks and set timers to help you keep on target. I feel like 30/30 could benefit from a better ability to reset those lists, but on those days when I need a little more structure, 30/30 does an amazing job of helping me power through a hectic schedule.

Timer

Aptly named, Timer from App Cubby offers 12 slots for preset timers. I find something like this very handy if you have a number of timed things you need to do in a day. For example, I try to get in 40 minutes of cardio twice a day, so having that as a simple button makes it easy. I have a basic Pomodoro, a "sprint" of 20 minutes and a 5-minute timer all pre-set in Timer for when my day is fluid, but I still have some regimen to adhere to. App Cubby's apps are always beautifully designed, as well.

(There are lots and lots of Pomodoro apps, so feel free to share your personal recommendations in the comments below.)

On Mac:

Due

Again, since Due has a Mac version, setting timers and getting alerts doesn't get much easier, and again iCloud makes your efforts portable.

ApiMac Timer

If you're ready to get fancier, ApiMac's Timer is a power user's dream timer. While the free version is great, the pro version allows the app to do all sorts of awesome things like run AppleScripts, send email logs and can even put your Mac to sleep.

Timebar

Timebar is a minimalist's dream. It sits in the menu bar, allowing easy access to set a timer. Better yet, it shows a progress bar in the menu bar itself, and as the menu bar "drains" you have a good idea of how much time you have left on a task. For me, this only enhances my stress if I'm under pressure. For others, this might be a way to gamify certain tasks that you hope to do faster. But it's cheap, efficient and effective and offers a snooze button when you need more time.

Howler

Our own Kelly Hodgkins recommends this one, and if you use Growl, Howler can hook into it. Howler offers a lot of features you might not need, but if you find a basic timer isn't cutting it, or you need to loop or chain timers (perhaps you have a series of tasks which rely upon a sequence), check it out. There's also an iOS version.

Wrapping up

Even if you do nothing else to make your life more productive, the simple act of being aware of your time spent can have a profound impact in your happiness. When I discovered how much time I had spent mucking about in email, I began training to help change that behavior (and yes, we will cover email in another series of posts). As a result, I got about an extra hour of work time in each day without having to stay later than usual. If you feel frustrated that you can't get things done, start logging what you do and how long it takes, then start breaking up your day into manageable timed chunks no more than 30 minutes at a time. Within weeks you'll find that you feel happier and more in control than ever, and you'll know where you can improve.

Don't worry about fancy tools or tricks, just keep a timer going, pause for breaks, then get back to it. Unless you are Sisyphus you will find that eventually you've rolled that boulder up that hill.

Productivity Tip: Time for timers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yesterday around the TUAW water cooler a number of us expressed our love of Due, an app for Mac and iOS that is basically a simple timer/reminder application (my original review here). After trying dozens of timer apps, I think Due wins for a number of features that make it stand out from a very crowded field. After all, your iDevice comes with a timer in the Clock app, and there's Apple's Reminders app. While Reminders syncs with iCloud, your alarms in the Clock app do not. Due can help you stay focused and never overcook a boiling egg again.

Due's interface is simple as can be. There are three views: Reminders, Timers and Logged Reminders. You can quickly set a reminder for later in the day, or whenever. Due accepts natural language instructions, so you could say "next Thursday at 1 PM" and it'll set a reminder alarm for just that. Note that Due doesn't integrate with the built-in Reminders app, so I'm only referring to reminders (lower case) within Due itself.

Once a reminder has gone off or you check it off manually, those go into Logged Reminders. This is handy if you need to recall what you did or if you need to remind yourself of the same thing again, later.

I tend to use the timer function more frequently (as I use my calendar for appointments and OmniFocus for repeating tasks and "to do" items). I have a 25-minute timer for Pomodoros, a 5-minute timer for breaks and a couple of others for things I need to do at some point in the day, but things which require me to focus on just that thing for an allotted amount of time. By doing this, I help my squirrel-like brain stay focused on some critical tasks throughout the day, but it also helps me be flexible enough to not dread going out of being flexible in my daily schedule (more on this in next week's Productivity Tip).

Best of all, Due has just the right number of preferences. From changing sounds to setting a snooze time, Due can be as intrusive or quiet as you like. You can even change the alarms to use Notification Center or Growl -- handy especially if you use something like Prowl. I particularly like the option to "suppress alerts on launch and wake" because I hate opening my Mac to have 30 alarms from past events going off all at once. Is it just me or is that "throw a million notifications at me on wake" thing seem a very obtrusive, Windows 98-like behavior? But I digress.

Due is a rock-solid, beautifully designed app. iCloud sync works flawlessly (you can also use Dropbox) across my Macs and iDevices, meaning I always have what I need where I need it. Most importantly, Due keeps me focused on doing things, and not setting myself up to do things, which is precisely what technology should be doing. You can get the Mac app here or the iOS version here.

Friday Favorite: Due originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Audiobooks, unlike your other iTunes purchases, cannot be re-downloaded from the store. On a Mac, you can dig into your iTunes folder and move the DRM-protected files to another authorized machine. iOS devices, however, lack a file system that the user can access, so if you never sync with a Mac, you could run into an issue like I did when I had to swap out my iPhone 5.

A couple of weeks ago my iPhone 5's power button started acting strange. It appeared to be a mechanical issue, so I went to the Genius Bar at my local store and was told they've seen this happen before (it was likely shearing stress from removing a protective case).

Of course, they don't repair iPhones in the store. Instead, they give customers a new piece of hardware then use a backup to bring it back to where you left off with your old one. Since I used iCloud, PhotoStream and my iTunes purchases are available in the cloud, I figured I'd be fine. The only problem was that I had purchased a $24 audiobook via iTunes on my iPhone -- and that doesn't get backed up in any way. Worse, since the rules state you can only download the audiobook once, I would have had to re-purchase the book to download it again. I had bought the book about three days earlier and only listened to a small portion.

This was completely unacceptable, so I emailed Apple support. At first, they failed to understand what I was talking about. They thought my download had failed somehow, and suggested I download in iTunes and re-sync, and they would re-enable the download. That seemed fair enough, but the presumption that I had a personal computer to sync with struck me as a bit odd. Didn't Apple say we live in a post-PC world? Also, I don't sync my iPhone with anything. Like a fool, I thought iCloud backup and iTunes in the cloud had me covered. Clearly I was wrong.

Once I explained that I didn't sync, the support staff told me they would make it available for download on my iPhone -- but the downloads screen never showed the audiobook. In the end, I wound up buying a nano to sync with, and then Apple refunded my money for the audiobook. An expensive lesson, but a lesson learned. Apple is still addicted to iTunes as a digital hub for all your media.

While this was happening I tweeted some progress and a number of people relayed similar issues and frustrations. Apple support seems ready and willing to try to make the downloads available again, although I wish it was automatic, like everything else I encountered during my restoration process (well, not logins -- boy that's a fun way to spend your afternoon). Unfortunately, the rules about audiobooks aren't set by Apple. Still, if this happens to you, reach out to Apple support immediately. Or, better yet, buy your audiobooks somewhere else. This "post-PC" era has yet to begin.

Audiobooks are not backed up by iCloud, can only be downloaded once originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hands up, all of you still using your first-generation iPads. Although it was only three years ago, the iPad has progressed quite a bit since its introduction (which was in January -- Apple didn't specify a release date at the time). Codenamed K48, the iPad was in development before the iPhone, but obviously the iPhone took design cues from the iPad and would set the smartphone standard for several years.

In fact, three years ago today you could only buy the Wi-Fi version, as the cellular version (Wi-Fi+3G) wouldn't debut until the end of the month. Still, my local Apple store had over 50 people waiting in line to buy one. Mine is still in great condition, aside from a few scratches on the screen -- I blame my cats.

These days the iPad 1 is a homebound device used when guests come over, or when Kid 1 is using the iPad 3 or as a supplemental entertainment device. My dock reflects this, with these apps in it: Music, Calcbot, Khan Academy, Safari, TangoRemote and a folder with more music apps and remotes (like Airfoil Speakers).

How are you using your iPad 1?

Three years ago today the first iPad had us waiting in lines to buy one originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There was a time when Mac owners scoffed at their PC-loving counterparts, who had to pore over paper manuals to grok the essentials of a software program before they tried to use it.

When graphical user interfaces were introduced, a lot of focus was on making software intuitive and easy to use. There were also hardware constraints -- not much CPU power or memory, minimal storage, low-resolution displays -- that forced applications to be simple by design. Modern applications, whether on the desktop or on mobile, have a lot more room to maneuver, and consequently may arrive with a much steeper learning curve

While your average iOS app may seem simple enough, quite often there are bells and whistles you might not know about. iPad apps may use the increased screen real estate to add more (and more obscure) options, and Mac or web applications can be far more complex than anything available on mobile platforms.

While it might seem like cheap advice to "read the manual," I find very few people actually do. There's an entire industry built around learning software tools, like the Take Control series, which I find immensely helpful. Granted, most software manuals are written in plodding, feature by feature style and not as entertaining "here's how you solve this problem" books, but even that dry documentation can be vital to your efficacy when using the software.

When I started using iBank, shortly after its debut, I was lured in by its accessible design. "This seems simple enough," I said as I started entering transactions. Over time it became apparent that I had barely scratched the surface of iBank's functionality. I eventually gave up on the program -- only to return over a year later, armed with more clues. This time I read the manual, in no small part because almost every question I looked up on the IGG Software Knowledgebase had an answer in the manual.

Another example: Productivity software. While applications like Things are simple enough, there's often a lot of functionality hidden in the manual. You may not understand how to tap into these features if you're just reading "This does that" in the documentation. This is where additional help may be required.

In my case, for task management I use OmniFocus (after trying every other "to do" application under the sun). OmniFocus isn't a simple list maker; it is a powerful database which can help you sort through mountains of tasks to allow you to focus on what exactly needs to be done next. You could likely spend days reading the manual and still come away with the "what now?" feeling. You could buy a book, but sometimes books on niche products turn out more like dry manuals. There's another answer, however.

For deeper, more powerful applications, I recommend paying for additional learning materials. I bought an excellent book on DEVONThink Pro from Take Control and I no longer feel overwhelmed by the powerful software. For OmniFocus, I knew I needed to use it better, so I upped the ante and bought into the Asian Efficiency series of posts on using OmniFocus. Take Control books are great, but (for me) sometimes the low cost can cause a lack of motivation. Asian Efficiency is more like an online course, and the cost is much higher than just a book. It's a powerful motivator to know you're wasting more than an evening of poker's amount of money with a course if you ignore it. This goes double for any app that's crucial to your business workflow; if you're earning your rent with Adobe's CS suite, don't stint on the training or courseware as you move from CS 5 to CS6. The hour you save searching for that missing dialog box or hidden feature might be billable.

We're starting to see some really amazing ebooks arrive on the iBookstore, too. These leverage all the multimedia functions in iBooks and if you're a visual learner, they can be vastly more effective than reading text alone. A great example is Markdown by David Sparks and Eddie Smith (our review here). By using video and audio in addition to text, there's almost no chance you'll walk away scratching your head. The downside is these media-enabled iBooks will quickly fill up your iPad's storage.

I also recommend going to focused conferences, or events like Macworld/iWorld, where there are sessions aplenty on various software packages and workflows (several TUAW folks have given talks at Macworld). Often these give you a bigger picture and show you how to integrate multiple tools into a consistent workflow. You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions of speakers and attendees, and this can often be the most helpful thing of all as you share tips and tricks and learn what matters most to you.

Finally, don't be afraid to seek out a guru who knows the app backwards and forwards. Many app experts share their tips and training suggestions on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus, or on application-specific forums hosted by the developer or third-parties. Be polite, show that you've done your legwork first (if the question could have been answered by a fifteen-second scan of the manual, it's not a good use of your time or the guru's wisdom), and you might be able to draw on some help from above.

This is the first in a series of weekly productivity tips here on TUAW. If you have any of your own, send them in via our feedback page.

Productivity Tip: Read the manual, or take a class originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Thirty-seven years ago today Apple, a fledgling "personal computer" company, was founded. The company was later incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. in January of 1977, but those of us who share the love of pranks and fun that helped launch Apple like to celebrate the "birthday" on April Fool's day. Years later, in 2007, Apple dropped the "computer" from its title, heralding a new era beyond personal computers. Apple's bottom line lately has reflected this, as Macs are no longer the primary source of revenue for the Cupertino powerhouse -- not by a long shot.

Still, it's fun to reminisce about those heady early days. The first Apple computer cost $666.66, only included a circuit board and offered a cassette tape interface, sold separately. After growing beyond its homebrew foundation, the Apple II sported a sturdy case with integrated power supply, a keyboard and color TV output. I still remember when my dad bought one -- in a bicycle shop, in the back with all the Altairs and other artifacts of the era. There were no computer stores in 1978!

Here's to years more innovation and great products from the California powerhouse. For a brief history of computing and where Apple fits in the timeline, check out this great article from
NPR.

Happy 37th birthday, Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In this week's exciting installment of our widely acclaimed/reviled Caturday series, reader Hans send a picture of Layla, languidly lounging upon a Mac mini in the sun. Isn't she cute, keeping that cold aluminum box warm?

If you have pictures of cats with Apple gear blissfully sleeping in the sun or in other happy states, send us a link and description via our tips page.

Caturday: Have you hugged your mini today? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Codito Development is behind Sage Board Games, a company which has been cranking out iOS versions of board games for a few years now. Perhaps most notably, Sage has released a number of classic Reiner Knizia games, but they also publish Ravensburger's Puerto Rico and recently released Uwe Rosenberg's The Harbour (Le Havre).

If you are a board game geek, these guys are heroes -- they started porting these out of a fondness for the games and a fear that they might disappear. Learn more about how they got started in this week's Origin Stories. For a list of games from Sage, check this page.

Origin Stories: Sage Board Games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

North Korea released some photos of its leader, Kim Jong-un, hard at work. Besides the map showing (quite clearly) a "US mainland strike plan," dear leader can be seen with what appears to be a 21.5" aluminum unibody iMac.

Not to make light of a geopolitical crisis, but the fact that an iMac made it to North Korea at all (despite a full US embargo -- it probably came in from China) merits our weekly No Comment.

No Comment: Kim Jong-un uses an iMac originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dunno is an odd little free app that allows you to take a note about something and have Dunno "research" the topic for you. After typing in a few words, perhaps about a car model or a book or author, or maybe something esoteric like the meaning of life, Dunno performs a search in the background. The idea is you might hear something at a dinner, but not want to research it during while socially engaged with others. Dunno allows you to mark results as well, saving the best of what it finds (although not in an archive format).

In this Origin Stories I speak with Ryan Bruels of Dunno about how his team came up with the app, and why.

Origin Stories: Dunno originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bubble Browser, now available on the Mac App Store, is a new tool to assist in visualizing Evernote data. In particular, it excels at showing you tagged info, and presents larger bubbles corresponding to the frequency of use for a given tag. It's fast and easy to use, and I had a lot of fun poking around my "other brain" to see what I had been storing and what I hadn't tagged.

Bubble Browser can also search and sort by notebook, dates and titles, so besides the bubbles, you have a nifty sorting tool. While all of this may seem superfluous, the intent is to help spark connections between sets of data, and to help you see what you are spending time tagging or storing.

The app is currently free, so give it a try and see how good data mining can look.

Bubble Browser for Evernote shows tags as bubbles originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In my office I tend to rock out to a 300-watt stereo system. When I go to wash dishes and have to use my iPad's native speaker, well, there's no comparison. Belkin's Thunderstorm case won't crank up to the level of a really large stereo, but it is loud enough to punch through very noisy environments with ease. At CES I tried one on the show floor where the sound level (according to my iPhone) was close to 100 decibels and the Thunderstorm was not only loud enough to hear, the audio actually sounded good. It's not perfect, however, as I'll explain below. It also retails for US$199, so this is not a budget case or speaker.

Design

Like any iPad case that surrounds the iPad, the Thunderstorm cradles your iPad in a large plastic shell and provides a cover somewhat like Apple's Smart Cover -- but with no magnetic actuation of the iPad itself, like the Smart Cover. The iPad slides into the case, and is secured by a 30-pin dock connection which clicks into place, and provides the power and audio output needed.

Of course you simply can't get around physics, so the drivers for the Thunderbolt are heavy. The case is heavy. Your iPad inside will make all of this very heavy, but this is not a case for casual use if you tend to mostly read iBooks on your iPad. This case is designed to stand up and be loud. There's a shockingly small speaker port on the front, along with a small light under the grill to indicate when the charger (included) is plugged in. The case uses ports to enhance the sound, much as a full size speaker would, and they work very well.

I had a little trouble with the charger at first, until I realized there's just a delay from when you plug it in to when the iPad begins to charge. Still, it is a wall wart and not the most convenient AC adapter to carry around. I wouldn't say it charges slowly, but it is not a fast charge by any means.

A bigger problem in the cover flap. It's one of those origami-style flaps that pinches together to provide a "stand" for viewing the iPad mostly upright. You can roll up the case like Apple's cover, which provides a more upright angle, or fold the case into a bit of a triangle, putting the iPad at almost 45 degrees. That viewing angle is a bit odd, as I felt it leaned back a little far, and you cannot adjust it, but there's the other option, which I felt isn't as stable.

The good news is the flap, when folded as a support, is very sturdy and I never really had it fall down. The bad news is it is loosely secured at the hinge, and if you're used to the relatively strong magnets on the Smart Cover, you will find these magnets aren't as strong. Often while closing the flap I would yank the cover off -- and I'm a wimp.

There are pass-through (mechanical) buttons for power, rotation and volume, plus a large hole for headphones and even a speaker vent at the bottom where the iPad's speaker resides.

Functionality

It's loud. Really loud. Without exception, when I would demonstrate the volume on this thing their eyebrows would raise and they would say "wow." You won't believe so much sound can come from a small package -- unless you've used a Bose Smartwave, which is similar in a way.

Loudness is the distinguishing feature here, however. This is not a protective case, and it's not designed to do much more than cradle your iPad and make it much louder. Luckily it does that job admirably. It's worth noting that audio quality does not suffer at the hands of volume, and even at the highest setting the highs were crystal clear while the bass punched through loud environments admirably.

There's also a companion app which does boring stuff like handle registration and check firmware, but it also allows you to control the stereo separation. That's a neat trick, but unless you have the device pointed at your face, you lose the spread pretty quickly. Sound, again, is bound by the laws of physics.

Conclusion

If you need a very loud speaker for the iPad but don't want something huge like a dock or external stereo, and you want this speaker embedded in a case, the Thunderstorm is perfect. Belkin's Thunderstorm is the loudest iPad case I've ever heard, and the audio quality doesn't suffer as you crank up the volume. The price, at $199, may turn off some customers, but if you compare to large boombox docks (like JBL's OnStage) it's pretty reasonable. I feel that you're getting your money's worth if you frequently need your iPad to be heard in loud environments or you just want ear-blasting noise from your tablet.

Belkin's Thunderstorm case cranks your iPad to 11 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I bought the MacUpdate Spring Bundle last week and it includes some great software (listed below). As usual, bundles are a great way to quickly grab a group of applications for an ultra-low price. In this case, the full bundle costs as much as just one of these pieces of software -- MotionComposer alone is $149.

If you've been wanting to try virtualization, Parallels is included in this bundle (although you'll need your own copy of Windows if you plan to install it). MacUpdate's own service is included for six months. The handy MacUpdate app will scan your Applications folder for files and alert you when one of them needs an update. If, like me, you wind up buying a lot of stuff outside the Mac App Store, this is a valuable service.

Here's the full list of applications we'll be giving away, and we're giving away three of these bundles! Just follow the instructions below.

First, the apps (and their full prices):

• Parallels Desktop 8 - $79.99 - The best way to run Windows on your Mac.
• DEVONthink Pro 2 - $79.95 - A powerful information organizer.
• Prizmo 2 - $49.95 - Scan/OCR any document or photo.
• MotionComposer 1.6 - $149.00 - Create professional HTML5 and Flash Web animations.
• 1000 OpenTypeFonts Collection - $99.00 - Complete with commercial-use and WebFont licenses.
• iStat Menus 4 - $16.00 - Monitor your Mac from the menubar; a power user's dream.
• PhotoStyler 6 - $29.99 - Add dazzling effects and personalize your photos.
• DiskAid 6 - $29.90 - A must-have utility for iPhone, iPad, or iPod owners.
• Intego Mac Internet Security 2013 (3-Pack) - $74.98 - The #1 malware solution, rebuilt for 2013.
• MacUpdate Desktop (6 months) - $10.00 - The best way to keep all your apps up-to-date.

Now, how to enter:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button.
• The entry must be made before March 19, 2013 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected and will receive a MacUpdate Spring Bundle valued at $50.
• Click here for official rules.

Winners have been selected.

Enter to win MacUpdate's Spring Bundle originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week's Origin Stories goes to the heart of a problem developers had at the beginning of the App Store: how to easily deal with beta builds. There are numerous restrictions and difficulties for developers who wish to give out beta versions of an app for review or bug testing, and that's where TestFlight stepped in. The company has gone beyond this, however, and now offers a plethora of services to help developers (including Android support).

In this episode I talk to Ben Satterfield of TestFlight about their journey.

Origin Stories: TestFlight originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

At SXSW I found a kiosk showing off a beta of the app Gravidi. It allows producers to add a layer of interactivity to videos by embedding hotspots in the video, and adding other activity around it. For users, it provides a way to learn more about moments in a video, or people or objects in that video as it plays. The app is currently in beta, but they are showing it off around SXSW featuring a number of bands and their music videos.

While clickable video has been tried before (I remember adding hotspots to QuickTime video a decade ago), Gravidi is offering a nicely designed experience for users and tools for producers on the back end. The app for consumers will be free, the back end for producers will cost, but no details on price were available when I spoke to them.

The question, to me, will be whether viewers will want to interact with video they would normally "veg out" to. Steve Jobs once described watching movies as a "lean back" experience, versus the more interactive clicking around we do when on a computer. But since the iPad is a sort of intermediate device, I can see a point at which users are more accustomed to interacting with a video as it is playing. As with the plethora of "second screen" apps that have been appearing, time will tell whether consumers want to divide their attention.

While some of this will depend on negotiations with media folks (studios who wish to add these hotspots), there are applications beyond mere entertainment. A professor could overlay hotspots at key scenes in a film for a class, or a training video could provide more information at critical points. If the tools for producers are easy enough to use, that is.

Meanwhile, Gravidi has a good approach, and partnering with SXSW to work with bands is a good start. In the demo I saw, a band played through a music video, and you could learn more about the band, the director and specific moments throughout the video. Little icons designating hotspots would periodically float down from the top (to draw your eye), and land on a spot where you can click to see a pop-up screen with more info. At that point you can jump to the content or go back to the video. The experience was fast and fluid.

What I felt was even more important for bands was a button up top which looked like a ticket and will bring you to a window showing a band's next performances (and presumably buy tickets). Since the production tools weren't on display, there's a question of whether producers will go through the effort needed to populate all this data. In fact, that's a huge question for educational producers.

That said, what users will see is a clean interface. It's a question of changing habits for users (something a wave of second-screen apps may be changing anyway), and Gravidi is banking on them wanting to click around in a video as it plays. If Gravidi can convince content creators to add the interactivity in ways which appeal to users, they may have a winner on their hands.

Gravidi wants to put clickable hotspots on videos for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Unfortunately Fun Folds is no longer available on the store, but I interviewed the creator in 2012 at WWDC. Of course, considering it was based on a bit of pop culture, do we expect those apps to last anyway? Occasionally I'll download the random meme app of the week, but in the end most of these are "throwaway" apps.

That said, Fun Folds had good interaction design and could have easily been re-purposed. If it has, I'll follow up with a post about what happened to it. Until then, hear about why the developers created Fun Folds to begin with on this episode of Origin Stories.

Origin Stories: The now-unavailable Fun Folds app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're eagerly awaiting the 85th Academy Awards airing this Sunday on ABC, you may find one of these five apps useful before and during the show -- and all of them are free. Good luck to the nominees!

Oscars

The official app for the event. It's pretty much a US-only affair, and isn't perfect, but it's a handy way to learn more about the nominated performers, creators and films. You can also fill out a virtual Oscar ballot and share it on Facebook. I found it was a somewhat better experience than the mobile version of oscar.go.com (which pushes you to download the app anyway).

Of course, the app really kicks into gear on Sunday night; it will provide Backstage Pass live streams from the red carpet, control room and backstage to deliver a "second screen" experience as you watch the big show. Fair warning: the streams are all sponsored by Samsung, so you may be subjected to a certain amount of iPhone-needling.

Stitcher

The streaming radio service has been amping up the original content lately, and it is now promising exclusive red carpet coverage on Sunday. If you haven't tried Stitcher and you want a different take on the show, this Sunday is a good time to give it a try.

Live From the Red Carpet

Speaking of red carpet coverage, E! has been at it for a long time. While I haven't used this one, the app has a perfect rating on the store. If you are a red carpet junkie, this is probably going to make you happy until the show starts.

Awards Hero: Oscars Edition

Awards Hero is not just a database of Oscar-related info; it's also a quick way to get a voting pool going with your Facebook friends. If you're looking for some friendly competition over who picks the most winners, this is your app.

IMDb

As the world's foremost online repository of movie information, this one seems pretty obvious. Settle disputes, look up actor histories and lots more with the original "Internet Movie Database." Awards Guide is prettier, however.

Thanking the Academy: Five Apps for the 2013 Oscars originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earthlapse, like Living Earth HD from last week, is a way to view the planet Earth on your iPad or iPhone. Earthlapse is from the creator of Magic Window, and is based on time lapse photography. The creation of Earthlapse is a lesson in minimalism and focus, as developer Josh Michaels explains in this week's Origin Stories.

Earthlapse offers gorgeous views of our planet taken from the International Space Station. You can control the time with a swipe of your finger, and there are a few extra features like weather and a clock. Earthlapse is even compatible with the iPad 1. The app is now free for a limited time.

Origin Stories: Earthlapse originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I feel like we're starting to see another boom in well-designed apps that do cool things easily. Next (US$1.99) is in that category, as the app's interface is clean, intuitive and responsive. That's good, because the app is designed to reduce the friction needed to log expenses -- something that can be a real pain when you're juggling a latte, briefcase and iPhone. But Next does it well, with a few caveats.

Design

If you're a fan of stitched leather, the minimalist aesthetic Next uses may not appeal to you. I like how the grid of buttons is like your iOS home screen, how swiping to see different views is like Reminders. Next is clean and efficient.

Icons representing expenses are arranged in a grid, and as you enter expenses the icons get a darker shade of blue. I think the palette could use some expansion, however, as the icons are basically white, light blue or dark blue based on my range of $0-1,300 in expenses.

As you are entering data into a category the icon turns red and a numeric keypad with just the right buttons slides up. You can enter numbers, change the date of the expense and hit a nice big checkmark to enter that number. The numeric pad stays up, so you can click other expenses and rapidly sort and enter your data.

Swiping between the three screens reveals a week/month/year view (Statistics) of your spending and a day-by-day scrolling list (Expenses) of what you've spent. The typography is crisp, and the app is fast and responsive.

Functionality

Obviously Next is designed for speed, and it doesn't disappoint when it comes to entering your data. You can press and hold to re-arrange your icons, but you can't really name or add more info to the icons. You just get icons.

The Statistics view shows a simple bar graph (most spent to least), but each item can be expanded with a tap to view a line graph of your spending over time. The Expenses view, on the other hand, is just a simple list by day with what you spent on what. A simple swipe to the left brings up a nice inline delete option on each item.

Next keeps things simple but that can be a problem if you want to integrate with other tools. There's no way to move this data anywhere else, and no way to import anything. So Next is great if you just need a singular app for logging expenses, but not great if you're looking for a comprehensive personal finance tracker.

Conclusion

Ultimately Next is probably great for anyone needing to gut check their expenses, or if it works into your process for keeping your finances up-to-date. In terms of data entry, it is excellent. I love the crisp look, and the speed at which tasks are completed. If you don't need it to connect to anything and if you are developing a habit of logging expenses on your iPhone, Next is a slick way to do it.

Next for iPhone seeks to easily log and track your spending, expenses originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.