Backpack by 37signals is a terrific online organization and collaboration tool (we've written about Backpack many times). Those wanting a desktop application that works with Backpack have used the popular Packrat. This week, Lars Steiger has offered a solution with more Macintosh style, called Backboard.
Aside from a Mac-like appearance, Backboard also adds a few features to Backpack, like the ability to attach dates and priorities, support for multiple accounts and a nice overview of tasks.
Backboard is currently in private beta, but if you ask nicely, perhaps Lars will put you in the queue.
If you're a fan of web-based group chat tool Campfire, you may be pleased to learn that it's now available for the iPhone. Now, when you visit Campfire sites on the iPhone, you'll be directed to an iPhone-optimized version.
Due to the way the developers have created the iPhone version, you'll need to use two-fingered scrolling to move through your transcript. For more details, check out 37signal's post, where they explain the technical reasons for the two-finger scroll. Apparently, on the iPhone the "auto" overflow property for HTML gets rendered as a separate frame.
If you'd like to learn more about the iPhone's special capabilities and limitations with respect to its Mobile Safari implementation, I strongly recommend you look into the iPhone Web Dev group at google groups.
Basecamp is a popular and powerful web-based project collaboration and management service from 37signals, makers of other TUAW favorites like Backpack and Highrise. Fortunately, even though Basecamp is web-based, 37signals provides a rich API with which 3rd party developers can make all sorts of neat apps and widgets that tie into the service. A group of students did just that for a class project, resulting in Avalanche, a free Basecamp widget for Yahoo! Widgets.
While I don't use Basecamp to any serious degree, Avalanche seems to be pretty feature-filled, offering access to all your Basecamp messages, todos, time entries, contacts and milestones. Going above and beyond, however, the 37signals blog reports that Avalanche includes features not found in Basecamp, such as auto time entry, spreadsheet generation of time reports, time estimate tracking and contact exporting (which I thought Basecamp already did).
Ultimately, Avalanche looks like an impressive widget for a service loved by its vast and growing base of users. Of course, as with many other widgets, Avalanche is offered free from Avalanche-widget.org.
If you're unfamiliar, Ta-Da List is the super simple (and just as useful), free list manager from 37signals. Now, folks who visit with their iPhones will automatically be re-directed to an optimized version of the site.
I just logged into my own account, and it's fantastic. The pages have been built to fit so well on the iPhone's screen that you forget you're on the web - it feels like a stand alone application on the iPhone. If you're a GTD freak (and even if you're not), you ought to check this out. I tip my hat to 37signals. Ta-Da List for iPhone is great.
It's been over a year since we first mentioned Pyro, the powerful Mac OS X client for 37signals' Campfire web-based chat service for groups and businesses. While I personally didn't pick up a copy back then since I wasn't a Campfire user, I'm not entirely familiar with every change that has come since April '06. Still, even the most recent list of changes warrants Pyro another mention, especially since I'm looking at using Campfire for a few uses and projects.
In addition to already offering a dashboard and central location for all your Campfire chats and displaying message status alerts in the Dock icon, check out what's new in Pyro 1.6:
Any file type can be dragged onto Pyro to share in a Campfire chat
Pyro will automatically zip a folder or .APP
Dragging an image from a web browser will insert a URL for that image instead of uploading it
Campfire's new sidebar search field now works in Pyro
Support for the new WebKit installed by Safari 3 beta (mentioned on the Pyro development blog)
and of course, bug fixes
As Campfire's example uses page details, there are a lot of great scenarios for such a slick web app, and Pyro looks like the perfect tool to bring together the coolness of Campfire with the power of Mac OS X. Surprisingly, Pyro is still offered free, and even though Campfire primarily focuses on business users by offering a few paid accounts, it too has a free account with which you can register and tinker around to see if Campfire is right for your use.
The Backpack Dashboard widget, which many of us here at TUAW have known and loved since we found it, has been updated after a long hiatus to v1.2. Unfortunately, I can't find any documentation describing exactly what is new, though I can say that the 'login error' messages I often used to get when waking a machine from sleep have disappeared. I tried contacting the widget's developer, Matt Pennig, for details, but haven't heard anything back from him.
[Update: Matt just got in touch with me to confirm that the big change in this version is an update to the login code. Anyone experiencing the problems I mentioned should be pleased with their disappearance in v1.2. Matt has also set up both Amazon and PayPal donation links at his site, so drop him a few bucks if you enjoy his Backpack widget.]
37signals is the company that brought the world Ruby on Rails, Basecamp, and a raft of other Web 2.0 goodies. They did it all on Macs, and Apple has posted a video profiling them and their Mac usage. Check it out, and remember that Macs help you innovate.
After blogging the Basecamp widget, TUAW reader Mike Jacobsen wrote in to let us know about a Basecamp widget he recently launched for Dashboard, called Telescope. For now, Telescope appears to be more of a monitoring widget than anything, allowing users to:
List current projects
View last 25 updates (to-dos, milestones, messages, comments, files)
Filter update list by project
View next milestone for each project
Mike also blogged his experience with building the widget in Dashcode, and links other projects that have either produced products, such as Packrat and other Basecamp utilities. He even lists 37Signals APIs and resources in case you're a developer looking to hop on the bandwagon.
It's good to see more work being done on utilities that interact with these web services in creative new ways. My personal favorite is still Packrat for Backpack, largely because of its offline and syncing capabilities.
Finally, some competition in the Backpack widget department: bpiDash (from the maker of dashLicious) is a Backpack widget that more or less matches the other Backpack widget we've always known about from Chipt. bpiDash, however, has a unique trick up its sleeve: populating a note with text from the clipboard. This ought to make the research and notation process a bit easier, and possibly raise Backpack up one notch on the Scale of Usefulness™ towards the ranks of Yojimbo, SOHO Notes and Journler (if it hasn't already surpassed them on your list, that is).
Basecamp is an award-winning, web-based project management service from the much-loved 37Signals, makers of the equally-loved Backpack. Since Backpack has had its own widget for a while now, it seems that Kennedia Consulting felt it was high time Basecamp received the Dashboard treatment as well. The cleverly titled Basecamp Widget offers an interface to the pleasantly simple, yet powerful, Basecamp web service, allowing you to:
View Milestones, Todos, Posts and Contacts for your active projects
Complete and Uncomplete Milestones
Complete and Uncomplete ToDo items
The author has also stated that a slew of additional features are planned for the widget, depending on how much interest is expressed from the community (hint hint). So check out the widget, submit some feedback and let the developer know you care.
The author of Packrat, the app that lets you download your Backpack information for
offline viewing, is requesting feedback on his blog
as to Packrat's development. Specifically, he's working on adding editing features to Packrat, and he's wondering
whether users would like to see the app released with editing support as he's baking it in, or if we'd all like to wait
until it's completely polished and ready for prime time.
If you're at all interested in (what I believe to
be) the only full-featured offline client for 37signals' fantastic Backpack
service (no, the widget doesn't count),
swing on by Rod Schmidt's feedback post and toss in
your two cents.
Campfire is the web-based chat application by the folks at 37 Signals. It's full of
Web 2.0 bells and whistles, and looks like a good means of cross-platform, application independent collaboration.
Earlier this week, 37 Signals released the initial beta of Pyro for
Campfire users who have Macs. They're calling it a "site-specific browser," in that its primary purpose in
life is to interact with Campfire.* Enhancements Pyro offers include:
A single location for
all your chats
Chat room/message status in the dock
Access all open rooms in a single
window
Pyro is universal, free and requires a Campfire account (obviously). No specific OS requirements were
given.
*No, the irony of using Mac OS-only application to interact with an application independent, cross
platform chat system is not lost on us.
We TUAW bloggers certainly love Backpack, the super-simple online PIM from 37 Signals, and it's Dashboard widget is pretty slick too. Naturally, I was excited to see a Dashboard widget pop up in endo this morning for Ta-da List, 37 Signals' one-trick-pony todo list manager. The Ta-da Lists Widget allows you to create new todo lists lists and add items to those lists. It's a pretty straight forward widget for a very straight forward service.
One catch I ran into while setting the widget up, however, is the way the widget first logs into your account. I flipped the widget over, entered my name and password and then the widget asked me to log into Ta-da Lists first through my browser, specifying that I check the "remember me" box. I use Camino, and for some odd reason the widget couldn't catch that I logged into the service, so it wouldn't allow me to start using my lists. Only when I logged in through Safari did the widget kick into gear and download my information.
Aside from the registration hiccup, this widget is really handy. It's fast, slick, and in true 37 Signals form: simple and effective.
Backpack is the online organizational tool by 37 Signals that
makes it super easy to keep track of your stuff. You can even have several people collaborate on a given project, all on
their own time schedules. It's pretty useful and well executed (I've been using it for a while now). But what if you
want to take your data offline? Check out Packrat.
Once
Packrat has downloaded all of your data, your pages look much like they do online. From here you an add tags, edit
information and so on. Once you're back online, synchronize the changes you made with your Backpack account. Simple and
easy.
Packrat requires Mac OS X 10.4 and higher, plus a Backpack account (but you knew that). A demo is
available, and a single license will run you $24.95US. Incidentally, the creator of Packrat is looking for an artist to
create a nice application icon. If your design is selected, you'll receive a free lifetime license.
Backpack by 37signals is a terrific online organization and collaboration tool (we've written about Backpack many times). Those wanting a desktop application that works with Backpack have used the popular Packrat. This week, Lars Steiger has offered a solution with more Macintosh style, called Backboard.
If you're a fan of web-based group chat tool 
Last week, Randy Hunt at Citizen Scholar described just how 
The 
Finally, some competition in the Backpack widget department: bpiDash (from the maker of 
Backpack
