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stickies posts

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

First Look: Moments

Have you wanted to remember an event, or just remember a small bit of information for later? On the Mac there's a cool application called Stickies, but there really wasn't a great application for doing this same thing on the iPhone ... until now. [Where's the love for Evernote and the built-in Notes app, Cory? :-) -Ed.]

Enter Moments [iTunes link]. This small application is your one stop for remembering small pieces of information or events.

Even though this application has a simple agenda and interface, it is executed beautifully. Moments has an interface composed of three gorgeous themes: corkboard, steel, and a fabric print. Sticky notes are aligned in a grid of 2 x 3 across the screen. You can reorder your stickies, and when you run out of room a new screen will be created that is similar to the layout of the iPhone home screen. When you create a new sticky, you are able to create just a note, or a "moment." A moment has a date associated with it, and can be something in the past or future. A note just has a larger text area that will let you add more information.

Overall, this application is really nice for remembering things, and looks just as good as built-in iPhone apps. However, there are three things that I would like to see: (1) User selected sticky note colors, (2) A place to add more details about a specific note or email the note, and (3) More themes to choose from. This application is really great the way it is, and is well worth $.99 US in the App Store. You can check Moments out on the App Store, or check out our gallery of pictures.


Filed under: Accessories, Humor, Odds and ends

iPhone stickers to stroke your ego

iPhone users have been called vain, and perhaps that's justified. Not all users, of course, but definitely those who apply text-style stickies to their screens. Stickies with messages like, "You are right. As usual."

Actually, we think these are pretty cute. Created by artist Fiona Carswell, I think they'd be a clever gift for the iPhone-addicted teen or technology-fearing curmudgeon. There's no info on whether you can buy them, but perhaps if you ask Fiona very nicely ....

Of course, this isn't the oddest iPhone accessory we've found. That honor goes to the Danglet. Because who doesn't want to swing their iPhone above their head on the end of a string?

[Via iPhone Savior]

Filed under: OS, Mac 101

Mac 101: Make your Stickies see-through

A while back we mentioned that by pressing Command + Option + F that you could make your Stickies float above all other windows. Well, it's time to take this a bit farther.

By pressing Command + Option + T, you can also put your Stickies into transparent mode, so you can see any windows/information that is below the note.

Stickies can be useful for jotting down a quick note, making out a list, or any other daily task that you may find yourself doing -- like checking out TUAW for our great Mac 101 tips and tricks!

Filed under: OS, Mac 101

Mac 101: Float a Sticky note above all windows

Here is a great tip from creativebits. Stickies and the Mac have gone hand in hand for years. They're a great way to quickly jot down a bit of information, just like their paper counterparts.

Ivan explains how to keep a Sticky Note front and center. With your target note selected, simply press Command-Option-F and it will float above all other windows.

Stickies have matured over the years, and gained additional functionality like appear translucent and display Quicktime movies.

What's your favorite "Sticky Trick?"

Filed under: Software, Productivity

Stick 'Em Up: An enhanced replacement for Apple's Stickies



For anyone looking to get just a little bit more out of the Stickies app that Apple includes on every Mac, Stick Em Up by Jim McGowan might just be the app for you. Since he also writes Do It, the powerful todo list manager that we're a fan of, McGowan seems to have an eye for improving other apps and tasks that some of us perform on a daily basis. Basically speaking, Stick Em Up is a replacement for Apple's Stickies that offers one significant enhancement: categories. Notes can be grouped into whatever categories you'd like, which are all navigable by the keyboard and can all be effortlessly displayed and hidden. This allows all sorts of useful workflows to include Stick Em Up instead of having to look to another heftier note storage app like Yojimbo, or keeping multiple apps open just to get through the day. Users can create a category of Web Clippings stickies in which you can toss temporary URLs and images, but then hide that category at the end of the day and save room for all the other sticky notes you need to work with for another task. It's a subtle but liberating feature for a simple tool that offers a surprising amount of flexibility.

As with Do It and all his other software, Jim McGowan offers Stick Em Up as donationware from his site.

Filed under: Software, Productivity, Odds and ends

Edgies: Stickies on the Edge

It seems like I am always looking for an alternative to Stickies. Although I like how simple they are, at the same time they just don't seem to fit that well into my workflow. Today I found a new candidate which looks rather promising: Edgies. Its main feature is, as you can see to the right, the ability stick its notes as little tabs on any edge of your screen. But in addition, if you hover over the tab name the note content will pop up, without a click. As well as text, you can drop pictures or even aliases in notes to make an impromptu launcher. New notes can be created by hovering the cursor at the screen edge, via Applescript, or (my favorite) via OS X Service (e.g. with Quicksilver).

Edgies is $9.99 shareware and a demo is available.

[Via Apple Downloads]

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

Chronos replaces StickyBrain with SOHO Notes 5.5


StickyBrain, one of the leading 'digital junk drawer' apps that recently entered a 4.1 beta testing phase, has been officially discontinued by Chronos in favor of SOHO Notes 5.5. Current registered users of StickyBrain 4.0 will receive an upgrade to SOHO Notes for free, while users who own licenses for any previous StickyBrain versions (1.x, 2.x and 3.x) can upgrade to SOHO Notes 5.5 for a mere $25, the price offered in the past for upgrading from StickyBrain 3.x to 4.x.

Why is StickyBrain being dissolved in favor of SOHO Notes, you ask? Chronos has published an announcement and FAQ explaining the decision, but here's the short version: SOHO Notes is basically the big brother of StickyBrain; they're almost the same app, derived from the same codebase, except SOHO Notes included three key features that Chronos used to charge extra for:
  • SOHO Notes can synchronize notes between multiple computers using a .Mac account (seamlessly, in the background).
  • SOHO Notes can access multiple note databases simultaneously.
  • SOHO Notes is multi-user capable which means users can share notes with others over a network using the product's client/server technology.
Now, with SOHO Notes taking the helm, its price has dropped to $39.99 to keep it more in-line with StickyBrain's previous price, as well as the competition like Yojimbo and DEVONthink.

Feature-wise, this new version of SOHO Notes 5.5 offers some powerful new goodies, such as the ability to import and catalog almost any kind of file, send notes to your blog, a DockNote that makes it easy to get info both in and out, audio recording notes, full-screen editing of notes, a Daily Journal/Diary category that can automatically date/time stamp notes and much more.

Whether you love your hate StickyBrain SOHO Notes, this should be good news for the 'digital junk drawer' market, as this price drop and the new features should help keep everyone's innovative juices flowing.

Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools

iSticky offers notes with reminders, sending via Bonjour, more


Sticky notes are great, but sticky notes that can have reminder alarms, be sent to other Macs via Bonjour, sent over the web and SMS, archived and more - are better. If any of these features have your inner nerd excited, then check out iSticky - a sticky note app on steroids. Also on the feature list are themes, categories, encryption, document linking and more.

While we don't think iSticky is Universal yet (at least, the author isn't bragging about it on the site), a demo is available. iSticky also offers a wide range of licenses depending on which features you need and whether you need a family/business pack. Prices run from $16 USD (single license, Bonjour sending but not over the web) up to $90 USD for a 12 license pack with all the toppings. Check it out if Apple's Stickies just aren't cutting it for you anymore.

Filed under: Software, Mods

Export Stickies text via Applescript

As you may know, Apple's Stickies isn't directly scriptable via Applescript (technically, you can send a system event). Still, one enterprising soul has discovered a work around, and posted it to Mac OS X Hints. His script creates a new text file, one for each Sticky. Once you've got your text file, you can do whatever you wish with it.

The script's author notes that his script only works on text for the time being; images will not be exported.

As reader Eric notes, this script is for the Stickies application, not the Dashboard widget. Ignore the fact that I used an image of the widget for this post (it just looked so nice).

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


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