Unlimited playback with standard analytics is free while premium paid plans provide real-time stats, SSL and email support. Worth a look if you’re interested in supporting HTML5 playback.

11/22/11 11:07:35.566 AM librariand: items added to file://localhost/Users/Hermes/Library/Mobile%20Documents/ mobile documents not enabled (4)

Mobile Documents. Hmm. That could be referencing one of two services on my Mac: 1) the old MobileMe service or 2) the new iCloud service. No reason to be signed into MobileMe anymore right? Signing out of MobileMe but staying signed-in to iCloud seems to have resolved the temporary hang. The console no longer complains about mobile documents being disabled.

I’m playing with a publishing flow (for this site) which will allow me to compose my thoughts within iA Writer and publish directly to the site using a few handy keyboard shortcuts.

Credit to this iA Writer + WordPress workflow which I used as a base. I experimented [and failed] with Markdown.pl + Automator for conversion prior to sending the post to the site. If anyone has any tips on getting the workflow working correctly, please leave a comment. The current system works like this:

1. Compose post in iA Writer
2. Keyboard shortcut via Keyboard Maestro
3. Part of the macro includes the posting workflow (select body, compose email and send to site)

I tried to mix in the shell script to handle the markdown -> HTML. For now, I’m using the handy Markdown on Save Improved plugin.

If crontab was configured correctly, this iA Writer to WordPress post should be published automatically.

It’s a bad game player, a bad app platform, a bad web browser, a bad video player, and, most disappointingly, a bad Kindle.

The closing line from a very human review of the Kindle Fire by Marco.

The Kindle Fire will continue to sell well though. Especially for those who haven’t spent time with any other tablet…

I can honestly say that any experience I had with [the previous] iPhone 4 Voice Commands were purely accidental. Comparing iPhone 4 Voice Commands to Voice Actions for Android? Android wins no contest. Compare Voice Actions (Android) to Siri (iPhone 4S)?

Let’s just say that the moment an iPhone user triggers Siri, they need only speak while Android requires certain keywords in order to perform an action like “send text to” or “send email to”. Interacting with Siri comes naturally.

As Siri continues to mature and grow through the initial beta period, I can’t even begin to imagine how much the system will improve.

• Downloads / view count to monitor files
• Character saving shortened URLs
• Custom domains for shortened URLs
• Option to delete files from the cloud at will
• Secure sharing options
• Plenty of storage to share tiny links or heavy assets

When the internet broke earlier this year (2011 Amazon Web Services outage), I had been using CloudApp to quickly share links and files. Like so many other web services which relied on Amazon for storage, CloudApp suffered. I explored my options and found myself bouncing between Droplr and GrabBox. Then I discovered SimpleShare by Box as another file sharing option.

Integrates with your existing Box account

If you’re an existing Box user, you’ll enjoy the same Box cloud collaboration features with the added benefit of fast file sharing from your desktop – both Mac & PC.

As a Mac user adding files to Box is a cumbersome multi-step process: 1) open web browser, 2) open box.net and 3) upload files. SimpleShare has adopted the same sharing techniques as other services likes Droplr with a few Box collaboration features.

• Upload and securely share any filetype
• Draw screenshot region or upload full screen
• Simple select region and record screencasting (demo)
• Set expiration date automatic file deletion
• Notification when files are viewed
• Interact with files directly from within Box with OpenBox Apps
• 5GB of free storage

In its current state, SimpleShare is great for sharing and collaborating within a team environment or for more sensitive files.

At the moment commenting, task assignment and OpenBox Apps integration is limited to individuals you have assigned as collaborators. I’m hoping that future updates improve the app and allow for individual files to be enabled as public assets for more collaborative actions. Are you using any services for fast file sharing?

Finally. Neglected but not forgotten, the Unstandard WordPress theme update is available for download. The jump from version 1.2.1 to 2.0 includes a complete re-write and supports post thumbnails (no more fiddling with custom fields), custom backgrounds and nested menus. The design has been modified slightly but still includes multiple color options as child themes (which should make it easier for everyone to customize their own flavors). Enjoy!

You need to probably should check out Disk Drill (Pro). I’m saying this because I’ve used the utility a handful of times to successfully recover deleted files and it’s awesome. It’s not perfect, but data recovery is never 100% successful. However, Disk Drill Pro does give you a damn good chance of recovering something you recently deleted.

Before backup evangelists get started: Even if your backup habits maintain automated snapshots of your hard drive, an erroneous file deletion can easily miss a scheduled backup. Without a friendly utility like Disk Drill Pro to attempt and hopefully successfully recover file(s), you’re sad panda SOL.

Empty Trash is not the end and may be reversible

When the Trash is emptied, file references are deleted – you can no longer access files from the Finder. Any hard drive space previously allocated for deleted files is now available to be overwritten by the OS at a later date or when space is required. As soon as you realize that you have deleted something you should not have, stop and get a file recovery utility like Disk Drill Pro. Reducing the amount of data written to the disk reduces the chances of data being overwritten which increases your chances of file recovery.

If you use Secure Empty Trash the reference(s) and file(s) are overwritten and user file recovery is unlikely.

Disk Drill Pro features

Similar to other file recovery utilities like Mac Data Recovery and Data Rescue 3, Disk Drill Pro provides tools to recover deleted files. What differentiates Disk Drill Pro is 1) price, 2) proactive Recovery Vault to increase your chances of file recovery and 3) background services: S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and drive temperature. Check out many of the other features for yourself or continue to find out how to receive a free Pro license. For those who concerned about the idea Recovery Vault – a background task – eating up valuable resources, Activity Monitor shows the service using a meager 66 MB – roughly equal to Dropbox (60 MB) but lower than Growl (138 MB).

Win a Disk Drill Pro license, three up for grabs

UPDATE: The giveaway has officially closed and selected commenters have been notified. Feel free to continue sharing your backup setup – could prove to be a useful reference for others just getting started.

Receive a 15% discount with coupon code: 531-DD

Interested in Disk Drill Pro? Simply leave a comment below sharing your current method(s) for backing up your data. Easy right? One week from today (April 19), three random commenters who share their backup setup will be selected. Until then, I invite you to check out Disk Drill Basic.

To get the ball rolling, my current setup below:

• Time Machine via a 1 TB Lacie connected to an Airport Extreme.
• 500 GB Western Digital on the desk at home and a second 500 GB repurposed 500 GB Hitachi for cloning using SuperDuper.
• One Iomega 2 TB NAS for manual media backups.
• Automated backups to Amazon S3 using the sweet Arq utility.
• “Everyday” files and creative assets stored locally but synced via Dropbox (must have).
• Background remote backups to Backblaze. Replaced Backblaze with Arq due to the ease of recovering backups (drag n’ drop).

Your turn. How do you keep your data safely backed up?

• Faster startup / shutdown
• Notebook runs slightly cooler
• Similar “instant-on” MacBook Air users enjoy
• Applications start within a second or two (including Adobe apps)

My previous habit of starting an app, bouncing back to another to continue working then returning to the first (after fully loading) are a thing of the past. Click on an icon in the dock and it opens immediately. Productivity boost! Check out the read / write performance figures before and after installation. The second column is the Xbench score.

Apple installed Hitachi 7200 RPM

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD

Props to Apple for making the hard drive so easy to swap. The entire swap not including disk cloning was under 15 minutes. The OWC Data Doubler kits look super tempting now.

Credit to blogjunkie for the disassembly photo

After a short period with the 11″ MacBook Air, it was difficult to resist the urge for a full upgrade removing the SuperDrive from my MacBook Pro. I considered moving the existing 7200 rpm drive using the data doubler kit but was advised against the idea (no Sudden Motion Sensor to protect the plates). For now, the SuperDrive remains until I can convince myself to splurge for a secondary SSD to replace the optical drive.

If all goes as planned:

1. Clean-up Applications / files – removing anything I don’t need and are long overdue for deletion.
2. Installing the SSD into an internal Firewire drive.
3. Cloning the existing HDD to the SSD using SuperDuper (test by booting off SSD).
4. Disassemble MacBook Pro for install.
5. Enabling TRIM for OS X 10.6.7 (found this handy utility).
6. Making a super slick boot time comparison video for YouTube (isn’t that the natural thing to do?)

I swapped drives not too long ago so the install should go smoothly. Have you upgraded to solid state?