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Together review

Troy (admin) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:30:15 +0000

This is the next installment of an occasional series comparing Mac tools that specialize in collecting and organizing snippets, documents, files, and other odds and ends. Today, I’m going to look at Reinvented Software’s Together. In preparation for this review, I perused forum comments and other reviews about this product. Many people, it seems, feel that [...]

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Keyboard futures

Troy (admin) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:49:53 +0000

I just read about Das Keyboard over at Ars Technica. It’s a 2.6 pound monster with German-engineered mechanical gold-plated key switches. It’s designed for performance, durability, and loudness. Yes, loudness. If you miss the audible feedback from keyboards of yore, this is for you. To give you a sense of how loud it is, the [...]

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Aviary Now Free

Troy (admin) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:51:40 +0000

Aviary, a slick collection of browser-based design and editing tools that I wrote about last February, is now free. From the Aviary blog: We have long felt that to better serve our core mission our complete feature set needed to be in the hands of everyone – not just those who could afford it. Fortunately, [...]

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Indie Developer Spotlight: Macworld 2010

Troy (admin) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:11:35 +0000

Over 100 independent developers have signed up to offer their wares at a 20 percent discount during Macworld, Feb. 11-13. The list includes some great apps, including MarsEdit, Launchbar, TextSoap, Little Snitch, EagleFiler, Together, Default Folder X, Hazel, BusyCal, TextExpander, 1Password, and PathFinder.

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Google Buzz

Troy (admin) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:41:37 +0000

I just set up Google Wave Google Buzz for one of my Gmail accounts. My initial impression is that this is a tool with a lot of potential (unlike that other GTool that was supposed to change email forever). Tim O’Reilly posted a good overview and perspective on the newest Google buzz, detailing how it [...]

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Yojimbo 2 Review

Troy (admin) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:17:27 +0000

This is the next post in a series reviewing some popular Mac info managers. The following is a ‘mini-review,’ presented as an update to my original look of Yojimbo posted last year. You may want to read that first. What’s New Yojimbo was one of the better information managers on the market when I reviewed it [...]

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An iPad ‘must read’

Troy (admin) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:51:42 +0000

OK, I’ll stop with the iPad posts after this (for now) … but I want to share this link to an article from ‘emergent by design.’ This is good stuff. The author incorporates links to a bevy of ‘best of’ reads about the iPad from a wide variety of sources, captures some great pull-quotes [...]

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iPad Effect on Small Mac Developers?

Troy (admin) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:21:25 +0000

Interesting commentary from the developer of Scrivener, one of my all-time favorite apps. What does the iPad mean for small indie developers? The resulting implication is this: either you build an iPhone/iPad version of your application, or you miss out on all the users that wanted a netbook and so bought the iPad—because the iPad is Apple’s answer [...]

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Book review: The Sustainable Network

Troy (admin) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:55:29 +0000

The global network is a nebulous thing that many of us take for granted. What began simply as a way to connect up a few computers has grown into something greater than the sum of its parts. It seems to be an unstoppable force. Could it also be a transformative force? Could our global [...]

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iPad, iPad, iPad!

Troy (admin) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:24:46 +0000

I don’t have much to contribute to the iPad conversation that hasn’t been said elsewhere. I’m in the process of buying a home in a location that will add three hours of train travel per day to my commute. Imagine how nice an iPad would be in such a situation. I haven’t decided if I’ll [...]

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Rethinking Mailplane

Troy (admin) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:43:55 +0000

Following yesterday’s Mailplane post, I received the following comment from Mark Munz, the developer of TextSoap (an app I purchased at full price in 2008 and greatly value): Mailplane’s price for a year’s usage = $0.07/day. I bought it 2+ years ago, so the cost for me has been less than $0.03/day. We’re all [...]

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Mailplane Notes

Troy (admin) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:48:27 +0000

I’ve been using Mailplane as my main Email client for a month. I’ve grown quite fond of it. Problem is, I’m not ready to buy it. Why? It’s expensive. I’m hoping to soon see a promotional discount that drops the price to less than the $25 registration fee. I’m one of many Mailplane fans [...]

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Indie+Relief

Troy (admin) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:51:27 +0000

Scores of independent Mac developers have signed on for a special fundraising event tomorrow. All proceeds made from the sale of participating apps on Jan. 20 will go to support relief efforts in Haiti.

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EagleFiler Review

Troy (admin) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:05:15 +0000

Note: This review has been modified to include clarifications, comments, and corrections from the developer of the application. Let’s begin by taking a look at Command-C Software’s EagleFiler. While I don’t think EagleFiler is as visually appealing as some of the other offerings out there in this genre, I think it more than makes up for [...]

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MIP: Making Info Perform

Troy (admin) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:46:16 +0000

It’s time to (re)start the Mac information manager series, a project I began a year and a half ago. I now (finally!) have the time to dedicate some time to this. What follows is a brief synopsis of what I’ve already written about, presented so that it’s not necessary to refer back to older posts. [...]

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Upgrading to WordPress 2.9

Troy (admin) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:22:14 +0000

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.9, neglecting beforehand to deactivate my plugins. This is a mistake. If you’re using WP.org and install updates manually as I do, ensure you turn your plugins off. Also ensure you take the time to back up your site and your MySQL database. It’s worth the extra effort in case [...]

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The DNS choice

Troy (admin) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:42:52 +0000

Last week, the tech world was abuzz with the launch of Google’s new public Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service. Since I posted a while back about OpenDNS, I thought I’d share my thoughts on this subject. The main question I set out to answer is whether or not I should switch from OpenDNS to [...]

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iPhone App Freebies and Sales Abound

Troy (admin) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:18:52 +0000

This may be old news to most readers, but in case you’ve missed it, Blacksmith Games has organized a holiday giveaway of one iPhone game per day for the month of December. It’s called Appvent Calendar 09. Some of the games are quite good. Today, for example, you can pick up an excellent well-designed, and [...]

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Free Snail-Mail Holiday Postcard from Gmail

Troy (admin) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:48:33 +0000

For a limited time, the Google Gmail team is offering to send a free snail-mail holiday card on your behalf to a (U.S.-based) recipient of your choice. There are six Gmail-themed cards to choose from. A kind gesture? A small test of a future Google service? A subtle nudge to get would-be Gmail users [...]

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Killer Dropbox Services Add-on

Troy (admin) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:54:17 +0000

If you’re on Snow Leopard and use Dropbox to ferry files around using the public folder, don’t miss this time-saving Services add-on. Once installed, right-click on any file on your Mac, select the ‘Services’ menu, then choose either ‘Move’ or ‘Copy to Dropbox.’ That’s it. Your file is moved (or copied), and the [...]

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