MacFIlos

Evernote Essentials: Brett Kelly's peerless guide to Evernote

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:33:21 +0000

Today alone I have managed to mention Evernote twice in relation to workflow and productivity. This free application, with Mac, iPhone and iPad versions, is the place I store most of the stuff I want to remember and refer back to later. Using the handy webclipping tool, you can send any web page direct to Evernote; you can add pdfs, photos, make notes and import just about any type of information.

As I’ve mentioned, Evernote also lends itself to adaptation as a project manager and task organiser and, as such, can even rival OmniFocus. In fact, in one respect—the ability to store formatted notes—it actually betters OF.

My experience of using Evernote was transformed three months ago when I purchased Brett Kelly’s e-book, Evernote Essentials. It is just about the best hands-on guide to getting the most from Evernote from the pen of a real power user. The book has been so successful that Brett has sold 10,000 copies and expects to go over the 12,000 market within the next few weeks. Says Brett:

My goal in writing this is twofold; take people from Evernote Newbie to Evernote Ninja and take the Evernote Ninjas and show them a few tricks and advanced techniques they never knew existed. A lofty goal, I admit. But, I’m one of the biggest Evernote nerds you’re likely to come across and I think that, if you’re really interested in getting the most out of Evernote, this is the book for you. So, rather than continue prattling on about it, we’re going to get into the nuts and bolts of the application, the web service and the mobile platforms (yes, Evernote is all of these things). We’ll cover how to configure Evernote for the first-timers as well as how experienced Evernoters can make the most out of things like tagging and advanced searching.

If you would like to know more, click here to visit Brett Kelly.

Starting a business in Greece: First submit a stool sample

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:59:36 +0000

As you know, I’m a frequent visitor to Greece and have written often about the bad bits, in particular the “grafeiokratia” or bureaucracy, which is endemic in daily life. But I also mention the good bits, such as when the Athens police recovered my stolen computers this month. To keep up with developments, I am a regular reader of the English edition of the national E Kathimerini newspaper.

Today, in the business section, there was a real gem. Alexandra Kassimi relates how it took ten months and a mountain of paperwork for Fotis Antonopoulus to set up his olive-oil marketing web business, Oliveshop.com.

According to the paper, Antonopoulos and his partners spent hours collecting papers from tax offices, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the municipal service where the company is based, the health inspector’s office, the fire department and banks. At the health department, they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays, and, in the most surreal demand of all, stool samples.

Having provided the necessary samples and assurances, they now faced the “quagmire of the bank.” The issue of how to confirm the credit card details of customers ended in the bank demanding that the entire website be in Greek only, including the names of the products. Said Antonopoulos:

They completely ignored us, however much we explained that our products are aimed at foreign markets and everything has to be written in English as well.

Eventually, Antonopoulos and his associates decided to use foreign banking systems like PayPal, and cut the Greek bank, with which they had been negotiating for three months, from the middle. “It’s their loss, not ours. We eventually solved the problem in just one day,” explained Antonopoulos.

Poor old Antonopolous. Having left no stool unturned, he’s in business at last. It’s enough to put you off your olives for life.

Patent Wars: Sick to the back teeth of this nonsense

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:15:50 +0000

Am I the only one who is sick to the back teeth of all this patent fueding that seems to be dominating the world of technology? First Apple wins an injunction in Germany, then Samsung wins out in Australia. Then iPads have to be removed from sale in China.

And these are just the manoeuvrings of the big players, who should know better, never mind the activities of the rather disreputable and unsavoury patent trolls who are seeking constantly to extract large sums from tech companies on the basis of some obscure technicality.

In the latest move, Motorola has forced Apple to halt iCloud push services in Germany. I imagine Apple will find a pretext for some counter action against Motorola in yet a third country.

Where will all this end? I don’t know, except that the poor consumer is on the losing end, inconvenienced and disadvantage by protectionism and the in-built cost of litigation. Frankly, I am sick of reading about all this nonsense.

Who will save the world from lawyers and all their works?

Ten productivity apps for the iPhone

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:28:36 +0000

While we are on the subject of OmniFocus and to-do apps, here is a sneak view, from LockerGnome, of ten great productivity apps for the iPhone, including Evernote, Dropbox, Genius Scan (I must try this), Dragon Dictation and TeamViewer.

OmniFocus rules, or does it?

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:19:33 +0000

OmniFocus rules. At least that is the received wisdom if you read almost any Mac-centric blog. We are all completely besotted with it. Poor old Things, reputed to be OF’s nearest competitor, gets little credit for trying. After a gestation period of at least five years they have eventually introduced a beta cloud sync, but it seems to have done them few favours.

That said, many people do like to take a contrarian view and I was intersted in this Lifehack article covering no fewer than eleven reasonable alternatives to OmniFocus. Some I’ve never heard of, others I am very familiar with. But I will have a look at all of them: Asana, Toodledo, Remember the Milk, Todo, Orchestra, Todo.txt, Astrid, Evernote, Doit.im, and Producteev. That’s, er, ten. The eleventh is a customised spreadsheet. I can live without that one.

Death of the mid-range point-and-shoot as smartphone camera bites

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:59:46 +0000

Venerable British photographic magazine, Amateur Photographer, confirms what I already know from chatting to various retailers: the smartphone is killing the mid-range point-and-shoot market but has had no effect on the sub-£50 cameras.

It isn’t really surprising. Buyers of the more advanced, lightweight point-and-shoot cameras are rich enough and probably savvy enough to also own a smartphone. And we all know that the camera of the iPhone 4S can give many cameras a run for their money.

The real budget market, though, is supported by people who want a camera but probably do not have the inclination to buy a smartphone. Spend less than £50 on a camera and you are likely to have a Nokia dumbphone in your pocket.

Fixed-lens cameras are now polarising between the really cheap clickers and the more advanced bridge devices such as Nikon’s P7100 and Canon’s G12. Smartphones will not harm SLRs nor, it seems, the new breed of mirror-less cameras such as Micro-Four-Thirds and Nikon’s new 1 series.

Apple Dock Connector: The beginning of the end

Mike Evans — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:46:36 +0000

Apple’s familiar 30-pin dock connector has been on death row for at least two years. The EU decreed, for once with some sense, that from 2010 all mobile phones should have a standard USB-micro connector. This, by and large, has already come to pass. Apple is now odd fruit out. Last autumn a small Apple-to-micro adaptor was announced in a mini fanfare and has not been seen since. I have asked after its wellbeing at various Apple stores and most times the blueshirts have never heard of it.

There are more rumours this week of the dock connector’s impending demise. I firmly believe this will happen, perhaps not this year (it is suggested that the next iPhone could have a micro-USB connector) but sometime soon.

The USB micro-B is becoming a universal fitting and most mobiles, including Android smartphones, manage well with it. Use of micro-B would achieve standardisation for Apple but it would also free up a smidgeon of space inside the device.

I have mixed views. When I bought my first Apple product, an iPod, I was immediately impressed by the 30-pin dock connector. It clicked into place firmly (in those days there were two buttons, one on either side, to open the fixing prongs) and was superior to the multitude of different connectors then favoured by competitors.

At first, after the introduction of the first iPhone, you had to be careful not to leave your sync cable at home when going away: Opportunities to buy an Apple cable were few and far between. Now, though there is a store on every corner willing to sell you a knock-off charger and cable.

Changing over is not going to be easy. For a time there will be Apple products on the market with different systems. It will take a year or two before all versions of the iPhone and iPad have standardised on the new connector. Then there is the problem of peripherals. Consumers have invested fortunes in speakers and other devices that will require adaptors—never a pretty solution—with the result that the changeover will be very disruptive.

Despite this lingering respect for the big Apple connector, we cannot deny progress and I think it is now only a matter of time before Apple joins the crowd.

Why Apple should buy Yahoo!

Mike Evans — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:22:46 +0000

There are no shortages of ideas and suggestions for the spending of Apple’s $100 billion cash mountain. Some hopefuls entertained notions of a dividend, but this was squashed at today’s shareholders’ meeting. There will be no dividend, no share buyback and no stock split in the immediate future.

In the meantime, Forbes has come up with a suggestion that could make a lot of sense: Buy Yahoo!

Forbes contends Apple should get into the search engine business at a time when Yahoo! is weak and with a current net value of $18.3 billion. No doubt this valuation would soar if Apple showed any interest, but the company still offers a lot for a reasonable price.

More compelling arguments follow: Apple needs to stay in or get out of the advertising business; Apple should be developing key features and not relying so much on Google for aspects such as search, You Tube and maps; Yahoo! owns thousands of useful patents; Finally, Yahoo! could form the basis of an Apple payments system.

But, as Forbes points out, other suiters could be pulled in if Apple shows an interest in Yahoo!—among them Microsoft and Facebook, although for the moment Facebook is out of the running until it becomes a public company.

Amazon and the dangers of a monopoly in book distribution

Mike Evans — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:58:04 +0000

All is not well in the world of e-books. Amazon, it seems, has been throwing its weight about and seeking to change the established agency model where the Amazon takes a 30 percent cut. As a result, one distributor, the Independent Publishers Group has withdrawn its 5,000 titles from the site.

It’s a dilemma. Amazon enjoys almost a monopoly position, especially if you are wedded to the Kindle Bookstore via a Kindle, tablet or smartphone. It would take a lot for me to seek another source of books because I find the Kindle Store so convenient. It’s a matter of inertia as well.

As a result of all this it is likely that IPG will be the big loser out of this—it will simply not sell as many books.

This is a pity because both publishers and distributors need to know where they stand. Amazon cannot keep moving the goalposts because it is the consumer who will suffer. A monopoly always disadvantages the customer.

(Via The Verge)

Writer's Block: Try the Dyno-Rod approach

Mike Evans — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:44:05 +0000

When you are suffering from Writer’s Block, as I do frequently, it is wise to turn to a useful article on Writer’s Block. Such a screed has been penned by Chris Smith at Lifehack.

Are you not writing because your ideas suck? Yeah, well, join the club. Most ideas for writing (or anything for that matter) aren’t very good. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t embrace them and try to run with them. Keep a list of all of your ideas and start writing about them even if you think they are completely horrible. It’s a challenging thing to do; writing about something that you think is a bad idea. But, what can happen while writing is that your bad idea takes a turn into a better one and then possibly into something you never thought it would get to. It’s hard work to write through bad ideas, but the practice of it will surely break writer’s block and even help you produce some awesome content that is worth your time.

Amen.