Macgasm

Things, by Cultured Code, is a well-known time management system structured around tags. Things comes in three flavors:  a Mac version ($49.95); an iPhone/iPod Touch version ($9.99), and an iPad version ($19.99).  All three are priced separately, so if you own a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad, and want Things on all three, you’ll be spending $79.93. Things, like many other task management applications, is designed to work with David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system, though you don’t have to know GTD in order to use it.

Things for Mac

Things for Mac opens with a beautiful, Apple-like, minimalist screen.

On the left side is a column that contains your lists: Inbox; Focus Areas (Today, Next, Scheduled, Someday, and Projects); Active Projects; Areas; People; Logbook; and Trash. The Inbox is where you can do your brain dump—quickly entering to-dos without thinking about categorizing, assigning due dates, etc. You can use the “quick entry” button to do this. The Focus Areas are where you can manage your to-dos. Tasks that require immediate attention are found in Today. “Next” lists all the items that are coming up soon. You can organize these by date or use other filters.

Scheduled is for items that don’t require your immediate attention. Instead, you can assign a date for starting the task—a week from now, a month from now, on a particular date, etc. These tasks won’t show up in your lists until then. Someday is for items you plan to do eventually, but have no real starting date and no real deadline. Projects are for tasks that require multiple steps to complete.

Areas of Responsibility are ongoing responsibilities, such as family, work, health, etc. You can include both projects and tasks in an Area. For example, I created an Area of Responsibility called “School,” which includes projects and tasks related to my job as a university professor.

All of your completed tasks are recorded for posterity in your Logbook. I must say, it’s a nice feeling to pull out the Logbook every once in awhile just to see what I’ve accomplished. And, for many people, a Logbook is a necessity.

Creating a task is quite simple. You can click on the quick entry button (which will automatically post the task in the Inbox), or you can click on the “new” button (which allows you to assign the task to a particular project). To add a new project or area of responsibility, click on the plus button at the bottom of the left column and choose from the drop down menu. You can also add tasks while you’re in other applications using the quick entry key combo (control, option, space) or by dragging text onto the application icon in your dock. If you use Launchbar, you can add items really quickly by typing “addth” (or something similar) and typing your task.

Things allows you to attach documents, emails, and other attachments in the notes section of each task/project simply by dragging and dropping. You can open these items from within Things when you need to access them.

You can organize tasks by dragging and dropping. So, if you want to move a task from the Inbox to a project, just drag it there. You can also move multiple items from one place to another using the file button.

Things for iPhone

Things for iPhone is a very simple application. The main screen is essentially the left column of the Mac version with all your areas and projects listed. You can add a new to-do by pressing the plus button which brings up a clean, minimalist entry screen. You access tasks and projects by pressing the appropriate item, and your screen shifts to the right, drilling down from project/area, to task, to details of the task. The project/area screen allows you to add tasks, star items, move items, or filter by tags. The info screen for an individual task lists any tags, the due date, and offers options for listing the item in Today, moving it to another project or area, or sending it via email. The iPhone version of Things uses the limited screen of the iPhone efficiently, but it doesn’t offer some of the nicer features of other task management programs like filtering via location services. You can sync the iPhone version with your Mac, but only via WiFi.

Things for iPad

Things for iPad provides a much better user interface than the iPhone version. It revolves around a pad of paper theme (complete with page turning animations), and utilizes the full screen (especially in portrait) beautifully. In landscape view, the iPad mimics the Mac version of Things with a column on the left side that contains your lists (Inbox, Areas, Projects, etc.). The main portion of the screen is devoted to the “pad” which lists the tasks associated with the lists in the columns. So, if you touch the Today list, the pad will contain all the tasks due today. The motif changes with the Projects list. Instead of the pad theme, you see icons that look like notebooks containing the various projects. Press on any one of these and the project with its to-dos pops up.

The iPad version is gorgeous, with the exception of the projects view. The notebook icons are just ugly—tan graph-paper covers with black spines and corners. Yuck. And although I’m sure the creator of the icons meant to make the notebooks look like they’re stacked on other notebooks, the result looks cluttered. Considering the streamlined aesthetics of the rest of the application, the project icons just don’t fit.

I also wish you could drag and drop items in the iPad version. It just seems a shame that the iPad’s interface isn’t used more effectively by developers. I should be able to move an item from the inbox (or anywhere else) into a project (or other area) simply by dragging it with my finger.

What’s Macgasmic: Things is, simply put, beautiful. On all three platforms, you will find a clean, polished UI with smooth transitions between screens. Things offers almost everything GTD-ers would want—an inbox, a place to focus (Today), scheduling to-dos and projects for a later time, the someday/maybe folder, etc. Those who love tags-based organizational systems will love Things.

Although Things does not offer cloud-based syncing (see below), the WiFi syncing between the Mac, iPhone and iPad, is fast and works well. Once you set up the syncing, the Mac will automatically recognize when your iPhone or iPad version of Things is running and will sync items almost instantaneously. It’s seamless and impressive.

Of the three platforms, I like the iPad version of Things the best. There’s just something about the dark gray background and the colorful icons in contrast that makes the application pop. The developers make full use of the screen and the animations are a delight to the eye.

What’s Not: I’m pretty sure there are two types of GTD people in the world: those who like tags and those who like nested folder structures. These two types of people will never get along and will never agree. They are the Hatfields and McCoys of the GTD homestead. Just look in on the discussion forums at Cultured Code and Omnifocus. Those who complain loudest at Cultured Code consistently beg the developers for nested folder structure. Those who complain loudest at Omnifocus beg for tags.

Me? I like nested folders. I think in outlines—so kill me. I find tagging a messy, unstructured exercise in futility. With tags, I feel like I have to come up with a dozen words to describe a to-do or I’ll never find it again. Now, I know you tag-people will tell me I’m doing it wrong, but I’m just not comfortable with tags. For this reason, I’ll probably never use Things as my todo manager, even though I really, really want to like it. Those of you who are tags people (*cough* Joshua Schnell *cough*) can stick with Things. Those of us who are not . . . can you hear Omnifocus calling?

Aside from the tags issue, there are other things I find annoying about Things. I wish the quick entry button would allow you to add a bunch of to-dos in your inbox without having to reopen it every time. As it is, you do a quick entry, press enter, and the box closes. So you have to click it again to bring it up. In Appigo’s Todo, for example, you can add a bunch of tasks all at once without having to re-open the quick entry window.

As I mentioned above, Things does not offer cloud-based syncing, which, for some people, might be a deal breaker. If you rely on being able to sync your mobile gadgets with your Mac, and you can only do this when connected to a WiFi network, you probably won’t be happy with this limitation.

Some other frustrating omissions include the fact that you can only create repeating tasks in Today, Next, and Scheduled. You cannot create repeating tasks within projects. Why? I have no idea, but a little pop up notification in the Mac version states that this will be fixed in the future. In addition, Things does not allow you to distinguish between sequential tasks and parallel tasks. Sometimes project tasks must happen in a particular order; sometimes tasks can be completed in any order. It is nice to be able to set up a project as a sequential-task project or a parallel-task project, but in Things you can’t do it. Things also does not allow you to set up Growl notifications or any sort of alarms. Many GTD-ers complain about the fact that Things does not provide a dedicated Context list. The GTD system makes contexts (the places where you work on your tasks) a central organizational feature. Although you can certainly create context tags, this omission from the program is a bit puzzling.

In terms of aesthetics, Things is really one of the most beautiful applications out there. But, I do wish the developers offered more options. If you click on the settings in any iteration of Things, you will find very few choices. You can’t change the font; you can’t change any colors. Basically, the only thing you can determine is what shows up in the badge count and when items are logged.

I’ve run into an interesting problem whilst using Things alongside my iPad and iPhone. When Things is running on my Mac, sometimes it randomly (?) tries to sync with the other two gadgets, even though they aren’t on. The syncing dialog pops up and runs and runs and runs. In fact, while writing this review, the sync dialog popped up multiple times. I’m not sure if this is just a temporary glitch or a bug in the program, but it is annoying.

One last thing. I’ve prowled around the discussion forums and I’ve read several reviews of Things both on iTunes and elsewhere. Two complaints resurface over and over. First, many customers are frustrated at the slow pace of the app’s development. Certain features (like cloud syncing) apparently were promised a long time ago but have not been delivered. Second, people on the forums complain that their concerns, comments, and suggestions receive rude responses from the Cultured Code team. In other words, customers do not feel they are being treated well, at least on the forums. Customer service is part of the package when you commit yourself to a task management suite of applications. If you’re considering purchasing Things, you might want to check out the forums and see for yourself whether or not you will find the technical and professional support you need.

Download Things for Mac

Download Things for iPhone/iPod Touch

Download Things for iPad

**This reviewer was provided review copies of Things for Mac and Things for iPad. I already owned a copy of Things for iPhone. Thanks to Cultured Code for generously providing these review copies.

A quick search of “iPhone 4 Bumpers” at the online Apple Store will bring up all six iPhone 4 colored Bumpers.  However, they have a price of $0.00 and their shipping status is currently set to “Currently Unavailable.”  This is due to the fact that Apple will be giving out free iPhone 4 Bumpers to iPhone 4 customers who have already purchased an iPhone 4 from the launch date until September 30th.  So hope is not lost. If you want a Bumper, Apple will soon be updating their website with information on how to acquire a free iPhone 4 Bumper.

The question that is on my mind, and probably yours too is, will Apple only be giving out the Black iPhone 4 Bumpers, or will they give you a choice of all six colors?  My guess would be that you will have a choice of all six colors, since all of them are showing a $0.00 price tag and are “Currently Unavailable.”  However, I wouldn’t wait too long after they update the site with the information on how to get the iPhone 4 Bumpers.  Steve Jobs has said that they can’t make enough to keep up with the demand, so supplies will more than likely be limited.  You also have a choice of a third party case if they run out of Bumpers, or if the Bumper is not your thing.  Finally, if you have purchased a Bumper, you will have the option of receiving a refund, but keep in mind, if you purchased a third party case, you will not receive a refund.  This might change between now and when the site is updated with the new information.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

A week after I bought my iPhone 4 I purchased the Bumper.  I had looked at different cases, and I didn’t like any of them.  I wanted something that was going to show off my iPhone 4 and not hide it.  The iPhone 4 Bumper does this very well, while giving it an extra layer of protection.  This is why I chose the Bumper over a case.  What do you prefer, a Bumper or a case?  You’ll be able to make up your mind for free later this week.

Photo Credit: The Apple Store Online

Article Via Cult of Mac

Apple has officially released iTunes 9.2.1 in the wild. If you’d like to grab the updated version head to Apple’s download page.

The release notes for this update include: disabling out-of-date iTunes plug-ins, fixes to drag/drop, fixes upgrading encrypted iOS devices to 4.0, and increased stability. If you use iTunes at all, it is in your best interest to grab this update for Mac OS X 10.4.11+ and Windows XP SP 2+.

I think this shows that Apple is moving in the right direction with their release notes. We’re pretty used to reading barebones summaries, and this is clearly enough information to gauge whether or not you need to upgrade right away. Let’s take this opportunity to applaud Apple for listening to the community.

After you install 9.2.1, please leave a message on this post to let us know any of the issues you came across. We’d like to know how your experience went.

Here at Macgasm, we love tips and tricks. One of the most effective ways of delivering that content is via Screencasts — a capture of the computer screen that shows you how to accomplish a task. Our Screencast department has been on hiatus, and we’re looking at starting it back up.

We’d like to find two of the best Screencasters out there to head up our department, so if you think you have what it takes, here are the rules:

1) Keep your Screencast under five minutes.

2) Keep it relevant to Mac users. No Windows or Linux tips, please.

3) The Screencast must have audio narration. Visual-only Screencasts will not be considered.

4) The two winners will be chosen by myself and Joshua Schnell based on which Screencasts we like the most.

5) Please e-mail a link to your screencast (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) to gbrunner@macgasm.net by August 2nd, 2010. Please don’t e-mail the files directly.

6) If you’re selected, you’ll become a member of the Macgasm team. You’ll be asked to provide at least one Screencast each calendar month.

We look forward to seeing what you’ve got to offer. Now, let’s get cracking!

Image Credit: Juliana Coutinho

If there’s one thing I absolutely hated doing during recording screencasts, it was cleaning up my desktop so that the world wouldn’t see just how unorganized I am with my files. I eventually bit the bullet and purchased Hazel, but it seems like there’s another options available to OS X users.

According to Mitch Johnson’s fabulous little blog, I stumbled across a terminal hack to disable the icons on your desktop.

1. Open up the terminal
2. Type in:  defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
3. Kill the Finder: killall Finder
4. Close the Terminal

There you have it, all your ugly files are now off the desktop. The cool thing about this is that you’re just disabiling the live view of the files. All of your files are still on the desktop, you just can’t see them. To get at them, open up a finder window, and then navigate to your desktop. Pretty damn snazzy if you ask me.

There’s actually a performace speed boost here as well for older machines. With the introduction of QuickLook came an increase in system resources needed for displaying all of your files on the desktop. Essentially, all of those files, showing you a live view of their contents, are eating up system resources. So, if you’re on a slower machine, you might want to just disable the live view, or place them in a folder.

I prefer Mitch’s method personally. Out of sight, out of mind is my favourite kind of approach.

Oh yeah, if you want to reverse this little tip, just follow the steps above, but in step two change false to true.  Back as good as new.  Oh, and try this at your own risk.  We’re not gonna troubleshoot your problems for you. ;)

Thanks to Mitch Johnson for sending this in to us.

Image Credit: blakespot

Just before WWDC went down there were rumours circulating the internet that Apple was also going to release some kind of tablet / trackpad device for the desktop lineup. Given Apple’s extreme hate for buttons, and their creation of the MagicMouse, we don’t find it extremely hard to believe that Apple could release something like this in the near future. Turns out the device might be closer to shipping than we previously thought, the FCC has approved a “bluetooth device” that Engadget seems to think might be the MacPad.

According to page 45 of the filing, the device is actually referred to as a “Bluetooth TrackPad.” So either Apple’s planning on taking on Wacom directly, or they have something up their sleeves. Could this be an input device for a new AppleTV, or just a trackpad for the desktop? The filing also states that the device was used in conjunction with a MacBook, so who knows what Apple intends on using if for.

Would you buy one of these things over a Wacom tablet?

Personally I hope there’s more to this than a tablet, because my Wacom tablet sits on the corner of my desk, and I haven’t touched it for well over a year at this point.  Given Apple’s take on multifunctional devices these days, I find it hard to believe that this thing would be marketed as a tablet for your Mac.  It has to do something we’re not thinking about.

Hopefully we find out sooner than later.

Article Via Engadget

Camera+ Photo: Walking into the Weezer Show

Camera+ is quickly becoming the best camera application on the App Store. Heck, if Apple is looking at one company to buy up that would greatly enhance their native camera application, I’d recommend they start with Tap Tap Tap. But, that’s probably not going to happen, and if anything, they’ll hire the Tap Tap Tap developers, and have them reproduce their work, much like the did with the delicious library guys for the iBook application.

That being said, Tap Tap Tap is doing some seriously innovative work on the iPhone these days, and some of the new features in Camera+ are things that we’ve never seen in any other application before. We’re not alone either. The guys over at Just Another iPhone Blog seem to be on the same page. What is the Tap Tap Tap team doing that’s so innovative? Well, they’re remapping the volume controls to control the shutter. This feature could go either way for consumers. We’re not sure how it’s going to interact with users who are listening to their iPod while taking photos. The application could very well override your iPod volume controls.

Other features that make an appearance in the teaser video: multitouch autofocus, and exposure settings.

Camera+ has already taken over as my fulltime camera application, and this is only going to add to my experience.

If you’re looking for a review, you can get our thoughts here.

Here’s a video of the updated application in use

Does anyone remember Camino? I didn’t think so. There was a time when Mac-using Mozilla fans would use Camino (Originally called Chimera), but today’s climate is very different. WebKit-based browsers have taken a strong foothold, and there seems to be a thinning of the herd in terms of alternate browsers. “Team Gecko” seems to have moved much more of their focus on Firefox.

As the folks at Mozilla work on their Gecko rendering engine, it is clear that Firefox is their number one priority. That’s very understandable when you look at how popular it is. Being completely fair, Firefox has become much better at fitting in with Mac OS X. There was a time when the Firefox team wanted a standard look and feel on every platform, and that clearly ended up being the wrong path. During that time, Camino was a better experience on the Mac when compared to Firefox. As it stands now, there is much less of a gap.

One of the biggest selling points of Firefox has been their add-ons. While you can extend the functionality of Camino, it isn’t truly compatible with the Firefox methodology. Along with that, it just doesn’t receive the same love and attention the bigger products like Thunderbird get. The last saving grace for Camino, in my eyes, is the integration with OS X’s Keychain password manager. Being able to use one single password manager on your computer is wonderful, and it is only a matter of time until the Firefox team sees that.

Do you use Camino? If so, please comment on this post, and let us know why you remain loyal to a back-burner browser. Maybe you know something that the rest of us don’t.