Macgasm

Do you think the iPad is short on news content? Would you be willing to transfer your paper subscriptions (newspapers, and magazines) to a digital device, like the iPad? Apple thinks you might, but we’re not so sure.

Somewhere between the death of traditional print media and new media there were technologies created to help disperse news in a more efficient manner. Geeks started cancelling newspapers and replacing them with RSS feeds. Social Media geeks started treating the Twitter service like a new-wave newswire, and until now, most of us were okay with that. But, somewhere along the way we lost the editorial, the commentary, and more importantly, the analysis. Blogs started trying to compete with twitter, and instead of carrying on as they should, posts turned into synopses with a catchy headline and a picture. The irony isn’t lost on us, we know we’re in the same boat here, but should we be?

Steve Jobs, back in June, had this to say, “I don’t want us to become a nation of bloggers myself. I think we need editorial more than ever right now.” It may have been the first major tell that Apple was taking the transition from print to digital pretty seriously, and that they were going to make sure that the worlds best editorials were going to be available to those people who were looking to hear it.

The Wall Street Journal has pointed out that Apple Inc. has spent the last couple weeks really pushing publishers to bring subscription magazines to the iPad.

Of course, any discussion about Apple and media content ends up having executives concerned about Apple’s reach in the industry, and worry that they’ll have the same kind of influence that Apple Inc. has in the music industry. But, none of the usual suspects, News Corp., Hearts Corp., Time Inc., and Conde Nast have any concern about their readerships privacy issues. According to an Ars Technica post that was republished on CNN, one of the major sticking points for the publishers is that Apple refuses to hand over personal information about subscribers. For all the bad press that Apple gets these days, we have to say, we’re pretty happy that they’re leading the charge, anyone else would have signed over personal information in a second, Google included.

So where does that leave us? Absolutely nowhere. I won’t be signing up for a newspaper any time soon, nor will I be purchasing a digital edition either. Big publishers have dug their own grave, and I’d much prefer some new companies take over for them in the future. The print model is broken, and if publishers can’t manage to figure out what they’re doing wrong, why should we drag them into the future of print?

Article Via The Wall Street Journal and CNN

Remember The Milk is a task managing service, which has been around for a number or years. A couple of weeks ago they released an iOS 4 compatible version of their iPhone App with a couple of new features and improvements.

The most prominent feature is multitasking support. You can now switch to Remember The Milk without having to wait until the App boots. The feature works very well and makes the app easier and faster to use. It’s one of the areas where multitasking on iOS 4 really improves function.

Another great addition is synchronizing your tasks in background. Before iOS 4 you had to wait until they fully synchronized before closing the app, otherwise your tasks were stored in the app, but not on Remember The Milk’s servers. This would lead to situations where you didn’t get a Push Notification when your task was due. Those days are over, since you can now close the App after adding or editing tasks and they’ll be magically synchronized with Remember The Milk, notifying you accordingly.

If your device is running iOS 4, you should give Remember The Milk a try. The free version has a couple of limitations, which are lifted after signing up for a Pro account.

CourseNotes for iPad ($4.99) is a note taking app from Dear Panda LLC. Designed specifically for students, CourseNotes has some unique elements that make it especially useful for those in school.

The Main Page. When you open CourseNotes, the main page displays several input/export buttons and a list of subjects. You can open the CourseNotes Help subject and read the note sessions there to get introduced to the app.

The first input button allows you to create a “Quick Session” which is a note you can write without having to create a subject first. You can always file it under one of your subjects later. The “View Last Note Session” button offers you the option of opening your most recent session without having to search through all your subjects. The name of the last session is listed along with the date and time it was accessed. “Add New Subject” opens a dialog where you can title the subject, assign an icon to it, list the name of the instructor and the course’s website if available.

Subjects. The Subject main screen allows you to create new notes, view your last note session within the subject, view your subject lexicon, copy a session from another device or view your to do items.

Note Sessions. Note sessions are arranged by date. For each session you can create four different kinds of notes: text notes, todos, sketches, and notes from your clipboard. To access these options, touch the pencil and paper icon in the upper right corner. Note that if you create new notes using the icon, you will be typing on a pop up screen that is smaller than the width of your iPad.  If, however, you choose “New Note Session” from the subject screen you will have a much larger space to type (in landscape the lefthand side will be taken up by the list of note sessions, but in portrait, the entire screen is your typing surface).

Text notes are straightforward. Simply tap on the notebook page and begin typing. There’s not much in the way of formatting, though you can use the bullet button to create a list. Unfortunately, you can’t create enumerated lists or outlines, just bullets. You can type a title for your note and assign it a color by tapping the circle button next to the word “save” on your tablet.

Todo notes are for keeping track of your assignments and other tasks. The “title” is your task name, and then you can assign a due date to it and append a lengthier note as well, if you wish. As with text notes, you can assign tasks colors.

The sketch note screen allows you to draw diagrams and other pictures using a rudimentary drawing palette. You can change the brush size, color, saturation, and brightness, but that is about all. Obviously the sketching aspect of the program is meant for quick sketches, not full-fledged works of art. You can also import photos or, presumably, powerpoint slides you’ve downloaded as pictures. On the righthand side of the sketching canvas is space to append text notes to your sketch.

CourseNotes is also capable of creating a note from whatever is on your clipboard.  Simply paste material onto your clipboard and choose “Note from Clipboard” from the note options.

Your notes can be filtered by type, so if you want to see all your text notes, simply tap “Notes” at the top of the list (either on the lefthand side of your screen in landscape or in the pop up screen in portrait). You can do the same for Todos and Sketches. You can also move notes to other subjects using the snaky arrow icon at the top of the screen.

Sharing. CourseNotes clearly has students in mind with its sharing features. You can share your notes via Facebook and email. If your fellow student also owns the app, you can also share your notes directly via Bluetooth or WiFi.

The Lexicon. One of the unique features of CourseNotes is the Subject Lexicon. You can add terms and definitions related to a subject in your lexicon and have access to them from any screen (just tap the book icon at the top). If you need to look something up in order to fill in your lexicon, CourseNotes allows you to access Wikipedia from within the lexicon. Simply tap the plus button and the pop up dialog gives you the option to look up a term in Wikipedia.

Premium Content. CourseNotes recently added premium content. When you tap on this button from the main screen, you are given the option to purchase note sessions that were created for CourseNotes. Currently you have only four choices: French Verbs, Art History: Impressionism, the Periodic Table, and the Declaration of Independence. If you choose to buy the content, it downloads directly into CourseNotes as a Quick Session. You can then move the content to a new subject if you wish. This feature has potential for being quite useful, especially as more premium content is added.

What’s Macgasmic: CourseNotes offers a beautiful user interface with several unique options that are geared toward students. I especially like the Lexicon idea and the option you have to look things up in Wikipedia. Portrait mode offers a completely different UI, and I like how it displays your todos on a sticky note on the main screen. Overall, CourseNotes offers students an excellent note-taking platform. Its special features, like premium content, subject lexicons and Facebook sharing, make it stand out from the increasingly crowded field of note-taking applications. Its beautiful user interface (and gorgeous icon) make it a pleasure to use, and when you create note sessions from the main subject screen, the app (especially in portrait mode) gets out of the way and lets you focus on typing.

What’s Not:  Unlike several other note taking apps geared towards students (Noterize, SoundNotes, Audiotorium), CourseNotes does not offer an audio recording option. This might be a feature the developer could consider adding, thereby making CourseNotes that much more useful. Though the UI is beautiful, it seems kind of disjointed to me—separate sections for different types of notes, todos by subject, notes separated by subject. I realize the benefits of separating notes by subject, but I’m not sure I like the fact that the different types of notes are separate categories (thus “todo” notes are separate from text notes which are separate from sketch notes). While I like the todo notes, it would be nice to have one integrated todo page where you can see all your tasks across subjects. Notes are listed by date (either most recent first or oldest first), which makes sense for lecture notes, but I’d like to have the option to sort note sessions by title too. The premium content feature has lots of potential, but right now there’s not much to choose from. I contacted the developer because I would like to contribute premium content for the app, but for reasons I didn’t quite understand, it’s not possible yet for just anyone to contribute content.

If promotional photos are an indicator, which they usually aren’t, then Middle Easterners might have something to gripe about once the iPhone gets released—it appears like FaceTime has been left off the device.

There’s a lot of asinine speculation going on about this one. Some people are saying it’s because the FaceTime girl in the ad doesn’t have on the traditional muslim headdress, also know  as a Hijab. Others are speculating that it might have to do with other cultural sensitivities in the predominately Muslim countries.

We’re not here to provide comment on socio-political and religious debates like this, so we’ll avoid commenting on why we think the ads are missing on the devices, and who’s responsible for the decision. But, keep in mind that a number of Apple advertisements and images on US and other Western sites have been messed up this month as well. Most recently, the sites were announcing 27-inch Cinema Displays that were clearly not available. So, let’s not jump to conclusions here, and let’s certainly not compare this to Google’s censorship in China. They’re two very different things.

Article Via TUAW

I struggle with ToDo list applications. While Susan and I have vastly differing opinions on whether tag-based systems or hierarchical systems provide a better organizational tool for most of these apps, I have to admit, neither really cut it for me. I need to be in it. What does that mean? I need to be able to look at my ToDos and prioritize them constantly over the course of a day. Outside of knowing that I have something I want to do today, I feel very little need to actually schedule time to get some of these things done.

Today, for instance, I knew that I was supposed to write a review of the MoviePeg and Vitamin-R, in addition to covering the usual news cycle. To me, those things are the important tasks, keeping things vague helps me to formulate my own ideas, and being able to re-organize my priorities at any given moment throughout the course of the day is extremely important.

We spend a lot of time on this website explaining the ins and outs of ToDo list applications, but we have never stopped for a moment to evaluate the most obvious of them all—pen and paper.

So, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, considering my evangelical meanderings about embracing technology these days, but I’ve gone back to my trusty Moleskine and pen method for creating my ToDo lists. And ironically, I’m a lot more effective this way than I am with Things or OmniFocus or anything in between.

Sure, things might get a lot busier as the site continues to grow, making it more difficult to embrace pen and paper, but for the last four weeks I’ve been creating a weekly ToDo list in my Moleskine. It’s been one week per page, and the page is broken into six sections: ToDos, Meetings, Articles, Hardware Reviews, iOS Reviews, and OS X Reviews. From there I break down exactly what I want to do over the course of the week, assign each topic a day to go live on the website, write the daily initial (Tu, S, Su, etc) next to it, and leave it at that. They get a checkmark when they’re done, a line through it if I push it off to the next week, and a bullet point if it’s a priority. Pretty simple, and it seems like it’s a lot more effective for me. There’s no key combinations to get a ToDo entry made, no tagging, no priority setting, and no alerts if things approach a deadline. I no longer feel the need to complete a ToDo because of an arbitrary deadline, but instead, I do them when I feel the desire to do them. The only deadline I set is Friday. Everything needs to be checked off, or re-organized by Friday. It has released a lot of stress, and I think the site has benefitted from better articles over the last few weeks because of it.  Articles are done when they’re done, not because some ToDo application tells me they need to be done because a deadline is approaching.

Here’s a word of caution: don’t get bogged down in your GTD applications. They’re supposed to be tools to assist you, not make your life more complicated. You don’t have to sync a Moleskine, back up a database with a Moleskine, or multitask a Moleskine. It’s just a book with some ink in it. It stays open, between my keyboard and the edge of my desk, and all day long I can look the Moleskine over, analyze my thoughts on the topics, and work on every article in the book at the same time, letting the thoughts come naturally. It’s more freeing than I would have expected it to be.

So, what happens on a task by task basis? It’s simple, for me. My tasks completely centre on writing, so at the beginning of the week I create a new entry in Notational Velocity with the title of each of my ToDos for the week. As interesting ideas and thoughts pop into my head, I add a quick point form note in the appropriate article file. The articles just seem to write themselves nowadays, instead of me forcing the issue because one of my ToDos turned red in Things.

So here’s my suggestion to you: find a system that works for you; don’t place yourself into someone else’s system. If you find your brain works better while you doodle with a pen in a notebook, embrace it. Write your ToDos by hand instead of using a computer or an iPad. This is the system that works best for me, and I don’t expect it to work best for you.
The goal here is to get something done, not create more hurdles to doing the things you need to do. For me, a Moleskin, a pen, and Notational Velocity work best, but for you, it could be something else entirely.

While this article is unorthodox for the site, I thought it’d be a little bit of fun to explore your GTD methods in the comments below. Maybe we could even use it as a framework for creating a new GTD app for those of us who still don’t fit into the ToDo list applications out there. If you could, what would you ask for in a ToDo list application that doesn’t already exist? Maybe we can try and make it happen for you.

BMW has decided that providing in seat displays are a thing of the past, and instead, they plan on adding OEM iPad Cradles to their BMW X3 series cars. Who wouldn’t want a full fledged iPad over a DVD Player? When was the last time you were able to play Angry Birds on a road trip from your in system DVD player? We’re sure parents will absolutely love to hear Angry Birds on long road trips during the holidays.

Oh, but the iOS integration doesn’t exactly end there either. BMW is also planning on adding cradles to the dash so that you can control your GPS system, music, and other features from their BMW Link app. So, the next-time you’re waiting at the Ford dealership oogling over the Ford Sync system, take a moment and ask yourself if you’d be better off with an iOS app for your car instead.

Who knows, maybe Apple’s working on an in-car system that would put the Sync to shame in a couple of years. One thing at a time though, launching a Lala replacement should be priority one.

Article Via Cult of Mac

It was a busy day for Apple today. First they bought up a company, Polar Rose, that specializes in facial recognition, and then they made a deal with Rovi regarding licensing some of their technlogies and patents.

Both moves were independent, and have very little in common to our knowledge, but they could also be hints at what’s to come from Apple down the road.

So what’s Polar Rose?

The swedish based Polar Rose specializes in facial-recognition, and recently they have closed down a free face-tagging service. If you still use iPhoto, you’re probably aware that there is some facial recognition software already at work in the photo management package. Faces identifies people in photos, and lets users tag them based on computer generated results and recommendations. Could this be a move to make the Faces technology better, or how about a new bioinfomatic login system for the mobile and Mac lineup? Only time will tell.

Who the heck is Rovi?

Apple also reached a “confidential” deal with Rovi Corporation, which many are speculating involves the licensing of Rovi’s interactive program guide. Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster thinks it’s evidence that Apple’s still working on a HDTV that would have an integrated Apple TV. And Munster isn’t alone either. AppleInsider also thinks it’s evidence that Apple’s working on a live TV and DVR features for the Apple TV.

So, where does that leave us? Speculating, at best, just like the rest of the internet right now. We’re guessing that we’ll see these two things make a debut at some point in the future, but if you remember anything about the Lala acquisition, it should be that Apple’s time table is a lot different than our time table.

Article Via MacRumors, Your Mac Life, and Apple Insider

Photo Credit: Apple Insider

A new breed of iPad accessories is coming to reality, and not just your typical leather or nylon cases either.

We users of the iPad love our iDevice, but the lack of an actual keyboard is manifesting into a real issue — especially for us digital publishers that use the iPad to write our blog posts.

Coming soon, from the good folks at Kensington, is the new KeyFolio case that has a handy built-in Bluetooth QWERTY keypad.

Yes we’re turning the iPad into a makeshift netbook, but it’ll be pretty…and, instead of carrying around the Apple external Bluetooth keyboard, this will be a self-contained unit.

The KeyFolio will run on its own power supply and, according to Kensington, will power itself for months from a single charge. That I’ll have to see to believe.

One drawback — you can’t charge your iPad and KeyFolio with one connection since the KeyFolio has its own microUSB jack.

The Kensington KeyFolio is expected to hit retail stores in October and cost $100.

In my opinion, the team over at ClamCase better get it in gear or Kensington is going to steal all their potential business. Check here to see what ClamCase is proposing as a solution.

Photo Credit: DVice