Like one or two other people out there, I waited in like this morning to get the iPhone 4 from Apple. You may be wondering why I just didn’t get it delivered to my house and have it yesterday? That is a good question and I would have done that except for the fact that I was traveling this week and I was still in the Boston area today. That means I wouldn’t have gotten my grubby little fingers on an iPhone 4 until this evening. That is a situation that was totally unacceptable to me.

I’m not going to give a review on the iPhone 4 because there are plenty out there and I’d have to agree with almost all of them that this is a really good smart phone. The display is really crisp and the A4 processor that powers the phone is snappy and my battery life is great. I have not encountered either the calls dropping when I’m holding it in my left hand or the yellow staining.

What I did want to do is talk about the waiting that I had to do for the iPhone. No, I’m not going to complain about it but I really have to give major credit to the staff at the Northshore Mall Apple Store. Since I had reserved my phone I got to the store at 6:30am. When I got there the line was already really long and it was only one line. This surprised me a little bit since I had expected two lines. That was taken care of a bit later on. What really impressed me was that the store was very strict in making sure that everyone stayed as calm as possible while waiting in line and made sure that there wasn’t a mad rush and people potentially getting trampled. Major props go out to Brandon and his staff for making sure that everyone stayed calm. Also major props to all of the people waiting who listened and were respectful to one another.

Once I got in the mall, the reserved line moved pretty quickly. This was because they were allowing in about 30 people who reserved the phone to 1 person who was on stand-by. When I got to the head of the line I did have to wait a bit longer since they let one of the stand-by people in since he was being a total whiner. Once I did get into the store the person that helped me had a smile on his face and was in a good mood. This was impressive since he must have done several if not tens of activations already but didn’t seem deterred by that. I also help by being a wise guy and asking if this is where I could pick up my Droid X.

The whole activation process took about 10 minutes and I was on my way back to the hotel to sync my new iPhone with iTunes so I can listen to stuff.

I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with how the entire thing went.

I finally did it. I took the plunge and decided to jailbreak my iPhone. I guess that I should take a step back and explain why I did this so close to a iPhone OS 4.0 release which would have some of the features that I’m looking for.

I think that the main thing I’ve been looking for is usefulness of the lock screen. As it stands now, you don’t really see anything on the lock screen aside from being told if the battery is charging (if you are plugged in) or nothing at all. As far as I know this is something that won’t be updated in OS 4.0. When you jailbreak your iPhone that changes with an application called lockinfo.

Lockinfo gives you the ability to see notifications, emails, SMS messages and a lot more all from the lock screen. This is really useful for me because I can see anything that is going on at a quick glance. There is even a plug in that will allow you to see the latest twitter updates in your time line. Lockinfo costs $4.99, I’m still on my trial but I will buying it when that is over. It’s worth it.

The other app that you won’t be seeing in OS 4.0 (We’re really waiting for AT&T to get off its behind for this) is the ability to tether your iPhone and use its 3G connection with your laptop. There are several ways to go about getting this done with a jail broken iPhone but the easiest is using an application called MyWi. I don’t need to have the connectivity all the time but when I do need it it’s nice to have when you’re in a pinch. MyWi is a paid app (with a 10 day trial) and costs $9.99. I have not installed it yet but it looks good.

Now let’s talk about what we will have in OS 4.0, namely multitasking and fast app switching. I think that aside from a unified inbox in the Mail application this has been the most popular feature request for the OS. To get the multitasking and fast application switching you need to install two applications. Backgrounder and Proswitcher, both applications are free. Backgrounder gives you the ability for multitasking but it’s Proswitcher that really makes this work. It gives you the ability to look at the open apps in a view that is similar to web OS. All you have to do is just swipe to the left or right to get to the open app of your choice.

As you see there is also a badge on the lower left corner to indicate which apps are running in the background.

One thing to remember with running apps in the background, the more that you run the faster your battery will be drained.

I’m only one day into using my jail broken phone but so far so good.

Earlier this week I found a half written post from January talking about what I would like to see in the upcoming iPhone 4.0 OS. It’s pretty funny that I found it the week that Apple is announcing its roadmap for the 4.0 OS. I won’t bore you with the details about what I’d like to see in the OS because that’s been covered on any Mac related site.

The post did get me thinking about the rumor sites and how they really whip up the expectations about what will be announced at the upcoming event. It gets to the point where if Steve Jobs doesn’t declare himself to be the Messiah (or the Second Coming if you roll that way) people get disappointed. You see that with some of the complaints that were present when the iPad was announce.

“It doesn’t have a front facing camera for video chatting”
“There is no flash support”
“The name sucks”

A lot of these complaints/disappointments were because everyone was whipped into a frenzy because they believed the rumors. This is why I’ve decided that I’m not going to pay attention to the rumor sites anymore. I don’t care if it’s macrumors.com, John Gruber or Elvis tapping me on the shoulder to tell me what’s going to happen. From now on I’m just going to react to what actually gets announced.

In a similar vein, I’m getting really bored of the Mac Podcasts that are pundit based. It’s all about how great the latest Apple software or hardware is and any issues that there may be are totally glossed over. I’ve been seriously thinking about unsubscribing from several of the ones that I listen too.

Everyone has their own way about how they get things done on a day in – day out basis and today I found myself at a cross roads with the way I have been getting things done. I guess that the first place to start is to tell you what I’d like. I’d like my tasks to be with me all the time and synchronized so if I update my list in one place, I’ll have the updated list in the other place. It also has to be portable so that when I’m on the road I can update my list. I also have some tasks that need to be done on a recurring basis. This would be either monthly or weekly.

For the year or so, I’ve been using Omnifocus from the Omnigroup and its iPhone counterpart. It worked well enough for me but now I’ve realized that I have not opened the app in over a week. If you are using any sort of task application not opening it for a week it a long time. This break has also lead me to think about some of the failings that Omnifocus has for me.

1. Complexity – While it’s based on the GTD process of task management, I’ve started finding that a little too cumbersome. I feel like I need to add a project and a context to every task I set up. After that I then have to select a due date for the task. It’s a very laborious process and by the time I’m finished getting one task down, I’ve forgotten the other tasks.
2. Synchronization – While Omnifocus does allow for synchronization to Mobile Me or WebDav, I found the process any thing but seamless. There have been countless times where my data on the desktop and the iPhone have been out of whack. This isn’t a good thing.

So if I decided to not use Omnifocus anymore, what other options are out there to manage my todo list?

• iCal – It’s free and does have a todo list. Not only that but there is even an app for the iPhone that will sync the tasks via CalDav (etasks). I really like this approach since I already use iCal and I’d have to open one less application. However, the major drawback to this is the fact that iCal doesn’t support repeating tasks. Something that I really need. If only there was a grown up version of iCal…
• BusyCal – Looks like a major improvement to iCal except for one major drawback. There is no support for CalDAV yet. This is disappointing for a lot of reasons but that’s for another post. Suffice it to say the fact that it doesn’t support CalDav means that it won’t fit my needs right out of the box.
• The Hit List – This is a GTD lite app which showed a lot of promise and one of the reasons that I bought my first MacHeist bundle. However the app was in beta then and it’s still in beta now. There doesn’t seem to have been an update to the beta since mid-last year. This doesn’t bode well for the future of the application. Another negative is that there is no iPhone app yet.
• Things – This has some potential. It’s another GTD lite app and has an iPhone app to go with it. I’ll be giving this a try and see how it goes.
• Kicking it old school – The final thing that I am thinking of doing. Getting a small notepad and taking it with me everywhere I go. To be honest this has the most traction with me right now. The downside is that it’s easy to lose and my handwriting is not that clear.

Am I missing any other ways to track my tasks?

My friend, colleague and boss (take your pick on which order) wrote an interesting post last night about the where he sees some problems with the MacBook Pro hardware. Two of three complaints he has I have as well. One of them I just discovered recently and the other one has been a problem as long as I can remember.

• Is it hot in here or is it just your laptop? – I have been using a mac portable since around 2002/2003 when I bought my first PowerBook, the 12” variety. Since then, whenever I have had to put my PowerBook, MacBook or MacBook Pro on my lap it hasn’t been pretty. The heat of these things is incredible. Maybe it is because Apple has decided to use aluminum to encase their laptops but you can fry an egg on the case if you were so inclined. It has gotten to the point where I bought a cooling unit for underneath the laptop. It has done wonders for keeping my lap cool.
• Don’t stand so close to me - Apple leave very little space between the two USB ports that they have on the MacBook Pros. As Chris shows on his blog, if you have a USB device that it a little too thick you are out of luck using the other port. I have noticed this recently when I plugged my 8GB USB drive in and I couldn’t fit anything into the other port.

Do you have any complaints about the MacBook Pros?

I’ve been really jazzed about this latest round of the MacHeist bundle. They have some really useful software that I have already started ing in my workflow. For $20 you can’t go wrong, Not to mention that a percentage of the sale goest to charity, it’s a win-win.

• MacJournal – This is really great software that allows you to write not just blogs but also video and recordings as well. You can even do your own personal journals that are password protected. I can see this being great for students who need to write notes for classes. You also have the ability to import Word Documents, images and PDFs into the journals.
• RipIt – Looks like a really cool app. It will take a DVD and create an image of the DVD on your hard drive so you can watch it in Front Row or Boxee or another media player. I haven’t used it the app yet but I can’t wait to give it a try. It looks really slick.
• Flow – This is a pretty slick looking FTP client with a very Mac like interface. What I like about this app is that you can set up droplets for specific directories so you can just use finder to just drag and drop to upload. Really cool stuff. It currently supports the FTP and SFTP protocol, but it’s very nice.
• Tales of Monkey Island – All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This is an adventure game that is using the charachters from Lucasarts fun The Secret of Monkey Island game. I just played it for a little bitt but it looks like a lot of fun.

Those are the apps that I have used. There are also Clips (a clipboard manager) and Coverflow that are in the bundle but to be honest if you only use one of these apps, it’s worth your money.

There is only 1 day left to the sale and (as of this writing) there were 43,960 bundles sold. If there are 50,000 bundles sold there is another app that will be released. Rapid Weaver – a web site design app. It looks really slick and I hope that it can get to the 50,000 bundles.

Last year I posted about my mother and how I decided for her new computer that she should buy a Mac Mini. This was mainly a selfish decision on my part since it would allow me to use iChat to share her screen whenever she has a problem she wants me to look at. Such was the case on Saturday night when she called me and wanted to know how to do a few basic things.

As is my wont, I was complaining to a friend of mine about being tech support for a family member when he shared his tale  of family tech support from Saturday. It seems that his father bought an Acer computer and was having some problems. My friend was on the phone with him and was trying to help him download the updated driver and whatnot. As you can imagine, helping a family member (a non computer savvy one at that) to download and install new drivers is not for the faint of heart. In the end it turned out that it wasn’t a driver issue at all.

This is why I decided that my mother get a MacMini instead of a Windows box. I’d much rather be dealing with questions of how to print or email something instead of having to lead her through downloading the latest drivers only to find that they aren’t needed.

I was out of the office all day driving up and down the coast line of New Jersey so I didn’t get the chance to watch the live blogging that of Apple’s Special event. After our lunch meeting and driving to our next meeting, my colleague picked up his iPhone and started looking at the coverage and what we missed. I have to say that I was left with an underwhelming feeling. Here’s why:

• The name – it’s not the worst name in the world but it’s not the best either.
• Lack of Multi-task – In something the size of the iPad, you are going to want to actually do more with the device. Not having that ability in a phone is one thing, but not having it in a 9.7 inch device? I think that it’s something you need. I do have a conspiracy theory about this and it has to do with Apple wanting you to buy music and not listen to Pandora and similar services.
• The genre of device – I am still not convinced that there is really a need for an iPad. I don’t mind using my laptop to watch TV (via Hulu – something you still can’t do on the iPhone or iPad) or showing off pictures on my iPhone. The latter since it’s especially portable and you have it with you at all times. To me there is just no place that I see a tablet fitting in my life. The only place that I can see it fitting is as an eBook reader and I’d rather just get a Kindle or a Nook, if I decided to go that route. We all know how torn I am about that.
• Wireless – I know that it comes with Wi-Fi but to pay an extra $15 or $30 for 3G? Really? That is just a plain old money grab. I mainly blame AT&T for that but I also blame Apple for not saying no. In my case, if I am just going to use it as an eBook reader, I’d rather have to not pay extra when I want to download a book and I’m not on an open Wi-Fi network.
• eBook – I’m grateful that Apple decided to use the epub standard but what about side loading other non encrypted epub books? That is the big question and I suspect the answer is that you won’t be able to get them onto your iPad.

Am I missing something?

It’s amazing how when you use someone else’s workspace or computer that you suddenly feel useless. I was in that postion today when I used Rivky’s Macmini. I have an account on her machine and I’ve tried to duplicate the workflow that I have on my main machine (13″ MacBook Pro) but there are some that I have forgotten to put on that computer and I missed them greatly. Here are the utilitues that I find the most useful for workflow.

• Quicksilver – Quicksliver is a great launcher like Butler or Launchbar but for me it’s better than the others. It’s not a question of what it can do, it’s more of a questions of what can’t Quicksilver do?
  
  This is almost the first non Apple application that I’ll install on new computer. I almost feel naked with out it, as scary as that thought may be.

• Dropbox – It’s more of a service than an application but what is cool about it is that you can install it on as many computers that you want and it will synchronize the dropbox folder (which you put whatever you want. You can also share folders, files or pictures.
• Stuf – I never thought that I would actually need a clipboard manager because they always seemed to take up a whole lot of memory. Then I bought Stuf as part of a bundle and have I been happy ever since. It stores the last 20 things that you have copied. I can’t tell you how many times I have found this little app useful.
• Typinator – This is similar to other applications that let you type a few letters and then have a whole bunch of text appear. It’s similar to TextExpander but it also allows autocorection for commonly misspelled word and includes several useful dictionaries like the one from Tid Bits.
  
  ]]> http://aaron.benedictfamily.org/index.php/2009/12/08/apps-i-cant-live-without/feed/ 2 http://aaron.benedictfamily.org/index.php/2009/09/29/maildrop-mail-app-salesforce-bliss/ http://aaron.benedictfamily.org/index.php/2009/09/29/maildrop-mail-app-salesforce-bliss/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:57:19 +0000 aaron http://aaron.benedictfamily.org/?p=245

  This may sound like an infomercial, but it’s not going to be one. However if it makes you feel any better feel free to use your inner Billy Mays (RIP) voice to read this article.

  HI! Billy Mays here for Mail Drop. The app that you can use with Mail.app and Salesforce.

  My job uses Salesforce and although it is nice to have all your information on the Internet for easy access, sometime a Mac user is left in the dust since there is no easy way to get incoming emails into salesforce. That is until recently when doing some research for a client I stumbled upon Maildrop, an application that you can use to get your emails from Mail.app (or Entourage) into salesforce with out having to go through multiple steps.

  It’s pretty straight forward, there is either a window that floats above your mail application or you can access it through your AppleScript menu up in the menu bar. Select the “Add Email” option and Maildrop will then go ahead and try to find the correct contact based on their email address. If it can’t find the email address you have the ability to add the person or you could just add it to an account, case, opportunity, or contract. It will also take any attachments that are in the email and upload those as well. This is a real plus for me since I am dealing with contracts and to have them automatically attached to the record is wonderful.

  There is one little gotcha with Maildrop and that is you need to have a Salesforce “token” attached to your password in order for it to work. Don’t worry though, it is an easy thing to get and Maildrop will give you the necessary directions on how to get this token.

  So if you are like me and use an Mac and Salesforce, give Maildrop and try. The price is right (free) and you’ll thank me later.

  
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