Powerful Products! - iPad 2

On Friday I had the good fortune to stumble across one of the very hard to find iPad 2's in the world. After a couple of days, I'm still trying to figure out how it will fit into my workflow. The kids however, know exactly how to put it to good use. I'm still digging through apps and settings, but I'll have more posts related to the iPad in the near future.

Astounding Apps! - Simplenote + Notational Velocity

I create a lot of text files. I want them backed up to the web and I want access to them all the time. I've tried Evernote, Google Docs, and an army of note apps on my iPhone, but none of them meet all of my needs. About a year ago, Merlin Mann mentioned a solution using Simplenote, Notational Velocity and Dropbox. It's amazing. Here's a link explaining how to set it up. I couldn't live without it. Thanks Merlin. 

Powerful Products! - Magic Trackpad

I've been in St. George, UT for the last three weeks working on Ben Banks, an indie feature being made by some of my close friends. The film is coming along, the crew working ridiculously hard in the plus one-hundred degree temperatures. Meanwhile, I've been tucked into a dark corner of a condo managing the backup, transcode and sync of hundreds of files. Like the mail, it just keeps coming. Sometime last week the repetitive motion started getting to me and by coincidence my mouse, a logitech I purchased three years ago started to go south. Enter Apple's Magic Trackpad. My biggest concern was that it was lacking a few key mouse functions related to Spaces and Expose that I rely heavily on. I had read about JiTouch, a preference pane that adds those features so I grabbed that and started working. The second concern was that the Magic Trackpad wasn't going to be accurate enough to hit all the tiny buttons in Final Cut Pro. That has not been the case for me. I have been using the Magic Trackpad exclusively for the last couple of days and after a slight learning curve it's working great. The best part, my wrist seems to be doing much better. If you have had experience working with the Magic Track Pad let me know what you think @magicalmacs on twitter.  

Astounding Apps! - Omnifocus

Awesome things are happening for magical macs. Right now I'm working on an independent feature film in beautiful St. George, UT (check out our behind the scenes here). There is however, a ton of work to manage, not only on set, but when I stumble back to my room at night. My only defense in the storm of info flying around me, Omnifocus. After reading David Allen's Getting Things Done four years ago, I've tried to repeatedly implement an organized, trusted system to help me manage my workflow. When I heard about Omnigroup's Omnifocus I bought the beta, when the iPhone app came out I bought it to, immediately. For the uninitiated, GTD as it's often called is a system of organizing all of the tasks we deal with in our media and information rich society. If you are stressed out all the time, it's probably because you aren't using you time the right way. Omnifocus on the Mac and iPhone are applications that work together seamlessly to help you keep track of all the information you face each day. It syncs via MobilMe, Bonjour, iDisk or WebDAV server and I seriously couldn't stay afloat without it. Let me know what tools you use to stay organized on twitter @magicalmacs.com

Terrific Tips! - iPhone Screenshots

One of the iPhone's lesser known functions is the ability to take a screenshot. You might stumble across this on accident, evidenced by a random picture in your Camera Roll. How do you do it? A quick simultaneous push on the power and home buttons and you will hear the distinctive click of the iPhone's camera. Again, the image will be dropped right into you Camera Roll, from there you can transfer it to your computer or send it to someone via email/sms. When would you use an iPhone screenshot? I have used them to capture settings for mail and calendars to help clients set up their phones, emailed screenshots from the Maps app to give quick directions, I've even created tutorials for how to use certain apps using the screenshots to illustrate particular screens or buttons. Give it a try, and let me know if you come up with any novel uses for this feature on twitter @magicalmacs. For Inception fans...here's a screenshot of my screenshots...