Apple Mac HQ

I haven’t done a review in quite some time here at Apple Mac HQ. Instead of doing a software review, as most of the previous reviews have covered, I’m doing a book review. Specifically My New Mac Lion Edition – Simple Projects to Get You Started by Wallace Wang.

Most of the books I read tend to fall in the biography, adventure (think “Into Thin Air”), and programming categories. My New Mac Lion Edition doesn’t fall into any of these categories, but will draw some similarities with a programming book in that the goal of the book is to get you to learn. If you’re a new Mac user or new computer user in general, this book will certainly accomplish the goal of learning more about your Mac.

One of the first things that impressed me about this book was contained in the first couple pages, the typically unexciting table of contents. A brief table of contents is followed by an insanely detailed table of contents. The table of contents allows for quick access to any part of the book if you want to skip ahead or reference any part of the book at a later time.

The book begins by offering a brief introduction suitable for anyone who has never used a computer before. Topics covered include introduction to terminology and actions like clicking, dragging, double-clicking, etc. Obviously if you’ve used a computer before, you can skip right past this introduction.

The 56 chapters in the book are organized into seven different parts. You can see a list of all the parts and their accompanying chapters here (halfway down the page). The intended audience for this book is new Mac users and I think the author, Wallace Wang, did a good job of covering topics for the core audience.

Part 1: Basic Training – Covers basics like using mouse controls and gestures to navigate within the Mac operating system. This part includes a very nice chart with common trackpad gestures (page 24). It goes into detail about using and customizing the Menu Bar and Dock. Chapters also cover new Lion specific features like Full Screen viewing, Mission Control, and Lauchpad.

Part 2: Wrangling Files and Folders – Covers the basics of file management using the Finder. To my surprise, it also instructs users on how to use one of my favorite OS X features, Quick Look. Quick Look is such an enormous time saving feature, I pray Microsoft copies it so that I can have it on my work computer running Windows 7. Part 2 covers more Lion specific features like AirDrop, Resume, Auto Save, and Versions. There is an entire chapter devoted to the life saving feature Time Machine too.

Part 3: Making Life Easier – Covers a lot of the items located in System Preferences like Hot Corners, User Accounts, Parental Controls, Universal Access, and more. Chapter 22 and 23 cover the Mac App Store and how to install, update, and remove software not purchased on the Mac App Store. I’ve heard stories about friends parents running Applications from disk images (dmg files) because they never knew you had to copy the application to the Applications folder. This part also covers the use of several built in Mac Applications like iCal and Address Book.

Part 4: Playing Music and Movies and Part 5: The Digital Shutterbug – If movies, pictures, and music are your reasons for owning a Mac, these two chapters have you covered. It includes the basics like playing music in iTunes and importing pictures to iPhoto. It also covers importing CDs into iTunes, playing DVDs, downloading podcasts and iTunes U content, and so much more. It was great to see a note about Podcasts in the book as I think it’s something most iTunes users don’t even know exist.

Part 6: Surfing and Sharing on the Internet – Safari is covered in detail in this part, including using the new Safari feature Reading List. Other topics include Mail, Face Time, and iChat.

Part 7: Maintaining Your Mac – Fittingly, the shortest part of the book is titled Maintaing Your Mac. Some good tips are included in this part however. Often overlook, but even gathering basic system information about your Mac is covered here. Page 444 includes information about disabling the Automatic Login feature, something I tell every Mac user to do. Instructions for encrypting your Mac HDD begin on page 448.

That’s a brief overview of the contents of My New Mac Lion Edition. I tried to include a mention of some of the more important parts of the book, but by no means did I mention everything. Some of the nice touches contained in parts of the book include several ways to perform the same action. At times where a menu action is shown, a keyboard shortcut is shown right below it. Each chapter ends with an “Additional Ideas” section which offer up the opportunity to learn more about a section or include alternative programs to perform similar tasks. For instance, the section on Face Time ended with a mention about Skype.  The book is filled with screenshots, you can hardly turn a page without seeing one, great for visual learners.

My New Mac Lion Edition would make a great gift for anyone who recently received his/her first Mac or for Windows switchers. It would also be beneficial for anyone upgrading from a much older version of OS X as many new Lion and iLife features are covered. If you are the computer support person in your family, My New Mac Lion Edition might be a cheap alternative to hours on the phone if someone in your family just purchased a Mac. You can pick up a copy for just shy of $19 on Amazon.

Full Disclosure: I was provided a review copy of this book.  If the publisher approves, I’ll be giving it away on this site.  Stay tuned.

I use all of Sophiestication Software’s apps (CoverSutra, Groceries, and Tipulator). When I found out that Sophiestication recently released the Wikipedia app “Articles,” I had to try it. I am very pleased with it.

The look of Articles is reminiscent of Mobile Safari. The interface includes a progress bar, back and forward, bookmarks and history, and page selection. Up to 9 pages can be opened at once, which is 1 more then Mobile Safari.

Articles remembers the last Wikipedia page that was accessed from the last session, as well as the position left off while reading it.

The bookmarks section includes bookmarks that can be organized into folders, recent history, a link to a random Wikipedia article, as well as a map showing nearby links. Recently viewed are saved for offline viewing

Wikipedia articles are displayed nicely. Clicking on a picture zooms into it, and after loading the picture can be saved or copied. Separate windows are used to open tables, graphs, and extra information.

28 different languages can be chosen to search from, including French, Spanish, and Chinese.

There are a few things I did not like about Articles. There is no way to quickly go to a section. Any section must be scrolled down to. Also, there is no queue.

Even with these flaws, Articles has shaped up to be a great app. Articles is available for $2.99 (iTunes link) for iPhone OS 3.0 and above.

I am too forgetful, so I am constantly taking notes to remember anything. There are many options to take notes on my iPhone. The bundled Notes app does not sync to a web site, which is a deal-breaker. Simplenote is very minimal, which is a blessing and a hindrance at the same time. Evernote is too cluttered. Synotes, by Syncode, finds a nice balance between features and getting out of the way.  Syncode also makes Syncopy, which was reviewed previously on Apple Mac HQ.

Notes are easy to make. After hitting the plus sign in the corner of the screen, I am brought to the “New Note” screen. Then I put in a title and write my note. When done with the note, an icon can be assigned to label the note. Hopefully a future version of Synotes has a wider selection of icons to better match the note I have wrote.

Notes can be shared easily via e-mail. The web site provides an rss feed as well.

Searching in the app not only searches by title, but also by content of the notes. Being able to search within notes is great and quite helpful.

I can access my notes when on my computer too. The app quickly syncs with the Synotes web site. Notes can be made at the web site, which syncs back to the app. The web site has a few downsides. There is no way to search through notes. Also, there are minimal ways to organize notes.

Each note has important information including creation and last modified dates, where the note was created (in the app or on the web site), as well as version history. Any note can be reverted back to its previous version.

I am pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to make notes in Synotes, and I highly recommend it for users seeking a way to make notes.  Syncode is coming out with an iPad version of Synotes too, and it will be interesting to see how well it turns out. Synotes 1.1.1 is compatible with iPhone OS 3.0 or later for $1.99 (iTunes link).

When I am looking for interesting pictures, I usually go to Flickr. It has a wide selection of great pictures and wallpapers to view. Flickit Pro is a great way to see what Flickr has to offer.

Browsing for content is easy. My pictures as well as my contact’s pictures are broken down by sets, galleries, tags, and favorites. Searches can be done by my pictures, friends, contacts, or everyone in Flickr. Nearby pictures are shown on a map based on my geolocation. Groups I am subscribed to is also included. There is even a section for Flickr Interestingness which features many engrossing pictures.

After finding some pictures to look at, there are a couple ways to view them. Each picture can be viewed taking up the whole screen in portrait or landscape. Photoflow is like Cover Flow, which is seen in many Apple products. Photoflow has tilt scrolling like in the Instapaper Pro app. When photoflow is on, I can tilt my iPhone forward and back to scroll through pictures.

Uploading pictures is a snap. I can take pictures on the spot with the camera in-app or choose them from my Photo app. Details of pictures can be changed, including title, description, sets, tags, groups, who can see it, geolocation, and if you want to post it to a blog or Twitter. Any pictures posted to Twitter tweets the name of the photo and provides a compressed URL to the picture on Flickr.

Flickit Pro is very beautiful. The theme colors are gray and black with a tile wallpaper.

The only gripes I have about this app are that it would not update my recent activity and it does now allow deleting pictures. I am not sure if this is disallowed in the Flickr API for 3rd-party apps, though the official Flickr app can delete pictures.

Flickit Pro is a great app to find pictures. It is currently on my first iPhone page, which is where my favorite and most used apps are. Version 2.0 is available for iPhone OS 3.1 or later for $3.99 (iTunes link).

I love to cook. Unfortunately that also means I visit the grocery store on a weekly basis. My typical grocery store visit begins like so. I look through a few cookbooks, cooking magazines and MacGourmet to find the recipes I want to make. After I’ve found the recipes, I head to the kitchen to see what ingredients I have on hand and what I need to buy. As I go through each recipe I write down what I need to buy on a small sheet of paper. Once I’m done, I take the list with me and hit the store on the way home from work the following day.

This week my routine changed for the better. Instead of writing down my list, I decided to test out the Groceries iPhone App from Sophiestication Software.

The very first thing you’ll notice about Groceries is that the UI is beautiful. The App is very responsive and you can tell a lot of thought was put into the design. After opening the App, you immediately begin adding items from the extensive default database to a new shopping list. Items can be added via a search or browsing by aisle. If you don’t find an item, it’s a simple tap to add it to the database.

Groceries makes it very easy to customize your grocery list. You can add notes and amounts to each item with just a few taps. You can add frequently purchased items to your favorites list for quick access. You can even email your list with ease. The ability to email the list is a nice touch in the event that you need to send your spouse to the grocery store instead.

Perhaps the greatest feature of Groceries is how your grocery list is organized. When adding items to your list you’ll notice they are organized by aisles. This small design decision leads to a huge payoff. Within each list, you have the ability to reorder the presentation of aisles. Essentially you can match up the aisles within Groceries to the layout of the grocery store you shop at. This allows you to easily see when you have finished shopping on a particular aisle and can move to the next one. I no longer have to continually scan my shopping list to make sure I’ve crossed off every item. A quick glance at Groceries will confirm that I’m done with that aisle and can move on.

This App has a ton of other fine detail. The ability to keep the list at exactly the same spot even if I lock my iPhone is a nice touch. A quick tap will reduce my list to just the remaining items, useful for long lists. I can clear out a finished list easily as well.

If possible, I’d like to see some kind of integration with MacGourmet or MacGourmet touch. I’m not even sure if that’s possible or what integration I’d like, but I’d be willing to bet the developers are smart enough to think of something good. Comments in iTunes also mentioned some type of indicator for coupons and I concur that would be a good idea. Maybe a little coupon icon right beside the item name.

Groceries (iTunes link) will set you back $1.99 and is available now in the App Store. After my first grocery store visit using Groceries, I can’t see myself ever going back to pen and paper. This App saves me time in the grocery store and that fact alone is worth the small price of Groceries. In fact, I’d say that this app is the best $2 I’ve ever spent on “Groceries”.

There are many moments in the day that I want to keep track of because they are special and memorable. A simple note taking app just will not cut it. That is where the diary app Momento, from d3i, comes in.

Momento helps record these “moments”. Moments can be described with text and/or images. Images can be from the Photo app or the iPhone camera. Any moment I enter into Momento can be tagged in numerous ways to make searching through them easier. These tags include people (which can be pulled from the Contacts app), places, events, and custom tags.

Some of my moments were not recorded in my Momento personal diary and instead were put on my social networking accounts. These “social moments” can be from Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, and Twitter. Momento focuses on my life and experiences so it only includes my posts and excludes what my friends have posted.

Momento will not replace full-fledged Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, and Twitter apps. This would make the app cluttered and it would lose its simplistic appeal. Momento does not allow tagging of social moments.

This app is very pretty. I am a sucker for a wood grain theme and Momento is filled with it. Each day of moments is viewed from a spiral notebook theme. A lot of attention went into the look of this app.

There were a few things I did not like about Momento. Only one of each type of account can be linked to Momento, so for instance I can only have one of my Twitter accounts. This probably will not be a problem for most since they do not have multiple accounts for each of these services. Also, moments that are deleted will only erase them from viewing in Momento, but it does not delete them from the social networking services. This is mainly because Momento is not meant to replace your main social networking apps. Other things I didn’t like include not being able to open URLs or enlarge photos to view them more easily.

Momento is a great diary app and I am excited to see what the future holds for it. Momento 1.0.2 is available now for $2.99 (iTunes link) and is compatible with iPhone OS 3.0 and above.

Transferring text and images between my iPhone and Mac has been a pain in the past. I have tried a combination of ways to get this done, including Simplenote, Dropbox, and e-mailing to myself. In this App Showdown, I will compare 2 clipboard iPhone apps, Syncopy and Pastebot, to figure out a better way to get this done.

Syncopy is from the Australian development company Syncode. Upon opening this app, the most recently copied text is shown. After choosing to upload the text to the Syncopy server, the Mac companion toolbar app receives the copied text automatically or by manually refreshing it and then copies it to your Mac clipboard. Syncing is usually quick. The iPhone app has a history section which shows all synced text when the companion app is open. There is no way to batch delete the history for the iPhone and Mac companion app unfortunately. They must be deleted individually. Previous copied text is shown in the companion app, but it only shows the past 7. Both versions show where the text came from (iPhone or Mac).

Pastebot, by Tapbots, works under the same premise as Syncopy. The most recently copied item in the clipboard appears and is automatically added to the history. iPhone images can be from the clipboard, camera, or photo library. Unlike Syncopy, Pastebot can handle both text and images. Pastebot’s Mac companion toolbar app does not show a history of synced items, nor are copied items automatically pushed to the Mac. Instead, the item is selected on the iPhone and then is chosen to be pasted on the Mac. It will then paste into whatever app is open (assuming it can accept a pasted item at the time). Copied text from the Mac will show up in Pastebot whenever both the iPhone and companion app are open.

Pastebot is a very pretty app, especially compared to Syncopy. It is just as beautiful as Weightbot and Convertbot, also made by Tapbots.

The history in Pastebot is far more functional because of folders, unlike Syncopy’s flat organization which only sorts in reverse chronological order based on when it was added to the history. Pastebot does not do batch delete as well.

The Pastebot Mac companion app and iPhone must be on the same network to work together. Syncopy syncs via the cloud, so this is not an issue.

Pastebot provides text filters and editing. The filters are very useful and include changing the case, find and replace, and encoding and decoding HTML entities. Image filters and cropping is also available. The image filtering is rather basic and includes altering brightness, saturation, and sepia. Syncopy does not offer any type of altering.

Outputted text from Pastebot can be used as a Google search query via Mobile Safari or e-mailed in app. Images can also be e-mailed, as well as saved to the iPhone’s Camera Roll. Syncopy cannot output in any of these ways. Both iPhone apps cannot send to a Twitter client like Birdhouse.

Pastebot wins this App Showdown. Though I do have some nitpicks with both apps, Pastebot has more features then Syncopy. Syncopy feels too barebones at this point to be recommended. Pastebot 1.0.5 (iTunes link) is available now for $2.99 for iPhone OS 3.0 and above, while Syncopy 1.0 (iTunes link) is available for iPhone OS 3.1.2 and above.