GPush is the first app for the iPhone that will send you a push notification any time you get a new message in your Gmail inbox.  It’s a fairly simple app that tackles a fairly simple problem, and it works.  After a simple username and password set up, you’ll receive a push notification whenever a new message pops into your Gmail account.  The push notification is similar to any text message you might receive.

One of our earlier complaints about the app, and one which we intended to focus on here was the inability to access your new mail directly from the notification.  This was addressed in a recently released update to the app, and we couldn’t be happier.  Now when you receive a new push, whether you’re in a application or not, you’ll be given the option to view the email or close the push notification.  If you choose to view the email you’ll be kicked out of your current application and taken to GPush.  Once there, GPush will take you to the new Gmail tab where it loads up a mobile-friendly version of your Gmail inbox that’s identical to the one seen in the Google Mobile App.

This new view feature is a great addition and well appreciated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not without flaws.  Clicking view only brings you to your inbox, not the email itself.  For folks like myself who much prefer using the iPhone’s built-in Mail app, having to use the web-based Gmail mobile feels a little too slow and clunky.  And the view option doesn’t work in every circumstance — if your device receives a push notification in standby you won’t have the option to view or close.  Instead sometimes you’ll be forced to open GPush the next time you unlock your device, and sometimes you won’t.  It’s flaky and inconsistent from the standby state, which is a fairly significant stumbling block when it comes to using the feature properly.

There are other annoyances with the app as well.  Many folks have multiple Gmail addresses for business, personal, etc.. but GPush only allows for one account.  And speaking of Gmail, why only the one client?  Sure Gmail is the biggest freemail provider out there, but does that mean users of Yahoo, Hotmail and Live need to be left out in the cold?  Or how about server based emails?  I happen to use several addresses, both Gmail and otherwise, and would have been delighted to have an app that could cater to all my push notification needs.

Despite our nitpicky complaints, GPush sets out with one thing in mind and it does that one thing incredibly well — it keeps me from bringing up my inbox every 5 minutes.  If it can accomplish that, it can probably accomplish anything.

GPush is available from Tiverias Apps on the iTunes AppStore for $1.99.

Simplenote provides exactly what it says, a simple way to take and sync notes on your iPhone and iPod Touch. When you open an app, you see a simple page where you can add a new, view, search, and delete notes as well as allowing you to sign up/log in to your web account. Adding a note is as simple as touching the “+”, to manage syncing you simply touch the wrench button, and to delete a note you swipe your finger across the note and touch “Delete”.

When creating a new note or editing a preexisting note, the interface remains clean and simple with buttons to return to the notes list, email your note, or delete it. The app supports both portrait and landscape mode, which is very nice if you are typing a lot and prefer the landscape keyboard as I do. With no extra frills like titles, tags, locations, images, and file attachments, Simplenote runs extremely fast, even on old iPhones and iPod Touches.

The web app for accessing your notes on your desktop is just as clean and light as the app. It looks almost the same as the app and provides the same exact features. The app syncs automatically and stores local copies of your notes to allow you to view, search, edit, and add new notes even when you don’t have network access.

With the latest update of the app, Cloud Factory has added an API which allows for the creation of “Extras” which allows developers to create third party applications to interface with Simplenote. Currently the only app is a web application, Simple Backup, which allows you to backup/export your Simplenote notes into plain text, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, and Evernote archive formats. I expect to see some exciting new features added with this feature in the future.

If you are looking for a simple, clean, and fast note taking app for your iPhone or iPod Touch that also syncs with the web Simplenote is my pick. Simplenote costs $1.99 which includes a free web account and can be downloaded from iTunes.

When you first launch Bevy you will want to add a few folders. Just click the gear icon in the top left and select folders. Here you will tell Bevy where to search for applications, and Bevy will display you applications in different sections for each folder. This will let you easily keep things organized. You can also exclude some items that you don’t ever need.

Bevy can display you applications in a few different ways. You can view all applications, included applications, excluded applications, or running applications. You can view them all in one big group, or have then grouped by folder. Applications that are currently open will be in a box or have a stroke around them, which you can pick in the settings. You can also change all the colors of Bevy and adjust the opacity in the settings.

But Bevy isn’t just to launch applications. If you want to open a file in a certain application you can drag the file, launch Bevy, and drop the file onto an application. All applications that can open the certain type of file will be highlighted, and all other applications will be dimmed. You can also quickly find applications by holding a letter on your keyboard. This will cause applications that start with that letter to be highlighted.

However, Bevy could use a few other features. One thing that it lacks is an actual search. Bevy also doesn’t work with Spaces, and it will only show in one space. If you open Bevy while in a different space, you will switch to the space that Bevy is in. If you want to quickly access every application on their Mac, you might want to try Bevy. Bevy is available from bergdesign for $9.95.

The way I see it, there are really three different types of desktops. One has the background picture as the focus, one has files as the focus, and one has data. My desktop has gone through all three of these stages over the years. Currently, it only has three icons—my hard drive, a single folder, and my backup drive. Anything that shows up is automatically moved into that single folder through the magic of Hazel. The primary purpose of my desktop is to see my background picture (a shot from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris). I also have a few tidbits of data put up in Geektool, which prints text directly on your desktop, such as what is playing on my iTunes, my battery charge, and IP address. Now, this is the set-up that works for me. I’m a messy person by nature, so I had to find a way to force myself to keep things clean. I used to have files all around, but now, with my increasing use of Spotlight or Quicksilver, I no longer have to see things to open them.

There is, of course, too much of a good thing. Using Geektool, in addition to what I have already mentioned, I also had five separate to-do lists, weather, and all manner of other interesting but unnecessary system statistics. This was great from a standpoint of being informed, but my desktop picture was completely obscured and this depressed me.

Other people I know integrate their desktop backgrounds with the data on them, hiding stats in graffiti, or subway message boards. Others go the complete opposite direction and have countless files that they find by knowing their relations to other files. Many productivity experts say that you should always have a clean desktop—nothing to distract you, a clean slate to start from—but I know for a fact that this doesn’t work for everyone; here’s an example from a tech support company in Norway:

The answer to the question I asked earlier is really trial and error, at least in my experience. There are countless tools available to make your deskop as customized as you want it to be—extra wallpaper, built-in clocks, and so on. See how you work with no files. See how you work with a plain background, or if you really want to see places you’ve been, people you’ve met, then stick a photo or two up there. Data is helpful, but don’t go overboard. Try things out. Play around. After all, it’s a great way to procrastinate. Your desktop may end up being completely different than mine, but I can hope that I at least made you think about it, and set you on your road to your perfect screen.

Buddy the Bus offers up a 21st century take on the book-and-record sets we used to get as kids.  Back then you’d dig out your Fisher-Price turntable and listen to the narrator read along with the story.  Now that we live in “the future,” both audio and book are magically transported as one package in this totally free app.  Your kids can pop in their headphones and listen along as Buddy the Bus takes his passengers all over the town.

Baby Flash Cards is, to no ones suprise, exactly what it sounds like.  Flash cards are considered by many to be a great way to stimulate a child’s mind.  But why shell out $5-$10 for a set of real cards when you can get a fantastic free set right here?  The free set included in Baby Flash Cards features a variety of real world objects and animals paired up with their matching words.  Cards can be explored alphabetically or randomly, and you can set it so that all the info is on the card at once or the words are hidden until you touch them.

SimpleDraw proves one solid universal truth: kids LOVE coloring.  It’s timeless.  Give a kid in 12th century Mongolia a crayon and he’ll know what to do with it in seconds.  So it should come as no surprise that the one app my 2 year old is always trying to wrestle away my iPod for is the one she calls “COLOR!!”  SimpleDraw’s name couldn’t be more accurate.  You can select from a handful of colors and brush thicknesses, but asides from that things are kept alarmingly minimalist.  Your little one can just put a finger on the screen and go to town.

Children’s Classics let’s you put the tradition of reading with you’re kids right in your pocket.  Sure you could ask your child to sit quietly and patiently on that long train trip/airport wait/doctor’s office visit, but wouldn’t it be more fun to break out the bedtime stories in the middle of the afternoon?  Children’s Classics offers up 16 classics children’s reads ranging from Pinnochio and Robin Hood to Aesop’s Fables and The Secret Garden.  If you find your family is really digging it, make sure to do a search on the AppStore for BeamItDown Software.  Not only have they pblished this great collection, but they have a number of other classic family stories like Alice in Wonderland or A Christmas Carol available completely free of charge.

myHomework is an app that every iPhone/iPod toting student should own, and every parent encourage.  myHomework lets a child keep track of their class schedule, assignments, tests and other school activities.  Even better, it has color coded reminders to let them know when something is about to come due or has missed a deadline.  Organization is a cornerstone to success, and what better developmental task to apply this to than the daily juggle of academia?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are many apps, both paid and free, that prove to be a great resource for parents the world over.  What iPhone apps do you share with your kids?

The main window is uncluttered, yet powerful.

Meet SOHO Notes, the anything and everything note-taking app. Put notes into folders and sub-folders, label them, encrypt them, scan them in, record and link audio files as notes, set alarms, define your own forms for quick notes, sync your notes with MobileMe, write them in full screen: the list goes on and on.

Power users are likely going to want to start out by heading up to the Preferences panel, where they’ll be met with appearance tweaks, shortcuts, blog publishing settings, MobileMe and iPod syncing options, backup settings, security, and more. SOHO Notes features a basic text editor with standard rich-text formatting options very similar to TextEdit. Each note’s title is highlighted by a bold navy blue title bar that really helps distinguish between different notes.

One of the pre-built forms is for software serial numbers

The app has an integrated web browser to allow web research to be done from inside the note taking area, and web archives can be saved to pull webpages down to the app. Notes can be viewed full screen, in tabs, and inline with the app.

Naturally everything is searchable inside the application, and SOHO Notes also fully integrates with Spotlight to make locating notes incredibly easy. Smart folders as well as custom folders can be made inside the app to help quickly sort the notes. The app also integrates quite nicely with iPhoto, Address Book, Mail, and iCal.

SOHO Notes functions in both single-user and multi-user environments. SOHO Notes allows remote databases to be accessed over a network, allowing for employees to share meeting notes and other company documents. Users can be assigned read/write privileges to certain folders and access a number of encrypted databases on a server.

The Database Manager helps users create and access shared databases

The amount of features is quite frankly staggering (way too many to list here, though we’ve tried), but the application feels very manageable and intuitive. A single-user license sells for $39.99, with a family pack for $69.99. SOHO Notes can also be purchased inside of the SOHO Organizer suite. Chronos has really done it with SOHO Notes. Its a clean, un-cluttered app, with an extraordinary amount of power. SOHO Notes is only compatible with Leopard.

When first released (mid 2008) I purchased shopper and immediately found it to be lacking some basic functionality.  I emailed the developer (Mark Krenek) with a few suggestions to improve the user experience and he responded promptly by email to assure me that my suggestions were in the plans for future versions.  Within a couple minor updates he had fixed the one issue i found and added the features that I recommended.  Having the developer listen and respond to suggestions and recommendations has helped this application evolve into a very refined shopping item/list application.

The settings screen, as with most applications, is where one can define global settings for the application.  Sort by Aisle is one of the more recent additions to the application where each store can be arranged by aisles matching the stores physical layout.  Before the addition of this feature I logged many miles tracking back through the store looking for an item.  Each store can have a different aisle order and the aisles can be added and removed as desired.

The application works best with all of your items on one big list regardless of which store you choose to purchase them from.  With the stores and aisles properly setup, choosing the store at the top will reorder the list based on the aisles.  If the aisles dont exist in that particular store the items in that aisle will not be visible.

With the stores and aisles setup, there are a couple different ways to add items to the list.  One can click the plus at the bottom of the list which brings up a text search window.  As you type, It will filter the results.   When you see the item you’re looking for select it to add it to the list.  If the desired item is not on the list, type the full text and click create to add it.  From there you can choose which aisle it belongs on to keep your list organized.  At this point you can also change the quantity as well.  The other method to add items is to browse through the list of aisles and items.  This method is great when a little help is needed to remember all the possible items to choose from.   If you’re interested in keeping track of more details shopper will allow you to keep track of costs, UOM, price, notes and also if you have a coupon or not.  Thats a bit more detail than I need, however there were many people that like that level of control.  If you fill in the prices it will keep a running total in the cart and include taxes if you so desire.

As you put the items in your cart at the store, click the box on the left of the item and shopper will drop the item into the cart icon at the bottom of the screen with a nice animation.  The items in the cart collect and stay in the cart until you empty it.

If you need to get the list to someone else that has offered to do your shopping for you simply email the list to them through the built in functionality.  The emailed list is a very simple text based list and is lacking visual appeal, however it’s functional. This application is a good addition to your library of productivity apps.

Few things can impact a blogger as negatively as their own workspace.  Even with the best of intentions, writing an article in one tab of your browser and fact checking in another can lead to a few quick emails, a twitter update, checking out Facebook — the next thing you know you’ve been reading articles on digg for an hour.  Our productivity tools often lead us to being anything but productive.  This was a trap I found myself falling into more and more as they days went on.  Then I discovered the secret world of minimalist word processing.

What is minimalist word processing?

Minimalist word processing is, at a glance, not unlike taking a time machine back to the 1980’s.  Full screen text editors that allow for zero distraction, both WriteRoom and JDarkRoom offer nothing more in terms of visuals than text on background.  Removing the dock, the taskbar, and any other feature that would make your desktop recognizable, these apps will give you zero reason to start clicking elsewhere and lose yourself to all of your other daily tasking.  But how can two such simple programs really differ?

WriteRoom, Hog Bay Software, $24.95

WriteRoom has the distinction of being the granddaddy of distraction free writing software.  Inspired by the early days of wordprocessing, WriteRoom was the first program available to offer a minimalist approach to your writing environment. Starting out with green text on a black background, you can dive right in and get to work or tweak to your hearts content.

Both font and color scheme can be changed to your liking.  Tapping Escape will bring you back to your desktop with a basic text version of you document displayed in a window.  That window can be tweaked to display relevant information like word and page counts.  You can even add a plug-in that will add an “edit in Writeroom” option in the Edit Menu of other applications.

On the downside, being first on the block and offering a solid set of features also means that you can set your own price.  WriteRoom is currently available for the surprisingly steep price point of $24.95, with a free 30-day trial of the full version also available for download.

Grade: A-

JDarkRoom, Code Alchemists, FREE

The release of JDarkRoom owes a lot to it’s predecessor.  JDarkRoom is the Java-based alternative to DarkRoom, a Windows-only WriteRoom clone that ran on the .NET framework.  Looking for something that worked outside of .NET, the coder behind JDarkRoom inadvertantly created a program that could work across all three major OS’s (Windows, Mac, Linux).  That’s how I first came across this — looking for a WriteRoom alternative for my Windows-box.  And on Windows, it performs exactly as you’d want it to.  But on the Mac?

It appears the free alternative to WriteRoom is a glitchy mess.  The first thing you see when firing up JDarkRoom is a message letting you know Command-SHIFT should bring up the help menu.  It doesn’t.  Having experience with the Windows version, I tried F5.  That worked.  Getting out of the help menu though?  Impossible.  It treats the help menu like it a document you want to modify.  You’ll need to quit the program to get out of it, thereby losing any work you may have done to that point.  Many of the commands in the help menu, such as accessing the options screen, line and word count, or inserting the date and time either work sporadically or don’t work at all.  As well, I wasn’t able to ALT-TAB out to other programs, as JDarkRoom continued to block my desktop when I tried.

The bare bones of the program, writing and saving files, works fine.  Anything beyond that is a disaster.  While the  entire idea behind minimalist word processing is to do nothing more than write, there are some basic tweaks and commands that are required to make that experience complete, and they just can’t be relied upon in the Mac version of jDarkRoom.  If this were this Windows version it would get a stellar A+ grade.  But it’s not.

Grade: D

Conclusion

What we had expected to be comparing were two programs with a nigh-indistinguishable set of features.  Unfortunately jDarkRoom couldn’t live up to the promise.  While the Windows version offers a solid alternative, that’s just not something that’s going to be of much use to our readership.  WriteRoom offers a complete set of features, a bug free experience, and the quiet solace you’re looking for when writing. The $24.95 price tag may be less than attractive, but after trying the 30-day free trial you’ll be hard pressed to go back to the days of desktop distraction.

Recommendation: WriteRoom

The Schoolhouse interface bears a striking resemblance to iCal

When the app is first launched iCal users will immediately notice a familiar layout. Separated into 3 columns, Schoolhouse works and interacts similarly to iCal, but is designed with your studies in mind. Users can add as many classes as they choose, and fill out useful information about classes. Assignments, tasks, and notes can then be added to each class with options to customize due dates, attach files, add partners, assign priority, and deadlines for tasks. Notebooks to store a group of notes can be created by course, or separately for sub-topics.

Course schedules, instructors, and assignment types can all be customized

Schoolhouse allows you to add as much or as little detail about your schedule and assignments as you choose, depending on how organized you are. Assignments can be added and viewed quickly, or entered with significant details. Students can check off assignments when completed, enter grades for tests, and keep track of their term grades with the built-in Grades feature. The app also allows students to contact their teachers about specific assignments with just one-click.

Rich text notes can be stored in Notebooks and courses

While the app has robust customization features, I still wasn’t able to adapt it to my course schedule. I also felt confined to the app, with no way to export my assignments except for the proprietary Schoolhouse database. I would love to see options to export to iCal, iPods, and the web in the future. Also, I found the lack of keyboard shortcuts annoying as I tried to enter and manipulate my courses and assignments. Plus there’s no integration for students that have online textbooks or web services tied to their courses. I would also like to see the app fit more naturally into OS X by Schoolhouse 3. The app currently has portions that are non-standard for OS X applications, which Mac users wont find as intuitive as most native applications.

Schoolhouse was updated at the beginning of February after being crippled for well over a year. Leopard users on Intel Macs had to force Schoolhouse to run through Rosetta, causing the app to crawl. On February 6th the developer published Schoolhouse 2.2, fixing a number of the Leopard compatibility issues. The app remains overall the same. Classcasting, a feature that published assignments in RSS via .Mac, was removed due to the .Mac / MobileMe switch over and changes to the service. Current users can feel more comfortable upgrading to the new version because their library will be automatically backed-up before upgrading, but they will be frustrated when they can no longer manually backup and restore the database.

Despite some of the short-comings Schoolhouse is an amazing application. Now that the Leopard compatibility issues seem to have been sorted out, I feel comfortable using it to keep track of my assignments again. While there are plenty of features that can be added in the future, there are tons current features to help students keep track of their studies and spend less time doing it.

In order to use Summarize, you need to be on a native OS X program such as Preview, TextEdit, Safari, Mail, etc. If you are in one of these programs, getting your summary takes just a second and it is fully customizable. If you are not in one of these programs, simply copy and paste your text over into TextEdit and you will be able to use it hassle free. To get started, simply select the text that you want summarized, navigate up to the menu-bar, and drop down the menu by selecting the name of the current application that you are on. In this sub-menu you will find the “services” section. From there, you can select Summarize. The summary box will look something like this:

As you can see, you will be able to edit how long you want the summary to be and if you want it in sentences or paragraphs. The accuracy of the summaries has actually been quite impressive in my past experience with this great feature.

Getting Things Done

Let’s start off with a quick overview of David Allen’s system of Getting Things Done.  It all starts with the idea of getting everything out of your head, and onto paper.  This way, you don’t have to worry about holding every little detail in your head, which in turn will give you less stress.  Once you’ve downloaded the information into one easily accessible source, you now can organize your information into projects and assign contexts.  

What are projects and contexts?  Projects are tasks that require multiple steps.  For instance: The task of Painting the garage requires you to get paint, then Organize the garage for painting, then after that - Start painting the first coat.  The project is called “Paint the garage” while the actions (the steps or to-dos associated with this project) are “get paint” and such.

Contexts are the tactile and physical aspects of your projects and actions.  Every project and action should have a context.  Organizing your projects by context is one of Getting Things Done or GTD’s greatest features.  Using the same example, a couple of contexts for this project might be Home or Errands.

Things’s Interface

The developers of Things certainly made a huge effort on making the app’s interface as streamlined and as beautiful as possible.  Using the iTunes-like sidebar along with the iPhoto-like toolbar at the bottom makes Things blend right in with your iLife apps.  The interface is divided into 2 parts.  The first part “on the left” is used for navigation, while the second part “on the right” is where you view and edit all of your actions.

The Sidebar

At the very top of the sidebar you’ll notice it says collect, followed by an item called the Inbox.  The inbox is where you download all of the information from your head and into Things.  Don’t worry about projects or contexts just yet.  You just get it out and into the Inbox.  Clicking the “New” toolbar item or pressing Command + N makes a new action.

Once you’ve done that, double click on an action to see its details.  At the top, next to the check box is where the title of the action is located.  Below that is a section for your contexts “in the form of tags” and under that is where you can add any notes that are associated with this action.  At the bottom of the action is where you can assign a due date as well as a spot where you can tell Things when to move this action into the “Today” section (more on that later).

Below the Inbox in the sidebar is the section entitled “Focus”.  This is where Things really shines.  The “Focus” section is divided into 5 parts:

The first part is called “Today”.  In “Today”,  Things allows you to create your own “agenda” for the day by devoting a special  list for just the items that you want or need to do today.  

Below that is the “Next” part.  Here is where Things lets you review your up-coming projects and actions. (The screenshot above is of the “Next” part.)  Please note that items in either the “Scheduled” or “Someday” lists will not be shown in the “Next” list.

Under that is the “Scheduled” part.  If you ever want Things to remind you about a certain project or action in the future, this is the place to go.  Drag an item into the Scheduled list to assign a day when you want Things to remind you to review a certain project or action. 

Beneath the “Scheduled” list is the “Someday” list.  If you ever have an action or project that you want to do someday, but can’t really decide on a certain time to review or actually do it, put it in the “Someday” list.

Finally, in the Focus section we have the “Projects” list.  Simply put – it displays all of your projects including the non-active ones.  Non-active in this case means a project that has been moved into the “Someday” list or is at least not pressed to be completed.  Below this, Things automatically displays your active projects for easy navigation.

The next section is called “Areas” or Areas of Responsibility.  Think of these as folders for your projects.  Using the example above, one might create an area called “Garage” and put the “Paint the Garage” project inside it.  It’s just another way of organizing your projects and actions.

The bottom of the sidebar is home to two items:

The “Logbook” is where Things puts all of your completed items.  You can tell things to log completed items automatically, or manually do it by hitting the proper toolbar item.

The Trash should be the most recognizable and understandable element of the sidebar.  Think of it as the trash in your dock.  If you delete an item, it will go inside the trash.  When you want to free up space, control click it and choose empty trash.

The Action Toolbar

This toolbar is found in the main content view at the bottom.  The “New” and “Edit” toolbar items should be self explanatory.

The “Today” toolbar item adds the currently selected action or project to your “Today” list.

The “File” toolbar item brings down a sheet that allows you to move the currently selected action(s) into one of your projects, schedule it for later review, add it to the “Someday” list, or add it to one of your “Areas of Responsibility”.  It pretty much allows you to do everything without dragging and dropping an item.

The “Quick Entry” toolbar item brings up the quick entry box (talked about later on).

The “Tags” toolbar item brings up a dashboard that allows you to organize your tags aka “Contexts”.  Here you can nest contexts for instance: Mac > Online > Blog.

The Quick Entry Box

Assigned to a shortcut key value that you can customize in Things’s preferences, you can bring up this box to quickly add an action into your inbox from any application “as long as Things is already open”.  Simply fill it out and hit save.

A Quick Walkthrough Tutorial

Let’s walk through an example of how to use Things starting from when you first download the app to using it in your daily life.

You’ve downloaded Things, and you’re ready to embark on your journey through stress-free productivity!  You are now ready to pour all of your current projects and ideas into Things to fill up your empty inbox.

Choose Inbox at the top of the sidebar and press Command + N to create a new item.  Once you’ve filled out the title, hit tab to move on to adding tags aka contexts.  Already created contexts autocomplete for quicker item creation.  If the default contexts don’t suffice, just enter a new one and hit return.  Feel free to add a due date, however the best thing to do right now, is to get everything out of your head and onto “paper” as it were.

When you’re finished putting everything in the Inbox, think about which actions are related.  If there is more than one step to an action, it’s now time to turn it into a project.  Choose the New Project button in the bottom toolbar.  It’s the second one in from the left that looks like a book in case you get confused with the New Action button to the left of it.  Creating a new project is just like creating a new action.  The only differences is that you can drag, add or create your your actions inside of them.

Now that Things has all of your information organized into projects, it’s time to use Things’s Focus lists to help you get these items done.  

Click on any action or project and choose the Today toolbar item at the bottom.  That item has now been added to your agenda for today.  Another way to have Things automatically do this for you is to schedule an event to be reviewed.  To do this, drag an item onto the Scheduled list in the sidebar.  Choose a date or a length of time and Things will move that event into Today when it is time to do so.

There are always those tasks that you would like to do, but don’t really need to finish them at a certain time or feel like doing them now.  Things has a list for this too called Someday.  Just drag your actions and projects into this list, and you will never be bothered about them unless you decide to view this list.

 What happens every day

Everything is added and organized, so what do you have to do now?  Click on the Next list in the sidebar.  This is where you’ll usually spend most of your time.  Organized by project, Things automatically puts your up-and-coming items in this list for you.  All you have to do is check it, and check off your tasks.

Once you’ve completed a task, click the check box to the left of completed task or project causing Things to gray it out.  When you want to clear out all of your competed items, click the Log Completed toolbar item at the bottom to clean them out and put them in the Log Book located in the bottom left-hand corner of Things’s main window.

Performance and Other Information

Things is required to be run on a system with Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later.  Although speed will vary depending on your processing power and memory storage capacity, Things runs extremely quickly even with a very large and extensive library.  Things has just reached the magic 1.0 mark releasing it from beta just recently at MacWorld `09.  I’ve barely run into any bugs or hitches when using Things, and if there were any, they weren’t huge – a few view refreshing problems, but none that could be fixed by clicking again.

I’ve found Things to be very good at what it does.  There isn’t any extra features or fluff that doesn’t really need to be there.

One might compare Things to an app like OmniFocus.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses.  Both apps are based on the GTD system, but go about them in different ways.  Things is more visual, while OmniFocus is more list-oriented.

Price and Availability 

Things is available at http://culturedcode.com/things/ for the price of $49.95 (USD).  Be sure to check out Things’s product page for more details.

FlightTrack’s coolest feature is definitely the Map View. This allows you to see where a flight is during its flight; and it works very well. It uses a service called FlightView to get the data, which can be used without the app. To get to the Map View, one only has to click the Map tab item in the navigation bar when a flight is selected.

Another big issue in flying is baggage claims. A number of times the airport tells you to go one place when your baggage is somewhere else, or maybe you just forget what claim number it is. With FlightTrack you can easily check baggage claim numbers; gate numbers; and scheduled, estimated, and actual departure times. Just create a search, find a flight, and see all of its info. You can also shake the phone to pick a random flight. I’m not sure exactly why you might want to do this, though. If you want to save a flight for later, just click on the Save button. You may find that some other flight-tracking apps have a few more features, like creating itineraries, or more general searches.

As said above, FlightTrack allows you to do searches. You must know at least some information about the flight to do a search, unless you just shake the phone. I find that the search is good if you know what you want, but it can get a little annoying. Sometimes you just want to see a list of flights out of a certain airport instead of searching for specific flights. But this also means that your list will be vary narrow after you search. And, with its 751 included airlines and 4530 included airports, maybe seeing a list of flights would just be overwhelming.

FlightTrack retails for $4.99 on the App Store and there is no Lite edition (I don’t know how there could be anyway). For a frequent traveler it is a great tool and gives you a fair number of features. Even for an infrequent traveler it can be a nice tool to have, just in case. And hey, $4.99 wouldn’t even buy you a meal at the airport that you had to buy because you didn’t hear your flight had been delayed 5 hours.

How did you get started programming for Macs and how did Potion Factory come about?

After working as a programmer for a long time, I started Potion Factory almost 4 years ago with a friend because we were feeling adventurous with our lives and because we liked the Mac platform so much. We have since gone our separate ways, but I still enjoy this work very much as I get to be both programmer and graphic designer.

What made you develop The Hit List in light of Omni Group’s OmniFocus and Cultured Code’s Things, other GTD apps?

I made The Hit List because I didn’t find any applications that I wanted to use to keep track of my long list of things to do.

The work on The Hit List began before any of those apps you mention became publicly available. It’s funny how people now think that The Hit List is an amalgamation of all the good ideas in those apps, but from my point of view, they feel like my application split into separate pieces.

I didn’t pay too much attention to those apps anyway because I thought that what I was working on was pretty unique.

How does The Hit List differ from OmniFocus and Things and what makes it special?

The Hit List is for you if you don’t like being forced into a specific workflow. I made it fairly generic but it does support many of the GTD concepts. It’s an application that can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, but at the same time, I have tried to make the user interface simple to the point where it’s almost invisible. It’s also opinionated in some areas. One example would be the single key shortcuts and the helpful hint buttons that encourage their use.

When you learn Kendo, they teach you that you must use your sword as an extension of your arm, meaning, that you must be comfortable enough with your tool to the point where it feels like just another part of your body. Similarly, I wanted the user interface in The Hit list to be seamless and efficient enough so that it feels like an extension of your mind. An example of software that has this amazingly invisible UI are video games. With video games, you don’t think about pressing buttons to get something done, most of the times, you just do it. I wanted more of that kind of interaction in my application.

I really enjoy it when people tell me that The Hit List feels just right because of this.

Are there any special features coming in the iPhone app that are not already in the OmniFocus or Things iPhone apps?

I don’t check out competitors’ applications before my own is done so I can’t really answer this one. The reason for this is that I’m trying to make the best product in my own way and I don’t really care what the other companies are doing. Being in the same space, you still tend to end up with similar features, but at least I’ll know that I arrived at those answers on my own rather than being influenced.

When can we expect to see the iPhone app?

When it’s done.

How do you justify the price of The Hit List (or any app) and will there be a “switcher” discount?

If you’re serious about your productivity, I think you can justify it. This is the type of application that can get you promotions at work and better grades at school. It certainly has made me a more productive person. With that in mind, when you compare the price to that of a concert ticket or a video game, I don’t think that it’s too out there. Also, I’d like to think that the love I have poured into this application is worth something.

I don’t know about a switcher discount yet, but even if I did offer it, I can’t imagine it being anything more than the current $20 discount on the pre-order sales.

How do you combat software piracy?

I don’t really try too hard on that front. I think there are enough decent people in this world—especially in the Mac community—who will contribute to the development of a good product by paying for it. I’d rather spend my limited time helping those people rather than spend it on trying to keep out the people who won’t or can’t pay for it anyway.

How do you personally use The Hit List?

I have separate lists for my products into which I brainstorm ideas and file bugs. These tend to get quite large, so then I go through the long list and set priorities on each item. Then I decide on what to work on each day and file it into the Today list. Using the outline features, I always break things down to actionable items that take no more than 30 minutes to complete. This keeps me focused and productive throughout the day as completing each little task is quite satisfying. Putting things in contexts helps a lot as well. For example, the one I use often is @photoshop.

When it’s time to actually do the work, I’ll switch into card view and focus on just that task. I just charge through those cards without second guessing what I should be doing.

At the end of the day, I review what I did and archive the completed tasks.

I’m a musician with a problem. I collect gear. Software, hardware… it’s all gear and I need to have it. The Sweetwater catalog that takes an acre of rare endangered rainforest to print brings me both endless joy and financial ruin. Similarly,  I collect iphone apps related to music like state quarters. FourTrack is a must have iPhone app from Sonoma Wire Works. FourTrack’s smooth wifisync feature contains a cleverly placed add that lead me to RiffWorks. If I could sum up this app in a similie, I would say that Riffworks is like Reason for Rock and Roll. So plug in your Santana special edition PRS and lets see how crazy this train is.

Riffworks is not designed to look like your normal OS X application. Right from your first launch, you can tell that this app falls in line with the Line6 easy to use, easy to rock mentality. As such, you’re just not going to be using RiffWorks for mastering your next double platinum. RiffWorks is designed to give you the maximum amount of tools with the minimum amount of user effort. I’ll be working with RiffWorks Standard which retails for $129. You can take advantage of most RiffWorks features with their free app Riffworks T4. Both versions use the same setup and elements, but Standard comes with Amplitube Live, more drum tracks, ReWire, .wav export, and handles up to 32 bit sampling. Let’s take a look at the recording software interface:

You can see here in the layout that everything is done with a sweet looking analog user interface. Each section of the window represents the useful features of RiffWorks.

The top section of the Riffworks window contains your song control. Recording musical ideas in RiffWorks are sectioned off into riffs. So when you track a musical idea in this app, you’ll need to section off your song into intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc. riffs. This top section is where the organization of the riffs, control of master volume, and file menu type actions take place. Pro Music Software users will have to get used to the simplification of RiffWorks. The timeline is just not manageable. You put riffs in, you take them out, and that’s it. You don’t stack them, you don’t stretch or cut them. You get the point.

Your riff collection resides just below the master controls. RiffWorks now works seamlessly with the iPhone app FourTrack to automatically import tracks over wifisync. FourTrack doesn’t have a metronome feature so your imported songlayers won’t be able to work with the drummer feature. Once you’ve recorded riffs and placed them in the timeline, you can record the vocals as  a songlayer instead of a riff which is actually kind of confusing.When you click on a riff, and you’ll see the layers below in the Riff Recorder:

First, let me point out the coolest thing about RiffWorks. RiffLink allow users to collaborate on songs. You and your bandmates from five states can collaborate on songs, or you can open your riffs up to the RiffLink community for a little wikisong action. There’s a little yellow stickypad at the bottom left so you can tell your guitarist in Maine to lay off the reverb, or your bassist in Texas to stop sucking. I love this. I’ll never use the feature, but I love it.

Second coolest feature: Junt. I don’t know what that means so someone please enlighten me in the comments. Junt let’s you count to four into a mic or pick a note on your guitar four times to set the tempo. Your auto drummer kicks in and you can lay down 2 measures of rhythm guitar, wait 2 measures as your first riff loops, and then lay down a lead guitar track on top.

RiffWorks has an auto drummer feature with different styles ranging from AfroIslandGrooves to a drum track called WhenIDrumAround. By turning knobs marked intensity and variation, you can get your auto drummer to do crazy fills or just chill out. It’s a unique way to set up a drum track, but you may opt to use the rewire capabilities and create a more customizable drum track in Propellerhead’s Reason.

Finally, the input control at the bottom controls your signal input. This is where the free copy of Amplitube Live plugs in. You can apply effects to your instrument or vocal signal pre board, as well as change your audio settings. Pretty straightforward.

RiffWorks is a great way to put down musical ideas with the minimum amount of instruction. Throw in RiffLink, the online collaboration feature, and the awkwardly named Junt, and you’ve got a feature filled app that any songwriter can use. From first launch, musicians will be able to instantly create some cool stuff.

This app is really made to assist in song writing from start to finish, but in its simplicity, RiffWorks may lose out to even the basic Garageband users. Sure, RiffWorks is great about putting down your ideas, but it just doesn’t have the features necessary for quality music production. And that’s ok.

Seriously, Download RiffWorks T4 from Sonoma Wire Works. It’s free and it’s got great features. If you want more auto-drummers and other features, you can purchase RiffWorks Standard for $129 which includes a free copy of Amplitube 2 Live.

How did you get started programming for Macs and how did Cultured Code come about?

I started programming in 1981 on a Sinclair ZX80, which was a pretty amazing computer. The ZX80 was much smaller than even the Mac mini. Of course, it was not only smaller in physical size, its operating system fit in 4K! The computer landscape at that time was very different from what we have today, but it was extremely exciting and it was also obvious that this was the start of something new and big. I even sold software while still at high school in the form of computer code that people actually had to type in to use!

To me, the introduction of the first Macintosh computer in 1984 marked both the culmination as well as the end of this wild and crazy period of computing. Of course then came the PC which I found dull and uninspiring. I moved on and pursued another interest of mine: Mathematics. I studied Mathematics and subsequently became involved in teaching and doing research. It was only until much later when I realized that Apple had actually survived and was still producing computers in a much different spirit than the rest of the industry. But it was actually the announcement of Mac OS X that made me want to once again start creating software. The Mac was a small niche, but Mac OS X was finally something one could again be passionate about.

While still teaching at University, I began to learn Cocoa and prepared myself for leaving and creating a small software company called Cultured Code. This was the time when creating web pages using CSS began to become a feasible alternative. Oliver Marquetant joined me and we created our CSS debugging tool Xyle scope.

What made you develop Things in light of Omni Group already having OmniFocus, another GTD app?

My desire to create software that helps to get organized is actually an old one and goes back to my days at University. When we founded Cultured Code, we actually wanted to create a personal information manager. We called this the “Sea of Information” project. The CSS tool was supposed to be a side project to test the waters. However, it took a life of its own. From a business perspective, it never worked very well, but I got a lot of insight into creating and marketing software.

It was clear that we had to do something different in order to save, and even better, to grow the company. It was an obvious step to revive the “Sea of Information” project. Luckily I discovered David Allen’s book, which was a revelation to me. He seemed to have answers to questions I couldn’t even clearly formulate .

At the time when Omni announced their product, we had already spent a lot of work on our own project including a series of prototypes. But after Omni’s announcement, it became clear that task management would become a respectable product category on the Mac. I got even more enthusiastic and was able to attract Werner and Christian to start working with me. Werner is an amazing programmer with a strong intuition for every aspect of a software company, while Christian was one of the most talented graphic designers I had seen. It is really the combination of our talents and our desire to create something worthy of the Mac platform that made Things possible.

How does Things differer from OmniFocus and what makes it special?

Right from the beginning we wanted to create a tool that was easy to pick up yet powerful. It is no exaggeration, with Things it is possible to manage thousands of to-dos, but Things is also the application with the most modest learning curve.

There are so many methods of becoming more organized, but most of them require quite an amount of mental energy. With Things we wanted to create a product where users only need to spend the least possible amount of energy to get organized. This way you become more productive with what you actually want to do. We were in fact so focused on this mission that we even deliberately dropped features we now learned we shouldn’t have .

But what is really very interesting is that users who were using other products before are now telling us that they are getting more stuff done using Things. This is a great testimonial to the fact that with task management it is vital to not just to provide features, but to work very carefully on how you implement them. Even little design decisions can go a long way in making users more productive.

How do you justify the price of Things (or any app)?

There are two sides to this question: the developer and the user point of view. Luckily both of them are rather compatible in our case .

From a developer point of view it is important to be able to have a strong development and support team. This means that selling a product at too low a price will eventually kill it. Some people who do not have experience with advanced task management, view task management apps as simple to-do lists. But there is much more involved in helping people to get more things done. In fact, the problem space of successful task management is quite involved. Very small software shops are simply not able to do this right. We have seen this a couple of times in the past, where products slowly died because the developer was no longer able to keep up with the various challenges involved. During the past six month we have spent a large amount of time and energy to make Cultured Code stronger as a company, for example by hiring some very talented and experienced programmers. Our users can look forward to us making a lot of improvements available in 2009.

Users on the other hand will ask themselves, whether a product is worth its price? Now imagine working with an application that really makes you more productive. If such an application saves you a few minutes each day, or helps you getting more things done, how much is that worth? I think the precise answer to this question really depends on your work. But with Things we are in the lucky position where its price is much lower than the value it represents to a user.

How do you combat software piracy?

Seriously fighting software piracy requires quite an amount of resources. We rather spend those resources at making Things better. But when they see a useful product at a fair price, the vast majority of users simply want to do the right thing and help continue an application’s development and support.

How do you personally use Things?

Things is always open on my Mac. I manage everything I need to do with it, no matter whether it is related to work or not.

What’s next from Cultured Code?

As I said, task management constitues a large problem space. Expect us to stay ambitious. But also expect the unexpected as we are going to do things differently .

The user interface of The Hit List reflects that of yellow ruled notebook paper with various tabs allowing you to access different to-do lists. It also features a navigational bar on the left hand side of the window very much like other GTD (Getting Things Done) apps. This bar allows you to set up some data structure through various folders, smart folders, and lists. Unlike typical GTD apps, The Hit List’s method of doing things is much different.

Most GTD applications force you do get into the program and with a series of clicks enter your tasks. The Hit List does this in a different and much easier fashion. Instead of forcing the user to spend extra time clicking around adding tags, priorities and et cetra, it allows you to do all the same without your fingers leaving the keyboard. All you need to do is hit ‘return’ when within a list to add a task, once the task is entered you can insert a tag by placing a ‘/’ in front of the tag name or a context by replacing the slash with ‘@’. Personally, I have found this method of adding tasks much easier, allowing me to spend more time on the tasks at hand, although if you are a GUI person this could be a problem.

Aside from The Hit List’s keyboard centric nature, it also allows you to time how long it takes you to complete a task and then log the time as part of the tasks data. Additionally, whenever you complete a task The Hit List plays a noise, which as corny as it may sound, is surprisingly satisfying.

The only thing that worries me about this application is its lack of an iPhone companion application. In the preferences pane of the application, however, they state, “Please rest assured that we’re already working on the iPhone version of The Hit List that will sync with the desktop version”.

The Hit List is currently in beta but is available for pre-order at a discounted rate of $49.95 via the purchase menu in The Hit List. Once the application leaves beta, the price will jump to $69.95. Stay tuned for an interview with the developer. If you have any questions to ask, please post them in the comments.

For those of you who don’t know about CSS, I will quickly explain it. A while ago, all Web programmers had to program all of their styles (fonts, colors, positioning) in HTML, which was really annoying. So, CSS was created to address this problem. Instead of having to individually add styles, you create styles that you can apply to certain parts of your Web page, or even the whole thing. It gets better with every update, which is a reason that the quality of Websites has gone up over time.

When you first download Xyle scope, it has a lot of bookmarks built-in. These are Websites that the guys at Cultured Code think has interesting CSS. The most interesting of these (in the Favorites folder) is called CSS Zen Garden. As said at their Website, their Website is “a demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.” You can select a style sheet from the sidebar of the Website, and it will load with that sheet. This allows you to see what the masters of CSS do.

Once you have loaded a Web page in Xyle scope, you will see three panes it its sidebar: the Hierarchical View, HTML Pane and Cascade view. The Hierarchical View shows you the HTML document as a hierarchy of elements. You can use your arrow keys or your mouse to navigate through these. When you select any item, you will see that the HTML Pane changes. The HTML Pane also shows you a hierarchy of elements, but it goes a little further in showing you the properties inside those tags. Like, for doing a link, you write, “a href=…” In the Hierarchical View, you would just see an ‘a’, but in the HTML view, you see the ‘a’, the ‘href’ and even the link. It is like a simplified version of a real HTML document. The Cascade allows you to see the CSS for the selected element in either the HTML Pane of the Hierarchical View.

Xyle scope also gives you another way to select elements: through the preview itself. Just click on the toolbar item next to the [Link] item, and you can just click somewhere in the preview to select an element. Sometimes it can be hard for beginners to understand things like ‘li’ and ‘ul’, and this really addresses that problem. Instead of having to know what ‘li’ means, you just have to click on the element you want to select. This can even help you learn what certain tags mean.

Xyle scope has a nice feature called Selector matching. To the right of the Cascade pane (if you pull it out from the right side of the window), there is another pane. If you click on a selector like ‘img’, this pane will show you all of the HTML element that will be effected by a change to the selector. This is a really nice tool, so I do not see why it is hidden by default.

Xyle scope also allows you to edit the CSS on Web pages. It gives you two ways to do it: typing in new values, or having Xyle scope helping you a little bit. If you know CSS, you may just want to type in new values in the Cascade view. If you’re not so familiar with it, you will want to do it the other way. In the Cascade view, just click on a property (like margin), and Xyle scope will present you with a window that gives you a place for a name and a value. So, you can also use this to add new properties. The reason this is good for people who don’t know much CSS is because it gives you lists of possible Names and Values. But of course, you can also add your own. Xyle scope also allows you to edit the CSS and HTML of Web pages in BBEdit, TextMate or TextEdit. However, the Web page you are editing must be a file on your hard drive. Xyle scope’s built-in CSS editor is not that great (which is why you would want to use Xyle scope to preview, and something like BBEdit to edit), but that is not really its purpose.

Cultured Code’s Xyle scope retails for $19.95 and you can download a free trial from their site. It is a wonderful tool for anyone learning CSS, or anyone who just wants to see how others do CSS, wishing to improve their own. It is not, however, a CSS editor and should not be compared to one. For actual editing purposes, it is mainly only used to do the finishing touches of Web pages.

Evernote is a multi-platform note application sent to us from the productivity gods. The benefit of Evernote is that one can access and upload notes from a Mac, a PC, a  Windows Mobile or iPhone, and anything with a web browser. Evernote can even recognize handwritten or printe text from photos and scanned notes, making them searchable. This functionality will aid me significantly in my two week quest to bring my document clutter to more machines.

It should be “noted” that at present, Evernote only handles the following imported file types: GIF, JPG, PNG, WAV, MP3, PDF. This doesn’t allow Evernote to handle all documents, but there is hope. Evernote Support’s public notebook suggests more file type support for arbitrary file attachments for Premium accounts by the end of this year. Thus, I will be adding a premium account to my Christmas wishlist for this year.

My web browser piles the majority of files into my document drop box. Step one is to channel the majority of this pile into Evernote.

For starters, add the Evernote webclipper to your browser bookmark bar or install the firefox extension and use it frequently.

Next, if you use Firefox, open up your preferences window and click on the Applications tab. Search for supported file types and select the “Use Evernote” option.

Finally, instead of using the nifty Save to PDF option in your print window, why not use the Save PDF to Evernote option and save a step?

These three tips are just the beginning of using Evernote to your synchronization advantage. I’d love to read some comments on unleashing the potential of this note storage monster.

Evernote provides a free maximum montly upload of 40mb with no storage limit as well as free clients for desktop, web browser, and smartphones.  You can upgrade to a 500mb maximum monthly upload for either $5 per month or $45 for the year.

Mail Act-On works the same way as MailTags, once you install it, there will be a new preference pane in Mail.app. In the General tab of this pane, you can specify if the window is locked (it won’t disappear), and fading of the Result window. The “menus” tab lets you choose keyboard shortcuts for Mail Act-On’s basic functionality. However, if you own a laptop or new Apple keyboard, these shortcuts are very annoying because you must hit the Function key along with the F Key. Right now, there is a bug that does not allow modifier keys for these shortcuts, but I have been assured that it will be fixed soon. While you can turn off the need to hit the function key, it also turns off all of the special actions associated with the keys like Brightness and iTunes controls. To do this, go to System Preferences>Keyboard & Mouse>Keyboard and select the “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.”

Mail Act-On also adds some new Rules tabs. If you go to the Rules pane of Mail.app’s preferences you will see that there are now three tabs. The Inbox Rules tab is just like Mail.app’s regular Rules. The “Outbox Rules” tab allows you to make rules apply to messages being sent and the “Keystroke Rules” tab is where Mail-Act-On’s power is really seen. Here you can specify rules that can be applied to messages by just one keystroke. You will usually want the “If” part of the rule to be “Any Message” because the point of this rule is to apply it to every message selected when you invoke the rule. There is also a new field in this type of rule called the “Act-On Key”. When you want to apply a certain “Keystroke Rule” you select some messages and hit Control-[Act-On Key for the rule]. This makes it simpler than ever to apply dozens of rules to messages after they have been received.

Mail Act-On does not require you to have any rules set up to use it; you can just use it as a tool to perform many actions on multiple messages. To invoke Mail Act-On, just hit the function key you set up for Mail Act-On (unless you changed it, F1). You will see a HUD-like window popup with actions that can be done to your selected messages. If you have MailTags installed, you will not only see the “Apply Rules”, “Move”, “Copy” and “Open Folder” actions, but you will also see two more: “Add Keyword” and “Set Project.” You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through these or just use your mouse. To lock this window manually, just hit F1 (or Function-F1) again. Then, even after you have performed an action of some messages, the Mail Act-On window will still be there. As you remember, there were also options for setting up shortcuts for each action in the Act-On window in Mail Act-On’s preferences. If you hit one of these key combinations, instead of going straight to actions part of the Act-On window, it will take you to the part of the window that corresponds with the keystroke. Although this window makes it amazingly easy to apply rules of all sorts, if Mail.app loses focus and then gains it again, the Act-On window disappears. It is a nice feature that it is not there when Mail.app doesn’t have focus, but it would be better if it appeared again.

indev’s Mail Act-On retails for $19.95 (an introductory price) and you can download a free 21-day trial from their site. If you are an avid user of Quicksilver, or even if you just want to speed up your Email system, you will love Mail Act-On.

The first thing that struck me about Clips is its beautiful interface. There are two main windows that you will be using, and both of them look great! The first one is called the Organizer. It has a CoverFlow view of all your clippings. It is exactly like the CoverFlow in the Finder; it has a list view on the bottom and the CoverFlow on the top. It has columns for date, application clipped from, and name. If you are running a slower computer (with Intel integrated GPU and a low amount of RAM), this is going to be the main window that you will be using. If you have a newer or faster computer, or if you’d rather not use the organizer, you’ll probably want to be using the Board.

The Board definitely fits its name; it looks a lot like the Dashboard. When you enter it, your screen darkens, and you will see a lot of floating rectangles. These rectangles are clippings. If you hover over one of them, it will pop out at you so you can read it. There are three views for the board: Circle View, Column View, and Messy View. In Circle View, all of your clippings will form a nice circle; the more clippings, the more cluttered it may look. In Column View, your clippings are displayed in as many columns as can fit on your screen. And in Messy View, clippings can be moved by you, and are basically just randomly spread out. If you have a lot of clippings, you are going to want to use Messy View.

Whichever window you use, you get a sidebar. In this sidebar, you can choose to only view clippings from certain apps, spaces, or clipboards. The built-in application sorting is great. I have never seen another clipboard manager that does this. It makes it so simple to find a clipping that you know you made in application X. The spaces support is also really fun. I have two spaces: one for work, and one for anything else. So, if I know that I copied something while I was working, I can just select that space in the sidebar. Now, clipboards — this really is where most of my refining comes from. You can create a smart clipboard that only looks for things with a certain name, application, space, creation date, and many more fields. Instead of having to constantly move things to a clipboard that you have created, they will be moved there as they are created if they fit the criteria of the smart clipboard. To create one (you have to be in the organizer) you just click on the wheel button in the lower-left-hand-corner. You will then be prompted with a dialogue that looks like any other smart folder creator. Then just enter the information, and it is completely set up! It’s that simple!

The best feature of clips is a feature that you never have to configure; it is already configured for you when you first use it. It is the clipboard monitoring. This monitors everything that you copy using Apple’s built-in clipboard, and automatically adds it to Clips’ library. It is setup to only have 15 monitored clippings in your library at one time, but you can change that by going to Clips,Preferences,General and changing the slider in the middle of the window. If you don’t want Clips to do any monitoring, just uncheck the checkbox labeled “Automatically create Clips from system clipboard.”

The feature that really pulls Clips ahead of the pack of clipboard managers is its abbreviations support. Abbreviations are exactly what they sound like: abbreviations. This brings features of an app like TextExpander or Typinator into a clipboard manager! To create a new abbreviation (in the organizer) right-click on a clipping and select “Assign Abbreviation.” Then, just type in the abbreviation that you want for that clipping and it’s set! It works system-wide!

Clips is one of those apps that tries to have itself in both of your spaces, but it does not work properly. Once the organizer is shown in a certain space, you can see it in both spaces, but when you try to select it in the other space (the one it was not created in), it won’t select! This can get extremely frustrating, but not enough so that it makes the experience of Clips bad; it is just a little flawed.

Clips by Conceited Software. is the prettiest and most feature-full clipboard manager I have seen in a while. It retails for $34.99 and you can pick up a trial from their site. The built-in abbreviations support more than compensates for its high price; compare the price to that of TextExpander, which only has abbreviations. I highly suggest that you try it, and tell us how you think it compares to other clipboard managers.

The first thing you will notice about NoteBook is how much it actually looks like a notebook. It has the fringes and everything! It makes it seem much more like taking notes than when done in Pages.

When you first open NoteBook you will be prompted with a dialogue that lets you create a new notebook from a starting point. You will notice that there are many options, so NoteBook is not really just for notes; it can be for anything that involves writing! The automatically selected option is Take Notes, which is what most people use it for. You can also choose to learn how to use NoteBook by just clicking Learn to Use NoteBook in a Few Easy Steps. If you uncheck the Show at start-up checkbox, you will never see this dialogue unless you go to File>New from Starting Point…

Two of the best new features in NoteBook 3.0 are Sticky Notes and Sticky Flags. These provide an easy way to jot down a little something that doesn’t have anything to do with the notes you’re taking. For example, you could make a sticky note that says “Remember to look up this person” if you are taking history notes. Then when you’re done with that Sticky Note, you just drag it off the notebook. Sticky Flags are a little bit different. With a Sticky Flag, you add a line of text to it, and put it somewhere, kind of like a marker. Sticky Flags come in a few flavors: plain old Sticky Flags, Fax Flags, Send Flags, Important Flags, Note Flags, and Urgent Flags. For all but the first kind, Notebook will put its type (e.g. Note) on the right side, and you can edit the text on the left side. With both Sticky Notes and Flags, you can drag them halfway out of the notebook to mark a certain page, and then whenever you want to get to that page, you just click on the part that’s sticking out.

Another great feature added in NoteBook 3.0 is tablet support. If you are someone like me who likes using their tablet to write on their computer, then you will love this feature. First, you should probably add Ink to your toolbar by going to View>Customize Toolbar… and adding Ink to the toolbar. Once you have done this, you can go to drawing mode (there will be a little doodle in the Ink toolbar item) or text recognition mode (there will be an “a” in the Ink toolbar item). To get to drawing mode, click once, and to get to text recognition mode, click twice. In drawing mode, you can just draw little doodles and diagrams. If you go into text recognition mode, you will want to write only text. Once you have written some text, NoteBook will use its text recognition algorithm to figure out what you wrote. It (what NoteBook thinks you wrote) will then appear right on top of the written text. If a word does not say what your wrote, then just click on it, and you will get a pulldown with other possible words. In this pulldown, you can also edit the text (what it thought you wrote), or just delete the recognition (in case you were drawing a doodle when in text recognition mode). I want to point out that this only works with tablets; you cannot just use your mouse.

One simple but extremely useful new feature in NoteBook 3.0 is the ability to rip out a page from your notebook. To rip out a page, just option-click a page in a divider page, and that page will be put in a new window. While you still have that page separately open, you cannot get to it within your notebook; you have to use the newly appeared window. Once you want the page to go back into the notebook, you just close the window, and everything will go back to normal. This can be very useful if you took notes on one page, and want to write a summary about them on another page.

These are just some of the amazing new features added in NoteBook 3.0. Here is a list of all of the new features. NoteBook 3.0 retails for $49.95 for a regular license and $29.95 for an academic license. Until October 31, you can upgrade from NoteBook 2.0 for only $19.95, and then it will go back to its normal price of $29.95. You can also download a trial from the same site. NoteBook 3.0 is an amazing update to an already amazing app, making it my favorite academic tool, and I hope it will become yours too.

Bento is a simpler and more Mac-like version of the FileMaker software. It works in the same way, so it’s not that big of a switch from FileMaker Pro. However, as I said, it’s simpler; it does not have all the features of FileMaker Pro, so if you need some of FileMaker Pro’s more advanced features, or if you are using databases professionally, I suggest you stick with FileMaker Pro.

When you first open Bento there will already be four databases in your Source List. These databases are Address Book, iCal Events, iCal Tasks, and Projects. The first one automatically syncs with Address Book, and the second and third automatically sync with iCal, so you never need to add a new item when you add a new task, event, or person. You may ask, “Why do I need a database for these things when they are already stored in their own applications?” Well, with Bento, you can add custom fields for things like Nickname, Middle Name, or anything you want to contacts! Or you can add things like URLs and pictures to iCal Events. If you want more options for these things, then you will just love these pre-made databases.

One of the most interesting features of Bento is its templates. When you go to File>New Library, or click the [+] in the lower left-hand corner, you will be prompted with a Template dialogue. This is where you can choose a pre-made template. It has ones for projects, contacts, to-dos, and many other common databases. In that same dialogue, you can also enter a name for your database. They have enough templates to get you started, but when you really get into Bento, you will probably just want to use the Blank template as a starting point.

Once you have created a database, you will probably want to add some custom fields. In the Fields panel, there will be many common fields that you can drag onto your database, or you can create your own! Just hit the [+] in the lower right-hand corner and you will be prompted with a dialogue. You first have to choose a field type, such as Text. Then you have to add a name, and options based on what you choose. Once you have chosen all that information, just just click Create, and the field will appear in the Field list. All you have to do is drag it onto your form where you want it to be, and you’re off!

For each database, you have things called Forms. For instance, if you have a database for issue tracking, you can have one form for basic information, and then another for the details. It will keep your database clean and uncluttered. When you create a blank database (or use most other templates) there will be only one form. You can rename it by right-clicking on the top bar and clicking Rename <the current name of the form>. You will then be prompted with a dialogue where you choose a new name for the form. To edit the contents of a form, select it in the top bar, and then click the hammer and wrench toolbar icon. You can also right-click on the form, and click Customize Form. To add a new form, just click on the (+) in the top bar and you will be prompted with a dialogue where you choose a name for it. When I first learned about forms, they sounded complicated, but once you get used to them, you will find that they are very useful.

FileMaker’s Bento retails for only $49 for a single license or $99 for a 5-license family pack. You can pick up a free 30-day trial from their site. It is a great tool for making simple databases, and even some advanced ones. I suggest you download it out and check out all the ways in which you can use it. You may be surprised how useful it can be; I know I was.

Check out the video for a tip on how to remove volumes from your desktop as well as access them using Volumizer.

By using Volumizer, you can easily access your volumes from the menubar, dock, or both. Using the Finder preference window to remove volumes from the desktop may not be your bag. Either way, Volumizer makes accessing your drives instant, even with loads of windows in between you and the desktop. Hopefully, this may be something that works for you and your workflow.  You can pick up your free copy of Volumizer from Greg Weston of Bastion Products.

Code Collector Pro is basically a place to put long snippets of code that you don’t want to have to remember. I have found that it is best to put anything and everything that you could possible need, because you never know when you will need it.

If you like everything to be organized then Code Collector Pro has a great feature for you: smart groups (and regular ones too). With its smart groups, you can organize snippets by name, tags, description, language, license, and source. So, you can make one folder for Objective-C, one for HTML, etc. This feature would be even better, though, if you could have groups within groups.

As I mentioned above, you can give snippets tags. These are not only useful when sorting, but also when searching. Everything that is associated with a snippet (e.g., name, description, tags) can be searched for. So, if you have a huge library of thousands of snippets, searching will sometimes be the easiest way to find things. However, if you search in a group (or smart group), it will search throughout the whole library, and not just the group, even though the group is still highlighted in the sidebar.

My favorite feature (by far) is the ability to just drag a snippet into any Cocoa application, and it will put the code from that snippet where you dragged it! Although it may seem like a useless feature, because you can just copy and paste, it saves you lots of time, and is just simpler. When you need to use hundreds of snippets, you will see how much time you save.

Another thing that Code Collector Pro has that you will not find in something like TextExpander is bundles. If you are familiar to TextMate, then you will know what these are. Bundles are used by Code Collector Pro to highlight code based on the type of object something is. Like in Objective-C, variables will be highlighted in different colors than id’s. You can even use bundles made for TextMate! And if you don’t use TextMate, Code Collector Pro has built in bundles for common languages. It would be nice if they updated their Objective-C bundle to support the new Objective-C 2.0, though.

The last feature I will tell you about is Code Collector.net. Code Collector.net is a way to share snippets with people anywhere. To turn on syncing with Code Collector.net, just go to Preferences->Sharing and click Get an Account. Once you have your account, just put your information into the fields and your off!. The only problems you will find are, when browsing Code Collector.net, there are a lot of the exact same snippets because some people never delete the example ones.

Code Collector Pro, by M Cubed Software, retails for about $29, and you can pick up a free trial as well. I would say that Code Collector Pro is for moderate to advanced programmers, but some beginners may find it helpful, too. It has saved me a lot of time, and I hope that it will do the same for you.

The main feature of Reference Tracker (as you would expect) is keeping track of references/sources. To add a new reference to the current document, you just click New Reference, and a drop down will appear with all the choices for the type of reference. Once the reference is added, it will appear in the table view at the top of the window. In the bottom of the window lies the pane where you add information for the reference. The fields will change based on what kind of reference it is, because different references require different fields.

One of my favorite (and most useful) features is the cited text support. In the bottom left corner of the information pane is a large text field labeled Cited Text. This is where you will want to put all of the text that you could possibly use in your paper. The more the better, because you never know when you’re going to forget that book at school! Although this feature may not seem that exciting or new, it is very useful, because then that text is right there along with the reference.

Another very cool and useful feature (if you like notes) is sticky notes support. In a specific reference, you can add a number sticky notes. These can be helpful for paraphrasing the text right in Reference Tracker, or just for taking notes. Either way, it keeps these notes in the same exact document as the references, so you can always find them! My favorite part is the ability to drag them around.

I know I have said that a lot of the features above are very useful, but there is one that is the most useful for putting together your paper — exporting. Once you have completed all your references for your paper, instead of having to rewrite all of them, you can just export them! Just go to File-Export, and choose a location! Right now, the exporting feature does not support Pages documents, but I hear he is working on it. For now, you can just export to an RTF and then copy and paste into Pages.

The feature that goes right along with exporting is importing. Again, this does not support Pages documents yet, but I hear it will. To import, you just go to File-Import. You can either import from a formatted reference list or a BIBText or RIS file. Right now Reference Tracker does not support MLA formatted references, so if you use them, for now, you’re out of luck. Reference Tracker will spit out a list at you that has all the found references, and you can choose to delete certain ones and edit the fields of others. Once you have gone through the list, you just click Accept All & Import, and you’re off!

Reference Tracker, by Malkinware retails for $44.95, but you can pick it up for just $29.95 until September 30th. Compared to other Mac reference trackers, it is pretty cheap, but still has a ways to go feature-wise to be worth $44.95. You should try it out (you can download it from the same site) to see if it fits your needs. If it does, I doubt you will want to go out and buy a $100 reference tracker that has way more features than you need. And remember, this is a 1.0 piece of software; it will only get better!

Fantasktik, from Dockland Software, is a thin, slightly transparent taskbar that resides under the menu bar or at the bottom of the screen. It displays the icon of each open application with a small number on each one; this is the number of open windows for that application. Next to the icon are small bubbles for each open window. You can hide or expand the windows by double clicking the icon of the application. If you hover over a window in Fantasktik, a quick preview appears. These quick previews are great for easily identifying the window you need to switch to. Also, you can click and drag to scroll through the open windows. Each side of the taskbar has a small circular icon. Clicking this hide the whole taskbar, and clicking it again reveals the taskbar.

Fantasktik is great for window switching. It has a simple interface and great features like quick preview. Still, it comes with a few problems: The taskbar covers up most applications if they are at the top of the screen. Also, if you use Spaces, Fantasktik only shows up in one space. But these issues should be fixed in coming updates, according to the developer.

Fantasktik is only available for Mac OS X 10.5. It currently costs $9.99, but the price will rise to $14.99 after September 30. You can download a 15-day trial and purchase the application from Dockland Software.

MailSteward is really one of those applications where you set it, and then forget it. Just go to the settings window and choose how you want MailSteward to work. First, you want to choose what to archive. You can do this two ways: by email accounts and by mailboxes. I suggest you do it by email accounts just to make sure you get everything archived. Once you have chosen that, you just have to click a few checkboxes, and setup a schedule.

One of the most powerful features of MailSteward is its search. I know, you may be saying, “It’s just a search…”, but that is wrong. It is more than just a search. It is more like a Google Advanced Search. You can choose dates to search through, search text for each individual field and whether to only include emails with attachments. You can even search by tags! So, just along the lines of searching, MailSteward is already more powerful than Mail.app. To use this powerful search, just go to the Search window in MailSteward.

Then there is the Browse window — this is where you will set up things like tags. To add a tag to a message, (first make sure you’re in the browse window) just click the Tag toolbar icon. The first time you tag an email you will need to enter a category, but once you have all the categories created, you will just need to choose one from the pulldown menu. Then, you actually enter the tags, or Keywords.

Another notable feature in this window is the Export toolbar icon. Unlike Mail.app’s exporting ‘features’ (or lack thereof), you can actually export to many formats! These include: mbox file, SQL file, MailSteward Database file and plain text. MailSteward does not lock you in because you can export to many commonly used formats. So, do not be worried at all about compatibility. And if you ever need to export your library for any other reason, MailSteward’s got your back.

MailSteward retails for $49.95, and you can download a demo version that can be used with up to 3,000 emails. So, yes, MailSteward is a little pricey, but is also pricey to loose valuable information. So, I suggest that you at least give it a try to see if it is right for you.

Today, I have put together a list of 4 little applications that will help to kill your productivity (like you even need help with that, right?). They have no productive value, but definitely can get addicting, or are great when you have a little time to kill.

The first application that I want to bring to your attention is BallDroppings. I first learned about this game a while ago from a post on MacUser. Basically, little white balls drop from the top of your screen (you can alter the place where they drop from) and you draw lines that the balls bounce off of. The balls make a noise when they hit a line.

You can alter a bunch of variables in the game, like air friction, gravity, pitch of the ball bounce, and also how fast they come out of the feeder. I’ve wasted many hours playing around in this game, and I expect there are many more to come. BallDroppings is (of course) freeware, and you can download it here.

The next application, Bullet, is one of those applications you break out when you are really bored. At its core, it is an application that takes over your mouse, and makes bullet holes wherever you click. You can set whether to fade the bullets out after each shot, overlay a bulls-eye on your screen, and it even has auto-fire!

Bullet is an application that gets old fast, but whenever you just get that “put holes in my desktop feeling,” Bullet is there to help. It is also good when you want to confuse your coworkers and family by leaving it running on their computer. The developers no longer seem to have Bullet listed on their site, but you can download it from the Mac Softpedia.

iStache is an application for everyone. 17 years old and still no stubble? Ever wonder what your grandmother would look with a full beard? With iStache, you no longer have to wonder. Once you have a picture you want to “Stache-ify,” you just need to select a style and get staching! A slider lets you choose the size of your stache or beard, and a drop-down menu lets you choose from 12 styles (everything from the “Hitler,” to the “English Gentleman.”

The last application, Enigma Simulator, really impressed me. It is well polished, and quite neat once you learn the history behind it. Enigma Simulator is a computer simulated Enigma Machine, which is a machine that Nazi-Germany used back during WWI and WWII to encrypt and decrypt messages.

To use the Enigma Simulator, You first have to select your settings. In the screenshot, I set the three letters at the top of the screen to “M-A-C.” Holding down Command-3 opens the Schreibmax, which keeps track of the keys you press. I typed “macapper” which outputted our encrypted text, “PMPDUHME.” After resetting the dials back to “M-A-C,” I typed “PMPDUHME,” which then decrypted back to “MACAPPER.”

Enigma Simulator is complete with sound effects, and German text. To learn more about the Enigma Machine, check out the wikipedia article. You can download Enigma Simulator from Terry Long’s website, which also has an FAQ about this application, and examples.

That about does it for this weeks edition of Freeware Friday, if all goes well, another roundup of freeware apps should be posted next Friday. If you don’t think you can wait until next week for your freeware fix, make sure you take a look at “The Great Mac OS Freeware List.”

Mellel greets you with an interface that is, shall we say, familiar. The developers have decided to adopt Word’s interesting format of having your document in one window and a tool panel separately in another window, which includes pretty much everything you’d want to do to your document (from Office for Mac). Similar to Word, the tool panel is divided into helpful tabs which contain the functions related to its title. For example, the “Alignment and Spacing” tab will give you access to controls for aligning your text and defining the spacing of your paragraphs and between lines of text.

The tool panel is functional, if somewhat perplexing because of its separate window existence. While I found it to be very convenient to have every major operation available from a single window, I question the need to actually separate it into the “floating” dialogue that Mellel provides. I had the same misgiving about Office for Mac’s version of Word, and I’m worried to see that other developers are adopting this particular design choice, even though some may prefer it to the integrated ribbon bar found in the latest version of Word’s Windows counterpart.

Perhaps for the sake of an uncluttered page window interface, Mellel does not offer the typical New, Open, Print, and Save buttons that most other word processors provide as part of their main toolbar. These options are still accessible from the File menu, of course, and I didn’t really miss having the extra buttons. In fact, the only things that you will find on the page window of Mellel is a zoom control, a table generation button, a central window providing information on the text style, and buttons for Left, Right, Center, and Justified text alignment.

The interface similarities between Mellel and Word do not extend as far as the program’s skin, though, which is outfitted in a drab, gunmetal-gray that may be a little bit unfavorable for users who are not fond of having a distinctly military aesthetic about their writing environments.

The way Mellel’s website talks about it, you’d think that it was what God used to write the ten commandments or something. Not only does RedleX give a “Competitive Comparison” chart, which I’ll get to in a moment, but they also have a page with the “Top Ten Reasons to Switch to Mellel,” which begins, modestly, with “Mellel is the best word processor for Mac OSX.” There is a fine line between arrogance and ambition, and Mellel treads on it with gusto.

Some of the items on the Top Ten list are strong arguments, such as the claim that Mellel will not crash, even under the strain of extremely long documents (which it was apparently designed to handle efficiently). I myself tested it with some challenging documents (200+ page theatrical scripts with storyboard images, novel manuscripts, etc.) and did not manage to crash it or even significantly slow it down, which was impressive. It also provides an interesting “secondary font” option which allows users to mix languages in the text fluently, with full support for OpenType language options.

Other items are not as convincing. Saying that Mellel can deal with footnotes and endnotes is not exactly an innovative feature revelation, and the fact that they’ve required no less than 16 “major updates” in just three years is hardly a selling point. Nevertheless, Mellel’s got some great things going for it, which their extensive comparison chart helps to illustrate.

The chart, as mentioned above, is part of Mellel’s loud-mouthed advertising and provides an in-depth comparison between Mellel, Word, Open Office, and NisusWriter Express. Without going into unnecessary detail, the chart highlights some significant positive attributes, including an extremely fast launch time, resource-efficient operation, and a good array of features and file-type compatibilities. On the other hand, the lack of important features like password-protection, spellcheck exclusions and multiple language support, different page sizes in one document, intelligent tables, and a number of graphics limitations is difficult to ignore.

Add to that the fact that the chart was created using results from last-generation versions of the competing software and you may start to question the credibility of its data, which obviously favors Mellel. RedleX graciously admits to this though, saying about the chart: “What is it good for? Not much, except for getting a general impression.”

Despite its shortcomings, Mellel truly is an ambitious and competent word processor, and its nimble operation and spartan interface may appeal to those looking for an efficient writing environment with bells and whistles that are present without being distracting. Mellel is available from RedleX for $49.00 for a standard license, $64.00 for a boxed edition (including shipping charges), or $35.00 for an educational license. Any purchase comes with 2 years of free updates, free email support, and some tutorials and guides.

I enjoyed my experience with Mellel, but I can’t say I was thrilled enough to consider switching to it as my primary word processor. Have your own Mellel experiences to share? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!