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I’ve been curious about App.net since it’s inception. When it was announced it made quite the splash!

Ok So What Is It?

For those who don’t know, App.net is an alternative to Twitter (a service that’s made some questionable changes of late), that’s subscription-based, ad-free and, up until now, somewhat of a “gated” community.

The subscription format, while keeping them afloat, also crippled the much-needed adoption that the service needed to continue (speculation of course, but at the end of the day you need people to, you know, actually use your service).  Well, that all changed today when they added the long-awaited “free tier” to their account offerings.

But I Like Twitter. Are there many differences between the two services?

Thankfully, to the average Twitter user, no.  After all, to compete with Twitter you wouldn’t want to reinvent the wheel and luckily they don’t. So don’t worry, the usual ingredients are here: posts (like tweets, only with a 256 character limit), replies, favoriting, reposts (identical to retweets), the developers/API’s aren’t beholden to anyone and there are no limits to development on their platform.  Also, and this pretty important: they will never sell your personal data, content, feed, interests, clicks, or anything else to advertisers.

They also have a veritable army of apps for phones, tablets and pretty much every desktop OS out there.

Ok, so if I get an account, what do I get?

The free account gets you the following:

• Free tier accounts can follow a maximum of 40 users
• Free tier accounts have 500 MB of available file storage
• Free tier accounts can upload a file with a maximum size of 10 MB

Yes, it's limited, but for a lot of people (myself included) this all they will ever want out of the service at first. Let me kick the tires a little, give it a test drive and if the service is worth the time and I need the premium options being sold, of course I'll subscribe. But I am glad I don't have to, just to simply get through the door.

So I know they took a good bit to get this point, but as far as I can tell, the wait was worth it.  I’ll give a follow-up to this post after I’ve used the service for a few weeks, but I can already tell you this now, if they can get the buy in?  Just from the very brief usage, I can tell that Twitter will have a viable competitor on its hands.  

And really, at the end of the day? If all else fails, having a good competitor might make Twitter that much better. Everyone wins when these news service rise and compete.

All right I am IN! Where do I get a free account?!

As of today you can only get a free account via and invite from an existing subscribed user. I personally got mine by logging into Twitter (oh the irony) and searching for “app.net”.  That brought up a TON of people offering invites!  

So go get ‘em folks! Check out the service and find out what all the hubbub is about!

"This mosaic contains all the pictures of all the cars who drove me from Oslo to Beirut 112 cars, trucks and scooters in total. It’s been an incredibly exciting and rewarding adventure. Thank you so much everyone who picked me up, hosted me, guided me and gave me a wonderful life lesson."

~Photographic diary of Sébastian Dahl.  (@sebastiaen) 24-year-old photographer who recently hitchhiked 10,000km to get from Oslo (Norway) to Beirut (Lebanon).

I stumbled on this last week and felt compelled to share/spread the word. These pics (as well as many others) are all linked to photographer Sébastian Dahl's site (linked above if you missed it).  Definitely have a look if you want to get bitten by the travel bug again (or for the very first time).  Really, really, beautiful pics, stories and observations await you there.

UPDATE 01/22/2015: Hey guys, over the last year or so I’ve had comments (below) on this post where people have had issues with rotating their videos and saving them afterwards. There are many video formats out there that can easily play on a Mac, but may not play nicely with QuickTime. In my case, my video file was already QuickTime compatible (.mp4), so opening, modifying, and saving the file was easily achieved. If you are using any other format, QuickTime will try to either convert before it opens it, or simply not open it at all. If it converts, there is always a chance of file corruption (though I’ve personally never run into that).

Lastly, this isn’t a QuickTime support site. I will vouch for the steps below, as they work perfectly for me even today. But if they don’t work for you, there isn’t a whole lot I can do to make that situation better for you. You’d be better off hitting up Apple’s support forums.

Now, on to the original post!

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Hey guys just wanted to post this quick tutorial because, quite frankly, after years of using Mac’s OSX, I still find simple, yet powerful ways to handle those odd technological problems I sometimes run into.

The Problem:

I was at a really wonderful Mardi Gras Celebration in downtown Durham this week and while I was there, I shot some video of the celebration. Well, there was so much going there that I absent-mindedly botched the orientation of the video, shooting initially in portrait and then 2 seconds later, rotating my iPhone into landscape mode.

The iPhone (or iOS I suppose) is somewhat dumb in this regard in that it holds onto the initial orientation of the what you were shooting and does not shift to accommodate a change like going from portrait to landscape on the fly.

So 98% of my video ended up looking like this:

In the past when I ran into this dilemma, I often stopped recording, quickly deleted the bad video, used the preferred orientation and then started recording again, not missing a beat.

But not this time.

And while I figured there must be some way to rotate the video after the fact (like countless image editors allow you to do), I was a little surprised to find there weren’t many obvious and easy ways out there. Eventually I found the answer in Apple’s own QuickTime app. Like a lot of helpful things when you are looking for them, the option was hiding in plain site.

Here are the steps:

Step One:

First open your video file in QuickTime. You can either fire up QuickTime first, go to “File” and then down to “Open File”. Or you could right-click the file itself, choose “Open With” and then choose QuickTime.

Step Two:

Once the video is open click “Edit” and you’ll then find the rotate and flip options straight below

Step Three:

Once you’ve locked the orientation you want, you then have to export your video with the new changes you’ve added. You’ll find the “Export” option under the “File” menu in QuickTime.

Choose the file settings you want to export as and click “Ok”, to kick off the export.

When the export operation is complete, you’ll find your new file where ever you chose to save it with the correct orientation!

This whole fix took me less than 5 minutes to complete, but depending on the length of the video, it could take much longer (or shorter, again, it varies).

Hopefully this helps someone out there who got into a similar jam. Or, at the very least, it’ll add another hit for Google to serve up. I was kinda giddy when I found it myself!

"Soon enough, the words began to crawl out, slowly, timidly. I felt how bad and clunky it all sounded, not to mention the atrocious grammar. All my writing habits were slowly annihilated. But I stopped caring at maybe the 550 word mark. I kicked my inner perfectionist out the door in a grand spectacle, maintaining that they were no longer welcome in the chaotic frenzy that had since taken over my body." ~ Sheree Joseph

"that time I wrote 25,000 words in 19 hours" by @tinyfleu https://t.co/leNOQ62f

I’ve been reading a tech site called The Verge for about a year now (or since they launched at any rate) and one of my favorite features that they do is their “What’s in your bag…" series.

In these articles they take someone from their staff, or even guests, and ask them to write about the bag they carry everyday and what’s inside it typically. Not only do I find this topic oddly fascinating, but it’s also a great way to see what other folks in your field are using in their day to day to make whatever systems they have in their lives run smoothly. The writer in me also loves how it is a bit a character study as well.

Anyways, I’ve been meaning to do that here in this space for a while and finally found the time to take pictures this week. So, much thanks and credit goes to The Verge for the idea and I hope you enjoy!

So here is my bag and all of it's contents:

A quick rundown is in order I think! Here’s the list of what you are looking at (starting top left and moving left to right):

A pair of over the ear Sennheiser HD280 pro’s

• A 13in Retina MacBook Pro
• REI Quantum Messenger Pack
• Kobalt Brand Computer Screwdriver set
• Leatherman Skeletool Multitool
• Pair of Apple Ear Buds
• Two thumbnail drives (One Ultra 2gig and another Sandisk 32gig)
• USB adaptor for the 32 pin connector on my iOS devices
• Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort to VGA monitor adaptor
• 3ft 1/8" Stereo to Dual Phono (RCA) Plug Y-cable
• Square Credit Card Reader
• Two small Moleskin Journals
• My Mighty Wallet
• My keys

Sure, there are other things that will sneak into my bag from time to time, but this is what I typically have in it everyday!

Now if you are already bored out of your skull, you might as well head back to your Twitter or Facebook feeds. But if you have that same curiosity that I have, stick around! Because I’d love to tell you about these things individually and show you why I carry around this stuff everyday.

Still here? Awesome. Let’s dive in shall we?

Sennheiser HD280 pro's headphones

I work in front of a computer for at least eight hours a day. During that time it’s mostly project-based work, so I find that listening to music is a wonderful escape from everything around me. Originally I used a crappy pair of cheap ear buds, then I tried the on-the-ear kind and in both cases after three straight hours of use, my ears were killing me. So it was around a year ago that I went on the hunt for a good (read: not super spendy), quality pair of over the ear headphones. I needed 4 things out of them:

• Little to no noise bleed. I hate disrupting my neighbors.
• Comfort. Good padding for prolonged use.
• Above average sound quality. I am not an audiophile per say, but music is extremely important to me.
• A long cord. I don't want to take them off or have them yanked off my head when I reach for something behind me.

I already had a few folks that I trusted for reviews, chief amongst them Marco Arment, and when I found his comprehensive reviews of headphones last year like this one on his site, he frequently referred back to this pair of Sennheiser's as his main pair for listening to anything hours on end.

I bought them from Amazon and have yet to think of buying another pair. They are very comfortable, have a long spiral, springy cord, emit very low noise bleed and the sound quality is exceptional.

A great buy!

13in Retina MacBook Pro

As I’ve mentioned many, many times on this site; I am a Mac user. It’s nothing personal. I use PC’s and Macs all day at work and OSX is just fits my life and my daily workflows best. Both platforms have merit.

That all said, I spent around 8 months trying to live without a laptop, utilizing just my iPad and a bluetooth keyboard, and the gaps where a laptop could’ve really sped things up for me became too hard to traverse.

So I had to go back. I’ve been using the 13in MacBook Pro with Retina Display for everything about two months now and I can honestly say, without a single shred of doubt, that this is the finest computer I’ve ever owned.

And for those who are wondering if the screen is worth the extra cash: yes, it really is.

The bag itself

The bag I settled on is the REI Quantum Messenger Pack from REI. It's nothing incredibly fancy but it's got a padded sleeve for my computer, lots pockets for pens, notepads and all of my accessories, nice touches like a felt-lined pocket for your smart phone, mesh pockets for easy line of sight for anything you don't want to dig around for, thickly padded shoulder straps… seriously, its a really great bag! What sold me on it though was the bag-length zipper on the side that unzips directly into the laptop sleeve so that it's easy to take it out and put it back in while traveling.

It’s not all that expensive either if you can find it (it looks like it’s no longer on REI’s site).

Kobalt Brand Computer Screwdriver set

I am, at times, a woefully impatient person. Especially when it comes gadgets and upgrades. If you have ever needed a computer screwdriver set in a pinch and didn’t have one on hand, you’ll know what I am talking about. If you have never needed a set, you probably view it as extra bulk.

I have needed them, several times in fact and after the last time, I stopped off at Lowes on the way home and snagged this set. I paid very little for it and I will definitely need a new set soon, as the heads are chipping and stripping from use over the years. My next set will be better quality for sure.

The whole set, when zipped closed, is quite light and takes up very little room. I just tuck them in, down at the bottom of my bag.

To this day, I am still shocked at how much I reach for these little guys.

Leatherman Skeletool Multitool

Like the screwdriver set above, I am shocked at how many times I need a good pair of needle nose pliers, or a good knife, or philips head, or a wire cutter, or a bottle opener, or a… well, you get the point.

I use the Skeletool both for hiking/camping, as well as my day-to-day. It’s light for what it is, but also incredibly well built.

Again, when I’ve needed it, I’ve been so psyched that I had it in my bag. It’s incredibly adept at solving problems.

A Pair of Apple Ear Buds

These poor bastards have been through the wringer and are also hands down my least favorite Apple product. But, that all said, I keep them in my bag for when they are spatially more appropriate or when I am only sitting down for a few hours of work. The cord is too short, the sound is ok and, as you can tell from the glue on the ear pieces, they are falling apart. I basically keep them in my bag because they get the job done, but also I wouldn’t be bummed if I left them somewhere.

Two thumbnail drives

I move files around from computer to another a lot. I also like sharing. So in the case where items are too big to attach to an email or you aren’t networked directly to your needed destination: thumbnails drives are still pretty damn convenient.

Mine were cheap and the only reason why I keep to 2gig one around is because it still works like a champ. Mostly I always go for my 32gig one.

USB adaptor for the 32 pin connector on my iOS devices and a Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort to VGA monitor adaptor

Incredibly handy when you need to offload pictures from a USB device to your iOS device. Also an amazing adapter to add to your travel kit.

The Thunderbolt to VGA adaptor is solely for work purposes. Because you’d be shocked at how many office projectors/monitors still use the old-school VGA connections.

3ft 1/8" Stereo to Dual Phono (RCA) Plug Y-cable

If you ever are traveling and have wanted to plug your MP3 player into a stereo wherever you hang your hat for the evening, this cheap little cableis a must! Just plug it into the head phone jack of your player and connect the red to red and the white to white on the back of any stereo you encounter.

After a long day on the road, I am always relieved when I get to listen to my tunes through speakers. It’s not possible without this little travel companion. You can find them in almost any store in town, including most grocery stores (I bought this one at a local RadioShack on our last vacation).

Square Credit Card Reader

I could seriously write an entire separate post on this tiny wonderful gadget (and I most likely will) , but this post alone is getting pretty epic so I will keep it short.

Square is basically an online service that allows you take credit card payments with your phone or tablet device. Just plug this card reader into the headphone jack of your phone, download Square’s app and you are ready to take payments from anyone. If you do freelance work or even run a full-fledged business, this little piece of plastic is a godsend.

Read more about Square here. You get the card reader free when you set up an account.

Two Small Moleskin Journals

Though I do almost all of my journaling digitally now, I still run into the occasional instance where it’s just quicker to snag some pen and paper and scribble ideas and thoughts down.  These journals from Moleskin are cheap, take up very little space and the paper inside writes quite smoothly with any pen that’s nearby.  They come in lined and blank versions. I almost always use blank books because my note taking is a little unstructured.

My Wallet and Keys…

Yeah… so, this is my wallet and these are my keys….

I don’t like a lot of things in my pockets so I keep them in the zippered back pocket of my bag.

A lot of people ask about my wallet, I got it from “Mighty Wallet by Dynomighty Designs”. If you are looking for a thin (and I mean literally paper thin) wallet that can hold a lot and can take a beating (they are all made of Tyvek) that is super affordable. Give these guys a try! I got mine for the design and have kept it because it hasn’t given up on me or my lifestyle. Not yet anyways.

Wow… You Made It This Far! I'm Impressed!

If you made it this far, I am guessing you found some use or odd entertainment in it all, just like I often do. I know it's weird but I just love reading how other people do the exact same things I do, but differently!

So what do you use in your day to day? Do you have some better suggestions for me?If so, leave them in the comments below! I’d love hear about them!

As always, thanks for coming by!

Ok, so, I haven’t done a “Soapbox” post in a bit, but recently, I felt compelled to do so.

The topic:

I have absolutely no data to back this up, just sheer observation, but the state of independent theaters is pretty damn sad. More and more of them are closing because they simply don't make the money that the huge twenty screen, IMAX enabled mega-cinemas make. Sure, these "Davids" may make enough to keep the lights on for a few years, but that lately doesn't seem to be enough to stop the "Goliaths" (read: land owners) from bulldozing them to build another Harris Teeter.

Because clearly, we obviously need more Harris-frigging-Teeters down here (/sarcasm).

Okay, so where am I going with this?

Earlier this week I went to a double feature of The Evil Dead 1 and 2 at the The Carolina Theater here in downtown Durham. I am not going to lie, when the lights came up, I walked out with the biggest dopey grin on my face! I was completely bathing in nostalgia!

Memories of VHS tapes, dark living rooms, my friends and I eating popcorn slowly, waiting to be scared out of our minds…. Those were some of my favorite times growing up and to have the opportunity to watch 35mm copies of those movies again in a theater, just as they were shown when I was way too young to see them originally, meant a lot to me. As if the opportunity to see them was a gift. And, to me anyways, it truly was.

I know, I know I can hear you all right now…

“Awwww, Tad likes spending time watching movies on shitty screens with crap sound systems in ancient musty buildings that smell like my old aunt Mildred’s house. That’s SO cute! But what’s the point?"

The point is this. I am 99.9% sure the double feature that I saw the other night would never be shown at one of the mega-cinemaplexes you see stamped out across America today. The Evil Dead movies are too old, the acting is too cheesy and they aren’t “classic” in the sense that “Citizen Kane” is considered a classic. But here’s the thing, they were shown here that night and that’s entirely because the Carolina Theater is independently owned. It isn’t run by a corporation and it isn’t beholden to anyone except its members (and public ticket sales of course).

Put simply, outside of porn, they can show whatever they want really. And in the case of the Carolina, they often do.

It’s hard to remember for a lot of folks but, this is the way movie theaters used to be and nothing makes me more depressed than knowing that a lot of today’s youth probably won’t ever get a chance to set foot in one. And even if they did, I doubt at this point they’d appreciate it. Their parent’s home theaters are too impressive as is and when they aren’t there, all of their friends are getting dropped off with thirty bucks to spend at places with stadium seating, bigger, higher resolution screens and sounds systems that make your skull vibrate.

So again, why should they? Or more over, why should you?

The point...

Well, for me it goes well beyond the nostalgia I waxed about above. For me, it's about not losing the threads of where things came from.

So much of pop culture today is completely ripped off by media from the past (and yes, I say this knowing full well that my father would say the same). That doesn’t make today’s stuff irrelevant, but it does put it into context and context is something that is often overlooked nowadays.

In the case of film, I love knowing the history, I love learning about its DNA: the directors, the cinematographers, the cameras used, the actors, the soundtrack composers, the time periods and the methods that were used to make the film…

…there’s a purity in it all. There’s value in the ritual.

It’s the same reason why so many of us still seek out vinyl, actually pay to have our laser disc players serviced, or, more recently, get excited when a vintage functional 8bit NES is up on eBay so that we can still blow into the damn cartridges.

It’s those things that attach us back to everything, and everyone else that came before us. So much of everything that everyone loves today is linked to something that someone was equally passionate about from the past. It’s the essence of human connection. So yeah, in my humble opinion, it’s really, really important. If you ignore the past, you might as well ignore the present.

Supporting these theaters may seem trivial. And while this all may not seem important right now, trust me, it will become important when it’s gone.

I’m not asking for the world really, I am just asking that when that next movie you want to see pops up on your radar, try seeing if it’s showing at an independent theater near you. Give it a shot! These old relics might surprise you! (And no, none of the places I’ve been to smell like aunt Mildred’s and their equipment is often WAY up to date)

In short:

We need to stop, breath, and take time to remember how we all got to this point. Because let's be honest, wasn't the ride kind of incredible?

Linkage to other indie theaters in the NC, Triangle Area:

• In Durham, The Carolina Theater
• In Chapel Hill, The Varsity
• In Raleigh, The Rialto

Feel free to hit me up with other indie theaters in the comments below!

A quick tale on the recent and drastic changes to this site.

It was the early evening of New Years Eve and I wanted to throw up a quick post saying “Happy New Year” to everyone. I went to my site and tried to login and immediately saw that the service my site runs through, Scriptogr.am, was down or, to be more accurate, was simply unavailable. I then hit Twitter to see if they’d posted something and lo and behold, they did. twitter.com/scriptogr… So I waited a bit (a few hours) and then saw this come up. twitter.com/scriptogr… twitter.com/RonnyLam/… Attached to this last tweet was a domain name registrar notice saying that Instagr.am literally hadn’t paid the bill yet for their domain name. Now, to be fair to these guys, the story has to be more complicated than that, but at face value? They definitely had a bit of PR nightmare on their hands.

So with their apparently self-inflicted DNS issues causing my site to be down (as well as others on the planet) for, at the time, several hours, I knew that my grand “Wouldn’t be awesome if I could somehow use Dropbox to host my web site?” experiment was done. It was a free service that, for most part, worked quite well (forgiving the occasional laggy load times), but with the direction my life was going, I knew it was time for something more reliable and stable. So I did a quick search on top hosting providers for 2012 and was thrilled to find one that I happen to walk by everyday, heading into work: “A Small Orange”.

I took an hour, perused their services and found them to be really affordable for my needs (Plus their ideals were really in line with mine. Not a prerequisite, but always nice to see!) so I signed up.

Long story short, I had a self-hosted WordPress blog up and running in less than an hour! I even had the barebones of my content restored as well. This all couldn’t have occurred if it wasn’t for A Small Orange’s service, which was really exceptional, with live chat support available and prompt on the night of New Years Eve!

So if you are looking for a hosting provider, definitely check them out! It’s early in the game, but I can already tell they are a cut above the many companies out there vying for your business. It is important to note that my circumstance went as well as it did because I know what I am doing as far as setting up a web site is concerned. But I am confident that the same opportunity would be afforded to a novice as well.

And no, I don’t work for these guys! I just like letting folks know when I encounter good service is all.

So, that’s it! Welcome to thaddeushunt.com, version 2.5! It was an unfortunate glitch in the Matrix for sure but, in hindsight, it was a move I needed to make. In the end, Scriptogram’s service was down for 3 whole days I think, which had to have sucked for them. The idea behind their service is amazing, it’s just the implementation of it still needs some work. I’ll be interested to see where Scriptogram goes in the future!

It also appears that I’ve taken the right amount of time away from WordPress, as they’ve added a bunch of improvements and customization options that I really love. It still seems like over kill for my needs, but I guess at this juncture too many options are better than being stuck with none. I really like the site’s new theme too (it’s a slightly tweaked version of WP’s most recent default theme), very responsive for all of you gadgets' screens. So have a look around and leave a comment if you want (yep they are back)! I’d love any feedback you wanted to share.

Oh yeah! HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

So, half of the holiday season has come and gone (I hope it all went well for everyone!) and, with the constant barrage of digital ways to stay in touch with everyone, it reminded me of an iOS feature that’s become my favorite in iOS6.

It’s called “Do Not Disturb” and it is wonderful. :)

Full disclosure: I absolutely adore the people in my life. I really do.

But, there are some times when we all need a break from those little popups that beep and blip, begging for our attention.

And sometimes it’s not even people! I also have a few weather apps that send along severe weather notifications that, while interesting, aren’t exactly worth being woken up at 3AM for.

So with all of these helpful notifications, how do we block them out when we don’t want them interupting our lives? Well, luckily with the advent of iOS6, we have the ability baked right into our devices.

Cool! So where do I find it?

Head into “Settings” and, fourth from the top, you will see “Do Not Disturb”. To turn it on, just toggle the switch from “Off” to “On”. A little crescent moon icon will show up to the left of the clock up at the top of your iOS device screen, signifying that it’s activated!

So, how does this work exactly?

When "Do Not Disturb" is switched on, absolutly no notifications will come through. This includes emails, texts, Twitter updates, Game Center updates, anything in notification center, even phone calls.

This sounds great and all, but what if someone needs to get in touch in an emergency and I forgot to turn it off?

Really great question! If you go into “Settings” and then “Notifications”, you’ll find another “Do Not Disturb” section (which is really un-Apple-like, but I digress). In here, dwells the secret sauce that makes “Do Not Disturb” (I am just going to refer to it as “DND” for the rest of this post) so great. In this settings menu, you can schedule when you want DND automatically turned on and off! For me, this is great because I hate getting disturbed by my phone while I sleep, so I set it for 10PM and 5AM every day. Once scheduled, the DND mode is enabled everyday during that span of time until you opt to turn it off.

The emergency phone call dilemma is handled with the “Allow Calls From” option. I personally set it for “Favorites” so the folks I have listed as favorites in my “Phone” app come straight through whenever they call. You can also set this to “Everyone”, “No One” (if you really mean business), or you can even set it for a specific group you have setup in your Contacts app. Again, this only pertains to phone calls, all other notifcations from apps still will not come in when DND is scheduled/enabled.

The last setting is for “Repeated Calls”. When this is turned on, a person will have the ability get through your DND setup if they call twice in the span of 3 minutes. Personally, I LOVE this setting, as I often tell people if there is ever a true emergency, please call us twice repeatedly if we don’t answer the first time. It’s a small thing, but the fact that Apple threw this option in, is just genius in my humble opinion! This way, if for whatever reason, someone important to you is calling from a phone that isn’t theirs, they’ll get through.

Oh yeah! One thing to remember…

When scheduled/enabled, DND mode blocks ALL ALERTS, including third party alarm clock apps! So if you are using one (unsurprisingly, Apple's "Clock" app doesn't get blocked) make sure you schedule DND mode to turn off before your alarm goes off. Otherwise you may be late for work and we can't have that can we? ;)

So that's it! Go enjoy some quiet time!

We all love being connected (maybe we love it too much), but sometimes the act of unplugging can be a nuisance. With the new DND option, it's a lot easier. So, turn on DND and take that mid-day nap you've been promising yourself! You totally deserve it!

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UPDATED: Jan 1, 2013 - Ever have one of those days when you think you are being watched?  Just two days after this post Apple released this advertisement into the world:

youtu.be/eLJN_d2sV…

They also, unfortunately, had reports of this (which I actually fell victim to) so watch out for it.  I fixed mine by turning DND on an off.

I am a HUGE fan of Shane Curruth’s “PRIMER” and his next, “Upstream Color”, looks to be just as intriguing. Two teaser trailers were released in the last two weeks and both strike completely different tones. I have know idea what the film is about. All I know is that its imagery is stuck in my head and, for me anyways, that’s a good thing.

“Upstream Color” Teaser 1

www.youtube.com/watch

“Upstream Color” Teaser 2

www.youtube.com/watch

And, for old time’s sake, the Trailer for “PRIMER”:

www.vimeo.com/53890508

 On it's site, mouapp.com, the text editor "Mou" is aptly described as "The missing Markdown editor for web developers". And, for me anyways, it truly is. I've been using it for several weeks now and I wanted to share my thoughts on how I found it and how it has found it's way into my writing/blogging system.

If you write in Markdown, you'll know that there is no shortage of apps out there that cater to it. But many of them merely export to html or maybe, if you're lucky, give you a popup preview pane to view what you've created before you do.

With that in mind, I went on the hunt for a Markdown editor that worked differently. First and foremost, I wanted something that could accurately display my Markdown inline. A lot of Markdown editors to date give this kind of visual feedback on screen, but most of the time it's just an indicator showing you that you've successfully applied the proper syntax. It doesn't show you what it will look like when it's translated into html. So, as I mulled through a pile of research on the editors I Googled, I was surprised that I couldn't find an editor out there that gave me this type of feedback. I couldn't, that is, until one night the good folks at Scriptogram tweeted to the world an app that was in beta called "Mou". Not only did they specify that it was built for web developers using Markdown, but that it also offered many options that some of the editors did not.

Naturally, I was psyched at the possibility of finally finding the editor I'd been searching for! Of course, I still had to use it. :)

Well, I did and I am happy to report it is now definitely my go-to Markdown editor on the Mac (it's Mac only by the way. It also only runs on 10.7 or higher.)! There are a lot of reasons why I chose it and, honestly, the bulk of these features can be found in other editors. But the most important ones are all here (including a few that I didn't even know that I needed) in one tidy package.

Here's a rundown of the key features that tipped the scale for me:

Split Screen Edit Window for Realtime Markdown to HTML Conversion

I actually wish I could film this, because it's hands down my favorite feature. When open Mou, you'll notice immediately that the edit window is split down the middle to show your Markdown code on one side and it's translation to HTML on the other. But what's really awesome is, as you type your Markdown on the left side, it is updated with the html conversion on the right,in realtime! There is a second of lag as the program does it's thing, but I tell ya, this instant feed back is fast, beautifully implemented and unbelievably handy when you want to know how your code is going to look when you post it up for the world to see.

This all said, Mou's default setup only shows your code in the raw html format, the CSS of the site you are posting to could, and will, change what you see on the right (sometimes significantly). The good news? You can import your site's CSS into Mou if you want to have an even better representation of what your end product will look like.

Post Function

A very close second in my running for "favorite feature", is Mou's "Post" function. This site you are reading runs onScriptogram's framework, and Mou's ability to post to a site running on Scriptogram is some wizbang hoodoo that I am glad just works. Once you put your Scriptogram site's unique ID into Mou's preferences, it becomes an option under the File>Post menu.

I gotta tell ya, not having to log into the back end of my site to post something is just damn convenient. It's easy to use and it works every time.

Oh and if you're a Tumblr user, it can post to that too!

Auto Complete

Like any code-based language, Markdown has a syntax logic that, while super simple, readable and easy to use, still needs to be upheld in order to work. Mou does a great job at making sure that your code (spelling and grammar too) is correct through it's auto-complete functionality. When you type a "("it automatically places a ")" in front of your cursor. This is a wonderful time-saver! In fact, it actually makes me want to use Mou as an everyday text editor for anything (which of course you could) and I sometimes do.

I could go on about the other ways that Mao's autocomplete works, but if you use Markdown in your day-to-day, you'll have to trust me when I say it makes writing in Markdown even more simple to use.

Themes

Themes are in just about every text editor out there now. That all said, Mou's are great and it's nice to have it added in with everything else in such a robust program. Customizing any text editor to your liking is is key and with Mou it's easy to do.

There are other cool features too!

• It's super fast! It feels like a light weight editor when you use it and it's burned through anything I have thrown at it quickly.
• A word/character/byte counter
• A really simple export to HTML or PDF option (that can even include your css too!)
• View Controls with Enhanced CJK Support for folks around the world writing in character-based languages the run vertically.
• Supports OSX's full screen mode and autosave function (a life saver if you need something from a previous version)
• A powerful set of keyboard actions that allow you to write your Markdown even faster.
• Incremental Search for looking for things easier and granularly within your document.

Seems Awesome Right? So Where Do You Get It?

Mou currently is in Beta, but every build that's dropped has been rock solid in my usage. The good news is that this awesome editor is free right now because of it's beta state! Eventually it will be for sale (price TBD) when it reaches version 1.0 release. But if you donate to the development (highly recommended), you'll get a free upgrade when that version is ready!

Links:

• Mou App: http://mouapp.com - download link is that bottom of the page. If you can, feel free to donate!
• Develper: Chen Luo
• Twitter for the app: @mou
• Twitter for the Developer: @chenluois

PLEASE NOTE: All images in this post are from Mou's site.

Hey all, just quick tip before the holidays! The other day I found myself looking once again for a tip to remedy this situation:

The issue, in a nutshell, is that whenever you install a new app update from the Mac App Store, it inserts a copy of the icon in the "Open With" menu when you right click anything. It kind of drives me crazy!

At any rate, I think I've looked for a fix at least four times now so, in an effort to prevent that from happening to you (and myself) again, I wanted to post it up here so I could find it easily.

Now this tip pertains 10.8 (Mountain Lion), but I'm assuming it'd work in previous versions as well. So, to clean this mess up, open up a terminal window (found in Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app), paste the following command line entry and hit enter (make sure you get all of it):

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

It may take a few seconds to execute but when the command line prompt comes back up, close Terminal and check your "Open With" menu again. It should now be cleaned up, with only single entries listed. On one occasion, this "fix" didn't take effect until I restarted my mac, but all of the other times I tried it, it was instantaneous.

Is it "bad" to have multiple listings? Absolutely not. It's just a slightly OCD need to keep things tidy that I have. I have to imagine it drives other people nuts as well. ;)

That's it! I'd like to wish everyone in the states a happy Thanksgiving! If you're traveling, be safe and if you are staying home, make sure the turkey fryer is no where near anything combustible.

Have an awesome holiday everyone!

I'm constantly amazed by how much my brain is bombarded by information (let alone raw stimuli) every second of everyday. If I'm honest, most of it is completely useless fluff; entertainment at best, advertisement at worst. But a good amount of it is still worth looking at and remembering. In it's current state, my life doesn't always allow the time to look at everything when it presents itself. I mean, how could it? Because of this fact, I've come up with a few app systems that allow me to curate most, if not all of it. I figured I can't be the only one with this kind of life, so I thought I'd do a post about the different apps I use to remember things and how I specifically use them. Most of the apps I am about to talk about are free and are available on many different platforms. So this isn't yet another Mac-based software post. I know I tend to focus on those.

Also, please note that these aren't reviews of these apps. Some of them I use to their fullest extent, but most them, I use for that one function that they do extremely well. The good news is that most of these apps have been around for a good amount of time and have been reviewed extensively. So feel free to Google them afterwards if you want to know more about them. As always, I'll also have links at the bottom of this post to their downloads and dev sites.

Ok. So, here we go. Without a doubt the following instances come up several times a day for me:

1. I come across an article, review, link to an event, video, etc. that I either want read later or share with another person. There's one caveat though: I have no intention of keeping it. I'll read/view it later and then I'll delete it.
2. I come across web content that is more of a resource. Something that I will need and continue to reference in the near and very distant future. It's that tidbit or object that you know you'd absolutely regret losing or forgetting.
3. Lists. We all have them! Grocery lists, to-do lists, gift lists, travel prep check lists… they're those lists of important things that you check off immediately after you do them. When the list is done? You happily delete it feeling that warm sense of accomplishment.
4. Tiny notes. Particularly ones that you need to share across devices. Like a Post-it note but more permanent. I won't need it all of the time, but if I am flaking out and just can't remember, it's in it's separate app waiting.
5. Password and Account info. Between my wife and I alone we have, sickeningly, close to a hundred different logins to a host of websites that vary from yoga studios, to credit card accounts. We could use the same user ID and password for all of them, but shouldn't and we don't (nor should you). For this, I need an app that wrangles all of these accounts and passwords, so that they are easily found and encrypted to the hilt.

Those are the scenarios! Now I'll go through each app that I use to combat them.

Situation One: Disposable, yet still worthy of consumption...

For these situations I rely on "Instapaper". Marco Arment's Instapaper is worthy of an entire post alone on this site, but when it comes to shelving a movie review that I really want to read but don't have the time to? Instapaper is perfect and is my go-to app. Through it's applets and API I can send anything on just about any app on any platform (computer, phone, tablet) to my Instapaper account to read later in it's now extremely popular stripped down format. No distractions, stripped of ads, viewable offline, lots of choices to suit my reading aesthetic, all wrapped up in a solid, dependable platform.

I use Instapaper to save so much of what I find in my daily travels on the internet crazy that the service is free. And when I'm done with the content, I delete it! I don't have to, there are plenty of options to archive things in Instapaper, but it's not how I happen to use it. Browser-based, it's available anywhere there's an internet connection. There are also native apps on iOS and Android platforms as well, and though I don't own an Android device, the iOS apps work flawlessly.

Situation Two: Non-disposable Resources. In other words, that stuff you want to keep.

In these cases, I rely almost exclusively on "Evernote". Evernote is one of those software solutions that is completely adaptable. There are just so many ways to use it! Their approach is simple: offer any and every way that you could think of to upload anything digital, permanently to the cloud. Oh, and make it super easy too!

Me? 95% of the time that I use it, I utilize their very handy web-clipper browser add-on to send snapshots of web sites onto Evernote's cloud storage. I do tend to tag my additions and add them to folders, but that isn't really necessary. Once clipped into Evernote, your entry is saved, completely searchable and, at the very least, auto-organized by date. Just a couple weeks ago I saved a dozen different web sites on shower heads. Tagged "shower", it was simple to bring up everything I'd found weeks later when I was ready to pull the trigger and buy one. Easy!

But you can also use it in other handy ways. A perfect use case of this is when I used it the other day when we bought and enjoyed a bottle of wine while out for dinner. After we drank the wine I took a picture of the label on the bottle, tagged the variety ("red" "malbec") and, because I took it with my phone, Evernote used the GPS coordinates to log where the photo was taken, so we could remember where we drank it. Months later, we wanted to have the same wine out for some friends who were coming over for dinner. When I was at the wine shop, I opened up Evernote on my iPhone and knew precisely what I was looking for. It also helps A TON when someone asks to help you.

This exact same approach is also incredibly handy when you park you car in an airport parking lot before leaving on three week trip to India. Take pic of the lot and space number. Save it. Get on with life and focus on other things. Simple.

In the end, Evernote's service is definitely one of those "what you make of it" situations. But don't let that deter or overwhelm you. Trust me, I don't even use it tonearly the degree that others do. My workflow is simple by design and, because of that, it's been pretty damn invaluable over the years.

Situation Three: Lists

There are three types of lists that I typically keep.

• Lists before an event, like a vacation, making sure we have everything we need.
• Grocery Store lists.
• Any trip to a hardware store inevitably should have a list.

In this case, simple is always better for me. I don't want any crazy or feature-rich todo app. I just want something with text, check boxes and something that syncs across devices. The syncing option is only optimal to me for when my wife and I head out to the dreaded grocery store. With a list that syncs between our phones, we can divide and conquer. She knows I grabbed the eggs because she sees that I checked it off when I went down the milk aisle. If this situation sounds bad ass, that's because it is. ;)

My apps of choice are "Grocery IQ" for grocery stores and Apple's own "Reminders" app on the Mac and on iOS for everything else. Both sync across multiple devices. Grocery IQ gets a leg up over Apple's own "Reminders" app because it offers up coupons as well as the ability organize your list by aisle if you already have your favorite grocery store layout memorized. It's super simple to use and always handy when someone is home and remembers something while you are on the way to the store.

The "Reminders" app is baked into iOS (so it's free), syncs with iCloud and is backed by Apple, so you can't go wrong with it. It's quite simplistic (just multiple lists of check boxes and text) but it does what it does very well.

Situation Four: Tiny Notes

What's a "tiny note"? Tiny notes are those incomplete sentences of info that you need handy at any given moment in time. An example of this is an address to a party or a security code into someone's place that you occasionally visit. It's not worth permanently archiving, but it's also not really disposable either.

A perfect use case for this is my sister recently moved into a new flat that has a security code at the front door. She told it to me and I instantly jotted it down on my phone. I don't want to memorize it right away and I certainly don't want to keep badgering her for it whenever I visit. For all of these scraps of important andconvenient info, I use the "Notes" app in iOS. It's super basic, baked into iOS (again, it's hard to beat free) and because I don't use it for anything else, it's not terribly crowded with other bits of info. As of today, I still only have one note in the app with a small list of things that I need occasionally and because it's synced through iCloud, I don't need to read it out loud or send it in an email or text to my wife. I simply tell her it's in "Notes" and she knows exactly what I am talking about.

Situation Five: Accounts and Passwords

If there is only one thing you take away from this post, I hope it's this: take the protection of your ID and password info seriously.

There are a lot of password generators out there and just as many apps that work well at encrypting and storing your personal info remotely and securely. I personally love, and use Agile Bits app "1Password". They work on the simple premise that the safest password you could ever have, is one that you do not know. Basically it works like this. You have one password to memorize, and that is the password to the 1password app itself (see what they did there?). Inside this app is a highly encrypted database of all of your user ID's and passwords (which can be created in-app with their password generator), support for full credit card info, personal documents, personal info, you name it. It'll accept just about anything you want protected, yet accessible.

For all it is under the hood, it's quite incredible how easy it is to incorporate it into your life! One way it really saves time, is in it's ability to auto populate web fields with the click of a button when using their feature-rich (yet easy to use) browser plugin. Go to a site, click the 1Password button in your browser's toolbar, type in the one password for the app, click the link that corresponds to the site, and you are on. It takes it from there, auto-populating the fields and even logging you in with an incredibly hard-to-crack password that you have no chance in hell of remembering. In addition to logins, the auto-population is borderline magic when you face situations where you have to fill out forms for anything online. Not having type in your mailing address or credit card info instantly becomes addictive.

It's not all roses, there's a good bit of manual setup involved, but once you get your info into 1Password, you are set and life becomes way more convenient (not to mention way more safe).

1Password also isn't free, but in my opinion it's worth every penny you spend and then some. I think you'll find that you'll use it mostly on your home PC, but it's also available on iOS and Android devices as well.

Forget about forgetting…

So that's it! With the above apps, I've streamlined a ton of useless crap out of my day to day. I no longer sweat nearly as much about remembering non-critical moments or things. In all cases I have access to everything on every device I own with a screen and an internet connection. Errands are cut short, time is gained, your important info is protected…. Even if you were to try just one of these above situations out, I promise you, you'll see the benefits.

Give it a shot! Let me know what you think on Twitter.

App Links:

• Instapaper - iOS | Android | Web
• Grocery IQ - iOS | Android | Web
• 1password - Mac | Windows | iOS | Android
• Evernote - Mac | Windows | iOS | Android | Blackberry | Windows Phone

The fine Developers of these apps:

• Marco Arment - Instapaper
• Evernote.com - Evernote
• coupons.com - Grocery IQ
• Agile Bits - 1password
• Apple - Notes and Reminders iOS Apps

  All pictures in this post are linked to either the app store or the developer’s own sites/presskits with the exception of the 1Password app logo which I’d be happy to swap out if they have an official presskit that I link to. Thanks! :)

As I'm sure many of you noticed today, Apple released the much anticipated and, as it turns out, thoroughly leaked, iPad Mini. And there was much rejoicing right? Right?!

Well, for me, the answer is "yes and no".

Now it was only just announced, so obviously I haven't touched or used the device, but the first question I had when the initial rumors started dropping (months ago) waswhat would I have to give up to fit this into my current tech eco-system? If I did get it, what would I change? I'd definitely relinquish my old iPad to Gazelle, as there truly would be no need for two tablets. I figured it would be at least as powerful as my iPhone5 or the 3rd gen iPad and it'd also presumably be thinner and lighter, also two huge bonuses!

In fact, about the only thing that would stop me from buying one honestly was the screen. And by this don't mean the issue of compromised screen real estate, which has never been an issue for me (I've actually written happily on my iPhone on numerous occasions). But the resolution? Screen resolution would definitely be a deal-breaker for me. Put simply, Apple's "Retina" display technology that was released with the iPhone4 has completely and utterly spoiled me. So much so, that it's a genuine distraction to use other devices of lesser quality.

So naturally, when the rumor mill started churning out tidbits of how the new iPad Mini was was going to have the same screen as the trusty old iPad2, I had my concerns. This rumor of course turned out to be true, as well as the hardware being less robust than the third gen iPad 3. Take away the finish and the new iPad Mini is basically a smaller iPad 2.

Which, to this unabashed Apple enthusiast, was a completely missed opportunity.

While it's always amazing to me how Apple continues shrink it devices into smaller and thinner form factors making them more and more beautiful, aesthetics can only go so far. Eventually people notice when they can spend a little more to get a little more.

So when they dropped the price during the presentation (50 bucks less than the iPad 2), the deal was sealed for me. I'd crossed that line between "interested" to, "I just don't want it". Which is a shame really, because I could definitely see the use of a smaller, lighter, retina display equipped, same-internals-as-the-iPhone5, based iPad in my life. For travel it'd be a dream. The screen would still be an excellent size for everything I do on my iPad now and I absolutely wouldn't have seen it as compromise on any level.

But I'm clearly not the demographic they are trying to sell this to and that is absolutely, positively fair. I'll continue to wait it out until they have what I'm hoping for. I'm sure it's in the works. I can be patient. In fact, I predict that at this time next year? The iPad2 will be gone, the iPad mini will take it's place and it will stand proud next to the full-sized iPad, retina display and all! You heard it here first people (trust me, I am not the first to make that prediction)! :)

In closing, I guess what I find the most interesting about today's announcement is that, for me anyways, Apple actually shot for the lowest common denominator, which isn't typical for them. No one can drum up prelim excitement like Apple can and this incoming announcement had the community at a fever pitch. Which leaves me wondering how everyone will feel after the dust settles and the "new product announcement" high wears off.

My guess is that, while they'll think it's a beautiful product (and it is), they'll be waiting to pull the trigger just like me.

Now that new iMac and retina 13in Macbook Pro? Those are pretty damn enticing…

Pics linked from apple.com

If you haven’t guessed by now, you’re probably new to this site, and if so, welcome! If not, you’ll undoubtedly know that I am an iOS text editor enthusiast to the umpteenth degree! I really love what developers out there have done to create such robust and fun ways to create words and text on such tiny screens and devices!

One that I’ve been playing around with for a good amount of time is Drafts. Drafts, on it’s own, is a very elegant and clean text editor that’s UI is completely spartan by design. It main function is for you to launch it, jot a note or idea down and close it. The app saves your work in a plain text format and the next time you open the app? It starts a new note. This wash, rinse, repeat philosophy is what got me to first buy and try the app. But, it’s only when you open up Drafts and use it for a bit, that you realize that this text editor quite unique and powerful.

Aside from the impressive collection of fonts that the kind folks at Agile Tortoisebaked in, you also get the requisite font size selector and two other themes to mix things up a bit (white text on black and a “Sepia” toned dark brown text on tan based theme). There is also a new view in the latest version of the app that is quite handy called “Link” mode which makes all the links that you type in to a note, tap-able! URLs would be easy but this view also includes phone numbers and even addresses! Think about it, you get a phone number from someone, put it in Drafts, and instead of holding down on the text, making sure it’s selected, opening the phone app, copying it into the dial field and tapping dial, now all you have to do is tap the “Link” mode in the note, tap the number, then dial. It’s that easy!

It also has sync but the folks at Agile Tortoise didn’t want to jump through the myriad of hoops that Apple makes you go through to hook your app up to iCloud so they went with the well-thought-of sync project “Symperium”. In my using of both Drafts apps for iPhone and iPad, I’ve found the sync to be almost instantaneous and, most importantly, reliable. Which has been a little bit of a sticking point for me with the somewhat recent implementation of iCloud sync in apps. The only catch though with going with Symperium is that it doesn’t allow you to sync with your Mac (or PC, yet…). Presumably, going with the more “open” Symperium service, would afford the opportunity sync cross platform/device, but that hasn’t happened yet, so the only way you’d be able to get your notes out of your respective iOS device is through the sharing options provided to you.

The good news? This is definitely where Drafts shines! When you use Drafts you could almost overlook the sharing button in the toolbar of your notes, but after you tap it… man… there are a ton of options!

Here’s a rundown of the current list of services that Drafts hooks into, most of which I use (some of which I’ve reviewed on this very site):

• Post to Facebook or Twitter
• Email your notes anywhere
• SMS
• Save and append to Dropbox
• Send to iCal (Calendar)
• Create a Reminder in iOS "Reminders" app
• copy it to the clipboard in iOS
• Print
• Save to Evernote (can also save as Markdown)
• Send to Tweetbot (twitter client)
• Send to Day One (journaling client that I love)
• And last but not least you can choose "Open in…" which allows you to open the note in any other text editor that you have on your device.

That's quite a list! And they keep adding more with each version that drops!

With these sharing options, Drafts has become a my springboard for whenever I even have a whimsy about sharing a piece of text in more than one place. They’ve made it too damn easy to not see it as your default app for that. If I wasn’t such an iOS text editor junky, I’d probably have this as my sole go-to editor.

Add in it’s full support of Markdown and it’s really a no brainer.

To date I’ve used it for quick notes (movie names, phone numbers, etc…), calendar events, to do lists, entire chapters of the novel I am writing, Tweets, Facebook posts (when I actually am on FB), blog posts (though not this one), and the list could go on and on but you get the point, this app is a tiny juggernaut.

So go get it! Highly recommended!

Where to get it:

1. iPhone - $1.99
2. iPad - $2.99

What about the guys that made it?

• Agile Tortoise
• Drafts Devs on Twitter - @draftsapp

All images in this post were linked from Agile Tortoise's own website.

I was fortunate to be part of the groggy masses that woke up at 3AM Eastern last Friday to secure the delivery of a new iPhone 5 this Friday. Yes, I know, that is really friggin early, but I am a fan of Apple's stuff and I am huge non-fan of lines and über busy retail stores so, if I wanted the latest on the day it went on sale, it was worth the 15 sleepy minutes it took to pre-order one.

Actually, I should really do a post on how that pre-order went. It was quite the Apple commercial really. Another time.

What I really wanted to do was post up a pretty handy tip I found today!

Now this won't pertain to all of you, but often, when I get a new i-device I like to start fresh. I used to redownload everything! Apps, music, resetting up all of my settings…

For apps now, it's a little different. With Apple's iCloud back ups it's way too easy to get all of your apps back with out havng to redownload and configure them again (which, frankly, is a royal pain in the ass). It puts them back where you remember too. Easy peasy.

But with music, I do enjoy picking and choosing the songs that will take up all of those beloved new gigs of space.

So today I was really puzzled on what the easiest way to delete just the music from an iDevice was. Yes, I already knew the "swipe left and tap delete" method but, even on an artist level, that can take a good amount of time.

I just wanted to nuke it all.

I waded into all of settings menus for about 20 minutes before I folded and hit the omnibar to find if anything existed that could do exactly what I needed. Sure enough! There is!

Here's the direct link to the tip on OSX Daily. It's four brilliant and easy steps. It certainly isn't obvious and I wondered just how many people knew about it, so I thought I'd share it here.

If this is something you want to do before you load up your new phone, it doesn't get much easier than this! Just delete the music, make a back up, and restore your phone when it comes in the mail!

Meant to write about this when the trailer dropped last week but MAN... having been brought up on James Bond in the Roger Moore era? Boy I am super psyched for the kids today to have a James Bond that is a total bad ass!

I've loved Daniel Craig in the role since day one. It was inspired casting that I know initially, had A LOT of folks were concerned. But it was all totally unfounded! He's been perfect for the role since "Casino Royale". Not sure how long his contract is, but I hope it's a long one!

The cuff link adjustment at the end of the recent trailer (below), is spot on perfect! Add Sam Mendes directing it all and I honestly can't wait for Skyfall!

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kw1UVovByw])

 

Hey all! As you you've already read here on this site I am a HUGE Day One journaling fan!

Well, they've just come out with a new version of their all of their apps and it's a hugeone! Integration of photos, weather, locale, better mark down support, sharing options, social integration, better Dropbox and iCloud sync, seriously... it's huge.

They even updated their site! So if you don't have it already, definitely check it out. It's taking daily journaling to a whole new level. I absolutely love it and this update makes an already great experience even better!

Collect them all!

1. Day One Journal Site
2. Day One Journal Mac App Store
3. Day One Journal iOS

One of the things I have tried my best to sustain in my day to day life, is the act of buying things that are created as locally as possible. This practice makes sense more than ever now. With the economy being what it is and everyone striking out on their own to making a living, it is pretty much our civic duty to support each other and our communities. Purchasing locally made products keeps the money and, by proxy, the livelihood, around you. This eventually provides a better society and a neighborhood that is closer, more tight-knit. When you care for your community, they end up caring for you right back. Even if that equals just a smile walking by on the street.

 

In the case of food, it also benefits you greatly. Not only do you get something that is fresher and (often) healthier than anything you could get at a big box store, you also meet the cultivator of that food. When you shake your local farmer's hand, you are making a distinct emotional connection. One, I have noticed, that they often do not forget. In this deep electronically connected age, it is amazing how disconnected we have become to the immediate space around us. Everyone looking at screens on the street corner, on the bus, in the elevator, at the dinner in the restaurant... I'm guilty of it too! But the cool part is that it honestly doesn't need to be this way. At least not all of the time. There are a lot of ways we all can make a difference with minimal effort. Be it through our local farmer's market or food coop, a local music store, breweries, general stores, restaurants, clothing stores... there are a lot of options for us all to pitch in for very little to no additional cost.

I could go on about the ethics of this situation, but I think we can all agree: helping the people around you is a good thing.

One great use case scenario of this came from the last long weekend I took with Melinda in state. We were in a beer and wine shop and, being a local beer enthusiast (something North Carolina is quickly becoming renowned for), I was looking for a few bottles of something new to kick back and enjoy during the hot afternoon. There were dozens of domestics and imports but my eyes fell on on a new local beer I had not tried yet. In fact I had never even seen it before. I picked up a bottle and before I could even read where it was from, the person running the shop piped up and said that her husband brewed that beer right here in town and that it is bottled and distributed just south of where we were.

Sold! It was pretty much the freshest beer I would ever find outside of going to a brewery and drinking right from the tap (which is also immensely enjoyable!). I grabbed a six pack and thanked the kind lady for keying me into buying her husband's beer. It was the perfect situation! It was a product I knew I would enjoy, supporting a local craftsmen, putting money into a shop that only they owned, in their own home town.

Of course this is not possible for a lot of people. Depending on where you live, it may not be an option to get to a farmer's market (though they are popping up everywhere nowadays), or even into a town center that can provide any local options. If that is the case, buy regional, or even national. I guarantee you will not be able to do it every time you are out shopping. But if you can do it when you are able too, it always makes a difference.

This shouldn't be about national pride (though it certainly can be), or some latest fad (which would be something I could actually get behind). It should be about lending each other a hand and not ignoring the world around us. It could also be about living healthier as well.

All good things.

Not too long ago, in the grand scheme of things, this is how the human race took care of themselves and each other. We were all only as strong our communities. While I do not think we have forgotten that completely, I do think we have pulled way back from what we once were. Progress is always good, but not at the expense of complete isolation. The cost of constant convenience is common place now, especially with the current generation. Kids and young adults know so many things that I didn't even conceptualize when I was their age. I actually am in the camp that thinks this is a good thing. It is how we evolve as a society and it's amazing to see us all foster a global community through our technology.

But again, it is incredibly important that we keep that sense of local community as well. And we do this by supporting each other. Because while ones and zeroes can enhance our lives to unthinkable levels, they can not replace the reality that is "you" and "I" breathing in the same immediate space. They can not replace the reality of "us".

At least not yet anyway. ;)

 

For the last few years, I have been using my ever-faithful Apple bluetooth keyboard for my wireless keyboard needs (Laptop, iPad, iPhone, Mac Mini, you name it…). I chose it for the following reasons:

1. It's got a good form factor
2. It is ruggedly built (I have dropped it several times and it has kept ticking without a hitch).
3. Despite it's form factor it has got a full size layout for its keys (sans number pad). Which is always important. I hate feeling cramped while typing.
4. It pairs relatively easily with devices and the Mac-specific hotkeys at the top are quite quite handy (particularly when used with the iPad)
5. It's easy to grab and slide into my bag when I need to just go.

But, that all said, there are a few drawbacks. Small stuff mostly, but chief amongst them is the Apple keyboard's need of batteries to function and it's ability to have it's bluetooth connection turned on by accident (draining the batteries of both your device and the keyboard) if the large button on its side gets touched by a feather.

Both of these issues caused me to reevaluate my selection of a keyboard and at least start to research what is out there nowadays for alternative options. Suffice it to say, I found a lot!

 

The best options built specifically for the Mac, that weren't built by Apple, seemed to be offered by Logitech. They have a great selection with a lot of options, but in the end I settled on their series of solar powered keyboards. They support all of the current Apple command key shortcuts, have zero need for batteries (fully charged, it can be used for three continuous months in complete darkness) and, in the case of the travel version, they have the ability to hot swap between multiple bluetooth devices. Which is handy if you need to quickly disconnect from one device and quickly pair with another (from an iPad to a desktop, for instance).

Here are the two I went with:For the iPad I went with the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K760

And for the Mac Mini I splurged and snagged the full sized Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac®

They both perform easily as well as their Apple manufactured counterparts and while they don't feel as well built as Apple's aluminum keyboards, they by no means feel cheap in any way.

Function-wise, they both have worked flawlessly. I love that the hotkeys (the "F" keys) that are in the top row of the Apple keyboard, can all be found on the Logitechs (the media-based buttons work even on the iPad!). Also, eco-stance aside, I really love that I don't have to worry about having my rechargeable batteries around and charged up when my keyboard dies. The solar cell at the top, does change the footprint (and the aesthetic if that's important to you) obviously, making the keyboard, in both cases, taller. But the exchange for battery life and the simple convenience of putting it in any kind of light to recharge it, definitely trumps these quibbles for me.

The bluetooth hot swapping on the K760? It works as advertised and is pretty damn amazing! Once paired up (easy to do as well) I was swapping between my iPad, iPhone and Macbook with a simple keystroke. It's fast and way more convenient than I originally anticipated. Definitely not a gimmicky feature! It is the real deal and quite helpful.

One odd difference between the two? The K760 keys are WAY more "clicky" than the K750. So if you are into that, or are obsessive about stealth typing, than you may want to take a note of this. I noticed it right away.

Lastly, the K750 comes with a free app you can snag from the Mac App Store that gives you real time info on your charge and the amount of light/solar energy your keyboard is currently receiving. Pretty neat to bring up and watch, not to mention handy if you need to know how much juice your keyboard currently has left. Again, it's only for K750, but it is well implemented on the Mac.

So if it wasn't clear enough yet, I will come out and say it: I am pretty smitten with these keyboards! I've used the K750 for a month now and the K760 for a little over week. They have not given me one bit of buyer's remorse. Quite the opposite actually. I wish more peripherals were made with this kind of utility and function.

Two thumbs up! Way up! Highly recommended!

I am a HUGE fan of Rian Johnson. From his films, "Brick", "The Brothers Bloom", to even his episodes of "Breaking Bad"... for folks like me, he is a really inspiring talent, writing and directing all of his films. His recent film "Looper" teams him up again with the always wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt in what looks like a high octane, brain melt of a scifi flick.

I liked the first trailer that came out a while ago, but you gotta check out this new international one that dropped today. If that doesn't get you stoked to see what Johnson has put together for us all, I honestly don't know what to do with you. :)

At very least consider giving it a chance. If anything to support new and original film-making/story-telling.