Two weeks ago, I was one of the fortunate ones to be able to pre-order the iPhone 4. I had to go through AT&T rather than purchasing via Apple, although either way, I was able to make the purchase happen. On 6/24, my two new iPhone 4s (one for me, one for the wife) arrived via FedEx.

To provide some background, both the wife and I had older generation iPhones (one 2G and one 3G). I had already upgraded the 3G to iOS4 (even without all of the whiz-bang features) just to start experimenting with the new UI changes.

Well, when the iPhone 4s were setup, I was elated. What a dramatic improvement from our older phones! Performance, performance, performance. And the retina display? Well, it is everything you have already read about – pixel-perfect clarity and extreme readability.

Of course, all of the great features are a plus (HD video recording, FaceTime, Multi-tasking, etc.). I have used them all and must say that Apple did a splendid job ensuring that the iPhone 4 works as designed.

My only complaint to date is the lack of cases available for the new iPhone. We ended up purchasing the Reveal case from Griffin. The Apple Bumper was not an acceptable choice (I needed something to protect the whole device) and the Otterbox Commuter is not yet available (2-3 months yet).

I am also thankful that many of the App developers were ready at launch with new versions of their apps. Of the ones worth mentioning:

• OmniFocus 1.7
• Twitter 3.01
• Twitterrific 3 (just can’t have enough Twittr clients)
• Twittelator 4 (see above)
• Analytics Pro 1.1.5
• WordPress 2.5
• Evernote 3.3.5
• Instapaper 2.2.4
• Articles 1.2
• Dropbox 1.2.2
• Docs2Go 3.3.1
• iMovie 1.0 (new)
• BibleReader 4.12.4

And many more!

If you are ready (and can afford) to make the upgrade from an older iPhone (or another maker’s device), I highly recommend it. I have played with many Google Phones (Evo, Droid, others) and still find that the iPhone is a superior product.

For those who use Daylite and Billings, fear not as iOS4 versions are on their way.

If you have upgraded or purchased a new iPhone 4, what are your thoughts? What apps would you recommend to take advantage of the new hardware/iOS?

Tags: Apple, Personal

After 18mos of writing for TheAppleBlog (TAB), I have decided to take a hiatus. The team at TAB is fantastic. Great editors, great writers, lots of humility and engaging content.

It was especially fun participating during Apple Events, when we would all take turns writing different articles on the announcements. My first Apple Event with the TAB team was Macworld 2009, the last one where Apple, Inc. participated. I covered iMovie 09 and it was a pretty successful article by comments and hits.

Throughout those 18 months, I have written reviews, commentaries, opinion pieces and announcements. Most of my focus was on Small Business as I think that is the sweet spot for Apple content and the user base.

Thank you again the team at TAB and I wish you all the best! As to the future, I will be writing reviews and/or Apple opinion pieces here on my Blog, so be on the lookout for new content.

Tags: Apple, Personal

One of the big items I have been working on is how to extend Daylite and make it a more useful product for both my customers and potential new customers. Daylite is an incredible application, although it is not automated enough. For example, there are not enough keyboard shortcuts for navigating around the application.

As a simple workaround, I have created some QuicKeys shortcuts. If you want them, please feel free to contact me via my contact form. I do plan to make these available via a download in the re-vamp of the website. Stay tuned…

————–

Speaking of that, I also have been working on a new design and more customer-centric web site. If you have any feedback or suggestions on my site and how I can improve it for your use, please leave a comment here on this post.

Tags: Consulting, Daylite, Personal

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. Most of the work has been with two new clients for Daylite as well as some writing for TheAppleBlog. Here is a link to that article:

Camtasia vs. ScreenFlow: Creating Your First Screencast

I also had the fortune to purchase the new Apple Magic Mouse. I must say, it is a very nice tool and I am thankful to have replaced the previous three-year old wireless “Mighty Mouse.” I do not miss the old mouse. The rollerball was inconsistent and the right-click was wrong at least 20% of the time. I highly recommend folks to look at the new mouse if you are in the market.

For those running Twitter, I encourage you to utilize the new Lists feature. It’s very easy to setup and it appears to be quite useful. I do hope that Loren over at Atebits gets his two Tweetie apps updated for us to leverage this new functionality.

I have also posted one new client Case Study from Nectar Communications. Please take a read here.

Tags: Apple, Consulting, Daylite, Marketcircle, Personal

A few posts ago, I wrote about the tools I use to stay productive using the Mac. Well, in the past few weeks since writing that post, I have been re-evaluating those same tools. And, in so doing, I have decided to remove OmniFocus from the arsenal. This was not a light choice, although it made sense from a consolidation standpoint.

Why? Well, OmniFocus is an amazing tool. But Daylite is more powerful (and I already use it for so many other things). I will give the folks at the OmniGroup credit for building a beautiful, modern application with rich functionality. However, for my needs, and for how I was using Daylite already, I needed to remove OmniFocus as it was just creating more work for me.

Here is the reasoning:

• Daylite allows me to create tasks just like OmniFocus does (and utilizing the GTD method). However, the OmniFocus UI is better at it.
• Daylite allows me to link those tasks to projects, contacts and opportunities. OmniFocus has no concept of contacts, opportunities, groups, etc.
• Daylite allows me to sync this data utilizing Daylite Touch on my iPhone without an intermediary (MobileMe’s iDisk). OmniFocus requires a lot more work to have sync occur between the computer and the iPhone. In effect, I don’t have to manually sync anymore. Oh, I can also sync Daylite Touch over 3G (OmniFocus requires local WiFi sync). This is a huge time-saver when I am out and about.
• Both Daylite and OmniFocus allow me to add tasks via email. Why have the redunancy?
• Both applications allow me to add tasks from a universal Hot Key.

In a group environment, being able to delegate tasks is even more important and this is where Daylite surpasses any competition. OmniFocus is really designed for a single-user setup. This is fine, but I have a group environment (even in my home).

How about you dear reader? Have you moved to Daylite yet? If you want to learn more about Daylite, please click here.

Tags: Daylite, Personal

I am sure that many of you already know about Twitter. I have been using the service now for two years. For the first year, it was mostly about lurking and posting random items (at dinner, etc.). Then, I became educated.

In my second year, Twitter became a service for communication. It’s another mechanism to find out about information and managing that information. Twitter in many ways has replaced my RSS reader (although I still use Fever so that I can manage my feeds privately).

Going into my third year with Twitter, I am now focusing on how I can deliver more information to the community. I hope to provide more posts about managing your information and balancing your workload/workflow. I would not call myself a guru, although I am beginning to see even more proficiency without the layering on of tools upon tools.

I am by no means a Twitter power user. I just have one account and I have a limited set of trends and searches that I follow. Further, I do not auto-follow folks who follow me. I am pretty discriminate about what I like to read and I am not interested in amassing a large amount of followers. Frankly, it isn’t that important. Quality over quantity…

Lastly, I am going to minimize public replies and focus on responding with Direct Messages. Since many of your followers can’t see the entire thread, it just makes sense to keep it private. Maybe I am mistaken, although I think removing the noise from others lives is a positive thing.

I am curious how my readers use Twitter, so please leave a comment below with your thoughts/feedback.

Tags: Personal, Twitter

Well, it’s been three weeks since I installed Snow Leopard. The product does have some lovely speed enhancements and it’s funny that Apple already released a 10.6.1 update. Slowly, all of the third party developers are releasing new versions of their software to be compatible. However, I am still stuck with a keyboard (Logitech DiNovo Edge for the Mac) that is missing a compatible driver and my email (Mail.app) no longer makes a sound when I receive new messages.

Is this upgrade perfect? No. Has it been painless? No. Will I probably perform a “clean” install once all of my software is fully compatible? Yes. For now, I just limp along with less functionality. However with the 64bit OS, I do it faster…

How about you audience? How has the upgrade been for you?

Tags: Apple, Personal

The last time I wrote, I talked about my favorite applications. Well, I missed one. And, it’s a big one. I missed 1Password. This is one of my all-time favorite applications and I can’t believe I forgot it in my previous post.

Well, the guys at Agile Web Solutions really hit the nail on the head with this product. I have been using it since v1.3.1 (it was summer of 2006 – not too long after the product launched publicly.  I have used every version in between, migrated to their new Agile Key format and am anxiously awaiting the 3.0 release. I will gladly pay whatever upgrade fee – it will be more than worth it.

I constantly evangelize 1Password because of its power, simplicity and its ability for me to manage my passwords, software licenses, and more. It’s just an overall excellent application and the price is worth every penny.

And, some time ago, the folks at Agile Web Solutions released an iPhone version which enables you to sync the data from you Mac. Having passwords + any other secure information with me is just invaluable. I love being at the airport and being able to quickly get to my frequent flyer # without having to carry yet another card in my wallet.

Ultimately, there are other products out there that work similarly. However, the folks at Agile Web Solutions just hit the nail on the head in terms of usability and functionality. Stop reading this and go get your own copy today.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, Personal

A lot of my customers ask me which software applications do I use on a daily basis. I am a big believer in using both free and paid applications on my Mac. I tend to find that paid applications are better supported and have more “polish.”

So, here is my list (+ descriptions as to why I use these apps) with their respective links:

Internet/Web

• I mostly stick with the Apple apps. Including iChat (MobileMe and Google Talk), Mail.app and Safari 4. I also use Google Apps for my domain. For Twitter, I use Tweetie from Atebits. It’s user experience is very polished and I prefer its simplicity to the likes of TweetDeck or other options on the Mac.
• In terms of web site design, I use RapidWeaver from the folks at RealMac Software. I prefer its user interface combined with its plugin capabilities to manage my web site.

Business Productivity

• Here, I vacillate between iWork 09 and Microsoft Office 2008. I really prefer Numbers to Excel because it is so much prettier to use (I can make some very beautiful and compelling spreadsheets). I will give credit to Microsoft for their new 12.2.1 update – it did speed up Word and the other applications. However, I still prefer Pages to Word because of one key feature – the Full Screen (blackout) capability. That feature really helps to focus you when you write. Lastly, I tend to lean more toward PowerPoint than Keynote. Why? Well, I am just more familiar and I prefer the SmartArt Graphics functionality – it’s a real time-saver when building slides.
• Marketcircle’s Daylite + Billings combination. I use Daylite (and I am a Partner) for managing all of my contacts/customers, business opportunities and larger projects. I also use Daylite Touch as a companion product on my iPhone. What is critical about Daylite Touch is its ability to make phone calls (using the iPhone’s dialer) and then capturing that call as a task/follow-up. No other iPhone application can do that. It’s a lifesaver when I am on the go and need to capture business information from a phone call.
• I prefer to use OmniFocus by the OmniGroup to manage my tasks. The GTD format combined with the real simplicity of entering/managing tasks can’t be beat in my book. I then use the built-in sync services capabilities to sync my tasks to my iPhone as well as Daylite/Daylite Touch.
• This falls under hardware+software, although I can’t live without my Dymo LabelWriter 400 Turbo. This is such a useful tool for printing all sorts of labels. And, the folks at Dymo just release v8 of their software which is deeply improved and makes it very easy to create all types of labels.

Creative: Photography + Video

• I would like to consider myself a budding photographer, although that is probably way too generous a compliment. Still, I shoot with a Canon DSLR and I prefer managing my images with Apple’s Aperture rather than using iPhoto. I shoot in RAW and Aperture’s non-destructive editing capabilities really shine through over iPhoto. Further, the plugin capabilities enables me to add tools that really make photo editing powerful (Nik Software, for example) and generally negate the need for something like Photoshop CS4.
• I really only use one tool for video and that is iMovie 09. I shoot in HD using my Sony HDR-11 AVCHD camera and iMovie 09 handles the editing and creation of movies in a superb way. Yes, there are other tools, although Apple really nailed it with this latest version.

Data Management

• For my paperless world as well as capturing content from a variety of sources, the king of the heap is DEVONthink Pro Office from the folks at Devon Technologies. I scan all of my paper into DEVONthink and then use it’s advanced AI capabilities to search/match related content. Further, I also use the fantastic Clip to DEVONthink bookmarklet for capturing data within Safari and automatically sending it to DEVONthink. My favorite feature of DEVONthink is that whatever data you put into the application you can easily extract in its native format. This way, I can grab PDFs, web archives and more and know that the data is not in some proprietary format. This is a huge win.
• I recently started using Bento to manage a music collection library. I like the fact that the folks at FileMaker Inc made this simple app as well as its companion App for the iPhone. I can then take my music collection with me when I am on the hunt for new items.

Financial

• For personal finances, I am currently using iBank from IGG Software. iBank is a nice tool and it syncs to the new iBank Mobile iPhone App. I would like to see iBank have more feature parity with Quicken (support for billpay systems, better support for transaction downloads from more financial institutions).
• For business finances, I am currently evaluating both MYOB AccountEdge and Intuit’s QuickBooks. MYOB has the advantage of integrating with Daylite. However, QuickBooks is the de facto standard (and has more training offerings).

Music

• Ok, call me an Apple fanboy, although iTunes is the only real music management tool for the Mac that meets my needs for managing all of my music and movie files. To be honest, I really miss Musicmatch Jukebox – to me – it was the best music tool in the business.
• I recently started using both CoverScout and SongGenie from Equinux. Of the two, SongGenie is my current favorite as it helps me find missing track information for some pretty obscure music files.

Utilities

• I use a few utilities to improve my productivity on the Mac. In terms of which one I use the most, I would say that Path Finder from CocoaTech is my primary app. Path Finder is such a powerful tool, it really makes the Finder itself a lame duck.
• I also use QuicKeys 4 from Startly. I am a very keyboard driven person, so having an “accelerator” tool really helps to automate tasks. And, the latest version from Startly was just released with tons of new features as well as a vastly improved UI. One of the biggest new features is QuicKey’s abbreviations. QuicKeys 4 can import TextExpander or other abbreviation app’s data. I am honestly surprised it took the folks at Startly so long to have this competitive feature, but at least it is finally out there.
• For system-wide and application notifications, I use Growl. It’s free and it really can’t be beat. I just wish more applications supported this amazing tool.
• Lastly, another key tool in my utility shed is Default Folder X from St. Clair Software. This tool enhances the open/save dialog boxes with tons of useful features (too many to list). I would argue that Default Folder X should be built into the OS, as the one complaint some users have is app compatibility. Thankfully, I have not seen any issues myself (across 100 apps on my iMac).

Backup

• Apple provides us all one of the simplest and most comprehensive backup tools in existence: Time Machine. I use Time Machine with my Time Capsule to ensure each computer in my household has a recent backup on an hourly basis.
• For complete offsite backup, I use BackBlaze. This tool is indispensable, as it backs up my local hard disk as well as any attached hard disks to the cloud. For $50/year that includes unlimited space, this service is a steal.
• I use Personal Backup X5 from Intego to automate weekly backups of specific files to my iDisk. Granted, this is redundant with Backblaze, although one can’t be too protective of their files!

Was this list helpful to you? Which apps do you use? I would love to hear your recommendations. Please feel free to add comments/feedback below.

Tags: Apple, Daylite, DEVONthink, Personal

Well, after a near three month hiatus, it looks like I can begin the consulting work again. The transition from California to Florida was a little harder than expected. I was able to post a little here and there, but nothing of meaning or consequence. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see that I have tweeted here and there, although mostly responding to other folks.

Now that I am in Central Florida, I will be reaching out to the local MUGs, as well as the local Apple Store to generate new leads and clients. For those of you who follow my blog (that number is small, I know), please spread the word about my return to consulting.

My next post will detail the tools I have been using and some recommendations on how to be more productive using the Mac.

Until then…

Tags: Apple, Consulting, Marketcircle, Personal