Napkin is one of those apps that was so cool, I knew I'd have to review it as soon as I saw it. It's the easiest way to annotate images and screenshots on your Mac, and I've already started using it to answer the many one-off computer questions I get. Sure, it's a bit skeuomorphic, but for once, I think it's the right balance of native Mac UI and natural-looking design elements mixed with animation. Just enough to make an otherwise boring task fun.
Really nice stuff. It's pricey for the App Store at $39, but if you have to markup images and describe processes often for work, it'll be worth it. It's an app that's already part of my normal workflow, which is something I obviously can't say for most apps I review.
Reviews are a mess, as are public comments on most sites. We know that. Cranky customers that resent paying $0.99 for an app, and then expect the world from the developer because of their "investment" are bad enough. What's worse? This:
Everyone that runs a blog with public comments knows what a problem spam is, but at least the App Store (by requiring a download before you can comment) shouldn't have that problem. But it does. Here's someone blatantly advertising a competing app, one that looks like a mess at best, by trying to flatter Instapaper and then say why they like their app better. In a review of Instapaper that actually gives it 4 stars. Right.
The App Store has many problems, but this is a major one. We need a spam button on App Store reviews. Apple apparently doesn't want developers to reply directly to reviews or remove reviews to keep shady developers from taking down critical reviews, so fine: crowdsource it. Plenty of app fans would be glad to flag spam comments like this.
Sadly, I have to wonder how many normal people browsing the App Store for a good app get confused by junk like this.
Blogging with plain text files - as I do on this site with Kirby - makes it easy to edit your posts or write something new from just about anywhere. All you need is a plain text editor and an FTP app, and you're in business. No special editors required.
The first part is easy; I already had a ton of plain text editors that I loved on the iPhone. My favorite, iA Writer, makes it simple to write in markdown and sync my thoughts back to the Mac. But if I want to actually post to my Kirby powered site on the go, I'd need a way to FTP files to my server.
That's where Textastic comes in. It's a great text/code editor that includes a special row of extra keys to make it easier to type code without having to search through special characters all the time, and even includes the Solarized color schemes and Source Code Pro font I use in Sublime Text on the Mac. But what makes it really great is that it can upload text files, folders, and images via FTP, which is exactly what I need to post to my Kirby-powered site. I can write in any editor - even iA Writer - then open the file in Textastic and upload it to my site. Quick and simple.
So, if you're looking for a way to post to your Kirby-powered site, or any other plain-text file-based CMS, from your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, give Textastic a try. It's a great little app that can let us coding geeks feel at home and get more done in the post-PC world.
Most apps don't really have a life-changing effect on our lives, at least not in a dramatic way. Even the apps we use every day don't usually end up making that connection with us that makes us feel grateful that the app was around for us. But for me, there was one app over the recent holiday season that did make that lasting connection with me: the new Livestream.
Go check out the review for more info. Or if you want to just go try it, here's my quick review: Livestream makes it dead-simple to stream live video from events, and it worked perfectly when we needed it. That's about as high of praise as I can think of for an app.
When I first switched to the Mac, I wasn't used to using a native email app. Years of using PCs and trying to endure Outlook, Windows Live Mail, and more just made Gmail seem all the nicer. Consequently, I tried out Mail.app, but pretty much went back to using Gmail online. That is, until I tried out Sparrow.
Sparrow didn't click for me instantly, but once it did, I was hooked. Sparrow was the best of Gmail mixed with the best of a native Mac app, and I was hooked. Its clean interface and native labels support, combined with CloudApp - my favorite file sharing tool - made it the perfect email tool for me. As someone who gets dozens - if not hundreds - of emails per day, Sparrow ended up being one of the apps I use the most.
Then, Google had the bright idea to buy out Sparrow and stop developing it. Sparrow still works great today, but odds are that won't last forever. A future OS X update that breaks it would mess my email workflow up entirely. Plus, it has a few odd bugs - like showing a blank white window if you open a new email in a new window without previewing it in the main app window first, or the not-so-infrequent search failure - that seem to bug me more every day they're not fixed.
Today, the options are basically Mail.app (Apple's built-in email app), Postbox (a spinoff from Thunderbird), and Outlook (Microsoft's … wait, don't even go there). There's also a number of promising new mail apps coming soon for the Mac, including the Sparrow-inspired .Mail, but I really need something new today.
That's why Mail.app is going to be my next email app. My colleague Pierre Wizla just wrote a brilliant article at Mac.AppStorm about how he uses Mail.app, including ways to customize it to make email less of a time-drag. Go read it, I'll wait.
Now you see why I'm sold on using Mail.app. Just the CMD+[number] trick to switch between smart mailboxes - incidentally the same shortcut that works in Safari to trigger bookmarklets in your bookmarks bar - is enough to make me think that Mail.app will integrate better in my workflow than any other email app has so far.
Patience is a virtue, they say, but it's a virtue I don't have the patience to master. That's why several weeks ago, when a PayPal transfer didn't go through to my bank within the expected 2-3 days, I promptly made a Skype call to the bank to see what's up.
It's worth mentioning that I don't have the most traditional banking setup. I transfer money from PayPal to the New York branch of my bank in Thailand. I've also just started doing this, and it was the first time I'd transferred from PayPal directly instead of going through another bank first. Delays perhaps should have been expected. But then, that'd take patience.
So I call the bank long distance during my evening so it's daytime in the US, and count my blessings that Skype calls are cheap. Moments later, I'm talking to a teller who explains that my account isn't showing any pending transfers, but then says that they're experiencing delays now.
Her voice cracks. "I'm sorry, but we're in a temporary location due to floods, and that's delayed everything."
The world spins slower. I suddenly feel cold, heartless.
Banks aren't supposed to be worthy of our compassion, and digital transactions should just work, right? I press a button online, and expect cash to come out of my local ATM days later with no problem, always, every time. It's just bits and numbers, and if Google can do searches in 3 microseconds, then the bank is just old fashioned if they can't get my money to me as fast and cheap as possible.
And yet, it takes humans to keep those bits flowing. It takes a lady at a branch of my bank in New York, someone who was displaced thanks to Sandy, to make sure my transactions are processed. Perhaps there's an easier way for the bank to do it, a more efficient process, but no matter. Right now, there's a real human making sure my click actually does what it's supposed to do. The thought that Sandy had affected real people that process my bank transactions never crossed my mind.
In the end, the transfer went through, thanks to the amazing people at my bank that kept working through Sandy, a storm I totally forgot about when I rung their number from Bangkok. A storm that affected their lives, and made the people behind the bits more real.
~
This Thanksgiving weekend, my Dad came down with stroke-like symptoms, leading to a late-night ER visit, one night in the hospital, and numerous scans. Thankfully, today the doctors said he was fine, thanks to the marvel of technology that is a MRI scan. It turned an image of his brain into bits, and let the doctor see that his brain was fine. Blood tests turned samples of his blood into bits of data that showed things he needs to keep tabs on going forward.
Yeah, just bits. But some rather important bits, bits that mattered far more to me than a stray bank transfer.
Of all things, it was Windows XP and IE6 that got all of my Dad's medical info from lab to technician to doctor. The very OS and browser we all love to decry fun at online was now serving a live-changing function for my family. It was keeping a vast medical center running, day in and day out. Ancient, outdated bits were still working, giving me a new perspective on just how tough it would be to move organizations like this to new computing platforms.
And in the end, it wasn't the raw bits that mattered so much, or the XP Bliss background that filled the doctor's screen. The results could have been written in Comic Sans, for all I cared. It was the people - the technicians, receptionists, doctors - that used those bits to get us an appointment, analyze Dad's data, and tell us what to do, that really mattered.
~
We often decry banks for being greedy, and wonder aloud how people could be so lazy as to never upgrade past IE6. We get frustrated with web pages take more than a few seconds to load, are frustrated when an online order gets delayed, and expect doctors to instantly know how to help us (or else expect we can Google Doctor our own selves). When our favorite app breaks, or support doesn't email back in 1 minute, or the app we want to buy hasn't been reviewed by anyone yet, or mobile internet is flaky, we're frustrated, annoyed, and worse.
The people using old tech? They're luddites. The weather knocks out a popular site? Well, they surely should find some way to keep the power on, or else we'll move our business elsewhere.
You know what? It's not all that simple. There's people behind those bits, people with real lives and problems and time constraints, and sometimes there's a real-world explanation for our tech problems. And sometimes, there's a better reason for things we see as problems than we'd ever think of behind the comfort of our browsers.
One day, you'll be on the bad side of the bits. Or the good side of old bits. And it'll all make a bit more sense.
There's a few books that have made me stop and think more about my writing, and the overall strategy behind the sites I write for. I first started studying content strategy to improve my work writing copy for startups when I worked at CoSupport, but the things I've learned from these books have helped me with my writing and editing work ever sense. I'm still not a great writer, in any sense, but these books have been helpful to me, and I hope they're helpful to you as well.
This is the first book that made me seriously think different about how I approach writing and editing. It'll introduce you to Content strategy, if you've never heard of the term, and will help you rethink how you think about content. You'll go away thinking about why to write what you write.
The Elements of Content Strategy led me to this book, and it became the English textbook that taught me more than any English textbook I ever used in college. It takes you, step by step, though your content and how you should plan, edit, and more. It's a goldmine of ideas for making your online writing better, whether you're writing individual articles or editing a whole site. The main things it taught me were to write more concisely (still learning), and have a constant flow to my writing. It's big and in-depth, but it's good.
Sure, it might be derided for being outdated or having wrong advice, and I definitely don't apply everything it teaches. But it is a great refresher on writing proper English, filled with tips on things that most of us totally forget after leaving English I in school. Plus, it's free, so it'll only cost you the time to refresh your memory. It really is good.
This book is about design, but I found that reading it inspired me to write better. It's described as "A fieldguide for makers. A love letter to design." That seems a pretty adequate description for me. If you think of your writing as a craft, as something you do to express your creativity, then this is a book that will inspire you.
At least, it has and continues to inspire me.
Read the first chapter, How and Why, online for free
A Pen and Pencil, or a Blank Document and Your Keyboard | you
Oh wait, that's not a book. Not yet, anyhow.
The very best way to improve your writing is to write, and write, and write. That's why I'm writing this article, and why you should go write something right now. Then publish it, or throw it away. It really doesn't matter. Just making yourself put words down, and then doing that every day, is the very best thing you can do for your writing.
A fascinating interview with the designer behind iA Writer, the markdown writing app I use daily (even to write this post). The interview covers everything from his typography work, thoughts on responsive design, nostalgia in digital design, and why information architecture is here to stay.
Also, if you haven't read it yet, be sure to check out his great interview on The Verge: "Good design is invisible".
