Taking Notes on the iPad

Macdrifter does a great job of surveying the field. I disagree on his thoughts about Notes Plus though. I think the file organization and ease of use make it a contender.

About Lodsys

One of the cardinal rules of this website is that I will never provide any legal advice. Not only is this to keep me from getting sued for malpractice but also because this part of my life is separate from that part of my life. Nevertheless, people have asked and I think it is time to weigh in with my own thoughts.

First a little background

I don’t practice intellectual property law. I don't know anything about it. I have never represented a client concerning an intellectual property issue. I have no more knowledge about this stuff than any of the other Internet carnival barkers out there. If you read anything in this post and used it to make a legal decision in your own life, that would make you a moron. If you’ve got a legal problem, get a lawyer. The one thing I am sure about when an intellectual property issue arises for one of my clients is to run, not walk, to the nearest IP specialist and hand them off.

What I also know is that patent and trademark cases are one of the most efficient ways to kill a company. It is like terminal cancer, heart disease, and a hernia all rolled up into one ball of pain. I tell my clients that litigating in the patent court is the same as building a bonfire of $100 bills. Burn baby burn. Perhaps it's not clear, but I am not a fan of patent and trademark litigation.

What we know, now

It is undisputed that Apple entered a license agreement with Lodsys. Nobody on the outside, however, has seen it. I suspect somewhere in that agreement is a critical paragraph that talks about the extent and scope of the license. It either applies to independent app developers using the Apple produced API or doesn't. That is what a lot of very expensive lawyers are going to spend the next year arguing about and ultimately, barring settlement, a smart person in a black robe will decide.

Before Apple went public on this, one possible outcome was that this matter would just go away. Indeed, the first draft of this post included an extensive discussion of this possibility. I reasoned that if Apple’s own reading of the license agreement was that the license didn't extend to independent app developers, Apple would quietly enter negotiations with Lodsys to amend the agreement, write a check, and be done with it. This would be done quietly because Apple does not want to open the door for every other software license agreement and, frankly, because it is Apple.

That did not happen. To the contrary, Apple very publicly states that it has reviewed the license agreement and believes it applies to the app developers. I suspect Apple attorneys burned the midnight oil during the last week reaching that conclusion so such a definitive statement could be made.

I don't think Apple has the disdain for its developers that some imply. Nor do I believe they will leave developers in the lurch. The stakes are too high for Apple. If independent app developers can get sucked into intellectual-property litigation at the drop of a hat, a lot of them would leave the platform. I certainly would. I'm happy that Apple has stepped in. What started out looking like David versus Goliath now looks like Goliath versus the Imperial Death Star.

Although I've seen none of the underlying documents in this case and don't pretend to understand the patents at issue, I suspect this matter really boils down to a matter of contract. The Lodsys/Apple license is either broad enough to cover these app developers or not. In either case, I suspect Apple is going to do right and all future Apple software licenses just got about five pages longer to make sure this never happens again.

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Mac Power Users 50: Workflows with David Wain

Mac Power Users Episode 50 is available for download. Katie and I are joined by actor, writer, director, and really sweet person, David Wain. This is one of my very favorite episodes. In it David talks about how he used Apple technology to write, direct, and edit the upcoming feature film, Wanderlust. Make sure to check this one out.

You can get it on iTunes here or on the web right here. Enjoy.

More OmniFocus Screencasts

These aren’t mine but they are very good. Check them out at AsianEfficiency.com.

Home Screens - Brett Kelly

Brett Kelly (twitter) really likes Evernote. He likes it so much that one day he just decided to write a book about it, Evernote Essentials, which became the definitive guide for Evernote. I had heard about Brett but never realized, until recently, that he lives near me. So Brett and I got together for breakfast and immediately felt like old friends. Brett is also now publishing some well-produced Evernote screencasts. In addition to all other pursuits, Brett loves his iPhone. So Brett, show us what is on your home screen.

I have a dual-purpose philosophy for home screen apps: these 16 apps are comprised of a) apps that I really like and use regularly and b) apps that I want to use more. I find that if I see an app when I unlock my phone, I’m more likely to think about firing it up. This obviously depends a great deal on the app in question as well as the time and place, but it’s helped me to do better at adopting apps whose potential is clear.

What is most your most interesting app?

My most “interesting” home screen apps are probably Instacast and Evernote (which I keep in the dock, so that may disqualify it from the “home screen” category). The former has completely changed how I consume podcasts on my iPhone. Before Instacast, getting new podcast episodes required either syncing with iTunes or downloading them piecemeal using the iTunes app. Other than occasionally moving music I’d purchased on the phone into iTunes, podcasts were the only reason I ever synced my iPhone. Instacast lets me bypass that whole process by allowing me to add/edit/delete podcast subscriptions and download new episodes, all from within the app. It’s a bargain at ten times the $3 price.

Evernote is a no-brainer for me. It’s easily among my top 3 most-used apps (along with OmniFocus and Twitter) and is an indispensable capture tool for me. I use it to keep track of where I go (and when I was there) using the geotagging business, to fully photo-document my son’s t-ball games and my daughter’s ballet classes and as a portable copy of my entire digital filing cabinet (plus a pantload of other uses). Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Evernote, so none of this should come as any surprise (disclosure: I work for Evernote).

What is your favorite app?

Choosing a favorite app would be tough, but the two contenders would certainly be OmniFocus and Evernote. OmniFocus is my task manager of choice on both my Macs, my iPad and my iPhone. It’s hard to overstate just how mind-bindingly awesome it is, particularly on the iPad (a point you’ve made on many occasions). It’s got all the oats you could possibly want in a task manager, but let’s you keep it simple if that’s your deal. I won’t belabor this point, but suffice it to say that OmniFocus is what I tap by default when absentmindedly unlocking my iPhone.

My guilty pleasure would definitely be Ego. It’s a simple app that let’s you track your social-ish stats: RSS subscribers, twitter followers, blog page views, etc. I will freely admit that there’s a certain amount of narcissism inherent in apps like this (hence the name), but it does give me a dashboard-style view of how popular I am and, thus, how worthwhile my existence is on this earth. Kidding.

So what is missing from your iPhone?

I’ll be honest — and this is going to sound extremely fanboy-like — there isn’t really an app that I want to exist that doesn’t. I’m already pretty floored by what my iPhone can do and it does just about everything I want. I could do with a little less friction in some cases (I’d pay money for native clipboard history or TextExpander-style functionality), but on the whole I’m very happy with everything my phone does.

How often do you use your iPhone?

I use my iPhone pretty regularly throughout the day. I work at home and, as such, I often need to get away from my desk for a few minutes. If I’m taking a walk, I’m probably listening to a podcast or skimming RSS feeds in Reeder. If I’m in the kitchen making a tasty snack, I’m probably reading Twitter or doing email triage. If I’m at my desk, it will frequently serve dutifully as my Pandora player (so I can avoid having to spin up the molasses-laden CPU hog Flash player on my Mac). After business hours, I use my iPhone a great deal more for taking quick snaps of my family or shooting short video clips. I suck at both of these activities to startling degrees, but the iPhone makes that particular act of sucking very, very easy.

What is your favorite iPhone feature?

I’ve carried golf bags for some UI designers and one axiom of their field that has stuck with me is the idea that interfaces should do the least surprising thing. Both the iPhone and the iPad absolutely nail this: for the most part, they do what you expect when you interact with them. A close second would be that, with both devices, Apple built them to be responsive above just about anything else. I very rarely find myself tapping on a button or swiping the screen without something happening, even if it’s already grinding away on something. In my admittedly limited experience with other smartphones, this simply isn’t the case — at least, not to the same extent.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Personally, I can’t stand the folders. The current iteration of iOS allows 11 screens of un-folder-ed apps. I can’t imagine requiring more space than that. I understand the idea of logically grouping applications, but the novelty wore off very quickly because, at least for me, it just meant I needed to tap the screen a few extra times to launch the app that I wanted. I’ve used the same apps (in the same arrangement) for long enough that I know instinctively where to go and how to launch them. Folders would effectively kneecap my ability to launch apps without looking closely at the Springboard.

My only exception to this whiny folder-hating approach is that I use a single folder to hold all of the stock apps that I rarely or never use and can’t outright delete: Notes, Contacts, Weather, Compass, Voice Memos, Stocks, etc. I also keep the App Store and iTunes apps in this folder to avoid excessively draining my wallet; out of sight, out of mind.

Thanks Brett.

iGlue

Over the past decade, Apple has turned the technology world on its head with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. All of these were transformative device to change the landscape of consumer electronics. It has also fueled legendary growth for the company with significant profits every year arriving on products that did not exist the year before.

At some level, however, none of these products were particularly surprising. Rumors of the iPhone swirled for years before it arrived. Likewise, all of us nerds were pining away for the iPad long before Apple bestowed it upon us.

So now that we have all of these devices the question arises, what is next? If Apple wants to continue to grow, it needs to continue to innovate and amaze us. So what is the next innovative product? There are several contenders:

The Apple Television

One popular source of speculation is the idea that Apple will build its own television set. I can see it in my mind’s eye: a monolithic slab of Ivesian industrial design with just the right amount of glass and aluminum and a remote controller with no buttons but a pulsing Apple icon. The trouble is, I’m not sure even I, a veteran of countless Apple launch day lines, would buy one. People don’t buy new TVs like they do iPods or iPhones. Moreover, the TV business is cutthroat and low margin, which is not Apple’s cup of tea. In order to make an Apple television work Apple would have to transform the experience and I’m not sure they can. This would rely on cooperation of networks and content providers, which is outside Apple’s control. In short, the Apple television sounds like small profits and big headaches. Perhaps Apple will prove me wrong but I don’t see that as the next big thing.

The iSomethingElse

Apple has experimented in the past with making printers, external hard drives, cameras, and other consumer electronics. The rub is, the company has done none of that since Steve came back. These again are small margin industries where Apple can’t change the world the same way it did with the iPhone and iPad.

I believe the Apple engineers are in iterate mode improving upon existing technologies for the iPhone and iPad (and to a lesser extent the Mac) so they can remain ahead of the competition. I do not believe they have cooked up some new device that none of us thought of to change the world, again. Put simply, the next Big Thing isn’t a thing at all. Instead, I think it is glue to pull the existing Apple products line together even tighter. It is time for iGlue.

iGlue

This is no revalation. The Internet is buzzing with talks of the mystereous Apple server farm and iCloud. Apple has built an amazing product family. Now it’s time to work on family relations. Apple needs to turn itself into the digital hub of our lives. We should be able to buy an Apple device, type in account credentials, and have immediate access to all of our digital bits. By this I don’t mean just songs we’ve bought from iTunes. I think it should be documents, pictures, media, and everything else in our home folders. The whole enchilada.

I have talked to Apple employees and they get this. There is no mystery that the world is turning cloud-based and those who ignore this will get left behind. I think this is a challenge for Apple. Clearly, synchronizing and cloud-based solutions are Google’s game, not Apple’s. Can Apple succeed outside of its comfort zone? I think so.

The very public failure that was the MobileMe launch has not faded from anyone’s memory, especially Apple’s. Common wisdom is that Apple can’t “do” the Internet. I think common wisdom is wrong. While Apple has tinkered with the Internet so far, I don’t think Apple has “done” the Internet yet. That is about to change.

With billions sitting in the bank, Apple can build the massive data centers and hire the required talent to make them humm. The only variable left is heart, and I suspect we’ll know just how much Apple’s heart is in the iCloud in the next few months.

So what if Apple brought its considerable resources to bear on the Internet problem? What would we see? I think it is a service that is not as aggressive as Google with new features but really nails those everyday features consumers need with a gorgeous interface and panache. Apple never overreaches with the first steps in a new venture. The MobileMe fiasco will make them even more conservative with a big cloud syncing rollout. So will I get my whole enchilada on day one? Probably not. Nevertheless, I believe the next big thing will be iGlue and when the dust settles, people will stop saying that Apple cannot “do” the Internet.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Macworld Interview Video

If you were busy last week when I did my Mac at Work talk with Jason Snell, it is now available for viewing right here. The video requires a sign in and Flash but if you can get past all that AND are a nerdy mac-worker, it is absolutely riveting.

OmniFocus for iPad 1.3, See Tomorrow Today

I heard this update was coming last week and have to admit I’ve been checking the iPad App Store several times a day lately. iPad OmniFocus version 1.3 warms the cockles of my heart. It was just a few days ago that I wrote about the Omni Group and iteration. Well let me just say that The Omni Group just iterated the hell out of iPad OmniFocus and now it is available for download.

The new version takes the already useful Forecast view and turns the dial up to 11. The new Forecast mode adds a calendar bar to the bottom of the screen so you can see calendar items in the forecast view. Also, you can toggle it to also include tasks with start dates on the forecast days. If you lasted through my 2 hour screencast deathmarch of OmniFocus ninja tricks, you already know I use start dates extensively to manage my tasks. Now I can see what is up tomorrow, or three days from now, along with the calendar items for that day. I’ve been asking for this feature for years and the implementation is great. With this update, iPad OmniFocus becomes even more prominent in my task management workflows. Good times.

There is a lot more to 1.3 including full screen note editing, better badge counts, gestures showing up when mirroring, and other improvements. The Review sidebar is also now sorted in Library order, which is an improvement.

Fantastical

I get sent lots of beta software. Sometimes I’m impressed. Sometimes not so much. I’ve been running the betas of the newly released Fantastical for several weeks and it changed the way I add events. As soon as it hit the Mac OS X App Store, I paid my $15 willingly. This is a menubar app that applies fuzzy logic to event creation. Type in “Basket Weaving Class tomorrow at 2pm” and it creates an event tomorrow at 2pm called Basket Weaving class. It even lets you watch it decipher your text so you can make adjustments before adding the event. In short, I dig it.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

OmniFocus Screencast , Episode 3

The final installment of the OmniFocus trilogy is available for download. Find it on the web here or better yet subscribe to the Mac Power Users Podcast. Studies show subscribing to the podcast increases life expectancy and helps you grow full and lusterous head of hair.

I had a lot of fun making these podcasts. After I finish iPad at Work, I may make a few more. Regardless, this never would have been possible without J.F. Brissette’s production assistance and help. Enjoy.