Mac Lion Apps

January 5, 2012 at 3:43 pm | Apple, blabbing, Design, web.

I love the new Mac Lion operating system. The thing that I can’t figure out is why Apple decided to make Address Book and iCal have these old funky looking UIs to them.

Apple Apps Page

Take a look at the new Mac mail and it’s all nice, gray, minimalistic icons, clean. Same with Safari, iTunes and the App Store itself. In fact most of these Apps are based on the UI component set that Apple gives out with it’s Xcode developer set. Now take a look at the Address Book or iCal. Why make them look like out dated versions of analog products. Are we going to get an iTunes redesign that looks like a radio? or a Quicktime version that looks like a fake television. All the people that would be comforted by these design throw backs won’t be using these applications anyway.

Moving from paper planner to digital apps in 2012

January 3, 2012 at 9:38 am | blabbing, business.

I have been a user of paper planners for something like 15 years. Each year I would get a new set of pages and each year I would use them a little less. I had been using the franklin planner for the whole time so the $50 a year for the pages and refills was starting to seem a little silly.

On the digital side I have been using Evernote for a while an it has been a great addition. The App works great and the iPhone and Chrome versions are a great help in making sure that I have access all the time. Being able to add whole web pages to a note, links, pictures from my phone etc. has been great when going to a hardware store and trying to remember the make or model of a an air filter.

Another addition that I started using recently was Trello by the nice folks at Fog Creek. This has made the whole task based idea much easier to let go of in my planner. The ability to setup multiple task lists (boards) and customize them to your own workflow has been great. Each task then has a “back” or content area where you can add lists, pictures, notes etc. You can also add people to your board and assign them tasks.

Now that I am sans-planner for 2012, I am already starting to miss my beautiful pen that my wife bought me, but I won’t be going back.