Bicycle For Your Mind
2015 The Yearly Roundup
On the Mac:
- El Capitan happened. The new version of the OS fixed a lot of outstanding bugs on the OS for me. I am happy with the refinements to the OS at this point.
- Sublime Text 3 became the dominant text editor for me. I inhaled a couple of books on it: Sublime Text Power User Book and Sublime Productivity. I wrote about writing markdown in Sublime Text 3 here.
- Ulysses took over from Scrivener as the writing app for long form writing this year. Augmented by the iPad version, Ulysses is an absolute pleasure to write in.
- Alfred. This application with its workflows is now a "must have application" for me. Can't imagine using a Mac without this installed.
- Keyboard Maestro. I got more familiar with Keyboard Maestro and started using it to automate tasks.
- Deckset. Discovered this little gem and started making presentations with markdown and using Deckset to present.
- Seil and Karabiner changed the caps lock key into a Super Key (⌘+⌃+⌥+⇧), which made it convenient to assign keyboard commands which did not conflict (both in Alfred and Keyboard Maestro). I took the first tentative steps into the rabbit hole of keyboard customization. Makes me productive but also ensures that I look like a buffoon when in front of someone else’s Mac. I am going to write about it in more detail when I am a lot more comfortable with this.
- Hazel became integral to the management of files and the automation provided by it makes my life easier.
- TextExpander grew further into being indispensable on the Mac and the iPad. I find myself using TextExpander’s ability to fill in the blanks snippets to automate some of the routine tasks of maintaining a blog.
- Wunderlist and a text file maintained in Sublime Text 3 with the PlainTasks plug-in are responsible for my schedule and task lists.
- PDF Expert by Readdle got released on the Mac. Immediately it supplanted Preview as the reader and manager of pdf files.
- Clearview is the new ebook reader for me. I spend a lot of time reading books in this application.
- Blot.im now hosts this blog. I wrote about it here.
On the iPad:
- Ulysses for the iPad happened. I wrote about it here. It has taken over all my writing on the iPad. I love this application.
- 1Writer took over as the notetaking app from Editorial. Editorial is a great product, but 1Writer gets updated faster than Editorial. I am happy to see two such great text editors competing in the iOS space.
- Drafts 4 is the app I use as a text box. I write in it and send the content over to a whole host of services, e.g., email, Dropbox, Twitter.
- OmniOutliner 2 appeared on the App Store. Made it possible to use outlines to think things through on the iPad. I am working on this app daily.
- Tweetbot 4 for Twitter is where I access Twitter. The best twitter experience on any platform for me.
- TotalReader for iPad is the new reader on the iPad for me. It supports a whole range of formats and has the ability to access books from a host of cloud services.
Hardware:
- Magic Keyboard is spreading its magic. Limited desk space made me ditch my Das Keyboard for the time being. I needed something smaller. Magic Keyboard fits the bill. Who designed the Up/Dn arrow keys? Other than that I am happy with it.
- iPad Pro is on the wish list. One of these days, I keep telling myself.
The Future:
- There is an nvALT successor coming from Brett Terpstra the mad scientist. I cannot wait.
- Ulysses for iPad is getting an iOS makeover. It is going to work on both the iPhones and the iPads. I am looking forward to that.
- Quiver is an app which I am getting familiar with. It does some nifty things and I am learning them. I will write about it soon.
- Marked 2 like every app Brett Terpstra creates does a lot of nifty stuff and I need to learn how to use it better.
- LightPaper is a new entrant in the markdown based text editor field. It does some new things no one else does. I am getting to like it. I will write about it in more detail shortly.
macosxguru at the gmail thingie