Category: Mac

In July of this year, Apple announced the 27″ LED Cinema Display and, as most of us would expect, it isn’t a cheap piece of hardware.

Apple has a reputation for producing high quality products – and no one can deny that. There is often a good amount of discussion as to whether they mark their prices up simply because they know the Apple fans will pay for it, or because their products are actually superior to their competitors.

Right now, Apple sells only one computer monitor – the 27″ LED Cinema Display. It specs out (we’ll get into that in a bit) very well and comes in at a beefy $999. In the day of bigger and bigger displays and cheaper and cheaper prices, Apple goes against the flow here a bit by staying at a higher price point.

The question is, do you get what you pay for?

The Specs

Apple tends to focus on building high quality products that are also beautiful. The latest Cinema display is no different. Here are the technical specifications:

• Screen size: 27 inches (diagonal viewable)
• Screen type: TFT active-matrix LCD with in-plane switching (IPS)
• Resolution: 2560 by 1440 pixels
• Colors: 16.7 million
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Viewing angle: 178 degrees horizontal; 178 degrees vertical
• Brightness: 375 cd/m2
• Contrast ratio: 1000:1
• Response time: 12 ms

This looks like a lot of “tech talk” here (and it is), but I’d like to point out a couple important features of the LED Cinema display.

Resolution

The maximum resolution of of the LED Cinema display is 2560 by 1440 pixels. That is a super high resolution and definitely narrows down the number of direct competitors. There are many 27″ (or larger) displays available from other manufacturers that are much cheaper, but this is a key ingredient where many fall short. Displays in the $300 range will fall into the 1920 by 1080 pixel range at best.

You may argue that resolution doesn’t really make much difference to the average user, but this is a very significant difference. Consider this: viewing a a high resolution photo that is 2560 by 1440 pixels (it would fill the screen on the LED Cinema Display) on a 1920 by 1080 pixel display would cut off about 25% of the image. That would be around a 4 megapixel image – which by today’s standard is pretty small.

To the average user, I would still say that the larger screen resolution is a fairly big deal. To the photographer or graphic artist, it is absolutely a big deal and probably a huge selling point. A screen resolution of that size just makes life easier. There’s no doubt about it.

IPS

You’ll also notice from the technical specs above the screen type is listed as a TFT active-matrix LCD with in-plane switching (IPS). There’s a lot of technical jargon there, but the big thing to notice is that the Cinema Display uses IPS.

This is a technology that displays the liquid crystals a bit differently, to greatly increase the viewing angle – Apple says 178 degrees both horizontal and vertical. Because of this, the color values are also more true as viewing from a slightly different angle won’t change the color. Screen lag was initially a problem with the technology, but that issue has been resolved for the most part in recent years.

This is a big bonus for professional graphic artists out there, but probably not as big of a deal to more standard users. This is another feature that you won’t get with a similar sized, but much cheaper, display.

Design and Construction

Apple puts a lot of time and thought into how their products are designed. Even if you’re completely anti-Apple, I don’t think you can argue against this. If you’ve owned any Apple device you will notice the high quality of construction.

This display is a hefty 23.5 lbs. Not that weight is necessarily an indicator of quality, but I know we’ve all picked up some device that looked really great but ended up just feeling cheap and light when it was in our hands.

As with all Apple products, there is a lot of attention to detail. The Cinema Display is a beautiful, sleek piece of hardware that looks great sitting on any desk. It is a little difficult to put a price on style necessarily, but that is certainly where some of the cost is justified here.

I realize this is somewhat a matter of taste, but I would argue that Apple puts more thought into the style of their displays than their competitors selling similar products. It is a differentiating factor and therefore is worth a premium price. A thoughtful design is worth something.

A Mac Companion

This display was built to be a perfect companion to your MacBook, Mac Pro, iMac, or Mac Mini. It comes with a three in one cable that has a MagSafe power connector, a mini DisplayPort connection, and a USB connection (there are 3 USB ports on the back of the display).

This thoughtful integration is big selling point to someone who already owns an Apple computer (especially a MacBook). The display also has a built in iSight camera and iMic microphone. This is something you won’t see very often on competing displays.

Comparisons

Initially it seems like there are a plethora of displays to compare to the Apple LED Cinema Display, but that really isn’t the case. True, there are lots of LCD displays in the 27″ range, but there are very few with the same core features.

One is the Dell UltraSharp U2711. It has the same native resolution, and also the in-plane switching technology (IPS). This is a very solid display and seems to be well loved by many in the tech community.

It is priced at $1,099. That is $100 more expensive than the LED Cinema. The only gripe I’ve seen with this one is that more thought was put into the function than the design. Not a bad thing necessarily, but why not get both if you can.

Another is the NEC PA271W. Again, same resolution and also with IPS. This one comes in at a retail price of $1,399. Now that is a whopping $400 more expensive than the LED Cinema display. The technical specs are pretty comparable, but you could say that this one comes with a few extra bells and whistles that the Cinema does not.

Conclusion

The Apple LED Cinema display is an expensive display, there is no question about it, but as we’ve seen it isn’t even the most expensive of it’s category. I’ve seen a lot of comments around about this display being incredibly overpriced and not worth it. A common argument would link off to some $250 Vizio display, which for its own purposes is I’m sure a solid display, but really not at all a fair comparison.

There are very few displays that offer the same core features that the Cinema Display does, and with it being priced toward the lower end of that group, I’m not sure you can say that it’s overpriced.

You could argue that is not worth it to you personally, and that could definitely be true, but to say you can get the same quality of display for a few hundred dollars just isn’t accurate.

I’d seen a good amount of discussion centred around the Cinema Display, and I decided to do a little research and come to my own conclusion. So here it is…

If you’re a current Mac owner, work in a profession where high screen resolution and true screen color is important, and can afford it, I think it is a no-brainer. The 27″ Cinema Display is an affordable, technologically advanced, beautiful, and functionally designed display.

Although I’m used to giving away software here at Mac.AppStorm, it’s always good to have a change of pace from time to time! Today we’re giving away five products from The Lucky Labs – you’ll be able to take your pick of any single item in their store, be it for your MacBook, iPhone or iPad.

The Lucky Labs make some really fun-looking covers and skins for your Apple gear, and you’ll be the envy of your friends with a stylish, funky graphic on your MacBook lid…

Entering is really easy – just leave a comment on this post! We’ll randomly pick the five winners in one week, and will send you an email to explain how to submit your request for a free product.

The Lucky Labs are happy to ship anywhere in the world, so this one’s open to everyone. Good luck!

It’s time for another “Ask the Editor” post today. A big thank you to everyone who sent in their questions – it’s great to have the chance to help you out with your Mac-related queries and quibbles.

Some of the topics covered this week include gaming on the Mac, jumping to the beginning or end of a line, sharing photos with remote family, and setting up your Time Capsule. Read on to find out what my responses are (and how you can submit your own questions for the next article!)

I am a gamer/designer, so I really need a good graphics card. However, i have a MacBook. Can you buy an external graphics card for this machine?

– RJ Davidson

Unfortunately, this isn’t possible. The MacBook has an in-built graphics card, and there’s no way to expand this externally. A few products have been designed for this in the past, but never really materialised – particularly not for the Mac.

For your design work, a good idea might be to max out the RAM in your MacBook, and even consider getting an SSD to replace the standard hard drive. These would both give you a major performance boost.

Is there a way to sync iPhotos on my Mac to an iPad without using iTunes? I want to be able to share photos with my family who live in another city and have only the iPad.

– Siv

Absolutely. The beauty of the Web 2.0 world we live in means that there are plenty of ways to share photos across the airwaves – whether they’re in another city, or another part of the world!

An easy way to do this is using iPhoto itself. If you have a MobileMe subscription, there are plenty of fancy options available that allow your family to subscribe to a particular gallery.

If not, you could easily export images to a Flickr album, or export a video slideshow and upload it to a social sharing site such as YouTube. All of these would look and work great on their remote iPad!

I’ve been looking for a program to port my Windows Games to my Mac. What programs are out there that can do a better job than Wine?

– James Crawford

Although the Mac has long held the image of not really being a reputable gaming platform, the tide is slowly starting to change. There are a couple of options that I’d recommend.

First would be Crossover Games. This is a fairly lightweight system that lets you run Windows games on your Mac. It isn’t the most powerful system ever – and only certain games are likely to work – but it’s a solid option and recommended by many Mac users.

Another choice would be the recently released Steam for Mac. This is a more powerful platform that supports plenty of really impressive games, and might be worth exploring further. If you’ve bought compatible games through Steam on Windows, you can also download the Mac version free of charge in most cases!

How do i set up Time Capsule without using it as a wireless network? I just want to use it to backup my iMac?

– Wildwolf

This is a really straight-forward process. Time Capsule comes with a piece of software called “Airport Utility”, that helps you configure how the device works.

You’ll want to connect to the Time Capsule via Gigabit Ethernet for a relatively speedy backup – particularly if you’re backing up for the first time. Open up Airport Utility, and hit “Manual Setup” after it identifies your Time Capsule device.

From this panel, select “Wireless”, and change the “Wireless Mode” to “Off”. This will disable the Wi-Fi part of your Time Capsule, and turn it into a simple wired backup device. You can either plug it directly into your iMac, or into another router to have it available on your existing network.

If you’re thinking about turning off the wireless capability though, I’d recommend opting for a straight-forward external hard drive to use as a backup device. It would be far cheaper!

I use a MacBook Pro, and wondered how I can quickly jump to the start or end of a line? (similar to Home / End in Windows)

– Adam Goldschmidt

Despite the smaller size of the MacBook keyboard, it’s still a pretty powerful piece of kit! This is a simple shortcut, and if anything, is easier to do than reaching over for the clunky Home and End keys.

To jump to the end of a line, just hit Cmd + Right Arrow

To jump to the beginning of a line, hit Cmd + Left Arrow

Hopefully that’ll save you any more frustration! Another useful shortcut to remember takes you to the top or bottom of a particular document/webpage.

To jump to the top of a document, it’s Cmd + Up Arrow

Or to jump to the bottom of a document, it’s Cmd + Down Arrow

Didn’t See Your Question?

If you asked a question but didn’t have it answered today, don’t worry! I’ll do my best to get to it in a future week. I love a challenge, so feel free to ask some weird and wonderful questions…

If you’d like to submit your query, you can do so here:Online Form – AppStorm > Ask The Editor

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you agree or disagree with anything I mentioned today!

Anyone who works extensively with diagrams will be hard-pressed to find a more full-featured application than OmniGraffle. It packs all the functions anyone needs to create attractive and professional charts, graphs and diagrams.

But how about those of us with less formal diagramming needs? How does OmniGraffle work for us? We’ll be exploring this question today as we uncover the power of this mainstay of the Mac environment.

A Slew of Diagramming Tools

OmniGraffle is the best-selling diagramming application for Macs. As its name indicates, it is developed by OmniGroup, which also produces OmniOutliner and OmniFocus, among other well-regarded applications.

Downloading and installing OmniGraffle is easy and presents nothing new for anyone who has installed a Mac application before. This may change once the new Mac App Store is fully functional, as the folks at OmniGroup have stated they fully support this new approach. Stay tuned.

OmniGraffle is available in two editions, Professional and Standard. The Standard edition sells for $99.95. OmniGraffle Professional is $199.95. Family packs are available for $149.95 and $299.95 respectively, while academic pricing is $49.95 and $119.95.

For those on the go, OmniGraffle is also available in an iPad edition that fully exchanges diagrams with Mac version.

OmniGraffle is packed with a slew of tools to help you build impressive, professional diagrams. However, it is not a program you can fire up and just start using. There are so many features, even after two weeks of use, I still feel as if I have been only scratching the surface. This is both its strength and its weakness.

For people who make and present diagrams frequently, I can’t imagine a better application than OmniGraffle. I suspect I’m preaching to the choir about that; anyone doing this kind of work on a Macintosh is most likely already using OmniGraffle.

The question is, how does it work for the rest of us? I’ll get to the answer to that after a closer look at the application.

A Canvas for Your Thoughts

When you launch OmniGraffle, you are asked if you want to create a new document. A document is a collection of canvases on which you can build your diagrams. As you create a new document, OmniGraffle prompts you to select what style of diagram you want to make. How the choices are grouped into categories also gives some hint of the versatility of OmniGraffle’s canvas.

Hint: Don’t worry about being locked into a diagram style. You can always change the style via the Format menu.

After you select from the options presented, your new document opens with a fresh canvas. You can start adding objects to the canvas in one of two ways. The method that seemed most intuitive to me was selecting the figure tool, drawing the figure on the canvas, and adding the text. This, however, is not as smooth an operation as it sounds, as you have to draw each object individually and manually apply the links. The far easier and faster method turns out to be using the outline sidebar (which is opened with a toolbar button), typing the headings as you go and adding structure by tabbing headings under one another.

You can add many canvases to any document. This is a good way to build a presentation (Presentation mode is a feature in the Pro edition). You can access the various canvases you create in any one document through the canvas sidebar, which sits on the left hand side of the screen, and can be opened and closed with the toolbar button.

OmniGraffle could easily be considered a drawing program with diagramming features. It is loaded with sophisticated drawing tools and features. For instance, you can create layers on each canvas. You can designate any layer to be a “shared” layer — that is, a layer than can appear in any of the canvases in your document (Pro edition only).

OmniGraffle comes with a generous number of pre-defined stencil shapes, and provides access to a library of user-created stencils to augment your selections.

But you are not limited to the pre-defined shapes. You can create custom shapes using the curved Bezier lines and shapes tool. Sophisticated fill and line commands allow you to further refine the look of your diagram, and smart guides help you align your objects to get your diagram looking just as you’d like.

Creating a Diagram

So let’s put OmniGraffle to the test. I’ll use it to create a quick (and hypothetical) plan for a party, admitting from the start that creating such a wimpy diagram with OmniGraffle is like driving a Ferrari to the corner Kwiky Mart for a bag of pork rinds.

I’m going to select one of the brainstorming diagram styles and get going.

I picked the “Notes” style diagram, but after populating it with a few objects, I realize I don’t like the look and feel. No problem, I can select a new style — this time “Clouds” — and get the following diagram:

As you can see, however, this diagram could use some cleaning up. OmniGraffle doesn’t appear to do a great job auto-adjusting when switching from one diagram style to another. But I can make a few changes using the multitude of styling tools available.

I have changed the background color and blend, cleaned up the object sizes so the text all fits, and have indicated the influence of the number of “Guests” on the selection of the “Location” with a link. None of this is automatic, but it was all fairly easy using the Inspector tools.

One of the handy features that makes altering the diagram quicker is the style tray. I’ll demonstrate how it works. Say I want to change the appearance of all the second-level items in this diagram. I start by getting one of them to look the way I want. When I select it, its formatting styles are reflected in the style tray, as here:

If I just wanted to change the fill, font, line or shape, I could do so with one of the attribute-specific boxes — those seven items in the longish box in the screenshot above. Or I can change all the attributes at once with the little style chit to the left, that’s slightly separated from the others. Here’s how to do it: While keeping the object “Music” selected, I drag the style chit onto each of the objects I want to change, and here’s what results:

The style tray is just one of the handy methods for altering your diagram. Their are a host of others. You can adjust virtually any aspect of any object with the various inspectors, and you can associate a different style with each level in an outline, so that each level looks the way you like it.

The Pro edition has more powerful tools for creating top-shelf diagrams.

The Pro’s

The Pro edition gives you the power to set up a layer of any canvas as a shared layer, which makes it instantly available for incorporation into any other canvas in your open document. You can also combine shapes into one — for instance to put a “hole” in an object.

When it is time to export or print your diagrams, OmniGraffle Pro supports Apple’s ColorSync technology to ensure color accuracy, and exports to scalable vector graphics so your diagrams look their best at any scale on any device.

If you frequently share diagrams with Visio, the top diagramming application for Windows, you should find the added support for Visio exchange invaluable.

For those who need more information about the figures in their diagrams, OmniGraffle Pro provides the ability to add notes and customizable data tables on a figure-by-figure basis using the Note Inspector. Notice in the screen shot below that I’ve added fields for budget and who is responsible.

Other features of OmniGraffle Pro allow you to show how your information is displayed in your diagram. A feature called subgraphs gives you the option of collapsing sections of your diagram to simplify what is displayed, while the table feature converts a group of objects into a grid as in the screen shot below, where I’ve made a table for menu options.

A Few Cons

Despite watching the many useful tutorial videos on the OmniGroup web site, I found OmniGraffle a little frustrating. Some basic functions have roundabout, unintutive methods for accessing. For example, the only way to change the fonts is with the standard Apple fonts control dialog box, which is opened through the text style inspector. One of the features touted by OmniGroup is the mini-inspector, which puts “the most common inspector controls at your fingertips.” This is a nice feature, but why isn’t there a control in the mini-inspector for fonts?

Likewise, there is no inspector option for changing the basic diagram type. Instead, you have to select “choose diagram style” from the format menu. With other diagram controls accessible from the Inspector, this just feels odd and is certainly not intuitive for new users.

For those who spend a lot of time with OmniGraffle, some of these quirks will melt into the background as they become second nature. But for those of us who might only have occasional need for diagramming, it could be a stumbling block trying to re-acquaint ourselves with the application each time we need it.

One helpful feature I anticipated, but found absent, is the ability to paste an indented text file into the diagram and have it explode to its various levels. This basic functionality is available in Curio and the free mind mapping applications Freeplane and Freemind. It is a handy way to incorporate brainstorming done in any outliner into your diagram.

Unfortunately, when you paste indented plain text into an OmniGraffle canvas all you get is the text in a text box. You can open an OmniOutliner file in OmniGraffle and have it converted to a diagram — so if you own OmniOutliner, you can use it for a conduit from any other outlines, but this is hardly user-friendly.

Mapping the Competition

As I have indicated, for those who need a versatile, power diagramming application, OmniGraffle is almost impossible to beat. In fact, for more heavy-duty diagramming, the only comparable product I’ve found is ConceptDraw, but I have not yet tried it myself.

But if your needs are more modest, you might be happier with Curio, an excellent information manager with a pretty good diagramming component, much improved in the new version 7.

Mind-mapping is not a strength of OmniGraffle, so if your diagramming is focussed on this activity, there are definitely better options, including the free open source application Freemind. You might also want to look at MyThoughts and NovaMind.

The Verdict

It’s hard to imagine a more robust collection of tools for building professional-grade diagrams. But OmniGraffle could be more intuitive to use. This, combined with its single-minded focus, makes it a less obvious choice for the casual user.

If my job involved frequently needing to create and present diagrams, there is no other application I’d pick over OmniGraffle. However, I am only a part-time diagrammer. OmniGraffle is way more application than I need. I’m happy with the diagram tool in Curio. When I need a fuller mind map application, I can use Freemind.

Because of this dichotomy I am going to provide two ratings for OmniGraffle. For casual diagrammers like myself, I’d rate it a 7 out of 10, while for power diagramming, I give it a 9 out 10 — so we’ll split the difference at a solid 8.

I believe in preparing for the uneventful. Because if you’re not, technology can be unforgiving. Hardware failure or human carelessness can easily cause you to lose files that are important to you. Even while writing this article, I managed to rid myself of the screenshots I had just gathered!

That instant, when you realize you’ve lost something dear, is absolutely horrifying. And yet everyone – yes, every single one of you – makes these kind of mistakes.

You throw away an old folder without checking its contents, or prematurely decide you won’t be needing a certain file anymore. That’s why you should consider using an application like Disk Drill; to protect you against yourself and the fancies of technology.

Getting Started

When you delete a file, it’s not really gone. Mac OS X only marks those sectors on your hard drive as empty, but until another application or file makes house there, the preceding data won’t be touched.

By looking for coherent data structures in the ‘empty’ hard drive sectors, Disk Drill can recover (some) files that have already been deleted. Bear in mind that it’s not a failsafe technique, so there’s always a probability of not being able to recover specific data.

This probability of loss increases exponentially if you keep on using your computer like normal for a long period of time.

Because Mac OS X works in quite mysterious ways, it can never be wholly predicted where the next file will be written down and in which order this phantom data will expire.

Recovery Vault, Disk Drill’s second and flagship feature, keeps track of what files are deleted when, and which hard drive sectors they previously occupied. This makes an eventual recovery faster and more likely to succeed.

If you’re worried about other people misusing these logs, you can enter a master-password in the application preferences which will be needed for any future access to Recovery Vault.

The Recovery Vault database is stored on the partition it covers. This makes it very effective to use with external hardware, like USB storage, flash drives and even your cellphone.

It also enables you to recover internal hard drives using a different installation of Disk Drill, even if you’ve had a complete hardware meltdown. Recovery Vault can be used on HFS, HFS+ and FAT, but not on NTFS file systems, which are mounted as read-only by default.

Design & Interface

The Disk Drill interface consists of a preventive tab and a recovery tab. Both list all the available disks and partitions as shown below, whether it covers internal or external hardware.

Under Prevent data loss, you can enable Recovery Vault protection globally on your computer, or for each separate partition. The individual folders that are to be monitored or excluded can be specified in the advanced options.

If you switch to the Recover data tab, you’ll be met with a similar view. However, instead of securing your data, you can now scan your disks and partitions for deleted files using various scanning techniques.

Different Types of Scanning

Because Mac OS X formatted disks (HFS/HFS+) work differently than Windows formatted disks (FAT32/NTFS), the exact recovery procedure differs. Windows, for example, retains at least some details about the deleted files, where Mac OS X tends to throw everything into the abyss.

Quick Scan

Quick Scan makes good use of that information, but will only work on FAT32 and NTFS disks. It skims the disk, looking only for these figurative obituaries, and is able to quickly produce a list of deleted files.

Quick Scan is most accurate for files that were deleted very recently and will probably miss a score of other files that lack this shallow trace. For this reason, Disk Drill advises you to use Deep Scan instead, where possible.

Deep Scan

Deep Scan does almost the exact opposite from Quick Scan; it closely examines the disk and runs down every trail in search of deleted files.

This allows it to be used regardless of the file system, or even when the disk in question has been formatted and no viable structure remains.

Using Deep Scan, you’ll likely find every file that’s worth saving. On the flip side, Deep Scan can take a very long time to complete.

Undelete from Recovery Vault

This will only work for HFS, HFS+ and FAT disks that have Recovery Vault enabled. Disk Drill will check the disk for traces of files that were deleted when Recovery Vault was active.

Unlike Deep Scan, which can easily take more than an hour, Undelete works in a matter of seconds to minutes and is highly accurate.

Preview and Recovery</h2

The results of a Deep Scan and Recovery Vault Undelete mainly differ in presentation. A Deep Scan might be able to decipher the content of your files bit by bit, it does not know anything about their past lives; no filenames or information about their previous location is retained.

Recovery Vault, on the other hand, keeps note of both these things. This can make a Deep Scan recovery trickier, because you don’t really know which file is the one you’re looking for.

List of Deleted Files Found

If you didn’t already select a specific data-type before scanning your disk, you can narrow down the results based on type, file size and date of deletion.

Preview, shown at the bottom left, shows you the reconstructed file using Quick View without actually saving it on your desktop. If a file can be previewed, it can also be recovered. However, by previewing a file on your startup disk, there’s always a chance you’ll make other files unrecoverable, as you’ll be claiming empty space to host the temporary files.

Recovering Selected Files

Select the files and folders you want to save and click Recover. These files will be saved to the specified folder, by default on your Desktop.

Depending on the Recovery Chances, there might not be enough left of a file to warrant a full recovery. This means you may end up with several corrupt files. In the end, you play the hand you’re dealt.

Pricing

Disk Drill is currently available as a ”free beta”. This means that the application and all technical support will be free, as long as it remains in beta.

These releases are not limited in time or functionality and will keep working at full capacity after the beta tag is removed, even if the ensuing stable release sports a price tag.

Conclusion

Butter-fingered as I am, I’ve seen my fair share of file recovery applications. They tend to bore you with facts and figures, and a lot of technical data that means absolutely nothing to you.

If you’re lucky, you eventually hit yourself over the head with the right file. Disk Drill shows a different way, befitting for a Mac. But for all its simplicity and casual feel, Disk Drill is still a remarkably powerful application.

With Undelete using Recovery Vault, Quick Scan and Deep Scan, Disk Drill has all file systems covered extensively. Recovery Vault, Disk Drill’s flagship feature, takes care of an important deficiency in Apple’s HFS and HFS+ file systems, hugely facilitating file recovery on Mac OS X in general.

However, Recovery Vault cannot be enabled for NTFS drives. Although it is true that NTFS drives can only be mounted in read-only mode by default, third-party drivers for this popular file system are hardly unheard of.

You can download the free beta of Disk Drill at the Cleverfiles website. If you give it a try, be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

Skype is one of those programs that is used by almost everyone in one way or another. Whether you have it open all day, or just fire it up to chat with family when you’re away on holiday, most Mac users will have encountered it at some point.

Last week, Skype announced the release of a new Beta for Mac users – Skype 5.0. This new version takes a radical departure from the old Skype interface, in an effort to adopt a “one window” approach and make using the app much simpler.

Although I really like the thinking behind this new version – tighter OS X integration, and a simpler interface – I was really disappointed with a few aspects of the design. Most notably the spacing between elements, which quickly becomes a complete nightmare if you have a long list of contacts.

At the very least, I’d have expected an option to scale down the font size, or switch to a more compact view. At present, it feels like the “one window” approach uses up twice as much desktop space, while only showing half the information I’m used to.

If you haven’t tried it yet, download the beta and let us know what you think! Do you agree with me, or are you impressed with the new, roomier interface?

Planning ahead and scheduling events is a key step toward enhancing productivity, and ensuring you don’t miss appointments! That’s where calendar apps come to our rescue, to chart our day-to-day tasks and routines. For an app that comes bundled with your Mac, iCal does a remarkable job.

Lately, I’ve found that it has become a common occurrence for us to use plugins and other utilities to complement the functionality of a great app. And iCal is no exception.

After the jump, we have compiled a list of utilities that help enhance the iCal experience – from powerful syncing, right down to a desktop date line, we have you covered!

Spanning Sync

For those who rely on calendars and address books for a larger part of their professional and personal life, Spanning Sync 3 does not one, but two jobs perfectly.

The app integrates your digital life tightly to the cloud, in particular with your Google Account. All your tasks and schedule from iCal are synced with Google Calendar – and the same with your contacts.

You can sync multiple calendars easily, and can also pair them up with their Google Calendar counterparts. Scheduling intervals and alerts (Email or SMS) can be set from the app as well.

Similarly, all your valuable contacts can be moved from the local disk to Google Contacts, complete with all your fields, notes and pictures. The direction of sync can be adjusted to either merge data, or keep one location read-only.

Today

The idea behind Today is simple. Just keep track of what’s on the cards for today without having iCal open all the time.

It’s true that you can change iCal to “Day View” to show events for the day, but the elegance and simplicity of design make Today a compelling scheduling and task tracking app.

You can create events and tasks directly within the app as well, and everything is synced with iCal.

Bdcalendar

Bdcalendar performs multiple roles as a calendar, iCal viewer, task manager and address book. The calendar has 3 month, 6 month, and 12 month views (slightly unorthodox, but it might work for you!)

Events with alerts and notes can be created in the app itself. While Bdcalendar tries to do a bit too much, it comes with plenty of instructional videos for you to get your head around how it works.

Pluto

Sitting in your menu bar, Pluto helps you manage events, tasks, projects and notes efficiently. In addition to syncing with your Mac’s iCal, the app can also be integrated with your MobileMe account.

Pluto’s user interface is streamlined and thoughtfully designed to be a great GTD (Getting Things Done) tool as well. You can sync the notes and projects to an iDisk or Dropbox account to access them from any other desktop.

DateLine

DateLine deserves a pat on the shoulder for unconventional but brilliant design. A linear calendar is displayed on the desktop, and days with events are highlighted in a contrasting color. Double clicking on the events for the day pops up iCal. Calendar weeks are clearly numbered and marked with dividers.

A notable feature of DateLine is the endless customization possibilities. The app comes with a bunch of color, dimension and font choices to mix things up. For international users, the app is available in a wide range of localized versions.

WeatherCal

WeatherCal shows the latest available weather updates and forecast for certain locations. After installation, you can add the locations of weather you’d like to keep track of (if you travel often, it’s easy to add multiple locations).

Forecasts are color coded, and weather conditions have a description accompanied by a tiny climate icon.

Where available, forecasts can be seen five days ahead and they show up as all-day events in iCal. So you can now be better informed while planning your trips!

MenucalendarClock

As the name implies, MenucalendarClock can be accessed from the menu bar! It displays a calendar, with particular dates highlighted if they have scheduled events.

Selecting a day displays the list of events and tasks planned, with the color code of the respective calendars.

The basic functionality is available for free, and if you’re looking for extra features like event management, and birthday syncing from Address Book, the registered version will cost you $19.95.

Anxiety

Looking for a lighter footprint, Anxiety takes the prize. It is a super-lightweight to do list application that synchronizes with iCal and Mail.app. Unlike other apps, it does not show the list of events planned for the day – only the list of tasks.

Anxiety floats on top of all other apps, yet it melts perfectly to the background. Checking off tasks takes them off the list, while double clicking opens either iCal or Mail.app for extended editing options.

Alarms

Alarms is a fresh take on task management and reminders. The dynamite feature of the app is the ability to add anything – text, files, images, etc – by dragging and dropping them into the timeline.

For example, you can just drag and drop an image from the desktop to a certain time and an alarm is set. When the alarm starts to buzz, look for the task that is due on the To Do column to the left.

Once you check the item off as completed, the alarm stops. A great way to remind yourself of things throughout the day.

BusyCal

As the developers refer, BusyCal is so powerful that you could call it “iCal Pro”. BusyCal can be used as a shared calendar across a local network, and syncs readily with Google Calendar & iCal.

On top of extensive sharing functionality, the app allows you to create to do lists, add sticky notes, view live weather feeds, and much more. Alarms can either be displayed on the menu bar or in a floating window.

Share Your Thoughts!

Although iCal is a pretty solid calendar application in itself, there is plenty of other software that can take it a step further.

Do you use a great iCal-related app yourself? Share it with us in the comments section!

Thanks to CleanMyMac for sponsoring Mac.AppStorm this week! If you’re wanting to free up some hard drive space or speed up your machine, you should definitely take a look at what this fantastic app can do.

Have you ever thought that there just has to be an easier way for interacting with the web? How about not having to type the same information into forms repeatedly, or just logging into a website with one single click instead of half a dozen?

With Fake, an app by the developer of the widely popular Fluid, you can finally automate your web-based workflow to save you lots of time and unnecessary clicks. Intrigued? Then read on after the jump.

Why Is It Fake? And What Is It?

Fake can best be described as Automator for the web. Automator is an application that comes preinstalled on your Mac and allows you to automate all kinds of workflows, but it has a learning curve that intimidates many users.

Fake, on the other hand, is aimed at internet power users and web developers, who are faced with repeated tasks over and over, but without the need to have a deep understanding of scripting. Fake is mostly drag and drop, and therefore allows you to set up actions quickly and easily.

It “fakes” interactions with websites, following the steps you have previously defined. It looks like a mix of Safari and Automator, but it is an app of its own. You cannot run Fake actions from within Safari itself, you are always within Fake.app.

Taking a Closer Look at the Interface

So, what goes where in Fake? The big window to the left loads the website, while the floating pane to the very right holds all the actions which are available to you. When you select an action, you simply drag and drop it into the workflow pane between the actions panel and the website window.

Once you’ve dragged your actions into the workflow pane, you can define the parameters for each step – e.g. setting the URL of a website or the content to fill in a form.

In the following example, I’m calling up the Mobile Me website and having Fake fill in my credentials to log me in. After having set up the workflow, it now just involves one single click for the entire process!

If I was to do that manually, it would mean opening Safari, clicking the address bar, entering the URL, entering my user and password and then clicking the submit button.

This is just a very simple example to showcase how many clicks – and thereby how much time – you can save by automating workflows that you use very often.

Another very helpful feature of Fake is the ability to take screenshots of any website, without you having to go there at all. Simply define the website – and even subpages – that you want to have screenshots of and Fake does the rest.

Connecting & Delays – The Neat Stuff

So, in case you haven’t wondered before: how does Fake know which forms to fill in with what? And how does it know which buttons to press to execute an action? Moreover – how in the world do you ask Fake to hold off on taking a screenshot until a site is fully loaded? It’s so amazingly simple, you won’t believe it.

In order to let Fake know where the form is that needs filling, you simply connect the form with the action. By CTRL-clicking the action and then dragging to the form, you establish the link.

Fake determines on its own which values are present in a form and you can enter your credentials for the log in form. You can also establish a connection to a HTML element like the “sign in” button (and then ask Fake to perform an action on it). Fake will click that button after it has filled in the form, thereby logging you in.

By default, all actions are executed with a .5 seconds delay. It will make it easier for you to follow what’s going on. But what if you need a longer delay, for example before taking a screenshot? If your internet connection is as slow as mine, it might take a couple of seconds before the page is fully loaded and all the content is visible.

You can change the default delay, but that will apply to all actions and unecessarily prolong the execution of your workflow. The better solution is to use the dedicated “Delay” action and give it a value of your choice.

There are many many more available actions which can help you with your work, but I can’t go into each and every one of them here. The Actions Library is the best place to flick through these and gain an understanding of what each does.

For Developers

For web designers and developers, Fake offers a simple, automated way to build test scripts for your websites and web apps. These can be standardised, re-run at any time with one click, and automatically export screenshots to show the results of various actions.

This really can be a huge time-saver, and it makes repetitive testing a one-click process, rather than a nightmare you’d rather avoid.

Conclusion

Fake is a tool which will appeal foremost to power users and web developers. For average users, it will usually remain easier to just click your way through a website. It really only makes sense with repeated tasks.

While it is fairly simple to set up workflows, the advanced actions require some level of understanding of scripting and programming languages. The documentation of Fake provides an explanation for nearly all options available, but I would have appreciated some example workflows included which help to better understand the app and its full power.

Would you find Fake useful? Let us know in the comments!

If you’ve never come across Pixelmator before, you’re really missing out. Pixelmator is an absolutely incredible image editor for the Mac, exuding quality, style, and speed. It’s a piece of software I use every day, and it’s a pleasure to feature one of the founding partners – Saulius Dailide – today.

Saulius co-founded Pixelmator in 2007, and since then it has seen a great deal of success. Today we’ll be chatting about his motivation for creating the app, taking a look inside their incredible “iOffice”, and getting a better picture of what goes on behind the scenes at Pixelmator!

Tell us a little bit about the Pixelmator team – how many of you are there, and what do you all do?

Pixelmator is a Mac software company founded in 2007 by two brothers – me [Saulius] and Aidas. In three short years, the Pixelmator Team has grown to nine people and is still growing. At the company, there is one user interface designer (that’s me), five programmers, another designer, a beta tester, and a support person.

We all create Pixelmator — the best image editor for the rest of us. And all of us love what we do very much.

What motivated you to create Pixelmator?

Actually, it was a wish to have an easy-to-use, uncluttered image editor for those of us who don’t want to deal with the expensive, full-of-unnecessary-features Photoshop. Don’t get me wrong, we think Photoshop is a great app, but it looks and feels like it was created for Windows and then, for some reason, was ported to the Mac.

We always wanted to have an image editor that was 100% Mac, with basic key image editing features. So, instead of waiting for Adobe to create such an app, we decided to do it ourselves.

And boom, we’ve created an image editor that we use and love, and what’s more, it is a very successful Mac app that makes lots of money.

Where do you find the beautiful images that always seem to accompany Pixelmator’s promotional screenshots?

We make those images while testing Pixelmator betas. We usually play with photos and try to capture the soul of the release. Each of our releases has a codename that gives a hint about what’s in it.

We create those images using the new features to reflect that soul. That’s how we get those screenshots. For example, I’ve worked on a Pixelmator 1.6 Nucleus screenshot for a month – we really do care about the look, the feel, and the details.

Tell us a little bit about your Mac setup – which hardware and software do you use to get the job done?

We use a lot of stuff!

We’ve got two Mac Pros, four MacBook Pros, three new iMacs (best Mac ever), some older iMacs, MacBook Air, MacBook, PC, Mac mini, 30? Apple Cinema Display, 24? and 27? LED Cinema Displays, a bunch of Apple keyboards, Magic Mouses, and Magic Trackpads.

We also have many iPhones and iPads, and I am not even talking about AirPorts, Time Capsules, and other Apple accessories.

What we don’t have any more is a PowerPC-based Macs and Xserves, although we had one before.

On the software side, we use lots of Xcode, Pixelmator, and (surprise!) Keynote for the UI mockups. Some other apps include Sofa’s Versions, Photoshop, Illustrator, Pages, and Motion (from Final Cut Studio).

For personal project management, each of us uses TextEdit (yup, no-getting-things-done apps), and for full project management, we use a web-based Lighthouse service.

On top of this, we use many other third party apps from developers like Realmac Software, Panic, and OmniGroup.

What’s your take on the recent announcement of the Mac App Store? Do you think it will be a good place to market and promote Pixelmator?

We are extremely excited about the new Mac App Store, and we were one of the first to announce that officially. We believe it is the best thing to happen to small Mac developers in years.

We won’t ever need to worry about how to reach our customers – all we will have to do now is worry about how to make the best software.

Since our main task is to create the best image editor for the Mac, the Mac App Store will help us to do exactly that.

Which websites, Twitter users, and magazines do you follow to stay up-to-date with the activities of other developers and the Apple eco-system in general?

We love MacRumors, Daring Fireball, Macworld, TUAW, MacUpdate, Mac.AppStorm, Smoking Apples, and many others. Also, there are tons of Mac developers that we follow and enjoy.

For people interested in developing their very first Mac app, where would you recommend they start?

The best place to start developing for Mac is to actually use the Mac. The next step is to read everything at the Apple’s Developer website. And the third step is to experiment a lot.

Oh, also, a good place to start Mac development is to try to make some apps for the iPhone. It’s like a tiny Mac.

Do you have any interesting updates or apps in the pipeline that you can give us a sneak peak at? Any plans to branch out into iPad development?

We don’t usually talk about that. We’ve got lots of stuff going on here that I would love to share with everyone, but I can’t since not everything we make is released – since we don’t ship crap.

What I can tell you is that the next major update of Pixelmator is called Pixelmator 1.7 Geneva. As always, it is going to be a great free update.

As for the iPad – we love our iPads, and yes, we are playing with its technology, and doing some experiments. Even if we do release what we’ve done so far, Pixelmator will still be #1 for us. We love what we do, very much.

The Pixelmator iOffice

Interested in seeing where the Pixelmator team spend most of their working day? Here are a few shots of their (really fantastic!) office:

More About Pixelmator

Pixelmator is a beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X. It has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images – and it’s pretty awesome!

If you regularly work with graphics or images on your Mac, you owe it to yourself to take a look! You can also check out our review of Pixelmator, although it’s a few years old now and quite a bit has changed since early 2009!

Thanks, Saulius!

Thanks so much to Saulius and the Pixelmator Team for contributing to our interview. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your insight with us, and we wish you all the best with the future success of Pixelmator!

I’d like to take a few moments to say thank you to our weekly sponsor, CleanMyMac. This is a great tool for keeping your Mac in tip-top shape, and packs an impressive functionality punch for the price.

You can uninstall software more effectively, manage and delete plugins and extensions, clean up system caches and logs, remove unnecessary language files, and so much more. I run CleanMyMac every couple of months, and it always manages to free up several gigabytes of unnecessary data.

Although most of this functionality can be achieved for free if you’re a Terminal whizz-kid, I find that $30 (or $15 for a 6 month license) is an absolute bargain for so many helpful tools wrapped up in a gorgeous interface.

Check out the full feature list, watch the introductory video, and free up some time this week to give your Mac a thorough spring autumn clean!

Apple does a pretty good job providing us with an array of smart looking icons as part of OS X. Most software companies that develop for Mac do the same. Their clientele is just a little more conscious of great icon design – or maybe just more easily persuaded with something shiny.

Whatever the case, sometimes we find an icon lacking for one reason or another. Sometimes we feel the need to add a little personal touch. Icon designers have answered the call and there are now millions (I’m guessing here, but there are a lot!) of beautifully designed icons for us to use.

It’s not too tough to change an icon with Mac OS X, but it’s not the most straightforward process either. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some utility to manage all these fancy little things? Turns out there is – and it’s called IconBox. Read on to find out more!

Overview

Plain and simple, IconBox is a piece of software that is used to manage the icons on your system.

The basic functionality provides the ability to change just about every icon on the system, and every application icon as well. With other tools to organize and find new icons, IconBox is a complete package in the icon management category.

The IconBox Interface

The IconBox interface will look familiar. It really feels like a native Apple product with it’s Finder look and feel. It is essentially iPhoto for icon management. The left hand column is your folder tree and shows your entire icon library (My Box) along with several other ways to filter your icons.

The center window displays the icons. There is a search feature at the top of the window and also a slider at the bottom that allows you to adjust the size of the icons in the window. This is a great feature and works just perfectly. There is also an option to toggle the view from the actual icons to a file list.

The core functionality is changed by using the buttons in the upper left hand corner of the application. You’ll see four buttons there and they will expand if there are additional sub tools available. The buttons, to me, are not all that descriptive, so I had some trouble finding what I was looking for and had to just click around to find it. After some regular use I’m sure you would get used to it, but I don’t think that should be necessary.

The right hand column (which can be turned on and off) shows the meta data for a selected icon. The information available is the name, size, date imported and modified, fields for entering keywords, a description, and author information along with a section for mapping an icon to a specific category and icon group.

All of the info must be manually input besides the title (which can be changed), the size, date imported and the date modified. It would be a ton of work to complete this information for every icon so unless you’re a complete organizational fanatic you probably won’t use it (or you’ll use it sparingly).

Different Usage Modes

There are three modes in IconBox, Organize, Customize, and Online. You can toggle between modes by using the four buttons at the top of the application.

Organize Mode

Are you the type of person that grabs every free cool icon set that pops up in any icon roundup blog post? If that’s you (you know who you are), you are well aware that organizing and keeping track of what you have is a challenge. If you’re like me, you forget about a lot of the icons you have, and never use them. There are several levels of organization that will help you find that really great icon you downloaded last year and have finally found the perfect use for.

The IconBox section of the left sidebar shows your full icon icon library and also the last import, icons downloaded, and the trash. These all show exactly what you’d expect.

The middle section is called Smart Boxes. Here you can create your own Smart Boxes which are, as the IconBox developers describe, like iTunes Smart Playlists that continually update based on given criteria. I tried to use this feature and really didn’t have a whole lot of luck with it. It seemed a little more difficult than it was worth, but I think the power of it could come with the type of user that has a large library with icons that have a lot of meta data.

The Organize section of the left sidebar is where the actual organization really takes place (I know, hard to believe right?). The operation in this area works by creating your own custom boxes and then organizing them into custom folders and sub folders. It’s pretty basic functionality, but this was one of the key features of the application for me and it works very well.

Customize Mode

This is the area where the actual icon swapping happens. When you click on the Customize Mode button it will expand to show four additional sub functions. In this mode, the main window will be split in two. The top section will display the current icons and the bottom will show your IconBox icons.

The first three sub function buttons take you to different categories of current system icons. The fourth takes you to an area that allows you to make some modifications to the Dock.

Icons are changed with a simple drag and drop technique. Drag the icon you want from the bottom window and release it on the icon you want to change in the top window. Your changes won’t be reflected until you click the Apply Changes button at the top of that window.

Make several changes and then click the Apply Changes button. For a lot of changes, you will have to log out and log back in for them to take hold. Doing a group at once will save you from logging out and in repeatedly.

You can click the Restore button any time to go back to the default icons. Be warned though, this switches all icons back to default. I didn’t find an easy way to just switch one icon back to default, which would be a nice feature.

I did have a little trouble getting into Customize Mode from time to time. I’d click the button, see the sub functions, but couldn’t actually get into Customize Mode. I’m not sure if this is a common issue or just with me, but it is kind of a pain. I had to quit and reopen the application for it to work again.

Tools Mode

There is only one Tool in Tools Mode at this time, but the developer is planning more in the future. The X-Ray tool allows you to see all the icons associated with a given application. It seems that the only thing you can do here is export individual icons or entire icon sets.

Online Mode

There are also tools to help you find some great new icons. One section of the site has links built in to some of the best icon developer sites around. They are essentially links that will open up the website in your default browser.

Another section actually offers an “Icon of the Day” (Optimus Prime is now my Finder icon thanks to this). The entire time I’ve been using IconBox this has not changed. I don’t know if this is a limitation of the trial version I’m using (I didn’t think it was) or if it’s an actual bug. It could be a cool feature if it worked.

Pricing

The cost of IconBox is $24.99. That may be a little steep depending on how seriously out of control your icon collection is or how crazy you are about changing them. There is a trial version that allows you to build a library of 250 icons and is limited to 15 days.

Conclusion

IconBox was one of the first pieces of software in this space and they have built a pretty solid product. It fits in very well with the rest of your Mac OS X applications and you’ll feel right at home using it. It’s a breeze to use and, more importantly, a breeze to change icons.

The developers are planning to release more tools for free which could be a nice bonus. Aside from a couple glitches I experienced, I’d say IconBox is a very capable and pleasant to use icon management tool.

Another application in this space you may want to consider is CandyBar. It offers much of the same functionality, an equally stunning interface, and a similar price point of $29. Worth trying out in tandem with IconBox to see which you prefer!

When Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) was released, one of the tent-pole features was Time Machine, Apple’s extremely simple, all-encompassing backup solution. With Time Machine, you simply connected your external hard drive, configured a few settings and the utility began backing up your entire computer.

So long as your hard drive is connected, Time Machine continues to make backups on an hourly basis. The hourly backups are consolidated into a single day, every 24 hours and the days consolidated into a week, and so on, as disk space allows.

So your all good, correct? Your data is backed up, you’ve done your job and no matter what happens to your computer, you’ll still have everything in your backup. Well, ideally – yes. In reality, not necessarily.

The entire reason you are backing up your computer is because hard drives fail. A bad drop, a liquid spill, or simply old age, a hard drive will not last forever. So you back up your computer’s hard drive…to another hard drive. Now, if your internal hard drive fails, you have an external hard drive containing a second copy of everything… but as I said, hard drives fail. It’s inevitable. So what to do?

Make triple and quadruple backups? Sure, if you’ve got the time and money, but an easier and more economical solution is simply to check your backups every now and then. Make sure they are running properly, make sure your data is being backed up properly, make sure your the data is not corrupt, make sure you can recover your files properly. A little care and preparation can go a long way.

Suffering a Great Loss

In 2006, I received my first MacBook. The black, Core 2 Duo model. I loved it. In February 2010, the computer overheated, I saw smoke rise up from the under keys and the machine was kaput. It was a devastating day for me.

The silver lining was that my Time Machine drive, sitting on my desk, next to the dead MacBook, was shining like an angel. I purchased a Dell Mini 10v, because I like to tinker, and turned it into a tiny hackintosh. It was a fun little toy and I easily restored my data from the Time Machine drive, my 13,000-song-strong iTunes library fully intact (that was my biggest concern).

Well the Apple gods must not have liked me messing around outside their walled garden, because a few months later, after a hard restart, the little machine simply would not boot. Again, my heart sank. A bit of panic took over me, but again, my Time Machine drive just sat their like a modest white knight. A new computer, fully restored data and once again my life was saved.

Had I not backed up my data, I would have lost my digital life twice in 6 months. With all the seemingly bad luck, I was extremely fortunate that my backup drive remained in tact. I no longer take chances, I can’t experience that heartache (my beloved MacBook!) again. I backup my data and I double and triple-check the external drive containing my data. It’s too important not to.

Checking Your Backup Drive

Verify the Disk

The first step to checking your backup drive is to check for and repair any data corruption. If your drive is full of errors, you’re going to have a tough time accessing any backed up data.

Make sure your backup drive is connected to your Mac. Quit Time Machine, or whichever backup utility you use. Open “Disk Utility” and select the backup drive in the sidebar, select the “First Aid” tab in the main window. Click “Verify Disk” in the lower right corner.

The “Verify Disk” operation will check your backup drive for any inconsistencies and errors. If anything is detected, it’s reported in the main window. To repair any errors after the process completes, select “Repair Disk.”

Alternatively, you can bypass “Verify Disk” and simply select the repair option as this will first detect any errors and then automatically repair them.

Disk Utility will repair the detected errors. Not all found errors are cause for extreme alarm, it is normal for data corruption to happen during power outages and forced shutdowns. If Disk Utility is unable to completely repair your backup, you may need to use a more comprehensive disk repair utility such as DiskWarrior.

Explore the Data

After you’ve confirmed the integrity of your drive, it’s time to explore your backed up files. Connect your backup drive to your computer. The drive will show up in Finder. Open the “Time Machine” application. The desktop fades away, replaced by a starry background and a seemingly infinite number of Finder windows, fading off into the distance.

Each Finder window represents a date in your Mac’s history, scrollable via the back and forward buttons to the right. Explore the backed up data, ensuring that data has, in-fact, been backed up. If you select your “Desktop” in the Finder window and scroll through time, you should see the changes made to the files living on your desktop.

If you prefer not to use the Time Machine interface, or do not use Time Machine at all, you can browse the files on the connected backup drive using Finder. Time Machine places the data in time-stamped folders within the “Backups.backupdb” folder. This data is organized just as your current Macintosh HD is.

Restore Your Files

If everything checks out with the backed up data, make sure you can restore the data. It is important to test this process, as a backup is worthless if restoration does not function properly. If you are exploring your data via Time Machine, simply select a previous version of a file or a now-deleted file to restore and click the “Restore” button.

Time Machine will scroll back to the current date, fade away, your desktop will reappear and the restored document will be back in its original location. Open the document to ensure the process properly restored the file.

Exploring your backup and restoring test files may seem like overly simple tests to run, but it is important to know that Mac OS X can properly access and interact with the backup data. Without confirming this on a fairly regular basis, you may be in for a huge surprise (more likely a huge disappointment), the day you actually need to perform these tasks.

Boot the Drive

Of course, Time Machine isn’t the only backup solution. Utilities such as Super Duper! and Carbon Copy Cloner allow you to create fully bootable backups. What does this mean? It means you can connect the backup to your computer, power on the machine and the data on the external hard drive loads instead of the internal.

Imagine your work machine fails and it’s going to be at least a week until Apple’s Geniuses will have it back in your hands. With a bootable backup drive, you can connect the drive to a new computer or your home computer, boot from the backup and like magic, your entire workspace is back in front of you, fully intact.

Bootable backups have the ability to load the entire Mac OS X desktop environment from the backed up image of your Macintosh HD on the external hard drive.

Test your bootable backup by holding down the “Option” key while the system starts up (and the drive is connected). Select the backup from the list of startup disks (“Macintosh HD” will typically be the only other option). Explore your data when the desktop loads to ensure everything is working properly.

Make it a Habit

Checking and double-checking your backups is your only insurance against a failed internal drive. Think of all the family pictures saved in your iPhoto library – chances are you haven’t printed out the majority of them, meaning they only live on your computer.

Think of your iTunes collection, the years and money spent to build up a respectable collection. All your school papers. Your contacts, years of emails in Mail.app. Chances are, many or most aspects of your life pass through your computer at some point. Even the thought of losing all that data is enough to breathe heavy and draw tears.

Backing up your data is the first step in preserving your digital memories and it’s a great first step. The next, possibly more important, step is taking proper care of your backups to preserve their health and extend their life. Make it a habit to test your backups on a weekly and monthly basis!

We’re constantly striving to make AppStorm the go-to place for discovering high quality Mac software, and I really value the time you dedicate to reading what we have to say. It means a lot! For this reason, if we haven’t extensively tried and tested a piece of software, it’s unlikely to be featured on the site.

Although Quick Look has been a great way for developers to get the word out about their apps on AppStorm, it’s difficult to write about – and recommend – a piece of software that we aren’t completely familiar with.

For this reason, we’re phasing out Quick Look, and introducing a new way for developers to share their latest and greatest apps with you. Weekly Sponsorships will involve one extra post per week, highlighting a particular developer or application that we personally recommend.

We’re setting a really high standard for the sponsors we accept on AppStorm, and will only be recommending software that we’re tried, tested, and use ourselves on a regular basis!

I hope this will give you a chance to find out about great new software that you haven’t come across before, while at the same time maintaining the high quality of coverage you’ve come to expect from AppStorm.

If you’re a developer and would like to find out more, you can read all about Weekly Sponsorships here. We’re launching this service on Mac.AppStorm next week, with Web.AppStorm and iPhone.AppStorm to follow shortly.

The market for task management apps seems to be one of the most active of all. There are so many variations on this theme that it’s very easy to end up spending more time on finding, setting up, and tweaking your tools than you do on actually getting things done.

It also seems that the quality of such apps is also steadily improving, as new contenders build on the success of older, more established tools, or learn from their errors or exclusions.

Today we’re considering Firetask for Mac, which promises to combine aspects of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology with more traditional systems using due dates and priorities to manage your task list.

Join us after the jump for a walkthrough of Firetask’s main features…

To Begin

Firetask began life as an iPhone app nearly two years ago, and this Mac companion is fairly new to the market. The first thing to observe is that the developers have spent time on ensuring Firetask looks good:

The main window is divided into two sections, with a list of Focus areas and additional ways of categorising your tasks in the left hand panel, and the rest of the window given over to your tasks. The uncluttered, legible design makes it very easy to get going with Firetask. And if you’ve used any another task management app, chances are that you’ll be up and running in a very short time.

It’s a pity, given that so many of us do dart around between task management apps, that developers don’t spend more time on exporting your tasks and making it possible to import from one app to another. Some apps do provide such facilities, but Firetask offers neither import nor export features.

Adding Tasks

So, since you can’t import, if you want to make the switch from, say, Things, you’ll need to manually transfer across your tasks. Happily, Firetask makes this quite easy to do.

As you’ll see in the screenshot above, just about everywhere you go in the app, you will find an ‘Add new task’ field. So, whether you’re looking at your list of categories…

… or your Someday list…

…you can simply click on that line and start typing. Once you’ve entered the task title, you can set the task’s due date and priority. Some fuzziness is understood in setting the date: so ‘tomorrow’ or ‘Wednesday’ will work, but ‘next Wednesday’ won’t.

There is a dropdown calendar available to pick dates, but, curiously, it’s not visible when a line is selected, so you need to select another task, and then mouseover the new task in order to see the disclosure triangle and view the calendar. A priority can be set by clicking on the icon in that column and then selecting from a range between ‘Critical’ and ‘Trivial’.

There is also a Quick-Entry panel that lets you quickly add tasks to a specific project from anywhere in the app (initiated either from the toolbar or with the cmd+n keyboard shortcut). This is less useful than the system wide quick entry system in OmniFocus, Taskpaper, or Things, but of course it’s still welcome.

Projects

As with opening the Quick-Entry panel, adding a new project can be done either from the toolbar or via a keyboard shortcut.

From this dropdown panel, you can set all the parameters of your project, from title to completion date, category, and priority, as well as adding any notes you might need to refer to in relation to the project. Once your project is set up in this way, you can go about adding tasks by selecting it from the project list.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself working on a task and then realise that, actually, this one is a project, after all, consisting of several steps or sub-tasks. That’s where the ‘Convert to Project’ button on the toolbar comes in handy.

Categories

You may have noticed that all the tasks in the previous screenshots have little icons beside them. These are indicators of their category, and you can view all your tasks by category by selecting that heading from the left hand panel. This is a variation on the traditional GTD language of Contexts.

Firetask comes with all the standard GTD categories/contexts already set up, and you can add any others that you might need (as well as selecting a fitting icon):

Focus

This is a nice feature: in looking at your Today list, you can click on the word Focus at the top right of Firetask’s window to narrow your focus down to display tasks due only today and tomorrow, or due in the next 3, 5, or 7 days. You set the extent of your focused view in the app’s Preferences:

iOS Sync

Firetask on the iPhone shares the desktop version’s clear design – actually, I suppose it’s the other way around, since the iPhone app came first.

Setting up wifi sync between the two clients is extremely straightforward, and syncing works simply and well. Of course, only having wifi sync is limiting, since you need to be on the same wifi network in order to sync your tasks. Some people seem to be able to get on fine with this, though it’s one of the reasons that I have found Things unusable, and I know that many other users agree.

In Conclusion

Firetask is a very good looking application, and offers all the main features required from a task management app. Sync with its fine iOS companion works smoothly and without hitch.

At $49, it’s significantly cheaper than Omnifocus ($79.95), but less than a dollar cheaper than Things ($49.95). I recommend you download the trial version of Firetask and give it a go. It’s a very nice app, and if you’ve never used a task management app before, then Firetask will quite possibly do everything you need, and do it elegantly and well.

However, if you’re one of the many who have tried just about every GTD-type app around, then you might find it restrictive. Other apps offer more flexibility and the ability to set things up in more varied ways that might better suit your workflow. For all its good looks and smooth functioning, Firetask still feels like a young app, and it’s easy to imagine it gaining more depth in future releases.

Personally, I’ll be sticking with Omnifocus – it’s more complicated, sometimes to the extent of being downright frustrating, but in all my explorations of similar apps, I’ve not yet found anything that I consider a real contender. Add to the desktop app the very fine iOS versions, and though it’s expensive, Omnifocus still remains my app-of-choice.

How about you? What’s your choice in this category of app?

One of the excellent tools that comes standard with OSX is iCal, a basic calendar and task management program. Although it is a sufficient program for many Apple users, there are times when it would be great to have greater functionality, and a bit more flexibility than comes out of the box. Fortunately, there’s a program called BusyCal.

Not only does it have the same features and appearance as iCal with just a few tweaks, but it also provides many other functions that make it stand head and shoulders above its competition. Why? Well, I think that there are 7 good reasons…

1. Google Calendar Integration

Although iCal has its advantages, one glaring problem is the lack of Google Calendar integration. The problem is, many people have to maintain calendars on Google to make their work happy, but they can’t keep the two services synced on their Mac. BusyCal fixes that problem.

Just add your Google Calendar account to the available calendars, and then sync away. All you have to do is make an entry and almost immediately it appears on your Google Calendar account. This even works with the new changes to MobileMe (if you download the public beta of BusyCal 1.5), and allows you to push listings from BusyCal to Google Calendar.

2. Bonjour Sync

Whether it’s a small office in need of having a group calendar, or a family of four who want their schedules synced, BusyCal can get it done. The software uses Bonjour to allow syncing across a local area network, which negates the need for a dedicated server.

To make it even easier, BusyCal has volume pricing available, which is pretty affordable considering the advantages.

3. Live Weather Reports

Ever want to plan a trip to the beach? BusyCal uses AccuWeather to show the conditions and temperature to give you five days of notice to accurately plan your day.

As if that wasn’t enough, you can also show the phases of the moon as well. This comes in really handy for scheduling outdoor events, photo shoots, or just a road trip across the state.

4. Graphics

Each event can be assigned a small graphic to represent the activity at hand. Maybe you want to show a picture of a shamrock for Saint Patrick’s Day, or Santa for Christmas.

Whatever it is, you can add the graphic easily by just dragging it into the designated place on the info panel for the event. Then it shows up in all views, allowing you to quickly recognize what’s coming up in the day, month, or week.

5. List View

One of the cool things about iCal on the iPhone is list view, because it lets you see all of your scheduled events in one screen. Problem is, iCal doesn’t have that – but BusyCal does.

List view works just like iCal on the iPhone, with one exception: A text box is located on the bottom of the screen for notes. That can come in handy for jotting down addresses, taking notes about the people at the events, or whatever you need.

6. Recurring To Dos

iCal’s task management system works, but it’s pretty rudimentary compared to some of the other GTD tools out there for the Mac. BusyCal upgrades that system though, by allowing tasks to be recurring as well, allowing you to skip the tedious chore of entering the same task again and again.

But an even more useful feature relates to tasks that aren’t completed. Ever schedule a task for a Saturday morning but had to put it off until Tuesday afternoon? In BusyCal, the task carries over from day to day until it’s completed, and doesn’t get lost in the day it was originally assigned.

7. An Improved Info Panel

BusyCal takes iCal’s info panel for an event, and allows you to improve it yourself. It’s essentially the same panel that iCal has been using for years, but it’s customizable.

Click on the Info button in the top right corner and the panel flips over to reveal a list of viewing options. This makes each event almost infinitely customizable, which can really help when scheduling your upcoming events.

The Conclusion

These are just a few of the reasons why I think that BusyCal is such a marked improvement over iCal, and there are tons more. Yes, it costs money to purchase – $49 for a single user license – but the results are more than worth it.

Don’t believe me? Just download the trial version and give it a shot for a month or so (like I did when I was skeptical). I’m willing to bet that within two weeks you’ll hop onboard the BusyCal train.