David Jack Wange Olrik » Pick of the week

Pick of the week: DocScanner™

davidolrik — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:08:23 +0000

I seem to have fallen behind on my weekly picks, Christmas, $work and life in general have kept me very busy lately, but I’ll try to get back to my weekly¹ schedule again.

This weeks pick is DocScanner, an iPhone app that allows you to have a flatbed scanner² in your pocket. While DocScanner isn’t the most pretty or well designed iPhone app, it certainly doesn’t lack in the feature department.

Notable features include both really good edge detection, OCR and WiFi sharing. There exists quite a few scanner apps on the App Store but this one is definitely the one to get.

On a recent business trip I used DocScanner to keep track of all the receipts I accumulated during the trip. Back home I exported them all to one huge PDF file and emailed it to our accounting department. No need to fiddle with those old school analogue receipts anymore.

My wish list for future versions³ of DocScanner are: A cleaner⁴ user interface, PDF files with the OCR’ed text included and direct upload to Dropbox.

Update: As of version 3.0.3⁵ DocScanner will embed the ORC’ed text into the pdf files!

Please don’t kill me if it isn’t precisely weekly.
and a whiteboard scanner and just about any other kind of scanner you can think of.
and they release new versions quite frequently – About once a month.
and by cleaner, I mean more iPhone-ish
Released on January 30th 2010

Pick of the week: Tweetie 2

davidolrik — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:00:59 +0000

I have blogged about this weeks pick before but I never made it a pick of the week before. The recent update to Tweetie rocks, so if you are into Twitter¹ I suggest you head over to the App Store and pick up a copy.

The first version of Tweetie for the iPhone was cool, and even won an Apple design award. It was easy to use, looked nice and was very polished.²

Tweetie 2 raises the bar for all iPhone applications, not just Twitter clients. It has been stuffed with all kinds of new and useful features – but in a way that doesn’t make it feel cramped at all! The user interface is very polished³ and it quickly grows on you.

The feature list is too long to repeat here, so I’ll just mention a couple of my favorites: Nearby tweets superimposed on a Google map, Pull to refresh⁴, Multiple drafts, offline mode and full persistence i.e the user interface is restored to the same state after a relaunch or a phone call.

Tweetie 2 also takes advantage of some of Twitters new features that haven’t been launched yet – I’m so looking forward to the new Geolocation stuff. @Twitter: You may release now!⁵

Oh… and Tweetie 2.0 for Mac will soon be released, and will feature sync with the iPhone version and other goodies!

And who isn’t these days?
Except for the refresh button that looked like it had been placed with a shovel. It had to be there and this was the only place it would fit, well kinda…
Some might say too polished, as in eye candy for the sake of eye candy
The ugly button has been hidden, and only comes into view when you need it – nice!
Pretty please!

Pick of the week: Pixelmator

davidolrik — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:44:52 +0000

This weeks pick is a mac app called Pixelmator. Pixelmator is a lightning fast image editor for the mac – kinda like a Photoshop lite but unlike Photoshop¹, Pixelmator really feels like it was build for the mac. Pixelmators feature set is some what smaller than its big brother but most² of the time it will get the job done.

I have been using Pixelmator for a litter over a year now³, and Pixelmator just keeps getting better and better with each new release. The latest release brought the long waited slice tool which is of great use when creating graphics for the web.

Another great thing about Pixelmator is their tutorial section on their website. There the creators of Pixelmator shows you how to use it to create all kinds cool effects.

Pixelmator costs just $59⁴ and is truly “Image editing for the rest of us”.

With each new version of Photoshop it seems to move further away from being a true mac app.
Unless you are need an image editor for professional reasons, it will get the job done every time!
I got it as part of the second MacHeist bundle.
Which is approximately 43.19 EUR, and is way less than any version of Photoshop costs.

Pick of the week: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile

davidolrik — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:25:06 +0000

A recent tweet by @drwave from Pixar prompted me to check out SketchBook Mobile from Autodesk, and boy am I glad I did!

I have always wanted to get better at drawing, but I have never set aside the time it takes to master this creative skill. As with all creative disciplines the winning formula for getting better is 10% talent and 90% effort¹ and with this little app I always have my drawing tools with me, so I can doodle away anytime² I’m in the mood for it.

SketchBook Mobile is loaded with features, and still manages to have a very non intrusive user interface, it just stays out of your way so you can concentrate on sketching.

SketchBook Mobile makes really good use of Apples Multi-touch technology both for drawing and for zooming and panning around your sketch – Oh, and it has undo too!³

SketchBook Mobile is available in the App Store for just $2.99

Anyone who tells you different should go listen to a couple of talks from Merlin Mann: Toward Patterns for Creativity and Doing Creative Work – Seriously, go! now! – And then go make stuff!
This is the effort part, the more you do it the better you get.
A much needed feature that my analog drawing tools is sadly missing.

Pick of the week: Prowl

davidolrik — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:00:51 +0000

This weeks pick is another iPhone app by the name of Prowl. Prowl promises to bring Growl from your desktop to your iPhone. When I first heard about Prowl I thought that this was surely the stupidest app ever! – Why on earth would you want your Growl notifications on your iPhone?¹ The answer is you won’t² – Prowl has an extensive API that will let you write scripts in numerous languages, including my all time favorite Perl, and this is where Prowl gets really interesting. This means you can get push-notifications from practically anything you can think of.

I once wrote an IRC notifier for Irssi that will message you via XMPP whenever someone highlights you or sends you a private message while you are disconnected from Irssi³.

It worked ok, but what I really wanted was a way where Irssi could connect directly to Growl and notify me whenever something interesting happens.

With Prowl all I need to send a push notification to my iPhone, is a small piece of code that looks something like this:

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#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use WebService::Prowl;

my $ws = WebService::Prowl->new(apikey => 'your personal apikey');
$ws->verify || die $ws->error();
$ws->add(
application => "Irssi",
event => "Query",
description => "Joe: I like coffee",
priority => 0,
);

So based on my old notifier program, I quickly whipped up an Irssi Prowl Notifier program So now I get notified with a push message whenever something interesting happens on IRC. There is even a WordPress plugin that will notify you whenever someone posts a comment on your blog.

Anything you can think of, Prowl can notify you about.

Don’t get me wrong I love Growl and use it extensively.
Well at least I won’t – I feel the Growl desktop notifications belong on the desktop.
I run Irssi inside Screen so it will persist even when I logout of my account.

Irssi, Jabber & Adium

Pick of the week: My iPhone

davidolrik — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:19:11 +0000

This weeks pick is late, so late that it is actually a pick for both this week and last week. As you might have guessed from the picture it’s my iPhone.

While on vacation in northern Jylland my MacBook Pro died . So for the past 2 weeks my iPhone has been my primary “computer” for Instant Messaging, Twitter, Email, Web browsing and all that stuff that I usually do when I am online. I have previously written about using the iPhone as a laptop replacement when going to conferences, but this is different – this is everyday and for everything.

The iPhone actually did quite well when you think of its relative small size and small keyboard¹. For most tasks I can say “There is an app for that”, I even upgraded this website using nothing but my iPhone. The only task I really missed my MacBook Pro was for programming, so my secret project is a bit behind schedule. Oh, and I did miss out² on the online launch sale for the iPhone 3GS, but I think this was mostly due to the fact that 3.dk didn’t scale under the pressure of the danish iPhone fans desperate to get a proper carrier with a 3G network that actually works.

One thing you have to remember though, is to always bring your charger and your USB cable as there will be some days where you’ll drain the battery and that little extra juice³ you can get from a quick charge here and there is a lifesaver.

If you thought that I was attached to my iPhone before the “Jylland incident”, think again – that attachment has been taken to a whole new level…

My precious…

I find that the keyboard on the iPhone is no better or worse than any physical keyboard of the same size. You just need to get used to it. – Actually I find it a little better
I have ordered a 32 GiB iPhone 3GS – Now I’m just waiting…
A couple of months ago I ordered a Juice Pack Air from juicepack.co.uk but I have still haven’t received anything from them – quite frustrating…

Pick of the week: Snow Crash

davidolrik — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:12:52 +0000

This weeks pick is a book – you know those analog¹ thingies that doesn’t require batteries. My pick is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and this is quite possibly the best science fiction novel I have ever read.

Snow Crash is set in the early 21st century where we follow Hiro Protagonist and a young girl nicknamed Y.T.² through an epic tale that mixes together Sumerian culture, virtual reality, religion, love, computer viruses and sword fighting.

The main theme of the book is a computer virus called Snow Crash that begins to infect humans. To explain how this transition from machine to flesh is possible Neal Stephenson uses the somewhat controversial³ concept of Julian Jaynes Bicameral Mind Theory.

The attention to detail in this book is phenomenal as is the writing – I guarantee that if you first pick up Snow Crash, you won’t be able to put it down again before you have read the last page – and then you’ll wish there were more chapters to be read.

If you prefer digital you can get it from Audible.com or from iTunes
Short for Yours Truly
I find the theories described in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind very believable – i.e. it just makes sense

Pick of the week: xScope

davidolrik — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:19:09 +0000

This weeks pick is cute little utillity app from the Iconfactory¹ called xScope. If you do any kind of design work xScope will most certainly help you in your day to day work. xScope is really a compilation of seven small tools combined in a great looking package. For only $26.95 you get the following tools:

Dimensions Measure anything on the screen instantly. E.g. the distance between two elements.
Rulers How much is 200 pixels again? – Use the rulers to quickly align stuff on your screen.
Screens Ever wondered how big the viewable area of IE 6 is² with a resolution of 1024×768? Screens gives you an overlay that you can configure with the measurements of every major player on the browser marked³.
Loupe Zoom in on anything and copy the pixel color to the pasteboard or use it for precision editing in programs that do not have a loupe.
Guides Just like guides in Photoshop but here they fill the whole screen.
Frames Square guides for when you need to contain stuff.
Crosshair A mouse cursor that fills the whole screen.

I mostly use Dimensions, Rulers and the Loupe and that easily justifies the $26.95 price tag.

You know, the ones with the Twitter bird icon that everybody copies
Its 1004×568 in case you were wondering
And you can configure your own if that is not enough

Pick of the week: PTHPasteboard

davidolrik — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:55:04 +0000

This weeks pick is an oldie, but a goodie. It is a Mac app that I can’t live without. I work with computers all day long developing software for various $clients. When developing software I spend a great deal of time in a text editor¹, mocking around with code i.e. moving text from one file to another.

PTHPasteboard gives me a pasteboard with a configurable number of slots² for storing clippings³. So instead of jumping back and forth between windows and applications copying and pasting, I can copy every block I need from one file, switch window and then paste each block where it needs to be.

PTHPasteboard is also useful for people writing lots of email as you can define any number of pasteboards with commonly used phrases and sentences. I even have a pasteboard with ssh-keys, that I use when ever I login to a new Unix server. It lets me add my ssh-key to the authorized_keys file quickly and easily simply by hitting a customized hotkey and selecting the proper entry from the pasteboard⁴.

PTHPasteboard also exists in a Pro version that’ll let you sync pasteboards across computers or even share pasteboards between users on different machines. The Pro version will also let you paste through filters, and comes with a whole slew of predefined filters that will you remove formatting, convert line endings, encode as hex, convert camel case to underscores and much more.

I use 1Password for all of my passwords and PTHPasteboard has the ability to ignore specific applications. That means that my top secret passwords will never end up in plaintext on one of the pasteboards – clever eh?!

Best of all the basic version of PTHPasteboard is free! – But I suggest you buy the Pro version and support the developer⁵, even if you’ll never⁶ use the advanced features of the Pro version.

In writing this blog post I used PTHPasteboard extensively, moving text around and finding and inserting links through the entire post.

Update 2009-08-30: Please note that PTHPasteboard is not compatible with Snow Leopard

Update 2009-09-04: PTHPasteboard is back and compatible with Snow Leopard! Unfortunately for those using the free version, only the Pro version will be supported under Snow Leopard.

Preferably Emacs, TextMate or Xcode
I currently have 100 slots in my main pasteboard.
This can be both text and images with and without formatting
And best of all It can be done without ever touching the mouse
The Pro version only costs $24.95, which is quite cheap considering the usefulness of this app.
Most of the time I only use the basic features of PTHPasteboard

Pick of the week: trioBike

davidolrik — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:31:33 +0000

This weeks pick comes a bit later¹ than usual. This is because we have been out using it ever since we got it on Thursday evening.

As you might have guessed² this weeks pick is a trioBike. The trioBike is an amazing construction – it’s a bike, a carrierbike and a pushchair all in one! And It takes less than 2 minutes to convert it from one configuration to another!

We ordered 2 trioBikes and a pushchair some 30 days ago and went to pick it up last Thursday. The service was excellent, Sammy³ gave us a complete walk through of every little feature on the bike. We then installed the kids in the carrier and rode the bikes home. On the way home we swung by the local McDrive, alas they won’t serve carrierbikes due to some silly insurance related hubbub. We ate, and then went biking some more

Friday was our first real day as trioBike owners. I dropped Sebastian off at his kindergarten with the carrier and rode to work on the bike alone. At the end of the day I had totaled more than 22 kilometers – not bad for the first day.

The build quality of the trioBike is most excellent and every thing on the bike and the carrier feels very solid and well build. I have tried other carrierbikes⁴ and this one is definitely the easiest to steer although it’s a bit heavier⁵ on the turns. My only gripe is the soft top, it is either on or off . I miss a middle setting⁶ that will provide shade from the sun and still let lots of air into the carrier.

As you can probably tell I really like this bike and the possibilities it gives us as a family.

And it should have been a Mac app I use every day, but you’ll have to wait until next week for that one.
If you follow me on Twitter
The inventor of the trioBike
A big thank you to Louise and William for lending us their Kangaroo for a week.
This is the trade of you pay for having a real handlebar that is detached from the carrier it self.
My wife and I are already contemplating how we can create a new soft top that will fulfill this need.