40Tech

OmniPresence is a new sync tool from the OmniGroup that can be used to keep your OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, or OmniGraphSketcher files in sync between the Mac and iPad. It goes one step better, though, and can be used to sync any type of file on your Mac, working much like Dropbox works, but using a sync server of your choosing. While OmniPresence will never replace Dropbox, it does offer advantages over Dropbox in some areas.

Byword has long been one of my favorite text editors on the Mac and on iOS. I like it for its simplicity, its effortless sync between Mac and iOS, and its Markdown support. (For a primer on Markdown, check down my earlier post on it. Byword has recently become even more useful, adding support for direct publishing to Evernote, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and Scriptogram.

Here’s one for you UK folks. The folks at Gearzap recently provided with me the Encase Ultrasuede MacBook Pro 15 with Retina Sleeve (not to be confused with cases by Incase) for review. Ever since I switched from an 11 inch MacBook Air to a 13 inch model (and subsequently to a 15 inch MacBook Pro Retina Display), I’ve been going without a sleeve. I typically toss my MacBook into a slot in my backpack, so a sleeve isn’t an item that I would use often. A good sleeve would be handy, though, for those times when I just want to carry my MacBook somewhere, or when I want to toss my MacBook into a suitcase, and leave my backpack behind. Read on to see whether this sleeve meets those needs.

When you use an iCloud-enabled app on your Mac, it may appear that you can only access that app’s documents from within the app itself. Actually, there is a folder structure on your Mac reflecting the location of your iCloud files, with a folder for each iCloud-enabled app that you use. You can find those folders and files outside of their native apps with a bit of effort, or you can make it easy with a free app called Plain Cloud.

Timesavers that I love, but don’t use enough, are an operating system’s keyboard shortcuts. OS X Daily recently covered four pretty basic ones involving the trash, of which I was unaware.

Prior to Mountain Lion, if I wanted to switch my audio input or output from my speakers to a headset microphone, I used a free app called SoundSource. Unfortunately, SoundSource isn’t compatible with Mountain Lion. Fortunately, there’s an equally easy way to select your audio sources on a Mac, going back at least as far as Snow Leopard.

Can’t find a way to View Page Source in Safari 6? It’s there, you just have to dig a bit.

No View Source In Safari 6? Oh, There It Is « Lehigh Valley Web Design « J Taylor Design: “Under Safari » Preferences » Advanced, there is a new checkbox option to ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’ – which is disabled by default. Once enabled, not only can you view the site source, but there are a ton of useful features at your disposal.”

(Via J Taylor Design)

If you’re like me, since you’ve upgrade your Mac to Mountain Lion, even the default four seconds that a notification remains on the screen can bug you. You could disable notifications entirely, or even for a period of time, but that might be too extreme for your situation. Instead, to get rid of a single alert immediately, do a two-fingered swipe on the alert banner, from left to right, and it will disappear from the screen.

Right now, I’m up to 128 snippets in TextExpander. There are several that I have committed to memory, but even more that I hardly ever use. This is because I can’t remember the shortcuts to launch them, so it is just as quick for me to type normally as it is for me to open TextExpander and find a particular shortcut. I recently learned of a quicker solution, however.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the pros and cons of buying your Mac apps from the Mac App Store. Since then, I’ve come to a firm decision – when possible I will buy my Mac apps directly from the developer, instead of from the Mac App Store. I can thank Apple and the far-reaching effects of its sandboxing policies for leading me to this decision.