Apple gave its annual keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday, announcing a bevy of new features for both iOS and Mac OS X. I was actually most excited about the Mac stuff, but iOS received some much-needed love as well. The number of websites covering WWDC is overwhelming, but that won’t stop me from listing the features that got me the most excited.
I typed the title of this post with tongue firmly in cheek. I thought about going with “40Tech HD,” “40Tech 360,” and “40Tech 3.0” (this is the third iteration of the site), but went with “Reloaded” because, well, that was the first thing I typed. While the site redesign probably isn’t on the list of landmark events in your life, I am going to explain why I did it:
I’ve recently gotten back into video editing, using Final Cut Pro X on my Mac. I was having a hard time keeping my workflow straight when I had several edits going on at once. Had I remembered to add a title? Had I rendered the Master File? Had I archived the library? Was it safe to delete the files? Over the past few weeks, I’ve been refining my workflow into an OmniFocus template that I use as a checklist when I edit video.
I recently decided to ditch my nightstand clock, and use an alarm clock app on my iPhone for that purpose (I’m still trying out a few different apps). My setup wasn’t very elegant, with my iPhone propped up against a box so that I could see the time. I also was constantly fighting a tangle of cords, between my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, and a USB cord for a few different devices. Knowing that setup wouldn’t meet the WAF (Wife Acceptability Factor) for long, I researched some dock solutions, and found one ended up working well, and that my wife has even been eying with some envy.
Being a Mac user in a Windows world can be tough. If you’re like me, even if you use Windows professionally, there are certain Mac apps that are essential to your productivity. For me, OmniFocus and OmniOutliner are two that come to mind immediately. In my search for ways to make my Macs play nicer in a Windows universe, I recently discovered one of the coolest gadgets I’ve come across in a long time – the J5 Create Wormhold Switch. It helps me join my Windows and Mac computers – literally.
