My iOS Must-Haves

• PS View - While on the same Wi-Fi network, Using Remote Connection in Photoshop you can see your PSD's real-time on your iPhone. This has become a great tool for mobile design; for figuring out font sizes, button sizes and just getting a feel for how your app will look on the device. You can always email yourself pictures, but that's just dumb.
• Check (formerly Pageonce) - I've been using this app to get my finances in order. Gives me a real-time snapshot of my money, portfolio, debt and credit score. Love it.
• Rowmote - Control your Mac while on the same Wi-Fi network. I use this so I don't have to get up and put on the next Game of Thrones (I connect my laptop to my TV via HDMI). Gives you player controls, a touchpad (with gesturing support) and keyboard. So there's really nothing you can't do.
• Evernote - Notes app that syncs to the cloud, so I have access to my notes no matter which device I'm using. I make notes on my phone and can access them on my laptop and vice versa.
• Waze - Crowd-sourcing maps application. Real-time information about traffic speeds, accidents, visible cops, something in the road, as well as navigation all from other users. So good Google bought them for $1.1B a couple months ago.
• Redbox - I use this app to rent my DVD's before I get to the kiosk, so all I need to do is put in my CC and out comes the movie. I sometimes use it when I'm waiting behind someone in line and snipe their movies.

Got any to add?

To be continued...

Things I hate about my Macbook #3

No Delete Button

The delete button on a Mac acts like a Backspace button on Windows. It deletes left, not right, and it won't delete files. Some programs have programmed the button to behave the way I expect it to, but not Apple.

It took me 2 weeks to figure out I had somewhat similar functionality of the Window's Delete key by making sure I hit Command-Delete.

I guess that will work.

Path Finder for Mac OSX

I'm in the midst of switching to a Macbook Pro from my 20+ years of Windows. I've always known Apple to have nice machines, but I've always preferred Windows and just feel more at home there. But times, they are a changin'.

I've been designing more and more for iPad. Besides the ridiculous file sizes created by working on a canvas that is 2048x1536 (easily upwards of 200 Mb per), having to design at 33% zoom kinda sucks. So in order to make my life easier, IT suggested I try out the Macbook Pro Retina, with 16 GB RAM.

So far it's been a decent change. The power of the laptop is the biggest plus. The OS? Meh. There are things I love, and things I can't stand. Other than the multi-touch trackpad with gestures and the power of this machine, I don't think I've come across much else that would make me "need" to switch. It's a great laptop, if all I needed was web browsing and Word docs, I'd be in love. But as a work machine, I find as many cons as I do pluses.

One of my biggest gripes is Finder. It's lack of features and the user experience makes me long for Explorer. I love being able to type in paths, copy and paste paths, the way things are displayed and organized, bread crumbs.

Enter Path Finder (http://cocoatech.com/pathfinder/).

Path Finder brings a lot of the features I miss in Explorer to OSX. I can copy and paste paths (in any format I want, BTW, Windows, Unix, etc.), I can see where I've been with breadcrumbs and quickly go up a few levels, tabbed browsing (Explorer doesn't even have this) as well as quick links to recent documents, changed documents, and more. It's $40, but will be well worth the investment and sanity.

Stop Quicktime from loading PNG's in IE

1: Open up Regedit
2: Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Mime\Database\Content Type\image/png
3: remove CLSID value completely - don't just set it to empty
4: Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Mime\Database\Content Type\image/x-png
5: Repeat step 3.

Restart all Instances of IE.

Just another reason Apple should be banned from making PC software.