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- Quick Tip: Automator and Services in Snow Leopard
Originally introduced in OS X Tiger, Automator is a drag-and-drop form of scripting. You can create workflows to easily speed up many tasks. With each version of OS X, Automator has seen some improvements, but with Snow Leopard, it finally realizes its full potential.
It realizes it by allowing you to create your own Services. Unless you really needed to delve into the Services menu (located under the Application menu) you're likely to never even know it's there — when I asked a friend to screenshot her Leopard Services menu for this article, she replied "what menu?" That menu was, to put it gently, a bleeping mess. Every service showed up, even ones that couldn't be used with program or you had little or no use for. Here's what it looks like in Leopard.
In Snow Leopard, the Services menu now only displays actions that can be handled by that program. You can also choose what services show up, so if there's one you never use, you can hide it. Services are also contextual and will show up when you right-click on an actionable item like text in Pages or a file in Finder. If you click on a file in the Finder, and then the gear icon in the toolbar, you can also see what actions apply to that file.
In Leopard, I could create a Finder or iCal action, but creating workflows that would work in any application wasn't very user friendly. You might be able to create an AppleScript, or if you're a Quicksilver junkie you could create an action for it, but Snow Leopard really lets the average user create tools to enhance productivity. Now that Automator can create Services, it’s really becoming a powerful tool. Also, in Snow Leopard, Automator can now use data detectors, so if you select an address, you can use Automator to write an action that’ll look it up in Google Maps.
I'm going to show you a few services I created today while learning the new tools — as well as a few I got from macosxautomation.com. Now, I'm not saying you couldn't do these in 10.5, but how slick and easy it now is in 10.6 is amazing. I can easily see the Services menu now acting as a sort of Macro Central to it make it easy to find my actions.
Emailing Specific Files to Specific People
I'm in a weekly D&D group and we use Wizard's Character Builder to manage our characters (sadly, it's Windows-only, ensuring I'll be a Parallels customer for the foreseeable future). Kelsey, our GM, wants a copy and I'll send a copy to the guy that hosts the game in case I forget to print them out. I created the service in the screenshot below to automatically attach my characters to a mail message and send them off. Now, regardless of what program I'm in, I can just choose the service I created and email them. I’ve got a few services like this created to email files to frequent recipients.
Lookup Text On Wikipedia
If you're typing away and you want to look up text on Wikipedia, download the Internet Services action from macosxautomation.com. This will bring up a pop-up window that'll let you quickly search Wikipedia. In what's likely an "I'm missing something obvious moment," I can't seem to get the action to work from within Safari. While we're on the subject of Safari, that same Internet Services action lets you create a webpage popup of any page. By default, it presents itself as an iPhone, so you get a small, mobile optimized pop up. This is handy if there's any web sites you frequently consult.
Browse Your iPhoto Library
This is another one I downloaded from macosxautomation.com. One of the features I love in iWork is being able to browse my iPhoto library and insert a photo into my document. Now, with the Browse Library service, I can have that same functionality in any program.
Weird Glitches and Problems
So far in my admittedly small data sample, I've only run into a few issues. I've already talked about the Wiki lookup not working in Safari, but I've also noticed Automator doesn't see text selected in Microsoft Word 2008 as "selected text" — no services other than the general services show up in Word (I didn’t try out the rest of the suite). What’s interesting is there are a ton of Office-related actions included in Automator. I’ve had an e-mail discussion with Microsoft’s Mac BU about this and they’re looking into it.
Resources
MacBreak Video has a great session with Sal Saghoian, the AppleScript Product Manager at Apple. I'm constantly amazed at how Sal's laid-back presentation style actually makes what could be a dry topic easy to follow. He’ll show you some great video examples of what the new Automator can do.
I've mentioned macosxautomation.com multiple times, and I'm mentioning it again. This site is promising to be my one-stop shop as I continue to learn about Automator.
The changes in Automator look fantastic. Until now, my Automator usage has been very situational. In Snow Leopard, I’m looking forward to creating workflows I’ll be using daily.
GigaOM's Mobilize 09 conference is only a few days away! Register for Mobilize and get a free copy of the Mobile App Store report from GigaOM Pro.
Переслать - Vonage Experiences App Store Bump
If you watch TV, then you probably can’t erase the memory of Vonage commercials from your brain, no matter how hard you try. The voiceover IP (VOIP) provider has been in business for quite a while now, but it has been losing ground to cheap alternatives by various cable TV service providers. Enter the App Store.
Today, just by announcing that its iPhone app received official approval from Apple, and without releasing any details about what said app actually does, Vonage engineered a major stock surge for itself. Share prices are experiencing big gains based on the potential benefit an App Store presence could bring for the VOIP operator.
This phenomenon, which I like to call the App Store Bump (not to be confused with the Colbert Bump), is another indication that Apple’s mobile application marketplace is something more than just one among many. Think an App World or even an Android Marketplace announcement would have as much influence on investor confidence? Think again.
App Store presence has become a sign not just of astute trend-spotting, but one of continued relevance. It breathes new life into business models that were either questionably viable in the first place (I’m thinking satellite radio here), or have lost viability through the emergence of newer, better, shinier competitors (Vonage being the perfect example). It also offers a way for entertainment media like games to reach a new target audience, when they may have saturated their existing demographic. I’m looking squarely at you, upcoming GTA: Chinatown Wars port.
What can the App Store Bump save next? Pogs? Devil sticks? Your guess is as good as mine.
Переслать - Apple Blames iPhone Explosions on External Forces
Apple has been receiving a lot of negative press lately due to reports of faulty iPhones literally blowing up in users’ faces. Well, in the general vicinity of their faces. The latest reports come from France, where an 18-year-old man reported that his girlfriend’s iPhone’s screen shattered, injuring his eye. At least three other similar claims have been made.
In Europe, where the incidents took place, Apple is responding to the allegations. The company maintains that nothing it has seen indicates anything other than damage caused by external forces. According to Alan Hely, a spokesman with Apple Europe, “[I]n all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone.”
Apple’s line differs from that of three people claiming their iPhones’ explosions can be traced to heat dissipation problems integral to the devices themselves. The French teenager who’s eye was injured claims the iPhone began to hiss before exploding, which matches the report made by another affected party, a 47-year-old man from Liverpool, UK. The man’s daughter’s iPod touch supposedly made a hissing noise before exploding after he dropped the device.
In a third reported incident, no one was around to hear any hissing noise, should one have existed, since the Netherlands man who owned the iPhone that exploded wasn’t nearby when it happened. He’d left the phone sitting in his car, only to return to find it had burned a large hole in his seat.
Apple told the European Commission last week that these are only “isolated incidents” and don’t indicate a “general problem,” but there is at least one lesson to be learned from the accounts: If your iPhone or iPod touch starts hissing, put it down and clear out. It’s like a snake’s rattle. At that point, you know you’ve angered it. Just back away slowly.
Whatever the cause, Apple is definitely being kept on its toes about these “isolated incidents.” The Times reported that Apple offered the Liverpool man and his family a full refund if they agreed to sign a settlement form that would leave them open for legal action if they disclosed the terms of the agreement. Apple is also quick to point out that the iPhone 3GS remains unaffected by claims of this kind of explosive overheating, which reads a little like “But our new phones don’t blow up!”
They are right about one thing: So far incidents reported number only in the single digits. Hardly cause for widespread concern. That said, think twice about holding your iPhone or iPod touch up to your ear the next time you think you hear a faint hissing sound.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user magic_quote.
Переслать - Why I Need the Tablet
It's a bad idea to ask a geek if they “need” some new gadget. Invariably, the answer will be an emphatic "yes!," followed by all manner of perfectly reasonable explanations as to why. I'm guilty of this behavior. Every self-respecting tech-enthusiast is guilty of it, too. Predictably, I need a Mac tablet. Let me tell you why.
This past week I spent almost all my days in my bed, moaning softly to the four walls and complaining that life is unfair. Yep, I was sick. I had a nasty allergic reaction to something (we apparently will never know what) and my skin everywhere became inflamed and painfully sensitive. My feet were so swollen I couldn't walk, and my fingers so sore and stiff I couldn't even flip the lid on my MacBook Pro.
After a few days of treatment, the condition stabilized enough for me to (finally!) hold my iPhone. So I was able to process a little email and do some simple RSS reading. The iPhone was the (almost) perfect instrument for me since it’s light and thin and doesn't have a fiddly hardware keyboard. For someone with almost-useless hands (as mine were at the time), that's an accessibility boon!
Even when the swelling had subsided enough that dexterity returned, I still wasn't ready to use my laptop. I could barely sit up for very long, and anyway, when every part of your skin is screaming at you whenever it gets touched, you really don't relish the thought of snuggling-up to a toasty-warm MacBook.
With that in mind, the iPhone might seem like an obvious alternative, but it really wasn't. You see, the iPhone screen is fine for when you're tweeting or quickly checking mail, but it's completely inappropriate for lengthy, detailed tasks such as word processing, document editing or web-based research.
Since I couldn't do much serious computing, I decided to catch up on my reading. I used my trusty Sony eBook Reader PRS-505, a gorgeous little device that remains, at least here in Europe, a favorable alternative to the Kindle. It doesn't have a web browser, or a Wi-Fi chip. It's not backlit, doesn't have a color screen nor a particularly impressive processor. But it's great at what it does — electronic books. It requires only two buttons be used; Next or Previous Page. It couldn’t be simpler.
But the whole time I was using it, I felt I was missing something. A few things, in fact. Email, for a start. The ability to look-up words in a system-wide dictionary. A web browser, for those times when I wanted to do a little background research on the subject matter in my book.
But more than any of that, I felt I was missing something deeply fundamental that we take for granted on the iPhone; I wanted the screen to respond to my touch. I wanted to tap, swipe and pinch. Having to use those fiddly hardware buttons (only two of 'em, remember!) was a distasteful necessity, sort of like Microsoft Office on the Mac.
It was (in a quite literal sense) painfully clear to me that I needed a tablet device. A ten inch touch screen, backlit, color, Wi-Fi enabled and… oh, you know the rest. I desperately wanted and needed the long-rumored iTablet.
I'm writing this on my MacBook Pro, on a train that is limping between London and Manchester. I'm gonna be spending the day traveling, but I don't want to have to lose a day of work. That means needing to find a space to open my MacBook and get typing. That generally means only when I'm seated somewhere, and only if there is ample room to place the laptop securely before me so I can type.
But with a tablet, I could continue to work almost anywhere. In a queue, standing on a crowded train or even crammed into a tiny seat somewhere, I'd need no more than the space usually required to read a book. And I'd be able to work.
I'm not for one moment suggesting the fabled tablet will provide me with a replacement for my MacBook Pro. I think it's safe to say that, for most writers, nothing can replace the convenience and comfort of a traditional keyboard. Frankly, I shudder at the thought of having to author something significantly lengthy using a touch screen with virtual keyboard. But a few hundred words here or there? A tablet would be ideal for that. Typically, my emails are never more than a hundred or so words (usually far fewer in fact), and my iPhone is great for dipping in and out of email — but for all the convenience, the iPhone screen is still a little on the small side.
In many ways, the tablet could be the spiritual successor to the venerable Newton. Reminiscent of Star Trek's PADDs, a gadget that works as a personal digital assistant and entertainment center. For all the talk we've heard in the last few years about the tablet being Apple's answer to netbooks, this device would be in a league of its own, creating an entirely new family of portable computers.
I'm getting carried away with myself. I must try to remember the pain of Early Adopter Syndrome. We rush out to buy Generation One and then suffer horribly when we realize the battery life is less than stellar, or worse, the software platform proves terribly limiting (anyone remember Web Apps?).
Still, I'm a Geek. I've already thoroughly convinced myself I need the tablet. I don't know what it will do yet, but I know I need it. I've just spent minutes of your reading time explaining why it is so useful and necessary, in the process maybe enforcing your own Geeky justifications for laying out the green when the Great Launch Day is upon us.
Do you have a better reason why you really, absolutely need the tablet? Share your Geekscuse in the comments, or hit me up on twitter and call me a pathetic Fanboi.
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