Unfortunately, I’m going to be somewhere without internet access, likely for the rest of this week. Youch! God/fate/whatever willing, I shall survive such deprivation.
However, that also means that I won’t be able to update Tagamac for the next week, and will be horribly remiss if you contact me. I’ve scheduled a couple articles to auto-post, though, so hopefully you won’t be too bereft. I’ll be back actively posting and writing in a few days!
Avenir, Tagamac’s choice for fiction-writing tools, has been updated to 1.3.6. This minor update includes Growl notifications for .Mac backups and autosaves along with a smattering of behavior changes and bug fixes. You can download the update either within your current version of Avenir 2.3.x or by visiting the Avenir site.
For a full list of changes, see the 2.3.6 beta 1 and beta 2 posts.
Under Tagamac’s rating system, iGTD is distinguished and recommended with reservations. I have assigned it an arbitrary numerical rating of 7 out of 10.
Short and sweet: iGTD is a task manager in the popular “getting things done” style that is extremely powerful and easy to integrate with your workflow, but whose appeal is stunted by an unfriendly and overly complex interface. Users who need a highly versatile task manager and are willing to face iGTD’s learning curve will learn to love it; others will want to look elsewhere. [read more...]
PackRat, a desktop client for 37signals’ Backpack service, just received a minor update to 1.3.1. This update includes several minor bug fixes and other slight changes to make the program easier to use. The developer also notes that thanks to an update to Backpack, there is a known bug with displaying images added since Backpack’s most recent update; however, the developer is trying to work with 37signals to solve the issue.
For more information, you can see the 1.3.1 blog post, or download it to view the release notes. In other news, things have been slow around the site recently because I’m working on Tagamac’s first review of a piece of software. I should have the article ready soon!
Pukka, a desktop del.icio.us client, was updated to version 1.6 today. New in this version is an optional status bar menu allowing quick access to all of your tags/accounts/bookmarks, Spotlight support for all fields of your bookmarks (URL, title, description, tags, etc.), and minor tweaks and fixes.
For more information, including screenshots, please see the Pukka 1.6 announcement.
Punakea has been updated to version 0.3.2. This minor update fixes a contextual menu bug and improves compatibility with Leopard.
You can find the full details in the release notes.
It’s a relatively busy day for Tagamac today; besides iGTD and iPhoto, FileSpot, the Spotlight searching utility that is a much-revamped version of MoRU (thanks to all the readers who pointed this out to me!), has been updated to beta 2. The second beta is a minor release that adds capabilities to the contextual menus, allows the user to set where they want smart folders to be saved, and fixes some bugs.
You can download the new beta via the FileSpot download page.
iGTD, that most oft-updated of the apps I’m currently tracking, has received another minor update, bringing it up to 1.4.5.5. This update includes improvements to the Quick Add window, multiple dock badges, support for the Vienna RSS reader, and numerous bug fixes.
For more information, please see the 1.4.5.5 blog entry or the release notes.
Whoa, I am slow on the draw! It took the good people over at the Unofficial Apple Weblog to point out that iPhoto ’08 now has tagging (iPhoto calls it keywords).
Although I have yet to play around with it (I’m not a very avid iPhoto or Garageband user, so I didn’t run out to buy iLife ’08 as soon as it hit the shelves), the TUAW screenshots definitely look intriguing. It’s very gratifying that Apple has implemented basic tagging beyond their very basic keywords implementation of versions past, since this will allow users who aren’t comfortable with advanced tagging to still gain its benefits while others who need something a little more powerful will continue to use plugins like Keyword Manager or programs like Shoebox. If only there were a free trial or an upgrade path; I unfortunately do not have $80 lying around for software that I rarely use anyway.
Sadly, not all tagging software is coded equal. Sometimes tags are thrown in as just one more bell or whistle, intended to plump up a feature-set without being particularly useful. Other times developers don’t understand tags themselves and end up implementing them in a way that is not as friendly as it should be. Sometimes supporting spaces in tags causes other problems (such is the case when trying to roll your own tagging system using Spotlight comments).
In any case, you may well run across a piece of tagging software that does not allow you to use spaces in your tags, which can be a major pain in the nether regions. What you do about it is really up to you (although of course I have some suggestions), but when you decide remember the tagging mantra: consistency, consistency, consistency. Pick something and stick with it. [read more...]