release note for r.1.6.3 (build#101211)

Something at Tumblr has created a bug in TumblrGear as of 4/12/11:the background blue color has disappeared and the “like” symbol is not showing any more on posts. 

Also, how does one contact the dev of this app directly? 

tumblrgear:

functional enhancement & bug fix:

• fixed post id overflow issue.
• fixed some miscellaneous bugs.

special thanks:

• yarumi aka yaruo, yossychan, massunx, sizenote, otsubo-san, myhoney0079, theorangest, vader_san, shingoym, pescamomo, mamiko noto

Yay! TeuxDeux has an iPhone app! 

Quix →

onethingwell:

Quix is a bookmarklet which opens a prompt, and then responds to commands. When you type whois, for instance, it’ll take you to a page with the whois of the domain you’re currently on. It can also understand more complex commands, like gs help, that will make it go to Google, searching the current site for the text “help”.

A simple command line interface for the web. Useful on the desktop, indispensable on the iPhone (and, I imagine, the iPad).

Haven’t tried this, but it seems similar to Shortwave, which I do use all the time.

Menu Eclipse

Above is an screenshot of my current Mac desktop. Desktop icons are hidden thanks to Camouflage, inactive windows are hidden thanks to SpiritedAway, and the menubar is hidden via today’s Macommendation: Menu Eclipse, which darkens the menubar until you mouse over it.

Sexy desktop bokeh via Mandolux.

SpiritedAway

This one goes hand in hand with Camouflage, which I posted about last week, to help keep your monitor and desktop clutter free. SpiritedAway (which shares its name with one of my favorite Miyazake films) sits quietly in your menu bar, watching to see if you aren’t using any currently running apps and hides them from view after a fixed period of time. (Note: “Hiding” an app simply means spiriting away its windows from view; it’s still running, and will reappear as soon as you click its dock icon.) You can easily check off any apps you want it to exclude, if you need the window to stay open in the background.

SpiritedAway

Droplr

The aforementioned Dropbox easily allows you to share files online, but I’ve found Droplr to be more convenient for the quick sharing of small files (<25 MB). The snazziest part of Droplr (as the video above illustrates) is that anything you want to share (including notes, URLs, images, screenshots whatever), you simply drag onto the menu bar icon, and the app does the rest, both uploading the file and copying its related, shortened link to the clipboard in one simple action. All that remains is for you to do is paste it somewhere and send it along.

For example: http://drp.ly/Nn8v

WriteRoom

I am the master of distraction, and in need of anything I can find to help me focus on the task at hand, especially when writing. One of the most useful “distraction-proofing” apps I’ve found is WriteRoom, a simple, typewriter-style text editor. I find a terminal-style light-text-on-black configuration to be easiest on my eyes, but you can set it up easily with any color text and background. It’s not free, but it’s a reasonable $25. There’s a 30-day fully-functional demo available, so give it a shot.

(And yes, that screenshot contains text from an early draft of one of my recent CI articles, on Argentine grilled steak.)

TeuxDeux

Web-based TeuxDeux is one half of my task-management workflow (the other half being TaskPaper). It is dead simple to use, as the handy-dandy video above will illustrate. 

Camouflage

I’ll let the video above explain the free utility Camouflage to you better than I ever could. Suffice it to say, I use it 24/7.

Ignore that business about hotkeys or using the menu to show and hide the desktop, though. The easiest way to use Camouflage is (once it is running and the desktop is hidden) to simply double-click anywhere the desktop itself, which will bring up a finder window showing the Desktop folder.

1Password

Another no-brainer, essential Mac tool: 1Password, the best $40 bucks you will spend on Mac software, period. Think up one difficult-to-crack password, then forget the 1459 other login names and passwords you need for your online exploits. 1Password has plugins for every browser to automatically insert logins & passwords for every site that requires them. It stores your info in an uncrackable, encrypted file on your computer that only you can read. It also keeps track of software licenses, credit card and bank info, your home and work addresses & phone numbers, and more, and allows you to enter them into web forms with a single click of the mouse. Best of all, the file can be easily stored on cloud-based servers like Dropbox, allowing it to be effortlessly synced across all of your machines.

1Password