The Alfred App
I’ve been using the Alfred App for about a month now and it’s really one of the best desktop apps I’ve tried in a while. I have no idea if it’s widely used, but it has at least improved my productivity quite a bit.
What it does is that it let’s you search anything on your computer and the web, launch apps and do various in-app stuff (if you have the pro version) from a simple search bar. It also works really well with a ton of services, including various Google services such as Maps, Docs and Translate. If you want to do a translation just hit alt + space to bring up the search bar and then type translate and the term you want to translate. It also supports custom search queries. For example I just type “hypem” from wherever I happen to be, and The Hype Machine opens in a new tab. Searching files and folders is also super simple. Just start the query with a space.
The best thing probably, in addition to all the time saved, is that it really cuts down on the number of times one needs to use the mouse and saves some neck and shoulder pain. After a month with the Alfred App it’s going to be really tough to use a desktop again without.
(Source: slideshare.net)
My 10 years of blogging: Reflections, Lessons & Some Stats Too — Tech News and Analysis
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Finished an ok evening run from down in the city and up to the ski jumping hill (Holmenkollen) and back down again, and a quick lap around Bygdøy. Felt really bad until halfway up to Holmenkollen. After that it got considerably easier. Even if I’m not in my best shape running uphill still generally feels quite ok. I guess it has something to do with when I was a kid and had to finish lots of runs with a 5k climb to get back home again.
Saw this on Hacker News last night. It’s really cool.
Brad Burnham’s posts are always legendary.
Simple iPhone App Prototyping
I just came across Jyri Engeström’s blog this past weekend and found a really neat post on iPhone app prototyping. So many people seem to have an idea for an iPhone app these days, so while it’s not that hard to hack together something basic with HTML/CSS and a bit of JavaScript, Jyri’s approach is really neat if you just want to put together something super fast to show off your idea.
Basically what you need is OmniGraffle, which is really simple to use, an iPhone app wireframe stencil for OmniGraffle and a Dropbox account. You then just open the image files from the Dropbox folder on your phone to demo the views and flow. Of course the approach works equally well with any program you’re familiar with that you can find iPhone app UI elements for.
The full recipe is on Jyri’s blog here.
