Mac Law Students » Reviews & Updates

MacUpdate Bundle – 10 Apps for $49

Erik Schmidt — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:54:48 +0000

Limited time software bundle deals are a bit like ordering chef’s choice at a sushi restaurant. Or maybe it’s like a box of chocolates. Anyway, you get the drift; you usually don’t know what you’re getting until you’ve had a chance to give it a taste.

The latest offering from MacUpdate includes the following apps at a cost of $49:

1Password (a very popular app)
MacFamilyTree (helpful in a complex Wills & Trusts case?)
DEVONthink (could be quite handy in law school – see this woefully out of date MLS post for background)
Flux (could be useful if you build websites)
Default Folder X (if you like tricking out your file saving experience, this is for you)
Art Text + Fonts (it’s like Kai’s Power Tools all over again!)
Swift Publisher (you like to make cards and newsletters?)
Chronaries (a souped-up diary)
Interarchy (if you’re a hard-core FTP user, this is the app for you)
Typinator (akin to TypeIt4Me, reviewed ages ago in MLS)

MacUpdate is legit. The only question is whether $49 will net you enough apps you’ll actually use.

A High School Student Reviews a Smartpen, the Livescribe Echo

Dennis Bishop — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:31:02 +0000

This is probably a better review than I could offer for the new Livescribe smartpen. It has gotten to the point that when my peers see me using my smartpen, they either clam up or ask me to stop using it.

David Pogue: A High School Student Reviews a Smartpen, the Livescribe Echo

And as an aside, is anyone using a smartpen or other recording device in class? Please comment below.

Using the iPad as a Laptop Replacement

Erik Schmidt — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:41:35 +0000

Undergrad John Rust provides some revealing insights about how he uses his iPad on a daily basis. Note his yearning for an iPad version of OmniOutliner.

Monitor Your Hard Drive Space Visually

Timothy Lee, Jr — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:23:46 +0000

Ever wonder where your hard drive space went? Find yourself needing to free up a few gigs to download that Snow Leopard update? While you can manually start checking individual folders and files, this can be a tedious and daunting task. Fear not, there is a better way.

GrandPerspective and Disk Inventory X are both programs that visually break down hard drive usage by file and folder.

GrandPerspective

You can customize the programs to color code different types of files, and also run custom scans of specific folders or partitions.

Disk Inventory X

The layout of the programs are a bit different, but functionally they are the same. Both allow you to see the path of each file/folder you click on.

Recently, I noticed I had “lost” almost 50 gigs of hard drive space in less than a week. Knowing I hadn’t installed or saved anything that large, I opened up Disk Inventory X to help me out. Come to find out, CrashPlan was freaking out and instead of incremental backups, it had switched to full back ups, every day. Without one of these programs, I could have wasted precious Moot Court prepping hours trying to find the cause. Instead, it took less than two minutes. And even if you don’t need to account for “missing” space, it’s just cool to get a visual snap shot of your hard drive.

Both programs are free so check ‘em out!

GrandPerspective

Disk Inventory X

Yojimbo or Notational Velocity?

Erik Schmidt — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:14:26 +0000

Bare Bones Software’s Yojimbo ($39 / $29 for students) is an excellent tool for filing and finding all the little snippets of information that must be remembered but would clog up my hard drive if stored as separate documents. Passwords, quotes, computer configuration details, product serial numbers, the text from really important emails, blog post ideas – these are the chunks of text that reside in my Yojimbo database. My Yojimbo database currently includes over 900 notes.

While Yojimbo has served me well over the years, I recently started experimenting with Notational Velocity, a clever little app written by Zachary Schneirov. In a nutshell, Notational Velocity does less than Yojimbo, but it does it at lightspeed. While Yojimbo can store text, images, and PDFs, Notational Velocity sticks to text. But in NV, the search and text entry interfaces are combined.

Creating in Notational Velocity

Searching in Notational Velocity

It’s not easily explained with images; it’s better to see it in action yourself.

Notational Velocity synchs flawlessly with Simplenote (free), a stripped-down but effective note-taking app for the iPhone OS. Because Simplenote can also be accessed via web browser, the combination of Notational Velocity and Simplenote provides an always-synched, always-available solution.

While Webjimbo ($30) extends Yojimbo’s reach to iPhone OS and the Web, I haven’t tried it. While I have a handful of images and PDFs in my Yojimbo database, probably 99% of my entries are just text. Synchronizing big files takes time, and the pointed simplicity of NV’s text-only approach means that I never have to wait for a sync.

I haven’t switched completely to Notational Velocity, but its speed and clarity make it a pleasure to use.