Newsgator has released NetNewsWire 2.0 for the iPhone, which now syncs with Google Reader, just like its desktop coounterpart. It also sports a new icon, itself an improvement over the 1.0 version.

In truth, I was not a fan of the first incarnation of NNW for the iPhone. It was slow to sync, which made it virtually unusable for me. Until now, I’v been using Google Reader’s iPhone interface, which is quite nice.

But no longer. NNW 2.0 for iPhone is just about perfect for what I need. It syncs and loads quickly. You can email an article or post it to Instapaper, as one would expect. However, with emailing, you never leave NNW, which means no delay in returning to your feeds once the email is sent. (Ditto for Instapaper.)

You can also post to Twitter without ever leaving NNW, which is a tremendous feature for those of us who like to share articles we’re reading with the Twitterverse.

The final nicety in NNW 2.0 for iPhone is the ability to choose which feeds are shown directly from the reader interface. This could be done in NNW 1.0 for iPhone, but you had to log into your Newsgator account and choose which feeds you wanted and didn’t want to sync. That was, at best, inconvenient, even more so if you were constantly adding and deleting feeds.

Now if you want to limit which feeds sync with your iPhone, then it is as easy as pressing a checkmark next to the feed name under the Show/Hide Feeds tab at the bottom of your feeds list. (Certainly some will argue that this would be better placed in a preference pane somewhere, but I like the choice of putting it where it is. It means one less button on a tool bar or saving users from having to go into the iPhone’s main Settings.)

The only complaint I have is a user preference with the UI. You can star any article by pressing the star icon on the bottom bar. However, at first I couldn’t tell that it was working because I was at the bottom of the article and the only visual cue to know that an article has been starred is that a star appears next to the headline at the top of the article.

I would much prefer the functionality of Tweetie when marking a tweet as a favorite. In Tweetie, the star icon is just an outline. When you press it to mark a tweet as a favorite, the star fills in. If you press it again to remove it as a favorite, the star returns to an outline. Under this scenario, regardless of where you are in the article you are reading, you will know if it has been starred.

In addition, a couple of other things could be added to make it more appealing to some users:

• An All Items view
• Clipped items from NNW (In fairness, there is no way yet to sync Clippings from NNW on your desktop to Google Reader)
• Shared items view

I’ve not read a lot about NNW 2.0, which appeared in the app store just yesterday. LifeHacker loves it, but Just Another iPhone Blog is unhappy with the new look and feel. For my taste, I love the clean, simple look it offers.

NNW 2.0 lives on my home screen, and it is now the iPhone RSS reader I’ve always hoped to have.

You can get a free version (iTunes link) that displays ads from The Deck. Or you can shell out $1.99 and get the premium version (iTunes link) sans ads. I’m usually a free app kind of guy, but I paid the $1.99 because this version finally delivers what I want.

Pixelmator is my favorite non-PhotoShop image-editing app. With the release of Pixelmator 1.5 comes a number of new features, including Save for Web:

Save for Web allows you to quickly save a compressed version of a file in a Web-friendly image format and file size. In true Pixelmator form, the new Save for Web dialog is simple and features some unique polish that makes it a joy to use.

I’m glad to see Save for Web, but I’m also equally glad to see these added features:

• Slice tool
• Added information to the Info Panel
• Send to Mail and iPhoto abilities

Pixelmator is not a PhotoShop replacement for professional designers, but it is getting better and better every day. I do most of my image-editing work in it, opening PhotoShop for only heavy lifting. With this new upgrade, I’ll have to open PS even less.

Pixelmator is also a gorgeous piece of software with a truly elegant UI. And considering that Pixelmator costs only $59, it is well worth a look. They have some great tutorial videos that show off what Pixelmator can do.

For a complete rundown of the new features in Pixelmator 1.5, visit the release notes.

I’m stuck in a love triangle with two popular RSS readers, and I just can’t figure it out. I love them both but for very different reasons (and at very different times).

On the desktop, I prefer NetNewsWire for a variety of reasons:

• Keyboard shortcuts for blog posting, Delicious posting, Twitter posting, etc.
• Easier keyboard navigation
• Sorting by date either ascending or descending
• Natively selecting NetNewsWire as default RSS reader

Of course, I can mimic much of NNW’s keyboard shortcuts using bookmarklets in Safari’s Bookmarks Bar and activating them by using Command plus the number of the correlating bookmarklet. (i.e. Cmd-5 takes my selection and sends it to MarsEdit for blogging.)

But the problem with that is that I have three extra bookmarks in the bar, which starts to clutter it. Too, if I ever add or change a bookmark before the bookmarklets, I’ll have to learn new numbers for my shortcuts. (That may not seem like much, but if you are a power keyboard user and have repetitive actions you use daily, then the change takes a while to learn.)

So there it is, my love for NNW on the desktop is deep and true.

But then there’s the iPhone… I like the NNW iPhone app. I like Newsgator as a syncing system. But I love Google Reader on the iPhone.

Here’s why I prefer Google Reader to NetNewsWire on the iPhone:

• Better syncing. Since you are using a web app versus a syncing service, everything is always in sync.
• Faster. NNW’s iPhone app takes a while to open and sync before you can start using it.
• Mark as unread. You can easily mark items as unread on iPhone. Not so much with the NNW app for iPhone
• Nicer interface. I’m one of those people who loves the Google Reader’s native iPhone interface. I’ve not tried Byline or any other app for Google Reader on the iPhone because Google’s web app is so superb. (OK, no badge telling me how many unread items I have, but I have so many feeds I know I always have something to read. It’s not like email.)

And, so, my love for Google Reader on the desktop is deep and true.

Over the past few days, I’ve tried to use Google Reader on the desktop. And I’ll admit to a couple of pluses for Google Reader:

• It is always “synced” across my multiple laptops, desktops and iPhone (but save for the iPhone, syncing works perfect for NNW)
• I enjoy using the speed of Safari versus NNW’s integrated browser (which is also built on Webkit, like Safari)

I’ve also found a couple of major annoyances.

The main one: There is no way to view the original item in a tab opened in the background.

That’s counter to how I do some of my blogging. For a political news blog I run, I open all the feeds to which I want to link for that day and then I go through them. That kind of work flow is next to impossible with Google Reader.

So what am I to do? If the two products synced together, I’d use NNW on the desktop and Google Reader on my iPhone.

I’ve thought of splitting my feeds between the two, but I can find no logical way of doing so. (Besides, the thought of two RSS readers is absurd to me.)

For now, I’ll continue to test Google Reader on the desktop, but considering I spend way more time in a desktop environment versus my iPhone, I’m betting on NetNewsWire carrying the day.

(But breaking up with Google Reader on the iPhone is going to hurt…)

Apple released their first public beta of Safari 4 today, and being the app junkie that I am, I gave it a spin.

My overall impression: Safari 4 has some good improvements — the least of which is not speed — but has nothing revolutionary.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s new in Safari 4:

1. Tabs: The most notable UI change is having tabs on top. I like it for the simple reason that adding and removing tabs does not distract from the viewing window. The downside is that with the tabs on top the ability to drag tabs around has changed slightly. You can only do so from a grip on the right side. There is also the added risk of accidentally closing a tab when you are simply trying to move the entire Safari window around.

2. Cover Flow. Cover Flow comes to Safari 4 in Top Sites (see below) and a full history search (see that below, too). I’m not a huge fan of Cover Flow, but I like it for the history search.

3. Top Sites. Top Sites puts your most visited sites in a cool little window. You can “pin” sites, which will always keep them there. I’m sure this will be used by some people, but I’m not sure how or if I’ll use it.

4. History View. You can now see the websites in your history using Cover Flow, which I find useful. The extra visual cue helps locate something I need but didn’t clip or bookmark in Delicious.

5. Smart Address Field. This is better implementation, giving you a top hit and page names with URLs when you are typing in an address in the URL field. Unfortunately, it is not as smart as Firefox, which would find http://www.apple.com/safari/ just by typing “safari” in the field.

There are a couple of weak points in Safari 4:

1. Plug-Ins. Safari 4 crashes — or, more accurately, does not launch — with certain plug-ins installed. For me, that was Glims. Even with search improvements in Safari 4, I still like the search shortcuts, additional site searches, tab controls and search when typing offered in Glims.

2. Page zooming. When I zoom in and out on a page, Safari hangs. That’s bad. In fact, that’s very bad.

If you want more information about Safari 4, I’d recommend having a look at these pages:

1. Apple’s Safari page: You can download Safari 4b1 from here.

2. 150 Features of Safari: This is Apple’s extensive list of Safari features, not all of which are new in Safari 4.

3. Hidden Preferences: Want your old tab bar back? How about the blue page loading status bar? This list will let you do that and more. (H/T Daring Fireball)

4. 1Password functionality. If you use 1Password, like I do, then you can use this little hack to get 1Password functionality in Safari 4b1. That said, the way the 1Password developers update their app, you’ll have the fix in and update within 24 hours. HA! They actually updated 1Password before I finished posting this. Just left this point to show how responsive the guys at Agile Web Solutions are.

5. MacWorld Review: It’s a review from MacWorld.

6. ArsTechnica Review: It’s a review. This time from ArsTechnica.

In the end, I like Safari 4, and I’m going to keep it loaded and use it as my default browser. I’m hoping Glims will add computability soon. Better yet, it would be nice if Apple would just add the functionality of Glims natively.

Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts that compares Journler, Together and Evernote in a PIM faceoff for Macs. The first post can be found here.

Evernote is one of the few cross-platform, web-based apps that I both use and enjoy. Add to it an iPhone app that is nearly as powerful as the web and desktop clients, and you get a clear winner of an application for a personal information manager.

Where Evernote shines

Here’s some of Evernote’s more powerful features:

1. Developer and community. Like Journler and Together, Evernote has a strong support forum of users. Given the relatively newness of Evernote, you can imagine that there are a lot of users who are sharing the way they use Evernote and overcome perceived functionality shortcomings.
2. Cross-platform. Evernote works on Macs and Windows, so having to use one OS at home and a different OS at work should not be a problem.
3. Web-based system. You can get to all of your information from any Internet connection. No need to have your own computer or even a desktop client.
4. iPhone app. This is what did it for me. I can add notes, review notes and even edit (some) notes from my iPhone. Being able to add photo notes is killer with the iPhone.
5. Image recognition. Besides being cool, I didn’t see the use for text recognition in images before I started using it. Now, I do. Receipts, labels, signs. I search their content constantly now.
6. Free or premium.
The free version of Evernote has most all of the power of the paid version, plus plenty of room to store what you need. The premium version gives you more storage and the ability to attach documents to notes. I use the premium version.
7. Desktop app.
The desktop app gives you systemwide shortcuts that make posting to Evernote easy and quick. It’s not as nice as Together or Journler and their quick entry systems, but it works well. As far as look, the app is quite similar to Together, which is nice.
8. Syncing. You can’t get better syncing across multiple machines. Just can’t do it.

Shortcomings of Evernote

For all of Evernote’s power, it has a few shortcomings, especially if you are picky about workflow or functionality. (If you use a Mac, I assume you are…)

Here’s where I think Evernote needs to improve:

1. Quick entry functionality. Evernote suffers from not having a quick entry functionality akin to Together or Journler. The only way to change metadata in an Evernote note is through the desktop app’s full window.
2. Smart folders. This is the most atrocious part of Evernote. While you can use Saved Searches, selecting the saved search (which operates just like a Smart Folder) triggers your tag list to open completely. It’s hard to explain, but use it one time and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Hopefully this functionality will change soon.

Recapping the review

Evernote is my choice. It’s got some functionality flaws that drive me crazy, but it’s far more powerful than either of the other two apps I’ve reviewed. Plus, I can carry it with me anywhere — via the Web or via my iPhone.

Plus, Evernote recently received more funding with the promise of several improvements — including upgrades to the desktop apps. I’m hoping the minor annoyances are soon to be gone!

Evernote offers a free version. The Premium version costs $5/month or $45/year. To see the difference in the versions, visit their comparison page.

Note: You can find the review of Journler here.

A colleague of mine was sporting a Richard Solo backup battery for his iPhone yesterday. After listening to him rave about it, I was set to buy one.

Then this morning, before I headed to the Solo website, an article from Cult of Mac popped up in my RSS feeds featuring a new backup battery that is set to be released from Phonesuit.

The Richard Solo battery, shown below, attaches to the connector at the bottom of the iPhone. It adds a bit of length to the phone, which admittedly is not ideal. And, as one poster on Cult of Mac pointed out, it can add a bit of strain to the connector. You can charge both the phone and the battery simultaneously with the provided cable. The Richard Solo sells for $49.95. (There is a second version for $54.95 that has a light and laser pointer.)

The Mili Power Pack, shown below, from Phonesuit fits the iPhone like a case or a glove. While fitted into the Mili Power Pack, you can charge your iPhone and the back-up battery via a USB port. You can even charge a Bluetooth headset from the Mili via the USB port. The Mili will sell for $79.95.

For me, I’m still leaning toward the Richard Solo. First, it’s a good bit cheaper. Secondly, I use a Griffin Clarifi case with my iPhone, so the Mili would require switching out cases when I needed the extra battery. That’s a non-starter in my book.

There is no “best” Twitter application, this I’ve decided. It seems that of the three I use, one has a feature I long for when not using it.

Twitterific

Twitterific is simple, straight forward, I can post from NetNewsWire and it has awesome keyboard shortcuts. Plus, the icon is the best of any of them, for what it’s worth.

But it lacks some key functionality, such as Retweeting and being able to view user details in the app. Simply put: Twitterific is limited in functionality.

Twhirl

Twhirl has just about as much functionality as you could want: Retweeting, looking up users in the app, follow, unfollow, you name it.

In fact, there is little about Twhirl I don’t like. It was my app of choice until TweetDeck came along.

TweetDeck

I’ve heard countless people praise TweetDeck, so I thought I’d give it a shot. My first impressions: Ugly icon, not the prettiest interface but WOW, what you can do with it.

TweetDeck allows you to organize people by groups, which makes reading tweets a lot easier. I’ve got groups for close friends, Mississippi folks, tech folks, news, etc.

You can also set up groups for searches. Want to know what people are saying about an app or a movie? It’s easy enough to do. This is extremely useful for a blog that I manage and for keeping up with certain apps I’m watching.

And the only thing I can’t do in TweetDeck that I can do in Twitterific or Twhirl is post from NetNewsWire (Twitterific only), which while nice is not in the least bit essential.

Of course, I’ve noticed that TweetDeck doesn’t always get good information back from Twitter on people I follow. For instance, I was trying to add someone to a group by viewing their profile (which is a nice little tool), but when I did so TweetDeck said I wasn’t following them. When I went into the setup screen for the group itself, I was able to add them, though. So, a minor glitch. (I’ve also noticed a few times that TweetDeck cannot tell if I’m following someone or not.)

There are three things I’d like to see changed about TweetDeck:

1. Every time it receives an update, the app unhides itself. Granted, it stays in the background, but that’s some really annoying behavior.
2. Users should be able to set sound notifications based on updates, replies and direct messages. As it stands now, TweetDeck either plays a sound notification for all updates or for none at all.
3. In creating a group, I’d love to be able to create and “Everyone Else” group that lumps all the people I’m following who are not assigned to another group into a group by themselves. Right now, it must be done it manually.

I’ll give TweetDeck a run of a few weeks and either settle on it or move back to Twhirl. Of course, if the developer ever makes the first two above changes, I doubt Twhirl will be able to compete for my attention.

Before I started using Google Apps for Your Domain, I was a power user of MailTags and Mail Act-On, both apps developed by indev.

Not too long after moving to a Google-based system, I abandoned MailTags, which is a terrific app. At the same time, I stopped using Act-On as much. When I switched over to a web interface, I abandoned both pieces of software.

Now that I’m back down to just two active accounts (with three others forwarding to a primary account), I’m back in Mail.app. Since I love my keyboard shortcuts, it took me no time to pick back up using Act-On to shuffle email into the proper folders.

But that was the first incarnation of Act-On. I had never made the step up to Mail Act-On 2. So this morning, I jumped over to see what it included. I liked it well enough in two informative videos (here and here), so I downloaded a trial.

What I found has revolutionized Mail.app for me. It is superb. I don’t have the same functionality I had in Gmail (jumping straight to folders with two keystrokes, but I come close).

Here’s a few features I love in Mail Act-On 2:

1. CNTRL-click function. Using CNTRL-plus the Mail Act-On shortcut applies the Act-On rule to the selected email. No need to bring up a menu and select the proper rule.
2. Added control over rules. Act-On expands Mail.app’s rules to three pains, for Inbox, Outgoing Mail and Keyboard Rules.
3. Open folders. With a couple of keystrokes, you can open any folder in Mail.app. It’s almost as quick as using Gmail’s shortcuts to get to a label.
4. Copy or move email. Act-On gives you the option to copy an email to a folder or move it to a folder. This is great if you need multiple copies, or if you are using a Gmail account in Mail.app and want to apply multiple labels.
5. Main menu controls. With all the new functionality, you can get confused at first. So Act-On has a built in “main menu” of sorts that is activated by default with F1. From there, you have access to all functions.

If Mail.app can make a rule, Act-On can apply it. Act-On 2 makes Mail.app a more powerful email client. It’s free to try for 30 days. A license runs $24.95.

So it seems I should write a post about NetNewsWire and Google Reader. Why? Because as I was reading John Gruber’s post about NetNewsWire for his Mac and iPhone, a fellow twitterer posted this question:

Mac users of the world: I don’t understand NetNewsWire.. I use Google Reader.. What does NNW offer over that?

My first response to @Yeraze’s question was what came off the top of my head:

It’s whatever fits your workflow. I use NNW, but used GReader for a while. NNW has better blogging control. I like it’s interface.

Then I got to thinking, I’ve gone back and forth between NNW and GReader. Why is it that I settled on NNW? Is it just for blogging shortcuts? After all, in NNW I can highlight text, hit SHIFT-CMD-P and post to MarsEdit (or whatever blogging client you like).

So here’s my pro/con list for each.

NetNewsWire

1. PRO: Can post to blogs, Delicious or Twitterific with shortcuts.
2. PRO: Can manually refresh individual feeds or all at once, whatever I like.
3. PRO: Can open posts in NNW browser without cluttering windows/tabs in Safari.
4. PRO: As Gruber points out in the linked post above, using NewsGator you can control what feeds are read on iPhone.
5. PRO: Feeds seem to show up faster in NNW than GReader.
6. PRO: You can drag open web pages into Clippings folder and they will automatically be saved. (Unlike being able to star only news item in GReader.)
7. PRO: Interface. I use a widescreen view with external monitors, which makes reading faster and easier. But I can switch views when I’m on my laptop to better suit a smaller screen.
8. CON: Desktop app means one more thing I have open and using resources.
9. CON: iPhone interface needs more control over news items.

Google Reader

1. PRO: Universal. You can access your feeds anywhere from any platform. (Newsgator, makers of NetNewsWire, offer a Windows version called FeedDemon.)
2. PRO: iPhone interface is very nice, especially in opening news items in a new window.
3. PRO/CON: Depending on how you look at it: It’s Google. For many who use all things Google (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Notebook, etc.), it’s a perfect fit. I use most of those things, but Google Reader just isn’t one of them.
4. CON: Harder to incorporate blogging and Twitter with GReader.

In the end, my initial response to @Yeraze was the right one: It depends on what fits your workflow. And since both are free, you can’t really go wrong with either.

I can say that I enjoy using both readers, but with the way I work, I cannot imagine switching back to Google Reader. For me, it’s NetNewsWire.

ETA: Randall beat me to a blog post. Read his post on the same subject here.

I’m in the market for a scanner that will serve one purpose: Transform paper files into pdf’s. That’s it.

At one of my newspaper stops, I used the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M, which is the standard-bearer of pdf scanners for Macs. It’s where I was headed, until I stumbled across the S300M model.

What holds me back from the S510M model is the price tag. At more than $400, it ain’t cheap. The S300M comes in at just under $300, so I naturally took a keen interest.

The S510M is faster, but the S300M is smaller, can run off USB power and is theoretically portable (I’m thinking between home and office, which is key.)

The last test for the S300M was simple: Are the pdf’s it creates searchable? After all, I’m dumping my pdf’s into a couple of different programs, and I want to be able to read them.

Unfortunately, the S300M does not create searchable pdf’s. That’s a big blow, and may have made my decision for me.

I’ll have to take a closer look at Evernote’s capability to read pdf files, which I remember being fairly limited if they are not created as searchable files to begin with. (Ironically, I’d be better scanning to jpegs for Evernote than to pdf’s…)

For now, I’m leaning back toward the S510M. It’s a great machine, and while it is a bit pricey, I’m sure it will more than pay for itself over a year’s time.

My last post on using Adium for Facebook has led me to this: a quick and dirty comparison of Adium vs. iChat.

Pros for Adium

1. More chat service options
2. More control over notifications
3. Unified Contacts list for all accounts
4. Full jabber support (Can sign up for account from Adium)
5. Facebook chat support

Pros for iChat

1. Nicer interface (I love me interfaces, folks)
2. Video conference chatting
3. Better file transfer protocol
4. Voice chat

I installed Chax to gain a unified Contacts list in iChat. That was my biggest complaint.

Honestly, I just enjoy using iChat more. And I don’t have a need for the other chat services Adium uses that iChat does not.

And with Jabber, I can connect to just about everyone I need.

And by the way: you can chat with me via Jabber at samrhall@jabber.com, via AIM at sam@samrhall.com and via MobileMe at samrhall@me.com. In case you care…

When I first started with Twitter, I tried a few Twitter apps for the iPhone. I settled on Twitterific, which I do not use on my Macs. (On my Macs, I use Twhirl.)

Twitterific for iPhone is great. I like the app. But it is missing a few things, such as

1. Not showing direct messages.
2. Not showing nearby tweets.

Still, I was content. Then I met Tweetie after it’s 2.1 release. And now, I’ve dumped Twitterific for Tweetie.

Give Tweetie a tweet. It’s a great app for Twitter and the iPhone.

Here’s the latest mind-numbing game to be added to Me Ol’ iPhone.

It’s Paper Football from Jirbo, Inc. There is both a free and paid version.

I can’t see paying $8 for the paid version, so I went with the free one.

It’s good for a novelty, and I played for a while. It won’t set your world on fire, but it’ll give you something to do while standing in a line.

Note: This is the third in a series of posts that compares Journler, Together and Evernote in a PIM faceoff for Macs. The first post can be found here.

Together is a beautiful program with intuitive tagging options and quite a bit of customizability.

I discovered Together while exploring my options to Journler, which I reviewed here as a part of this series.

Where Together shines

Here’s some of Together’s more powerful features:

1. Developer and community. Like Journler, Together has a strong online community. It also has a responsive developer in Steve Harris. Steve monitors his forums, and he is quick to not only answer but to follow up later when issues are resolved or requests added to Together.
2. Storage structure. Together does not use a database to store information but instead a regular folder system that can be navigated from the Finder. This ensures your data is safe and not kept in some proprietary format.
3. File handling. You can add any file type to Together, but past that Together can render and read most of the common file types. You also launch files in their native app from Together.
4. Adding content. Together uses and omnipresent shelf that resides on the side of your screen. It is hidden until you slide to it. Content added through here can be renamed, tagged, placed in a category, etc. Content can also be added using system-wide shortcuts.
5. Organization. Together automatically organizes everything you add to it in a series of categories, such as Documents, Notes, Images, Video, etc. This makes it easy to find files or notes by type. You can also color code by categories, file types or just with individual items.
6. Syncing. Together is able to sync across multiple computers with .Mac. This is invaluable to me, considering I use at least two computers. Steve has spent a bit of time over two updates to improve the syncing abilities. I find it works well now.

Shortcomings of Together

As I said, Together is a beautiful app. It’s one that I really want to use as my PIM, but it has a few shortcomings that force me to keep looking elsewhere.

That said, most of the shortcomings are based on how I prefer to work and will not bother others.

Here’s where I think Together needs to improve:

1. Nested Smart Folders. Together offers Smart Folders, but you cannot nest Smart Folders into each other like you can in Journler. Therefore, you get a long list of folders with names like: PROJECT:CATEGORY:SMART FOLDER. That’s just not intuitive for me. What Together does allow are Smart Folders and Groups to be nested inside Folders and other Groups. This, however, is just a filing hierarchy and not nested Smart Folders.
2. iPhone app. There is no iPhone app and no plans for one on the horizon. Increasingly I’m needing the ability to add data or review data from my phone. While this is not a deal-breaker by any means, all things being equal I would prefer a PIM with an iPhone app.
3. iPhone app. There is no iPhone app and no plans for one on the horizon. Increasingly I’m needing the ability to add data or review data from my phone. While this is not a deal-breaker by any means, all things being equal I would prefer a PIM with an iPhone app.

Recapping the review

Together is a splended piece of software and probably the most powerful desktop PIM available. It’s native file structure, easy drag-and-drop abilities and intuitive organizational system make it a powerful tool.

Where Together falls behind is the ability to structure a filing system based on smart folders. And while you can easily sync Together across multiple computers, adding information on the go via iPhone is not possible (or even planned).

Together costs $39 for a single license, $14.95 for an upgrade and $29 for a student license.

Note: You can find the review of Journler here.

Note: This is the second in a series of posts that compares Journler, Together and Evernote in a PIM faceoff for Macs. The first post can be found here.

I’ve been using Journler since 2003. It’s been the one app without which I could not be successful in my work.

Phil Dow, developer of Journler, describes the app like this:

Journler is a daily notebook and entry based information manager. Scholars, teachers, students, professors, scientists, thinkers, the business minded and writers of every persuasion use it on a daily basis to connect the written word with the media most important to them.

In its native form, Journler is a date-based filing system. But it doesn’t take users very long to realize that you can use Journler just about any way you like. And that is what makes Journler so powerful: You can customize it to fit your needs, your workflow, your way of thinking.

This is Journler “out-of-the-box”, so to speak. It doesn’t inspire me, but it’s not ugly. But as I said above, Journler is highly customizable. Here’s what my Journler looks like:

As you can see, I stole a bit from Together because I like being able to see what kind of items I have in my Journler. (This was done by using smart folders. In fact, pretty much every folder you see is a smart folder. Nesting the smart folders makes it easy.)

Where Journler shines

Here’s some of Journler’s more powerful features:

1. Online community. Journler has a strong user community in its forum. Few questions go unanswered. Because Journler has such a strong fan-base, it’s not just the developer answering the questions. It’s users troubleshooting problems, relaying how they use Journler and idea sharing among other users.
2. AppleScript Support. Of any of the PIMs available, I would argue that Journler has the best ApppleScript support. And you can find a variety of scripts from the above-mentioned community.
3. Smart Folders. This is becoming more and more the norm among most PIMs, such as Together, but others still lack it, such as Evernote. (Evernote, which I’ll review later, uses Saved Searches instead of nested folders.) The best implementation — and earliest for a PIM — is by far Journler, in my opinion. Using tags and smart folders (not to mention customized icons), you can turn Journler into just about any kind of repository you so desire.
4. Content handling. Getting things into Journler is really no easier than Together and Evernote, but you have more options upon importing or creating notes to add tags, comments and categories in the initial step. Too, with Journler, you can choose if you want to store or link to items, which is not revolutionary compared to Together but superior to Evernote. Furthermore, you can store absolutely any kind of file in Journler, edit the file in its native application and then all changes be reflected. Both Evernote and Together offer similar functionality.
5. Lexicon and Search. The search capabilities for Journler are superb. But what sets it apart is the Lexicon, which allows you an “itemized” list of every word used in your notes. It’s a brilliant way to search.
6. iLife integration. Again, Journler was early to the game with iLife integration. Neither Evernote nor Together match Journler is this aspect.

Shortcomings of Journler

All in all, I’m pleased with Journler and have been happy with it as my PIM. But as my work evolves, and as Journler ages, I’m beginning to find a few troubling shortcomings. Here’s where I believe Journler falls short:

1. Syncing. Journler offers no native syncing across different machines. I’ve used DropBox as a workaround, but it gets tricky. You can have Journler open on only one machine at a time or you risk losing information.
2. Interface. While you can customize Journler in just about any way, limitations exist. For example, you can only get horizontal views of your Journal entry list (i.e. Mail.app). I prefer a vertical view so I’m not forced to open individual notes in separate windows or tabs.
3. iPhone app. There is no iPhone app and no plans for one on the horizon. Increasingly I’m needing the ability to add data or review data from my phone. While this is not a deal-breaker by any means, all things being equal I would prefer a PIM with an iPhone app.

Finally, what discourages me the most about Journler is that its programmer seems to be slowing down his development. A new release has been promised for some time, but Dow has given users no real idea of when it will hit.

Recapping the review

Journler is highly customizable, offering users the opportunity to craft a PIM that meets their demands and preferences instead of molding one’s workflow around the app itself.

Journler’s biggest limitation for some users is the inability to sync across multiple computers. And given the developer’s recent lack of work on the application, many will find it a risky choice if Journler is to be their repository for important information going forward.

Journler costs $34.95 for a single license, $19.95 for a student license and $99.95 for 5 licenses.