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1. Dvorak-Qwerty redux

I decided to test out Tweetdeck, a new Twitter application in Beta developed on the Adobe Air platform. I like it. But when I attempted to hide the app with the shortcut ?-H ... it didn't work. Then it hit me. It's an Adobe app. Of course it doesn't work. That's because I type using a keyboard layout called Dvorak.

It's a common enough layout that it's included as an international keyboard option for both the Mac and PC. The Mac also has a unique keyboard layout called 'Dvorak-Qwerty,' which I use. This allows one to type using the Dvorak layout, but use Qwerty key combos. It's a thoughtful tip of the hat to Dvorak users who know and rely on standard Qwerty keyboard shortcuts.

Most of the applications on my Mac respect this convention and work very well with the D-Q layout. The glaring exceptions are Microsoft Office and Adobe products. I've given up on Microsoft ever fixing this problem, seeing as the OS still doesn't include a D-Q option (and likely never will). But Adobe? Come on. I can't imagine that fixing this little glitch would take much time. Correct me if I'm wrong, Adobe.

I've written about this on Adobe forums, I've sent in suggestions, I've posted on this topic here and on other blogs. Nothing has changed. While I'm sure that there are not many Dvorak typists using Adobe creative suites who rely on Qwerty key combos, I'm surely not the only one! And, hey, we're paying customers. And those suites are expensive.

Someday, I hope that Adobe will fix this relatively simple thing. Adobe: take heed that Smile on my Mac fixed this same problem with TextExpander with one simple update. I wrote to them about the problem. And it was fixed with their next update a few weeks later. Now that's service.

2. This Dvorak post rocks

So, I got an email a while back from Francis Siefken from the Netherlands, a fellow Dvorak user. He put forward a convincing case that switching the U and the I on the Dvorak keyboard would lead to even greater efficiencies. I love this kind of analysis.

Check out his post even if you don't use Dvorak, if only to appreciate the time and thought he clearly put into this. It seems that his blog may have went into hiatus after this one post (something that I can certainly appreciate!), but it's worth the read nonetheless. As is how he named his son, which also appears on this page. I hope we'll see more posts on his blog someday soon.

My view: why not switch the U and I keys? The point is that the keyboard—our primary interface to the digital realm—must continue to evolve. Dvorak, while imperfect, is arguably an evolutionary leap forward from Qwerty. But why stop there? I say let's continue to perfect the layout of keys to meet our needs.

Note that Siefken emphasizes that the primary benefit of Dvorak isn't necessarily speed. It's comfort. If you're someone who types a lot (as in all day, every day) it may be worth your time to learn Dvorak if you're not already heavily invested in Qwerty. Let the keyboard evolve, and let repetitive stress be damned!

The careful reader might now ask why I don't use Dvorak keyboard shortcuts, preferring instead to keep using Qwerty shortcuts. The answer? The most-used shortcut keys are largely grouped down by the ? key, so it's easier and faster. D-Q is a great combo.

3. On the evolution of the keyboard

And speaking of the evolution of keyboards, check out the Optimus Maximus. It's expensive as hell, but wow. It's the future of keyboards.

And what's Apple doing on this front? Perhaps making an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) keyboard of their own. Will it be cheaper than the Optimus Maximus? Probably. Will Art.Lebedev Studios, creator of the Optimus and other wonderful and expensive design goodies, sue Apple? This might be a story we hear more about next year.

I've been thinking lately about news readers. I use NetNewsWire on my Mac and my iPhone. It's a good reader, and I've grown to depend on the automated syncing of my feeds between my desktop and phone. I, like many people, only sync 'must read' items to my iPhone. My Mac client is where I download all of my subscribed feeds.

What I've been thinking about is the creeping tyranny of my feed reader. I've found that I've become quite feed-complacent. I have a large set of feeds that I routinely read, and the feed reader saves me time. That's the purpose of a feed reader, right? But over time, I've found that I don't surf around like I used to.

I tend to prefer my feed reader because it's so fast and easy. The result is that I've been reading the same feeds for quite some time, and I find that I rarely add new feeds these days. As I track a lot of mac-related feeds, I've found that it's a bit of an echo chamber. The same posts appear over and over, and it's relatively rare to find something new that hasn't yet been reported on in ten other places.

It seems to me that I used to find a lot of hidden gems by randomly roaming the web. I don't do that as much these days, but I'm going to start exploring again. The internet is a vast place, so there really isn't a good reason to get complacent.

A good tool to break out of the tyranny of the same-old-feeds is StumbleUpon. If you've never used it, it's worth a look.

The advantage of this service as opposed to, say, random web searching, is that you can select a subset of categories that interest you. Then, when you have a few spare moments and feel like exploring, you click the Stumble button (I use a FireFox toolbar) and are taken to a randomized site that falls somewhere within the range of the site categories that interest you. Sometimes the sites suck. Sometimes the sites are magnificent.

The one thing that is certain is that the service will take you to sites you may have never otherwise encountered. As a blogger, I'm often looking for something new and interesting to comment on, or looking for an interesting site or idea to share. This service is a great idea generator. It's also a good way to enjoy yourself as you explore the web ... and rediscover why it's called the World Wide Web.

So this is a call (to myself, really) to break away from the news reader more often and surf. And it's a call to refresh my feeds more often. There's a lot of content out there waiting to be discovered.

Long ago, I began an information organizer review series. I started out strong. I posted a nice little intro piece. I knocked out the first review in the series. Then it utterly unraveled for two reasons.

First, Alan over at Metadata weighed in that VodooPad shouldn't be in my review group (which included Yojimbo, DEVONThink, Together, and EagleFiler).

He followed up that thought with a post on his blog in which he suggested we divide info organizers into two distinct categories: those that help us organize existing data, and those that help us create new data (or, as he restated at the end of his post: "creators let you manipulate data, whereas organizers let you manipulate metadata").

It's a great article, and the foundation for this post. I agree with much of what he said, but as you'll see, my model differs a bit from his.

I've concluded he was right about VooDooPad: you can organize existing documents with it, in the same way you can use Word to store a list of all of the books you own. But why would you? Other apps are far better suited for the task.

So, as I was pondering this, I was offered a new job. And that's the second reason for the long delay. As I've mentioned here many times now, I moved. I'm still recovering (and unpacking).

Now I'd like to resume the discussion. This is an attempt to build upon Alan's post by proposing that we present organizer apps on a spectrum. I want to reemphasize that, in the spirit of collaboration, this draws heavily on the ideas from Alan's post. Go read that first.

So here it is. There are three main categories of info organizer applications that form the spectrum of PIM:

1. Finders

These applications strive to serve up something better than Apple's Finder to archive, organize, and search through your important documents. Apps in this category tend to focus on giving you powerful metadata tools to help you find what you need and organize your existing documents/files (thanks, Alan). Examples are Leap, PathFinder, EagleFiler, Together, DEVONThink.

2. Creators

These apps focus on providing a better notebook experience. They provide a central repository to create and collect notes, ideas, snippets, multimedia clips, and (to a lesser extent) existing documents. Simple interfaces, quick entry, and rapid search are emphasized. Examples are Yojimbo, Evernote, Notebook, VooDooPad

3. Visualizers

These applications focus on providing a better creative space in which to help you plan projects and gain insight into your data. Examples are Curio, Tinderbox, OmniOutliner

Since many of the functions of these applications overlap each other, I think it's helpful to view them on a spectrum. We can then perhaps get a better sense of where on the spectrum a given app fits. The screenshot on the right, for example, shows where I think DEVONthink fits on the continuum.

The fine print

Now a word about info organizers, info managers, PIM, or whatever you want to call these kinds of apps. I've had so many people ask for recommendations on applications that fall in the info organizer realm. I think there are no clear answers. Part of the problem is also a great strength of the Mac platform: the glut of third party app choices. And part of the problem is that many of us aren't really sure what we want.

The explanations (read: marketing) provided by many Mac 'info management' apps don't help much. So there it is: we have too many choices, the essential functions of these choices are not well enough defined, and the reason the definitions are broad and vague is because the apps themselves offer solutions to a very wide range of info organizational problems.

Some organize existing data, some help create new data, some help visualize connections amongst data ... and most do all of these things to some degree.

We know that most (or, at least, the best) info organizers do a lot more: they help us find things more quickly, make connections between disparate items, and come up with new ideas. They aim to help us solve uniquely modern problems: to fight information overload, to cut through clutter, to combine the super powerful with the super simple interface, to help us make unforeseen connections, and to serve as a nesting place or (better yet) breeding ground for our thoughts.

If we have a glut of PIM apps, it's because we have a real need to manage the wash of information that is cluttering our lives. With our computers serving as the repository for all of our info, data, thoughts ... we clearly need to find a way to pull it all together. To make it perform for us. That's the new paradigm. Some focus on organization, some on creating new info, and some focus most on tying together all stuff into some sort of coherent package so we can find our way forward.

Which you choose will depend on what you need. Ultimately, I think the winners will not necessarily be the ones that pull all of these elements together in one application. Rather, I think there is room enough for lots of variety. Our challenge, then, is to pick the right apps to do the job, but to pick the ones that do the job in a way that is natural for us. While it's true there may be too many options out there right now, that's the nature of competition. The best ones usually stand the test of time.

I plan to use the spectrum framework as I return to reviewing some specific applications. In the spirit of choosing apps that clearly fall within a 'band' of the spectrum, my review choices will change from the original lineup (I'm still deciding which ones I want to tackle).

When I'm done, I'm considering placing all the major info organizer apps (not just the ones I reviewed) on the spectrum with the aim of helping people sort through all of the choices.

I'll close with a word on the acronym PIM and the phrase 'info management.' I think they are both hopelessly broad and meaningless. Every program used on a home computer is, in a sense, a personal info manager. Sadly, I'll probably keep using PIM out of habit. After all, spectrum of PIM sounds much better than spectrum of info organizers.

Some clever person should devise a better term. I kind of like 'personal content assistant,' used by the folks over at Eastgate Tinderbox. Or perhaps we could use MIP: making information perform.

We get our furniture and other household goods from Hawaii this Friday. All of our stuff will finally join us here in Maryland…and I will soon once again be able to sit at a proper desk in a proper chair to update this site.

Now that we have a new mailing address, I decided to start off right by stopping the influx of junk mail to our new abode before it even starts.

I’m using a free online service (still in beta) called ProQou, a one-stop source to turn off all of those unwanted mailings.

It’s easy to use. Time will tell how well it works. If you get a lot of junk in your mailbox, check it out.

Shortly before I moved from Hawaii to Maryland, a friend of mine graciously gave me his 16 GB iPhone (Edge) after he bought a new 3G model.

It had a cracked screen, but I didn’t mind. The shattered glass was mostly confined to one corner, so it wasn’t too distracting. He didn’t ask for any direct payment, only requesting that I send him a new Mac game around Christmas time when he’s deployed to Iraq (he’s a combat cameraman in the Navy).

This iPhone was unbelievably handy during our move, and I was and continue to be grateful for it (and since I didn’t buy it from Apple or AT&T, I don’t have a two-year contract, which is nice. I’m squeamish about locked-in contracts).

A couple of weeks ago, however, this iPhone started acting up. The dock connector would only work with Apple’s supplied USB cable. It would not work with third party cables, chargers, or music docking stations.

Just to see what would happen, I took it to my new local Apple store at Montgomery Mall in Maryland. I explained the problem, and the Apple Genius carefully tested it out. I was expecting to get a quote for a repair cost. I was shocked when the Apple Genius offered me a new 16GB Edge iPhone on the spot.

After he confirmed the defect, he informed me that a cracked screen is cause to void the warranty, so I really should protect it with a case (which I certainly do).

So, I now have a new (refurbished) iPhone, and I am a very happy customer.

The moral of the story: if you have an iPhone with a cracked screen that has a legitimate defect that may not be tied to dropping it, it’s worth a try to schedule an appointment with a Genius to see what happens.

My strategy was honesty, politeness, and preparedness. As I’ve read online from other iPhone users, sometimes you get lucky. Make sure you back it up before you go, as the store rep will likely want to restore the software to see if it solves the issue.

For my friend who gave me his original iPhone, thank you. I admit that I feel a bit guilty. How about two Mac games for Christmas? Stay safe.

Grab a cup of coffee. We already have Bean, the excellent and free rich text editor. Soon, we will have Espresso from MacRabbit, creator of the best-in-class CSS editor, CSSEdit.

Reading through the features, it looks like Espresso will be a hybrid application that combines many of the coding-friendly features of BBEdit or TextMate with the great UI and navigation of CSSEdit (to include CSSEdit’s live preview functionality). It also offers built-in publishing tools. It is geared towards web development, so it will surely be a strong Panic Coda alternative as well. Can’t wait to test it out.

I’ve signed up for the beta.

Well, I'm happy to say the move is over. Before I recap some of my technology-oriented 'lessons learned' during this period of transition, I'd like to respond to some of the comments received over the past couple of months while I was not monitoring this site:

1. Reader Lek asked how to convert (or move) a site from Rapidweaver to WordPress. The only way I am aware of to do this is to manually transfer posts and comments. There are no automated ways to do it that I know of. If anyone knows of any tricks or tips in this department, please let us know.

I did, however, come across interesting threads related to MarsEdit and RapidWeaver that are worth checking out. Both threads relate to using RW for static content and another system (e.g. WordPress) for a blog on one site.

2. A couple of readers commented on the current bugginess of RapidWeaver, and reader PanicGirl noted the lack of ability to directly edit code in a RW blog. About the bugs: it does has some flaws, but I maintain it's about the easiest way to get a site up and running for people who don't want or need absolute control, but want quite a bit of flexiblity. And, no, you can't edit HTML directly in RW. It It may not be the best tool for those who want total control. For those who do want such control, RW templates are fully editable, but it takes a fair investment of time to learn how to do it.

3. PanicGirl also asked if MarsEdit is the best tool to use with WordPress, and if I'd tried MacJournal. MarsEdit is the best tool that I know of to manage my WP blog. It saves me countless hours. I haven't used MacJournal for a long while (in the days before it had this feature, back when it was donationware). Sounds like this would make a good future app comparison.

4. Reader Gary commented on my Yojimbo review, noting that worrying about potential database corruption in a SQLite database is different than actually experiencing database corruption. I haven't come across any users who actually had such corruption. My Yojimbo database has never given me any problems. Point taken.

5. I received several new app suggestions regarding the long-delayed Mac PIM review series (which I started before the move, then was forced to abandon because of the move). I'm still scratching my head a bit over the Info Manager comparison idea. All of the suggested applications are certainly worthy of review, so my challenge now is to regroup and decide how I want to tackle this comparison in the coming months.

To recap, I began a comparison between five info management apps back in May(!), but have only completed a full review of Yojimbo to date. I floundered for a while, too, on just which apps I should choose for this series. I think I may opt for more reviews, but markedly shorter reviews for each app. I'd like to spend more time discussing the range and categorization of info managers to help place them in better context, which will hopefully help to sift through the sea of choices out there for the Mac. The term 'Personal Info Manager' really doesn't cut it, as fellow blogger Alan aptly pointed out in a post on his site. Stay tuned for more on this. This topic has become a minor obsession.

6. Some other readers took the time to post some nice comments on various reviews on the site, to which I say 'thank you.' And I thank all readers for their patience during this long offline period. Curiously, my RSS subscriber base actually increased over the past two months, despite the dearth of new material. Go figure.

About the Move

Now for a few words about my move from Hawaii to Maryland. I spent the better portion of the past two months without internet access, and without my desktop Mac. Fortune smiled on me, though: right before I moved from Hawaii, a friend upgraded to the 3G iPhone and graciously gave me his 16GB 1st generation iPhone for a pittance. I've always used employer-provided cell phones, so this was the first time I actually had my own mobile device.

I can't stress how useful the iPhone has been during this period with no home, no easy internet access, and no computer. Here's what I took away from the experience:

1. My next Mac will be a Macbook Pro. I love my 24-inch iMac, but I'm now ready to sell it. Since the thing I love most about my current desktop is the large display, I will buy an affordable large display and will dock my laptop while working at home. It's a much more expensive solution, but it's worth it.

2. The iPhone Google Maps application is incredible. The cell tower triangulation employed by my 2G iPhone worked unexpectedly well. We used Maps more than any other single application during the move to get directions to potential new rental homes, to find nearby stores, and to figure out where we were. Transitioning from Oahu's few roadways to the serpentine routes of suburban DC has been jarring.

3. I missed the ability to update my podcasts. The iPhone needs the ability to download casts on the fly, without the need to tether up to iTunes. Judging from Apple's unfriendly and illogical response to the first iPhone app to offer this service, I guess we won't get this functionality any time soon. That's a shame. As many have already noted around the Macosphere, Apple's bizarre and murky iPhone application acceptance/denial policies (coupled with their lack of transparency) threaten to dissuade developers from making great apps. This anticompetitive streak is sad to see. Excellent, inventive third party apps are the soul of the iPhone platform, just as they are the soul of the Mac.

4. Cultured Code's Things for the iPhone worked well for me, but I wonder why it doesn't include the 'Areas' feature of the desktop app. Nevertheless, I relied on it to manage dozens upon dozens of tasks, and it held up beautifully. I was a bit surprised to see that Things 1.0 (desktop) now isn't due out until the Fall, but at least we have a very good Beta. Odd, though, that Things for the iPhone rolled out for $9.99 right from the start.

5. Evernote's iPhone app also served us well. We used this app to store all of our critical data (airplane, hotel, and car reservation confirmations, etc.) for quick and easy access. I have no real complaints about it. It did what I needed it to do. Still, I would love to see Yojimbo compete in this arena. I'm not willing to shell out $30 for the limited functionality of Webjimbo.

6. Agile Web Solution's 1Password did the job, but I was a bit frustrated by the way it opens up links within the application. I prefer to use mobile Safari. I actually think I liked the first iteration of 1Password (the web-based solution) more than I do the full-scale iPhone app, simply because I often surf to a site in Safari, then realize I need a password. In such a case, it's inconvenient to have to exit Safari, start up 1Password, then load the page again within 1Password.

7. The AT&T network is surprisingly spotty. In our new home, I can't get a decent signal ... yet my wife can get a great signal on her cheap T-Mobile pay-as-you-go phone. I expected the iPhone to have a better signal in most locations, but that hasn't been my experience.

8. I downloaded WordPress for the iPhone before I packed up my desktop, but I have yet to use it. The problem is one of ease of use: I just can't see myself typing a post on that little touchscreen. I'm awaiting a bluetooth-enabled mini keyboard.

9. I'd like to add my voice to the choir regarding the lack of cut and paste on the iPhone. It's a basic, essential feature and I'm dumbfounded that we still don't have it at version 2.1.

That's about it for now. It's good to be back.

Today is the Ides of March, the day of Julius Caesar's untimely demise in 44 B.C. What's does this have to do with the Mac?

Well, I first thought of Caesar. Then I thought of Colleen McCullough's excellent Masters of Rome historical fiction series, which I recently finished reading. That got me thinking about books in general. Then I thought about Delicious Library and LibraryThing, two excellent bookish tools you can use on your Mac. Hence, this post.

Delicious Library

Delicious Library, from Delicious Monster, is a cataloguing tool that is perhaps the most ingenious use of the Mac's built-in iSight I've seen. Scan the barcodes of your books with your iSight (or any webcam or connected FireWire digital video camera) to create a digital catalog. Then browse through your new digital collection. You can synch up your catalog with your iPod, print out your catalog, and get personalized recommendations based on your collection. If you regularly lend out your books to friends, you can use the tool's loan management system to keep track of who has what. I can't put my finger on it, but I find it oddly enjoyable to scan barcodes on my Mac. Beyond being fun to use, it's a great inventory tool.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a web-based social 'book club' with a user-based catalogue of 24,000,000 books and growing. Wow. Create a free account to get started, enter some books from your library, write a book review, join a discussion group, get some recommendations based on your catalog. You can choose to add just a few books that you most recently read, or enter your entire library (if you enter more than 200 books, you will need to pay a modest fee). Or just surf around to see what others are reading. I could spend days on this page alone. The strength of this tool is its depth of information: pick a title and check out the book info and social info pages to see what I mean. I don't think you'll find better, non-commercial info about a book anywhere on the web. If you really like books, you owe it to yourself to check this out. It's a great discovery tool.

More Connections

By the way, the series of connections that led to this post led me to think of James Burke. I used to love reading his Connections column in Scientific American (he is probably most well-known for his excellent BBC television series). Burke specializes in tracing the interconnectivity of things: how events and inventions in the distant past lead up to the modern day. The connections he makes can be surprising (an example from the TV series: Burke shows how a test of gold’s purity 2500 years ago leads to the atomic bomb).

Check out the James Burke Institute Knowledge Web project — I've had this site bookmarked for years awaiting it's launch. From the Knowledge Web site: "it will soon be an interactive space on the web where students, teachers, and other knowledge seekers can explore information in a highly interconnected, holistic way that allows for an almost infinite number of paths of exploration among people, places, things, and events."

UPDATE: It’s Sept. 3, and the move is almost over. We move into a new home this weekend. Now we just have to wait for our stuff and our car to catch up with us. These items will arrive, with luck, sometime before the end of October. So, it’s taken me a bit longer than anticipated to resume the blog, but I’ll be back with the next update within the week … very soon (I just got internet access about 10 minutes ago, Sept. 15, in our new home). Thanks to all who have posted comments and visited in my absence. After I respond to some of the comments and questions posted over the past few weeks, I will write a bit about my moving experience … especially in terms of how the iPhone worked out, which was my sole computer since mid-August. Can’t wait to get my desktop Mac set up. One thing is clear: it’s time to get a laptop.

I’m temporarily suspending work on this site for about a month. I’ve just accepted an offer for a new job in the Washington, D.C. metro area, so it’s time to leave Hawaii.

Apologies for the lack of updates, but I must place all my energies into leaving one job, starting another, and moving back to the mainland. It’s going to be a crazy month.

If you subscribe to this site, please don’t delete your feed. I’ll be back online shortly with more reviews, tips, and commentary. Mahalo and Aloha.

I’m on the road this week in Washington, DC. Away from my desktop Mac, I’ve been thinking about data synchronization and the cost we should expect to pay for it.

It seems that everyone is coming out with syncing solutions, and most of these solutions include web-based access to data. And soon, we can expect a flood of iPhone/Touch applications — many of which will be modified versions of traditional desktop Mac apps. We’re on the verge of a significant evolution in data synching and universal data presence.

On that note, I want to point out that NetNewsWire, the popular RSS reader, now offers online syncing. This update came out last month, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to test it out on the road. It works well. It allows me to easily access my RSS feeds, whether on my iPod Touch or on the PC laptop I’m using (under protest) for work. While there are many RSS solutions out there, the free NetNewsWire is one of the best. The addition of syncing means that I can manage and maintain my RSS feeds from any location.

It’s no stretch of imagination to see that seamless synced data is the future, and that this future is coming fast. What I’m talking about is ubiquitous information — the ability to access all of one’s important data anywhere, anytime, from any platform.

While many services are heading in this direction, few yet do it with real style. NetNewsWire offers a good start. It will be better when there the NNW developers come up with a customized iPhone/Touch app in addition to a web-based solution. I’m confident it’s coming.

My suspicion is that we’ll soon look back at this period in personal computing within a couple of years and smile at what we used to put up with: the now-defunct .Mac, Google apps, and the plethora of other syncing services we now enjoy will soon seem quite primitive.

Evernote is a good example of where we’re heading. It’s a great app and offers very good cross-platform access to your data, but a year from now I venture that the only thing that will make Evernote stand out from the crowd will be stellar Optical Character Recognition (Evernote’s OCR is quite remarkable. Take a snapshot of some text, and it is quickly transformed into fully-searchable text). However, Evernote’s ability to sync data in the ‘cloud’ and serve it up on the web or on multiple installations of the app across platforms will be old hat.

Soon we’ll enjoy the ability to access our data everywhere, anywhere, on any platform, whether on or offline — that’s the promise, and it’s coming very soon. A year from now, we will demand it.

But what exactly should we expect? Web-based access is nice, but dedicated sister apps for our iPhone/Touch is even better. This is surely in our future, but at what cost?

I’ve been closely following the development of Cultured Code’s Things, an excellent task manager coming soon for the Mac. Concurrently with the creation of this app, the creators of Things are developing an iPhone/iPod Touch application dubbed ‘Things touch.’ It’s going to be good. Things for the Mac is due out in the Summer; Things touch for the iPhone/Touch will hopefully come out at the same time.

But what I’m wondering is this: will we be charged for different versions of the same application? In other words, if I buy Things 1.0 for the Mac, will I also have to buy Things for the iPhone/Touch for $9.99 (which seems to be a magic price point at this time). I’m guessing we will, and I say we shouldn’t complain too much.

Developing for the iPhone/Touch isn’t a matter of a simple port of a Mac app, or it shouldn’t be. It is about developing a unique user interface customized to this extraordinary mobile platform. It’s about minimalism. It’s about elegance. These considerations entail many design decisions and a lot of extra coding. Cultured Code’s blog for Things development is an excellent place to view a behind-the-scenes view of how difficult this can be for a well-thought out app. Check it out.

I initially thought that I would prefer to pay one price for an application, and that price would include a license for the mobile version of the app for the web and for the iPhone/Touch. However, I now see that this really wouldn’t work. If you don’t have a Touch or an iPhone, you clearly wouldn’t want to pay a higher cost for a version of the app you don’t intend to use.

But what about web-based access to your data in a given app? Should that be a free addition or an additional cost? NetNewsWire offers their reader and web-based access/syncing for free. Yojimbo, on the other hand, offers no web-based access. You need to buy Yojimbo for $39. You can get web-based access to your data only if you buy Webjimbo for an additional $30 (an application which is made by a different company). Should I pay a lump sum of $70 for a desktop app with web access for a product like Yojimbo? I don’t think many will choose this option. I will not. In the case of Yojimbo, I’d like to see them either buy out Webjimbo and roll out their own solution. I’d also like to see them make their own iPhone/Touch app to access Yojimbo data on-the-go. I hope this is in the works.

This example hints at what I’d like to see. In short, my preferred future looks like this: Desktop data-centric apps (e.g., Personal Info Managers , Task Managers) offer desktop and web-access version of their apps for one price. I think we should start to expect web-based access for many of the applications we buy and use on the Mac as part of a standard license fee. For the custom app designed for the iPhone/Touch, $9.99 is a good price point that I’d be willing to pay.

What’s clear is that ubiquitous data access is on the way. Pricing schemes for multi-point, ‘anywhere access’ apps continue to develop and mature. It will be interesting to see what model works best.

We’ll soon see. My hope is that the iPhone (and perhaps the newly-launched MobileMe — the .Mac replacement) will drive a new revolution towards elegant data ubiquity.

Post Script: I’m posting these comments in a hotel room using Wordpress’ web access on a PC laptop. As I’m pressed for time, I’m not adding links. I don’t have the time. It’s a testament to MarsEdit, TextMate and TextExpander — three stellar Mac applications — that I would add links if I had a Mac laptop on-hand. On my PC, it would be too painful and time-intensive.

P.P.S. Look for the next installment in the long-delayed PIM review sometime next week once I get back to Hawaii. I’ll next look at DevonThink Personal. I’ll also be commenting on the minor controversies surrounding my inclusion of VooDooPad in my review series. The sneak-peek: I’m keeping VooDooPad, but I’m adding an extra Personal Information Manager to the series. I’ll explain my decision soon, as well.