The Getting Things Done model of organizing one’s life is popular, but software that attempts to encapsulate it has met with mixed success. Matt Neuburg finds that OmniFocus is the best such application he’s tried so far, despite its quirks. Also this week, Jeff Porten writes about the ways digital rights management is causing technology to fail, and what that means for the future. Glenn notes the odd unavailability of iPhones at the online Apple Store, new iPhone carrier agreements, and AT&T’s Wi-Fi service in Starbucks stores. Also, Adam looks briefly at CHDK, a utility for giving some Canon point-and-shoot cameras extra functionality, and Glenn highlights the recent incident where a woman’s stolen laptop was recovered thanks to Back to My Mac. In this week’s TidBITS Watchlist, we note the releases of Parallels Desktop Build 5600, MacGourmet 2.3, Comic Life Magiq 1.0, FoxTrot Professional Search 2.0b3, Quay 1.1, Freeway 5.1, Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, CopyPaste Pro 1.0, Opal 1.2, Caboodle 1.1.4, and DocHaven 2.0.5.
Curses, foiled by Back to My Mac, I say, twirling my moustaches! Two men are arrested for theft after a stolen laptop with Back to My Mac enabled the computer's owner to take pictures of the alleged burglars.
If you have a Canon point-and-shoot digital camera, you may be able to increase its capabilities with the Canon Hacker's Development Kit. Best of all, it doesn't alter your camera permanently, so there's no downside in trying it.
The iPhone has had a busy but passive couple of weeks. Wi-Fi in the U.S.? Free! Gone! Back! Away! Apple runs out of stock, fueling rumors about the 3G iPhone. And Apple signs deals to bring the iPhone to about 2 billion more people.
OmniFocus is the best Macintosh expression of the Getting Things Done life-management technique Matt Neuburg has ever used. More than once, it has extricated him from a logjam of pending tasks. So why does he feel that it's not quite ready for prime time?
While attending CES last January, roving correspondent Jeff Porten realizes just how broken technology has become in the name of protecting intellectual property, causing him to ponder the societal costs of such a dependence on technology that is designed to fail.
Notable software releases this week include DocHaven 2.0.5, Caboodle 1.1.4, Opal 1.2, CopyPaste Pro 1.0, Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, Freeway 5.1, Quay 1.1, FoxTrot Professional Search and Personal Search 2.0b3, Comic Life Magiq 1.0, MacGourmet 2.3, and Parallels Desktop Build 5600.
In this week's discussions, readers post questions about mixing wireless network protocols and getting ManOpen to run under Leopard, and talk about the recent incident where a woman recovered her stolen laptop thanks to Back to My Mac.