Mixing ecosystems: life in an Apple and Android world - Part 2: Productivity apps
In an ideal world, I would like access to all of my stuff, anywhere, anytime. By 'stuff', I mean any file or piece of data on my computer that has any degree of importance or usefulness in day-to-day life. This ranges from short text notes, to a variety of PDFs and document files, all the way up to large datasets (including music and photo libraries). As flash memory continues to become available in ever larger sizes (e.g. 128 GB USB drives), the prospect of putting very large datasets on devices such as cell phones and iPods becomes more and more realistic. In many cases, bandwidth and data transfer speeds are the most limiting factors.
I imagine that many people do not feel a need to have any sort of management system in place for their data. Just put files on the desktop, all of your bookmarks in one browser, and make copious use of Post-it notes (real or virtual) for everything else. This is probably good enough for many people but not for me. If I want to realize my ideal world scenario then I will have to use specific applications to help me achieve that goal.
As I spend most days working at my MacBook, this is clearly the first port of call for where I will deposit all of my stuff. However, I also have an older iBook and I sometimes use other macs at work. In addition to this, I own an iPod touch as well as a Nexus One and I may well end up owning an iPad. It's not impossible that the future will see me using Linux or Windows machines. So in an ideal world, any stuff that I need to get at, should ideally be able to sync between devices like so:
Is such a mutli-device, cross-platform data-syncing nirvana achievable for all of my various files, bookmarks, and notes? Or is this what old IT professionals tell their children in order to help them sleep at night "One day son, you will be able to sync your music between iTunes and Android...one day". The role of the cloud is important not only as a central hub for all syncing transactions (though obviously Macs and PCs can do two-way syncing directly to devices such as iPods), but the cloud is also another point of access to your data. If I was involved in a bizarre gardening accident which just so happened to destroy all of my computers and handheld gadgets, I would ideally like to fire up a web browser on a friend's computer and still be able to access all of my stuff.
In the past, I managed a lot of my stuff using a simple combination of Bare Bones Yojimbo and Apple's iDisk. The iDisk was used for various documents (presentations, spreadsheets etc) and other large-ish files (>10 Mb) but I used Yojimbo to store pretty much everything else (notes, PDFs, bookmarks, serial numbers, and various clip art and other small images). Even at $39, it's a great app because it is very cleanly laid out and very intuitive to use. It also makes it very easy to get data in and out of the app. Sadly though it's one main weakness is that is very much a Mac-specific application. There is no native web interface (though you can try the 3rd party Webjimbo software) and it not easy to sync the database to other Macs (though this is possible). A recent update did offer the ability to export your Yojimbo Library to a HTML version which could be viewed on devices such as my Nexus One. However, this is read-only data and you still have to manually sync the HTML version to other devices. So Yojimbo fails in this one aspect, but if you plan on mostly working on a single Mac computer, then I highly recommend it. I'll come on to how I replaced Yojimbo in a minute.
Originally I was quite happy using iDisk to sync data between multiple Macs, and the iOS mobile application gave me a degree of access when away from the computer. However, after suffering from a spate of iDisk syncing problems I started migrating my iDisk data over to the excellent Dropbox application. This adds a single 'Dropbox' folder into your home directory, the contents of which are automatically synced online and with any other Dropbox clients you have. I can't sing the praises of this software enough. It's free (though you can also pay for extra storage space). It supports all of the platforms shown above (how often do you find software for Windows, Mac, and Linux?) and it has clients for iOS devices and Android. Wow. It also is very fast and efficient at syncing data (it makes iDisk syncing look positively clunky). It gets even better because you can share folders with other Dropbox users and also access all of your data through the web interface. The icing on the cake is that Dropbox allows you to retrieve older versions of files, including files that you have deleted. I should also add that the team behind Dropbox seem to be constantly working on adding new features. Yay for Dropbox! I now use it extensively at home and work, and it's where I store all of my PDFs and Office/iWork documents. I am seriously considering paying in the future to increase my capacity because my current limit of 3 GB means that I clearly can't use Dropbox for all of my files.
So Dropbox has taken care of some of my 'everything, everywhere' problem, at least for small to medium sized files. But what about all of the other stuff that I was previously using Yojimbo for? Well, I did flirt briefly with Evernote. This app is similar to Yojimbo but it also has clients for Windows, iOS devices, and Android. It's also free and has a web interface too. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there is something about the UI that I don't really like. It doesn't feel how a proper Mac app should feel like (whereas Yojimbo does).
Instead I moved all of my text notes, bookmarks, and serial numbers from Yojimbo into an app called Notational Velocity. This is a very simple, but powerful, note manager app, and you can choose to sync your notes with the Simplenote service or with Dropbox. Syncing with Simplenote means that you can then access your notes via the web or through other Simplenote clients (I'm currently trying to decide between the mNote and SolidNote clients on Android). For short text notes, this means I can now view, create, and edit notes from just about anywhere. Notational Velocity is a very well designed application and appears almost deceptively simple. But this narrow focus is its strength. Wish I had discovered this app sooner.
The final piece of my data jigsaw puzzle is an application called Springpad. This is relatively new, but seems to be gaining ground quickly. It fills in the middle ground of tracking things which aren't quite notes (though it can store notes as well) and aren't quite files (though it can also store files). Springpad does not have desktop clients, instead you access it via the web or from an iOS or Android device. You can use Springpad to store details of favorite places (bars, restaurants etc), films, CDs, recipes, contacts, wines, the list goes on and on. It doesn't just let you store things, it can be used as part of a Getting Things Done (GTD) system (supports lists, tagging, alerts, reminders etc). The mobile apps let you take pictures of items, scan barcodes, or just add locations based on things that are 'near you'. It is also a bit like Evernote in that it has an intelligent web clipper which grabs content from web pages and sends it straight to Springpad.
If you add an item using the Springpad web interface, then as soon as you start typing the name, Springpad automatically suggests matching titles as you type. Matches can be from existing items in your library, but more impressive is its real time matching of items from certain internet sources. E.g. if you started typing 'To Kill a Mockingbird' you will be offered matches from Amazon and Netflix as you type, as well matches to similar items in other Springpad users' libraries (but only if they have made them public).
However, the killer feature of Springpad (to me anyway) is that after adding the basic details of something, Springpad then adds lots of 'value added' data. E.g. if I add 'Toy Story 3' to my Springpad library and then click on the item, I can then see details of local showings of that film, click on an Amazon link, add to my Netflix queue, watch the trailer, or read reviews. Pretty cool. Likewise if you add an album, then you may see details of whether that band or artist is currently on tour. Add the name of a restaurant and Springpad automatically adds its address, a Google map, and reviews from Yelp. In a way I've only begun to scratch at the surface of some of the things you can do with Springpad. It's still maturing as a service, and there are a lot of things I think it could improve on, but I'm confident that the developers are taking steps in the right direction.
If you want to know more about Springpad, here's a good overview video:
So there you have it. With a combination of Dropbox, Simplenote, and Springpad, I have pretty much constant access to (nearly) all of the things that I might ever need to know or look up. And I'm pretty much covered even if I have to switch platforms to a Linux PC or Windows. I guess cross-platform interoperability is the new lingua franca of the tech world.
