All things macOS that make creatives’ lives easier and more efficient, i.e. backup hardware, storage media, productivity software and more.
On the Mac, you have four options to backup your data: Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, ChronoSync and Arq Backup. Of these, Arq Backup is the only true backup system. Time Machine is OK but doesn’t have incremental backups, compression, de-duplication or encryption. CCC 6 comes close but is true to its origin as a… Read More Arq 7 Backup solution for Macs review
Carbon Copy Cloner has been upgraded to version 6 and it is worth every cent of the upgrade price. The upgrade turns CCC into the most secure version of the cloning, backup and basic offloading application on the Mac. It all starts with what Bombich calls their next-generation file copier that ensures faster backups, partly due to the app now leveraging the macOS FSEvents for quick updates to the destination.… Read More Carbon Copy Cloner 6 Review
PDFpenPro 13 has been released and it looks better than ever. Version 13 has a new UI design with a better organised Toolbar that adds the essential markup tools and an Editing Bar that adds a text formatting section and colour controls. Other look and feel improvements include modernised icons, and more.… Read More PDFpen Pro 13 review
People who regularly read this publication know that I am a big fan of Hook, the macOS app that connects information resources from all types no matter where they be located, potentially turning your Mac in a huge zettelkasten system. Hook 3.0 has been released and I got a chance to preview its beta.… Read More Hook 3.0 adds folder-level links
Originally an “analogue” index card system invented by a German academic, the zettelkasten (or slip box) note taking method is the subject of hefty discussions on Reddit and other note taking forums as to whether the best software to manage a zettelkasten is Roamer, Obsidian, DEVONthink, Bear app, Ulysses, Drafts, or the new kid on the block, Craft. As much as it’s a pleasure to read the pro and cons, the essence of the zettelkasten is that it’s an interlinked, richly connected system of atomic information.… Read More Your Mac is a Zettelkasten note taking system
The Mercury Helios 3S is an aluminium dual-port 85W charging Thunderbolt 3 expansion box with a dedicated DisplayPort 1.4 port for an 8K display. The Mercury Helios 3S accepts one PCIe (x16) slot for half-length, full-height, single or double-width cards. You can daisy-chain up to five additional Thunderbolt devices. OWC added the capability to install a U.2 Shuttle in the Helios 3S. My test unit came preconfigured with OWC Aura P12 Pro SSDs.… Read More Testing the OWC Mercury Helios 3S with U.2 Shuttle
Until recently, all you could do about that was convert the image to a PDF and then run OCR on it with an app like ABBYY FineReader or DEVONthink, or any other OCR capable app. No more; there’s now TextSniper, a menu app that recognises text in anything you can take a screenshot of.… Read More TextSniper, OCR any image instantly from your Mac’s menu
In my pursuit of note taking apps for the zettelkasten method, I stumbled across a new app that I had briefly seen going by sometime around the end of 2020. Back then, I thought that it was yet-another-app like Bear and Notes and Drafts and… As I wanted to write an article on software that fits a zettelkasten system, at this point in time I thought I’d give it a go. It wasn’t love at first sight, but upon digging deeper, I found a true gem and one that shines for zettelkasten purposes too.… Read More Craft, the note taking app that combines a beautiful design with powerful functionality
The people who develop Ulysses have done it again: they updated, or rather upgraded, one of the very best text and markdown editors available on the Mac platform. If you ever doubted if a subscription licence can actually work out well for the user, the Ulysses subscription is proof that it can.… Read More Ulysses 22 text and Markdown editor, ever more power in your writing hands
[CalDigit] has been releasing new docks since Thunderbolt 4 was only just announced and now it’s shipping a new Thunderbolt 4 cable as well. The new cable is a hybrid. It hooks up Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C type 4, type 3.2, type 3.1, 3.0 and 2.0 devices. I received a 2m cable to test.… Read More CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 cable 2m
