asymco

Déjà Vu is visual memory.

The way it works is that you take pictures of things you would like to remember. For example, products you see in a magazine, recipes you read in a cooking book, wine labels in a restaurant, Newspaper articles, DVDs, CDs or event flyers.

Each picture becomes a visual memo. A regular camera app doesn’t distinguish those memos from “regular“ photos. Déjà Vu helps you organize and structure your visual memos in an easy and effective way. It does this through a tailored interface for tagging and categorization and an integration of image recognition technology.

Features:

• Quick shot camera allows rapid picture taking
• Integrated Image recognition
• Synchronization with a cloud account
• Easy search. Find your visual memos by keywords and tags.
• Location tag. Locate your visual memos on a map.
• Available on iPhone and Web

Déjà Vu is free for up to 30 visual memos/month. Learn more at Kooaba.

MindNode is an elegant, easy-to-use mind mapping tool for Mac and iOS. Whether you’re brainstorming for your next project, organizing your life, or planning your vacation, MindNode lets you collect, structure, and expand your ideas. And thanks to built-in Dropbox and WiFi sharing, even your biggest ideas can go anywhere your iPhone does.

MindNode is easy mind mapping for your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Try out Mindnode Pro and MindNode touch today!

Scrivener calls itself a “content-generation tool”. That’s an interesting definition for a job to be done. The process of writing is not a linear flow of text composition. It’s often based on research, reference, fact checking, linking (citation), etc. It’s then a lot of re-organizing, re-defining and editing.

Most software is only fired up after much of the hard work is completed.

Scrivener lets you compose and structure long and difficult documents based on material from multiple sources. Adopted by novelists, screenwriters, journalists, lawyers and academics alike, the program allows users to split the editor and view documents, PDF files, multimedia and other research materials next to each other.

A virtual corkboard and outliner help with structuring or providing an overview of the draft. Collate, read and edit related text without affecting its place in the whole using Scrivener’s Collections feature. Close out the world in Full Screen mode. And when you’re finished, export to e-readers or the most popular word processing programs for submission.

If I’d be writing a book, this is what I’d use.

Available for Mac OS X and Windows at Literature and Latte.

“Openness” has become a politicized word. It’s been pulled in multiple directions and diluted into near meaninglessness. However, open source is a crucial foundation to much of computing today. It’s like reinforcing bar (rebar) in a building–mostly invisible but providing the necessary structural strength.

Like rebar’s however, open source is typically the least glamorous part of software and often powers the lower levels of a software stack making it easy to ignore. The other non-glamorous but essential part of the software industry is support and the “Help Desk”. Without this service, consumers would simply stop consuming.

So with this in mind, I’m grateful to HelpSpot for sponsoring Asymco this week.   Six years ago they created Open Source Help Desk List to assist companies looking for an open source help desk software solution. It’s been very successful, serving as an invaluable tool for thousands of companies.

They hope it can help you as well.

If you’d prefer a professionally developed and supported help desk application, then give them a look: HelpSpot: Help Desk Software

P.S. Check out the newest project they’re working on, the PHP framework Laravel.

Last week we gave a quick start guide for using OmniFocus. This is a great way to get started with a free trial.

Today we provide the same quick start for creating in OmniGraffle: a five-step introduction attempt in less than 140 words.

Let’s say you wanted to design a new Website. Here’s how you create a mockup:

1. Start it up. Download OmniGraffle here. Choose “Blank” from the template window.
2. Frame it. Stencils→Software→Konigi Wireframes. Designing for an iPhone? Drag out the iPhone browser. Lock object in place with ⌘+L.
3. Build it. Check out what else the Konigi stencil offers: position placeholders, buttons, and forms on your canvas. Turn on Snap to Grid (Arrange→Grid→Snap to Grid) for quick alignment.
4. Fine-tune it. Replace Konigi elements with real copy or graphics if ready. Add labels for the benefit of others.
5. Share it. Email, show off to colleagues via AirPlay, and more.

And to top it all off, it can all be done on the iPad.

You can also explore a bit more about this process. Visit OmniTools for more info about OmniGraffle and and all the other products that they offer.

My thanks to the Omni Group for sponsoring the site again this week.

Today we’re highlighting the OmniFocus task management software again. We are hoping you are going to take advantage of the free trial available.

To that end, here’s a quick 5-step jumpstart.

1. Capture everything. Take 15 minutes to move things out of your head and in to OmniFocus. Anything from long-term goals (earn pilots license) to quick errands (card for mother).
2. Define next actions. “Earn pilots license” deserves its own project. Move it to your library and decide what to do next.
3. Organize actions with contexts. “Research area flight schools” might be assigned to a Mac context for googling, “card for mother” to Walgreen’s.
4. Now do stuff. If you’re at the office, focus on work projects to get stuff done! At home, take care of errands.
5. Review mode. Take time to consider each active project. Does it need more work?

Find out more about OmniFocus here, and don’t hesitate to ask questions.

Prior to starting Asymco as a blog, I tried my hand at developing iPhone apps. I had a client, and we did manage to put together an app. I was writing the blog only as a means to provide some material to “fill out” the web site[1]. It turns out I was better at  blogging than at  app development but during that little time when I dipped my toe in the iOS  ecosystem I came across OmniGraffle.

I used an iPhone OS design stencil to do app mock-ups and was impressed at how easy it was. It has smart shapes, a large stencil library and contextual styling elements to guide you from rough outline to pixel perfection.

OmniGraffle is still the easiest and most elegant way to create website wireframes, process flows, organization hierarchies, and, even infographics (if you’re into that sort of thing).

There’s now an iPad version that lets you share the design process with anyone. Even through an Apple TV.

For ages 5 to 105, OmniGraffle is available here.

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Note:

1. The very first version of Asymco.com was posted in February 2010 and ran as an iWeb site hosted by Apple’s .Mac service. I even used iWeb as the blog authoring tool.

One of the theories that gets significant attention on this blog is “job-to-be-done” theory. It’s a powerful tool for product designers and managers that allows them to uncover unmet needs and build great products that more often than not have no competition. We’ll dive more deeply into this discussion with some future posts and podcasts.

But today I want to highlight how one developer took the commonly observed job of “to-do lists” and, by applying context, made a compelling solution to the job.

In other words, it goes from “what do I need to do” to “what, when, where can I get things done?” This is as important as going from “where do I call to reach someone” to “call someone no matter where they are.” This is what mobility did to communication and now Omnifocus does to task management

Furthermore, you can use OmniFocus to modularize projects. You can combine fragments of ideas or projects into steps to complete goals.

Rather than spending time planning, move the responsibility of remembering daily tasks from your brain to OmniFocus — gather everything into the Inbox for later review, and then organize those bits into folders, projects, actions, and contexts.

OmniFocus is as simple or advanced as you want it to be.

Available on Mac, iPad, and iPhone with free cloud sync. The job isn’t to manage your “to do list”. The job is to get things done.

Read more about OmniFocus here.

I still have a professional camera, the legendary Canon 1D with a few L series lenses. I’ve also carried phones with cameras since about 2002. But they were never good enough. When it came to photos I am one of those “highly demanding” consumers at the top of the market who looks down on disruptive low-end products. An SLR with a two pound lens was the only way I could be satisfied.

However, like the theory suggests, even the most demanding customers succumb to the new disruptive technology. For me it happened with the iPhone 4. I’ve been very happy with almost all photos taken with it. I really appreciated the HDR function and the HD video which my old camera could not do.

There is however something that is missing. The ability to take crisp pictures in low light or to shoot video without camera motion requires a tripod. I’ve envied some of the rigs that allow tripod mounting of iPhones but they’ve all looked bulky and expensive, defeating the “always with you” value proposition of the phone camera. If I would take a rig with me, I might as well pack the D1.

That is until I came across the Glif. The Glif is an extremely small and simple accessory for mounting your iPhone 4 or 4S to any standard tripod. It doubles as a little kickstand to prop your iPhone up for watching movies, using FaceTime, etc. The packaging even doubles as its own little bipod.

The clever design means that you can take it with you all the time. They’ve even made it a lot easier with with Ligature, a keychain loop that means you take it with you whenever you take your keys. They’ve also added Serif, an additional attachment to keep your iPhone super secure in extreme situations (like on a bike mount). The package of Glif, Serif and Ligature is called Glif+.

They are also offering the +Pack, for those of you that already own a Glif and just want the add-ons. Both are available for preorder now, and will ship in 1-2 weeks just in time for the holidays.

Do check out the videos on the site. I have received recommendations for this product on Twitter so it seems to be well liked by users. To me it looks really amazing and even though they are a sponsor I bought two.

Available now at StudioNeat for a very reasonable price.