Daylite 3.10 includes much improved syncing

Late last week Marketcircle announced a significant (and free) update to their flagship product, Daylite. This update has Foojee particularly excited, so I wanted to take a second to share what it means to us. First, some background on our involvement with Daylite. Part of what we do is help our clients implement various Apple-related business solutions, many of which include some type of CRM software (Customer Resource Management). There are several CRMs out there; some are SaaS (cloud-based), and others run natively on the Mac.

Some of my favorite SaaS prodcuts are Highrise and Basecamp from 37signals.com. However, there are two factors that often have us recommending Daylite instead. The first is cost. Daylite's licensing is far less expensive because the licenses don't expire, unlike cloud-based services where a monthly fee is involved. The second reason we recommend Daylite is the fact that it can be used while having no access to the Internet. Daylite uses an offline mode that allows you to see and edit the entire database of projects, organizations, and tasks, even when you're not online, and then sync the updates to the server when you have an Internet connection. Although this is a great feature, the offline syncing has been unreliable at times.

Without going into great detail, the syncing process didn’t happen automatically, and it interrupted your workflow for about 5 to 30 seconds each time you wanted updates from the server. Additionally, we came across quirks where we would have to sync multiple times for changes to reflect on our server. Very irritating.

With version 3.10, Daylite uses their "4th generation offline sync technology" which does two things:

1. No more manual syncing, woohoo! Daylite now syncs automatically every 5 minutes which will completely solve the problem of our team members forgetting to sync.

   

2. Syncing occurs in the background without any interaction by the user. In the past, Daylite would hinder you from using the application during the 5-30 second sync. This is a huge UI improvement and mimics the way MobileMe syncs information in the background.

Overall, it seems they've improved the reliability of syncing, and I think it'll be the right CRM solution for a variety of small businesses using the Mac.

For more information about the update, and a list of recommendations before performing the update see here. Have questions? Leave them in the comments so our other readers can benefit too!

MacHeist nanoBundle2

Man oh man, I’m excited about the apps on macheist.com today!  They have 6 awesome apps bundled together in their nanoBundle2 for only $19.95.  I’m most excited about RipIt, CoverScout and RapidWeaver.  And if enough people purchase the bundle they throw in a 7th app, Tales of Monkey Island, for FREE!  So, if you love cheap things, free things, awesome things and pirates head on over to macheist.com and get the nanoBundle2. Be sure to check the site regularly, they always have good deals on great software.

Be green with your Mac: Save as PDF instead of Printing

Our whole business workflow is paperless, except the occasional receipt from retail stores that we have to bring to our bookkeeper, and we're always finding ways to be greener around the office. I wanted to share a really neat feature built in to the Mac that will allow you to save a tree (and some ink) the next time you purchase some shiny new shoes online. Next time you purchase something online, for example from Amazon, and they provide you with an order number once you've completed the purchase, instead of printing, just go to the File Menu and choose Print. (What, print? That doesn't make sense... continue reading.)

Once you've chosen print, instead of clicking on the throbbing blue "Print" button, you'll find a humble little button off in the left corner called "PDF..." After clicking on this, you'll have a few options of how you'd like to save that webpage into a PDF. For this particular example, you would choose "Save as PDF..." Once chosen, you will be prompted to choose a location to save it on your Mac. I personally have made a new folder in my Documents folder called "Purchases" where I save all of these online receipts. Not bad, huh?

The neatest part about this feature is that it works in any application that allows you to print, that means Keynote, Word, and even Address Book. And, the PDF that you generate is compatible with PCs. So next time you want to send someone your killer essay that you wrote using Pages, just save as PDF, and anyone can read it.

Have questions? Leave 'em below!

Aperture 3 Released!

Today is a day that Apple-centric photographers have been waiting for a long time. After almost 2 years from the release of Aperture 2, this morning Apple announced the latest version of their professional imaging and workflow application, Aperture 3. Some quick Aperture 3 highlights:

• Faces - this face detection software that debuted with iPhoto '09 has been a huge hit.
• Places - Super neat feature that maps the geographical location of your photographs based in the GPS information from your camera. This also debuted with iPhoto '09.
• Non-destructive brushes - a much needed feature that will allow you to do more retouching in Aperture, reducing the need for an external editor like Photoshop.
• Adjustment presets - save your favorite adjustments into a 1-click preset.
• Full screen browser
• Advanced slideshows - now includes an audio timeline and the ability to drop videos into your slideshow.
• 64 bit - Finally. Aperture now takes advantage of Snow Leopard's 64 bit processing.

We're super excited about these new, and long-waited for, features. We'll let you know what we think once we've had a chance to get our paws on it! For a full breakdown of the 200 + features and a free-trial download link, click here. Have questions about Aperture? Have you already been playing with it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Workshop: Security on a Mac

It's no question whether or not Macs are more secure than PCs. For example, Macs don't get PC viruses, or malware that PCs are constantly plagued with. But are Macs immune to, say, theft? What about network sniffing? There are more ways than one that your Mac can be vulnerable. But the good news is there are also more ways than one you can make sure your Mac is secure.

On Thursday of this week we will present Security on a Mac at the North Point Apple Store. As more and more private information is stored on our computers (including business and client-correspondence) it is more crucial than ever to understand what security options are available on your Mac, whether you're using it for home or business. We'd love for you to join us as we introduce both out-of-the-box, and 3rd party security options that can help keep your information secure.

The workshop begins at 7pm and lasts until 8:30. More details here. Hope to see you there!

Workshop: Using Social Media for your Business

Foojee will be presenting Using Social Media for your Business this Wednesday evening at the Apple Store Mall of Georgia. We're thrilled to have an opportunity to introduce fundamental concepts of social media and the benefits of using it for your business. The workshop begins at 4pm and will last until 6pm. More details here. Hope to see you there!

Apple Answers General Questions About Getting Your First Mac

When thinking about getting your first Mac, where do you begin? You might have some questions in mind, or you may not quite know what to ask. Apple has a great resource that might help, even if you already have a Mac.

Here are some of the more notable questions:

How can I get an education discount on a new Mac?

Will my keyboard and my “right-click” mouse work with a Mac?

How do I move my files to a Mac?

Click here for the rest of the FAQ's.

Have other questions? Leave 'em below!

Happy shopping :)

Keeping tabs on your computer's performance with iStat Menus

Have you ever wondered if your computer could benefit from a RAM or hard drive upgrade? Furthermore, is your Internet connection as fast as what your ISP is telling you?

These are all valid questions to ask about your computer, especially if you're trying to get the most out of it. If you'd like to know the statistics of your computer at any given time then there is a super neat application out there called iStat Menus that can help with just that.

iStat Menus lives in your Mac's Menu Bar (near the Date & Time at the top of your display). It consists of seven different reporting modules that measure all sorts of performance specs of your computer. Its customization options also allow you to choose which reporting modules appear on your menu bar.

For example, if you're noticing that your computer is running slow and you want to know if getting a RAM upgrade will make it faster, then you can use the RAM reporting module to show you how much of your available RAM you're using at any given time. If the RAM icon fills up while you're working, then that's good sign that upgrading the RAM will speed things up.

I personally like the custom date & time module because you can click on it and have a mini-calendar appear. (So you don't have to launch your calendar application to quickly see a date in the future.)

Give it a whirl, it's free, and donations are also accepted.

www.islayer.com

Are you already using iStat Menus? What modules to you use the most? If you have questions, leave 'em below!

What if there were no mailmen? - An intro to RSS

What would our lives be like without mailmen? We'd have to drive to the People Magazine shop or the Popular Photography stand each time we want to pickup the latest editions. Either that or we could just get the news through the grapevine and wait on our friends update us…

Well if you're still typing in the web addresses to visit your favorite news sites and blogs each time you want to check for new articles, you're basically using this mailman-less system where you're doing all the work.

So is there a mailman of the 21st century that can deliver our favorite news?

Enter RSS.

Heard of it? Stands for "Real Simple Syndication" (not too simple sounding huh?). It's a notification system that can keep you updated on all of your favorite blogs and headlines. How the heck does that work?

Most sites these days now offer what are called RSS feeds. There are applications available called aggregators that can subscribe to these RSS feeds, so you can see all of your feeds from one location. One of my favorite applications that does this is called NetNewsWire for Mac. (There are others for Windows and Google has a great web-based version called Google Reader.)

With NetNewsWire you can type the address of a site you visit often, say www.cnn.com, and NetNewsWire will check if they offer an RSS feed. If so, it subscribes to it and you'll then be notified each time cnn.com (or your favorite blogger) updates their site. Not too bad huh?

NetNewsWire also has free iPhone app so you can stay up to date on the go (Link to iTunes App Store). In order for your computer and iPhone to sync, though, NetNewsWire requires a Google account (same as a Gmail or Picasa if you already have one). If you don't have an account, NetNewsWire will allow you to create one when you first launch the application.

Aggregators like NetNewsWire allow you to consolidate your favorite news into one location. In other words, you now have your personal mailman that can deliver just the mail you want. Better yet, you don't have to give him a Christmas gift.

-lucas

Have questions? Leave 'em in the comments, we'll be glad to assist!

Mailman image credit: naturalpatriot.org