Unclutter Your Mac in One Week  →

Though I certainly geek out over this stuff, not everyone in the world cares. My wife, for example, is completely unconcerned by the fact she has over two gigabytes of data on her computer’s Desktop. I, on the other hand, would be in complete distress with such a state of my Desktop.

Patrick actually addresses this in the wrap-up to his series, talking about pilers, filers, and wanna-be filers. If you’re a filer (or wanna-be filer), and you care about the state of your Mac, I heartily recommend Patrick’s Unclutter Your Mac in One Week Series. And don’t miss day two, or day three, or day four, or day five.

Unclutter Your Mac in One Week

Action Menu  →

Action Menu is a jailbreak app which adds some handy features to the iPhone’s copy/paste functionality. Best of which is the in-line access to a list of clipboard favorites. You can add these faves when copying something, or manually within Action Menu’s settings. (Thanks to reader Sean Curley for the tip.)

Action Menu

Jailbreak Addendum

After yesterday’s post on jailbreaking there was quite a bit of response via email and Twitter. I received quite a few tips and links, but for the most part the feedback was either, welcome to the club, or, now I’m gonna try it. Also after yesterday’s post I had renewed vigor to geek out a bit more with my jailbroken iPhone, and so I spent some time surfing for icons and fiddling with new apps. Through all of which I’ve discovered a few things worth sharing here.

Regarding Icons and Themes

  • This afternoon I spent some time gathering properly styled icons for the Matte Nano theme that are not currently included in the Cydia install package. What I couldn’t find online I created in Photoshop.

Altogether, these include: Tweetie 2, Things, Fever, Pastebot, Birdhouse, Blimp, Ninjawords, Boggle, Orbital, Mill Colour, Mint (stats), Mint (money), Simplenote, Dropbox, Ego, Canabalt, Settings, and Tilt Shift Generator.

If you are interested, I’ve zipped these icons — along with the Matte Nano icon template PSD file — and posted them for download here.

  • When adding or replacing icons in a theme, the png filename is case sensitive, and has to exactly match the name of the app as it appears on the springboard.

  • Just Another iPhone Blog has more info on how to change or add icons to a theme. Like Thomas says, “it’s all just a matter of knowing which folders your image files are in, and then replacing the particular icons you’d like to change.”

Regarding Apps

  • I never realized this until today, but there was no need for me to delete the OpenSSH app to avoid possible hijacking. It can easily be enabled / disabled via SBSettings.

  • ProSwitcher: If you are using Backgrounder to keep apps running in the background, then ProSwitcher allows you to view and go to those apps with a UI very similar to the way Mobile Safari presents multiple Webpages. (Thanks to reader John Rust for the tip.)

After a day of use, the concept of ProSwitcher seems a lot more exciting then its actual usefulness. Especially on my iPhone 3GS where apps launch so quickly, and quitting out of one and starting another is almost faster than using ProSwitcher to switch between them. Usefulness (to me, at least) aside, the design and functionality of ProSwitcher is top notch — perhaps this is the most native-feeling, jailbreak app I have.

  • Unfortunately, Pastebot does not work as you wish it might if you set it to continue running in the background. So far as I can tell, Pastebot is programmed to copy in what’s on the iPhone’s clipboard at the time of startup, not at any time a new item is added. Thus, if you leave Pastebot running in the background it does not continue to collect all copied bits of text and images from your iPhone (or Mac if synced).
Jailbreak Addendum

Jailbreak

Text Message on the Homescreen with the Matte UI Theme

Due to a few false assumptions I never saw the point in jailbreaking my iPhone.

  1. I assumed it would make my iPhone unreliable, glitchy, and slow.
  2. I assumed there was no way the iPhone UI could be improved upon so why bother? (And lord knows I don’t want this as my new UI theme.)
  3. I am already on AT&T, so what’s the point of a jailbroken iPhone if I’m not going to also unlock it for use on a different carrier?
  4. I assumed I would only be able to download and use jailbrake iPhone apps, and not apps from the iTunes store or apps that I was beta testing.

I was wrong on all assumptions. And so six weeks ago I jailbroke my iPhone. I backed it up knowing that in the the worst-case scenario I could simply erase it and restore from my last backup. I downloaded Blackra1n, ran it, and followed some instructions. The whole jailbreak process took about 60 seconds, I have had no trouble since. And now I have a slightly more unique iPhone.

My iPhone Homescreen

After jailbreaking, I made a few adjustments to the UI and added a few jailbreak iPhone apps:

  • Winterboard: This is the app you use to manage UI themes and changes to your iPhone. As seen in the screenshots above, I’m using the Matte UI theme, and the Matte Nano icons, though I did have to adjust the Pastebot, Simplenote, Things, and Camera icons myself. These themes are available for free on Cydia and are, by far, the my favorite reason to have a jailbroken iPhone.

(Some other popular themes seem to be Suave, Radiance, and iElemental.)

  • OpenSSH: This is how I transfer icons and themes from my MacBook Pro to my iPhone. Even though I changed the default password I rarely use SSH, so I simply delete it from my iPhone after using it so as to avoid even the slightest risk of being “held hostage“.

  • SBSettings: For one-swipe access to toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more, as well as a secondary ‘dock’ where I’ve placed the jailbroken apps like Cydia and Boss Prefs.

SBSettings is is by far my most-used jailbroken package. It is especially useful for those times when you want to switch Wi-Fi off (or on) while in the middle of using an app. For example: when trying to post a tweet at a coffee shop that has an open Wi-Fi signal but not free Internet access. The iPhone grabs the signal but can’t actually connect to the Web. But instead of quitting Tweetie to turn-off wireless, I simply swipe the top status bar and SBSettings slides down for me to turn off Wi-Fi and Tweet from 3G instead.

  • Boss Prefs: All sorts of additional system preferences — such as enabling tethering, and hiding default icons which you can’t otherwise remove (like the Compass and Contacts apps).

The biggest problem with installing themes that come with custom icons is that unsupported icons are left as-is. This makes for either a very horrid homescreen with mis-matched icons, or you’re forced to put all your new, custom icons on one screen, and all your other, non-custom icons onto another screen.

However, there are two workarounds for this icon dillema:

  1. If your theme sports smaller icons (like the ones in iMatte Nano, or Suave) the standard sized icons will be resized if you install them while running the theme. This goes for website bookmark icons, too. For apps that are already on your iPhone if you delete them and re-install them from iTunes they’ll come back re-sized.

  2. SSH into your iPhone and add properly-sized icons to your theme’s icon folder, found in: /Library/Themes/THEME_NAME.theme/Icons

Since jailbreaking my iPhone I have had no trouble using it as I always did. I’ve successfully bought new iPhone apps from iTunes (on the iPhone and on my Mac), upgraded current apps, installed beta apps and their Ad Hoc Profiles, bought and synced music, and more. If you pop the hood on your iPhone, keep in mind that it’s still a hack, and your milage may vary.

Jailbreak

Pastebot: A Copy and Paste Playground

The best way to describe the handsome apps from Tapbots is as half tool and half toy. Mark and Paul have taken three straightforward utilities and converted them into three delightful apps for your iPhone. This third and most recent app, Pastebot, is perhaps the most useful and most delightful so far.

Pastebot is more powerful and versatile than its siblings, and it comes with all sorts of tricks and surprises floating around. To get the most out of it requires a minimal understanding of how the app works. When you first launch Pastebot you are guided through a cute and succinct tour. Later, when you find yourself in various screens within the app, little help tips will pop up to point out functionality.

Using and mastering Pastebot borders on entertainment.

Daily Usage

Other than the clipboard history in LaunchBar, I have never used a true clipboard manager. My ‘clipboard manager’ is Yojimbo. That’s where I throw random bits of info, web clippings, text, images, PDFs, and more — some to be stored indefinitely, some to be deleted when I don’t need them anymore, and some which will no doubt be forgotten.

Using a clipboard manager on your iPhone for boilerplate management is an obvious solution. At times it can be easier and quicker to copy and paste a canned response to a text or email than to thumb one out. And this is what most clipboard managers in the app store boast about: their ability to store text snippets for quick access. But very few brag about their ability to capture bits of info from your iPhone…

An app that auto-populates itself with the contents of your clipboard is surely the simplest way to throw bits of info into an app on the iPhone. Which is why a clipboard manager is, in my opinion, a foundational functionality for an attractive, capable Anything Bucket app for the iPhone. And Pastebot is the closest I’ve seen for this type of app.

On my Mac, the key to a good anything bucket is its ubiquity — that at any time, in any application, you can throw something into it. On the iPhone however, you can’t run 3rd-party apps in the background. Which is why the most important feature of Pastebot is launch time. In my usage with a mostly-full clippings folder littered with text, images, and other paraphernalia, Pastebot loads (and pairs with my Mac) in less than a few seconds.

Once running, whatever you last copied on your iPhone appears at the top of the Clipboard list. And if you’ve got the Pastebot Sync utility installed, anything you copy on your Mac pops right into the Pastebot app while its open.

From there it’s a copy and paste playground. You can sort, edit, add, delete, use, transfer, and more.

Miscellaneous Observations From Copying and Pasting Various File Types Between my Mac and my iPhone Using the Pastebot Sync Utility

  • Text: Even thousands of words copy over quickly, and text is the only data type that you can copy from one mac and past to another using Pastebot as the middle-man.

  • Images: Copying a photo from within iPhoto will send the actual picture. Though the title of the image from iPhoto does not transfer.

Copying a whole slew of images from iPhoto gives Pastebot a datatype that it doesn’t recognize:

Pastebot - Unknown Mac Data

However, it still maintains the data. For example, I copied 9 images from iPhoto, they showed up in Pastebot as unknown Mac data, but from there I was still able to paste them onto my Desktop.

Also, copying an image from Preview will get the full image onto your iPhone and allow you to use it on your iPhone. But copying the image file from the Finder only sends the file-type icon.

  • Audio and Video: Copying an audio or video file from iTunes sends the metadata to Pastebot. But it’s metadata based on where in iTunes the file was copied from. For example, trying to copy Star Trek to Pastebot from my Recently Added playlist sends this info:

Star Trek 2:06:47 J.J. Abrams 11/18/09 7:48 PM

(The same info that is shown in the playlist’s columns: Name, Time, Artist, and Date Added.)

But trying to copy Star Trek from the Movies playlist sends this:

Star Trek 2:06:47 Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2009
The greatest adventure of all time begins with Star Trek, the incredible story of a young crew’s maiden voyage onboard the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recrui
Star Trek – iTunes Extras Sci-Fi & Fantasy

On the other hand, if you copy an audio or video file from within the Finder it sends that file’s relevant icon to Pastebot. And if you then paste that icon back to the Finder, it will paste the audio or video file; pasting it when in a plain text document will paste the filename; pasting it in a rich text document or an email will attach the file; and trying to paste into iTunes does nothing.

  • Folders & Zip Files: You can copy an entire folder or zip file. It shows up in Pastebot as a folder or zip icon, but pasting it back to the Finder the whole folder, with all its contents, shows up unscathed.

You can email a file that Pastebot itself doesn’t recognize but it gets sent as an icon file. Sending a ZIP file you copied into Pastebot will only send the 512×512 icon titled as filename.zip. Similarly, sending a folder sends the icon of a folder named after the folder you had copied.

Pastebot - emailing a folder

  • PDFs: Copying a page of a PDF document from within Preview will send that actual page. You can then paste it into the finder and you’ll get the page as if it were dragged out from Preview.

Transferring Data from one Mac to another using Pastebot and the Pastebot Sync utility

Using Pastebot Sync you can pair Pastebot on your iPhone with as many Macs as you like. But as far as I can tell, the only data you can transfer between multiple Macs using Pastebot as the mediator, is text clippings. If any file or image originates on Mac #1 when it gets copied into Pastebot, it won’t paste to Mac #2.

Although anything that was added to Pastebot from within your iPhone can be pasted to any synced Mac.

– – –
They say a man buys something for a good reason, and the real reason. You buy an app from Tapbots because it does something useful, but in truth, you just wanted to play with it.

Pastebot: A Copy and Paste Playground

Reader’s Setup: John Rust

John Rust is a freelance videographer, web designer, writer, and college student. He also tends to constantly dabble in graphic design, photography, music composition, live audio productions, and programming.

John’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

John Rust Desk 3

john-rust-1.jpg

John Rust Desk 2

2. What is your current Mac setup?

I’m using a mid-2007 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with an anti-glare screen. I have a 20″ Apple Cinema Display (the old aluminum kind) plugged into the MacBook Pro whenever I’m at my desk. I’ve got both a wired and a wireless Apple keyboard (the aluminum type), which I switch between depending on what I’m doing and my mood at the time. I consider my Magic Mouse to be the most amazing Apple product released in the last year.

Next to my computer are three WD My Book drives providing me with 2TB of total storage for photos and videos. I’ve also got a set of small speakers also on my desk; I don’t particularly care about the quality of them because I usually have my music playing pretty quietly in the background.

There is also an old eMac lying around somewhere which I use occasionally as a local web server. The problem with my setup, in a nutshell, is that I juggle hats so often that I’m constantly adjusting my setup to better fit what I’m doing.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I bought the MacBook Pro so I could have a computer that did everything I needed it to do — from video editing to document editing — and still be portable enough to take almost everywhere. It’s certainly not as powerful as a Mac Pro, and its limitations are more than obvious at times.

Even though it’s the smallest model, the Cinema Display is pretty much all I need now in terms of screen space. Sure, editing in Final Cut Pro is more fun with a bigger screen, but it’s not necessary (and it won’t fit on my desk very well). I can’t live without FireWire 400, and the hub on the back of the monitor is wonderful when I need it.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

I use a lot of software, and I’m usually testing and playing with new releases to see if I like them. Overall, my most-used apps are iTunes, Mail, Skype, iChat, Tweetie, Fever, and Safari, like pretty much everyone else who reads this site.

Besides that, my most-used apps would be:

  • The Hit List. I keep switching between The Hit List and Things, but The Hit List is usually my favorite. Hopefully there’ll be an iPhone version of it at some point in the near future.

  • Photoshop CS4. I upgraded from the original Photoshop CS, and the upgrade was definitely worth it. I can’t say anything glorious about an Adobe product, but it is what I use for photo editing, design work, mockups, and essentially anything having to do with image manipulation.

  • Final Cut Studio 3. I’m in a love/hate relationship with the applications in this suite. They’re incredibly powerful and functional, and do everything I could ever need to do in terms of video editing. Yet the work I do in them tends to slow my computer to a crawl, and I really wish the interface would get a facelift.

  • Espresso and CSSEdit. Basically everything web-related goes through these applications. I absolutely love the live preview feature of CSSEdit, and I enjoy tweaking stuff on my site (and other sites) with it.

  • Aperture. I completely fell in love with this application the first time I saw it in use, and I never could go back and use iPhoto. All my images (besides my LittleSnapper library) are cataloged in aperture, and in my opinion it has set a standard for how user interfaces should be designed.

  • MarsEdit. Because writing and editing blog posts in the WordPress admin area just isn’t fun.

  • TextWrangler. You can’t beat the price of this application. It’s everything I need in a text editor and more; I prefer it to Pages a good bit of the time. In fact, I am writing everything in this interview in it.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I own a white 16GB iPhone 3G (the Evil Empire won’t let me upgrade to a 3GS), and the Apple Bluetooth Headset which I use in the car. I have an AirPort Express that tends to bounce around the house depending on where it’s most needed at the time.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I’m in need of a new computer at some point in the future, but I don’t know what to get. A MacBook Air is almost necessary for college (I’ve strained my shoulders enough carrying around a MacBook Pro and lots of textbooks), but incredibly limiting for everything else. A 27″ iMac would be great for everything except for school. I’ll probably just settle with a high-end MacBook Pro and hope I don’t have to deal with files from a RED camera anytime soon.

More Sweet Setups

John’s setup is just one in a series of sweet Mac Setups.

Reader’s Setup: John Rust

Chris Bowler Interviews Garrett Murray  →

And asks him the very same question that has been in the front of my mind for months: “Why do you write [Prettify] in plural form?”

Garrett’s Answer:

Hah. It’s amazing how many times I’ve been asked that. Honestly, I don’t know why I did that. I just wrote the first few in plural and it stuck. I guess I imagined in the beginning I would eventually have other people adding content to the site as well, but after a short time I realized (after looking at submissions) that I don’t trust anyone else’s taste enough to give out control over posting. I thought about switching to singular, but it was already the style of the site.

Chris Bowler Interviews Garrett Murray