Tag Archives: Apple

The all-new MandalArt app

Posted on September 11, 2014 by otinokyad

About four years ago, I discovered an iOS app called iMandalArt that offered a distinctive way to think about goal setting and task accomplishment. It was based on what I subsequently learned is the Lotus Blossom technique, often described as a form of brainstorming or mind mapping.

MandalArt_i_HDWhen I wrote my first blog post about the app, iMandalArt coming to an iPad near you, my perspective was largely shaped by a bunch of popular productivity apps, for example, Things. Let’s call it a seeing-the-world-through-GTD-colored-glasses outlook. I knew that iMandalArt was somehow different, but I confessed that I was pretty sure I didn’t “get it.”

This is a preview of The all-new MandalArt app. Read the full post (1126 words, 4 images, estimated 4:30 mins reading time)
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What does the App Store know and when did it know it?…

Posted on January 6, 2011 by otinokyad

…with apologies to former Senator Howard Baker.

Apple’s newly-opened App Store is as familiar and comfortable as a broken-in pair of shoes because it closely parallels iTunes. But here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

Like iTunes, the App Store is free-standing, not a Website, which means you have to install it on your computer. For my MacBook Pro that meant updating to OS X v10.6.6. Initially, I missed this caveat in the grayish “fine print” under the confetti-like image (below) on the announcement email. As a result, I spent a few frustrating minutes on the Apple Website, before I saw the you-need-to-upgrade, pseudo-redirect message on one screen. The rest was easy.

This is a preview of What does the App Store know and when did it know it?…. Read the full post (552 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)
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iMandalArt coming to an iPad near you

Posted on September 16, 2010 by otinokyad

I confess to being a productivity app junkie on my handheld devices, which now include a 3G iPad, an iTouch, and a Blackberry Tour. Not that this makes me much more productive, if I’m totally honest with myself, although I do know with utter certainty all of the tasks that are clamoring for attention on any given day. But, with prices generally ranging from free to a few bucks, I can experiment without running up the kind of tab that I might if I wanted to test full-feature versions on a laptop.

This is a preview of iMandalArt coming to an iPad near you. Read the full post (701 words, 3 images, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)
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Steve Jobs and the Seven Geniuses

Posted on August 28, 2010 by otinokyad

… or how I amused myself while waiting in line at the Apple Store.

Over the past ten days, it feels like I’ve spent more time in the local Apple Store than asleep, buying new hardware, dealing with data transfer, learning that an iPad re-boot may require pressing the Home+On/Off buttons for up to 30 seconds(!), and realizing I needed a video adapter and then a different one and then a stylus. All in all, multiple opportunities to stand in line and watch the goings on. It was always a mass of stationary, puzzled customers, unsure where to go for their particular purpose, interwoven with the Brownian motion of the staff in their Apple Blue shirts.

This is a preview of Steve Jobs and the Seven Geniuses. Read the full post (388 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)
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