RSS Sponsor: Ita ⇢

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Thanks to Nice Mohawk for sponsoring the 512 Pixels RSS feed this week! — SH

Ita is a brand new list-making app that’s designed to make it fast and simple to collect and organize information. You can drag items to rearrange them, tap to mark items completed, and add multiple items quickly, all from the main list view. If you make lists, you’ll love how fast Ita makes it to collect and complete your stuff.

Ita is beautiful, taking inspiration from high quality paper notebooks and classic typography. And as you use lists, they’ll show signs of wear, just like a piece of paper. Your lists will remember how they look, and that look syncs across iCloud with the rest of your data. Ita is a universal app for iPhone and iPad and is fully accessible using VoiceOver.

Ita is on sale this week for $1.99. Two bucks for the first list app that’s actually better than a piece of paper.

Sponsorship by The Syndicate

The Mac App Store: Best of Both Worlds? ⇢

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Gabe at Macdrifter:

This is the MAS as I see it: It is not for utility apps or power users. Apps like 1Password, TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro should all be purchased directly from the developers site.1 The MAS is for people afraid of using a computer. I applaud Apple for taking the fear out of technology. I also will not purchase my utilities from the MAS. Apple may be happy to have the nerds along for the ride, but they are not their target market. Normal people that just want to use a few apps and don’t care about tweaking their experience are Apple’s new target demographic.

As someone that is a power-user, you might think that I am upset with the Mac App Store. I am not. I have seen no indication that Apple plans to block traditional application installs. In fact, GateKeeper has been designed specifically to support user installed software. If it means I can still use my Mac the way I want and I need to provide less technical support to my friends and family, I’m thrilled with the changes.

While I am frustrated that apps like Moom and TextExpander have been bounced from the App Store, I agree with Gabe: these apps should have a long life outside of the Store.

@icloud.com ⇢

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Eric Slivka at MacRumors:

With today’s release of iOS 6 Beta 3 to developers, Apple has revealed in the update’s change log that it is beginning the first stages of transitioning users from the me.com email addresses and Apple IDs available under MobileMe to new addresses using icloud.com.

Sigh.

On Office 2013 ⇢

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Tom Warren at The Verge:

The touch experience isn’t great from my own testing on Windows 8 Release Preview, and it feels all too familiar to Windows 7 — a first stab at touch improvements on desktop software. Microsoft’s Office division has taken a similar approach, by increasing touch targets, but it seems that any truly touch-optimized versions of Office will come as Metro style apps, if anything at all. It’s clearly difficult to create a fully functional touch-based word processor or spreadsheet with legacy support, and Microsoft hasn’t cracked it yet.

To be clear, the major applications in Office 2013 are not done as Metro-style apps, even though Microsoft is preaching to developers that Metro is the future.

It’s A Part-Time Gig; But A Full-Time Frustration

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This website isn’t my full-time job, but I’d like it to be one day.

My podcast coupled with my writing here (and elsewhere) brings in significant amount of money each month, but it’s not enough to support my family at this point. If I were single, perhaps it would work, but with a mortgage, two cars, two kids and a cat, things add up. (I’m not complaining, mind you, because my family is awesome.)

Some months, the income is close enough, it gives me just a glimpse of what might be possible in the future. The curse of the moderately successful side business,[1] perhaps?

When I think about the possibility of taking this whole writing/podcasting/consulting thing full-time, it freaks me the hell out. Taking the financial reins in my own hands seems too scary to ever actually do. What if I see a downturn in readership and my advertisers want to renegotiate my flat monthly rates? What if Myke kicks me off the podcast network? What if I get sick and can’t write for 10 days? What if my next book is a flop?

This website isn’t my full-time job, but it likes to think that it is.

Reading tons of other websites (to find things to link to and talk about) takes time. Writing takes time. Preparing and recording a weekly hour-long podcast takes time.

Without a doubt, what I do here could become a full-time, 8-hours-a-day gig in a heartbeat.

This website isn’t my full-time job, but some days, I like to pretend that it is.

The danger, of course, is that I start to sneak more side work in during the work day, and steal time from my employer. I enjoy a great level of security and freedom at my day-job, and don’t need to jeopardize that with this website thing.

It’s all about balance some days, but finding that balance is increasingly more difficult. Thankfully, I love what I do from 9 to 5, so that’s one less pressure point.

I’m not sure any of my questions have good answers. I’m not sure I’m even asking the right questions, but that’s what makes side businesses so exciting, right?

For homework, if you have a side gig, be sure to listen to these two episodes of Back to Work to hear Dan and Merlin talk about this frustration.)

  1. Yes, business. I registered “Hackett Technical Media” as an LLC in the state of Tennessee earlier this year.  ↩