MacdrifterNo Particular Destination

BoingBoing has an interesting link about the problems with using voice recognition to write fiction.

“And when I’m typing the sentence it always has a resemblance to its platonic ideal.”

I think that’s true for most of my writing. By the time I add a period to the end of the sentence, it’s structure closely resembles my thought. When I write with Siri, I regularly abandon sentences or stop dictation and finish by typing.

Whenever I have attempted to use voice recognition to write long pieces, I suffer from an awkward kind of stage fright. I stumble over words and fumble the idea I am trying to form. I have no problem dictating short text messages or reminders with Siri. The real problem comes when I am attempting to dictate long poorly defined chunks of text. I have no such problem while typing.

I think the crux of the problem also highlights a weakness with Siri. I’m conscious of the difficulty in correcting Siri. I try hard not to make a mistake. I try so hard that I end up killing the creative thought I am molding.

If I change my mind mid sentence with Siri, my only options are to either abandon the dictation session and start new or push through and remember to go back and manually edit the work later. While I type, I have none of these concerns. If I change my pants mind I can edit in place and continue. There is very little lag from thought to screen.

For me, I think the only way this can be fixed is for Siri to provide recognition for corrections. If I make a mistake I’d like to say “back two letters” or “scratch that last word” and continue from there. Until that time, Siri will remain a dim-witted assistant only capable of helping with short writing. She’s helpful, but she’s still not all that bright.

I’ve been using Tweet Library as a supplemental Twitter client since it was first released. It has matured with every release and 2.0 makes it a universal app. If you want a good review, visit Macstories.net.

I wrote a review of Tweet Library about 6 months ago but never posted it. The take home point was that TweetLibrary is a capable app that could be my only Twitter app but it’s a bit too slow. 2.0 appears to speed the app up but it is still much slower than recent additions to the field of Twitter clients.

That said, it is the best Twitter archive and research tool available anywhere. The app downloads and saves Tweets (not just links or references) and can export and share them in ways no other app can. If I’m doing research on Twitter then I do it through Tweet Library. If I’m just catching up or wasting time, I do it through TweetBot. Tweet Library is a serious tool.

Some of the most wonderful people in Mac and iOS made something beautiful and unique.¹ It’s a measly $0.99 to own. If I made something this interesting, I would charge you $0.99 just to look at it, let alone own it.

Impending has a little introduction up at Impending.com. Take a look at that page. Go do it. Now.

Ok, did you scroll down to the bottom? See the attention to detail? The spinning asteroid, moving clouds and tiny fossil in the layers of earth. What do you want to bet the same group that made something like that would make a great task management app?

Bar = Bar.raised().

IP Scanner Lite ¹ is one of those little utilities that gathers dust in a corner until I really need it. The app scans the network and reports back on all machines it finds. Well, the Lite version only reports back 5 machines but that’s sufficient on a small network.

What’s striking about the app is the commitment to development. This little utility is updated almost weekly. The updates aren’t just to game ratings and reviews. They provide real features. The latest update adds iCloud sync of network device preferences. If I identify a specific network device I can add custom information like icons, names and details.

There’s a lot of joking about the latest Samsung offering, the Galaxy Note. It’s a rather large phone-tablet device with a stylus. I’ve read and heard a lot of ridicule that confuses me. If we want Samsung to start innovating with their own products and stop copying Apple, this is them doing it. Sure, I would not buy or use a Samsung Note, I have an iPhone and iPad, which I think are superior. However, I’m glad Samsung has some R&D work going on and I hope they keep throwing ideas at the wall. This one did not stick, but they deserve some credit for finally trying to be original in the mobile space.

It’s also strange to me that such a large number of people buy and praise the Cosmonaut stylus for iPad¹ but also criticize Samsung for having a stylus. I know what Jobs said about a stylus. He also approved the hockey-puck mouse. For 98% of my iPad usage, direct interaction with my finger is superior. For the remaining 2%, the Cosmonaut is great. Unless you’re a dog, the world is not black and white.²

Some funny things I noticed while browsing the app store.

There’s a lot of anger on the app store

This app might be worth $0.99 just for the name

Hey, isn’t this the game everyone’s been playing and talking about?

Now that’s quite a coincidence

PhatWare have updated their iPad app for notes, PhatPad. It still sucks that their website relies on Flash but the app is good.

Not only does PhatPad have extremely fluid sketch tools and audio recording, but the handwritting to text facility is great. I really like the ability to hand write and convert a selection to text. It can be very distracting to have handwritting converted on the fly. Sometimes I just want to make a quick note and not worry about getting the text conversion on the spot.

PhatPad has been on my homescreen ever since my real world note-taking experiment. Unfortunately there’s still only one audio note per page.

By way of MacMegasite