Interactive Sermon

Mac Apps & Me

Monday's are off for me. Got to love that--the rest of the world loathes going back to the office, and I don't even set an alarm! Monday's afford me a little extra time to play with technology in my ongoing endeavor to maximize and minimize (M&M). This week I'll offer up a quick review of some apps that have become keepers, and a few over which my jury is still out.

Winners:

Evernote ~ This one is a no-brainer. The whole world has figured out Evernote to be pretty much indispensable. I use it on my Mac and iPhone, sync, and voila! It's actually the first app I added when I got my Mac, and it's still the one I use most--and for just about everything. Add browser extensions too. M&M on Red Bull, it is!

Fluid ~ Mac owners, run to it. Fluid lets you turn web apps into Mac apps. I've used it with several social media clients and other tools that help me quick-launch stuff. Definitely an M&M help for me.

Wunderlist ~ I just added this one a week ago, but it's a winner in my book. I am a list person, and have been maintaining my lists in Evernote. But for a list person, there can be lists about lists, if you know what I mean. (Yes, there should be a med for me somewhere.) Anyhow, Wunderlist is a cool tool. It's helping me.

Per Se ~ This is my Mac-diary/journal whatchamacallit. I love it. List people tend sometimes to be journal people. Guilty! So... this is my preferred digital moleskine. 

Caffeine ~ Another one that everybody knows about, but listed here because it is one I use all the time. When reading or watching videos, this nifty little cup-o-joe keeps my screen from darkening in power-save. Click the cup and it stays bright. Click it again and it goes back to normal.

Alfred ~ Okay, after many months of not getting it, now I'm on-board. When I first met Alfred I couldn't understand how he differed from Spotlight. I found myself ignoring him. But I kept reading how everyone who used Alfred swore by it. So I've forced myself to use it--and it's won me over. At present I'm using Alfred more to limit keystrokes and launch web searches, while still using Spotlight for my document and mail searches. But Alfred does it all. Fast. M&M. Try it for yourself.

Still In The Lab:

Adium ~ This is another app that people rave about. Like Alfred and Spotlight mentioned above, it doesn't appear on quick glance to do anything more than iChat. In fact, it comes to me at a disadvantage, because I use iChat a lot, and love it. So tell me, Adium lovers, what am I missing? And I had to change the sounds. The duck quack thing was driving me crazy. I'll give it another week or so and make a decision.

Dropbox ~ This one is gaining on me. Easier than all the thinking that goes into iCloud for me (yes, I'm slow). Working pretty well Mac to iPhone, etc. Another week and I'll be sure. But... has potential.

Growl ~ Just started playing with it. Have many a things still to experiment with before I'll make a call. Like the name and the logo. That count for anything?

What are your favorite apps? What should I try next?

Apple: I'm All In

Previously I've shared with you that 2011 was a great year in my life because it's the year I went Mac. I decided to launch into 2012 with an Apple sequel--my iPhone 4S arrived today.

Let me be sure to give my Motorola Droid props. It served me for more than two years, and it served me well. It even played relatively nicely with my Macbook Air when I got it. But it was time to replace the old phone, and I couldn't pass on the Apple product.

So it's in my hand. I'm getting familiar with Siri. She types and sends messages for me, dials the phone for me, looks things up on the internet--why she even told me it's going to snow tomorrow. Sure, there are some wants where her service is concerned. I asked her to get me a cup of coffee and she offered to locate nearby coffee shops. I asked her if she thought I might have a romantic evening with my wife tonight, and she said, "I'm sorry, Darin, I can't help you with that." (No, I'm not kidding. Verbatim.)

But, once again I'm amazed with the Apple product. From the packaging--coolest packaging of any products on the market, bar none. To the user-friendliness--I turned it on and it immediately began to sync all of my apps, info and accounts. Too cool!

You know me well enough to know that my aim with technology is more with less and maximizing while minimizing. My initial take: We're well underway with this new gadget. I'll keep you posted. We're off to a good start.

Come On, Man!

I did it again. I found myself with a half-hour to kill while waiting to pick up my daughter and I decided to peruse the websites of local churches and ministries. I was reminded of a segment on ESPN where all the analysts share a real head-scratching moment from the sports weekend past and chide, 'Come on, Man!'

It's true, local churches and ministries are miserable at updating their websites, abandoning blogs, and paying attention to content.

Case 1: One site has 'current' material on the front page. Dated May 2011. Uh...

Case 2: A pastor's blog. Latest post was in March 2011. Uh, anyone? Bueller?

Case 3: Pastor Chris, I know. Pastor Chirs? Who's that? Spell check? Edit? Please?

Come on, Man!

Here's a few sites of some of our local folks who are getting it right. Congrats! (And thanks!)

Amherst First Baptist Church

Bedford Road Baptist Church

Household of Faith

Souhegan Christian Church

 

 

Reaching Beyond The Pew

We don't actually have any pews, but you know what I mean. 

Big_Buts Twitter Feed ~ New followers are rolling in. Real ones--the kinds of folks who are interested in my content, not bots, trolls and follow-back twits. What have I done? First, I'm posting good content, in my niche, regularly. Second, I only follow people with a genuine interest in my content niche, and I only want those kinds of followers. I delete the bots, trolls and twits as fast as I can when they follow. Third, I'm picking up followers from genuine folks retweeting, mentioning, favoriting and or recommending me to others. How awesome is that? By the way: You following? 

Christ's Church Website www.ccnh.org ~ I recently retooled the church website, adding more interactive features and attempting to make the site more appealing, navigable and useful. We see hundreds of visitors per week--and a great many of them are not folks who attend Christ's Church. That's awesome! Our sermon and lesson podcasts are getting hundreds of listens--and again, the majority are not folks who attend. The days of internet yellow-page ad looking church sites is long past. Church websites with months old information lingering... inexcusable.

Interactive Sermon blog www.interactivesermon.com & Big Buts of the Bible www.bigbutsofthebible.com ~Tracking stats demonstrate that the bible study posts on my sites get the most traffic. Again, the majority are people I don't know personally. And then there are those who I do know, who engage in conversation with me about those posts. Tremendous to consider that this venue--a blog--can serve as a catalyst for connection over God's word. My blogs see more than a thousand views a week between visitors and feed subscribers. Again, having a plan and developing a rhythm is key. Pastors and ministry leaders who have a blog that is woefully neglected, months between posts, poor grammar and spelling... you're missing out.

(Many thanks to YOU if you're one of those who have been helping grow this reach. Please keep up the great word of mouth. It's my great pleasure to share this journey with you.)

Pastors, ministers, communicators of the gospel--where are you seeing God reach beyond the pews? Have you embraced technology as a means of communicating Christ?

What's On My Mind?

My brain on blogs...

God Stories ~ Connected with an old friend from 8th grade or so through Facebook last week. Confession: Most of my old school friends and acquaintances from "back in the day" I'd just assume not connect with at all. But this old friend has been happily married, raising her kids and they've been experiencing God sightings every step of the way. Very cool, and very encouraging to hear. That kind of catching up with folks is what I wish Facebook and Social Media provided more often.

My Inner Whine ~ Been using Per Se as my Mac Journal for several months now. I really like it as an app. Highly recommend it to those of you who journal. It's a great tool. But I'll be honest... I read some of my entries and I realize that I whine a lot in the privacy of my own journal. Yeesh! 

My Inner Geek ~ Spent some time with Twitter Karma the last couple of weeks, weeding through my Big_Buts Twitter followers. Been helpful at sorting the serious from the spurious. All the while, meaningful followers have been on the climb. I'd recommend TK.

Presidential Candidates ~ Did anyone else notice that Herman Cain surged in the polls... immediately after Hank Williams Jr. said that Cain was the only Republican candidate that he was remotely interested in? Maybe all Hank's rowdy friends are coming out in force.

Good Enough For Church Work ~ Hate that phrase, by the way. Received a letter today from a girl desiring to spend a year in the mission field teaching children. First thing I noticed? Her letter was riddled with grammar, punctuation and spelling errors. People, please.

Soundtrack ~ Listening to Aaron Wood's album as the soundtrack of this Tuesday. Soulful, blues, rock something-or-other. Check it out on iTunes or Aaron's site. 

OS X Lion

I did it. I downloaded the OSx Lion upgrade. I did so with a little reservation--I absolutely loved Snow Leopard. I figure if you're a Mac, you go with it.

First things first--the download and updating took about an hour. That was a nail-biting hour for me--I sat there the whole time asking, "Was this the right thing to do?"

Once Lion was ready to roar, I noticed little difference other than the Launchpad and Mission Control icons that appeared.

Two minutes into playing with it, I reversed the "natural" scrolling on my touchpad. That was annoying! I highly recommend that change.

Once Mail updated I changed the view back to the classic view. It's what I'm used to. I suppose I might experiment with it in the future--it offers several preference changes. For now, classic is familiar.

I also ran a search for updates. Glad I did, as several of my apps had updates for the new OS. I was also prompted to update a couple of applications I added from the web, as they needed to gel with the new OS. All of this only took a couple of minutes. 

Then I found this article 10 Things To Do After Installing Lion. If you're making the switch, read this. How cool is it that the first three things he recommends are the first three things I did, before reading his article? I wanted to pat myself on the back!

Then I hit up a couple Lion tutorials to learn what new toys are in here. YouTube is full of them. Some good. Some not-so-good.

I was never a big user of Spaces and Expose on Snow Leopard, so the advantages of Launchpad and Mission Control haven't dawned on me yet. But I did spend some time playing with them. Their usefulness may be growing on me. The many finger/trackpad gestures are cool--taking a little getting used to, but so very intuitive I feel like this will be the biggest gain for my experience.

I spent a little time in System Preferences playing with trackpad/swipe options. Wow, they're cool. Some are carry-overs from Snow Leopard, so familiar to me. Some are new, and will undoubtedly be useful once I master them.

I'm not sure how often I'll use Launchpad, as I've gotten into the habit of grabbing applications out of Finder. We'll see if this tool grows on me. The four finger pinch option is nice, although I'd love to have more control over what's in Launchpad and how it's organized. Still room for me to play a bit. Jury is out.

Mission Control, too. I like the concept of it, as I did with Spaces and Expose, but I rarely used those tools before. I'm sure the intuitive nature of these tools is great, but if it comes to teaching this old dog new tricks--that could be an uphill climb. I wonder if the new toys will be lost on me. I'll play with it a week or so and see.

Tweaks in Mail are very cool. And as I said earlier, I might go wild and play with new views. I definitely like the way it is stringing email conversations together--this will help me keep from losing track of conversations when they go off the page. You know what I'm talking about? You leave an email to give it detailed attention later, but in the meantime you get in 200 new messages, pushing that one you held onto off the page and out of sight? Never happen to you? Mac is out to stupid-proof me. That's no small undertaking!

Face-Time? Not sure what to do with that. Does anyone really want to see my face? I suppose I'll play with this when I have nothing better to do. Don't be waiting for my review.

I suppose my overall conclusion is still Mac-love and wonder. How cool is it to get an OS upgrade via download for $29? Very cool. I'm going to use a four-finger swipe... and I'm outa here!

Geek Update

An update on the shiny things that presently make my life spiffy.

Macbook Air ~ My kids make fun of me. They say that when I talk about my new computer my face lights up. Could be true. I am in love! This is simply the best buying decision I've ever made. (Am I glowing?) I cannot believe I was such a staunch PC advocate for so many years. You! You right there on the PC reading this... Run to your local Apple Store! Don't delay another moment!

Evernote ~ They keep updating the program and adding new and better features. I'm loving the app, although I'm still certain there is a lot more I can do with it. I've added it to my Droid as well, and the two communicate flawlessly. It has helped my productivity and my creativity. Gotta love it.

Spotlight & Alfred ~ Enjoying the app Alfred. In adding it, I stumbled upon Mac's included Spotlight feature. Holy cow is that cool to an old PC devotee. I literally ran downstairs to show my kids. Maybe I am looking a little strange to them, eh?

iPod Shuffle ~ Shari and the girls got me the diminutive Shuffle for my birthday. It is tremendous for my workouts at the gym. The thing is the size of a postage stamp and clips onto my clothing--stays completely out of the way of my workout. Love it. (Recently added Aaron Wood's new album. It rocks!)

Wordpress ~ Although I am a huge proponent of Typepad for blogs (like this one!), I have used Wordpress as a platform/template for several of our sites (like the CCA site, here) and have grown to love its user-friendly features. Recently I've been helping a friend develop a new site for his congregation. Check it out. He's getting the hang of it! If you're looking to do it yourself--do it with Wordpress.

Tweetdeck ~ I know, I know. But I've tried dozens of other personal browsers and social networking tools and... Tweetdeck is still the best. It saves me so much time.

www.interactivepastor.com ~ My online office hours (Fridays 1-2:30pm) have been going okay. I've been utilizing JustinTV for my video and chat-room features. I'm not sold on them. I'm looking for other possibilities. I've also enlisted ManyCam to help split my video feed, so it can be used by both JustinTV and Skype at the same time. Not sure what's up with it--not working yet. And forget about iChat. The video feed for iChat will never share. Ugh. I wish I were a techy, then I'd be able to figure this out. But, what I lack in geek, I possess in perseverance. I'll get this thing hammered out sooner or later. Stop by on Friday, why don't you. Ask me about my Macbook Air and see if my kids are right--that I start to glow.

Next Up ~ I'm looking into ways to scan and... I believe I'd like to go paperless by year's end. It would make some tree-hugger happy. And it would mean less clutter. I'm all for that.

What techy toys are lending you assistance these days?

 

Update: Online Office Hours

After a month of maintaining Online Office Hours (and with an hour to go before I open my office door for week number five), I thought an update might be good to share.

Technology ~ I'm still experiencing some hiccups. I should say, you are still experiencing some hiccups. But each week has seemed to work a little bit more smoothly. The video is delayed by a couple of seconds. Which is really creepy because every so often I'll catch a glimpse of myself in delay (sort of like in the old days when you heard your voice recorded and thought 'that doesn't sound like me!').

I've switched services a couple of times. Most recently I'm using Justin.tv to broadcast video and provide the chat-room experience. 

I've also utilized a tool called 'Many Camera' to allow my webcam to serve two services (Justin.tv and Skype) at the same time. Not sure that's working seamlessly... but we're after it.

Irritants ~ No matter which service I've tried to utilize, the chat-room feature calls for pretty labor-intensive registration/sign-in for people wanting to drop in and say hi. I wish this wasn't so. I'm on the look-out for a more entry-friendly tool. You shouldn't have to give your blood-type and a urine sample (exaggerating, of course) to walk into your pastor's office.

Numbers ~ The question everyone is asking is 'how many people are stopping by?' Here's the numbers: Week one - six. Week two - seven. Week three - six. Week four - two. Of all the drop-ins, about half have been people simply wanting to see what this experiment looks like or stopping in to encourage me. The other half, perhaps, developed into more meaningful conversation. So, in other words, this has opened up about ten or eleven meaningful conversations that I might not otherwise have had. That's pretty cool.

What I'm doing ~ The second most popular question is 'what do you do during that 90 minutes?' Here's a look behind the scenes! No, I do not sit and stare at my computer the whole time. It may look like that--because I'm usually oriented in that direction. But I've worked on sermon studies, updates to websites, read through mail and emails, and made telephone calls while being available for folks to stop by. On a couple of occasions I've set work aside and picked up a good book to pass time. I've eaten my lunch a couple of times... a little self-conscious about people watching me chew... and tried very, very hard not to do something totally embarrassing like pick my nose on camera.

One month in the books, and I'm feeling like this is off to a productive start. I suppose I'll check back in on how I'm feeling after another month. Fridays... 1pm to 2:30pm... stop by www.interactivepastor.com.

My Inner Geek

Updates and insights from this wannabe geek.

Goodbye FLOCK ~ The first real Social Browser experiment has come to an end. Flock announced that they are ceasing operations on April 26th. I was never impressed. You may recall that back in 2009 I conducted a month long experiment with several personal and social browsers all with the aim of maximizing my social networking experience while minimizing the distractions social networking can become. Flock quickly proved to be a time consumer for me, not a time saver. I never looked back. RIP Flock.

Still enamored with TWEETDECK ~ Back when I did those experiments Tweetdeck rose to the top of my list. A couple years later, it's still my favorite. I launched a mini-review of all available and newer tools when I made the switch to MAC back in February. I came right back to Tweetdeck. I'm convinced when it comes to that whole maximizing and minimizing thing--this is the bomb!

GOOGLE READER ~ Since I've gone MAC I've also rediscovered my love for Google Reader. I had gotten away from using feed readers a year or two ago, instead simply opening a wealth of blogs and sites from my favorites list. With MAC came the world of apps, so I decided to try several readers. In toying around with several (and they were all pretty good), I realized that the old Google Reader I'd used once before really is a time saver for me, and runs like a champ on my MAC. I'm back to using it--new posts greet me each morning, organized and ready to go.

GOOGLE CALENDAR ~ The MAC iCal program is a great tool, but I've chosen to sync with my (and Shari's and Christ's Church's) Google Calendars. This also plays very nice with my Droid. It's a Google world, me thinks. 

MARS EDIT ~ I'm still searching for a blog editor for MAC. Here it is, PC/Windows users, the one thing I've not liked since going MAC: I miss Windows Live Writer. I've yet to find a MAC equivalent. Disappointing. Mars Edit is the one I'm playing with now, but they want $40 for it. Live Writer... was FREE! And ten times the program. I tried a few others like Blogo and Ecto, by the way. Hated them. I wish I was a programmer. I'd make a Live Writer like program for MAC users and give it away. After all, that's the kind of nice guy I am.

SCRIVENER ~ It's growing on me. Still 19 days on my free trial. I may have to pony up a few bucks for this one.

EVERNOTE ~ Love it. Not sure I'm getting the most out of its features, though. Seems it does more than I've taken the time to learn how to use.

ROCKMELT ~ Remembering that I didn't like Flock and it is on its way to the browser graveyard, you may be surprised to learn that I am considering giving Rockmelt a trial run. Why not? My guess it will leave me woefully disappointed. I'll let you know.

What techno advice would you offer in the way of maximizing and minimizing?

 

First Week: Bliss!

It's been one week since my Macbook Air arrived. I couldn't be happier with it. I've already mentioned my very first impression which was right out of the box--see here.

With each day I've discovered more I love.

The day it arrived I managed to migrate all my document, picture and music files over. To be clear, I didn't move much music, choosing rather to keep most of that on my external drive quite honestly because I don't listen to much of it often. I plan to add in newer music as I go, sort of refreshing my collection.

Migrating my email over happened on day 2, and without so much as a glitch. I used a tool called O2M (Outlook to Mail), converted the data, and loaded it up. Voila! The coolest part for me was that I was able to put all of my email accounts into Mail without difficulty, and create rules and files adequate to sort, clear and archive it all. I'd been trying unsuccessfully to do that with Outlook for the last several years. Yes!

I've gone easy on the apps so far. As I mentioned in a Tweet earlier this week, Evernote is a keeper. I also have enjoyed one called Fluid, which allows me to turn sites into stand alone browsers launched from my dock. Very cool. I used it for Google Reader, for instance. Slick.

I set up YouVersion as a stand alone browser. Works like a charm. 

While I've mentioned Google Reader, let me also tell you that I've synched iCal with my Google Calendar, the church's Google Calendar--and most importantly, Shari's Google Calendar. Very easy and it works great. And for those who spread the rumors that Mac and Droid don't play nice--couldn't be further from the truth. They fell hard and fast for one another. I had wondered if I'd need to switch to an iPhone before I bought the Mac. Not a chance.

I'm still experimenting with Scrivener. Jury is still out, but it's growing on me. 

I'm still looking for a blogging app. I took a look at Blogo (waste of time) and Ecto (double waste of time). The reality is, Windows Live Writer was one fantastic piece of work, and I'm not finding an Mac equivalent. I still have a few more to try, but the price tags are going up, and Windows Live Writer was free. Ugh!

I didn't bother to look at Mac apps for Twitter and Facebook, as I downloaded my longtime friend Tweetdeck and it runs better than ever on my Mac. Why change? On Tuesday, by the way, I caught a tweet that a brand new and updated Macbook Pro would be released on Thursday to coincide with Steve Jobs' birthday. I shared that news with my daughter Katie who has been saving to buy a Mac for her college adventure. Thursday morning we were at the Apple Store. Guess who else drank the kool-aid? And a couple of nice nerds helped Katie set up her new machine.

I have managed to work, write, blog, and create using this new machine just about from the moment I unboxed it. I can't say enough. I'm a convert. I can't believe I fought this for so long.

A week in--so far, so good. No, actually, so far--EXCELLENT experience. Two happy Mac users in this house. More as it comes.