Apple’s new textbook experience feels familiar; from navigation to the way interactive elements work, the whole thing reminds me a lot of Al Gore’s collaboration with Push Pop Press on Our Choice. If you read my review, you know that’s not a bad thing.

E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth was a particular favorite, thanks to the exciting introduction video that truly increased my interest in the content. I’m not a callous 16-year old, of course, but it must stand a better chance of inspiring some emotion than a plain old hardcover.

What’s inside the book is more exciting too; in landscape mode, titles display information in manageable, bite-sized chunks, dynamically laid out with interspersed graphics. Flipping the iPad to portrait mode organizes information in a more linear fashion, which is easier to digest during crunch sessions, and lays out all graphics in thumbnail mode in a column along the left-hand side.

The search, highlight, notes and bookmark functions all serve to make keeping track of what you’re reading much easier than with print books. You can even use different colored highlights or underline sections to keep track of different things. For the studious type with a complex note-taking system, this will definitely come in handy.

The lesson assignments at the ends of chapters are great, since they provide a quick and easy way to instantly test knowledge retention, with feedback available on-demand. But I did have a problem with other elements.

In both the Life on Earth and Pearson titles I tested, sometimes interactive content didn’t seem clearly flagged. Often I’d tap things that weren’t interactive, assuming they were, and sometimes I’d miss elements that were in fact movies or dynamic graphics. Our Choice did a better job of marking where touching something would produce a result, but that deficiency could be accounted for by early growing pains, since these are the first titles out to use the format.

One thing’s clear: at a maximum of $15 a pop and with the backing of all the major U.S. educational publishers, these new digital textbooks definitely stand ready to gain some traction.

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Ace Metrix scores ads based on perceived effectiveness by a selection of randomly selected viewers, which it says are “representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience.” Apple’s Siri ad, which you can see below, scored a 652 overall out of a total possible 950 points, which tallied from respondent scores on criteria such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, etc. Apple’s 652 was 8 percent higher than the average score for ads in the same tech-oriented category.

Other ads that did well include spots from Pillsbury, Coca-Cola, Nintendo and Duracell. Santa was featured in 35 new ads during the holiday 2011 season, including Apple’s, and each of those campaigns performed above their category average.

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I say for a brief time because Infinite SMS, one of the apps that allowed you to do this, was recently informed that the service they provided would no longer be available. They were not, however, cut off by Apple, as might be expected. Instead, the bad news came from Google, whose Google Talk service they were taking advantage of to offer free, web-based SMS to buyers of their own app.

When it was available for purchase, Infinite SMS cost 99 cents per download, but its developers (Inner Fence) have now removed it from the App Store, saying they could not leave it up in good conscience. They are not, however, planning to offer a refund program to those who’ve already purchased the app. That probably leaves a significant number of people out a dollar, since the app quickly rose to the Top 10 list of paid apps.

Google explained why they decided to close off access from Infinite SMS and other similar applications in a statement released Wednesday.

Infinite SMS is a third-party app that has been using Google technology to provide free SMS for users, while we were paying for the cost of the text messages. While Google is supportive of third-party apps, we’ve decided we can’t support this particular usage of our system at this time. SMS chat is still just an experiment in the early testing stages in Gmail Labs. We’re blocking all external XMPP clients from sending SMS; we’re not singling out Inner Fence.

Other applications, like Textfree Unlimited ($5.99, iTunes link), another Top 10 paid app, still offer free text messaging, since they don’t depend on Google Talk for transferring messages.

We’ve seen before how friendly the relationship between Google and Apple is, despite the two companies having competing smartphone platforms. To me, Google’s excuse doesn’t pass the sniff test. Instead, I think they’ve been asked by Apple (with AT&T’s urging) to cut off the service in order to try to corral users back into using cellular SMS plans. There’s more than one way to reject an app, after all, and this one draws far less negative attention. We’ll see how long Textfree Unlimited can continue plying its trade before someone figures out how to close that back door, too.

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So to help with that I’ve compiled a list of some applications I’ve used over the years including the ones I think are the best. There are certainly more applications out there that aren’t listed here so if you’ve used something that has worked well, definitely let me know about it.

Time Tracking & Invoicing

On The Job – If simple time tracking an invoicing is all you need, On The Job is the app for you. It purposefully has less features than some of the competition and that is something it definitely has going for it. It’s my app of choice for time tracking.

Studiometry – Full-featured time tracking, invoice, and client management. This is really one of the most solid applications for any client-based business. The $190 price tag is seriously worth it if you need all of the features it has.

Billings – Billings is a newer player in the full-featured time tracking and invoicing market but they’ve made a solid splash. Billings doesn’t have quite as many features as Studiometry but the features it does have are the core ones you’d be using regularly anyways. It’s $59 price tag also makes it significantly more affordable than Studiometry.

QuickBooks – While QuickBooks does not have any real time tracking abilities, it does have a fairly stout invoicing system that can be very convenient if you use QuickBooks to manage your business finances.

Web alternatives:
Blinksale – I use this for all my invoicing needs. Straightforward invoicing at its best. Prices starting from $12/month (not including the limited free plan).

Harvest – Solid time tracking (OS X Widget included). Prices starting from $9/month (not including the limited free plan).

Money Managment

QuickBooks – The industry standard for business finance management. The Mac version of QuicKBooks is frequently chastised for its clunky interface compared to its Windows counterpart but in all honesty I’ve yet to have any real gripes. This app is a core part of running my business. Pricing for this is $200.

Cha-Ching – Arguably one of the best looking applications on the Mac, Cha-Ching has somehow managed to make a boring financial application hip and fun. Class OS X features like smart folders and iSight integration make this a fairly easy application to learn and use. This one will cost you $40.

iFinance – Fairly simple interface. At $15 it’s one of the cheapest solutions available.

iBank – Pretty full-featured with things like report and chart creation and budget tracking. It’s $50 for one license with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Money 2 – Jumsoft’s Money has recently seen a major upgrade to Money 2. The new feature set in Money 2 really is extremely solid though some may find the extra features as a little overkill (ie. a built in web browser). For the number of features it offers, the $40 price tag is steal.

Web alternatives:
DimeWise – Super cheap ($5 a month).

Wesabe – Includes a helpful community for tips and suggestions.

Communication

Skype – Despite the recent outage, Skype is still one of my favorite tools for phone communication. With bookoodles of add-ons from personal phone numbers to voicemail and more, Skype has raised the bar and become a viable solution for many small business owners.

Adium – Whether you think chatting is productive or not, it’s great for hitting up co-workers or clients for quick questions. This one is free in every way possible.

Web alternatives:
Mailroom – Mailroom is a fairly niche mail application in that it’s mainly built for customer support teams. Pricing starts at $9 (not counting the limited free plan).

Campfire – Perfect for group chats with co-workers and clients with features such as file attachments and chat logging. Pricing starts at $12/month. There is a free plan that would work fine for smaller groups.

Project Management

Daylite Productivity Suite – An incredibly full-featured project management application, Daylite is one of the most useful applications on the Mac today. The full suite includes some killer features such a Mail integration, shared calendars, contact management, and more. A 1-user license costs $189.

OmniPlan – One of the newer Omni Group applications, OmniPlan makes heavy use of Gantt charts to help schedule out any project you have. The full version costs $150.

Web alternatives:
Basecamp – 37signals’ flagship product, Basecamp has become the standard for project management in many offices (especially small/home businesses). I keep Basecamp open almost the entire day to help manage things. Pricing starts at $12/month.

Contact Management

Address Book – Some people prefer simplicity (myself included). I prefer Address Book to keep up with all my contacts and it has served me great over the years. It is included for free with OS X.

Daylite – In addition to being a great project management app (as mentioned above), Daylite also does a killer job of managing contacts. I’ve used it to manage everything from new client leads to team members on a project. A 1-user license costs $189.

SOHO Organizer – SOHO Organizer is a bit less business focused than Daylite. In addition to helping you organize contacts, it also helps lets you attach everything under the sun to those contacts as well as group them together however you wish. This one will cost you $100.

Redlien Account Executive – Redlien is almost exclusively for people who are in sales. With features such as email logging and opportunity management, I can’t imagine this not helping you increase your sales to other people. Cost is $130 for a new license or $90 to upgrade from a competing applications (such as Daylite).

Web alternatives:
Highrise – The newest application from the 37signals crew, Highrise is contact management in the usual 37signals style. Simple, straightforward, no feature-bloat. It has just the tools you need to customize it to your workflow. Prices start at $12/month. There is a limited free version as well.

Miscellaneous Tools

Yep – Yep (formally known as Kip, and covered here) is an application for organizing your documents. I use it religiously to digitize and organize paper receipts and other documents so I can keep a paper-free work environment as much as possible. The $34 price tag is well worth it.

VMware Fusion – Prior to VMware Fusion’s release, I was Parallels guy. But since Fusion came out I’ve exclusively moved to it. Doing so much frontend development, I keep it open almost all day to do browser testing on Windows browsers. Right now you can get it for $60 (after a $20 mail-in rebate).

OmniGraffle – Whether you need to build a simple wireframe for a new web project or create a flow chart for any type of information, OmniGraffle is really the best option for you on your Mac. Pricing starts at $80 for the standard version.

MailTemplate – If you have a lot of email that frequently requires the same response (such as customer service emails), I highly suggest you check out MailTemplate. You create custom mail templates for either new mail or replies that will ultimately save you tons of time on responding to certain types of email. MailTemplate costs around $15.

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Not quite a year ago I wrote a feature on LifeHacker talking about the use of Metadata in place of a folder-based organization scheme. Since then I’ve received many emails and inquiries asking for more on the subject. Inevitably I’ve responded with short answers and the promise of a forthcoming post here on The Apple Blog to satiate all the interested parties. I’m here to tell you, that the time has finally come my friends.

I’ve spent a lot of time tinkering with the system, trying new things, combining tools and workflows, and on and on over the year I’ve been working with the idea. So as I’ve been pondering how to approach the piece I wanted to write here on TAB, I’ve decided that doing it in parts will probably work out best. I’d like to say they’ll come out weekly, but there’s a ton of stuff clogging this brain of mine, and it may be more like bi-weekly, so just an fyi on that.

Enough of the pleasantries, eh? Let’s get started with the first installment of Metadata as a Filing System. In this part I’ll be covering the basis of my idea, the tagging structures and best practices that I’ve found work best (at least for me), and the basic goals of using this system.

Some Background to Get Up to Speed

When Tiger launched in 2005 it brought with it Spotlight for unparalleled searching capabilities. A large factor in this amazing new tech was the ability of the operating system to leverage metadata in files. What is metadata? It’s information about information…Ok, a better explanation: Metadata is the term used for details about a file. For instance, who created the file, when, how large is the file size, and so on.

But the best part came with the addition of Spotlight Comments. Accessible through the Get Info screen of any file on OS X, the Spotlight Comments field gives the user free-reign for creating customized metadata (referred to as ‘tags’ from here on out in this article). Think about tagging in the mainstream sense. Just about everyone has seen it in action with the advent of Web 2.0. Del.icio.us uses it for ‘categorizing’ bookmarks, flickr allows you to tag your images, and many blogs provide tag clouds of the many blog post categories offered within their pages. So we translate that thinking to our files and the way we organize them on our hard drive.

I’m fairly certain your hard drive is teeming with files, most likely in your Documents folder, just like mine. I’ll venture further, to guess that within that Documents folder you’ve got several more folders – maybe a ‘Letters’ folder for all your correspondences, a ‘txt’ folder for all your txt notes, a ‘work’ folder for business stuff, and so on and so forth. Maybe those folders have more nested within them…you get the idea. You’ve got the typical folder hierarchy that every semi-organized computer user has had since the computer shipped with a hard drive larger than a megabyte.

So what happens when you’ve got a letter that you wrote for a business proposal? Do you file it in your ‘Letters’ folder, or your ‘work’ folder? Or maybe a ‘Letters’ folder within your ‘work’ folder… How do you remember which place you put it in? (I know you could create an alias in the location you didn’t store it in, but humor me here – I’m not that well organized anyway!) Well the options metadata gives us, allow for us to file the letter in a general place and tag with with both ‘letter’ and ‘work’ so we can find it later based on the tag, rather than where we may have put it.

When I first started this project, I moved all the files and folders in my Documents directory, into a folder called ‘pretagging’. From there on out anything that would normally have been filed in my Documents folder hierarchy, was just dumped into Documents and left to marinate with nothing but a metadata tag (or two or three). This approach really forces you to commit to the idea of using metadata as a filing system, because then when you look at your Documents folder (rather than just searching the tag(s) in Spotlight), you just see a heaping mess of files to wade through. Great motivation to make it work, eh? So if you’re planning to play along at home, this is a great way to jump right into the deep-end.

Guidelines Are a Must

So Spotlight makes all this possible because these items are then completely searchable on your drive. Great. But before we get too carried away, we need to decide on a useful tagging structure, or set of guidelines. If you don’t, your tags will end up looking much like my initial foray into del.icio.us bookmarking, where there are 1-off tags everywhere. Not good, and not useful for searching.

It’s extremely important to have a plan in mind before you start tagging your little heart out. You don’t necessarily have to decide on the specific tags you’ll be using, because that will change and evolve over time. But keeping in mind a set of guidelines for how you’ll tag your files is the key. I like to stick to singular terms, ‘letter’, ‘project’, etc rather than trying to remember, “Did I use ‘letters’ or ‘letter’ last time?” Then you either guess right and end up ok, guess wrong, and have a 1-off tag that could ruin your search results later, or you waste more time digging to see what tag you need to match. All of these are time-wasters, and who amongst us has time to waste anymore?

So decide if you’re going to use singulars or plurals for your tags. There will of course be times when a tag you choose is most common in the plural, such as ‘keys’, or ‘taxes’. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.

Another point to consider in your guidelines is how granular you want to get with your tagging practice. So maybe you tag some files as ‘project’, but what happens when you get too many project files from different customers? This is where it gets free-form and up to you on how you handle it. You could do something like ‘project’ and ‘clientname’, or just go for broke with ‘clientnameproject’. Figure out what’s easiest and most comfortable for you.

The last thing, and probably the most important – in my opinion – is a prepending symbol for your tags. The GTD’ers use the @ sign most of the time, so I started with that. But I found that Spotlight effectively ignores the @ symbol and returns less than exact results. As an example, ‘@project’ and ‘project’ will both return the same results in Spotlight. Which is to say that they return anything in Spotlight’s index that contains the word ‘project’. That leaves a lot of wading through stuff to find just what you want. With some experimentation I landed on the & sign as one that Spotlight didn’t ignore. So now a query on ‘&project’ returns only the things that match that syntax exactly – no extraneous data or files that will slow you down. Sure you can do a Spotlight search using quotes around your @project search term, but that’s extra keystrokes, and frankly, I’m too lazy for that. So I use the & sign to prepend my tags. You can play around and find something else that may work for you, or just use the one I found.

These ideas lay a decent framework for your tagging scheme. Obviously what works for me may be different for you, so figure out your own system – if you use these guidelines to do it, you’re much more likely to find success in using metadata for your filing system.

So What’s The End Game?

For me the purpose behind all of this was to see if it was really a good alternative to the traditional practice of using folder hierarchies. I wanted to see if I could still locate my files in this manner, and if I could, was it any faster? So I suppose efficiency is the name of the game when it comes time to measuring your success.

This is where it becomes a gray area on whether or not the metadata hits the mark. If you just use the tools that OS X offers (those being Spotlight and using the Get Info screen for each individual file) then there’s no way this method stacks up. The performance gain comes in using 3rd party apps and utilities. I’ve played with many of these, and tried several combinations to determine which seem to work the best. If you’re even a casual reader of The Apple Blog, you won’t be surprised that Quicksilver is at the hub of these tools.

But as I mentioned at the start of this post, there will be a few parts to this piece. Those tools – and the best ways I’ve found for using them – are topic for a forthcoming article.

Moving Forward

There’s still a lot to come on this topic. I hesitate to say just how many installments I’m planning, because I feel like there’s enough to write up for a handful of posts. But for now I’ll venture 3 more parts to this saga. Minimum.

Amongst these future posts I’ll be covering the 3rd party tools that make the metadata system a really useful alternative, and how to put them into action for you. I’ll be putting together one of my weekly screencasts to demonstrate the system I’ve settled into. I think that will give a good feeling for what this system is capable of if you stick with it and truly own it. And finally (at least for now), I’ll talk about where I’d like to take this metadata filing scheme in the future. Essentially some ideas I’ve had for really automating things so that my computer works for me…But more on all this in coming weeks.

Q And A

There are certainly going to be questions abounding from this article. As always, I’ll do my best to answer them in the comments below. However if the questions tread heavily on forthcoming parts of this piece, my answers will likely be short ones, if at all – I’m not ignoring the validity of said questions, I just feel they’ll be more easily accessible if they’re available in the body of each article (rather than buried in the comments).

In fact, maybe I’ll make each week following one of these pieces, a post full of answers to the questions posted in the comments. I’ll have to think on that, depending on how the reaction to this post goes over. Guess we’ll all be surprised…

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