1. Mail VIP rules

I get a lot of email. Like most people, the amount of e-mail I get that actually matters is a small percentage. Mountain Lion’s Notification Center lets you set banner alerts for incoming email. Thankfully, this makes it possible to reduce the noise. Instead of also getting notifications for Groupon and enhancement product spam, you can filter that list for people you’ve designated as VIPs.

While you can set whether the Mail app’s notifications are banners, popups, and have badge icons in the Notification Center preferences, you have to set the VIP-only notification within the Mail App preferences.

To designate a person as a VIP from within a mail message from that person, click the star next to their name. This will cause mail to notify you only if you get an email from these people, as well as place their email messages in the VIP folder in Mail.

2. Notes

I don’t really use Notes for capturing information. These days, I still find paper and pen the easiest way to quickly jot down notes in a meeting. However, I do use Notes to store information I will want to refer to often. For example: all of my dial-in meeting and leader codes are stored in Notes. I have a guitar amp that does modeling, so I store my favorite settings for reference if the amp needs to be reset. The best part is Notes also syncs with iOS Notes, so I’ll have them with me always.

3. Reminders

Thankfully divorced from iCal, tasks are now stored in a standalone app, Reminders. While I still use OmniFocus to do the bulk of my heavy task management due to its easy handling of repeating tasks, I’ve found Reminders excellent for important one-off tasks. Since Reminders also uses Location Services on Mountain Lion, I will often set a reminder for a task I need to complete when I get home. Like Notes, it’s likely that users of both iOS and OS X will get the most value out of this, but now that it’s a standalone app, OS X users who hated iCal may find more value from it.

4. iCloud Preview

Preview is the latest app to also support Documents in the Cloud. While there’s no iOS version of Preview currently available, I’ve found a couple of uses for Preview and iCloud: storing PDFs I want to reference on more than one computer, and yet another backup of crucial PDFs. I’ve got copies of agreements, my fishing licenses and the like also in iCloud. This makes it easy to get my computer up and running quickly after a hardware fault, as well as prevent against accidental deletion of local files.

5. The return of Save As

One of the most criticized “improvements” in Lion was the removal of Save As, forcing users to Duplicate, then Save any file they wanted a second copy of under a different name. Thankfully, Save As is back with Mountain Lion. The bad news? It seems the only way to invoke it is with a keyboard shortcut, command-option-shift S. Better put that one in your Notes. No, I don’t know why it’s not a menu choice, either.

These are 5 tips I’ve found that improve my Mountain Lion experience. As always, feel free to share any of yours in the comments.

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Now with OS X Mountain Lion, which should arrive some time this summer, true feature parity for Notes, Reminders and Notifications comes to OS X. I’ve spent some time with the new features, and I’m eager to share my experiences with you.

Notes

Notes syncing from iOS back to OS X has always struck me as a tacked-on feature, with notes buried in Mail.app, making viewing and editing notes awkward and unpleasant. With Mountain Lion, notes get their rightful position in their own app. The Mountain Lion version is a near-duplicate of the iOS version, and I do not view that as a criticism, because Notes on iOS is very elegant in its simplicity.

What I found interesting is while Notes can be turned on and off via the iCloud System Preference, it apparently still uses IMAP for some of the backend transfer as I was asked to enter in my passwords for my Gmail accounts. Notes appear to sync quickly, within a minute or so of being edited.

I’m really excited about Notes being easier to use in OS X. I swap between Evernote and Notes for my note-taking needs, with Evernote getting my article-length notes clipped from the web or imported PDFs, and Notes getting my day-to-day notes, like what printer my Mom has, dial-in codes for meetings, meeting notes, etc.

Reminders

Reminders, formerly To-Dos, made a lot of sense living in iCal pre-iOS. However, the Calendar iOS app never had to-dos, and with the advent of the Reminders iOS app, it became very uncomfortable having them stored in iCal. I always found iCal’s handling of to-dos unwieldy, and being stuck in a small pane off to the side didn’t help. It’s been said that the areas of OS X and iOS that are the most polished are the ones Steve Jobs was very involved in — if so, I’m fairly confident the man never managed a task list in iCal.

Now with Mountain Lion, to-dos are moved to their own Reminders app, and life couldn’t be better. It’s a nearly identical copy of the iOS app in looks and function, with two big differences: on OS X you can choose if a list is on iCloud or your Mac, and I cannot see a way to set a location-based reminder. While OS X isn’t really location aware (even though it does have Find my Mac), it would be nice if I could set a reminder in OS X for something I need to do at work and have my iPhone remind me when I get there.

Overall, I’m happy with Reminders in Mountain Lion as it allows me to easily manage my to-dos. While I still expect to handle most of my project-level task management in OmniFocus, Reminders will be the app I use to remind me of life’s daily minutiae.

Notifications

The last of what I call the Big Three features to migrate from iOS to OS X is Notifications. Users of Growl will find Notifications very similar as notifications are displayed in the upper right-hand corner. As with iOS, you can choose if an app displays a banner, an alert that shows up in the middle of the screen, a badge icon, or all three.

Right now, obviously, only the apps built into Mountain Lion are supported. According to this piece by John Gruber, only apps acquired from the Mac App Store can send events to Notifications. As an aside, you can configure Mail.app to only alert you if you receive an e-mail from someone you have flagged as a VIP, which helps cut down on the popup clutter.

So far my experiences with Notifications have been light, with not many apps supporting it. I’m not sure if Notifications will ever fully replace Growl for me since not all the apps I rely on Growl for are available in the Mac App Store.

Final thoughts

Apple’s headline on the Mountain Lion web page is “Inspired by iPad. Re-imagined for Mac,” and that’s pretty much true based on my usage of it so far. I’m happy there is feature parity between iOS and OS X for Notes and Reminders. If you don’t complement your Macintosh with an iOS device, you may not derive the same excitement I do from these new features. But if you’re a  heavy user of Notes and Reminders you will be thrilled that these apps are now on OS X.

One hope I have, with OS X moving to a yearly upgrade cycle, as iOS has always had, is that features that complement each other on both operating systems will be released at the same time, and not with the lag we currently have.

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Installing an extension to QuickFox Notes is not quite as straightforward as installing a browser add-on. You’ll firstly need to download the extension script, which is found here (right-click, and save it as a .js file). To install the script, open QuickFox Notes and then click on Tools->Add-ons->Open add-ons folder, then move the .js file you downloaded into that folder. You’ll need to restart QuickFox Notes for the change to take effect.

Once restarted, you’ll find that you now have an extra button in your QuickFox Notes window for uploading the note to Google Docs, as shown in the screenshot above. Hitting that button will pop up a window asking for your username and password before saving the note to Google Docs. Note that notes are only saved to Google Docs — this extension does not provide a two-way sync.

(Via Addictive Tips)

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With the rollout of Livescribe Connect, the company has now added sharing features to the gadget that should be useful for collaboration.  The system can turn the notes recorded by the pen into interactive “pencasts” that can be shared with anyone who has Adobe Reader. Files containing both handwritten notes and recorded audio can be sent to a number of applications and online services, including email, Google Docs, Facebook, Evernote, and the MyLivescribe service that offers 500MB of cloud storage to any Livescribe owner. Pencast files can also be sent to mobile devices, including the iPad and iPhone.

You can download a demo pencast from the Livescribe site. The files are modified PDFs with embedded Flash elements to provide the interactivity. Thus, you’ll need Adobe Reader 10 or higher to play back and interact with a pencast. Other PDF readers, such as Preview on the Mac, can only view the first page of the document.

The Echo Smartpen, accessories and apps are available from the Livescribe store and various retailers. The base pen includes 4GB of storage, and costs $149.95. Pens with more storage and features are also available.

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The idea behind yaM is to replace more traditional tools, such as an emailed agenda and notes, with a collaborative online tool that provides a centralized place to capture and share all of the information pertaining to the meeting. yaM is designed to be used before, during and after the meeting. Prior to the meeting, the organizer can set up a schedule and agenda and distribute that to the attendees. Each meeting set up on yaM can have a number of pages added to it, with each page containing different tools, including:

• Agenda, minutes, action items and notes. Notes and action items pages can be added to take notes during the meeting, while agenda and minutes pages can be generated automatically.
• Documents and drawings. Documents can be uploaded and shared prior to and during the meeting
• Whiteboard. A collaborative virtual whiteboard to sketch out ideas.
• Analysis and discussion. yaM provides a range of collaborative analysis tools to help  decision-making during the meting, including SWOT, cost-benefit analysis and brainstorming tools.
• Voting. Meeting participants can vote on ideas using the consensus development tool.

Pages can be added on the fly, and all the pages from the meting are archived in the tool, keeping a handy record of meeting outcomes.

yaM is free; you can sign up here.

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Simplified Sharing

Glass’ major benefit lies in how quickly and easily you can comment on a site and share it. There are plugins available for both Firefox and Chrome, letting you add your own thoughts to a website with a click of a button. Those thoughts can include links, images and video.

The messaging system built into Glass makes collaboration convenient. Not only can you send along your comments to other users, but Glass has built-in messaging features. Users receive real-time notifications and can effectively chat about the sites they share.

There are a few pleasant surprises if you signed up for Glass early on in the private beta but haven’t spent a lot of time on it since. There is a mobile version, available for the iPhone, along with plenty of bells and whistles geared toward sharing information. You can create well-designed slides through Glass’ interface, making your comments something truly worth sharing. You can also organize the users you follow and your own information through the use of interest groups and lists.

The Mechanics

There’s a layer of security built into Glass that can make it a more useful option for teams interested in sharing information that closely ties into what they’re working on. The use of SSL encryption creates a tool that organizations can feel confident in using. Glass also takes care to reassure users that the owners of those sites that you may comment on can’t actually see your comments — unless, of course, you share them.

Glass remains free and appears to have further developments in the pipeline; right after coming out of beta, the site has already announced a new slide theme as a “thank you” to the users who came through beta with the application. 

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Let me guide you through a number of solutions that allow you to sync data, contacts, calendar, and notes between your iOS and Mac devices.

Data Syncing

iDisk: Apple’s MobileMe is the only all-in-one solution I’ll be mentioning. However, data syncing via iDisk is the service’s biggest flaw. Frankly, it’s too slow for quick syncs. Even uploading one file can result in a several minutes’ worth of sync-time. Uploading a ton of data can be intolerable. I’ve also run into a ton of sync errors, where my local and remote iDisks get so far out of sync, I end up needing to start from scratch, forcing me to figure out on my own what didn’t get synced to Apple’s servers. That said, for small amounts od data the iOS app is a great way to share content while you’re out and about. Also, the iOS iWork suite natively connects to iDisk for file management.

Dropbox: Dropbox is the gold standard for data syncing. It just works. The basic account gives you 2 GB of storage, which is probably fine for most people. They do offer 50 and 100 GB solutions as well. The sync is near-instaneous, and Dropbox also allows you to restore deleted files via the web. I really can’t remember ever having have an issue with Dropbox. You can use DropDAV to allow WebDAV access to your Dropbox account so it will work with iWork on iOS devices. Dropbox also has an API available, so text editing apps like Elements and PlainText can access your Dropbox directly.

SugarSync: This service the potential to be a nice alternative to Dropbox. For starters, its free model gives you 5 GB versus Dropbox’s 2 GB. For  $99 you can get 60 GB of storage while Dropbox only gives you 50 GB for the same amount. But there is no WebDAV support, even via a 3rd-party tool, which may not be an issue if you’re unsure or unwilling to use WebDAV access anyway. However, the big difference is in how you determine what folders sync. On Dropbox, everything in your Dropbox folder is synced automatically; SugarSync requires you to use a desktop program to determine what folders sync. Overall, I found SugarSync’s interface a little cumbersome.

How I do it: I use both iDisk and Dropbox. Rapidly changing files (work, writing, business, school, etc.) are stored on Dropbox and I use DropDAV to make sure I can access the files using iWork on my mobile devices if I need to (for most of my text needs, I use Elements). Dropbox gives me the sync reliability I need, along with a rudimentary backup solution. Large or infrequently changed files (e-books and the like) are stored on iDisk. This gives me mobile access to the files, and I don’t have to deal with an overly-complicated sync system.

Contacts and Calendars

Frankly, syncing contacts and calendars is one of the easiest things to do. Address Book and Mail in OS X both natively sync with MobileMe, Google and Yahoo and when you add your accounts to your iOS device you can choose to sync both contacts and calendars. You can also add your Yahoo and Google calendars as sync calendars in iCal on the Mac.

How I do it: I’m a MobileMe subscriber, so I use that. It may not be free, but it keeps things simple.

Notes

For me, there are two different types of notes. I’ll make a note about something I need to get at the store, or a quick thought in passing, or the name of a book I see in a bookstore. Then there are more formal notes: the type you make during a meeting or class. Especially on iOS, there are almost as many note apps as there are flatulence simulators, so I’m going to focus on a few of my favorites.

Apple’s Notes: All iOS devices ship with the Notes app, which you can use to sync notes with any email account you have on the device. Notes is a nice little app for the basic things, but not great when it comes to long notes. While often derided, I actually like it quite a bit, especially since the notes sync happens during mail fetches. However, if you don’t use the Mail.app on OS X, it’s limited in its appeal, because while the notes will show up in Gmail, for instance, you can’t edit them.

SimpleNote: This aptly-named app has a nice, clean interface. It doesn’t natively sync with a dedicated desktop notes software (you edit notes on the web), but on their download page the app’s developers do list some programs and web extensions that do support the service.

Evernote: This is the big boy of note-taking apps. It’s great for collecting mass quantities of research notes, clipped web pages, graphics, the unabridged version of The Stand and that rusty kitchen sink in the basement. I don’t find it all useful for quick notes, and I don’t think that’s its focus. It is also a great collaborative tool letting you share notebooks.

How I do it: I use Notes for the minor, short notes and Evernote for all my project and class notes. PDFs from school get imported to a dedicated Evernote notebook for that class. The shopping list I’ve been handed goes into Notes.

The Future

Apple needs to get its act together for mobile syncing. The Wall Street Journal reports Apple is beefing up MobileMe, complete with the introduction of the oft-rumored wireless iTunes sync. One of the things keeping the iPad from being a true, untethered mobile solution is a better cloud system from the mothership, so let’s hope these latest reports prove true.

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Catch’s web interface is pretty bare-bones, but it’s easy to use while offering more options than Paprika. Catch notes can include text, images, links, map locations, and Twitter-style #hashtags. The interface includes full-text search of notes, plus sorting by date and tag.

Specific notes can be made public if you wish to share them, and other Catch users can comment on shared items.

One can capture data by sending it to your account through email or by importing a TXT or CSV file. The service can accept HTML text, but the interface doesn’t really render HTML as one would expect on a web page.

Catch is available on Android, iPhone, and iPad. The mobile apps can use location data to show maps, and to “show notes nearby” a location. The apps have offline access to notes, and are password-protected.

If you prefer a desktop app, you can turn Catch.com into a desktop app for Mac using Fluid. There’s also a Google Chrome extension, and Catch synchronizes with the cloud and mobile devices over a 256-bit SSL encryption.

The service offers an open API, so developers can create their own apps to sync with Catch. Catch itself offers no less than four Android apps: AK Notepad, Catch Notes, and the specialized Catch Health Tracker. Compass takes advantage of Catch’s location awareness to power a navigation app. All are free, and show what can be done with the platform, but there aren’t nearly as many apps for Ctach as are available through Evernote’s Trunk.

Catch is currently ad-free, and does not limit how much data you can capture; currently there is no information as to whether the company plans to charge for the service.

On the whole, I don’t find Catch to be compelling enough to make me switch from Evernote, but it may be of interest to those who like Catch’s location features, or don’t like Evernote’s freemium model.

What do you use for note-taking?

Notes has come a long way since its introduction, due entirely to only two feature changes. The first was the introduction of the ability to choose from two other font options: Chalkboard and Helvetica. It’s a small change, but it does make the app easier on the eyes. The second, and more important, feature addition was the addition of over-the-air Notes syncing via MobileMe.

The new syncing feature means the notes you see on your iPad will be the same as you see on your iPhone or iPod touch, so long as you have a MobileMe account and Notes syncing enabled. It also means that notes you create will get pushed out automatically to Mail.app in OS X. It’s this last part of the equation that needs work.

Pushing Notes content to Mail is a lovely stop-gap solution, and it even lets you edit your notes on your Mac fairly easily. (Just type in a selected note in Mail’s message viewing pane, or double-click to pop out the message.) As the many Dropbox-connected plain text editors in the App Store demonstrate, users seem to want to be able to create simple documents that are automatically shared and instantly editable across all their connected devices. Apple’s current method of syncing notes accomplishes this, but just barely, and with considerable problems.

Notes in Mail are editable, as mentioned, but if you change font or start playing with formatting you can get some very screwed up results on your iOS device. And editing in Mail’s message viewer or a modified email compose window isn’t the most enjoyable of user experiences. Here’s what I suggest as an alternative: a standalone Notes.app for OS X, and a few changes in how it works on iOS hardware.

On the desktop, I’d like to see something more like the iPad/iPhone app, a standalone program that can be full-screened and provides a few more editing options. I’m fine with keeping the font choices to three, especially if it alleviates the formatting oddities that currently affect Notes. I’d love a way to change the color of the background “paper,” though, and in the iOS versions, too.

Finally, as Charles recently suggested, either turn on free MobileMe for all users, or just make Notes syncing one of the features available to all users. It’s a small thing, but it could vastly improve the experience of users with both Mac and iOS devices. You could actually use it as a remote whiteboard for communicating with family members while away from home. It would act as yet another buying incentive, and one that encourages multiple device ownership.

Apple might worry that a more powerful Notes would impact sales of Pages and other iOS apps, but I’m not asking for a feature-rich document editor. I just want an ever-so slightly more flexible plain text editor that automatically syncs between my Macs and iPhone/iPad. Apple’s already 98 percent of the way there, I’d just like to see Cupertino go all the way on this one.

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