I’ve heard some comments already that the iPhone might experience low sales, but I disagree. The original iPod was $500 and just played MP3’s. This one is the same prince (for the 4GB model) and does 1000x more for the same price.

Simply put, the iPhone will be a killer device.

This summer found me working across the street in Hillenbrand managing conferences for that building as well as in Meredith. As soon as I saw conference as a project, kGTD became the perfect tool to manage the many tasks each group presented. Since the pay was pretty good (and virtually no expenses) I dropped the $50 for an OOP license and dumped massive amounts into kGTD.

Fittingly, I only used it for a couple days and then neglected it for the remainder of the summer. To this day, I use kGTD for a couple days, then seemingly forget about it until a month later when a new wave of inspiration to manage tasks arises again. I’m so used to balancing and remembering tasks in my mind that kGTD doesn’t hardly get any use. It’s frustrating and yet nothing I didn’t expect.

Enter Actiontastic. Initially I was drawn to the idea of a (for now) free GTD app that didn’t require the purchase of an app to run it; an actual self-contained, Mac OS X native GTD app! Despite my investment in OOP I downloaded Actiontastic and started playing around. While not as robust as kGTD (possibly only in my mind) it’s a great product even in beta. The one immediate advantage I see is the possibility of running Actiontastic on multiple Macs (at least during the beta). OOP was a one-machine license and running two Mac’s made using kGTD on both unrealistic without dropping another $50. Although Actiontastic does not have built-in synching (.Mac or otherwise) I can fake it by synching Actiontastic’s SQLite database file (in ~/Library/Application Support/Actiontastic). When Actiontastic hits 1.0, I’ll be very interested to see what the final price will be.

On a sidenote, I’m admittedly most interested in what The Omni Group’s direction for OmniFocus will be; if an honest-to-God GTD app from TOG came out with Ethan consulting on the design, the combination will likely win my use (and registration payment).

Top 10 Albums of 2006

1. Kings of Convenience – Riot on an Empty Street
2. The Avalanches – Since I Left You
3. Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s – The Dust of Retreat
4. Decoder Ring – Somersault
5. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
6. Snow Patrol – Final Straw
7. Télépopmusik – Angel Milk
8. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
9. Snow Patrol – Eyes Open
10. Lali Puna – Faking the Books

Top 10 Tracks of 2006

1. Kings of Convenience – I’d Rather Dance With You
2. Kings of Convenience – Homesick
3. Kings of Convenience – Cayman Islands
4. Snow Patrol – Set The Fire To The Third Bar
5. Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s – On a Frezzing Chicago Street
6. Snow Patrol – Chocolate
7. Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s – Skeleton Key
8. Snow Patrol – Run
9. Kings of Convenience – Know-How
10. Kings of Convenience – Stay Out of Trouble

Top 50 Artists of 2006

1. Kings of Convenience
2. Genesis
3. Snow Patrol
4. The Avalanches
5. Death Cab for Cutie
6. Air
7. Zero 7
8. Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s
9. Interpol
10. VH1 (video podcasts)
11. The Cinematic Orchestra
12. The Postal Service
13. Decoder Ring
14. Télépopmusik
15. Mute Math
16. Thom Yorke
17. Amos Lee
18. Cut Chemist
19. Lali Puna
20. Dntel
21. Iron & Wine
22. Aqualung
23. The Juliana Theory
24. Boards of Canada
25. IndieFeed.com (podcast)
26. The Stills
27. Styrofoam
28. The Decemberists
29. Sigur Rós
30. Five for Fighting
31. Daft Punk
32. Frank Sinatra
33. Nelly Furtado
34. Something Corporate
35. Jonathan Larson
36. Strong Bad (podcast)
37. Aaron Copland & London Symphony Orchestra
38. Imogen Heap
39. M83
40. James Taylor
41. Explosions in the Sky
42. Coldplay
43. Aphex Twin
44. Matchbook Romance
45. Matthew Jay
46. Hope Publishing Company (concert I had been reading music for)
47. The Strokes
48. The Chemical Brothers
49. Gorillaz
50. Kanye West

Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1309-9; en)

The trial version leaves some things to be desired, but that is expected. It does not seem to include the newest Flash player (some sites will play but YouTube will not) or Java. Interesting sidenote: is works really well for mouse-based Flash games like what you’d find at Orisinal, so long as you stay away from the sites that need keyboard input. Also, there seem to be a limited number of points you can go back in the browsing history (5, I think). Since Opera obviously doesn’t have a problem I figured this was a Wii problem, though it seemed to be pulling content for pages even when I navigated back to them. Moving around the screen is also a bit goofy as you have to hold B to move around, and the fact that you don’t have to click the arrows showing where you can scroll is not overly clear.

On the plus side, Text renders beautifully, although I may have an unfair advantage on a Sony Bravia. I’m only connected to the TV with composite video though, and the text is crystal clear. Everything else seems to render very well in true Opera fashion.

Cool addition overall, much like the Weather channel released earlier this week. Not a killer app like Wii Games, but enough to stretch the functionality a little further. Add a Wii keyboard (Wiiboard?) and it’d approach WebTV.

From South Park Create-a-Character

Theme Reprise (iTunes Store) The Cinematic Orchestra The Man with the Movie Camera

River, Stay Away from My Door (iTunes Store) The Dave Brubeck Quartet Take Five

High Horses Theme Dntel Early Works for Me If It Works for You

Queue talking to that cute girl you have a crush on

No Joy in Mudville (iTunes Store) Death Cab for Cutie We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes

“BoilerCast has become the most successful academic podcasting service in the world,” Collins said. “By partnering with Apple, we are bringing together the two leaders in academic podcasting, and there will be tremendous innovation and benefits.”

Damn straight!

On the iMix page in iTunes, click “Publish to the Web” on the right and you’ll get the code for your own “widget”.

Oh Apple, you coy thing you…