As I've mentioned in the past, I do all of my writing and blogging from my iPad, using a combination of the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover and Editorial. I enjoy this setup for the most part, but the one aspect that still isn't 100% up-to-snuff is dealing with images in posts. There are various apps on the iOS App Store that tie…
My friend Patrick Rhone has just released another one of his "living guide" eBooks, this one titled Some Thoughts About Writing. In it, he discusses what it takes to be a successful, professional writer, and provides some excellent tips along the way. It's a "living" book because it will likely receive updates with new content in the future, all of which are…
1Writer is one of those iOS writing apps that I always thought looked very nice, but it never provided a good enough reason to switch away from something like Editorial or Byword. You'd still have to pry Editorial out of my cold, dead fingers, but the latest update to 1Writer now puts it at least above Byword. It's now my go-to iPhone…
On the latest episode of The Prompt, Federico Viticci mentioned an iOS app called WordBook that sounded interesting enough for me to check out. It's a pretty powerful English dictionary and thesaurus, and I think it might just replace my long-running "Words to Remember" list in Simplenote. You can bookmark your favorite words and have them sync between devices via iCloud, have…
nvNotes is a note-taking app for iPhone that was inspired by apps like nvALT, Notational Velocity, and more recently, the new Writer Pro. This is one of those apps that mostly stays out of your way so you can focus on what's really important: your notes. The few features that come into play while you're writing are: Word and character count. A…
Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is one of those books that I've always heard about from other writers, but I didn't get around to reading it until very recently. I wish I'd gotten around to it sooner because it's truly a fantastic book. In it, King talks about the events that led to him becoming a writer, which…
Eastgate, the folks behind note-organization app Tinderbox, have put on a winter holiday sale featuring several awesome writing apps for the Mac. The sale includes Tinderbox itself, Scrivener, Scapple, DEVONthink Pro, and Nisus Writer Pro. In each case, you can use the promo code WINTERFEST2013 to get 25% off the normal price. These are some great apps for writers (especially Scrivener) so…
Sometimes a new writing app comes out that has everybody talking about it for a while. Right now, Writer Pro, the successor to the ever-popular iA Writer, is the new hotness. This app is designed around the four basic stages of any writer's workflow – note-taking, writing, editing, and reading – each of which is represented by a different typeface and color.…
Wipebook is a Kickstarter project that essentially combines a paper notebook with a dry-erase board. Each page is its own mini-whiteboard, meaning that you can leave your sketches and/or notes as long as you want, then easily erase them whenever the time's right. The entire notebook can be reused over and over, so you don't have to keep buying new notebooks whenever…
MarkDrop is a new text editor for Mac OS X (10.8 and above) that combines Markdown with Droplr for easy sharing and storage. The left pane, with its monospaced text and format-highlighting, is where you'll do your writing. The right hand pane provides a real-time preview of your Markdown output. Once you've composed something in MarkDrop, it can be saved directly to…
I'm one of those people who always finds a way to lose pens, no matter what I do. I'll leave one in a specific spot, only to find that it was somehow magicked away the next time I need it. The Move Pen is a Kickstarter project that might help me out a little. With a built-in attachment point for keychains and/or…
As someone who does nearly all of my writing from an iPad, I've been very happy with my Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. I like the feel of the keys and the way it protects my iPad when it's closed, plus I haven't yet needed to charge the thing once in the six months I've owned it. But it's not without limitations. The…
Something I've noticed a lot of in the last few years is a renewed interest in the old-school, ritualistic style of shaving, often referred to as "wet shaving". Guys are tossing out their modern shaving stuff in favor of the kind of gear their grandfather might have used back in the day, and in turn they're getting a much more relaxing and…
The latest edition of the Field Notes COLORS lineup is here just in time for the holidays, and it's called "Cold Horizon". With glossy blue covers whose colors blend into one another across the set when they're arranged side-by-side, these notebooks certainly evoke the winter spirit. The pages of each book – which are tinted light green, light blue, and cool gray,…
FiftyThree has just made another leap into the world of physical goods with a gadget called Pencil. Pencil is essentially an iPad stylus, but one with special features designed for use with their popular sketching app, Paper. Simply touch the stylus tip to the screen while Paper is open, and it will automatically pair via Bluetooth. From there, the app will be…
One of my favorite apps (and one of the best reasons to own an iPad) is Paper by FiftyThree. Combined with a Cosmonaut stylus, it's a super fun way to doodle, sketch out ideas, and generally make awesome stuff. And now, FiftyThree has partnered with the people at Moleskine so that you can have your Paper notebooks custom-printed in Moleskine form, directly…
In addition to their "Pony Express" leather pouch, the guys at Field Notes have added a beautiful new product to their lineup of leather goods: the "Everyday Carry" Memo Book Cover. Made of soft, vegetable-tanned cowhide leather, this cover sports inner pockets that can hold a Field Notes notebook along with other carryables, such as cash and a couple of credit cards.…
Thanks to a guest review on the Pen Addict blog this morning (written by Garrett Kubat), I got to find out about a cool new notebook called reNote. It's made by the same guy behind the Pour Mason and the CINCH Wallet. The reNote is made of re-used materials, with covers that are actually cut from food and drink cartons, and pages…
Brett Terpstra's awesome Markdown-preview app for Mac, Marked, has been updated to version 2. For those who don't already know, Marked acts like a sort of extension for any Mac text editor, allowing you to preview your Markdown-formatted plain text in its rich-formatted state, every time you save your document. The preview can be customized to look however you like, even as…
A handcrafted combination leather wallet + notebook cover.