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Dark Sky

This week’s app was introduced to me by my friend Trenton Jones over at Church Media Blog.

As a wanna meteorologist and amateur storm chaser this app is just cool. I have become addicted to it.

Using your current location Dark Sky gives you up to the minute information on when it will start raining/snowing.

I have to say it is scary accurate.

As a Live Production guy, rain is not my friend. I wish I had this app a few years ago, instead of just guessing when the rain would come.

I recommend grabbing this beautifully designed app before planning your next family picnic or out door church service.

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micFrequency

My first iPhone App recommendation:

micFrequency by Spectrum Bridge

Here is a handy little app for locking on available wireless frequencies in your area. Works on the iPhone and is available in the App store for $4.99.

The app uses the location services to pinpoint your location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see here, where my church is at is a wireless nightmare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clicking the info button on the top right side shows you the actual frequencies you can use:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This app has helped me out of several jams, especially when Super Bowl 2012 was in town.

Good luck Locking On!

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White Noise

This App I have to recommend for not only Mac OSX but also the iPhone.

White Noise by TMSOFT

I use this app most every day. As an ADD Technical Director, I like noise but nothing to distracting. With this program I can customize what I hear.

This is pretty straight forward app so I won’t waste your time rambling.

I use it on the iPhone at night when I sleep as well, and on business trips where I share a hotel room with a co-worker who can out snore me, this was a sleep saver. I am partial to the Amazon Jungle while I work and Rain storm or Airplane while I sleep.

Check it out on either APP store for Mac or iPhone.

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VisualDiffer

This week we’re following up on last week’s APP with another file system App.

VisualDiffer 

This app allows you to compare files, folders, or hard drives for similarities. I use it for syncing two hard drive backups. It will replace with newer and show you down to timestamp and file size the difference. Using filters you can see the file difference between a single file type, like .mov for example.

 

After selecting two folders to compare, then through the actions menu you can move the files around automatically.

When it comes to cleaning up hard drive backups this program is awesome. Simple and straight forward.

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Gemini Duplicate Finder

This week’s pick is a handy little file system tool.

GEMINI

It is Mac Based and available in the App Store. I have found this app to must useful in cleaning up my massive backup arrays. You simply drag a folder, whole hard drive, or even a shared drive into the program and let it do its thing.

The software can distinguish between file types, sizes, and dates so that you know what

I really enjoy its interface, it even tries to be funny while it’s scanning your files with little quips at the bottom of the program window.

After a quick scan of my Documents folder I get a results window like this:

From here I can tell it what I want to keep and what I want it to shred.

 

It’s a pretty cool App for cleaning up your hard drive.

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iStat Menus

For the tech nerd in all of us, I present:

iStat Menus from bjango

iStat Menus is an OSX system monitor allowing you to know exactly what is going on inside your mac. This app is super handy for me to know what my network bandwidth is doing as well as my laptop temperature. It is very, I currently only have it showing me: Temp, Network, and CPU/Memory usage.

 

When I am encoding videos, or monitoring the network bandwidth I am glued to these readouts. Clicking on the CPU graph shows you all the cores and what services are using them.

The Network tab has a cool feature that I use constantly. With my work laptop, I have 3 networks I connect to regularly. Two of them are DHCP enabled so I can select automatic, the other is when I am setup at work in our auditorium, connected to the hard wire. With the click of a mouse button on the FOH tab I immediacy change my network settings and can connect with a saved static IP. Gone are the days of going into system preferences to make that change.

This software has a free trial and then is only  a few dollars to buy. I highly recommend it.

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MPEG Streamclip

My swiss army knife of video conversion tools.

MPEG STREAMCLIP

It dices, it slices, it converts almost any video format into any other. I use this weekly to post video from Northview’s worship service to vimeo. I use it to Rip DVDs (custom made ones that a presenter brings me 10 minuets before their talk.) This handly piece of free software is a must on your computer. It is Mac and Windows compatible and will get you out of a video bind.

A cool feature, is even if the video file is damaged, it will do it’s best to recover what it can or fix the issue. For a piece or Freeware, it’s a must have!

 

 

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Dropbox

In keeping up with the theme from last week, I will recommend another “cloud” based program I couldn’t live without.

DROPBOX 

Now, Dropbox isn’t new and there are a lot of similar options out there. Dropbox is just the one I have become loyal to. Mainly because they are responsible for storing over 50Gbs of my data right now. I have become a huge fan of cloud storage. I was an early adopter of Carbonite and Mozy and they saved my butt several times. My problem was I wanted to just be able to access files quickly and not have to un-archive them. That is where the beauty of Dropbox has come in. I now store documents, photos, and things I don’t want to lose there. I can share folders with friends, family, and colleagues or they can share their items with me. I have worked with other churches having them send me pictures and files via Dropbox collaboration.

Between my iPad, iPhone, Laptop, Desktop, and family computer my files always stay within reach.

Again there is a free version, and paid (yearly) version. There are also several ways to have Dropbox add storage space to your account, just by tweeting, adding photos, or sharing with a friend.

 

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Evernote

For my First APP OF THE WEEK pick I’m going with my digital brain:

EVERNOTE

Evernote is a cloud bases system for capturing and collecting data.  It then syncs to all my smart devices, so I am always up to date no matter which i-device I happen to be using at that moment. I use it to log anything and everything. They have a great “clipper” tool that helps me snip blog articles I want to read later. I email notes to myself, and log pictures of things I want to remember. With it’s advanced search features, I can store mountains of data in there safely in the cloud and then call it up in seconds. You can also share notebooks with others on Evernote. I use this to regularly to collaborate while working on several different projects simultaneously.

Evernote has what they call the Trunk which is basically their Add-on site for Evernote. There you can find all sorts of apps. I have one that pulls down all my utility bill statements and stores them in a folder. I have another that when I scan a document it uploads it to my Evernote account.

The only drawback I have with it right now is it’s lack of formatting options with text. The lack of a highlight function as well, to just be able to make a yellow bar over a section of text. I would really use that.

I encourage you to give it a try. There is a free version as well as a Paid (yearly) version.

 *This is not an endorsed pick. I was not contacted or approached by Evernote or its partners for this recommendation.