Daily Driver Apps

Ulysses | ByWord
Pages
Apple Books
Libby overdrive library — SAPL
Cloud Library Bexar BibleoTech
kindle (for iPad)
Shakespeare (Pro)
Dark Sky

Then onto work?

Daily Driver Apps

But looking at the list? Both Ulysses | ByWord and Pages are word processing apps, across multiple platforms, for me. Then comes i-Books, Library, Bexar Library, and Kindle, in order of current preference. Two word processors and four different apps for reading books. I’m not sure what conclusion to draw.

Shakespeare Pro app — 2013 | 2015 | 2016 | 2019 …

Recent events, I switched from the Yahoo! weather app to Apple’s now-native Dark Sky. All about keeping it in the family? Not sure I like it as much, but the recent privacy changes, yeah, just happier with that.

Daily Driver Apps

Then, onto work? I’ve covered this before, at length, but the iPhemeris app works across the various devices, means if I do chart on a work iPad, then the client calls for more data when I’m in front of my desktop, I can access the same chart details. Not sure how this will work out once I start collecting that huge number of charts again. If that happens again.

While I’m not displeased with the Voice Record app, I’m not thrilled, but it works. It works, and after some fiddling, I got it work in a manner I like. Not great, but not bad at all. That would be the weakest link in the line-up, and frankly, if it works like it supposed to, I don’t know what I can complain about. I still miss the brazenly simple Piezo here — “The opposite of a complex answer, a super simple solution.”

Charge as a credit card gateway, this really deserves a longer discussion.

Code Editor formerly Coda by Panic — I do so very little “coding” anymore, but a recent hardware change at the server necessitated some fiddling, and this was perfect. Again, it proved it was well-worth the price and time to understand how the app works. As an added bonus, it is now my primary FTP motor, a real Swiss Army Knife, although, for function, durability, toughness, and Oregon? More like a LeatherMan Tool.

1.1.1.1 I finally figured out, with the current hardware arrangement, using sketchy hotel wifi, I wanted some semblance of “protection,” like wearing a mask. (Shakespeare said, “wear thy mask, or do not pass.) Not sure, but on some connections, it is demonstrably faster. Besides, the price? Free?

Daily Driver Apps

The last part of the list is the usual list of native apps. E-Mail, i-Messages, web browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome), and i-Photos. The SMS message thing? Not a fan, although the Apple implementation works rather well, just, I’m not sure I like the immediacy of messages. But these are all background, built-in applications. I tend to use the i-Numbers Excel clone, too, but I do very little number crunching. Notes, as well, mostly for a shopping list. Lists — like books to look for.

tl;dr

Discussion?

Ulysses | ByWord
I recall the exact moment I switched up my weekly work from a single, long-form document in the native word processor, to the Markdown/Text Editor ByWord. Previously, I’d bought the markdown editor, solely based on referrals, as “the” tool to use. My primary output, anymore? All web-based.

Several “winters” back, I started writing in the kitchen in the morning, on that iPad, then, as the day progressed, and I finally got enough coffee, I would move back to the standing desk. With the way the “cloud” works, now? By the time I was at my desk, my document was updated.

For me, this has been seamless. No interruption, and I can start and finish wherever I am. Slow day at the rock shop? I used to work on new material. Last show I worked in San Antonio? There was a midday lull, and I had chance to snap an image to use the next time I work in San Antonio.

ByWord took two tries to understand, and what I like best about it? Simplicity. It’s a simple, clear, uncluttered interface with minimal tools, writes straight to a Word, PDF, or web code. It also stores its files on the cloud, in straight text (txt) format.

Hint: that an important technical detail.
Enter Ulysses, the app, recommend by much of the same gang that got me onto ByWord. The “Latest and Greatest” essentially millennial users.

Look: I really like Ulysses as a word processor. It works. I generate web content on the fly, manipulate large tracts of text, and I’ve used it across, maybe, a half dozen websites, plus as many different server environments, and the app performs flawlessly.

I have a single grievance, the data isn’t really “transportable.” While stored in a cloud environment, the data is some proprietary format. Until the data is exported, there’s no access. Like Microsoft Word, just sort of a de facto standard. All hail Bill Gates, our one and future overlord.

The data transport, the idea of merely storing the material as a straight text file instead of any other format? I liked that. Goes to my roots, web roots, anyway.

I might take time and transfer everything over. The price of Ulysses — the model is now a yearly subscription. I understand the concept, and I gladly paid, last couple of years, as it was worth it. But ByWord and its data-portable nature is more and more appealing.

ByWord is leaner. Less fancy stuff. More to the point. I should take a hint.

Daily Driver Apps