KatieFloyd.me

Disclosure: Byword is a sponsor of Mac Power Users. However, Byword is a sponsor or the podcast because they are my favorite text editor on the Mac, not vice versa. I would not be writing this post if I did not love what they’re doing.

David Sparks turned me on to Byword for the Mac several months ago. Whenever I need to write a long form blog post, review, or any other text that doesn’t have to be formatted in Microsoft Word (yuck) it’s my application of choice. The interface is clean and elegant, it does only what it needs to and lets you write without a lot of extra distractions and fluff. Yet Byword has powerful tools that serious writers want without having to access a dozen different toolbars for configuration. Today, Byword released their iOS application and updated their desktop App to include iCloud support.

The “dream of iCloud” is realized in Byword. All of my text documents, automatically updated and with me everywhere. The iPhone App is good, but this will become my default writing application on my iPad. It also exports clean HTML via a copy HTML feature that I use in the desktop application all the time. Great for blog posts on the road and until Daniel Jalkut brings us that iOS version of MarsEdit we all are clamoring for. Oh yeah, and it supports TextExpander – hallelujah thank you developers!

I see myself getting a lot of writing done with this app. I may even go out and buy one of those fancy iPad external keyboard cases.

“Ever wanted to use AirPlay mirroring to show the screen of your iPad 2 or iPhone 4/4S on your Mac? Just released, Reflection ($14.99 for a single license, $39.99 for a 5 pack) offers a well-featured mirroring receiver for OS X, ideal for education and demos…”

Reflection app goes live, brings iOS screen mirroring to your Mac | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

I saw this post on TUAW today and was immediately excited about the possibilities. I’m very active in my local Mac Users Group and more and more we’re looking for ways to demo iOS apps to our group. Our setup is fairly basic, a Mac connected to a projector.  Currently we use a Point 2 View video camera to capture an iPhone or iPad screen for demos but it’s a less than ideal setup and the video quality is poor. We considered purchasing an Apple TV to connect to our projector but unfortunately that’s not an option either because our projector doesn’t have an HDMI input. For $15, or $40 for a 5-pack we could install this App on our demo Macs and use our existing equipment to demo iOS apps to the group.

Of course the downside is you still that an iPhone 4S (which I don’t have…hmmm maybe a reason and a tax write off?) or an iPad 2 or better for AirPlay mirroring, but that’s going to be required for just about any solution like this and in another year or two it will be a non-issue as most people will meet these requirements.

I’m excited. Please Apple, don’t kill it.