Archive for writing

This post is guilty to my first contact with my publisher for the tech books I’m writing. Had to dig it up in order to answer a question for an interview, and thought I’d share it. I just wish the site utilized the design a little better, it used to be clean and balanced, now it feels cluttered with ads.

Why I’ll buy the 11,6″ MacBook Air

It’s not even announced yet, Apple’s most recent MacBook refresh. The long neglected Air, overpriced and underpowered but the best writing machine ever (as in EVER), is rumoured to get a second chance on Wednesday.

The Wednesday event is the annual MacBook event, back the Mac after quite a focus on iOS devices. We’ll get a refresh across the line of course, processor bumps and things like that, but my bet is that the focus will be on the next OS X, featuring a lion it seems. That, and a new iLife, the current one is a bit dated, and these are things that add to the Mac platform value overall.

And the Air, that’s the sole truly new piece of hardware we’ll see, is my bet. Continued →

Waiting for WriteRoom

Right, so here’s a challenge for both myself and Hog Bay Software. You see, I want to use my iPad for writing as well as browsing the web, reading feeds (more on that later) and emailing away from the couch. So, the challenge for Hog Bay Software:

If you release WriteRoom for the iPad (even if it is just a simple adaptation of the excellent iPhone version) within two weeks, I will use it to write a short story, which I then will release for free.

And I’ll blog the experience, obviously.

Why this somewhat desperate stunt for attention? Well, WriteRoom is, alongside Scrivener, my favorite writing tools and I want it for my iPad. Badly. So get the iPad version out there already, Jesse!

A few minutes with the iPad

As many of you already know, I have had high hopes for the iPad from the start. My hopes and dreams post was luckily not all that far from the actual product, so you can perhaps guess my excitement. Well, it’s finally here, or has been for a week or so, sitting in Stockholm waiting for me. And I must say I like it thus far. The screen is great and while it is a bit of hassle buying apps for it from Sweden, where the product and hence not the iPad AppStore has yet to be launched, bit that is all minor inconveniences.

What’s worse is the lack of support for Swedish keyboards. This is a real shame since I can’t just map the keys, it is a soft keyboard onscreen after all, and using a bluetooth keyboard won’t solve the problem (but working perfectly well other than that) either. Hopefully the iPad is due in Sweden soon so that this problem will be remedied.

There is another thing that I really miss too, and that’s a decent word processor. I know, I’ll probably end up buying Pages but it really is too much. Luckily WriteRoom is on it’s way and it can’t arrive fast enough. I want to write a book on this thing, so get it out there already! Yeah I’m a fan, you guys already knew that.

That being said, I must say this works pretty well after all. I’ve written this whole blog post on it, using the WordPress app, and I can see myself getting used to this. However it is way too early to pass judgment yet, so I’ll just settle with the fact that I’m impressed and happy with it thus far. A few minutes in, that is. We’ll see how it stands in the long run, but I’m obviously optimistic.

As you probably know by now, I wrote a book on WordPress. It is called Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog and now you can read more about it here. Glorious, isn’t it?

The tools that help me write

I’m writing a lot, and that’s an understatement. We’re talking about tens of thousands of characters every day, at least when I’ve got a lot of freelance gigs, which I tend to have. Tight deadline force me to produce a lot of content each month, but I don’t mind, I work best when somewhat short on time. If I’m not, I’ll end up doing other things until the deadline makes me sweat. You might say I need the pressure to perform. That might not be true for you, we are all different.

I’m a Mac user and have been for years. My primary writing machine is a MacBook Air (I’ll get to my gear later), bought to write the Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog book. I absolutely adore it and won’t sell it until Apple releases a new model. Yes, it is that good. Loaded with the right kind of writing software I find it even sparks my productivity, not bad for a cold dead computer. Continued →