Hey Mac
At WWDC this year, i befriended a fellow software craftsman named Mike Taylor of Hey Mac Software. I would place Mike firmly in the category of my friends who are much smarter than i am. Following Mike on Twitter, i became aware of the License to Mod contest, promoting Hey Mac's Narrator for iPhone. Narrator provides synchronized audio and text which can help you learn to read english or just to tell an interesting story with sound, words and images. The contest involved listening to the Motive Games audio book and solving the mystery therein. The story was very cute and although aimed at a young adult audience i found myself pretty engrossed in the climactic scene. Getting engrossed in a story like this has certain benefits because i won the contest! I'm writing this post on my circa 2001 Titanium PowerBook, but soon will upgrade to the brand new 13" Mac Book Pro of my dreams. At my desk, i of course have a machine that is a little more modern but for my mobile commuting computing i'm thrilled to be getting an upgrade.
If narrator doesn't sound like your cup of cocoa, then definitely check out Hey Mac's Briefcase. Briefcase sits at the head of a class of applications that lets you transfer files from a desktop to your iPhone/iPod Touch for viewing anywhere. What sends Briefcase to the head of the class is how it can connect via ssh (a secure connection) to your computer from anywhere in the world, at any time and let you view pretty much any file. When i first tried it, it was one of those experiences where the technology seemed almost indistinguishable from magic and definitely made me feel grateful to be living in the 21st century.