Tag Archives: os x
Easy Automator Workflows For Increased Productivity
Computers are built to perform repetitive & tedious tasks. But as users of the computers we’re never exposed to all the tools that are provided to help, and when we are the balance between familiarizing ourselves the given tool and learning to make it do what we need it to do is a larger endever then just doing the thing manually once or twice a day.
Along these lines Apple has long had the ability to script application and operating system tasks via the AppleScript language — powerful, but not the easiest thing to pick up. However, since OS X 10.4 Apple has shipped a free visual workflow tool called Automator that can do some quite powerful things with just a few clicks or drags of a mouse. Creating complex workflows via Automator still has a learning curve and takes some trial and error, but to get it to do some simple things is easy, will take you 5 minutes, and save you time every day.
60 Second Automator Overview
Automator is a visual macro tool that allows you to string together a series actions associated with single tasks in applications like Finder, Keynote, iPhoto, Transmit & Photoshop and create workflows that you can run via the Finder, Services Menu, standalone Application [Droplet] or iCal event item. Each action takes some input [text, URL, selected files], performs a task and then passes the output onto the next item you’ve placed in the chain.
This entry was posted in photo, web and tagged apple, automation, automator, os x, productivity, services, snow leopard, workflow. Bookmark the permalink.
Geotagging Photos With Cell Phones Or Other GPS Devices
Update 2/1/2010: I’ve written a new post about my current workflow for geotagging photos based on information from my iPhone
While some cameras and camera phones have the ability to geotag digital photos as they’re taken, most still don’t. However you can still geotag your photographs accurately and automatically with the use of an external GPS enabled device like a cell phone, navigation device, or a dedicated GPS logger. Any device that can record a “GPS track” that can be transfered to your computer can be used to tag photos. And photos taken with any digital camera can be tagged in this manner.
Here I’ll explain how I use GPSPhotoLinker on OS X to batch tag many photos from a day’s photo shoot with GPS tracks recorded on either a Sony GPS-CS1 or a Nokia N95 cell phone in order to create mapped photo galleries, like this one on Flickr.
This entry was posted in geek, photo and tagged digital photography, exif, geotagging, gpsbabel, gpsed, gpsphotolinker, mapping, os x, photography, software, sony gps-cs1, tutorial. Bookmark the permalink.
Camino 1.1Beta Released
From Samuel Sidler on the Camino Update Blog comes word that Camino 1.1B has been released.
The Beta Site has info and download links for the release which includes updated Spell Checking, new Popup Blocking and other annoyance prevention features and other goodies.
