Apple

Update

As of iOS 4.2, Apple Mail has native support for archive in Gmail and MobileMe.

The Problem

Like many folks, I consume email using a GTD-ish approach of an Inbox and an Everything Else box. I’ve disabled autocheck on my Mac, and cranked the polling time on my iPhone to an hour.

My personal email is hosted on Google Apps, which provides the great Gmail web experience along with an excellent IMAP implementation. Likewise for my previous and current company mail. The Gmail Inbox / All Mail paradigm maps neatly to the aforementioned GTD approach.

On the desktop, I use Mail.app. I prefer it over the Gmail interface for a number of reasons including offline search and its ability to aggregate a number of accounts with the “magic” folders Inbox, Sent and Junk.

One place where Gmail’s interface punks Apple Mail is one-button archiving. It even has a keyboard shortcut! Wham. Hit one key, and that email disappears from the Inbox forever.

With Apple Mail, archiving a message requires a click, drag and a prayer, exacerbated by every additional email account. You could drive a truck through the hole Fitts left in your otherwise optimized process.

The Solution: Archive via Delete

It’s possible to bend Gmail, IMAP and Apple Mail to your will. The following steps describe how to configure things so that Delete acts like Archive: one click (or keypress) archives messages in Apple mail on the desktop and the iPhone.

Step 1. Enable advanced IMAP controls. You’ll find this under the Labs tab in Gmail settings.

Step 2. Enable auto-expunge. This is found under the IMAP/Pop tab in Gmail settings. This sounds scary, but isn’t. Gmail keeps a copy of each message in All Mail, regardless if it’s in the Inbox or not.

Step 3. Configure Apple Mail. Uncheck “Move deleted messages to The Trash mailbox” and set the IMAP prefix to “[Gmail]”.

Step 4. Use “All Mail” for sent messages. Since Gmail already stores every message, sent or received in All Mail, this step just instructs Apple Mail to work that way too. If you have multiple accounts, Sent is aggregated just like Inbox.

Step 5. Configure your iPhone.

Presto! Faster email consumption.

In Apple mail you’ll see something like this:

On an iPhone, the Delete icon will remove messages from the Inbox, but leave them in All Mail. Note: Be careful not to tap Delete when viewing messages in All Mail—they’ll be permanently deleted!

TL;DR

• Use Gmail, IMAP, and Apple Mail tricks to read & process email faster.
• Uses fun terms like “auto expunge” and training yourself that hitting Delete is okay.
• Vader.

Postscript

I’ve been using this to manage my email for 2 years. It works great, is fast, and frankly hitting Delete when I’m done with an email is really satisfying.

My iPhone just autocorrected “xo” to “xoxo.” Anthropomorphization indeed.

Dear Parallels,

As much as I appreciate your marvelous integration with Windows, when I type “Address Book” into Spotlight and hit Return, I’d prefer to get the OS X Address Book—not launch Windows and get the Microsoft equivalent.

Love, Randy

Friday morning, the marina Fuzio restaurant, doors open, crew setting up tables for the lunch rush was playing Feist. Friday afternoon, as soon as I’d scrawled my signature, the same song came on in the Apple store, neatly framing the day.

I love this song.

Also: Boys Noize remix.

I’m flattered. Will need to thank my neighbor—she hires designers for Apple.

WWDC 2008:

My 24th birthday invitation:

Ah, the new hotness. Optimization, DTS audio, QT 7.4 + Leopard compatibility, MKV, subtitle and other bug fixes.

Why is this good? Perian is the secret sauce that makes QuickTime on OS X play a number of common non-QuickTime video and audio codecs and container formats. B.P. (Before Perian) was a dark period—playing video on your Mac meant using dodgy, unstable players or hacking different Intel/PPC QuickTime components from various authors/vendors. Perian also always buys the first round, gets you her phone number, listens to you bitch, cures cancer, is always up for a road trip and has the best house in South Lake.

(via TUAW)

Inspired by Khoi Vinh’s excellent New York City subway map, I made a similar version for Berlin’s U-Bahn and S-Bahn system.

To Use

Unzip and add the contents to iPhoto. Then create a photo album (named “Berlin Subway Map”) and fill it with the images in numeric order. To do this in one step, unzip and drag the folder onto the albums sidebar area in iPhoto. Then in iTunes, ensure the new photo album is synced to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Disclaimers

The Berlin transit system is incredibly large and complex. The type in this map is as small as possible, at the limits of legibility. Second, because of the legibility constraint there is no page overlap. I needed as many unique pixels as possible to cram the map in. I’d consider doing a version of just Berlin’s core A transit zone if there is desire. Also, use at your own risk. This is based on the latest map (as of December 2007) I could find. Stations change, remember to do a reality check!

Download

Download Berlin Subway Map for iPhone / iPod Touch (368KB ZIP)

London tube map formatted for the iPhone. <3

Updated August 7, 2008

London Tube applications for the iPhone (iTunes Store links):

• TubeStatus from Malcom Barclay (open source)
• London Tube from tewks
• myTube from Dominion Web

OK, I’ll bite: I think Apple will introduce the MacBook Air with 3G chipset of some sort and announce a partnership with AT&T for flat-rate unlimited data access.

I went looking for an iPhone Subway Map, after having failed to assemble my own (in both PDF and 4K raster) and found this useful bit of kit from Khoi Vinh.

I also found a very pretty, well-designed, legible and enjoyable blog. I suppose you’d expect that from the design director of NYTimes.com. Did I mention the design is great? (Also eerily familiar. He also posted about The Wire this week.)