OS X Automator: abandonware or a great future?

HyperTalk is the leading example of an abandoned Macintosh technology, but there are many lesser examples. AppleTalk has been on the edge intermittently, OS X services have been abandoned, OS X Java is gone, and, of course, there's Sherlock. Widgets and Automator are relatively new; the former appears to have a future (note the iPhone examples), and I'm cautiously optimistic about Automator.

Most recently I've been trying to use Automator to deal with the worse OS X application ever; my search for solutions led me to a page I'd blogged on before. This time, I read the comments. Sal Soghoian was the PM for Aperture last summer...

ATPM 12.07 - How To: Maybe You Ought To Be Using Automator

.... Sal Soghoian · July 03, 2006 - 16:21 EST #17

Thanks to all for their input and suggestions.

The Automator team is hard at work developing the next version of Automator for Leopard. We're examing all of the issues raised here and I think you'll be pleased with the results.

Meanwhile, there is much you can do with Automator right now in Tiger that you may or may not be aware of. For example:

1) You can run workflows within workflows by adding the Run Workflow action to your workflow.

2) Automator is not limited to AppleScript. Automator actions are written in Xcode and as such can use any language or frameworks supported by the OS. Xcode comes with three Action templates: AppleScript, Cocoa, and Shell. These templates can expose any available OS tools, such as PDF Kit, Core Image, Core Data, or Core Video.

3) Automator includes actions for easily adding your own custom code to a workflow. If there's not a action for what you want, you can use Run AppleScript, Run Shell Script, or Run Webservice to create your own action to fill the gap.

4) New Action collections are being released all the time. There are Action Packs for MS OFfice, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, FileMaker, ARD, and more.

For a thorough overview of what Automator is, how it works, and how to expand it's abilities -- along with sample workflows and downloads -- vist AUTOMATOR.US...

Sal Soghoian · July 05, 2006 - 12:44 EST #22

RE: controlling FireFox Automator relies on an application's published frameworks or scripting hooks to control it. If there are none then your options are limited. However, you can use other means to open URLs in Firefox.

1. Set Firefox to be the default browser. This is done in the Safari preferences pane.
2. Add a Get Specified URLs action to a new workflow. Enter the URLs you want to open
3. Add a Run AppleScript action to the end of the workflow and enter this code:

on run {input, parameters}

if the class of input is not list then set input to input as list
repeat with i from 1 to the count of input
set this_URL to item i of input
open location this_URL
end repeat

return input
end run

Run the worflow! If you want to be able to enter URLs when the workflow runs, save it as a plugin to the Script Menu and set the Get Specified URLs action to display when the workflow runs by clicking the disclosure triangle at the bottom of its action view and choosing "Show action when run" checkbox...

MOST IMPORTANT: send feedback to the Firefox team that AppleScript support is something you want.

The article and comments point to some good references. The existence of Automator.us is curious. On the downside some of the most developed Automator websites have had very little activity in the past year.

Update 1/13/07: I'll see if anyone answers my Automator question ...!
Update 1/13/07b: Hmm. This might help ...

The OS X Address Book: Part of the dark side of Apple

I've a post pending on the dark side of Apple. I've been looking at that Darkseid recently, after configuring a Mac Mini for my mother, watching the Mac-free MacWorld and the iPhone, and, most recently, trying to do something real with the OS Mac OS X Address Book. First, the Address Book.

I've used the Address Book intermittently for years, and never thought much about how bad it really is. Then, a month ago, I configured a Mac Mini for my mother. I could tweak most of the key applications to be usable, but the Address Book was intractable. There's no configuration of the icon bar, it doesn't "remember" the single card UI preference, the Mail.app integration is memorably bad, and it basically fails every usability test one can imagine. It stinks. The best I could do was tweak the insanely complex and backwards default input template.

Then I bought a Motorola RAZR, implemented a brilliant hack that lets it work with iSync, and discovered it could hold a mere 500 addresses. I needed to do some major maintenance on the 1600 addresses I have in Address Book. It was horrible.

There's no way to bypass the 'are you sure' delete confirmation (option delete doesn't work). There are no sorts, no filters (unless you use Apple's almost undocumented Automator tool -- the one with the web page that says "an error occurred while processing this directive") -- precious few ways to help with selecting 500 rows of 1600. It's very easy to double click and open ten address views -- all of which must be closed. It's easy when command-clicking to accidentally lose all selections. It's not good for one's blood pressure.

Address Book is a flaming bucket of rank incompetence maddeningly obscure and undocumented, but since it's bundled with all machines, and deeply integrated into the OS (the information in the User address card tells Widgets what time zone to use), there are no real alternatives. That's part of the DarkSeid of Apple -- to produce a defective product that eliminates all alternatives, and then never to fix it.

More on the DarkSeid later, I have to see what I can do with Automator. I'll also be looking for alternative UI solutions that can work with the Address Book data structures. Updates pending.

Update 1/13/07: In all my research, amongst which I learned about Automator and did some more AppleScript work, I discovered the Address Book includes Smart Groups. Which goes some way to redeeming it.

Launchbar for Windows - not quite

Launchbar is one of my favorite OS X applications. (Quicksilver is an imitator that is free, and thus gets more attention, but LB came first.) I've long looked for a Windows equivalent. I registered AppRocket and used it for a while, but it was disappointing in the end.

I was surprised then, to learn there are so many XP apps that try to be Launchbar for Windows:
Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Replacing Start Run.

Vista has implemented a Launchbar like feature, so maybe others will work to bring Launchbar to XP. It would be most appreciated.

Update: Just noticed one of Scott's update comments: Ctrl-H in Google Desktop?! Wow, that's killer. I much prefer Yahoo Desktop Search to Google Desktop because GD doesn't grok folders, but this might switch me.

iPhone mysteries: Cringely on EDGE

Cringely, one of my favorite writers, has a plausible theory on why the iPhone uses dial-up speeds for its phone connection:

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . What's in a Name? | PBS

... The iPhone is this amazing connectivity quad-mode device that can probably make use of as much bandwidth as it can get, so making it suck through the little straw that is EDGE makes no sense from a user perspective. But remember that the parties involved here are Apple and Cingular, neither of which is 100 percent allied with user interests. Cingular has a 3G network called BroadbandConnect or 'MediaNet' if you buy Cingular's associated Cingular Video service.

And there's the problem -- Cingular Video, which is based on RealVideo, NOT QuickTime or H.264.

Apple wants the iPhone to get its content primarily through iTunes, ideally by syncing with a Mac or Windows PC. Apple doesn't like Cingular Video and doesn't want its customers to know it exists, much less use it. But it would be very hard to introduce a true 3G iPhone, have Cingular promote it strongly, only to say that it can't be used to view the mobile carrier's own video content. So instead Apple falls back to the slower EDGE network, which can support email and widgets and surfing, but which also forces iPhone users to get most of their higher-resolution video through iTunes, where Apple makes money and Cingular doesn't.

It comes down to an accommodation. Cingular wants an iPhone exclusive and is probably paying Apple money for that privilege. Apple doesn't want Cingular Video. So the only elegant way around that problem is to make the iPhone incapable of operating on the 3G network. If you watch his Macworld keynote you'll notice Jobs says that Apple may eventually make 3G iPhone models. Yeah, right: I'm 100 percent convinced that all it would take to turn an EDGE iPhone into a 3G iPhone is a firmware upgrade, if that.

Mobile phone carriers are eager for video to succeed on their 3G and 4G platforms because it represents a major new source of revenue. Apple's iPhone is the best handset yet for displaying that video. But Apple isn't going to allow this to happen without Cupertino gaining a substantial piece of the action. I'm sure discussions are taking place right now with Cingular where Apple is arguing that the carrier should make its video service iTunes-compatible.

The media and the market's ecstatic response to the iPhone will put strong pressure on Cingular, which has what is apparently a multiyear exclusive with Apple. If Cingular gives in, as I'm sure it will, the iPhones will suddenly become faster and have more features. And if Apple is correct, Cingular will then have the mojo to take them to the top of the U.S. mobile market.

And what happens when the Cingular exclusive ends? We can probably look to Europe in the months ahead for hints on that. Apple doesn't intend simply to enter the mobile phone market, they intend to dominate it, and ultimately to gain service revenue through iTunes, no matter whose phone you buy.

Speaking of service revenue, word is the iPhone will work like Jobs original Macintosh vision -- a closed device with software produced only by carefully vetted and controlled developers. Software will be sold through the iTunes store only ...

Review: Motorola RAZR V3m Phone (Sprint)

Overall rating: 1/5. Comparison: Samsung i500 at 4/5.

I have a bad marriage -- with my phone.

When I first bought my Motorola RAZR V3m I thought it was pretty feeble, but I needed something to tide me over until my Sprint contract expired. The main selling point was the mini-USB connector, I figured I could charge the phone from my MacBook (nyet) or my Dell laptop (yes). After a few days I thought it looked pretty interesting, especially when I cleaned out the default settings and installed Google's superb Gmail client.

Then I began to see the warts. They didn't go away, they just got wartier. Soon I decided the phone was a bit weak. That didn't last. I came to hate the phone with a deep and abiding passion. I was ready to rant against the RAZR in public spaces. I saw Paris Hilton holding the RAZR and I thought it was perfect for her.

Now I realize this phone was created so that I could learn to abide a deeply defective device. It exists to teach me wisdom.

Until I end my contract and take a sledgehammer to it. (Well, really I'll just donate it to charity and take a tax write-off.)

Here's the review:

Features

• Very light and slender, good build quality. This phone is a classic example of marrying reasonably good hardware to really bad software.
  
• Images are stored on an mini-SD card that can be read on any computer - if you can remove it. (OS X 10.4x also supports browsing the folders via Bluetooth. This is undocumented, but it works. Choose the browse option from the menu bar Bluetooth icon when the phone is connected). The card is a bit inaccessible. Don't lose the adapter that allows it to be read in an SD reader.
• Compact and well made quasi-USB charger. It's the same charger for Motorola bluetooth headset.
  
• Mini-USB connector for charge and data. It will charge with a mini-USB data cable connection if the phone's USB drivers have been installed. Otherwise you will get an "unable to charge" message. This drove me nuts as its very poorly documented. Sprint's web site has an obscure link in the support section for software downloads, if you specify XP as the OS you can find the Motorola Sprint PCS Connection Manager. Installing this introduces several USB drivers, enables charging via the computer port, provides some diagnostic software utilities, and lets the phone act as a modem! I haven't tested this to see if will work in Parallels for OS X. Motorola doesn't provide anything for OS X, but a generous Mac developer has.
  
• Flip phone with external clock and number information.
• Runs Google's very impressive Gmail client. Ignore the "possibly not supported" install warning, it works.
• Somewhat to my surprise, I can browse this phone using the os x bluetooth browser and extract images that way. I can also drag and drop MP3s into the music file and play them.
  

Issues

• quasi-USB chargers! Argggh. Appearances are deceptive. The cable is mini-USB, but the output is 5V and 550mA. The USB standards is 5V and 500 mA. Those 50 mA seem to matter. In any event I get "unable to charge" messages when I use an external USB charger. (See this thread and the footnotes below for more details [1]). Based on the seemingly authoritative post [1] it might be safe to use this charger with standard USB devices.)
  
  
• you can't search the address book. Really. Yes, you can match on the first few letters of a first name, but that's so feeble I don't consider it search. It works for 20 contacts, it fails for for 500. You can't search on the last name, the city, etc.
  
  You can create "groups" and assign contacts to groups that are used to filter views, but I half-suspect there's no "all" view. You can do a "voice lookup", but, of course, names are not phonetic. I was able to get the voice lookup to work if I modulated my voice carefully, raised my pitch, spoke in a quiet room, used the first and last name, and pronounced the names phonetically rather than as spoken.
  
  If a contact has multiple numbers, you have to name the number -- and the naming process is weird. For a long time I thought it was broken, though I never did consult the manual. You have to say "mobileOne" or "workTwo" -- all one phrase without a pause between the components.
  
  Voice recognition systems don't like the way I speak, so others may do better than I. I would not use the voice input on this phone if the rest of the contact's interface were half-decent.
  
  
• extremely annoying default ring tones If you want something geriatric, you're supposed to pay for it. Or choose a beep. However, you can record something as a voice message and save it as a ring tone and you can use any mp3 as a ring tone (thanks to Chris in comments).
  
  
• no iSync support. There is an effective hack however - I can sync contacts, calendar items, and alarms. I suspect iSync will lose the "group" assignments however.
  
  
• no input for a 2.5mm jack - need Bluetooth, proprietary headset, or a $6 USB to 2.5mm adapter which is annoying to find. Dumb.
  
  
• address book is limited to about 500 entries and 2,500 numbers/emails. That's good, because the contacts functionality is SO bad that you probably only WANT 10 numbers.
  
  
• You can't use it as an external "modem" to connect a computer to the net -- OUT OF THE BOX. You need to know to locate and download Sprint/Motorola's free PCS Connection Manager software. XP only. I haven't been able to get it to work yet, but I've only tried for a few minutes.
  
  
• Using Spring 3G services drains the battery in no time. The story that the iPhone uses EDGE because of power issues is more credible to me now.
  
  
• It's very slow to hang-up. This is a surprise, I don't know why.
  
  
• mini-SD card is stored beneath battery -- essentially not removable
  
  
• weak text input by default -- the default is to disable predictive text entry from the 3 letter/key cycle entry. You can actually enable predictive text with the kb entry, but it's an obscure configuration option and it doesn't work everywhere.
  
  
• Sprint has loaded the most prized UI locations with junk, while hiding the calendar, alarm clock, voice recorder and calculator in "Tools". However, you can change the key assignments to put Tools up front.
  
  
• The many games are all very limited demos. I've deleted all but one of them.
  
  
• The micro-SD card is about the size of a fingernail, and not much thicker. Impressive. Push the battery downwards to lift it out. It's not obvious where the SD card goes; lay it on the metallic surface near the arrow and gently press it in.
  
  
• The "web" is a "walled garden" -- all sprint, junk, and third rate portals. (AOL? Puhlease.) Way down the 'options' menu is a 'go to url' option. I was able to navigate to Google and install the superb Gmail app on this phone. There's an obscure preferences option to change the home page and a button to revert to original. I changed to Google Mobile of course, but I kept the original as a bookmark.
  
  
• If you turn off bluetooth power, then turn it on again, you will need to power cycle the phone before it will be reachable by bluetooth.
  
  
• I enabled the 'track location' option for third parties, but so far Google doesn't seem to have picked this up. I wonder if Sprint is charging a large amount for this data. I don't know if enabling the $6/month GPS option does anything useful.
  
  
• The corresponding Motorola bluetooth headset dials the last number called if you press the single large external button. This happens very often -- by accident! I'm constantly dialing people who think I'm making obscene phone calls. The only way to prevent this is to turn off the Motorola bluetooth headset -- but the UI for that is very bad. The headset and phone together are so bad they're almost good in a hideously bad sort of way.
  
  
• If I carry the phone in my pocket the phone ringer volume is often accidentally dropped to the lowest level - no sound! I miss calls this way.
  
  
• There's no external light or indicator to tell one that there's a voice mail waiting. So if you miss the voice mail ring, you miss the voice mail until the next time you open the phone.
  

Reconfiguration (mostly making this a Google phone)

• Change screen settings so top is messages, left is tools, right is "content" and down is contacts
  .
• Change web home page to Google Mobile and login to your personal Google HomePage.
  
  
• Install Google Maps and Gmail reader from Google Mobile. Google Maps, btw, will show traffic information on the phone for some areas, including the Twin Cities (MN).
  
  
• Learn to use Google SMS to request location specific information
  
  
• Configure Google apps with the locations you want (I have to learn if these can be configured via computer).
  
  
• Turn of auto-guess with the non-predictive text entry
  

Summary

• A pretty face on a brainless abomination. This phone is so repulsively bad it probably convinced Jobs to greenlight Apple's iPhone project.
  
  
• Data port charging requires USB drivers installation. There are none for OS X. See this post.
  
  
• Contacts are really bad and voice selection is broken in a particularly obnoxious way.
  
  
• Remember to change photo and video settings so images are stored to the micro-SD card.
  
  
• Sprint has larded the phone with low value content that generates direct or indirect revenue for Spring. This can mostly be removed, but it takes a lot of tweaking to cleanup the phone. I think we have to live with the music link.

Footnotes

[1] A recent Future Hardware thread is excellent. Many vendors have sinned by producing non-compliant quasi-USB power supplies.

Update 1/17/07: Wikipedia says computers won't deliver more than 500 mA, so it's exceedingly annoying that the phone will charge from a data port but not a 500 mA charger:

Initially, a device is only allowed to draw 100 mA. It may request more current from the upstream device in units of 100 mA up to a maximum of 500 mA. In practice, most ports will deliver the full 500 mA or more before shutting down power, even if the device hasn't requested it or even identified itself. If a (compliant) device requires more power than is available, then it cannot operate until the user changes the network (either by rearranging USB connections or by adding external power) to supply the power required.

Update 1/18/07:

• Someone has figured out how to get the modem support working with OS X.
  
• I blog about how Sprint and Motorola are conspiring to sell the iPhone.
• limitations of iSync with the RAZR. (sync is hard, but these smell like bugs to me)

Update 3/12/07

• This phone may be even worse than the RAZR!

Update 2/18/2008: It's not easy to leave the RAZR -- no true reset function!

iSync and a Motorola RAZR V3m

iSync and a Motorola RAZR V3m at ClockSkew

It appears there are a few hacks that allow one to sync a V3M with a Mac. In general phone vendors are foreclosing device sync to make money from online services...

Update 1/12/07: It's quirky, but the free ClockSkew plugin does seem to work. A few tips:

• After installing in /Library for an individual user, log off and then log in to get it working. If installing for all users restart.
• The "erase all data on client" iSync option doesn't work. The sync will fail with an error message like "connection lost". Merge works.
• Use iSync options to sync email, etc.
  

Windows Home Server: At last, I say something nice about Microsoft

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows Home Server has the summary. I’ve been waiting a long time for this — but I was hoping (against hope) that it would come from Apple.

This is where we need to go; a home computing appliance with integrated backup and integrated secure remote access.

Microsoft is providing WHS users with a free Internet address via Windows Live. This address will give you a remote interface into your entire home network, not just WHS. You will be able to access any shared folders remotely, or even control individual PCs remotely.

All is not lost however ...

Mac user? You can access the WHS shared folders as you would any other Windows share, and that means your backup program--like Apple's Backup--can use a share as a save location as well. "We're a great back-end store for Time Machine," Headrick told me, alluding to the new backup feature Apple recently announced for Mac OS X Leopard.

Detente perhaps?

The missing piece is remote application executing using Microsoft’s very robust windows terminal services. That omission may be related to cost (CPU and memory demands on the server) or support and licensing concerns.

Very good, very impressive, and it’s about time. I’d very much like to see something comparable from Apple, but maybe they’d decided to surrender this to Microsoft. That would not bode well for Apple Computer Inc.