About This Particular Outliner
I do not often take time to thank people for their Web efforts. Your article(s) on outliners deserve kudos. I do not know how, but I strongly invite you make efforts so your Web site is better known.
—Jacques Racine
Wow, I look forward to these articles every month. After each issue I try something new to see how it fits in with my workflow. I’m still surprised that there is not one outliner that will do it all but the way these articles spell out all of the features it is clear why.
Thanks very much for all this work. The quality of this series is incredible.
—Julie Remold
Belkin Media Reader Review
I got this with my new 4G iPod. My experience wasn’t as pleasant as yours.
—Tom Boucher
This works great for small files, but once you hit 6 megapixels, it crawls along. I’d recommend you look at either a SmartDisk FlashTrax or one of the many Archos products.
—Paul Charlesworth
I took mine back. It took 25 minutes to read a 512 MB card and completely discharged the iPod. Since I now mostly use 1 GB cards, it is totally unsuitable. It is a good idea, but a very poorly executed media reader.
—Winsor Crosby
iTrip Review
I’ve used the iTrip for my 4th-generation iPod and it works just fine. Figuring out how to set the frequency was the tricky part (due to the fact that I rarely read manuals—doh!); but, once you get the hang of it, it’s very simple. I commute through the Chicago metro area. For the most part, I can set it to 95.5 and get a good reception. The sound quality is on par with decent FM radio stations, so I am very happy with the product. It’s great at parties, too, since I’m virtually taking my entire music library with me and I can play it on the boombox, although the sound quality is not CD-quality.
Performance will definitely vary depending on your location and other factors, but I’ve tried it in my Civic, my friends’ Altima and Maxima, my home stereo, and my buddy’s boombox. So far, they all worked fine. Great purchase for $35!
—C. Lee
iTalk Review
Thank you so much! I have been waiting for a review on the iTalk from Macworld, or MacAddict, or anyone for that matter. I wanted to buy one to start creating an audio journal and to record some personal interviews for a book I’m writing. This review really helped in making that decision. I wasn’t sure about file size, how the file was stored, or if the quality would be good enough. I really appreciated your audio samples. They made the difference in my decision. I completely agree with Patrick S. This is one of the best reviews I have ever seen for any product. Well done!
—Matthew Skaj
Kudos
The site is nice enough to make me wish I had a Macintosh so that I could participate. As a multiple PC owner I have to just snatch a few images and make off with them.
—Mike Taplin
I enjoy the monthly ATPM transmission so very much. I really appreciate the time and effort your staff puts into preparing the issues. Thank you so much!
—F. Hill, Anchorage
Copyright © 2004 the ATPM Staff,
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Reader Comments (3)
The claim's vagueness leaves some wiggle room, but I think it is easy to find Windows outliners unmatched on the Mac for some generally useful features.
This is my list, containing only reliable, well-implemented features whose importance cannot be easily controverted.
1. The ability to perform mark and gather type operations, "remembering" the _order_ in which topics are marked and reordering accordingly. This feature is vastly important, because in outlining order is as important as hierarchy. Yet on every Mac outliner I'm aware of, reordering must be accomplished in a separate operation. (This wasn't always true, as MindWrite had this feature circe 1985.) BrainStorm on Windows has this valuable feature.
2. In graphical displays ("concept mapping"), the ability to use three dimensional displays to show hundreds of levels. Axon Idea Processor.
3. The ability to use a concept map to organize one's entire disk. Personal Brain.
4. Outlining capabilities merged with the ability to construct elaborate facet analyses to classify data. MDE InfoHardler.
So, I'm wondering: are these features too trivial to count or are there Mac outliners with matching capabilities of which I am uninformed, despite this excellent series?
I have a personal interest in knowing what is available -- indeed, I think that is what characterizes ATPO readers to judge from the feedback. The Windows world of outliners is difficult to fathom; Windows developers just don't seem to be as interested as their Mac brethren in having an informative web-site that actually tells us much about what their product actually does. And muddling through demos with no guidance on a hostile platform isn't enough fun get around to do.
I'd like some help with this because I think it would make a good column if indeed there are interesting non-Mac capabilities out there. I've personally communicated with a few Windows developers with this challenge and would like to do the same with you. The problem of course is that Windows folks don't know what the Mac benchmarks are.
So here's what I propose. Wait until the October column on Tinderbox. That's the extreme in terms of Mac outliner sophistication, plus what you can already read in ATPO on still-working legacy Mac outliners. If you or any friends know something on another platform that may still be interesting to ATPO readers, I'd like your help in preparing a column.
But I'd like to stick with applications centered on or that leverage outlining. Being able to display a concept map of your hard drive may be cool, but it is not what ATPO is all about. Fair enough?
I'm rather sure the Mac is safe on any "gathering" challenge, and almost certainly so far as metadata management. (Wait until you see Tinderbox's cascading prototype hierachies.) Based on every query to date, I think display coolness of Windows information management applications (especially concept maps and general modelers) will be superior, but based on my surveys of actual outliners, no.
We seem to have all the outliner juice on the Mac right now, for what ever reason. Let's see.
Best, Ted
Take Tinderbox. One reason I'm eager to read your next column is that the web site tells me so little about what Tinderbox actually does. Maybe Tinderbox is an unfair example because of its sophistication, but I recall searching without succeess for a list of features of a staple like OmniOutliner. By way of contrast, on http://www.casesoft.com/notemap/index.shtml, you find a straigtforward summary of the features of this Windows outliner.
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