Posts Tagged → sponsor

Sponsor: LIFX Smart Lightbulbs




This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by LIFX Smart Lightbulbs. LIFX is a smart lightbulb that gives you previously unheard of control of your lighting. Each bulb is Wi-Fi enabled, controllable from your smartphone and can produce millions of colors, they are also 4 times more energy efficient that traditional bulbs. 

LIFX bulbs only consume 18 watts of power, yet produces the same level of brightness as your standard 75W bulb. Control the brightness, colour, and a range of cool effects is easy on your smartphone. Each LIFX bulb is rated for 27 years at 4 hours per day which is equivalent to 40,000 hours. You’ll probably move house before you need to change the light bulb again.

The LIFX bulbs support both standard Edison screw and Bayonet connectors and will work at all standard voltages around the world. The LIFX bulbs have a developer-friendly development kit which means that if you can think of a great way to control them, you can go out and build it on whatever platform you like, right now!

LIFX bulbs are shipping right now worldwide. Buy from this link and use coupon code “MacSparky” for 15% off the total cost.  

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Sponsor: Rocket X1 and Free Ebook



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This week MacSparky is sponsored by Rocket X1, Internet marketing for professional services. The Internet is the future for all businesses but can be an intimidating place if you don’t know your way around. Rocket X1 puts you ahead of your competition with a combination of top-notch web hosting and design, assstance with social media, search engine optimization and public relations. 

Forget about vague concepts and ideas, Rocket X1 brings real world answers and quantifiable results. Look no further and put your professional service firm on the Internet with a elegant imagery and polished messaging.  Maintain your sleek identity across the web, social media, stationary, and print materials. 

This week, Rocket X1 is offering a free book, Internet Marketing for Professional Services. Go get your copy and check out Rocket X1.

Sponsor: Mighty Deals Email Templates




This week MacSparky is sponsored by Mighty Deals. Mighty deals puts together deals on some of the best tools and resources available for your Mac. This week they are featuring an email template package that includes 11 professionally designed templates from ChocoTemplates. These include over 100 color variations and over 500 layered PSD files. They are highly customizable and work with all major email clients. The templates connect with MailChimp and Campaign Monitor so you’ll be able to use the templates on your next email blast. The above example is just one of the eleven you’ll get, all for just $12. If you have ever sent out campaign emails or ever think you may, you should go buy these templates now.

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Sponsor: Beloved Robot



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This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by Beloved Robot, a group of app developers that get it. 

Got At Idea?

Do you have an idea that will take your business to the next level? Want enable your employees to be more productive and efficient? Solving these types of problems is their specialty. They can offer you the design and development that will solve problems, not create more.

Got An App?

Do you already have an app that needs a little love? Not happy with the look and feel? Let Beloved Robots developers take a look. They pride ourselves in creating beautiful apps that will stand out in a ever more crowded App Store.

Don’t Hesitate

The ever growing need for mobile solutions is not going away. Don’t stand aside and let the competition beat you to the punch. Engage your customers with a stunning mobile app and let the pros at Beloved Robot help you do that. They provide strategy, design and development services to clients that is a cut above the rest.

Beloved Robot has got you covered. 

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Sponsor: MindNode for iOS and Mac




I’m pleased to welcome MindNode as a new sponsor at MacSparky.com. While I played with mind maps for years, I never fully appreciated them until I got an iPad. Now I’m a true believer. I’ve come to rely on MindNode for all of my mind mapping these days. It has a simple, clean interface and syncs over iCloud with zero hassles. Using MindNode, I can start a mind map on my iPad, polish it up on my Mac, and then add a few nodes over lunch on my phone all without any file management.

I keep MindNode in my iPad dock and spend time in the app every day as I plan ideas and big projects. Currently, I’ve got MindNode mind maps for the next MacSparky Field Guide, an extended letter I have to write for the day job, two legal briefs, and a series of articles I want to write for Macworld. Jumping into MindNode for little bursts of brainstorming allow me to properly cook all these ideas and projects before I start digging in on them. I’ve written about MindNode before. MindNode is an essential tool for me and if you haven’t got on the mind mapping bandwagon yet, go get yourself a copy and try it for yourself. 


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Sponsor: Drafts




This week I’m welcoming a new sponsor to the site, Drafts. With the emergence of mobile computing, we are still figuring out exactly how to make these pocketable devices work for us. Drafts is one of those applications that just bangs you over the head with its obvious utility.



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At its most basic level Drafts is an app that presents you with a blank screen and a keyboard every time you open it. Think about that for moment. When you are meeting a person or something brilliant occurs to you, there will be no friction between your brain and writing it down. There is no fiddling with the new file buttons or file naming. Just you and the cursor. Tap the drafts icon and start writing (or dictating through Siri). Drafts sits on the far right of my iPhone and iPad dock. I pop in there multiple times a day to capture ideas. This alone would make Drafts worth the price of admission but there is more.

Developer Greg Pierce has made Drafts one of the leaders of inter-app communications on iOS. Drafts is loaded with tools for you to easily do things with those bits of text right from the app. I can send them to emails and text messages but even this function goes deeper than you’d expect. You can set up common recipients and route texts or emails without any further work. For example, I’ve got a group of friends that have a Drafts texting action. I can dictate a message into Drafts, push a button, and send the text to everyone in that group. That is a simple example though. I could also send text to OmniFocus, process it in Markdown, create a calendar entry, send to Day One (my diary app), send to Byword, or process in Tweetbot. The interactions with Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive are just crazy. Also, your data will sync between your iPhone and iPad so you can capture on one device and process on another. I use the badge trick to make sure I process all my drafts every day.

Drafts has become one of my most important apps. It helps me get through the day and I’m privileged to have it as a sponsor. If you haven’t tried Drafts yet, you owe it to yourself. Head over to their website and check it out.

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Sponsor: Hoban Cards




This week MacSparky is sponsored by Hoban Cards. Hoban Cards specializes in in minimal calling cards. This is a less expensive way to get into letterpress printing. Pick from among fifteen beautiful, typographic calling card templates. They now have designs as low as $50 (pictured below) so there really is no excuse. These are perfect for individuals or businesses looking for a unique and classy alternative to conventional, mass produced, soulless business cards. I’ve heard from many readers that love their new Hoban Cards pressed out of Hoban’s 1902 letterpress machine. I sure love mine. 

Use ‘MacSparky’ during checkout to receive free shipping.


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Sponsor: Middle Davids Artisan Candles




This week I’m pleased to introduce a new sponsor, Middle Davids Artisan Candles. Dan and his team at Middle Davids understand the use of rituals to help with productivity. We all like our good coffee (or tea!), our ergonomic chairs, and our clean work surfaces, but what about scent?

I burn candles while I write and I always feel that the ritual of lighting the candle is a way to tell myself “it is on” and get to work. After I’ve worked a few hours, I blow out the candle and take a break. You’ll be surprised how well this works. My favorite is the Northwoods scent, that smells like a fir tree. We don’t have native fir trees in Southern California and I love it.

Dan, the proprietor, is a candle geek and obsesses on candles like I do productivity apps. The candles are 100% botanical soy wax, not paraffin (which is a petrochemical) and the wicks are cotton woven (no metals).

Middle Davids has a subscription plan that gets you two candles a month with 40 hours of burn time. That’s two hours of focus a day. You also get a box of wooden matches, and a sample of the next month’s scent. Give it a try. You’ll surprise yourself. Use the code “MacSparky4” (or “macsparky4”) for 10% off.

Sponsor: Rocket Matter



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My thanks go again to Rocket Matter for sponsoring MacSparky.com. Rocket Matter is the best online law practice management solution and it just keeps getting better. Rocket Matter’s new advanced search makes it even easier to find information from multiple categories. This week Rocket Matter is sharing a free ebook to MacSparky readers, Cloud Planet: The Mobile Lawyer. Go download your free copy and check out Rocket Matter.

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Sponsor: Rocket Matter Turns 6



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Rocket Matter, the premier web-based law practice management application, just turned 6. Rather than sitting around and eating cake, the Rocket Matter engineers have been hard at work. 

Rocket Matter has just announced a seriously upgraded search, called “Galactic Interdimensional Search”, which is a pretty awesome name.

To further celebrate, Rocket Matter is giving away a free ebook to MacSparky readers, The Law Firm of Tomorrow, that does a pretty good job of describing the cloud-based service business for just about anyone of tomorrow. Check it out.

Thanks Rocket Matter for supporting MacSparky.com, and happy birthday.

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