I’m a retired medical doctor. I run a small business from home. I communicate with thousands of customers and hundreds of team members internationally.

Solutions I’ve purchased:
- FileMaker (last version owned v7.x)
- Now Up to Date and Contact (NUDC) (last version owned v4.x)
- Chronos’ SOHO Organizer (last version owned v5.x)
- Marketcircle’s Daylite (last version owned 3.5.x)
- Contactizer Pro

It hasn’t been easy for Mac contact manager developers:
- the transition from OS 9 to OS X
- Mac’s switch from Power PC to Intel processors
- frequent OS X version updates, most recently OS X 10.5 Leopard
- integrating with Apple’s Address Book app

Apple’s Address Book is more powerful than many users realize, but it can be difficult, even impossible, to make it work for a small business.

SOHO Organizer and Daylite install an OpenBase SQL database on your Mac. I understand NightHawk will also us a SQL database, but not OpenBase. Syncing SQL databases with Apple’s Address Book has proven to be problematic, particularly in a multi-user environment.

Frequent visits to the developer’s support forums suggest that there are currently quite a few disgruntled Mac contact manager users. Some NUDC users are frustrated because the release of NightHawk, a new version of their app, has been significantly delayed. A few Daylite users are perturbed by Marketcircle’s delay releasing a 10.5 compatible version. Some grumble Daylite’s calendar and UI is showing its age. The Chronos forum disappeared altogether suggesting that frequent negative feedback might have been hurting SOHO Organizer sales.

I happily used Daylite until the arrival of Mac OS X Leopard caused me to rethink my data management strategy. My needs are very simple. I wondered, “Could I get by with just Address Book and iCal?” The biggest problem I encountered was easily sending customized ‘boilerplate’ email. This task was very easy with Daylite. Finding an email merge solution that leveraged Apple’s Address Book and Mail proved impossible, although, MacTank’s MailTemplate, Christian Fries’ Serial Mail and Joe Pagliaro’s Mailings came close.

Interestingly, Contactizer Pro was mentioned, in a positive way, a few times in other developer’s forums. I briefly used the, version 1, predecessor of Contactizer Pro; it was beautiful, but unstable on my system, so I abandoned it. I decided it was time to have a fresh look at Objective-Decision’s Contactizer Pro.

Here’s what I discovered:
- Contactizer Pro has grown up
- it’s still beautiful
- it has become very versatile.

The Contactizer Pro developers are carefully crafting a solution that is very tightly integrated with Apple core technologies. Contactizer Pro looks and feels like a modern Mac application. It is remarkably intuitive. Working at home is fun and now I’ve discovered a contact manager that doesn’t feel like a smug corporation. My compliments to the developers, Guillaume W. Rager, Aurelian Hugele, Michael L. Noyon, Pierre Oleo, PY Bertholon and Matthew Ouvrard. Thank you for your continued hard work! I’m looking forward to watching your application develop in the coming years.

Contactizer Pro is currently the best contact manager for the Mac, for my needs. If you’re a sole proprietor or very small business, I recommend that you check it out for yourself; the developer offers a fully functional thirty-day demo.

Click here to visit Contactizer.com

It feels like Marketcircle did exactly that when they released version 3 of Daylite. Daylite fits my business needs perfectly.

I’m told there are approximately 13,000,000 network marketers in North America. If we assume they all own a computer and we accept that Apple’s Macs make up 6% of those computers, that means at least 1,690,000 Mac users should be lining up to check out Daylite as soon as possible.

Daylite is a very impressive, powerful, information-management tool that sports a gorgeous Mac OS X interface. I’m amazed how much I’ve accomplished in my first week using this software.

That said, it gets even better. Marketcircle’s DMI (Daylite Mail Integration) module achieves seamless integration with Apple Mail. I’ve concluded that Daylite used in combination with DMI is simply brilliant! I easily crafted 22 letter templates that allow me to quickly respond to my new customers and team members.

Background

A long time ago, I purchased the very first release of Daylite. I quickly decided that, although it showed great promise, it simply wasn’t ready for prime-time. Later, I purchased Now Up-to-Date and Contact, OD4 Contact and recently SOHO Organizer. None of these packages delivered exactly what I was looking for. I even tried a kludged together ‘solution’ that made use of a combination of Apple’s Address Book, MailTemplate, Serial Mail and iClip.

A week ago, I decided to give Daylite another whirl. I’m really glad I did. Wow, as you can tell, I’m truly delighted with the new Daylite! I look forward to discovering more of Daylite’s potential in the years to come.

My recommendation: Test Daylite to see if it fits your business. Take advantage of Marketcircle’s 30-day free trials of Daylite and DMI.

My bookmark management scheme has also changed; I no longer use URL Manager Pro. I synchronize my Safari bookmarks with Camino and Firefox using a nifty little app called Bookit. I maintain 15 links in my bookmarks bar and about a hundred more in my browsers’ bookmarks. These days I’m using WebnoteHappy to keep track of the thousands of other interesting sites I come across. WebnoteHappy is one of those delightful OS X apps that just feels right. It makes you feel, well… happy that you’re using a Mac.

- Take notes and tag web pages
- Find your webnotes with an iTunes-like search
- Integrated with del.icio.us
- Navigate your tags with the Tag Browser
- Organize your webnotes within Folders
- Create Smart Folders – like Smart Playlists in iTunes
- Open the associated web page for any webnote
- Import from Safari to better manage your bookmarks
- Merge duplicate bookmarks when importing from Safari
- Import from and export to XBEL
- Export to a bookmarks file
- Works with all major web browsers on OS X

I picked up a family license for just $29.95. Check out WebnoteHappy for yourself.

Many thanks to Dave Nanian and Bruce Lacey at shirt-pocket.com.

My family has owned twenty Macs in the last twenty-three years. My Macs have lived charmed lives, I’ve never paid to have a Mac fixed. I have had three hardware problems; all three occurred in the last six years. My original AirPort Base Station failed and was replaced free of charge long after the warranty had lapsed. My daughter’s iBook had a logic board problem that Apple fixed without cost to me; again, after the warranty had expired. Last week my iMac G5 required a visit to the computer technician (see first paragraph) and was repaired under warranty.

BBEdit is deep, feature rich, solid and proven. It has features that I’ve only scratched the surface of. I admire Rich Siegel and the gang at Bare Bones.

TextMate is fun. It feels good and has tremendous potential! I’m impressed by Allan Odgaard.

Question: So… who is going to win the Mac text editor war?
Answer: It’s not a war, but users, like you and me, win!

Macs are beginning to regain lost market share. Impressive new programs are being developed for the Mac and that’s great, but you won’t catch me betting against a veteran with a big heart. I’m looking forward to seeing future versions of BBEdit and TextMate.

Can computers and computer software help people live happier lives? Although the initial purchase of a computer is almost always an exciting, full-of-promise, time, I suspect that many, perhaps most, people quickly become frustrated with their new machines and eventually lose hope that they will ever become truly helpful devices.

Many years ago, I was uncomfortably using Windows 95 at my medical office and at home; I certainly wasn’t having fun. Almost every day I would receive calls from friends asking me questions like, “What does it mean when it says, cannot find TWAIN.DLL?” or making statements like, “I tried to install a sound card and now nothing works.” My, very tolerant, wife would actually leave the house when I was installing new PC hardware.

Shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple I found myself wearing a path in the sidewalk in front of an Apple vendor’s store here in Vancouver. I was contemplating purchasing Macs for my family, but I had a substantial investment in my PCs and my Window’s software, so it wasn’t an easy decision.

News Flash – Computers can be helpful and fun!

Moving to the Mac was the best technology decision I’ve ever made. These days when friends call with questions I say, “I’m sorry I haven’t kept up with Windows problems, I’m using a Mac.”

Consider this simple plan:

1. Buy a new Mac
2. Buy an external FireWire hard drive
3. Buy SuperDuper! and use it every day

Your computing life will never be perfect, but you will enjoy using your Mac and I’m betting that will make you happier. I run my home business with a Mac.

I’m using a Plantronics’ headset (DSP 500) plugged into a D-Link USB 2.0 Hub that is plugged into the back of my iMac. Mac OS X (10.4.2) makes my computing life easy and fun. Setting up the headset was plug-and-play. I plugged the DSP 500 in and then selected Plantronics Headset as my sound input/output device in Mac OS X System Preferences. That’s was it; less than a minute from start to finish.

If you haven’t already checked out Skype, there’s no better time than right now.

Later, I watched my father play with a little HP computer that sported a tiny black and white screen and a built-in thermal printer. I remember buying dad 16 K of RAM and a program called VisiCalc for Christmas.

My first personal computer was a North Star Advantage. It ran an OS called CP/M and had two large floppy drives. Shortly after buying it, I invested in an amazing 5 MB hard disc, that took almost an entire day to format.

My computing world changed forever when I saw the Apple Lisa demonstrated at a ComputerWorld store in Vancouver. My fascination with the Lisa was so obvious that one of the sales guys asked me if I would like to watch a Steve Jobs’ video. It was as if Steve understood exactly where I lived; I loved the great toys he mentioned!

Today, I play with a 20″ iMac and my wife plays with a PowerBook. Steve’s passion for great products is more evident than ever! BTW, speaking of great toys, have you seen the new iPod nano? Wow!

Imagine operating an international business, from the comfort of home, and all the while getting to play with some of the coolest toys ever. I know my dad would have been impressed.