Dropzone and Dropbox: Two things I Love

My DropzoneI’d been meaning to write about how awesome Dropzone and Dropbox are but TUAW has a good writeup on Dropzone at the above link. You’ve likely heard about Dropbox already. It’s the wicked easy, multi-platform cloud storage and backup tool that gets you 2GB of storage for free. It also makes sharing files a snap.

But what is Dropzone? Dropzone is a simple Mac app that resides in the dock. You can drag all sorts of files to Dropzone and do stuff like:

  • Mount a disk image, install the app on the image, unmount the image and put it in the image trash ALL BY DRAGGING AND DROPPING THE IMAGE ONCE!
  • Move all your stock images to a folder on your network.
  • Upload images for your weekly email newsletter (we call ours Top 5) via FTP.

Here is where Dropbox and Dropzone work together to make magic:

  • Upload a file to your public Dropbox folder and copy the file’s URL to your clipboard…with one drag and drop of the mouse. Boom!

Dropzone and Dropbox has made many mundane tasks a snap for me! I’m sure the time I save mounting disk images, uploading stuff, fumbling through YouSendIt, etc. really ads up. The coolest thing about Dropzone is it is expandable with some script wizardry and it’s only $10! Go check it!

Review: ProPresenter Remote

A few weeks ago Renewed Vision released ProPresenter Remote via the iTunes App Store. ProPresenter is a robust song and media presentation app for the Mac. ProPresenter Remote is a companion application that runs on your iPhone or iPod Touch and allows you to view and control the presentation without having to be in front of the computer running ProPresenter. This review gives an overview of the app, feature’s I’d like to see and how your church can use it.

After downloading ProPresenter Remote ($5 from the iTunes App Store) you will need to make sure that your installation of ProPresenter on your Mac is the most recent version (3.5.1 was released along with ProPresenter Remote to add support for the app). Setting up your host computer and the Remote app is a simple process. A couple of clicks in the preferences window on the host computer and a wireless network connection will get you running in a snap.

When you launch ProPresenter Remote you are presented with a list of host computers to connect to. The host computer must be running ProPresenter for it to show up in the list. You are then asked for a password. There are two options for the password and, depending on which password you enter, you will connect as an observer or the controller. Both of these passwords can be set in the preferences window of ProPresenter on the host computer. The two functions of the remote are self explanatory. The observer is allowed to view the song library, song playlists and scripture playlists. The controller interface looks the same, but in addition to observing, a tap on a song slide or scripture slide will present those slides live on the screens. A shake of the iPhone or iPod Touch will give you options to clear the text, background or both as well as an option to clear currently playing audio.

One glaring feature that is missing is the ability to change slide backgrounds remotely. I understand having to generate and load thumbnails for all the backgrounds in a library could take some time but if there was a special playlist on the host application where I could define a small amount of backgrounds to be able to choose from remotely, I would be content.

Another role I would love to fill with this app is that of the confidence monitor. My church in particular does not have a confidence monitor where the lyrics on the audience’s screens are mirrored for the worship leaders to see. The app fulfills some of this role with the observe mode by highlighting the currently displayed slide. However, the Remote app does not automatically move from song to song, it requires a tap on the next button. A solution I imagine working well would work like so:

  • Worship leader places iPod Touch on his music stand or podium in landscape orientation.
  • The screen adjusts to display the current, live slide (sans background) with white text on black.
  • The slide changes as the song progresses.


In addition to a feature like the above, an option to view white text on black in observe mode would be handy as well as options to resize the text for even easier viewing.

In conclusion, this app can be useful for three types of people in your worship service:

  1. The worship team
    Those on stage can use this app as a sort of confidence monitor now. If Renewed Vision ads a feature like I mentioned then it will work even better for this. The worship leader can also use this app to change the slides himself if there is no one else in the tech booth running the show, however he won’t be able to change the background. He’ll also have to take care not to shake the device to much for rick of clearing the screen.
  2. The tech team
    If your volunteer is tired of sitting in the tech booth by himself then this app could allow him some freedom to move about. This might also become handy if he needs to leave the booth to take care of another tech issue. You could also hand the controls over to someone else to act as a second controller in the case that the other controller falls behind for some reason.
  3. The audience
    If you have members of your audience who have a hard time seeing the screens, this app may help. You could put something in the bulletin like, “Can’t see the screens? Grab the app and login with this password to see the words on your iPod or iPhone.” Make sure your WiFi network is open or that you provide the password to use it.