The interface is largely the same, but you can see the significant new sequencer UI down at the bottom:

Of note also within the above screenshot- the mighty new Thor ‘polysonic’ synth. If you thought things got a bit stale on the synth front after the Malstrom graintable synth way back in v2(?), then Thor is like a completely new class of synth. Completely configurable routing, step sync, OMFG it’s like a playground in there. It’s testament to the Propellerheads guys that even though I didn’t think I needed the upgrade, I was utterly floored with how much more usable and polished my old favorite soft synth/sequencer has become in it’s fourth incarnation.

Although I do most of my writing in Live, I damn near capped a whole song in Reason today without even plugging in a physical instrument. That’s pretty impressive. Considering I’ve got a Live upgrade coming soon, too… this is going to be a real fun holiday season.

After reaching a frustration point with Kinkless GTD’s synch process, I switched to the freeware (donations welcomed) iGTD. iGTD added some new twists to my task management workflow, specifically it’s sweet microsyntax for adding a task with metadata via Quicksilver. It’s been rumored for quite some time that Mac developers OmniGroup was working with Kinkless GTD script wizard Ethan Schoonover to build the Kinkless heir apparent, OmniFocus, but with iGTD getting solid marks on most all fronts (and not being a fully commercial product) I wasn’t about to hold out and wait.

Now I’m not so sure anymore. I’ve been using beta versions of OmniFocus for about a month straight now, and it seems very polished for a beta application. It’s outline view is refined and familiar as a former Kinkless user, and I’ve found myself using OmniFocus’ Focus mode often (lets you drill down on a particular list or context easily and remove distractions), as well as the nice nested project structure that can run tasks either parallel or in series.

I’ve a few nitpicks, albeit minor, of course. Printing functionality came late in the beta cycle, but is still very basic. I’d like to have access to custom print views/templates for the occasion I want to get a hard-copy of a specific list/next actions/etc and format it for a specific binder/organizer/size/etc.

Sync with iCal has been mostly solid, with a few occasional dropped items or the like (update- this is much tighter in recent beta versions). I can chalk this up to beta status, and not a public beta at that.

An interesting feature in OmniFocus is the ability to turn on a small server of sorts on your local machine to syndicate your tasklist via a web interface. It seems this is geared towards getting OmniFocus lists onto your swanky new iPhone, but I’ve yet to find a solid use for it (as my home network dynamically assigns IP addresses, which means I regularly have to update the URL’s IP address in my iPhone browser, which is a bit annoying). I want to have the list on my iPhone live, but alas with Apple’s stance on third-party development the rather disappointing ‘build a web app’ statement being what it is, I’m not sure I have a better suggestion right now.

Aside from the sweet Quicksilver/CLI syntax in iGTD, I haven’t found myself seriously lacking features in OmniFocus. As OmniFocus has it’s own Quick Entry interface/hotkey that’s not a deal-breaker, but given my Quicksilver jones I’d like to see the same functionality in iGTD extended to OmniFocus (but won’t hold my breath, it’s a bit arcane for most users). Performance is also better in OmniFocus than iGTD (in my opinion)- it starts up quickly whereas iGTD started to lag with larger lists and take a while to boot.

It’s hard to say which of the two applications will end up getting my full-time support, but in my opinion OmniFocus just entered the race at the front of the pack. If someone can crack the web sync problem, and give me an *easy* way to synch and access my GTD lists from my iPhone, that may just be the deciding point. Neither app does it well right now, but I’m holding out hope.

All told, OmniFocus rocks- as it’s fast, uncluttered and very focused (no pun intended). I’ll be using it for quite some time.

(Spoiler alert: if you read or click further and have yet to see this episode, I take no responsibility for ruining the episode for you. Consider yourself duly warned.)

Where do I begin with the twists? This episode had a boat load of ‘em, and although I was about to write Lost off as another way-too-clever serial that lost it’s way (no pun intended) midstream, I’m back on the island for season 4 now.

Jack’s Flash-Forward

As soon as I saw the beard, I asked my wife if this was actually a flashback – or a flash-forward snapshot of Jack’s future. Jack had never worn a beard of that nature in any prior flashback, and it just seemed strange to me (patting self on back). However, I began to doubt it mid-way through while Jack was confronted by the new chief of surgery at his hospital, suggesting that he ‘go upstairs and get my father’. As Jack’s flight back from Sydney was to escort his father’s dead body back for his memorial, the timing/continuity then seemed off. Nice head-fake by the Lost writing team there.

The end-of-episode revelation – Jack’s ‘flashbacks’ were indeed ‘flash-forwards’ of his life after successfully getting the Losties off the island, and his spiralling into suicidal tendencies and addiction, ostensibly due to fear and regret that he’d made the wrong decision by getting the survivors rescued in the first place. It’s also revealed that neither Juliet or Kate ends up with Jack after the island – Kate apparently living with (or married to) someone else who clearly would not approve of her still having contact with Jack (Sawyer, perhaps?).

Which begs the question – is Ben/Jacob really the antagonist here, and is the bigger picture behind why Ben’s shady and manipulative actions throughout the course of the series really one of benevolence? Are Ben’s constant assertions throughout the finale that ‘the survivors aren’t supposed to leave the island’ true? And if so, why?

Damn- another finale that opens up more questions than it answers. I both hate and love that in a series.

Others vs. The Losties

This storyline is finally getting interesting. Seeds of dissent are being planted left and right – between the main group of Others in Ben’s immediate camp starting to doubt his leadership (both due to John Locke’s disappearance after meeting privately with the mysterious ‘Jacob’, as well as the growing tension from the Oceanic flight survivors) and the ‘outsiders’ of the group (the two women in the Looking Glass station and our Russian communications expert, for example). The Others collectively are starting to be concerned about Ben’s overall motivation, and whether or not he’s playing them against one another. With good reason.

But the question that season 4 appears set up to determine is, in my opinion – who is pulling Ben’s strings, and who/what is Jacob? The fact that Locke can clearly hear ‘Jacob’ has rattled Ben beyond anything we’ve seen to date, and in the Looking Glass the two ill-fated women seem to look at Ben as Jacob’s mouthpiece.

John Locke – Island Messiah?

So now it’s official- Locke did not meet his demise in the body pit after being duped by Ben (apparently at the behest of the mysterious Jacob). And Locke’s supernatural connection to the island seems more intact than ever, with his visions returning along with the control of his legs. And how did he survive the gut-shot Ben dealt him? Lots of loose ends to tie up here, no doubt.

To me, the most compelling question is undoubtedly the nature of his communion with the island. He clearly sees the bigger picture that Ben hints at, and (even more clearly) will be the catalyst that reveals the nature of the island (and Jacob) to us in the next season. What is it that Locke sees that the rest of the Losties (and for that matter, all of the Others with the exception of Ben) cannot?

Rest In Peace, Charlie

The noble death of Charlie Pace was both a long time coming (as he’s been dodging the bullet of fate for nearly the entire season now), but played out rather touchingly – as he ultimately made the decision to accept fate instead of keep dodging it. However, this part of the story was my largest issue with the episode, as I found it rather unbelievable. Charlie saw the Russian fellow with a grenade outside the control room door – threatening to blow the porthole and flood the station – and he sealed the door on himself, saving Desmond and the rest of the Looking Glass station from being flooded at the cost of his own life by drowning.

But Charlie didn’t have to die.

This was where the episode got a bit far-fetched to me.

Here’s why- if it took darn near a minute and a half to flood the tiny control room and drown Charlie, it would have taken at least an hour to flood the entire wet dock area outside, which was huge in comparison. Charlie could have easily ran outside the room after the porthole was breached, even grabbed a scuba tank with Desmond, and made it back to the surface without much problem at all. For god’s sake, they both swam down to the station without tanks – which is much more difficult than swimming up, so getting back to the surface would have not only been easier, but quite within reason for both himself and Desmond to pull off. As the outer wet dock already had open access to the outer ocean, this should have been a no-brainer for Charlie- laugh at the Russian guy and wait for him to pull the pin on the grenade, then ride the water rush back out to the wet dock, grab a breath and swim back UP to the surface and shoreline. Scuba tanks strictly optional.

He had already disabled the jamming system, and made contact with the outside world. Mission accomplished. Flooding the Looking Glass would be inconsequential at that point, so there was no compelling reason to save the station for sake of itself, either.

Rest in peace Charlie- but your demise was wholly unneccessary.

The most interesting part about this storyline to me was that Penny now knows Desmond is alive – as Charlie did convey that before his death, and will be twice as determined to find and rescue him. But I do have to wonder how the helicopter pilot (who’s name eludes me) had a copy of the picture of Desmond and Penny on her person, if her boat was in fact not one sent out on a search-and-rescue mission by Penny. Could Ben be right- and both the pilot and her boat be the real ‘bad guys’?

I guess we’ll start learning the answers to all of these questions when season 4 kicks off, and I’ll be on board for the duration.

What a freakin’ cliffhanger!

Check out the trailer at the Yahoo! site here…

You can check out the US trailer at YouTube here:

July 13th cannot come quickly enough for me- although it’s a lock that I’ll be the father of a fresh newborn then, so whether or not we can actually get out to the theatres is another matter entirely.