Your journal can live on your Mac

In September I wrote that the next versions were about one thing. Your journal, on your Mac, without a cloud. Those versions are on the store.

GeoJSONic 1.4 is on the iPhone. PortaDrive 1.1 is on the Mac. Open both, and the journal copies across your own network while you use them.

The globe on the Mac

PortaDrive still does the thing it already did. Drop a PDF on it and it is a drive in Finder. That stayed.

What is new is a window called The GeoJSONic Sneakernet. It reads the journal from the iPhone app. Your notes, on a globe, on your Mac. You can search them. You look at them there. The phone is still where you write.

You can also carry a journal by hand, which is the older half of the same idea. On the iPhone, Settings → Data & Sharing → Export journal (full backup). On the Mac, in The GeoJSONic Sneakernet, choose Import PDF…. One file. No account in the middle.

Pair once

The wireless copy is the part I wanted in people's hands.

1. On the Mac, open PortaDrive and open Sync with iPhone. A code comes up.
2. On the iPhone, open GeoJSONic, then Settings → Data & Sharing → Scan the code.
3. Leave both apps open, on the same network.

Notes, photos, and videos copy straight across. No account. No cloud. The phone starts every sync. The Mac only listens. After that first pair, GeoJSONic keeps copying while it is open and PortaDrive is running nearby.

This copy does not take anything off the phone. Both devices keep the journal. Getting old notes off the phone, so the phone can have the space back, is still the next job. If you read the September note, skip the command-line steps. They are not in this version.

A voice that stays on the phone

GeoJSONic 1.4 also brings Penny. She reads your notes and your directions, on the phone. Her voice downloads once, about 90 MB, and then she stays. Nothing she says leaves the phone.

A trip from geojsonic.com opens straight into the app.

What it costs

GeoJSONic is still free for the journal, the globe, sharing a note, and this Mac sync. Pro is still $3.99 a month, first month free, or $39 a year, for offline maps, satellite, and turn-by-turn.

PortaDrive is $8 once, for macOS 14 or later. No subscription.

Get PortaDrive on the Mac App Store →

— Jason Dittmer Creator of GeoJSONic