Apple’s Journal app is growing up a bit and is now a much better candidate to be your journaling app of choice than it was when first released on iPhone. In this video, I take a look at Journal on iPadOS.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
m
Recently I guested on Kerry Provenzano’s Paper Places podcast where I talked about my analogue and digital writing systems. It was a lot of fun talking to Kerry. I even went deep with my original book, Encyclopedia Sparky.
The team that brought us Arc is back with Dia, their new browser. It’s a Chromium browser with artificial intelligence baked right in. I’ve been using it for a few weeks and here are my initial impressions.… This is a post for the MacSparky Labs Pathfinder and Insider members. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
Speaking of Ken Case, the Omni Group recently posted its post-WWDC roadmap. There are some nice new features heading to OmniFocus, including mutually exclusive tags (for things like priority and Kanban status), better repeat, and a new, third date field for “planned” dates. It all sounds pretty useful.
Ken Case is the CEO at the Omni Group and has been developing for Apple platforms for decades. On this episode of Mac Power Users, he shares how he got his start in technology, what Apple gear he uses, his approach to customer communication, and his thoughts on WWDC.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: Pixelmator Pro is adding AI features, why an Apple Ring is a good idea, and [two of my favorite musical artists get together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjM6Jbd__Qc&list=RDPjM6Jbd__Qc&start_radio=1) and awake my soul.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
As a Superhuman user, my first reaction to this news was, “uh oh”.
What makes Superhuman so valuable to me as a user is the company’s obsession with email optimization. If they just become another cog in the wheel of Grammarly, I’m not sure they’ll keep that up.
However, since then, I’ve been reading the press release and even the email from Superhuman’s founder, Rahul Vohra. It appears that this acquisition was made to accelerate Superhuman’s feature list, rather than impede it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this turns out to be a good thing for users.
Kara Monroe joins Mike and me on this episode of Focused to talk about creative problem solving, the power of coaching, and why you should have a Facts of Life book.
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
One of the things I love most about being part of the Mac community is discovering thoughtfully crafted software from independent developers. These aren’t apps churned out by massive corporations—they’re passion projects built by small teams who genuinely care about solving real problems for people like us.
The Artisanal Software Festival is happening right now, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to support some truly exceptional indie developers while picking up tools that can transform how you work. This isn’t one of those overwhelming bundles with dozens of apps you’ll never use. Instead, it’s a curated collection of professional-grade software for writers, researchers, and creative professionals.
Some standouts that caught my attention (and that I’ve used): Tinderbox for complex note-taking and idea mapping, Scrivener for long-form writing projects, HoudahSpot for lightning-fast file searching, and BBEdit—the legendary text editor that’s been a Mac staple for decades. There’s also Bookends for reference management, EagleFiler for organizing all your digital information, and SpamSieve for keeping your inbox clean.
These are all fantastic apps and made by teams that prioritize sustainability over growth-at-all-costs, which means better long-term support and more thoughtful feature development.
The festival is running for a limited time with genuine discounts—no artificial markups or gimmicky bundles. Just quality software at fair prices, with full support and upgrade privileges included.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your toolkit or supporting indie developers who are keeping the Mac software ecosystem vibrant and innovative, this is a perfect opportunity to do both. Check out the Artisanal Software Festival and see what catches your eye.
One of the few new features in Apple Notes with the “26” operating systems is Markdown import and export. Here’s a demonstration of this new feature and how I use it.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
e