Shortform sponsored this post, but they didn’t tell me what to write. Here’s my honest take on a service I’ve been using since 2023. MacSparky readers get a free trial and $50 off the annual plan at Shortform.

I have a shelf full of books I’ve read but can’t quite remember. Not the titles. The ideas. The specific thing I was supposed to do differently after finishing them.

That’s the problem with most reading. You finish the last page, feel smart for a moment, then move on. The insights vanish within a week.

I’ve been using Shortform for three years now, and it’s changed how I read. What started as a way to preview books before buying them became something more useful. It became how I actually retain what I read.

Two Ways In

Shortform gives you two ways into any book. There’s a one-page summary you can read in about five minutes. Then there’s the full guide that goes deep, chapter by chapter, with analysis and commentary.

Most summary services give you brief, AI-generated overviews that only scratch the surface. Shortform’s team of writers and editors actually analyzes each book. You get real depth, not a skim.

I usually start with the one-page version. If it hooks me, I’ll read the full guide. Sometimes that’s enough. Sometimes it convinces me to buy the book.

The Part That Actually Works

What keeps me coming back to Shortform are the exercises built into each chapter. Not quiz questions to test if you paid attention. Real prompts that make you apply the ideas to your own life.

Questions like “Where in your life does this apply?” and “What will you do differently?” These aren’t comfortable questions. But they’re the ones that make reading actually stick.

Beyond Books

Shortform has grown well past book summaries. The library now covers thousands of titles across more than 30 genres, and they add new guides every week. But the newer additions are what surprised me.

Master Guides pull together multiple books on a single subject, giving you complete coverage from several viewpoints. Article Guides cover faster-moving topics that books can’t keep up with. And their newest addition, Podcast Guides, brings the same treatment to audio content.

There’s also a browser extension that summarizes content across the internet. Emails, articles, YouTube videos. One click and you get a summary. Every guide comes in PDF and audio versions too, so you can read or listen however you prefer.

The summaries cross-reference other books in the library, which helps you spot patterns across different authors. Everything syncs to Readwise if you use that system, and you can export to Kindle.

The Honest Assessment

I renewed my subscription again this year. For the price of one book a month, you get access to thousands with the ability to learn from them faster. The exercises are what make the difference. Without them, it would just be another summary service.

If you’ve ever finished a book and thought “I should really do something with this,” give Shortform a look. MacSparky readers get a free trial and $50 off the annual plan.

I’ve been a paying subscriber to Whisper Memos for over two years now, and I’m thrilled to welcome them back as a MacSparky sponsor. This app has become an essential part of my capture workflow.

If you’re unfamiliar, Whisper Memos is beautifully simple: open the app, start talking, and your words are transcribed into clean, paragraphed text delivered to your email. The magic happens through OpenAI’s Whisper technology, and the accuracy is remarkable. I’ve been dictating to computers for decades, and AI-powered transcription is on another level.

The Apple Watch integration is where Whisper Memos really shines for me. I’ve got it mapped to the Action Button on my Apple Watch Ultra, which means capturing a thought is just one tap away. Walking the dog, driving to the store, lying in bed when inspiration strikes—I raise my wrist, tap, and talk. The app works completely standalone on cellular watches, syncing when you’re back online.

Now Import Your Own Audio Files

The app just added a feature many users have been requesting: you can now import your own audio files for transcription. Got a voice memo from Apple’s Voice Memos app? A recording from a meeting? Import it into Whisper Memos and let the AI work its magic. This transforms the app from a great capture tool into a versatile transcription utility.

If you value privacy, there’s a Private Mode where transcripts are automatically deleted after processing—nothing stored on their servers. I’ve been running it this way since day one.

Whisper Memos is free to try and surprisingly affordable. If you’re looking for a frictionless way to capture your thoughts and turn them into readable text, check it out.

Apple announced Creator Studio this week, bundling Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage along with enhanced versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote into a $130/year subscription.

My feelings are mixed. Every time Apple rolls out a new subscription, I get a little leery. The company’s increasing focus on services revenue feels like a slow drift away from the traditional model: make great hardware, sell it, move on. I understand the business logic. I just notice the shift.

That said, I’m genuinely relieved about Pixelmator Pro. When Apple acquired it, I feared the app would get thrown into a wood chipper and turned into new features for Photos. Instead, it survives intact and gains an iPad version. For someone who uses and loves Pixelmator Pro, this is good news.

The creator tools lineup is impressive. I use Final Cut and Pixelmator often. Compressor renders my MacSparky Labs deliverables. MainStage is part of my music practice routine. I fire up Logic occasionally. These are serious applications, and $130/year to keep them current feels reasonable to me.

I also appreciate that Apple preserved the option to buy these apps outright. You’re not forced into a subscription. If you prefer a one-time purchase, that path remains open. This flexibility acknowledges that different users have different preferences, and it’s a smart move.

So what’s the problem?

The iWork suite.

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have been free for years. They’ll stay free. But now there’s a separate tier within Creator Studio that adds new templates and Apple Intelligence features to these apps. If you want those extras, you need the $130 subscription.

From conversations with MacSparky Labs members, this isn’t landing well. Many of them have zero interest in Final Cut or Logic. They just want the latest iWork features. Asking them to pay $130 for that feels unreasonable.

Could Apple offer a cheaper iWork-only tier? Maybe $30/year? Possibly, but that starts to feel like nickel-and-diming. Apple is a multi-trillion dollar company in the middle of a major push to make Apple Intelligence central to everything they do. The better answer is simpler: make those iWork features free for everyone.

If I had a magic wand, I’d remove the iWork suite from Creator Studio entirely. The new templates and AI features would roll out as free updates to apps that are already free. The Creator Studio subscription would focus on what it should focus on: professional creative tools for people who actually use them.

By trying to sweeten the Creator Studio deal with iWork additions, Apple ended up frustrating users who don’t need video editing or music production software but do want the best version of Pages or Keynote. It’s a bundle that serves almost nobody perfectly.

I suspect the ship has sailed on this one. But I hope Apple course corrects.

Today’s sponsor is Timing, and if you’ve ever wondered where the afternoon went, this app has answers.

I’ve written a lot about hyper-scheduling and blocking time for important work. But there’s a gap between the plan and reality. You schedule two hours for writing, but did you actually write? Or did you spend forty minutes in email and another twenty “researching” something that turned into a YouTube rabbit hole? Without data, you’re guessing.

Timing fills that gap. It runs in the background on your Mac, quietly logging which apps and documents get your attention. You set up rules once (Scrivener equals writing, Safari on specific sites equals research) and Timing handles the rest. No timers to start. No timers to forget. Just an honest record of where your hours actually land.

The newest feature is AI-powered summaries. Instead of sifting through a raw timeline, Timing groups related activities and highlights what you worked on. Open the app at 5 PM and get a clear picture of your day in seconds. For anyone doing the shutdown ritual, this is gold.

Timing also pulls in Screen Time data from your iPhone and iPad, so you see everything in one place. And it detects when video calls end, prompting you to log that time. If you bill clients or just want accountability, that coverage matters.

This is a proper native Mac app. Local data by default, fast interface, no Electron bloat. Plans start at $9/month for Professional. Expert ($11/month) adds the AI summaries and Screen Time sync. Connect ($16/month) brings team features. All plans include a 30-day free trial.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Check out Timing and find out where your time really goes.

Today’s sponsor is Timing. If you’ve got “understand where my time actually goes” on your 2026 goals list, this is the app that can make it happen.

Most of us know we should track our time. Knowing how you spend your hours is the first step to spending them better. But manual time tracking is a pain. You start a timer, get interrupted, forget to switch it, and by 3 PM, your log looks like fiction. The friction kills the habit before it takes root.

Timing takes a different approach. It runs quietly in the background on your Mac, watching which apps you use, which documents you open, and which websites you visit. Then it categorizes everything automatically based on rules you define. Work in Scrivener for two hours? That’s writing time. Spend 45 minutes in Safari on research? You decide once, and Timing remembers.

What’s new is the AI summaries feature. Timing now analyzes your work and automatically groups related activities, highlighting the key topics you’ve worked on. Instead of scrolling through a raw timeline, you get an instant understanding of how your day actually went.

The app also tracks beyond your Mac. It imports Screen Time data from your iPhone and iPad, so you see your complete picture across devices. It even detects when video calls end and prompts you to log that meeting time. For anyone doing client work, this eliminates the anxiety of wondering whether you’ve captured everything accurately.

Timing is a native Mac app. Not an Electron wrapper or a web app pretending to be desktop software. It’s fast, it respects your privacy by keeping data local (unless you opt into sync), and it feels right at home on macOS. Plans start at $9/month for Professional, with Expert ($11/month) adding AI summaries and Screen Time integration, and Connect ($16/month) for team features. All plans come with a 30-day free trial.

January is the perfect time to start building this habit. Check out Timing and see exactly where your year is going.

I’m pleased to welcome back PowerPhotos as a MacSparky sponsor. If you’ve used Apple Photos for any length of time, you know the app is missing serious power-user tools. PowerPhotos fills those gaps beautifully.

The app has long been the go-to utility for managing Apple Photos libraries. Need to merge multiple libraries into one while keeping your albums, edits, and metadata intact? PowerPhotos does that. Want to split an oversized library into smaller, more manageable ones? Done. Looking to hunt down and eliminate duplicate photos clogging up your drive and iCloud storage? PowerPhotos has a powerful duplicate finder that handles it.

What’s New in Version 3.0

The newly-released PowerPhotos 3.0 is a significant update with some useful new features:

• Batch metadata editing — Edit photo titles, captions, and keywords directly in PowerPhotos, with keyboard-focused editing that makes tagging and organizing photos fast
• Advanced search engine — A new indexing system with nested predicates lets you search by criteria Photos doesn’t support, like file size, dimensions, and video duration. You can save your smart searches too.
• Enhanced photo browser — The browser is now faster with live updating as your library changes, plus new export options including XMP support and whole library export

PowerPhotos 3.0 is a paid upgrade. If you’re an existing user of PowerPhotos 2 or earlier (or even the old iPhoto Library Manager from way back), you can enter your old license key for 50% off. Everyone can use the coupon code MACSPARKY26 for 20% off both regular and upgrade orders.

If you want to go deeper, Brian Webster (the developer behind PowerPhotos) joined Stephen and me on Mac Power Users episode #810 to talk about the app and its features.

Check out PowerPhotos today.