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Obsidian 1.0

Obsidian, the personal management and idea connector that we have all been losing our collective minds over, is now officially out of beta with their release of version 1.0. Congratulations to the small Obsidian development team that made a very big app.

While I don’t use Obsidian for everything, I’m in it daily and use it for many things. Here are some of my favorite things about this application:

  • The file format is nothing but a folder full of markdown files. While you add some extra syntax to get those additional features from Obsidian, it is all universal and future-proof. If Obsidian were to go away, you’d still have all your data in a usable format.
  • Despite the universal nature of the files, you can do nearly anything with this application that involves words. At this point, there are 25 core plug-ins in the 668 additional community plug-ins. You can use this app to take a few notes or build an entire system around it.
  • The Obsidian community is fantastic. The people using the app are generally enthusiastic about it and friendly to people coming into it. The folks who decided to build on the Obsidian API to develop their plug-ins are intelligent and generous.
  • The Obsidian developers get it. They are entirely transparent and constantly working on improving the application. I particularly love how they publish for their Trello board so you can see what they are working on next. 

I love this app. I’m actively producing a new Field Guide about it right now. If you’ve been waiting for Obsidian to leave beta, you’ve got no further excuses.

The Trouble with Apple Watch Faces

I’ve made no secret of my dissatisfaction with the Apple Watch faces. As someone who wears an Apple Watch every day, I can tell you things I don’t like about every available watch face. I’m not alone in the sentiment. Zac Hall wrote an article over at 9to5 Mac arguing that Apple needs to give users more customization to the existing Apple Watch faces. Amen.

I agree with everything Zac wrote, but I also have a few additional points from a fifty-plus-year-old nerd.

Complications Need to Become Easier to Read

For instance, the current corner date complication puts the day of the week in large text and the day of the month in small text. Why? Most people that need the date on their watch need the day of the month. Also, why not an option with an even bigger number that is the day of the month and forego the day of the week altogether?

Another example is where they put in small bits of text in a complication in addition to an icon, like the Activity Rings. I like complications, but I feel like the inclusion of the exact count for each ring on the face isn’t necessary. Why not an option with just rings?

Watch Hands

Many faces have hands that blend into the background. For example, most of the color variations of the California face have hands that are the same color as the background. When you want to check the time but have to spend time trying to find the hands on your watch, that’s bad. There are exceptions in the California face, like Navy Blue (pictured), but they should all have at least an option to be this readable.

Making more customizable Apple Watch faces seems like such low-hanging fruit that it baffles me why Apple hasn’t done it yet. I fully realize the “get off my lawn” tone this article sets, but it seems like every new iteration makes reading watch harder for anyone over 25. If Apple gave users more granular controls over watch faces, we could build faces we’d like a lot more.

Today’s Virtual Meetup Moved to 12:00 Pacific

I’m sorry about this change, but today’s Virtual Meetup has moved back 2 hours to 12:00 Pacific. Below is a NEW zoom sign-in link to get into the Virtual Meetup today at noon Pacific. If you can’t make it, I will get out the audio and video recording afterward. I’m sorry about the last-minute reschedule… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Capture Any Text on Your Mac with TextSniper (Sponsor)

My thanks to TextSniper for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. TextSniper is a Mac OCR app that can extract text anywhere on your Mac’s screen and automatically save it to your clipboard so you can paste it anywhere you need it. It can even read the text to you. The whole thing works a lot like the built-in screen capture on the Mac, just way more powerful.

Moreover, in an era where so much software is more about data mining than giving you a service, TextSniper doesn’t collect your data. The text recognition is processed on your Mac and does not require an internet connection. 

With TextSniper, you can:

  • Quickly get a text from PDFs, Zoom calls, Presentations, and Videos. 
  • Copy text from anywhere, even images and websites that don’t let you select text.
  • Quickly grab data like email addresses, phone numbers, and links.
  • Read QR codes and barcodes.
  • Get text out of just about any image format, including JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP.

I use TextSniper constantly. Anytime I need text from an image, TextSniper comes to the rescue. You can even use your iPhone or iPad camera to take a photo for TextSniper to perform its magic.

TextSniper works with macOS Catalina and later and also works with Parallels Desktop

Get TextSniper now and enjoy the fastest way to copy uncopyable text, wherever it may be. Use promo code TS2022 to get an additional 25% off. 

The Old “Pad of Paper Under the Laptop” Trick

I’m setting up my desk and trying it without a shelf. Why am I ditching the shelf? Partly so for the always-on iPhone, but also just to leave things a little cleaner looking.

One of my favorite features of having a shelf on my desk was the way it kept my laptop a few inches off the desk surface. I always liked having the expensive laptop a few inches above the desk surface just in case.

Without the shelf, my laptop is back on the desk. No shelf = no altitude. So it’s time for the old Pad of Paper Under the Laptop trick. It’s not as safe as a shelf but in the event of a spilled cup of tea, it should keep the liquid out of the laptop.

Become the Boss of Your Email With SaneBox (Sponsor)

Did you know that the snooze button isn’t only for your alarm clock? With SaneSnooze, you can snooze on your emails as well. SaneBox, this week’s sponsor at MacSparky, helps me prioritize my email with the SaneSnooze feature.

There are emails that you don’t have to act on right now, and that’s where SaneSnooze comes in handy. I can snooze the less important emails until I want to respond. The email disappears from my main inbox. Not delete disappear, but more of a I’ll-deal-with-it-later situation because SaneSnooze will hide the email until the time I say I’m ready for it to show back up in my inbox, and I can give it my attention when I’m ready to deal with these kinds of emails.

And SaneBox lets you choose how long you want to snooze. You can set your Snooze Folders to SaneTonight, SaneTomorrow, SaneNextWeek, SaneNextMonth, or whatever you think works best for you. When you move an email to your chosen SaneSnooze time, that email will disappear from your inbox, and then SaneBox will move that email back into your inbox at the time you’ve designated it. Want to deal with email on your terms? Click here to sign up for a free trial, and you can get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. 

“Far Out” Apple Event

Apple's "Far Out" Event Art

Today Apple made it official. The new iPhone event is September 7. Mark your calendar. Check your wallets. We’ll definitely get the new iPhones and likely Apple Watches. Things that I am curious about:

  • Rumors are the iPhone Pro camera will take a leap. I hope that’s true.
  • I’ll be shocked if the iPhone Pro doesn’t get the always on screen. I’m curious to see what that will be like in actual use.
  • There is an interesting rumor that we’ll get a “pro” or “sport” watch that will cost a bit more. It’ll be fun to see what that means if true. Also, if true it will be the first time that the phone chip between the watches will be different. Until now you got the same chip whether you bought a $300 watch or a $20,000 watch.

We’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be doing some fun things in The MacSparky Labs for this event. If you’re in the labs, keep an eye on your email over the next few days.

iPadOS 16 Delay

Today Apple confirmed to Tech Crunch that the iPadOS 16 will get pushed back to later in the fall and officially get released at version 16.1.

As the iPadOS creeps away from iOS, I don’t think this should be a surprise. Indeed, I could see this being the model going forward. Apple earns half of its revenue from the iPhone. While a delayed iPadOS release is not a big deal, a delayed iPhone very much is a big deal. If I were in Tim Cook’s chair, I would also be focused on the iPhone right now too.

Shortcuts for Mac Webinar Series

We just wrapped up the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide initial webinar series. All the recordings and shortcuts are now uploaded and available in the course curriculum. That’s another five-and-a-half hours of content and 31 new shortcuts.

I plan to continue with more Shortcuts for Mac webinars over time. Future topics will include additional features with macOS Ventura updates and third-party app support. I expect we will see a lot of interesting third-party app support for Shortcuts over the next year.