Whisper Memos Now Summarizes

One of the easiest ways to take advantage of artificial intelligence right now is voice-to-text transcription. I’ve been dictating to computers for decades, and I can tell you it’s never been easier than it is now. My weapon of choice for this on my iPhone is Whisper Memos. (The app has in the past sponsored MacSparky, but I was a paying subscriber long before that.)

The developer recently informed me that he was working full-time on his various Whisper-related applications and this change is already paying dividends. A recent update to Whisper Memos adds an auto-summarization feature. So now, in addition to reliably catching your words, you can also get a summary of anything you dictate to the application.

Below is a video that I created for the MacSparky Labs over a year ago, showing how I’ve combined this application with the action button on my Apple Watch to give me a seamless dictation workflow. I’m still using it daily.

Also, want to join the MacSparky Labs? The discount code: HOORAYWHISPER gets you 10% off, but it’s only good until Sunday.

DEVONthink 4 Beta: AI That Makes Sense for Power Users (Sponsor)

With WWDC finally here and everyone talking about AI, I’ve been thinking about which AI tools actually earn their place in my workflow. Most feel like solutions looking for problems–but DEVONthink 4 is different.

I’ve been testing the beta, and what strikes me most is how thoughtfully they’ve integrated AI into what’s already the gold standard for document management. This isn’t AI for AI’s sake. It’s AI that solves real problems for folks who work with lots of information.

The Chat Assistant lets you have conversations with your documents, which sounds gimmicky until you try it with a research project. Ask it to summarize themes across dozens of PDFs, or find connections between notes from different projects. It’s like having a research assistant who’s read everything in your database.

But the real power is in the automation. Smart rules can now use AI commands to auto-tag, label, and rate documents as they come in. Imagine never having to manually organize research papers or client files again. The AI summarizing feature is particularly clever. It creates concise summaries that actually capture what matters.

What I appreciate most is DEVONthink’s approach to AI providers. Instead of locking you into one service, they support multiple providers and models, including local ones if privacy is a concern. They’re even planning Apple Intelligence support when it arrives.

For those of us who’ve built our workflows around DEVONthink’s powerful search and organization features, version 4 feels like a natural evolution rather than a gimmicky add-on. The AI genuinely makes the app more useful without getting in the way.

The beta is available now, and if you’re curious about AI that actually serves your productivity instead of just impressing at parties, it’s worth a look.

Some Notable Fantastical Updates: AI Event Creation and Multiple Windows

Fantastical’s initial selling point was the frictionless creation of new events. Although they’ve added many new features since then, Fantastical hasn’t lost touch with its roots.

You can now forward an email containing an event to Fantastical (email@fantastical.app) from your Flexibits account email and Fantastical’s AI will, on the back end, parse the email and add the event to your calendar. Clever.

Calendar management is one area ripe for AI assistance, and I hope this is just the beginning for Fantastical.

Another Fantastical update that has been a game changer for me is adding multiple window support for your Mac. So now I can leave my big monthly calendar as a full-screen app, while still having a movable/resizable calendar with my favorite calendar app.

The Original Workflow Team is Back with Sky

Two years ago, the original Workflow team left Apple to announce they were working on a secret project to use AI to control your Mac. Today, they revealed that product: Sky, an AI assistant you can invoke anywhere on your Mac to pull off some genuinely impressive tricks.

For those who might not remember, Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer were the original team behind Workflow, the automation app that Apple loved so much they acquired it and turned it into Shortcuts. If you’ve ever used Shortcuts on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you have these two to thank. Now they’re back with their co-founder Kim Beverett, and anything this team creates immediately has my attention.

The app isn’t available yet, but you can sign up for notifications about its release. According to their website, Sky is launching this summer, and I strongly recommend getting on that waitlist.

Sky is a Mac automation tool that integrates with any application (AppKit, SwiftUI, or Electron) and allows users to control their computer through natural language commands. Its standout feature “Skyshots” captures both visual content and underlying data when you hold both Command keys, enabling you to reference screen content with phrases like “this” or “here.” The tool excels at natural language processing for tasks like organizing files or creating calendar events from displayed data, while offering built-in integrations for Calendar, Messages, Notes, web browsing, and other core Mac functions. For advanced users, Sky supports custom tool creation through Shortcuts, AppleScript, and shell scripts.

People are already taking swings at putting an AI layer on your Mac, but I’ve yet to find an implementation that feels natural. Sky looks like it may be the one that figures that out.

The ability to just ask your Mac to do complex tasks – and have it actually work across any app – is the kind of thing we’ve been promised for years but never quite delivered. If Sky can execute on this vision (and given this team’s track record, I’m optimistic), it could fundamentally change how we interact with our Macs.

Federico Viticci’s detailed preview at MacStories goes much deeper into Sky’s capabilities and technical implementation if you want the full story. But honestly, this is one where I can easily recommend you go sign up for the waitlist. When the team that created Workflow and Shortcuts builds something new, it’s worth paying attention.

The future of Mac automation might just be as simple as asking for what you want.

While Google Leaps, Apple Lingers

I watched the Google I/O event this morning. It’s shocking just how much Google has bet the company on AI. They’re even replacing search! In contrast, one of Apple’s tent poles will be a user-interface revamp. I can’t help but think Apple’s still fighting the last war while Google is gearing up for the next one. From the outside, it appears Apple is asleep.

Clearly, Apple has opted out of the frontier model race, and I can see why they did that. It feels far enough out of their wheelhouse that perhaps they should have passed on it. (Although what would have happened if they took the investment in the failed car and put that into AI back in the day?)

Where I’m baffled is Apple’s lack of embrace of AI technologies in their most important product, the iPhone. Thus far, the Apple Intelligence features seem like crude experiments compared to what Google, OpenAI, Perplexity, and everyone else is doing. It’s time for Apple to put down some big bets on AI for its platforms. I’ll be watching WWDC closely.

Apple and AI: Time for Action, Not Excuses

Mark Gurman has published the latest tell-all about Apple’s failure to claim a seat at the artificial intelligence big boy table. The more I read about this, the more it becomes clear that failure here has many fathers. Some of Apple’s leadership apparently didn’t see the underlying technology as relevant. Some didn’t want to spend the money. Others just didn’t make it a priority. For all of these reasons, there’s a ton of innovation happening right now in artificial intelligence, and Apple is responsible for none of it.

At this point, I’m much less interested in how Apple got into this position and much more interested in how they intend to get out of it. Apple remains a massive company with tremendous resources, and in my opinion, it’s not too late to turn this battleship around. I still think Apple’s idea for artificial intelligence, as expressed last year at WWDC, makes sense: refine AI into genuinely useful tools that consumers want, and combine that with private, on-device data to give users something truly unique.

But the question that I first asked last June still remains unanswered: Does Apple have the AI chops to actually make this happen? So far, it appears they don’t. There’s been a recent management shuffle, with Mike Rockwell now in charge of Siri, but the jury’s still out on whether this will be enough.

I’m hoping that the combination of leadership changes and a very public black eye will finally give Apple the push it needs to deliver something remarkable in AI. At the end of the day, Apple’s users—myself included—are waiting to see if the company can make good on its promise to deliver thoughtful, private, and genuinely helpful artificial intelligence.

Don’t Underestimate Apple’s Shot at On-Device Medical AI

There’s a rumor that Apple is working on an on-device medical AI. The idea is that your iPhone or Apple Watch could use its onboard silicon to privately analyze your health data and offer recommendations, without sending that sensitive information to the cloud.

The general vibe I’m seeing in response to this rumor is justified skepticism. Plenty of folks out there think there’s no way Apple can pull this off, but I think this is exactly the kind of thing they should be doing. This idea presents an opportunity for Apple.

Apple has been steadily building up its health tech for years. With features like Atrial fibrillation (AFib) detectionECG, and Fall Detection, they’ve proven they can deliver meaningful health tools. And they’ve done it with an eye toward user privacy and accessible design.

Now, imagine layering a personalized AI model on top of that foundation — something smart enough to notice patterns in your vitals, flag potential concerns, or even offer preventative guidance. And because Apple controls the hardware, they could run that AI model entirely on-device. That means your health data stays private, living only on your phone or watch, not bouncing around in the cloud.

Apple’s unique position here — owning both the hardware and the operating system — gives them access to a depth of personal health data that no off-the-shelf Large Language Model could ever touch. Combine that with their Neural Engine and you have a real opportunity to do something both powerful and private.

This also feels like a moment for Apple to make a statement with “Apple Intelligence.” So far, Apple’s AI initiative has been underwhelming and disappointing. This could be a way for them to reset expectations with something carefully designed, respectful of privacy, and genuinely useful.

Of course, this only works if they get it right. Rushing something half-baked out the door won’t cut it, especially when people’s health (and Apple’s AI reputation) is at stake. But if they take their time and nail the execution, this could be a defining moment for Apple’s AI efforts and one more key feature that saves lives.

I hope the rumor’s true and that Apple gives this the time and resources it deserves. It could be something special.

AI Job Displacement Is Already Here

Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, recently posted a letter to employees announcing a reduction in internal meetings and an AI restructuring initiative. Buried in that announcement was a sentence that hit like a cold splash of water:

“Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”

There it is: the quiet part, said out loud. AI job displacement isn’t some future scenario. It’s already happening at one of the most tech-forward companies in the world.

The disruption is upon us. AI will bring benefits, efficiencies, and entirely new opportunities. But it will also come with real costs. One of those is job loss, and as Shopify’s CEO makes clear, that phase has already begun.