The Lab Report – May 20, 2022

One of the benefits of being a member of The MacSparky Labs is access to the weekly Lab Report podcast, where I summarize Apple news and other items I find interesting in about 10 minutes. If you are a labs member, you should have already received this week’s Lab Report in your podcast feed.

This week I’m also making the Lab Report available to non-members. You can download the audio file right here. If you dig it, you may want to check out The MacSparky Labs.

Also, here are links from the episode:

Bloomberg on the Apple Headset
Open Letter to Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro Response
Jane Hovarth on Apple and Privacy
Apple’s New Privacy Ad Campaign
John Prosser on the Square Apple Watch
Macworld M1 Max vs. M1 Ultra Tests
9to5 Mac on Folding iPhones and E-Ink
Mac Power Users 640: The iPhone App Roundup
Automators 102: Automating DEVONthink
Keyboard Maestro 10.1
New Outline App: Bike
Creating OmniFocus Templates with Keyboard Maestro (MacSparky Labs)
Using Your iPhone as a Webcam (MacSparky Labs)
New Book: After Steve

Keyboard Maestro 10.1

This week we got another nice update from Keyboard Maestro. This update includes a ton of new support for Shortcuts integration on the Mac. I’m so happy to see Keyboard Maestro setting itself up to be a platform where you can use it’s already powerful automation alongside anything Apple adds to Shortcuts.

I’m in the midst of building an update to the Keyboard Shortcuts Field Guide. This new Shortcuts integration just got added to the menu. You can read more about the update at the Keyboard Maestro website.

Creating OmniFocus Templates with Keyboard Maestro (MacSparky Labs)

For a long time I’ve been adding OmniFocus template projects using Shortcuts. I have a few other automations that involve project creation with Keyboard Maestro, which got me thinking about adding templated OmniFocus projects via Keyboard Maestro…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Level 3 (Early Access) and Level 2 (Backstage) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

The Flat Apple Watch Rumors Return

Rumors are coming back about a flat-sided Apple Watch getting released this year. John Prosser made some renders, below. Who knows if this thing will actually ship. People were convinced it was going to release last year and it didn’t.

If this is truly the next design for the Apple Watch, I’m going to need some convincing. Just looking at the images, I like the existing, rounded design better. Maybe flatter equals thinner and lighter, and that would be good. However, my immediate reaction is that it looks boring.

New Outliner App: Bike

Jesse Grosjean from Hog Bay Software has a new Mac outliner app called Bike. The idea is to make it as easy as possible to add and rearrange outline entries.

The documentation quotes Jonathan Edwards, “We were promised bicycles for the mind, but we got aircraft carriers instead”. That certainly is true for some productivity apps. Hog Bay Software has made some other great low-friction productivity apps in the past, like TaskPaper and WriteRoom. With my initial tests, Bike is right on brand with those apps. If you are looking for a fast, easy-to-use outliner, check out Bike.

Linking Your Thinking Conference

I am fully invested in the emerging idea of linked thinking and how it can help us use technology for our own good. When Nick Milo asked me to participate in his Linking Your Thinking Conference, it was a no-brainer. I’m doing a session this Wednesday morning at 9:00 PDT, all about how I link from Obsidian to other places. This is part of how I contextually compute. Registration is free, I hope to see you there.

Mac Power Users 640: The iPhone App Roundup

The App Store didn’t launch until a year after the first iPhone, but it has defined the smartphone era. On this week’s episode if Mac Power Users, Stephen and I talk about some of our favorite iPhone apps.

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