DEVONthink for All of Your Research (Sponsor)

I often hear from listeners/readers looking for a research solution in the Mac ecosystem. My favorite app for this, without a doubt, is DEVONthink. DEVONthink is the most professional document and information management application for the Mac. It’s the one place for storing all your documents, snippets, or bookmarks, and working with them.

The Integrated A.I. assists you with filing and searching, while the extensive search language with advanced Boolean operators.

DEVONthink features a Flexible sync system that supports many cloud services – or lets you synchronize over the local network too – with everything securely encrypted. This gives you the choice for however syncing works best for you!

It has Smart rules and flexible reminders that let you automate all parts of your workflow and delegate boring, repeating tasks. Let DEVONthink automatically organize your data with rules you define!

DEVONthink’s AppleScript dictionary is one of the largest on the Mac. There’s no part of DEVONthink that can’t be automated. Extend DEVONthink’s functionality with your own commands by adding them to its Scripts menu.

Even templates can have scripts inside and you can set up new documents with data from placeholders, or inserted by your own AppleScript code.

And, of course, there’s so much more, from an iOS companion app, email archiving, scanning, or even an embedded web server for sharing your data securely with your team.

I use DEVONthink for document storage and organization. I also use it for research both as MacSparky and a lawyer. I love the way the DEVONthink developers have thought through all the little details from syncing to using the built-in artificial intelligence.

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More Thoughts on the Peek Performance Event (MacSparky Labs)

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Apple had a big event this week and I’ve got a few thoughts.

Chapters
Introduction
The M1 Chip
The Mac Studio
The Mac Studio Design
The Mac Studio Pricing
The Studio Display
The Big iMac
The Mac Pro
The State of Mac Hardware
What’s Sparky Buying?
The Upcoming Q&A …

Automators 97: Automating Rosemary Orchard

In this episode of Automators, I ask all the questions and we get into the nitty gritty details of how Rosemary’s workflows and systems are being automated. From Hazel to Home Assistant, with a sprinkling of Airtable, there’s variety and magic.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

  • Electric: Unbury yourself from IT tasks. Get a free pair of Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones when you schedule a meeting.
  • TextExpander: Your Shortcut to Efficient, Consistent Communication. Get 20% off.
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A Few Thoughts on the Apple Peek Performance Event

Wow. Quite a day for Apple. Here are a few initial thoughts:

The Mac Studio

  • For ages people have wanted a desktop Mac “between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro”. You could make the argument that this is that. Although with it eclipsing current Mac Pros, I’m not sure.
  • We’ve been talking about the return of the iMac Pro. Is the Mac Studio + Studio Display the new iMac Pro?
  • The pricing seems about right. It makes a lot more sense to me than Apple’s $100 watch bands. Just think about it that way: a new Mac Studio or 20 watch bands?
  • At the end of the event, John Ternus teased the eventual release of the Mac Pro. I feel like that will be very much a niche product given the power of the Mac Studio.
  • I’ll have more on this new Mac later. I need to process.

The Studio Display

  • I did not expect the new display today. I’m thrilled we got it.
  • This display is what everyone was looking for. Apple quality, good feature set, and the stand comes with it.
  • I was expecting the price to be $1,999. I was pleasantly surprised they beat that.
  • Also, more on this later. I need to think about it.

Apple TV+

  • Apple TV+ has more content that I’ve enjoyed than I expected by this point. It’s not clear to me what Apple is trying to become with this.
  • Friday Night Baseball: It makes sense for Apple to add sports to the mix. I’m guessing baseball isn’t the only sport they’d like to add.

iPhone

  • I prefer the new shade of green over what they did in the iPhone 11, which was too gray for my taste.
  • The iPhone SE serves a definite place in Apple’s lineup and it is good to see them continuing to improve it.
  • Apple is using the word “Iconic” here to carry a heavy load. As the years go by, I am increasingly wondering if it makes sense to keep the old design and the physical home screen button. I expect there is a certain segment of Apple customers that really want that button, but has that ever stopped Apple in the past from ditching a button?
  • $429 is a great price
  • They covered the iPhone SE in 5 minutes.

iPad Air

  • M1 in iPad Air was a surprise to me, though in hindsight it shouldn’t be. Now the M1 is driving everything from iPad Air up to an iMac.
  • Again, the lines between iPad Air and iPad Pro are pretty blurry.

Rumors and Tomorrow’s Peek Performance

With Apple’s Peek Performance event tomorrow, we’ll all know soon enough if we’ll see anything noteworthy. That said, it seems the rumors are now flying fast and furious with the emergence of a hypothetical “Mac Studio”, which is something between a Mac mini and a Mac Pro. Luke Miani even has renders (that don’t look very attractive to me). The rumors of a lower-cost monitor are also heating up.

I think the release of this first generation of Apple silicon has been a lot of fun with new Macs and new designs steadily flowing out of Cupertino. I also think that very same fact makes it easy to get carried away with it all. Will I be happy if there are new Macs tomorrow? Yes. Will I be surprised if the event is a lot more low-key with an iPhone SE and a new iPad? No. We’ll all know tomorrow.

Mac Power Users 630: Preview Deep Dive

Preview has been in every Mac’s Application folder since 2001 when OS X launched. Join Stephen and me on this episode of Mac Power Users as we dive into the program, exploring its wide range of features for editing both images and PDFs.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore. 
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Automation to Move Text into a Web Page with Keyboard Maestro (MacSparky Labs)

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

I use the web version of Grammarly to check text but getting text into a web form was a pain in the neck. So I automated the process with Keyboard Maestro. Watch this video to learn how I did it and, more broadly, how you can automate pasting text into a web page with Keyboard Maestro …