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.
  • DEVONthink: Get Organized — Unleash Your Creativity. Use this link for 10% off.
  • Hover: Make a name for yourself. Get 10% off any domain name.

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. 
  • Memberful: Best-in-class membership software for independent creators, publishers, educators, podcasters, and more. Get started now, no credit card required.
  • Electric: Stop stressing over scattered devices. Get a free pair of Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones when you schedule a meeting.
  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

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 …

Running a Shortcut from a Keyboard Maestro Script

Recently, I’ve had several nerd friends ask me about kicking off a Shortcut from a Keyboard Maestro script. You can do that using the Execute AppleScript action with the following text inside:

tell application "Shortcuts Events"
run the shortcut "Shortcut Name"
end tell

You’d need to replace “Shortcut Name” with the actual Shortcut name, while retaining the quotes. That is all it takes to launch a Shortcut from Keyboard Maestro.

Click here to download the Keyboard Maestro ScriptDownload

Want to get better at Keyboard Maestro? I have something for you.

Use TextSniper for Easy OCR on Your Mac (Sponsor)

My thanks to TextSniper for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. I’m a fan of this app.

TextSniper is a Mac OCR app that can extract text anywhere on your Mac’s screen and automatically save it to your clipboard so that 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.

Also, 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 find myself using TextSniper constantly in my daily work. As an example, my wife sent me a picture of a letter she received. I needed to grab some data from the letter (account number, etc…) TextSniper came to the rescue.

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.