A Few Notes on the iOS 15.2 Release

Apple released a new update to iOS that’s got some noteworthy features. Here are a few points of note:

Legacy Contact

This is my favorite new feature. You can now set a person as your legacy contact. That gives them a secret access key so that they can (upon proof of your death) access your data. I made a video explaining how to do this. I know it’s morbid, but you should do it today.

Hide My Email

You can now create one-time email addresses in the Apple Mail app. You can only use this feature when sending to a single recipient since the random email is tied to that person.

Macro Mode Manual Control

There is now a setting to let you disable macro mode if you don’t want it to automatically kick in. It’s located at Settings > Camera > Macro Control.

Music Upgrades

You can now search for a specific song from within a playlist. Amen. They also launched the Apple Music Voice Plan, for which I am pretty skeptical.

iPad Gesture Update

You can now set separate actions for a swipe from lower-right and lower-left corners. I’ve got Quick Notes in the lower right and Screenshot in the lower left. Just go to Settings > General > Gestures.

iPhone Parts and Service History

You can now see the service and part history for your device under Settings > General > About.

App Privacy Report

The App Privacy Report (located at Settings > Privacy > App Privacy Report) got a serious upgrade. You can now see exactly what your apps are up to and when. This will make sussing out offending apps very easy. I want this now for the Mac.

Daylite: The Only CRM App Made For Your Mac (Sponsor)

Daylite is an award-winning CRM and productivity app made exclusively for your Mac, and it’s now Monterey ready! Daylite goes beyond the essential CRM experience or project management tool for small businesses. Daylite is the only Mac-focused CRM and productivity app that seamlessly integrates with Apple devices and most of the built-in Apple apps and features, like direct Apple Mail integration, so you and your team can capture all email communication in one place.

That means you can create opportunities, appointments, and tasks in Daylite right from your Apple Mail. Daylite empowers small businesses by improving team efficiency and making collaboration easy—everything is organized, searchable, and accessible (even offline). You and your team can easily access information and use smart lists to segment data tailored to your specific client story. You can manage and share everyone’s schedules, project status, and next steps, all done in Daylite. 

If you live by the mac, you’ll love Daylite. Start your free 30-day Daylite trial today!

Website Transition and New RSS Link

I have been busy with a skunk-works project to transition the website to WordPress for the last several weeks. I’ve been a happy customer of Squarespace for years, but I am looking to add some new features as we move into the new year, and I needed a bit more flexibility. The website’s look will remain the same (except for a few minor tweaks). Nearly all of the changes are happening under the hood. Regardless, I’m about to push the button, and this will be the last post going out through the old system.

New RSS
Once the publication goes live, there will be a new RSS Feed:
https://www.macsparky.com/feed

We are trying to automatically direct the old feed to the new one, but you never really know about these things. If you don’t get any more posts after this one in your feed, the auto-direct didn’t work, and you will need to re-sign up above.

I can’t wait to roll out some new features with the new site.

The Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking

Something I think a lot about is contextual computing. (Here’s an MPU episode on the topic.) Put simply, our technology has advanced to a level where a mindful user should be able to get focused work done without distraction. As a few basic examples, you should not have to go to an email inbox to answer a specific email or a list of all your tasks to find only the tasks related to a particular project. And yet, too many software developers don’t consider this. Often the only way into specific data is first to wade through all the general data.

To use travel as an analogy. If you were in Los Angeles and wanted to visit Trafalgar Square in London, you’d have to get in a car, then on a plane, then a train, and then a cab. All the way, you’d have distractions that may delay or divert you from Trafalgar Square entirely. It doesn’t have to be that way with technology. Why not skip all that and zap yourself right to that data set you need.

I’ve slowly built my entire data management stack around this principle, and I can usually stay in context and on target. You should too. I’m going to be covering this in much greater detail in 2022.

In the meantime, I’m not alone in this belief. Cognitive scientist and Hook developer Luc Beaudoin has spearheaded a movement called the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking. Linking is the key to contextual computing. It is how we can skip the car, the plane, the train, and the cab.

There is no better place for this movement to get traction than the Apple developer community. So many Mac developers have already built linking systems already. We need them standards-based, not loaded with tracking garbage, and ubiquitous. There are many smart people behind this and I hope it gets momentum. There are plenty of problems in the world for us to tackle. Are we going to use our computers to do focused work and make things better, or will we use them to distract us from what matters? This is a good start.

Mac Power Users 618: Making Movies at Pixar, with John Soliman

This episode of Mac Power Users has Stephen and I chatting with John Soliman, a second assistant editor at Pixar, about his workflows and how collaboration works at the studio.

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.

The Wallpaper* Feature on the Apple Design Team and a Missed Opportunity

Wallpaper* published a rare feature on the inside of the Apple Design Team. This group of people is arguably the best design team in the world. I have so much respect for their work. You should read every word of the article and take some time with those pictures. That being said …

  • I can’t help but think that every picture looks arranged and posed. This is not the design team ’at work’. They are instead posing for a magazine shoot. Creating art is messy. Those pictures and the table layouts in those pictures are art, but they are not, in my experience, what it looks like while you are doing art.
  • It appears they shot most of the pictures on the upper floors. I’m guessing the dirty work of design happens on the lower floors.
  • I wish that in addition to rooms dedicated to typography and color science, they also showed an even bigger room dedicated to user interface design. In my opinion, Apple’s hardware is untouchable at this moment, but some of the software mechanics and user interfaces need work. I wish I saw signs they were working more on that.

The article references an oft-quoted Steve Jobs explanation of design and how it is more than just a veneer. “It’s not just how things look, it’s about how things work.” I agree with that statement entirely.  

That said, relying on something Steve Jobs said years ago to justify your work is the wrong way to go about it. During Alan Dye’s tenure as VP of human interface design, Apple has become very opinionated and, arguably, too minimal. Removal of proxy icons is just one example of this. It feels like the veneer is getting way too much attention at the expense of the working bits.

Instead of quoting Steve Jobs, I would have preferred an explanation from Alan Dye about his philosophy of user interface design and what his north star is when he does his work. I’d like him to make his case. If he explained the thinking behind this minimal approach, it might make more sense. Maybe this article was never meant to be that kind of deep dive on design philosophy, but it feels like a missed opportunity.