MindNode Adds Editable Outlining

Today marks the release of MindNode 2021.01 on the Mac with a new editable outline. This feature lets you import data into MindNode in either outline or mind map format and updates across the app. By adding the ability to edit your mind map in outline format, the tool becomes more flexible depending on how you are thinking.

There’s also a new visual design on the outline. This feature is currently just on the Mac version of MindNode Plus. The developers intend to add the feature to the iPhone and iPad versions in a few months.

Get More Done with Daylite (Sponsor)

MacSparky is sponsored by Daylite, which is the Mac CRM that will take your business further by helping you nurture relationships, complete your projects, close more deals, and grow your business. It’s all in one place, even when you are working offline.

Unlike other web-based CRMs that focus on customer relationships and sales, Daylite takes you through the full customer lifecycle. From meeting a new prospect and following up until you close the deal, all the way through executing the project plans and maintaining customer relationships for repeat business, it’s all organized in one place and shared with your team. Easily hand off between teams and departments without worrying about anything slipping through the cracks. With all your team’s information in Daylite and accessible when you need it, your business runs smoother.

Daylite is built exclusively for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Integrate with Apple Mail and Siri. Share with Apple Contacts and Apple Calendar to keep your business and personal information up to date. Leverage features like Siri and Caller ID on your iPhone for a seamless Apple experience. Moreover, Daylite is a native app that that takes advantage of all the tools available to make great Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps.

Daylite helps you and your team:

Remember when to follow up by setting tasks and reminders.
Remember important details by tying emails, call and meeting notes to clients and projects.
Keep track of all the moving pieces on a project with tasks, emails, and calendars all in one place.
Streamline your sales and project processes with customizable pipelines and checklists.
Improve team efficiency and make collaboration easy by having everything organized and searchable in one place.

From meeting prospects and winning business, to managing the moving pieces on projects so they’re done on time, all the way through following up for referrals and repeat business, it’s all done in Daylite.

Daylite offers complimentary onboarding support to help new customers with the set-up process and guide you through the best onboarding path that is focused on your business needs. Ready to take your business further? Start your free 30-day Daylite trial today!

Focused 117: Roles & Goals

Goals are great, but they aren’t enough. In this episode of Focused, Mike and I talk about how roles and goals work together, and how the hats that you decide to wear are the real foundation of a solid personal productivity system.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FOCUSED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
TextExpander, from Smile: Recall your best words. Instantly, repeatedly. Get 20% off your first year.
Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.

Path Finder 10 Released

Path Finder continues to be a Finder alternative for power users and is now out with version 10. With improvements everywhere, they’ve modernized the code and polished the UI. It looks amazing on macOS Big Sur and runs natively on Apple silicon.

New features include:

AirDrop integration for devices discoverable by “Everyone”.
Share to AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Notes, etc.
Improved Dark Mode.
File browsing on and file operations on USB-connected iOS devices.
Improved Drop Stack.
Improved Batch Renamer.
Brand new Big Sur style icon.
Lots of miscellaneous fixes, tweaks, and improvements all over the app.

The upgrade price is $18, but if you purchased Path Finder 9 less than a year ago, your v9 license will work on v10 until the year is up.

Cleaning AirPods and Memory Foam Replacements

I’ve been meaning to write up how to clean dirty AirPods and AirPod cases for over a year. Now 9to5 Mac has done it for me. All the techniques recommended by Michael Potuck are good ones. I’ll just add a few more:

A slightly damp cotton swab is a great way to clean gunk out of the AirPod case rim and rim lid. It’s amazing how much dirt I can clear out with that step alone.
+1 on the Blu Tack. You’ll find so many uses for that stuff.
Make sure to check the lightning charging port. I thought my AirPods died, and it was just lint from my pocket in the charging port.

Related to AirPods Pro, I bought a pair of memory foam replacements for the rubber inserts, and now they work much better with my ears. Your mileage may vary.

Apple Silicon in 2021

In the last few days, we’ve had rumors from both Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5 Mac) and Mark Gurman concerning the planned Apple silicon Macs (hopefully) for 2021. It looks like lots of interesting Macs are on the horizon.

14” and 16” MacBook Pro
There are two new rumored MacBooks Pro. The 14” design to replace the higher end 13” MacBook Pro has been rumored for years. These will likely get a souped-up version of the M1 with more cores and processing speed. It sounds like a new design and possibly a new screen technology. That part is expected. There are a few more tidbits I didn’t expect:

Demise of the Touch Bar. I’m actually starting to appreciate the Touch Bar. However, it may be going away with these new Macs.
New I/O. One rumor is that Apple will support additional connections. I find that one hard to believe. At best, I’d imagine an SD card slot, but we’ll find out soon enough.
There is also a rumored return of MagSafe for laptops. That would be amazing.

There are no rumors to this effect, but I would bet we’ll also get a second-tier Mac Mini (in a space gray case) with the same silicon as the new MacBooks Pro when they release.

iMac
The rumors are that we’ll get something similar to the look of the Pro Display XDR with a flat design on the front and back and removal, finally, of the iMac chin. It sounds like there will be two sizes, but they may both be bigger than this generation’s iMacs. It also isn’t clear whether these iMacs will get different Apple silicon than the iMacs Pro or not. There is also a rumored external monitor that will be more affordable than the Pro Display XDR.

This isn’t in the rumors, but I’d speculate that there will be two performance levels of the big new iMac, and the iMac Pro will go away.

Mac Pro
The prevailing rumors on this are that the existing Mac Pro will continue for the meantime to support Intel and the third-party ecosystem and peripherals around Intel.

The interesting secondary rumor is that Apple will make a separate smaller Mac Pro that will have a design similar to the G4 Cube. That Cube had a bunch of problems, but it was also a thing of beauty. I remember visiting a friend and lusting after his G4 Cube back in the day. With Apple silicon and its low thermals, I think it would be easy to build one in a cube. It would be a great capper to this Mac renaissance for Apple to make a cube Mac Pro.

Either way, it looks like we are going to have a lot of great options available to us once all this rolls out. I know it is against Apple’s DNA to share details ahead of time, but I really wish they would provide a product roadmap on this stuff. Many folks need to plan for buying new Macs (and Apple will most certainly sell a lot of them in the next few years). If we knew generally what’s coming, it’d be a lot easier to make intelligent decisions.

Mac Power Users 571: Catching up with Jeff Richardson

Writer and lawyer Jeff Richardson returns to Mac Power Users to update Stephen and me on how he’s working at a 12.9-inch iPad Pro most of the time, even when needing to use Windows.

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.
HelloFresh: Click this link and use code mpu10 for 10 free meals, including free shipping!
Behind the Tech with Kevin Scott, from Microsoft: Join Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott for Behind the Tech, a podcast that goes behind-the-scenes with today’s most innovative tech leaders.
Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.

Rethinking Mac Hardware

Jason Snell wrote a great piece for Macworld about the need for a Mac product-design renaissance. I couldn’t agree more. With all of the opportunities afforded by Apple silicon, I would love to see the Apple design team untethered to come up with the next great iMac and laptop designs.

Microsoft has made some very intriguing designs over the last few years for machines that run inferior processors and an inferior operating system. Can you imagine how great it would be to see out-of-the box thinking for macOS and Apple silicon?

My dream iMac is at least 27” with a slim bezel design and a hinge, like the Microsoft Surface Studio, so that when vertical, it is a Mac, but when tilted down into drafting table mode, it is a giant iPad. Designs like that are now possible. Let’s hope we see them.

Automators 67: Automated Communications

In this episode of Automators, Rosemary and I attempt to automate as much communication as possible, from email to messages, TextExpander to Shortcuts, and Drafts, there are plenty of ways to get stuff in!

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

DEVONthink: Get organized — unleash your creativity. Use this link for 10% off.
Sync Up, a OneDrive podcast: Takes you behind the scenes of OneDrive.
HelloFresh: Click this link and use code automators10 for 10 free meals, including free shipping!

Get Powerful Document Management Tools with DEVONthink 3 (Sponsor)

I’m pleased to welcome DEVONtechnologies as a MacSparky site sponsor. DEVONthink is the Mac’s power tool for documents. Just a few of the things I use DEVONthink for include:

A reliable repository of research documents. DEVONthink will hold as many documents as you can throw at it. It makes import (and export) easy so you can have all that power without feeling trapped.
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An OCR Tool. Everything you store in you DEVONthink Pro library gets OCR’d. It just happens.
An Automation Tool. DEVONthink lets you build powerful automation subroutines into your library to help tag, move, and organize documents.

One of my uses for DEVONthink is legal research. I dump legal cases, statutes, regulations, and law review articles in DEVONthink whenever I’m working on a thorny problem and let DEVONthink grind on the documents before I do.

DEVONthink supports multiple sync methods and lets you even use your own sync password so everything is encrypted. If you’ve got an iPad or an iPhone, you can access your DEVONthink data there too with DEVONthink to Go.

You can think of DEVONthink as your paperless office. You can automate your workflow from capture to filing, editing to publishing. It stores all your documents, helps you keep them organized, and presents you with what you need to get the job done.

Interested? MacSparky readers can get a 20% discount on DEVONthink. Use the code MACSPARKY2021 at checkout. This offer ends on March 31st, 2021.