The Touchscreen Mac

Every year, it is fun to look at the announcements from WWDC and look for the breadcrumbs that lead to new Apple hardware. Often signs exist pointing to new features, hardware, and screen sizes. You just have to look for them. That’s why many folks are looking at this week’s WWDC announcement and thinking that touchscreen Macs are on the way.

For years the argument against touchscreen Macs was that macOS made no concessions for touch, and trying to navigate an operating system made for a tiny mouse pointer with your big meaty finger would be madness.



But then there is the new macOS Big Sur. It seems to be made, if not explicitly, for touch, at least to be touch-friendly. For instance, just look at this Big Sur Apple Mail toolbar. (You can click to expand it). The toolbar is taller, the icons are bigger, and more spaced out. To get more room for these finger-friendly icons, they removed the search bar and replaced it with the magnifying glass icon. When you click (tap?) it, it expands for a full search bar. While space is nice, this takes it to an extreme if you are only using a mouse pointer.



Also, take a look at menu bar items. They are spaced out more than ever before. Again, that extra space looks nice, but it seems extreme if you use a mouse, yet just far enough to make selecting menu items with your finger possible.

The other bit of news that makes me think we’ll get a touchscreen Mac is that with the new Apple silicon Macs, they will natively run all iPhone and iPad apps. Think about that. You will be able to load any number of the millions of iPad and iPhone apps on your Mac, but the apps would (as matters currently stand) require a mouse or trackpad for interaction. None of those millions of apps were built with the idea of mouse input in mind, and it is going to be an odd (if not outright bad) experience. In the Platform State of the Union presentation, Apple made a show of using a mouse to play an iOS game on a Mac, but it all felt a little too precious.

So my theory is that at least some (if not all) of the Apple silicon Macs will be equipped with a touchscreen. That will let you run iPad and iPhone games as they were meant to be. The Big Sur user-interface changes will make it possible for you to navigate around your Mac with your meaty fingers. While macOS isn’t getting that bottom-up redesign for touch, Apple is hoping the changes they made will make it good enough for users to combine touch with mouse or trackpad when driving these machines as a traditional Mac.

I’m not the only one thinking about touchscreen Macs. Stephen and I discussed it on this week’s Mac Power Users episode just hours after the Keynote. Jason Snell wrote about this idea at Macworld and its potential long-term implications for the Mac. Nevertheless, don’t be surprised if when the new Apple silicon Macs start shipping later this year, they have touchscreens.

Get More Productive with Tomato 2 (Sponsor) 


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The reason the Pomodoro Technique is so popular is because it takes almost no effort to implement and immediately delivers real productivity. If you’re going to use the Pomodoro Technique on your Mac, I recommend Tomato 2, this week’s sponsor. Just like the Pomodoro Technique itself, Tomato 2 is easy to use and delivers immediate results.

What I like about Tomato 2 is the way it remains simple but adds flexibility. Pomodoro Technique purists insist you need to work in 25-minute bursts, but I prefer 45-minute bursts. Tomato 2 can do that. Tomato 2 also gives you feedback about how many Pomodoro sessions you finished charted out over your week.

Need a little help resisting distractions? Tomato 2 can also block those websites that get in the way of your productivity. I’ve tried several Pomodoro apps over the years, and Tomato 2 is the best I’ve ever used. Check it out.


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IOS 14 Back Tap for Camera and Flashlight

I couldn’t help myself and installed the iOS 14 beta on my iPhone. There are a lot of nice new features, but one obscure one is Back Tap. This new accessibility feature lets you trigger Accessibility functions by tapping the back of your phone two or three times. It also can trigger a Shortcut. So I made some simple shortcuts to trigger the camera and toggle the flashlight and added them to Back Tap triggers. Here is a video showing how it works.

Focused 102: Analog Productivity with Brad Dowdy



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The Pen Addict Brad Dowdy joins Mike and me on this week’s episode of Focused to explain how he struggles to stay focused and discovers that he is a time blocker. We also get very nerdy about pens and paper toward the end.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Some Initial Thoughts on the 2020 WWDC Keynote

It’s Keynote day, and Apple had more announcements than I expected during a global pandemic. So here are a few thoughts following the 2020 WWDC Keynote:

  • It was dense. There was a lot of information pushed out in those two hours. There were no fluffy demos (and no AR demos). Lots of signal. Little noise.

  • I was surprised at the format. I didn’t expect it to start with Tim in an empty theater, but as the presentation moved along, I liked it.

  • Lots of new faces among the presenters as Craig Federighi served as the second-tier master of ceremonies. I didn’t realize that I stress for those people on stage. I know how nerve-wracking that can be. Having everything canned made it easier for them … and me.

  • The big type on screen slide is a new look for an Apple Keynote.

  • The video zooms in between segments started cheesy, but then grew on me. It also makes me want to visit the new campus someday.

  • Still iOS, not iPhoneOS.

  • App Library makes a ton of sense, but this is one where the devil is in the details. Apple has told us before it will let the device sort things for us with mixed results.

  • I can’t wait to get my hands on the new iOS / iPadOS widgets. But am I the only one who looks at them thinks about the classic Mac widgets?

  • I can’t make up my mind about the Siri announcements. My problem with Siri isn’t that it can’t answer obscure questions. My problem is that it often doesn’t recognize when I dictate my wife’s name. I’ll need to see the beta.

  • Nice improvements to Messages, but I think there is room for more here. Also, it wasn’t clear later if the Mac version finally has feature parity with iOS and iPadOS yet. It’s closer.

  • So, does the “iPhone as key” feature now mean a BMW 5 Series is an iPhone accessory?

  • Maybe the new Keynote drinking game word should be “privacy”.

  • App Clip is a big help to developers. You can get their apps and spend money without installing their apps.

  • It looks like iPad widgets, though more customizable, are still relegated to the left side of the screen.

  • The new Apple Pencil features look killer. I’ve wanted to use the Pencil in this fashion since before there was an Apple Pencil. I can’t wait to try this feature. The test will be if I can sit in a comfy chair with an iPad, Apple Pencil, and Siri dictation and be productive.

  • The AirPods team continues to crush it.

  • I did not see the Mac UI redesign coming at all. My initial reaction is positive, but I’ll need to use it. It is interesting how Apple hardware and software continue to march toward a standard look. Hopefully, they can do that while still leaving the Mac to be a Mac.

  • The Apple silicon transition was masterfully handled. They got us excited about the potential of these new chips while also allaying our fears. Also, did you notice they never said the word “ARM”?

There is still a lot more to unpack in the days to come. Overall, I saw a lot more from Apple today than I expected. As I push the “publish” button on this, I’m about to watch the State of the Union presentation and press the “install beta” button on my iPad.

WWDC Coverage

Buckle up, gang. It’s WWDC day, and starting today at 10 AM Pacific Apple is going to be showing off its latest changes for the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and all of its other hardware. I particularly like WWDC because I think Apple needs to do the most work on the software side. Today we’ll get a good idea for the next year. I’m most keen to hear about ARM-based Macs if the rumors are true.

How to Watch

Apple streams the keynote through its developer website. You can also watch it on the Apple TV. If you want to go that extra mile, in the afternoon, they do a separate presentation called “State of the Union” where they get deeper into the technical side of the new improvements. You can also see that through the developer website.

Regardless, I’ll be watching both and covering them here and we’ll be releasing a special episode of Mac Power Users later today. Stay tuned.

Stand Out with Hoban Cards (Sponsor)



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Your business card says a lot about you. To me, it tells me how much you care about the little things, and that, in turn, tells me how you care about the big things. I recently had a lawyer give me his card. It was a cut piece of laser printer paper, and I thought to myself . “huh?”. It wasn’t a good “huh”. Don’t be that guy. Why not carry a business card that genuinely makes you stand out? This week, MacSparky is sponsored by Hoban Cards, where they use a 1902 letterpress machine to make cards that your colleagues, clients, and customers will never forget. I sure love mine. Forget laser printers. Watch the Hoban letterpress process in action.

Evan and the gang at Hoban Cards are entirely dedicated to making the best possible calling cards. They have some beautiful templates to choose from, or you can roll your own.

There is no doubt I am a geek, but I have to admit that I love handing out letterpress cards. It is always a conversation starter. Put simply, Hoban Cards is where you go for the unique and classy alternative to conventional, mass-produced, soulless business cards. Best of all, use ‘MacSparky’ to get $10 off any order. I’ve been carrying Hoban cards for years and I intend to keep carrying them for the duration. You should too.