Giving Up on Apple Mail Flags

As I have lamented too many times on Mac Power Users, I seem to be able to find email apps that I can live with, but not fall in love with. So many third-party apps are unreliable, and Apple Mail just refuses to evolve. Nevertheless, for some time now, I have been managing email with Apple Mail, but only after I add features to it with SaneBox (a sometimes sponsor of this blog) and, on the Mac, SmallCubed’s MailSuite.

Even after bolting on these tools, I still find myself primarily managing email on my Mac and treating the iPhone and the iPad as email triage machines on the rare occasion that I even look at email on those devices. For about a year now, I have been using colored flags for email in that triage role. Whether an email is customer support or a general feedback issue, it gets a specific colored flag. The same goes for legal and personal email. The problem I keep running into, however, is that Apple Mail cannot keep track of the flags. Sometimes a flag applied on the iPhone shows up on the Mac; sometimes it does not. Moreover, once I clear the flags that do make it over to the Mac, those flags may get cleared over on the iPhone. Then again, they may not. I would go through a whole process of checking the flags I cleared on the Mac to see if they made it over to the iPhone and iPad, and vice versa. I finally realized the madness of it all a few weeks ago when my flag counts were Mac (17), iPhone (34), and iPad (12). Enough!

So I have created IMAP folders with categories such as “Customer Support” and “Process” that hold email between my devices. The folders never get out of sync, and while it is slightly more work to move the messages into folders compared to flagging them, it is worth it to have a system I can rely on. A few additional points on this workflow:

  • This is not a beta problem. While I am running some devices on the new betas, flags have not been syncing for me for a year now.

  • I struggled with the name of the folder to hold email for later processing. The Hey.com service uses the term “Focus & Reply”, which sums it up nicely, but I prefer one word. I ended up with “Process”, because that is what I try to do with that folder every day.

Copied: Back from the Dead



Copied Icon.png


Copied was a great app that let you sync clipboards and data across the Mac, iPad, and iPhone platforms. Sadly, a few years ago, it seemed to go into hibernation. I heard at one point the Copied developer went to work for Apple, but was never able to confirm that. Nonetheless, Copied is now back from the dead, and again in development with updated versions for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

On Creating Tasks

Lately, I have been corresponding with some OmniFocus Field Guide customers, and it reminds me that a lot of people have not given enough thought into how they create tasks. Whether you use a tool such as OmniFocus or a napkin to write down your tasks, there are a few ways to make it easier on yourself:

  • Assume future you has other things on your mind, so make tasks easy to understand. “Call Miles.” This is not good enough. Miles who? Call Miles about what? “Call Miles Parker about icon design.”

  • Consider “consider”. Tasks that start with the word “consider” give you the ability to track optional tasks. My database is full of tasks like, “Consider cleaning studio,” and, “Consider setting client check-in calls”. Tip of the hat to Kourosh Dini for this one.

  • They are tasks, not projects. Don’t make a task called “Garden yard”. Instead, make a series of tasks: “Rake leaves,” “Prune tree limbs,” and “Weed vegetable box.” Smaller, manageable tasks get done. Nebulous project tasks never get done.

  • Finally, think about writing tasks as an opportunity to be kind to yourself. Don’t give yourself dictates, but instead encouragement. We all have enough jackasses in our lives. Don’t be one to yourself.

Mac Power Users 552: HomeKit in 2020, with Mikah Sargent



Mac Power Users Artwork.png


Since its introduction, HomeKit has steadily grown into a wide-reaching ecosystem for smart home devices. This week’s Mac Power Users has Stephen and I talking with Mikah Sargent about HomeKit hardware and software, as well as ways to extend what Apple allows it to do in its default app.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!

  • MarsEdit: Powerful web publishing from your Mac. Get 20% off.

  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Calling Cards You Can Be Proud of with Hoban Cards (Sponsor)



Hoban+Cards+Ryan+Howard+Banner.jpg


Let’s talk for a minute about your calling cards. What are you handing out? Something silly you got from a big box store or something you made on your printer? Your calling card represents you. Why not bring some intentionality to your game? 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.

Evan and the gang at Hoban Cards are masters at the craft of designing and making letterpress 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 really 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. Get yours today.

OmniPlan 4

The Omni Group recently released OmniPlan, version 4. Project planning apps have a reputation for being complicated and cryptic because … well … they are. The thing that makes OmniPlan stand out is that it has all of those planning tools but finds a way to present and manipulate its data for actual humans. Getting both power and usability is a tough nut to crack, and my congratulations to the OmniPlan team with this release.

eufy Wireless Cameras and HomeKit

Anker has a home security subsidy, eufy, that has jumped into the home camera business with both feet. I like and trust Anker. I have been buying their stuff for years, so I was interested in their eufy camera offerings from the beginning.

For several years, I have been using the Canary camera system. I was a paying subscriber and generally happy when I first started using Canary products. But over the past few years, my love has waned. The cameras have begun failing me regularly for no explicable reason. When I would check them, they would be offline. If I power-cycled them, they would start back up and sometimes reconnect, but not always. Had the Canary company been willing to embrace HomeKit, I may have looked into upgrading the cameras instead of moving on. But alas, beyond some early broken promises, Canary has shown no interest in HomeKit, and I was ready to move on.

eufy was very much of interest to me. At this point, eufy does not have a subscription service where you pay them to store security video online for you. Instead, they have integrated storage in their hardware so you can keep your security footage locally. Because they are not motivated to sign you up for their subscription service, they have also embraced Apple’s own HomeKit Secure Video service with a growing list of their cameras.

I bought a few of eufy’s battery-powered cameras including the eufyCam 2C and the eufyCam 2 Pro. Both are battery-powered wireless cameras that connect to eufy’s hub, which contains 16GB of internal storage. The cameras stream to the hub, and you can monitor the hub from the eufy app. The internal storage holds the streams until it runs out of memory, and then it starts deleting older footage to make room for new footage. It all works fine, although I wish they made the storage via replaceable SD card.

Moreover, the eufy hub can connect with HomeKit and turn footage from these cameras over to HomeKit. For a reasonable price, you can have wireless cameras feeding straight into your HomeKit, which you can also connect to HomeKit Secure Video.

This whole system is far better than my Canary system, and it has been a great upgrade. Comparing the 2C vs. Pro cameras, there are a few items of distinction:


View fullsize
eufyCam 2C

eufyCam 2C


View fullsize
eufyCam 2 Pro

eufyCam 2 Pro

Recording Fidelity The 2C records at 1080p. The Pro records at 2K. I can’t tell much of a difference between the two.

Battery Life eufy, like most hardware manufacturers, must not be testing these cameras under normal conditions. They claim the 2C battery should last six months. I get about a month out of one, and I get about two weeks out of another. (The second one is near a place of high activity, so it goes off much more often.) They are easy enough to plug in and recharge, but it is a thing, and it has me thinking about bringing in an electrician to hardwire a few spots around my house. The eufyCam2 Pro has been getting better than double that in battery life for me.

Cost There is a significant jump. You can get two 2C cameras plus a base station for $220. The same rig with two eufyCam2 Pro cameras goes for $350.

Either way, this was a significant upgrade in my home security system, and the rest of my family loves that they can now see the cameras in the Home app. I am taking full advantage of HomeKit Secure Video. I have also gone further down the Eufy rabbit hole as I have added some more of their wired cameras, which I will be covering over the coming weeks.

The First Apple Silicon Laptop(s)

Mixed signals are coming out of the rumor mill about the first Apple Silicon laptops. There are two reliable sources, one stating Apple will start with a 13″ MacBook Pro, another saying Apple will bring back the 12″ MacBook with Apple Silicon and a truly killer 15-hour battery life. Jason Snell summarized it all and weighed in at Macworld, speculating that both rumors are probably correct and the question comes down to timing.

I know I’m wish-casting here, but wouldn’t it be nice if Apple could ship both new Apple Silicon laptops before the end of the year. After all, Apple did start as a computer company, and they’ve got plenty of expertise in making computers. What a great flex it would be if they could give buyers two options, one with killer processing power and impressive battery life, and another with impressive power and killer battery life.

The thing that none of us on the outside know is just how long Apple has been preparing for this. They could be ramping up slowly with the MacBook first and then the MacBook Pro later next year. But they could have just as easily been planning this for years and holding back a new 13 (or 14!) inch MacBook Pro so it could be one of the first Apple Silicon Macs. None of us know, but a nerd can dream.

Course Corrections

When looking at yourself and how you get through your day, it’s easy to get hung up on big things, but so often the big things don’t happen overnight. They take time, planning, and money. And that is assuming you have any control over the big things.

In contrast, little course corrections can happen every day. They are easy to implement, and they take little effort to put into action. Best of all, small course corrections, even just a 1-degree turn, make a big difference over time.

Whenever I feel stuck and unable to move the icebergs in my life, I try to step back and start making little course corrections, so the iceberg is no longer a problem.