More Apple TV+


Apple

Today Apple announced some subscribers are getting an extension to their free AppleTV+ subscriptions through February 2021. I’m sure this is at least partly because the shows that we expected to be dropping another season right now are delayed due to … well … everything.

I got more enjoyment out of Apple TV+ in its first year than I expected. Winners for me were Then Morning Show, Dickenson, little america, Mythic Quest, For All Mankind, and Greyhound.

That was a lot of TV for me. My biggest disappointment was Amazing Stories. I enjoyed that show back in its first run many years ago, but it just didn’t land with me.

My biggest surprise this year was Ted Lasso. We’re all trying to get through this pandemic. (My wife is now officially a casualty of the Disney lay-offs.) Watching Ted Lasso with the family every week was indeed a highlight and a break from all of that. If you have Apple TV+ and haven’t watched that one yet, you are in for a treat.

Regardless, I think Apple did better at making content in their first year than I expected. As someone who thinks about Apple a lot, I didn’t watch the shows out of some loyalty to the Finder, but instead because they were good shows. I’d always forget I was even watching Apple’s produced shows until a Mac or an iPhone prominently appeared, which did occasionally happen.

Apple is smart to extend the trial a bit longer, given things. When we get to February, and they can release more content, the case for renewal will be easier.

Personal Retreat Video

A few weeks ago I went into the local mountains for a few days on a personal retreat. If was a good experience for me and I’ve got a video explaining how it worked. At the end of the video, I give a link to download my personal retreat materials. If you’ve already signed up for my newsletter, you don’t need to bother. I’ll be sending out links to all of that stuff on Friday.

Some additional personal retreat resources include Mike Schmitz’s Personal Retreat Handbook and Ian Byrd’s Excellent Quarterly Retreat Post.

iPhone 12 Event on October 13


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Today Apple announced the ‘Hi, Speed’ event for October 13, at 10:00 AM Pacific. Apple’s made no secret of delaying the new iPhones’ release until October during this nutty year, and here we are in October.

No word on whether we’ll also see a new iPad Pro or Apple Silicon Macs, but if I had to bet a nickel, I’d say we won’t see any of that. The iPhone is Apple’s bread and butter, and I expect they want the iPhone to get all the attention next week.

The rumored new iPhone design looks like something between the iPhone 4 and the current iPad Pros and I’m all for it. Next week will be fun (and likely expensive).

SaneBox, A Powerful Email Assistant (Sponsor)



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Everything these days is about artificial intelligence. Often people are using AI in apps where I have to wonder if it is worth the trouble. However, this week’s sponsor, SaneBox, is artificial intelligence at its best, helping you with your email. Imagine for a moment that instead of waking up to 200 items in your inbox, you wake up to five, and those five are the most critical emails that you need to read. You can have that experience with SaneBox. And SaneBox is not proprietary—you can use it with any email app or service.

SaneBox is the solution to so many of my email problems. What if you had an assistant who worked for you 24/7 who did nothing but sort and manage your email? Wouldn’t that be nice? That is what SaneBox does. SaneBox is the email service that adds a pile of productivity features to your email, regardless of what email client you use. For a lot of folks, email is a constant pain point, and it doesn’t need to be. With SaneBox at your back, you can:

  • Wake up every day to find that the SaneBox robots have automatically sorted your incoming email for you so you can address the important and ignore the irrelevant.

  • Defer email for hours, days, or weeks, so it is out of your life until a more appropriate time. They have even added a new feature that can optionally auto-reply to snoozed email with something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m underwater right now. I’ll get back to you in a few days.”

  • Set secret reminders so if someone doesn’t reply to an important email, SaneBox gives you a nudge to follow up.

  • Automatically save attachments to the cloud (like Dropbox).

  • Use their SaneFwd service to automatically send appropriate emails to services such as Evernote, Expensify, or Kayak.

  • Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

The list goes on, and MacSparky readers love this service. I have heard from so many readers over the years who finally figured out email when they signed up for SaneBox. Why not straighten out your email by getting a SaneBox account? If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount on your subscription.

Mac Power Users 556: Video Conferencing Deep Dive, with Liana Lehua



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On this week’s Mac Power Users, Liana Lehua joins us to share the best workflows and gear for improving video conferencing and home audio and video. We also discuss business apps, widgets, and revisit the iPad vs. MacBook question.

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.

  • Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to boost your job post.

MindNode Update for iOS 14


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MindNode, my mind mapping app of choice, got a nice update for iOS 14. The new update adds widgets to give you quick access to your maps from your Home Screen. I primarily use MindNode on my iPad, and looking at this new widget, I really wish Apple would open the iPad Home Screen up for more widgets. The good news is that the MindNode will also be coming to Big Sur.

The new version also supports the magic keyboard with some innovative features like pointer gestures. You can Shift + Drag to connect nodes and Option + Click to create new nodes. This all dramatically speeds up the process. They’ve also added a context menu for notes, connections, and images. Finally, MindNode also has scribble support so you can add titles and connections with your Apple Pencil.

The reason I use MindNode is that because the work I do in the app is inherently creative. It’s a time when the very last thing I need is the software to get fiddly with me. I want to create and connect nodes with zero friction. MindNode has always understood that, and this update is right in line with that purpose.

Jazz Friday: New Monk Album, Palo Alto



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There is a new Thelonius Monk album, and the story behind it is almost as great as the music on it. In the late 1960s, a high school student serving as “social commissioner” at Palo Alto High School in Northern California was charged with booking entertainment for the high school auditorium. Instead of booking the local Beatles copycat band, he decided to book Monk. Pulling that off wasn’t easy. First, because he was too young, he had to get his older brother to drive to San Francisco to pick up Monk and his band. They returned with the bass sticking out the window only to find the piano was out of tune. The school janitor agreed to tune the piano if Monk would agree to let him record the concert. It was all a crazy bit of kismet.

So that recording sat around for 52 years, but now we can all enjoy it (Apple Music)(Amazon). You can just tell Monk was having a good time. Monk had a lot of struggles in his life, ranging from getting his Cabaret Card pulled in New York (so he couldn’t perform) to mental illness, but this concert toward the end of his career catches him brilliantly. My favorite track is “Epistrophy”. It is a great song, but this version is special because of the loping groove they start at the beginning and carry throughout the tune. 

Regardless, I didn’t think I would hear any new Monk music for the rest of my lifetime. Aren’t little surprises like this delightful?

Automate Simply with TextExpander (Sponsor)



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We’re all feeling overwhelmed lately. One way to take your time back is with this week’s sponsor, TextExpander. Take your time back with the power of TextExpander. Repetitive typing, little mistakes, searching for answers – they’re all taking precious time away from you and your team. With TextExpander, you can take it back.

The latest version of TextExpander even has new and improved statistics reporting for organizations, including the ability to build reports with customizable date ranges for Enterprise and individuals so you can track how much time your team saves.

With TextExpander, you can:

  • Keep your team consistent, accurate, and current

  • Share your text and images with the whole staff to keep them on track. Everyone will share the same message and give the same answers to all customer questions.

  • Work faster and smarter

  • Use TextExpander’s powerful shortcuts and abbreviations to streamline and speed up everything you type.

  • Create powerful snippets to save you time so that all you type is a short abbreviation, and TextExpander does the rest of the typing for you.

  • Keep your whole team communicating efficiently and with consistent language.

  • Share your snippets of messaging, signatures, and descriptions with everyone who works on projects with you.

The thing I can’t emphasize enough is just how easy it is to start using TextExpander. If you want to start automating but not spend a lot of time getting up and running, TextExpander is for you. Best of all, TextExpander is available on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad. MacSparky readers get 20% off their first year.