Mac Power Users 553: Sparky’s Wrong … Again

It’s a Mac Power Users feedback episode! Stephen and I talk more about HomeKit, Dropbox, photo management, and much, much more.

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The Apple September 15 Event

On Tuesday, Apple is having its first of an expected several events over the next few months. Announcements expected over this time are:

New Watches on September 15
New iPad Air on September 15

After that, there are iPhones, Apple Silicon Macs, a supposed Tile competitor, and who-knows-what else, which should arrive starting in October.

As to the new Apple Watch, 9to5 Mac did some sleuthing and found code related to blood-oxygen level sensors. I’m glad to see Apple continue with yearly updates to the Apple Watch. When you compare what they started with to what we’re going to get on Tuesday, they’ve come a long way.

It also looks like we are getting close to the iOS 14 release. We’ll learn a lot on Tuesday.

Automators 58: Automating with TJ Luoma

TJ Luoma joins Rosemary and me on this episode of Automators to talk about some of his favorite automations and all of the crazy things he is doing with his Stream Deck.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

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IFTTT Pro

For years now, many of us have had a standing “Yeah, but” for IFTTT. It’s an excellent service that reliably connects things on the Internet for simple automation. BUT, it has never embraced the complexity that you start looking for about 10 minutes after you first try the service. I’ve lamented the lack of conditional logic and triggers for multiple events so many times. I’ve stated on the blog and podcasts numerous times that if only they give me more complex tools, I’d gladly pay for the service. This week IFTTT called my bluff.

IFTTT Pro has now launched with all the features I’ve been pining for:

Multi-step Applets
Queries and conditional logic
Multiple actions
Faster Applet execution

If you buy in during the next four weeks, you can even set your own price. I’m now an official IFTTT Pro subscriber, and I’ve got time blocked to play with these new tools. Expect more on this to come, but if you are interested, I recommend subscribing in the next month to get it at a price that makes sense to you.

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 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

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:

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