The Case of the Secret iPod

David Shayer delivers another gem, this one about when he was asked to work on a secret government project to make a “special” iPod that he speculates was used as a Geiger counter by James Bond types. I can’t help but wonder that if the government came knocking on the door of 2020 Apple, whether they’d so quickly let them into their software.

Mac Power Users 549: Brett Terpstra’s New Robe



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Brett Terpstra returns Mac Power Users, and on this episode he’s talking about the Touch Bar, regular expressions, Markdown, and what Apple silicon Macs will mean for macOS applications and utilities. 

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. 

  • 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.

Automators 56: Document Automation



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Strap in gang! Rosemary and I are digging in on document automation on this episode of Automators. Whether you assemble your words with text, the Web, or Microsoft Word, we have ideas and automations. We are also tackling stacking shortcuts in iOS, email automation, and scripting OmniFocus.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

  • PDFpen, from Smile: The ultimate tool for editing PDFs on the Mac.

  • ExpressVPN: High-speed, secure and anonymous VPN service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.

  • DEVONthink: Get organized—unleash your creativity. Use this link for 10% off.

Sign Up for My Free Keyboard Maestro Webinar



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For some time now I’ve been trying to increasingly work with my technology in terms of contexts, not apps. I don’t want to open the Mail App to check email. Instead, I want to open the mail app to look at my legal inbox and nothing else. I don’t want to open Safari to a home page. Instead, I want to open Safari to the specific page on my learn.macsparky platform that lets me manage customer support issues. Staying in context means avoiding getting sidetracked. It means checking the email in one account and not crashing into my email from every account. It means fixing a customer support problem without getting trapped by surfing dogs. (Yes. There are surfing dogs, and I love them.)

This idea started for me on the iPhone and quickly found its way to the iPad, using Shortcuts. Over the last few months, I’ve implemented this context-based computing on my Mac and it’s glorious. I’m pulling it all off with Keyboard Maestro. There are three areas in my life: Personal, MacSparky, and the legal practice. With just a few keyboard shortcuts I can perform all of my most common tasks in each area of my life in context using Keyboard Maestro.

Best of all, I’m going to share how I’m pulling this off in a free webinar on August 27. You can sign up now. It will be a fun event full of Keyboard Maestro scripts and tips. It will be the first Field Guide webinar and I’m putting a lot of effort into it. I hope to see you on August 27. 

If you’d like to see the webinar but can’t make it on August 27, go ahead and sign up. I’ll be sending out a link to watch a recording of the webinar afterward.

Taming the Terminal: Free eBook on Learning to Use the Mac Terminal



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Allison Sheridan and Bart Busschots did a series on Allison’s podcast about using the Mac Terminal. I remember thinking at the time how brave they were to talk about something so technical in the audio format, but Allison and Bart got it just right. Now they have released the series as a free eBook on the Apple Book Store, or if you’re interested in other formats like PDF, HTML, or Kindle, you can find it at podfeet.com/tttbook. If you would like some help getting started with Terminal, this is a great resource (and weekend project).

The AppleScript Email Extractor

I spent several hours putting together a super-nerdy Keyboard Maestro script that saves an Apple Mail message as a PDF and then uses some AppleScript to pull data out of the message and use it in the file name. I’ve already added the video, the Keyboard Maestro Script, and the AppleScript to the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide. Below you can watch the video and download the AppleScript here.

Fantastical for Families



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Today Flexibits announced Fantastical Premium for Families. With it, you can get up to 5 family members in Fantastical for $7.99 a month. If you’ve got more than a few members of your family on Fantastical, that’s a nice discount. It’s also an excellent excuse to put the rest of your family on Fantastical. With Fantastical’s power features, it runs circles around the built-in calendar app. Want to learn more about Fantastical? There is a free Field Guide for that.