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.

Grammarly Gets Better on iPad


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Yesterday Grammarly, my online grammar checker of choice, released a new version of their iPad app. Historically, the Grammarly app was just this side of garbage. There was no app, per se, but a keyboard that would grammar check your document. In theory, this is good. It saves you the trouble of round-tripping your text to the Grammarly app. In practice, it was rough. While the grammar-checking engine has always been good, the previous version required you to remove your iPad from an attached keyboard to check grammar. It drove me nuts every time.

With this new version, the keyboard is much more useful. Indeed I’m using it right now. Also, there is now a stand-alone version of the Grammarly editor, so opening the app gets you … well … an app, where in the past it was just a fancy wrapper for the Grammarly keyboard.

I’ve subscribed to Grammarly for a few years, and I’ll renew again. I don’t know what exactly is going on over at Grammarly, but they’ve released several new, useful features in the grammar checking engine over the last six months and now the iPad app has gone from dreadful to useful.

The ElevationHub



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ElevationLab is one of my favorite makers of tech gizmos, and I own many of their products. Today I pre-ordered their latest addition, the ElevationHub. It is a small gizmo that plugs into the Apple USB-C laptop chargers and includes a pass-through USB-C, an additional USB-A port, an SD Card Reader, and a bit of velcro that lets you wrap and hold a cable around the charger. It’s all very clever and I’m in.

Fantastical 3.1 Releases and New Videos

Today Flexibits released a major update to Fantastical with version 3.1. This is the “working from home” update with a bunch of new features aimed at people surprised to find themselves working from home:

Time-Based Calendar Sets

Calendar sets have always been a cool feature. Now you can have them trigger automatically at a specific time of day.

Better Conference Calling

Fantastical’s Zoom integration is excellent. You can add a zoom call straight from the app. With this update, Fantastical can now auto-detect conference calls with several popular conferencing services, and it adds a one-click “join” button to your calendar (and your menubar) as the event approaches.

And More Improvements

They also added new Mac appearance options customized for both light and dark mode, added iMessage stickers, and made several other improvements and optimizations.

This is a free update for Fantastical subscribers. I made a few videos for Flexibits showing off the new features. Below is one, but you can find several more on Fantastical’s website. I like the way Flexibits has continued to release features of consequence since the app launch. I am using both the new time-based calendar sets and zoom integration daily. Learn more about Fantastical at their website.

If you subscribed to the Fantastical Field Guide, these new videos are also now available in the course for viewing and download.

Last Call for Introductory Pricing on the Photos Field Guide



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I have been thrilled with the warm reception for the Photos Field Guide. I didn’t know what to expect, releasing it during a pandemic, but the feedback has been excellent, and customers are writing to tell me how much better they are at taking, organizing, and finding their photos.

Now that all of the transcripts and the ePub are in place, it’s time for the last call on introductory pricing for the Photos Field Guide. The price will go up to $29 later this week. If you want in on the discount price, now is the time.