Focused 92: Getting Focused, with Kourosh Dini

Author, physician, and busy guy Kourosh Dini joins us on the latest episode of Focused to talk about how to stay focused when you have a lot of things going on.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Guest Appearance on the Rebel Force Radio

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I haven’t posted much on Star Wars as of late, but l recently guested on my favorite Star Wars Podcast, Rebel Force Radio where I went in-depth on the new Rise of the Resistance ride at Disneyland, the Rise of Skywalker movie, and why I didn’t like the way they handled Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. It’s a lot of Star Wars talk and it all starts at about the 1 hour 45-minute mark.

Also, if you’re interested, here’s the Batuu Rebel.

Mac Power Users 521: Taming Notifications

From messages and emails to sports scores and social media, our devices generate all sorts of notifications. On this week’s episode of Mac Power Users, we discuss how to weed the garden and tame the madness.

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Automators 42: Toobox Pro with Alex Hay

Toolbox Pro developer (and documentary film editor) Alex Hay joins Rosemary and me on the latest episode of Automators to explain how he stumbled from scratching his own itch to making a powerful Siri Shortcuts utility app, Toolbox Pro.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

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The Six Colors Apple Report Card

At the end of each year, Jason Snell asks a few people in the Apple community to score Apple’s wins and losses with his annual Apple report card. Today Jason released the report card for 2019. Unexpectedly, Apple’s services score continues to improve, and its software score for 2019 took a beating. This annual report card is an excellent resource for the community to take in how folks see Apple in its various business lines over the years.

While I understand why the software quality score went down in 2019 (there were a lot of problems with Catalina and the iOS 13 launch), I wasn’t as bullish as everyone else in 2018 when they had a stable release with very few new features. I want Apple to be more aggressive about improving the operating systems, but I also want them to ship stable software. Hopefully, they can walk and chew gum in 2020.

The Omni Group 2020 Road Map

The Omni Group is one of the few big software companies that give a yearly roadmap. I understand why so few companies do this. Often priorities change. For example, last year the Omni Group ended up spending a lot of time for OmniFocus for iPad as a result of announcements at WWDC 2019 that meant some of their other plans got pushed back. As someone on the outside (and also someone that often has to deal with shifting priorities), I find it fascinating to see how the Omni Group plans and adjusts. Regardless, the 2020 Omni Group Road Map has a few highlights worth sharing.

Automation!

The Omni Group has been working on its own flavor of JavaScript automation for some time. They’ve got some very smart developers, and they’re also getting help from Sal Soghoian. 2020 looks like the year they are going to be putting the pedal down automation so users can create their own custom features. It is probably no surprise that this is my favorite destination on the Omni Road Map. I announced in the January MacSparky newsletter that I’d be doing a free update to the OmniFocus Field Guide this year. You can expect there will be content around this new Omni automation. You cal also expect the Automators podcast will be all over this.

OmniFocus for the Web

The Web version of OmniFocus shipped last year. Additional features are coming, however, so you’ll be able to get even more OmniFocus features on your office windows machine.

OmniPlan 4

Omni Plan has always sought to be the planning app that is both powerful and easy to use. Version 4 is in the works that will push on both of those objectives.

Simplified Licensing

The Omni Group is hoping to introduce a sign-in licensing program, so you don’t have to fiddle with software license codes anymore. The goal is to make using your Omni apps as easy as signing into Netflix.

Fantastical 3 and the Fantastical Field Guide

Fanstastical 3 Is Available

Fantastical, Version 3, launches today. Fantastical has always been known for its powerful text parser. Type a few words and create an event. This new version stretches the idea of a calendar app for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

I had a lot more involvement with the Fantastical 3 development than just running the beta. To begin, I served in a semi-official “calendar nerd” role over the last few years, as I sent the Fantastical development team unreasonable requests in my quest to have my “perfect” calendar app. No matter how ridiculous my demand, I sent it in and they just kept delivering. Second, I spent a lot of time on the app as it finished up development, and I made nearly two hours of screencasts on how the app works. You can see those screencasts on YouTube or get the new free Fantastical Field Guide.

So I’ve gone deep with this app, and I’m a fan. There are a lot of things about calendars that go beyond creating and editing events. Fantastical attempts to tackle those extra problems, and that’s where the app really shines.

Take proposed events, for example. For years, if I wanted to schedule a meeting with someone, I would send them an email with a proposed meeting time. If I was on top of my game, I would simultaneously create an event on my calendar with a question mark at the beginning to save the date. For example, “?Lunch with Stephen”. If Stephen later confirmed, I could edit the event to remove the question mark, and I’d be set. But what if I wanted to propose two or five different dates to Stephen? Things got tedious fast.

This new Fantastical solves this problem for me. I can propose multiple times to Stephen, and he’ll get an email which shows those options. Once he chooses, it will communicate back to my calendar, locking in the agreed time and removing all of the other proposed events automatically. Stephen doesn’t have to be a Fantastical user for this to work. Also, regardless of Stephen’s calendar app, the email will let him create an event for the agreed time. This solves a problem I’ve had with scheduling events for years, and it is just one of the many innovations with Fantastical 3. Here is a short video demonstration.

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For the first time, you can get Fantastical for free, which gets you Fantastical’s core app and the date parser. For all of the premium features, there is a subscription version ($4.99/month or $39.99/year). If you were a Fantastical 2 customer, the new version gives you all of the same features from version 2 without requiring a subscription. There is also a free trial period with the premium features so you can kick the tires for yourself.

I love the idea of a calendar app that works harder for me, and Fantastical 3 does that. And if you would like to learn a lot more about Fantastical …

The Fantastical Field Guide

In addition, I am pleased to announce the release of a brand new free Field Guide, the Fantastical Field Guide. I have been using Fantastical since it was just a Mac menu bar app. I like the way this application works and the way it speeds up my interactions with my calendar. Over the years, the app has grown into something much more with versions for the iPhone and iPad, and a dedicated application on the Mac. In my opinion, it is superior to the Apple Calendar app in just about every measurable way.

When the Fantastical developers were getting ready to release version 3 of the application, they asked me to prepare an extensive screencast series on how the app works and how I use it. I was happy to do so. That resulted in nearly two hours of video screencasts with me working in Fantastical 3 and explaining how to use its many features. Along the way, I was able to drop in a lot of good general advice about how to use a digital calendar. When the project was done, we were all so happy with it that the Fantastical team gave me permission to release all of these videos as a free Field Guide.

So, here you go. The Fantastical Field Guide is a free download that is as close as I am going to get to a calendaring field guide anytime soon. I hope you enjoy it.

Stephen Hackett’s iPad Keynote Commentary

I really enjoyed watching Stephen Hacket re-watch the original iPad announcement 10 years ago. We’ve got a bunch of iPad-related ten year anniversaries coming up. If you could track my enthusiasm about iPad over the 10 years, it looks something like this:

I was super excited at the beginning but my enthusiasm wained in those middle years when Apple didn’t seem interested in making the iPad anything more than a big iPhone. Lately, however, that interest is on the rise again. Outstanding hardware and better software are the source of my hope. I think the next few years will be interesting for the iPad. Will Apple continue to press down on the gas and get the enthusiasm of power users? I suspect they will. The iPhone is no longer the profit rocket ship it once was and making a more compelling case for the iPad should be low hanging fruit for Apple. I think we’ll get our first clue as to whether this is the case in June at at WWDC 2020. Either way, I hope you enjoy Stephen’s video below and happy 10th iPad.

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MindNode 7 Released

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MindNode, my favorite mind mapping app, recently released version 7. The new version adds visual tags to your maps with colored dots you can drop in at the end of nodes. It gives you one more visual tool for mind mapping, and their uses go as far as your imagination. I’ve been using them to represent progress as I work through the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide update nodes. The tags work on both iOS and Mac platforms and they are an excellent addition.

The app also still has that clean design that I love and the ability to jump between mind maps and outlines in the application.

MindNode has also shifted the business model to a subscription pricing plan to help support future development. ($2.49/month or $19.99/year) Even though they’ve made this move, they are making the new update with visual tags a free upgrade to existing MindNode 5 and 6 customers. When I first got into mind mapping, the software was hundreds of dollars and couldn’t hold a candle to MindNode. I use MindNode nearly every day, so the $20 per year price tag is an easy decision for me.

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Mac Power Users 520: Weather Apps & Gear

Gone are the days of waiting for the evening news to find out the weather for the next day. Now, weather data is accessible anywhere. Stephen and I compare a bunch of different weather apps and services before picking our favorite on the latest episode of Mac Power Users.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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