Use SaneBox to Upgrade Any Email System (Sponsor)



wlp-rG1w.png


This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox, the email service I use every day to manage my email. SaneBox acts as your own personal email assistant, sorting your inbox for you so you only see the most important emails with less important email getting relegated to other mailboxes for later.

I’m not the only one that relies on SaneBox. It’s also used by companies like eBay, Coca-Cola, Adidas, and LinkedIn to help their employees stay on top of the most important email.

SaneBox has many additional features, like the ability track and notify you if people don’t respond to your email and defer incoming email until later. It really serves as a set of power tools to make every aspect of using email easier and it works with just about any email platform: including iCloud, IMAP, Google, and Exchange. No matter what system, platform, or app you use to do email, SaneBox can help. It’s like feature upgrading every email application. If you’d like to become the boss of your email, go sign up for free SaneBox trial today and use the links in this post to get a significant discount when you sign up.

Mac Power Users 500: David in the Hot Seat



Mac Power Users Artwork.png


Stephen marks the 500th episode of Mac Power Users by interviewing me about my career, technology, and choice of light saber color.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • eero: Get your WiFi fixed as soon as tomorrow! Free overnight shipping.

  • 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.

  • The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Automators 32 – Shortcuts and iOS 13



automators_artwork.png.jpeg


The latest episode of Automators is posted. In it Rose and I cover the breakdown of how Shortcuts will fit into iOS 13.0 and 13.1, some of our favorite new shortcuts, and the looming release of the Shortcuts Field Guide next week.

Sponsors include:

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

  • Zapier: The easiest way to automate your work. Start your 14-day free trial today.

  • Backblaze: Unlimited cloud backup for Macs and PCs for just $6/month.

The Terminal with Terpstra

There are a lot of great resources out there if you want to learn about using Terminal on your Mac. One of my favorites is a collection of posts by Brett Terpstra called “Bash Fun”. You could easily spend an afternoon combing through Brett’s posts. Maybe a fun project for this weekend?

Plan Your Next Project with inShort (Sponsor)



inShort.jpeg


This week MacSparky is sponsored by inShort (website) (Mac App Store) (iOS App Store). inShort is a project planning application for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad that lets you plan projects and processes graphically across all of your Apple devices. 

One of the more innovative features is the way it allows you to embed processes and drill down to the level of detail you need at the moment. The trick with inShort is to build a detailed diagram, and from there the application creates a Gantt chart to execute your plan. If this has your interest, I recommend checking out the inShort Very Quick Guide.

inShort takes a unique approach to project planning and is worth checking out. The inShort development team has also added a satellite service, workflow.link that gives you a way to work with, edit, and manage your projects from any device with a web browser. 

Want to learn more? Check out the website and read the developer’s PDF. 


inShort Screenshot.png

Command P as Canon

One of the most popular posts ever at MacSparky.com was all about printing to PDF with the Command-P key combination. Over the years, that post went through several iterations as Apple made small changes to the operating system. (I actually got the original idea from an old MacOSXHints post.) Regardless, I hear from folks all the time who love the Command-P print-to-PDF trick. Last week, the print-to-PDF trick became canonical when Apple included it in an article on the App Store.

If you’d like some help setting it up, here is a video.

A Few Observations on Today’s Apple Event

More than Hardware

As we all come to grips with the fact that Apple is becoming more of a services company, it was interesting to see they kicked off the event with a discussion of the television and gaming subscription services. I think the pricing on the gaming service, $5 a month, seems about right. I had no idea what to think about the television content pricing going in. It feels to me like Disney has disrupted everyone with excellent pricing for a massive amount of new and old content. In contrast, Apple is going to launch with just a few shows. Had they charged $10 a month, I would’ve felt like it was dead on arrival. Five dollars a month feels better but still strange for such a limited number of shows. The fact that they are going to bundle 12 free months with the purchase of any Apple hardware makes a ton of sense. I guess now it is up to Apple to make good programming.

Camera improvements

There was no surprise about the additional third lens on the iPhone 11 Pro. The interesting part of this presentation was the explanation of what they intend to do with that extra lens through software. The new features look cool, but I need to see them in action. I think Apple gets the fact that camera improvements drive phone sales and I don’t think they’ll lose sight of that any time soon.

Battery Life FTW

One of the announcements concerning the new iPhones was improved battery life of four hours for the small one and an additional five hours for the big one. That is a significant increase. I suspect it has a lot to do with the improvements to the processor and the way it is so aggressive with battery management. If these improvements are real, a lot of iPhone owners are going to be happy. Indeed, that may be the killer feature with the new phones if it weren’t for that slow-motion selfie camera, because …

The Slow Motion Selfie Camera is a Bigger Deal than their Nerds Think It Is

As someone who spends too much time at Disneyland, I can tell you that a lot of people take more pictures with the lens on the front of their phone than the one on the back. Those folks are going to love a slow-motion selfie. This feature will sell iPhones.

Pro Max, Really?

I like the new naming conventions of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. I hope that the “S” days are behind us and next year sees an iPhone 12. I do wish they had come up with something other than “Pro Max” for the big one.

Presenter Diversity

There was plenty of diversity and new faces among the presenters, and they all did great. I have to think that after Craig Federighi’s first presentation, Apple instituted some training program for their presenters. They’ve all been so reliable since, and of course, Federighi is now amazing at it. I do still have a soft spot for Phil Schiller when he gets to talk about the iPhone camera. Here’s a guy that likes talking about mobile photography … and pixel density.

That $329 iPad

A common complaint against Apple is that they do good at the high end but don’t deliver much in terms of value pricing. I would argue that one exception to this is the iPad. That new iPad, which is just $329, includes smart connector (and Smart Keyboard) support and Apple Pencil support. It looks pretty great, and you could buy three of them for what I paid for my iPad Pro. There are a lot of people that could get by just fine with this new iPad and the new iPadOS, particularly with the improvements to Safari.

Apple Can Still Surprise

Because today was a hardware event, I didn’t expect many surprises. Nevertheless, Apple delivered. The new iPhone Pro line got a new color, midnight green. (I love it, and I’m going to buy one.) It was also a surprise to me that the back on these new iPhones is a matte finish. I prefer that. Hopefully, it’s a bit more grippy and makes the phone feel less like a bar of soap.

An even bigger surprise was the fact that the new Apple Watch, Series 5 features an always-on watch face. I thought that was several years away and I am delighted that we can now get it. I had no intention of upgrading my Apple Watch this year, but now I’m in.

The iOS 13 Release Date

While it is always fun watching an Apple event, I had some low-level anxiety throughout this one. I am very nearly done with the new Shortcuts Field Guide, and I wanted to make sure it was available on day one of the iOS 13 release. They never explained in the keynote when iOS 13 is going to release, but an Apple press release sets the date as September 19, next Thursday. That’s a few more days than I was expecting, and I’ll take that. Speaking of which, the new Shortcuts Field Guide will be my biggest yet, and it is coming out great. Stay tuned.

Mac Power Users 499: Backups and Updates



Mac Power Users Artwork.png


Backing up our Macs, iPhones, and iPads is easier than ever, but many people don’t bother making sure their data is safe and sound. On this week’s episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I talk through some basic backup strategies before offering some advice when considering upgrading to new versions of macOS and iOS.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!

  • TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.

  • Hover: Make a name for yourself. Get 10% off any domain name.

  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.