The Imminent MacBook Pro

Since Apple didn’t do an October event, they’ve been releasing new products on their website. We got the new AirPods Pro last week. In this coming week, I’m expecting a new MacBook Pro. I don’t have any inside information on this. Still, the rumor sites seem to have daily leaked images, and it seems like it is about time to get these in stores if people plan to buy each other very expensive laptops for the holidays (or companies can buy them before year-end). I usually wouldn’t write about a pending laptop update, but I’m particularly interested in this one. By all accounts, it will have a 16-inch display in about the same footprint as the 15-inch MacBook Pro. More importantly, it is rumored to have a new technology keyboard … that doesn’t suck.

If you are in the market for a MacBook Pro, wait a few weeks.

From David to Goliath

A strange thing happened this week. Apple announced its quarterly results and the iPhone is down 10%, yet Wall Street didn’t entirely lose its mind. It appears Apple is no longer is just the iPhone company. Thank God.

It seems that just about everything else Apple makes is growing in sales. iPad sales are up 8%, Services, which don’t even include Apple TV+ yet, are up 20%. Best of all, wearables (things like the Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod) are up 50%.

So what does all of this mean? For me, as an Apple consumer, it’s a really good thing. For years, Apple was focused entirely on the iPhone. They couldn’t make the iPad better because the iPhone was their meal ticket, and all focus had to be on the iPhone. While the iPhone blasted off like a rocket ship, all other things Apple suffered.

Well, now the rocket ship has reached orbit. Apple is not going to continue to get significant growth from the iPhone unless they can discover new markets on Mars or Jupiter. In my headcanon, that resulted in a meeting at Apple a few years ago where Tim Cook said, “Hey guys, the iPhone can’t do much better. We’ve got to find some other stuff to sell.” While I’m sure that hypothetical meeting will result in new product categories, Apple didn’t have to look far to get more out of their existing products. The iPad (both hardware and software) suddenly got better. The same goes for the Apple Watch. The Mac appears to have Apple’s attention again with a rumored new laptop (and new keyboard!) and an expected ship date of a screaming new Mac Pro. And don’t forget services, because Apple surely never will again.

Overall, I think this is good news. The one piece that concerns me is the sheer diversity of products being created and sold by Apple at this point. Now they are a company that sells everything from watches to computers to television shows. I suspect focus is going to be a challenge. Likewise, all the little details that Apple always got right are going to be a lot more difficult given the increasing number of plates they have to keep in the air. So how does Apple survive this transition from David into Goliath while sticking with its core values? That’s an excellent question, and one Tim Cook and the rest of his team are going to have to struggle with over the next several years.

Ulysses: Ready for iOS 13 and iPadOS (Sponsor)

This week MacSparky is sponsored by Ulysses, the powerful, yet simple-to-use, writing app for all of the Apple platforms. With the release of iOS 13 and the new iPadOS, Ulysses was there on day one. The latest version 18 includes all the great new features, including support for Dark Mode and the system Split View on iPad. The Ulysses team has also made the application less dependent on iCloud. If you want, now you can sync your Ulysses library in Dropbox without functional compromises.

I am a fan of this application. I use it for all of my significant writing projects. Indeed, this is very post was written in Ulysses. The reason I like it so much is the combination of power and simplicity. The developers are opinionated and have built a beautiful application that’s fun to write in. At the same time, they have not overloaded it with bells and whistles to such an extent that it gets in the way of your writing. It’s just the perfect balance for me. If you haven’t checked out Ulysses, you should. If you sign up with the links in this blog post, you’ll even get three months of Ulysses for free.

A Tale of Two Tech Giants

Today we got news of Microsoft adding Split View, Do Not Disturb, smart folders, and more to the most recent version of Microsoft Outlook for iPhone and iPad.

Meanwhile, Google Docs lingers. I continue to be amazed at the impressive attention Microsoft gives to Apple platforms in comparison to Google. Several years ago, I would’ve been shocked by it. These days, I expect it.

This shouldn’t be surprising, given the two companies’ relative positions as the outside platforms. The days of windows versus Mac are officially over. That is not so true on mobile.

Focused 85: The Depth of Our Madness

Mike and I reveal our obsession with calendars on the latest episode of Focused. We discuss time and tasks, maintaining motivation, and our own calendaring workflows for how we plan our day. 

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

  • FreshBooks: Online invoicing made easy.

  • Bottomless: Re-ordering coffee based on your consumption. Get 3 months of free shipping and your first bag for only $10.

  • Blinkist: Read 3,000+ books in 15 minutes or fewer. Start your 7-day free trial.

The New AirPods

Apple has now released a second set of AirPods. These include several additional features:

  • Rubber tips so you can make them fit your ears better.

  • More water resistant. (Really … sweat and light rain resistant)

  • Noise cancellation

I think all three features are important but noise cancellation is the one I’d be most intested in. Interestingly, it has a pass through mode for when you are using it when noise cancelling is not worth it, or even dangerous. These aren’t meant to be a replacement product to the existing AirPods but a premium product.

I don’t care for use of the “Pro” moniker, but I like the look of the new AirPods. I’ll be reporting back when mine show up.

Mac Power Users 507: Ian Elsner and His Stick of Gum PC

Ian Elsner joins us on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users. Elsner is a museum exhibit creator who is using the iPhone SE, iPad Pro, and an Intel Compute Stick together in some very interesting and unusual ways to help develop educational exhibits for kids and adults.

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.

  • 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.

  • Linode: High performance SSD Linux servers for all of your infrastructure needs. Get a $20 credit.

  • Kensington: The professionals’ choice. Find the right docking solutions for your organization today.

Automators 35: Automating Business with Don McAllister

On the latest episode of Automators, Rosemary and I are joined by Don McAllister, founder of ScreenCastsOnline, to talk about the automations he has set up to make running a small business easier for everyone.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

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

  • FreshBooks: Online invoicing made easy.

  • Bottomless: Re-ordering coffee based on your consumption. Get 3 months of free shipping and your first bag offer $10.

This week MacSparky is sponsored by TextExpander. Copy and paste is an inefficient way to keep track of the things you type again and again. TextExpander makes you more productive by taking care of all those words and phrases for you. TextExpander works in all your apps so you can use it everywhere, like Microsoft Word and Excel, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, and Apple’s Pages.

TextExpander does way more than that. With TextExpander you’ll see your snippets everywhere. It syncs between your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Windows PC instantly.

They’ve got free snippet groups for all sorts of folks including job recruiters, freelancers, airport codes, brand names, and more at the TextExpander website (or you can download some of mine).

TextExpander even lets you run AppleScripts. For example, I use TextExpander to auto address emails with Apple Mail.

Best of all, with TextExpander you don’t have to work alone: TextExpander for Teams lets you manage and share snippets with your coworkers or the entire company. Use this link to get 20% off

The Sad (But Improving) State of HomeKit Cameras

While HomeKit, as a platform, has made a lot of progress over the last few years, the Achilles’ heel remains cameras. There are very few options, and all of them are expensive. In June, Apple announced new support for cameras in HomeKit, including a service where, as part of your iCloud subscription, you can store HomeKit connected camera video safely on Apple’s iCloud. It’s called HomeKit Secure Video. This makes a lot of sense from a security standpoint and it will save HomeKit users some money. 

As I sat in the room and listened to the announcement, however, I couldn’t help but wonder which vendors would support it. Most of the camera vendors make a lot of money charging customers to store their video in the cloud. Generally, you should expect to pay about $100 a year to have someone manage that storage for you. Why would vendors build in support with their cameras for a system that makes their lucrative add-on service obsolete?

This is an issue of particular interest to me because I want to upgrade my cameras and home security system to something more HomeKit friendly but have been unhappy with the available options.

In the last few days, we’ve had some promising news. The popular Arlo system now supports HomeKit. However, Arlo isn’t currently planning on making its cameras work with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video. (Arlo has its own cloud storage subscriptions component for $10/month.) We also got news of an upgrade to the Eufy Cam 2 camera system. The company behind the Eufy cameras is Anker. I have been buying their portable batteries for years, and I’m glad to see them expanding. Indeed, it appears they have a lot of interesting home security/camera products in the pipeline. They don’t have a cloud service but instead, give you the ability to save video directly to a memory card on your local network. Not surprisingly, it appears the new Eufy Cam 2 will support HomeKit Secure Video. The new Eufy Cam 2 ships next month.

It is too early to tell, but these announcements are promising. I’m going to sit tight for a few more months to see how things pan out, but the ability to build my security system inside HomeKit is starting to look more like a possibility and less like a pipe dream.