Conquer Your World with OmniFocus – Sponsor

This week MacSparky is sponsored by one of my favorite applications, OmniFocus. Grown up task management is the key to staying on top of your projects. These days we have more commitments than ever and we need powerful tools to stay on top. That is why I use OmniFocus. It is so much more than just a task manager with built in tools to manage project review and tags giving you so many ways to capture and manage your tasks.

The Omni Group even now has a web-based version that lets you access and modify your data from any computer with a web browser. I use this app every day. It is how I’m able to keep my act together. Do you need a little help? Try OmniFocus. I don’t know how I’d get by without it.

The iPad as Laptop Replacement, Continued

A few days ago, MKBHD posted a video explaining how he is using his iPad Pro with the beta iPadOS installation to replace his laptop. That has always been my play. I still use my iMac every day on my desk, but I like the idea of being able to work on the iPad when I go mobile. It is early days, and the beta is still a work in progress with many bugs, but I think this release is going to tip a lot of people toward the iPad as mobile device lifestyle. There a lot of reasons but two that particularly stand out are file management and the new Safari.

File Management

File Management using the latest operating system works a lot better. You can now create folders when you save files, and there are now multiple categories to sort and organize your files. While it’s not up to all of the features that you get with the Mac’s Finder, it has most of what you need. The new release does not address tags, so if that’s important to you, you may still need a laptop. However, for most garden-variety file management, the iPad is up to the task, although a bit slower.

The New Safari

I cannot understate the value of a desktop class browser on the iPad. With the installation of the beta, all of my trouble spots on the Internet that traditionally did not work on the iPad immediately started working. That includes Google Docs and Sheets, my banking website, Squarespace, and all the other fiddly sites I could never get to work on my iPad. Indeed, since installing the beta, I have yet to find a website that doesn’t work.

There’s a certain amount of delight that comes with using the iPad. That usually comes with a trade-off in that things may take slightly longer. Regardless, you will be able to get real work done on your iPad with this new release and you just may find it replacing your laptop come September.

Mac Power Users 489: Gear as a Motivator, with Tyler Stalman

Tyler Stalman is a photographer, videographer, YouTuber, and small business owner alongside his wife Ania Boniecka. Oh, and he loves gear … maybe too much, as he confesses to Stephen and me on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!
The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Away: Thoughtful luggage for modern travel. Get $20 off a suitcase with promo code mpu.

Farewell, Jony

Yesterday Apple announced Jony Ive is leaving to form his own company. John Gruber’s take is excellent. This is the kind of subject that John just nails. The only thing I’d add is the same advice I tell everyone when a perceived “irreplaceable” person leaves a job. Everyone is replaceable. The big question is whether Apple still considers design with the same priority it did before. It’s arguable that ship sailed when Steve Jobs died. Either way, the sky isn’t falling.

Focused 76: A Failure Across the Board

Join us for the latest episode of Focused. Mike and I dispel a myth about our feelings toward time tracking, and I out myself about exactly how unproductive I was on my last trip. Mike is getting serious about bullet journaling and also has a distinction between personal retreats and greycations. Also, imposter syndrome is still a thing.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FOCUSED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.
Timing: The automatic time-tracking app for macOS. Use this link to save 10% on your purchase.

Public Betas

I was surprised how early Apple released the public betas of iOS13, iPadOS, and Catalina. I have installed the developer betas on several of my own devices, but none of my key devices. While I’m genuinely enthusiastic with many of the changes and upgrades this year, I think we are a little early in the beta process, as I am still experiencing several crashes and inconsistencies.

I know Apple warns you about this when you sign up for the public beta, but I would like to reaffirm: Do not load these early public betas on any device you use to pay for your shoes. That is all.

Make Email Easier with SaneBox

This week’s sponsor, SaneBox is the solution to so many of my email problems. SaneBox is the email service that adds a pile of productivity features to your email, regardless of what email client you use. For a lot of folks, email is a constant pain point, and it doesn’t need to be. With SaneBox at your back, you can:

Wake up every day to find the SaneBox robots have automatically sorted your incoming email for you so you can address the important and ignore the irrelevant.
Defer email for hours, days, or weeks, so it is out of your life until a more appropriate time. They’ve even added a new feature that can optionally auto-reply to snoozed email with something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m underwater right now. I’ll get back to you in a few days.”
Set secret reminders so if someone doesn’t reply to an important email SaneBox gives you a nudge to follow up.
Automatically save attachments to the cloud (like Dropbox).
Use their SaneForward service to automatically send appropriate emails to services like Evernote, Expensify, and Kayak.
Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

The list goes on, and MacSparky readers love this service. I’ve heard from so many readers over the years that finally figured out email when they signed up for SaneBox. Why not straighten out your email by getting a SaneBox account. If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount on your subscription.

A Survey of Voice-to-Text Options on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone

<br />

A lot of folks have been asking me what I’m doing about voice-to-text dictation now that Nuance has officially pulled out of the Mac and appears to have relatively abandoned iOS. If this is news to you, Nuance, the makers of Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, speech-to-text software, announced back in October that they would no longer support the Mac. It was disappointing news. Nuance has always been the leader in voice-to-speech dictation, and I have been a customer of theirs for years on both the Windows PC and Mac platforms.

If you already bought Dragon for Mac, you will find that it still works. I have no idea how long that will continue. If I had to bet a nickel, I would bet installation of macOS Catalina as the day that Dragon dies on my Mac. But at least for now, you still have working software.

Over on the iPad and iPhone, the story gets even weirder. Nuance says they are still supporting those platforms. Their product Dragon Anywhere is, in my opinion, the best dictation solution on the iPhone and iPad. For years I gladly paid $14.99 a month to have that service because it was so useful on the iPad. Specifically, I had a workflow where I would look at a PDF and then dictate comments about it at the same time using the Dragon Anywhere software. It worked great, particularly with split screen.

That all came to a screeching halt when Dragon Anywhere just stopped working on my iPad Pro. The software went from being the best in class to complete garbage. It would drop entire sentences and generally not work. I looked into this a bit further and discovered that the problem is with the iPad Pro, where I did all of my mobile dictation with Dragon Anywhere. (I find Siri dictation just fine for short emails and text messages. Dragon Anywhere is what I need for the big jobs, which all occur on the iPad.)

For whatever reason, however, Dragon Anywhere no longer works on the iPad Pro. This is a known issue and has been for months. Dragon Anywhere is getting destroyed in the reviews in the App Store because of this failure and has, at least to my knowledge, not made any public comment or commitment to getting its software working on iPad Pro. Dragon Anywhere does, however, work on the iPad mini and iPhone just fine. Like I said, weird.

If Nuance has abandoned the Mac and seems only very slightly interested in the iPad and iPhone, what are we to do? The answer is … complicated.

Solving This Problem on the Macintosh

There is no clear successor to Dragon Professional Individual for Mac. Siri dictation has made great strides recently, but it still has a long ways to go. Two critical elements for any voice-to-text dictation system are the ability to keep an open mic and the ability to store custom dictionary values. If I have a client with a unique name, I should be able to teach that name to the software so I can dictate it without having to go back later and fix it. If the software doesn’t support that, I have to use some silly name, like “Tiger”, and then go back later to do a search and replace on that unique name. That’s more work. I don’t like more work.

Siri dictation on the Mac ticks off only one of these boxes. It can indeed leave an open mic, but it has no custom dictionary. Moreover, it just isn’t as good as Dragon for the Mac. It’s close. Indeed, it is much closer than it used to be. But if you are used to Dragon, you will notice a difference. I demonstrate this in the attached video.

Another solution would be to install a local instance of Windows and then run the Dragon for Windows on your Mac. Don’t laugh. I have heard from many listeners and readers who have done this. Frankly, I don’t blame them. If you spend a lot of time dictating to your Mac to get your work done, you need the best possible tool, and, as the attached videos demonstrate, Siri dictation just isn’t there yet.

You could also hire it out. There are a lot of good solutions now with web-based dictation. Some use robots, like Temi, and others use humans, like GoTranscript. The robot-based systems are not, in my experience, any better than Siri dictation and often worse. The human-based services are deadly accurate and can be quite expensive, but depending on how you charge your time, it may be the best solution for you.

The point is that I’m just not happy with any of the alternatives to Dragon Professional Individual for Mac. I have been whistling past the graveyard for the past several months as Dragon continues to work on my Mac. One day in the future, probably September with the release of Catalina, that will end. At that point, I may seriously consider doing a Windows install just to have the Nuance software on my desktop. Another alternative I will seriously consider at that time, assuming Nuance hasn’t completely abandon Dragon Anywhere, is to dictate on the iPad and iPhone. I find Dragon Anywhere almost (but not quite) as good as Dragon for Mac.

Solving This Problem on the iPad and iPhone

Apple has made continued strides with Siri dictation on the iPhone and iPad. I find it very useful. The trick is to be precise when you speak to it and not mumble your words. You also have to understand the limitations of the application. There is a timer. After about four sentences, it’s going to end. If it ends midsentence, you are going to have a grammar crash on your hands and have to spend time fixing things later. You always have to be aware when you hit that third sentence and stop the dictation, and then start again. The Drafts application gets around this, sort of, but even it sometimes stumbles when the dictation timer resets during a dictation session.

If you are voice-to-text curious, Siri dictation on your iPad and iPhone is a great place to start. You can use it anywhere that you are using the keyboard. Just tap the microphone button and start talking.

If you want more serious dictation tools, like dictation without a timer and a custom dictionary, Dragon Anywhere is probably still best, provided that you are only using it on an iPhone or a non-iPad Pro. But it is hard for me to recommend this product at this point because it seems like the developer isn’t entirely convinced it wants to continue to support it. Just like on the Mac, it is still working for me (sort of) and I’m still using it.

Also, just like the Mac, there are third-party services that can transcribe your voice via robot or human for a fee with varying degrees of success, but as I explained earlier, quality can get expensive.

A Murky Ending

The reason I have delayed publishing this article is that I kept thinking I would find the magic solution and, frankly, it doesn’t exist. Everything I have discussed in this article requires some sort of compromise, whether it be money, quality, convenience (like installing Windows on your Mac), or all of the above.

Ultimately, the solution to this problem needs to come from Apple. Specifically, Siri dictation needs to be just as good as Dragon Professional Individu
al for Mac. It needs to support a custom dictionary, and it needs to be as reliable with its dictation engine. I understand this doesn’t happen overnight. I also suspect Apple is spending quite a bit of money to try and bridge that gap.

Meanwhile, however, there is a gap. Switching to Siri dictation is not going to work as well as Dragon for Mac or Dragon Anywhere. So for the foreseeable future, the battle carries on.

I have made a video to go along with this article comparing Dragon Anywhere and Dragon for Mac with Siri dictation on both platforms. Watch the video to get a better idea and hear some more of my thoughts on the state of voice-to-text dictation.

Mac Power Users 488: How We Communicate

Our digital devices make communicating with others easier than ever, but with that flexibility comes complexity. On this week’s episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I discuss what solutions we use for certain types of communication. We also talk about Notifications and Do Not Disturb, which can help curb incoming messages when things get too hectic.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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

Automators 26: Getting Started with HomeKit

Check out the latest episode of Automators to learn more about how to get started with HomeKit, from building your system to real automations that actually make your life easier! And you don’t want to miss out on Rose versus the Leaf: Chapter Two.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

Timing: The automatic time-tracking app for macOS. Use this link to save 10% on your purchase.
Creative Next: The new podcast future-proofing creatives.