Jakob Haq, a musician and YouTuber from Sweden who creates, edits, and publishes all of his content with his iPhone and iPad, joins us on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple Music is now bigger than Spotify with 28 million subscribers. If that’s true, it doesn’t surprise me. Apple has a considerable advantage in that it is baked into iOS, works with Siri, and just more convenient for iPhone owners.
I thought it would be a good time to check in on Apple Music since I haven’t written much about it since it initially launched. We’ve enjoyed a family subscription ($15/month) since launch. Everyone in my family loves music and, oddly, we all listen to different kinds of music. As a result, we have downloaded a lot more music than we would have if we were paying for tracks and we are getting our money’s worth on Apple Music.
I haven’t used Spotify, but I know its users are big fans of the recommendations. I don’t feel the same rabid love for Apple Music recommendations that my Spotify-wielding friends profess. Still, the suggestions are good. No longer does it throw artists at me from my kids’ playlists. (Sorry Hannah Montana.) The recommended playlists are a good assortment of artists I already love, artists I’d like to hear more, and artists I’ve never heard of before but are nevertheless in my wheelhouse. I like Apple’s recommended playlists and their A-Lists, where I’ve found several new interesting artists. I also like the easy ability to share tracks, as I’ve often done here.
While the user interface has improved over the years, there is still room for improvement. For instance, the buttons across the bottom of the music app are too opinionated. I’ve never listened to Beats 1 and don’t use radio stations. Nonetheless, some of the most valuable real estate in the user interface is taken up with a Radio button. Those buttons should be customizable.
Radio button .. why are you there?
By far, my favorite Apple Music feature is the depth of the catalog. I’ll frequently think of some obscure album and, more often than not, have it playing in minutes. Just a few weeks ago I woke up with an old Chuck Mangione song, Carousel, in my head. The song was recorded in 1975 and the last time I heard it had to be in the 70’s. Nevertheless, Apple Music had Carousel playing throughout my house in minutes.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniFocus, the task manager I’ve used for years to stay on top of my work and make time for play.
OmniFocus not only offers its users power, it also comes with flexibility. You can make this app work the way you think. Need tags? OmniFocus has them. Want to review your active project routinely? OmniFocus does that. Need to quickly get your tasks out of your brain and into your Mac/iPad/iPhone? OmniFocus makes task capture trivial.
With OmniFocus, you have all the tools. This week has been bananas for me. Because of some work commitments, I only have time for the few most critical tasks every day. OmniFocus is helping me out with that because I tag the most important tasks (I use “Big Rock”) and OmniFocus has a perspective to show me the big rocks every day. This week. I’m just doing those items. Next week, when things slow down a bit, I can dive deeper, but for now, I see exactly what I need. It’s a simple perspective and I’m adding a screenshot at the bottom of this post.
I use OmniFocus every day to keep my life together. There is no way I could run a law practice, video business, three podcasts, and be a dad without the powerful tools that OmniFocus gives me. Why not check it out for yourself? Head over to the OmniFocus website and download the free trial. Make sure to let them know you heard about it here at MacSparky.com.
Video game developer Shahid Kamal Ahmad is back on the latest episode of Focused to talk about his digital declutter, staying present, and quieting the voices in your head with an intentional approach to managing your technology.
We talk through the ups and downs of the Mac App Store and share some of the hidden gems we have found there over the years on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users. Then, Stephen and I recap Apple’s recent media event after being interrupted by Mother Nature in the Sparks’ yard.
Automators episode 20 is posted. Brett Terpstra, the mad scientist automator, joins to talk about how he got started in automation and share some great workflows for keyboard and trackpad automation, extending automation to your home, and more.
Last year I made a last-minute decision to attend MacStock to see what it was all about. I had a great time, and this year I’m looking forward to going back. Moreover, this year I am participating. I will be giving the session, and we will be recording the Mac Power Users episode 500 live at MacStock. Stephen and I are making lots of plans, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
MacStock has the feel of Macworld, but at the same time, it is much more intimate. Because there are fewer people, we all get to spend more time together.
If you’re interested in attending, I can get you a small discount with the discount code “macsparky”. Regardless, if you do attend, I’ll see you there.
This week I guested on the Download podcast. Aleen Simms and I joined Stephen Hackett and Jason Snell to talk about Apple’s play services including Apple TV+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and so many other things that start with the word “Apple”.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Ulysses, that powerful writing tool that works on Mac, iPad, and iPhone and I use every day. In the last year, my usage of Ulysses has only increased more. It has become for me, “the place for words”. Not only do I keep a repository of text, I call it the “text bank” that I use in my law practice in Ulysses, it has also become the place I keep notes, work on drafts, outline screencasts, plan podcasts, and write just about all the other words I make in one context or another. I love the clean design and the way it syncs everything everywhere. The image to the right is my Ulysses sidebar. There is so much contained in these categories.
The Ulysses team has been busy. Recent additions include new styles and themes and the new ability to split the view, showing you two different Ulysses notes at the same time. I’ve only been using split view a short time but already couldn’t imagine Ulysses without it. Best of all, if you sign up with the links in this blog post, you’ll get three months of Ulysses for free.
