Mac Power Users 460: Casey Liss Returns



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Casey Liss returns on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users to update us on his life as a free agent, his new love affair with the iPad, becoming a YouTuber, and more.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code POWER at checkout for 10% off.

  • Hover: Show the world what you’re passionate about with 10% off your first purchase.

  • Away: Travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone. Get $20 off with the code ‘mpu’.

  • TextExpander from Smile: Type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.

“Looking Forward” OmniFocus Perspective

There is a growing thread in the Mac Power Users forums about custom OmniFocus perspectives. Since it’s Sunday, I though I’d share one of my favorite Sunday perspectives. While I don’t use a defer-date management system for my tasks these days, I do use defer dates on flagged tasks. This perspective shows me all of those tasks on their defer dates going forward. It’s a great deal for a little weekly planning on Sunday.


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Automators 12: Holiday Automation


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The holidays are upon us, and the Automators are ready to automate with episode 12, Holiday Automation. We start with simple things like wallpaper and voice-in-a-can technologies.

Next, we get to holiday music. It’s great that you can automate music playback, but I want to go deeper with Siri Shortcuts and automation around my music. I have a white whale concerning HomePod destination for audio, but we all need holiday wishes … right? Rose has a cool holiday music Siri Shortcut.

Then we get into our favorite automation contraptions for automating holiday lights. I have a thing for making Christmas just happen using HomeKit Automation, and Rose tempts me by talking about homebridge. Open my front door, and the magic starts happening.

Then we get to the best ways to automate holiday cards. It’s harder than you think. Finally, we move into automating and collaborating on present lists, grabbing multiple browser tabs via automation, and turning my Christmas card into a nerd project.

It’s all there. Get Automating!

Get Control of Your Meetings with Agenda Minder (Sponsor)


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This week MacSparky is sponsored by Agenda Minder. Agenda Minder is a productivity tool that helps you prepare for meetings and developers meaningful agendas. Meetings are rarely fun but with Agenda Minder at least they can be efficient (and faster!).

With Agenda Minder you can add meeting details, import existing calendars and, most importantly, add agenda items. Then you can share that meeting information with your team via HTML, text, and, with the next update, OPML. Be that guy who sends out an agenda in advance. You’ll be shocked at how much the meeting’s attendees appreciate your preparation. There are more features, like filters and tags but in my opinion, this app really proves itself with meeting planning.

With the upcoming 1.7 update Agenda Minder will add dark mode, export to OPML, and several nice design tweaks.

Show everyone on your team how it is done with Agenda Minder.

Learn more over at the Agenda Minder website and use the links in this post to get the app for just $8.99 through the end of December.

How to Enable Shared Family Storage

You may not have noticed, but last year Apple enabled a new feature that lets family members share a single pool of iCloud storage. I have the 2TB (terabyte) plan. For me and my family, that’s enough for iCloud storage and over a terabyte of available storage. Rather than pay for unused space, I can have my other family members join in that pool and, in turn, cancel their iCloud storage plans to save a few bucks.

To do so, go to the Settings app on your iOS device and select your iCloud account. Then tap on the Family Sharing button.


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Next, look down at the shared features and pay attention to the iCloud Storage line. If it is Off, then tap it to turn it On.


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This prompts you through a few screens to send notifications to your family members. They need to accept to join, but when you’re done, you will have all your storage for a little less money.

Fujitsu ScanSnap 64-bit Software Update

I have been using the Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners for a long time now. Today Fujitsu announced that they have a brand new 64-bit version of their scanner software. This comes as a relief to users that have been getting the 32-bit software warning. I’ve been using the 64-bit software for a while and had no issues. Interestingly, this is not an upgrade to the existing software but a brand new version of software that you’ll need to download from this link. 

Mac Power Users 459: My Life Is a Subscription



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Subscriptions! It seems the wave of the future, but should we be happy about that? In this week’s episode of Mac Power Users, Katie and I talk about this trend towards subscriptions and the software and services we believe are worth the effort.

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.

  • Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code POWER at checkout for 10% off.

  • eero: Never think about WiFi again. Get $100 off the eero base unit and 2 Beacons package, and a year of eero Plus.

  • Gazelle: Sell your iPhone for cash at Gazelle!

The Yule Apple Music Playlist


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The holidays are here and I’ve been doing more work on my “Yule” playlist. I’ve made lots of new additions this year including this gem from Joey Alexander. If you’ve got an Apple Music subscription, go ahead and subscribe and enjoy. The playlist is very heavily jazz but with a few other delightful holiday songs from other artists, including this one where Jack Johnston takes Santa to task for the way they were treating Rudolph just because he has a red nose.

Anyway, here’s the link:

MacSparky’s Yule Playlist

The Pesky Problem of Playing Music to a HomePod with Siri Shortcuts

As we are now on the back end of Thanksgiving with the holidays upon us, a lot of us are thinking about new automation routines using Siri Shortcuts. One shortcoming with the new system is the inability to address a specific HomePod via Siri Shortcut. You can play music through a specific HomePod by triggering the shortcut with your voice. MacRumors did a nice explaation of that today. 

I’m thinking, however, in terms of a remote trigger that doesn’t involve me talking to the specific HomePod. What if I just want to trigger a shortcut that has a music playlist in it and address a specific HomePod without using my voice? Or even better, I’ve got a HomeKit switch on my front door. Why can’t the act of opening my front door enable me to not only turn on the Christmas tree lights but also play my Yule playlist through the downstairs HomePod?

For the time being, at least, you are going to have to trigger that playlist from the HomePod itself using your voice. 

While I’ll agree that Siri Shortcuts got a lot further in the last six months than I ever expected it, this is definitely one of those tools where the more I get, the more I want.