Don’t Let Your Email Make You Crazy. Get SaneBox (Sponsor)

This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox, the email service that can help you get control of your inbox. For a lot of folks, email is a constant pain point, and it doesn’t need to be. With SaneBox, you add a powerful set of email tools that can work in just about any email client. SaneBox allows you to:

  • Wake up everyday to find that 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.

  • 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 such as Evernote, Expensify, and Kayak.

  • Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

To me, getting the SaneBox account was the inflection point between when email controlled me and I started controlling email. If you are still on the other side of that equation, it’s time you joined us and stop letting email make you crazy. I’ve been a paying subscriber for years and can’t imagine getting by without it. If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount off your subscription.

Siri Shortcuts Field Guide, Version 1.1 (And Discount Code)

I’ve been thrilled with all the nice tweets, emails, and messages and the generally warm reception for the Siri Shortcuts Field Guide. I love seeing tweets and emails from customers that are now automating their iPhones and iPads. Siri Shortcuts turns out to be one of those rare Apple products that gets frequent updates. Since I first launched the Siri Shortcuts Field Guide, Apple has added several new features.

So I’ve been hard at work in the Screencasting cave adding new content. With this post, I’m pleased to announce the release of the Siri Shortcuts Field Guide, version 1.1.

  • The new version adds 17 new videos and 50 minutes of content bringing the course size to over 4 hours.

  • New content includes additional features (like weather and conversions) and also goes deeper on both beginner and advanced topics.

  • The new version also features combined downloads so if you want to download everything, it’s ten big video files instead of 57 little ones. 

If You Enrolled in the Siri Shortcuts Field Guide …

There is nothing for you to do but log in and check out the new content. It’s a free update.

If you haven’t signed up for the Siri Shortcuts Field Guide Yet …

Now’s the time. Go to this link and use the promotion code “SIRIBLOG”.That gets you $10 off, but it is only good for a week.

Mac Power Users 473: Shawn Blanc’s Evolved Workflows

Shawn Blanc returns on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users to talk about his move to the iPad Pro and how he manages the growing team behind projects such as the Sweet Setup and the Focus Course.

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. 

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

  • 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.

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

Email Breach

Wired recently published an article about the discovery of a database containing 809 million total records exposed online. The MongoDB (freely available to hackers for some time now) contains 150 gigabytes of plain-text marketing data, including 763 unique email addresses.

These days it seems I get nearly as much phishing email as regular email. Setting aside the discussion of email being unproductive, at what point does the medium fail just because we stop believing any email we receive is legitimate? I’m already getting that way with nearly all of my vendors.

Use HoudahGeo to Manage Photo Location Data on Your Mac (Sponsor)


HoudahGeo5-Screenshot-Map.jpg

This week MacSparky is sponsored by HoudahGeo, the Mac application that simplifies adding geolocation data to your photos.

A lot of us have fancy cameras that, unlike the iPhone, don’t automatically add geolocation data to every photo. The thing is, I like having location data attached to my photos so I can look at all the pictures I took in Chicago or Hawaii, even those taken with the fancy camera.

HoudahGeo solves that problem. HoudahGeo can add locations to photos, whether they’re in a folder on your Mac or right in the photo library, making it Apple Photos compatible.

HoudahGeo does two things for photos in your library:

  • Add location information to the photo in your library. This allows Apple Photos to organize and find your photos by location. Just the same as if you had made the effort to manually assign the locations in Apple Photos

  • Geotag the original image files saved to your Photos library. This updates the JPEG or RAW files that came from your camera to include GPS tags, location names, etc.*

HoudahGeo is used by travelers and professionals alike. Some use location information to organize and find photos. Others need to add GPS coordinates to photo to assess roadwork damages, to record wildlife sightings or to document environmental damages, or even document the location of a really great looking tree. There is a cool blog entry where the developer used HoudahGeo to track an 8-day hike up Mount Kilimanjaro, which explains exactly how they used the app. Using HoudahGeo you can attach location data to photos with or without a geolocation log.

Using HoudahGeo, I’m quickly able to add location data to all of my photos. Moreover, this week you can get a discount using the links in this post.

* Caveat: iCloud Photos does not re-upload modified image files. Location information added to the library gets synched through iCloud. Geotagged image files are uploaded to iCloud only if the tags were added before iCloud Photos got to uploading the files. Thus users of iCloud Photos should geotag their photos before adding them to the Photos library. For this purpose, you can use HoudahGeo instead of the Photos app to download photos from your camera. Download, geotag, add to the Photos library, and let iCloud Photos do its job.

Focused 68: Getting Productive with an Unproductive Boss

On this week’s episode of Focused, Mike and I talk about getting intentional and getting productive with an unproductive boss. Finally, we cover productive Italians.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

  • FreshBooks: Online invoicing made easy.

  • Timing: The automatic time-tracking app for macOS. Use this link to save 10% on your purchase.

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

Classic Mac Pillow

Months ago I backed a silly Kickstarter that involved creating pillows looking like classic Apple products. Last week the pillows showed up and we’ve been having fun with them at the house. When nerd friends come over, they immediately recognize my classic Mac and Finder icon. Note they must have not got rights from Apple, so instead of the rainbow Mac logo, we just got a rainbow square. Also, the Mac has a handle (sort of).

A friend told me the the Finder pillow resembles me. I often get mistaken for the Finder.