The Missing iCloud Storage Bump

In my post yesterday following Apple’s education event, I mentioned that I felt the increase of free iCloud storage for students from 5GB to 200GB was a good idea, and I hoped Apple would be giving us all more storage at WWDC.

Dan Moren feels the same, but more passionately. I think the single best reason for giving us increased storage is Apple Photos. They’ve built a platform that lets us take, save, and share photos, but it requires nearly all of us to make regular monthly payments so we have enough storage. This is annoying. Our Apple devices are expensive, and Apple is hardly cash-strapped. Moreover, a lot of people (perhaps most people?) refuse to pay for extra storage. I hear from readers and listeners all the time that have a problem with it. I expect the refusal to pay is even more common with non-geeks. They don’t pay. Their photos don’t get backed up.

So let’s take the capitalist approach. Taken to its logical conclusion, paltry free storage results in people losing their photos and being understandably pissed at Apple. Google is well aware of this because nearly every advertisement I’ve seen from them that has any relation to photos always points out they have free storage. These disgruntled consumers see that and move platforms.

I’m not even arguing Apple needs to make it free across the board. Just raise the free tier to something rational. 200GB seems about right.

Power Up with TextExpander – Sponsor

This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by TextExpander, the easiest way to start automating your work on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. TextExpander is a text replacement tool. With it, you can type a phrase like “ccell” and it will automatically fill in your cell phone number. But TextExpander is so much more than that.

Using TextExpander, you can have it automatically create the date and time. For example, when I talk with someone on the phone related to the day job and want to keep notes about the conversation, I just type “xdts” which, in my head, means date and time string. Then TextExpander automatically creates something like this, “2018-03-28 06:42”. If I need to put the full date in a letter, I just type “fdate” and TextExpander puts in the current date, like this, “March 28, 2018”.

But TextExpander can still go deeper. It can use the contents of your clipboard to auto-fill in snippets. It can press keyboard keys, like the tab key, to automate filling in forms on the web or creating an email. You can get it for yourself and your team members so you can share snippets with your team members.

I’ve done so much with TextExpander over the years that I even have a page of snippets I’ve created that you can download ranging from movie to reviews to conference calls. One of my personal favorite groups is foreign thanks where you can say thank you to people in most language. Sending an email to a French friend, just type “french thanks” and TextExpander gives you “Merci”. It’s like your own, personal translator.

To learn more, head over to TextExpander.com and let them know you heard about it at MacSparky in the “Where did you hear about us” field.

Moment Lenses for iPhone Filmmakers

The Moment Lens company has a new Kickstarter campaign with a series of products aimed at people that want to shoot movies with their iPhone including a gimble counterweight, filter mount, battery case, and an anamorphic lens. I’m a fan of Moment lenses and own several of them. If you like to shoot video with your iPhone this one is worth considering. Also, I expect Moment will actually hit its ship date since they’re pretty good at making lenses already.

A Few Notes From Apple’s Education Event

I followed the live stream blogs during today’s Apple Education event and took a few notes. These observations are based on reading the live blogs. I’m sure that people in the room will have more insight as the day goes on.

That New iPad

I’m happy to see the Apple Pencil support moving down the line. It’s pretty great, and everyone should be able to use it.
I think Apple still has a pricing problem. Chromebooks are in the low $200 range. The new iPad is $300, but when you add a case/keyboard $100 and an Apple Pencil ($100), a fully rigged iPad becomes nearly 2.5 times the cost of a Chromebook. When schools need to buy them by the hundreds (or thousands), that extra $300 is going to matter.
I think the non-pro iPad has come so far that it indicates we are going to get the iPhone X version of the iPad in June at WWDC. I’d be surprised if the rumors aren’t true about adding Face ID to iPad Pro.

Swift Playgrounds

I’m glad Apple is continuing to press forward with this app. Swift Playgrounds are fun, and I’ve done a lot of coding in there over the past few years. I consider it a puzzle game as much as a coding education. My kids never got interested, but I’m guessing a lot of kids will go nuts for the new augmented reality features.

iWork

The new features in iWork look interesting. They didn’t talk much about it.
I think collaboration is where iWork needs the most attention. I’d like to see it collaborate as easily as Google Docs and it currently doesn’t.

iCloud Storage

200GB per student is great. Hopefully, they follow suit at WWDC and announce everybody gets a free 200GB. The current free offering of 5GB, particularly in light of the cost of Apple hardware, feels pretty cheap on Apple’s part.

Teaching Tools

The classroom tools look impressive. I’ve not got any experience with them and am looking forward to hearing from teachers about this. As I understand it, for the past few years Google has been eating Apple’s lunch on classroom tools.

iBooks

I’m currently in the home stretch of an iBooks media-rich Field Guide, and I was very anxious about iBooks Author today. It looks like I’m fine. They are bringing the ability to create books to the iPad, but it doesn’t appear iBooks Author is porting to iPad. Instead, it will be an additional feature in Pages. So long as they keep improving iBooks Author on the Mac, I’m good.

The iPad in Education

On MPU several years ago we had Fraser Speirs on, who spearheaded one of the first one-to-one iPad programs in a school. When I asked him about why they used iPads instead of a traditional computer with Microsoft Word he had a really good answer. “We’re making CEO’s, not secretaries.”

The iPad is an inherently more creative device than a traditional computer, particularly something as basic as a Chromebook. Apple made this point with the new “Everyone Can Create” curriculum. I think schools and teachers, like Fraser, that take advantage of that will be doing something special for their students.

Three Things You Can Do Today to Increase Your Facebook Privacy

For years I was one of those curmudgeons that refused to use Facebook in any capacity. I’ve been turned around on that a little bit because of the success of the Mac Power Users and Free Agents Facebook groups at creating a safe, fun place to talk about shared interests. They are both special communities. Nevertheless, Facebook can be a dangerous place if you care anything about your privacy.

There’s a lot of questions about Facebook lately and I’ve been receiving a lot of email from listeners on the subject. I should preface this post by saying I am hardly a Facebook power user. I log in to participate in the above two groups, but that’s about it.

Nevertheless, even this limited exposure could get me in trouble because Facebook likes to collect data. Between the news of the last few weeks plus the recent discovery that they can also collect your call and text history, I decided it was time to spend a little bit of time tuning up my own Facebook settings and thought I should share with you. So here are a few things you can do today.

1. Delete All Facebook Applications from your Phone (and iPad).

A lot of the trouble arising from Facebook starts with their mobile applications. The trouble is that your phone has a lot of information about you and Facebook is insatiably hungry for information about you. Moreover, over the years we’ve had plenty of evidence that Facebook hasn’t been a real team player on the iPhone and they’ve done all sorts of dirty tricks to make sure their app is always front and center. This is both creepy, and it kills your battery faster.

I understand for a lot of people this is asking a lot. Their phone is their primary window into Facebook, and if that is really what you want, I don’t begrudge you. However, if you can live without Facebook on your phone, I think you’re better off. I just use Facebook in the browser on my Mac (or the browser on my iPad), and it’s just fine.

2. Audit your Privacy Settings

One thing Facebook has improved over the years is exposing its privacy settings. Years ago it felt like playing a videogame to find your way to the proper screens. Now it’s all combined in your setting screen under the privacy tab. Go through it and make changes to suit your level of comfort. I would recommend erring on the side of caution. You can always go back and make the settings more open if you’re finding that the more conservative settings are getting in the way.

Screen Shot 2018-03-26 at 10.35.09 AM.png

3. Audit your Application Installations

A big part of the recent problems is that the Facebook API is so liberal that apps you authorize are taking a lot more information than you may think. I have not authorized any apps to access my Facebook data and given the limited way in which I use a service; I expect I never will.

You may have some apps that you want to use with Facebook and that is fine but make sure it is your conscious decision to opt in. Take a close look at the apps tab in your Facebook settings and make sure you feel comfortable with every app you’ve authorized to access your data.

Screen Shot 2018-03-26 at 10.56.45 AM.png

Note there is also a setting on this screen, Apps Others Use, to edit the amount of information other people’s applications can use when accessing your Facebook data. I recommend tapping the edit button and making appropriate changes. I leave very little data exposed this way.

Screen Shot 2018-03-26 at 10.45.12 AM.png

Mac Power Users 423: Workflows with Jocelyn Glei

I chat with Jocelyn Glei of the Hurry Slowly podcast in this week’s episode. We talk about killing distractions, disconnecting from our devices, and getting more done by doing less.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Save up to 20% using this link.
The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Fracture: Bring your photos to life.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Carrot Weather 4.6

I’ve written about Carrot Weather in the past. It’s the weather app with a snarky attitude. Today they released version 4.6 that adds notifications on the iPhone, new app icons, and a bunch of new dialogue.

It’s been several years since I first wrote about Carrot Weather and it still remains my favorite weather app. Sometimes I’ll turn off its legendary snark entirely for months at a time and it still remains a great weather app. I’m particularly impressed with changes in the last year. Both the today view screen and Apple Watch apps are some of the best in class.

Free Agents 43: Don’t Ask Us Permission

I attended a conference and was asked for advice (or was it permission?) from many potential free agents. When I got home, my professional life was in disarray. What are the lessons to take from that? To find out, listen to the latest episode. Also, Jason ponders putting more effort into video, and I continue down the path of hyperscheduling.

This episode of Free Agents is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FREEAGENTS at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.

The Trello iOS Update

Screen Shot 2018-03-21 at 6.48.19 AM.png

Over the past year, Trello has become one of the key apps/services of my operations. It’s the place that I manage all work I’ve sent to others and is an excellent tool for teams and collaborators. I’m going to write up in detail exactly how I use Trello in the future but a simple explanation is that I’ve templated all the typical projects I send to my helpers and use Trello to assign the work and keep track of its progress.

If I had one gripe against Trello its that it has always felt, nearly exclusively, like a web app. There are versions of the app for iOS and Mac but they have always been pretty rough around the edges. I’d say that’s still true for the Mac app but yesterday they released an impressive update for their iOS app.

New features include: custom fields such as dates and text, drop-down lists, and checkboxes, a better date selector, better linking throughout, the ability to add more than one attachment at a time (hallelujah!).

I use attachments often with Trello. If I’m having someone work on a document for me, I’ll attach the document to the Trello card rather than emailing separately. The best new feature is the support for drag and drop, including attachments onto a card.

I’m happy to see Trello taking advantage the iOS platform features. I hope they put a similar amount of effort into the Mac app.