I somehow forgot to link to this episode this week. Whoops. I really like the way this episode came out where we picked several categories of work that we get done on the iPad and explaind our favorite apps and workflows for getting it done.
25 Years Without Dad
Today’s the 25th anniversary of my father’s death. I still miss that guy. A lot.
Here’s an article I wrote several years ago about how my dad taught me about craftsmanship.
Jazz Friday – Chris Potter
I recently received an email from a reader thanking me for these jazz Friday posts. He explained that he loved learning about some of these older musicians that he had never heard of before but then he very politely ended the email, “Do you listen to anyone that’s not dead?” After I got done laughing I wrote him back and said that yes I indeed do and will even share a few of my favorite non-dead jazz artists.
Chris Potter (Wikipedia) is one of them. He’s one of the finest saxophonists ever to pick up the instrument. For whatever reason, his name has never really entered the public awareness like Wynton Marsalis or (God have mercy on my soul) Kenny G. Nevertheless, he’s an amazing saxophonist. He came to prominence in the late 90s but has continued to release solo albums and work as a sideman with a variety of groups. The guy is a monster. You really can’t go wrong with any Chris Potter album but my favorite is Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (iTunes). Live jazz is always the best, even recorded live jazz. The lead track on that album, Train (iTunes) always makes me smile and on Togo (iTunes), Chris puts down his tenor sax and plays the bass clarinet at the beginning and then comes back in later to play one of my favorite Chris Potter solos on his tenor sax. Be warned … Chris goes way out there on the Togo solo. Another good starting place for Chris Potter is the Apple Music playlist, Chris Potter Essentials. And best of all, Chris Potter is not dead.
Microsoft Office for Mac’s New Real-Time Collaboration
With the latest update to Microsoft Office for Mac, Microsoft has added much-improved tools for collaboration. I’ve only had the update for a day but I’ve been testing it out with a few friends, and it’s the closest I’ve seen yet to the Google suite. It even shows who is currently editing via small thumbnails. This is real-time collaboration. You can see your collaborator’s changes as they make them.
While this isn’t Google Docs yet, it is a significant step toward Google Docs-type collaboration. Even more impressive is that Microsoft is pulling this off through the native application. Google has an advantage of working through the browser. I have often felt it’s only a question of time before other companies catch up with Google’s real-time collaboration and it looks like we are starting to see that happen. Once we can have reliable collaboration across the board with the various office suites, it’ll be interesting to see how much staying power Google Docs has. There are still a lot of things I don’t like about Google Docs, but its real-time collaboration is so damn useful. If you work in the Microsoft Office environment, give their new collaboration tools a go. You may end up more impressed than you expect.
Being Productive from Kourosh Dini
My friend Kourosh Dini is a smart guy, and I’ve always thought of him as a kindred spirit. He spends his days working as a practicing psychiatrist, but he also makes music and writes books. His latest book, Being Productive: Simple Steps to Calm Focus, is a good one. This book follows Kourosh’s prior productivity book, Zen & The Art of Work.
Before telling you why I like this new book, I should come clean about my relationship with productivity books. I have always had a negative reaction to self-help/productivity books. I have friends who read piles of these books, but they never really seem to get anything out of them.
My attitudes on the subject are changing, however. I’m now reading a few productivity-type books, but slowly. I have been going through the books and incorporating a few good ideas into my life and not moving on until they stick.
The reason I’m telling you this is because Being Productive is an excellent jumping off point for just that experience. The book not only includes theory and advice, but also exercises and techniques to apply what you are learning in your life. I’m currently only halfway through the book. I’m taking it slow and learning as I go, but I’m far enough in the book now to easily recommend it if you are looking for a little help.
Daylite Gets Push Notifications
Daylite, the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and small office management tool, continues to roll out new features. Most recently, Daylite added the ability to send push notifications to your iPad and iPhone.
While I don’t use Daylite (I have a team of just one), I continue to be impressed with it. I’ve heard from lots of readers over the years who depend on Daylite for their small business.
Even more impressive is the way Daylite has successfully crossed over from server-based app to internet-based app. There are many apps that weren’t able to navigate those waters.
Solve the Winmail.dat Problem with Letter Opener – Sponsor
These days there aren’t many friction points left when working on your Mac with Windows users. One, however, that still gets me is the dreaded winmail.dat files. If you ever work with Windows users, you know what I’m talking about. These are windows formatted Microsoft Outlook email attachments. It seems that everyone on Windows sends them to me and the Mac has no idea what to do with them.
Last year I finally found the right app for dealing with winmail.dat files, Letter Opener, and I’m pleased to welcome Letter Opener as a new sponsor at MacSparky.com.
Letter Opener converts and displays the content of winmail.dat files automatically inside macOS Mail so that they appear just like any other email. You will never have to think about winmail.dat attachments again. Letter Opener is fully localized in Arabic, Cat, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
I know I’m not supposed to say this, but Letter Opener just works. Since installing it, I’m barely even aware of receiving winmail.dat files because everything is taken care of right in Apple Mail. And for you mobile warriors, there’s also an iOS version.
SaneBox Productivity Gold Promotion
Longtime MacSparky sponsor SaneBox has joined forces with several productivity tools to offer a nifty productivity promotion. They have collected several of their favorite productivity tools (most are web-based) and negotiated discounts for users. This is not a bundle. You do not have to buy them all. Instead, it is a collection of interesting tools they like. They have negotiated discounts on all of them, so if you are interested you can get them for a discount.
Several of the tools and services were familiar to me, such as 1Password, Todoist, and TextExpander, but there were also several that I had never heard of such as Habit Nest and Focus@Will. These offers are worth the click to see if they have something that will scratch your particular itch.
10 Years of MacBook Air
Stephen Hackett made a great little video celebrating ten years of the computer that Steve Jobs pulled out of an envelope. I was in the building that day at Macworld, but I couldn’t get into the Keynote. In these days of thin MacBooks and iPads, it’s easy to lose track of just how revolutionary the MacBook Air was. For early adopters, it was rough going with a very slow spinning disk (unless you paid a mint for the SSD) and a slow processor but even then it was clear Apple was rowing in the right direction. The original MacBook Air even had a hinged door for the USB port, making it feel more like a tiny spaceship than a computer.
The Sad State of the Apple Airport
Remember when the Apple Airport was the best home WiFi solution? I sure do. I had a series of terrible routers and finally spent the money on an Airport. The system tools were easy to use and the WiFi was substantially better in my house. But still not perfect.
Last year I started using the Eero Mesh networking routers (Disclosure: they’re an occasional MPU sponsor) and my home WiFi made one of those leaps in technology that makes all nerds so happy. Everything got much better and my family now has stopped pestering me about dodgy WiFi.
Meanwhile, the Airport lingers. We’ve even heard reports that the Airport team inside Apple has been disbanded. The latest penny to drop is the fact that Apple is now selling the Linksys mesh networking system (called “Velop”) in Apple stores. I’ve never used the LInksys system but I’d bet that a mesh networking system from any reputable vendor is going to run circles around the Apple Airport. Nevertheless, the Airport still sits on the shelves of Apple Stores and unknowing customers are still buying the inferior system every day.
I’d argue that given the superiority of mesh networking, Apple either needs to improve the Airport line to also provide mesh networking or kill it altogether. I know this creates issues for the Time Capsule feature but I expect they could find a way around that. (Perhaps making it a network utility instead of a router.) Either way, home WiFi has made a significant jump over the last few years and unknowing Apple customers that expect the Airport to still be the best are missing out.