Better macOS Spaces

When working on a laptop, especially the tiny MacBook, I use a lot of full-screen apps and then the macOS Spaces feature is a big help. You just three-finger swipe up on the trackpad, and you get something that looks like this. (Click to enlarge)

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You can also three-finger swipe sideways between Spaces. I guess Apple’s data shows that a lot of people go sideways and few people go up to pick a particular app. I’m an outlier. Because I’ll often have ten or more apps running as I get work done this way, swiping sideways is tedious and feels more like playing a slot machine than getting work done. It’s much more efficient for me to swipe up and tap on the desired app.

The problem with macOS Spaces, however, is that by default, macOS re-arranges the Spaces automatically based on recent use. The idea is that you should be able to get the most recent apps the easiest. Again, I’m apparently an outlier. Just because I haven’t opened OmniFocus for a few hours doesn’t mean I want it to move down to the end of the line. This preference scrambles my apps every time I swipe up causing further unnecessary delay. Fortunately, you can turn the preference off.

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With this turned off I manually set apps where I want them and then long sessions of switching between full-screen apps is quick and painless.

Home Screens – Daman Rangoola

One of the great things about living in Southern California is all the local nerds I get to hang out with. One such new friend I made this year is Daman Rangoola (Twitter). Daman is a clever guy and put a lot of time into his home screen. So Daman, let’s see it.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I find almost everything on my home screen to be invaluable on a day to day basis, but the two that stand out are Downcast and Tweetbot. I also have Overcast, which I find to be a great app in it’s own right, but after spending so much time tweaking my settings in Downcast and having the app work great for me – I haven’t felt the need to totally make the switch.

Twitter is somewhere I find myself all day whether it’s for monitoring the news (in tech and otherwise) during the day and then diving into the glorious world known as “NBA Twitter” – following along with all the basketball games with a phenomenal community of basketball diehards. Tweetbot has consistently proven to be the best Twitter client for my usage but due to Twitter’s API limitations for third-party apps, I also use the stock Twitter client frequently, thus it also lives on my home screen.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I would say Tweetbot but I can conjure up enough professional purpose to open it to not feel as guilty about it, so I’m going to say Threes. It’s still the best game I’ve ever played on the iPhone – it’s the only game I downloaded and have never removed from my iPhone. It’s challenging, fun, and most importantly – I can play for 2 minutes or one hour and it doesn’t require constant attention.

What app makes you most productive?

Strictly speaking, Asana. Slack is vital to my work but I get most of my daily tasks done in Asana and having an on-the-go view of everything I’m working on has been a great addition to my workflow. If I’m away from my desk but an idea hits me or I am talking to somebody and a task presents itself, I can quickly add it into Asana and lose the burden of worrying that I will forget something.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

This will be of particular interest to the owner of this website: Workflow. I know I can make great use of this app, and I know how powerful of an app that it is, I just haven’t put in the proper time and effort into getting the app working for me in that way yet.

What is the app you are still missing?

WhatsApp for iPad, please! WhatsApp has become the go-to communication method for my family (locally and abroad) and for several groups of friends, and it has no iPad client yet.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Constantly. If I’m not reading something on my iPhone, I have my iPad open next to my Mac at all times for work with the Notes app open with my Pencil charged, jotting notes all day. There is virtually no part of my waking hours that I’m not actively or passively (listening to podcasts etc) using either of my iOS devices.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The ecosystem. There are a lot of reasons to individually love my iPhone X and the 10.5” iPad Pro, but the way they work together is my favorite single feature of iOS.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I think it’s time to allow for default apps for major app categories to be changed. I wouldn’t do it like Android, I would make it very difficult to qualify to become a default. I would create a new App Review system for becoming a default, ensuring a good experience for the user.

Two of the biggest examples that would be great for me? Allowing Google Maps to become the default Maps option and allowing Downcast or Overcast become my default podcast player. There are more categories out there that could qualify (like Internet browser) but those two would be game changers for me.

Do you have an Apple Watch? Show us your watch face tell us about it.

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I use my Apple Watch for the following: seeing the time, monitoring my activity, monitoring my notifications, and Apple Pay. I have never been interested in apps on the Watch, even though they are greatly improved, simply because it’s not what I’m personally looking to get out of it.

The bottom complication is what I refer to as “Mean Boss Time” – my boss is rarely in the same time-zone as me, so it’s important for me to know what time it is for him (and he’s sick of me asking lol).

I swipe right to the Activity Analog face when I’m going to the gym or doing any other workout to track my activity in a focused way.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

I am absolutely in love with the new OLED display of the iPhone X and to get the full effect out of it, I changed my background to be pure black, which is stunning especially in comparison to non-OLED displays. Similarly, I have changed my home screen background to accentuate the stunning black:

It’s just gorgeous!

Anything else?

I have a no folder policy on the home screen of my iPhone. There was a time where I put everything in folders to only have one total page for all my apps, but I enjoy having the ability to see everything clearly and every app on my home screen being one press away. If I need to launch any other apps, I enjoy using Spotlight most of the time.

Thanks Daman

Rubbish Passwords

Every year, Splash Data reveals its list of the year’s most commonly used passwords. This year the usual suspects, like “123456” and “password”, are, again at the top of the list. I had to grin that “starwars” has made its way to the list this year at #16. Funny. I would have that guessed that #diejarjardie would rate higher.

If you’re reading this blog, I’m guessing you already have a good password system and are not using any of these rubish passwords. Your family and friends, however, are most likely using lots of them. If you are spending time with some of the damned over the holidays, send them the Splash Data list and try to get through to them just how dangerous these common passwords are. I’ve been using 1Password since it launched and that’s a good recommendation (use this link for 20% off) but regardless of what system you put them on, put them on something.

Technology and the California Wildfires

Speaking of disaster preparedness, my friend, and fellow geek, Rogier Willems, had the latest wildfires show up on his doorstep. He had to evacuate in a hurry and reports in with some excellent advice. One mistake he reports is taking his networking gear when he left. This blinded his security cameras so he had no idea what was happening to his house while evacuated.

MPU 408: Disaster Preparedness

This week’s MPU episode, which we recorded just days before the latest California wildfires, is all about emergencies and your technology. In additiona to disaster preparedness, this episode also covers personal emergencies, accident or illness, technology failures and even happy emergencies.

Sponsors include:

Eero: Never think about WiFi again. Use code MPU for free overnight shipping.
TextExpander from Smile Type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.
1Password Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Save up to 20% using this link.
Making Light Get (or give!) a candle subscription and make some new habits. Use offer code MPU10 to save $10 on a new subscription

Episode VIII

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Today marks general release of the latest Star Wars Movie. This will be episode VIII and, for me, continuation of a journey started when I was nine years old. I’ve got my Star Wars shirt on and wearing my Star Wars shoes (the same ones I wore a few years ago for Episode VII) and a group of friends and family ready to go see “The Movie” tonight. I’ve been intentionally laying low on social media the last few days and I’m ready to go be amazed. If you’re a geek like me, May the Force Be with You.

Getting Your Act Together with OmniFocus (Sponsor)

This week, MacSparky is sponsored by OmniFocus, the best task management application for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I use OmniFocus every day to stay on top of my commitments and avoid being a flake. Designed by the Omni Group’s crack team of programmers, UI designers, and artists, OmniFocus is super-flexible while at the same time being powerful enough to handle just about anything, even crazy people that simultaneously run law practices, podcasts, and publishing businesses.

OmniFocus had a great 2017 with lots of new features and the app is easier than ever on iPhone and iPad, taking full advantage of all of the iOS 11 goodies. Just this morning I was sitting in Starbucks and dragging emails over to OmniFocus on my iPad creating email-linked tasks and feeling like I was living in the future.

As we head into the new year, this is a great time to make the switch to OmniFocus. Hit the ground running on 2018 with OmniFocus at your back and just see how much you can pull off next year.

Free Agents 36 with John Voorhees

The latest episode of the Free Agents is up. John Voorhees of MacStories is a brand-new free agent, a lawyer who left his job in Chicago to set out on his own as a writer and app developer. He tells us how he decided to leave the legal profession and go full time as an independent worker.

The Decision to Buy an iMac Pro

With all the news coming out on the iMac Pro, Jason Snell wrote a thoughtful piece over at Macworld about the pluses and minuses of the new machine. If my email inbox is any indication, this question is on a lot of people’s mind. Jason’s article explains some of the usage cases where the iMac Pro makes the most sense. The article also explains you may want it just because you want the biggest, baddest iMac out there. If that’s you, I get that. I’ve blown money on far dumber things than a kick-ass iMac.

One point I would make, however, is that if you just need raw power and you can afford to wait to see what Apple does with the new Mac Pro (presumably sometime in 2018), you probably should. My guess is that the new Mac Pro will have more processor speed and be more upgradeable than the iMac Pro, but also be more expensive and require you to buy a separate monitor.

As for me, I’m not tempted. My existing 5K iMac is chugging along quite nicely. The hardest thing I make this computer do is render iBooks and screencast videos and the standard iMac is very much up to that task.