As Apple increasingly moves to Thunderbolt 5, some interesting devices are emerging that take advantage of this new interface. A couple that stand out, both from OWC: the OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 Drive (in 2- and 4-terabyte capacity), the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub. There’s also the CalDigit Element5 Hub. Of course OWC and CalDigit are at the front of the pack, but I expect we’ll see more Thunderbolt 5 devices appear in the near future.
Local Mail Sorting with Apple Mail
The Opal C1 Webcam is meant to be the webcam everybody actually wants to use. It\’s got tons of software features and a better lens system than anything you\’d find in most (all?) other webcams. It\’s time for me to kick the tires…
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Mac Power Users 783: Managing Notification Frustration
🚨 Breaking News: On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I dive into Apple’s vast sea of notification settings. We also cover best practices and where Apple has gotten things wrong. Open this alert to hear more! 🚨
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
The Six Colors Report Card
I enjoyed reading (and participating in) Jason Snell’s annual Six Colors Report Card. It’s a nice barometer of how Apple is viewed from the outside by people who spend a lot of time thinking about the question.
The Lab Report for February 7, 2025
In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: A new app from Apple, Vision Pro turns One, still no 18.4 beta, and Sparky wraps up another year on the planet.
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Sparky’s Email Machine
I recently came up with an interesting shortcut that writes an email for you combining ChatGPT instructions and a few regular expressions. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t. Check out this video and see for yourself.
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Mac Power Users 782: Apple Intelligence Review
Stephen and I have been using Apple’s AI features since they showed up in betas last year. On this episode of Mac Power Users, we share our findings and talk about what’s worth your time — and what’s not — when it comes to Apple Intelligence.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
- Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code MPU.
- Indeed: Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide using Indeed to hire great talent fast.
Testing DeepSeek
There is a lot of talk about with the new the DeepSeek LLM coming out of China. In this video I take a look and share a few thoughts.… This is a post for the Early Access and Backstage MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
The Lab Report for January 31, 2025
In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: There’s a new Siri Sheriff in town, Apple’s AI priorities, the Pebble Watch is making a comeback, and Sparky recommends a delightful soundtrack from a popular iOS game.
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Focused 222: The 2025 Productivity Field Guide
On this episode of Focused, I reflect on a year of teaching the Productivity Field Guide, talk about what’s new and what’s changed, and Mike shares the details of his interesting twist to time-blocking.
This episode of Focused is sponsored by: