Home Screens – John Voorhees

John Voorhees (Twitter) joined MacStories in 2015. He is an editor and regular contributor to MacStories and the Club MacStories newsletters, co-hosts AppStories, a weekly podcast exploring the world of apps, with Federico Viticci, and handles sponsorship sales for MacStories and AppStories. John is also the creator of Blink, an iOS app that creates links for the iTunes Affiliate Program. So John, show us your home screen

What are some of your favorite apps?

My Home screen is organized to put my most-used apps within easy reach. I’m left-handed, so that means the lower left corner of the screen is where my most heavily used apps live.

If I’m mobile and using my iPhone, you can bet I’m listening to podcasts or music. My daily podcast player is Overcast because I love its Smart Speed feature, but I also use Castro, which added amazing drag and drop support with iOS 11.

Apple Music has come a long way since its early days. I’ve found that the algorithmic playlists are much more closely aligned with my tastes than in the past and I’m a fan of the new social features. Every few days I find myself browsing through what friends are listening to, which is a fantastic way to expand your musical horizons.

My iPhone is also all about communication. Messages is the primary way I chat with friends and family, so it gets the coveted first position in the dock.

Slack is where conversations with MacStories team members happen. It’s where we plan the Club MacStories newsletter, post links to interesting news stories, and coordinate article assignments.

Airmail can be a little buggy at times, but its customization and third-party integrations can’t be beaten. I keep it just out of easy reach and don’t use badges because I don’t want to be dipping in and out of email constantly, but I also need to have it readily available.

Tweetbot is always close by too. I don’t view Twitter as the productivity sink that most people think it is. It can be if you let it, but at least half of the time I spend in Tweetbot I consider research because it’s where I find leads on apps to cover on MacStories. That said, it’s also where I kick back to joke around with my friends as a break from work.

Most of my Home screen consists of work-related apps. Blink is an app I built that I use for creating iTunes affiliate links to the apps I write about. I keep up with the latest Apple and tech news with Inoreader, a highly customizable RSS reader and save stories I find interesting in Pocket for reading later and linking to on MacStories or our weekly Club MacStories newsletter. Other research material is stored in DevonTHINK To Go or Apple’s Notes app. I’m in Safari on and off all day, so it’s in my dock as is my task manager, Todoist, which is where all my work and personal tasks go. I’ve tried many task managers and always come back to Todoist because it’s so easy to get tasks into it and to collaborate with others. My ‘Bidness’ folder is full of ‘money’ apps for my banks, PayPal, Stripe, TransferWise, and Xero to name a few.

What app makes you most productive?

Ulysses is the app that I spend the most time in each day whether it’s writing for MacStories and Club MacStories or preparing materials for AppStories. I don’t use it frequently on my iPhone, but for quick edits and rough drafts in places where I don’t have my Mac or iPad, it works in a pinch. The two other apps that make me most productive on my iPhone are Working Copy, which we use to share and collaborate on writing projects with the MacStories team, and Workflow, which automates the setup of each week’s Club MacStories newsletter.

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

It varies depending on whether I’m in front of my Mac. If I’m on my Mac, my iPhone gets used to respond to text messages or run a Workflow, but if I’m away from my Mac, my iPhone gets used whenever I’m not occupied by another task.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad.

My favorite feature of the iPhone is the ability to work anywhere and stay in touch with others. Before I left my day job as a lawyer, I ran every aspect of my side hustles from my iPhone. I also have friends who are scattered across the globe who I’m lucky if I see once a year. Whether we’re catching up on what each other has been doing or collaborating on a project, the iPhone is the glue that connects us.

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

I’d start by bringing inter-app drag and drop to the iPhone. I understand why Apple chose to limit dragging items between apps to the iPad, but apps like Castro and Bear have demonstrated the power of in-app drag and drop on the iPhone, which would be even more powerful if there was a way to drag items between apps.

Things are Rosy at Apple

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Today Apple had its quarterly earnings call. Jason Snell covered it with his usual aplomb at Six Colors. There are a few bits that stood out.

The iPad Continues to Grow

iPad growth is up 11%. After so many years of decline, that’s good news. I always believed in you, iPad.

Services are For Real

Services have grown to 16% of Apple’s overall revenue. It was $30 billion in 2017. That is a lot of services. Hopefully that means Apple continues to improve iCloud.

Big Days Ahead

Apple is expecting between $84B and $87B in sales in the next quarter. That’s nuts. It seems like just a few years ago that Steve Jobs was astounded about Apple being a $50B per year company.

There’s a lot more, including many pretty graphs over at Six Colors.

Free Agents 33 – When You Say Yes to Everything

The latest episode of Free Agents is up. We’ve fiddled with the show format a bit. Specifically, now that we’ve covered most of the topic shows we wanted to cover, we’re spending more time talking about the challenges we’re seeing on the ground. I’m struggling with how I’m spending my time. Jason is trying to figure out when to say no and he got some better perspective about how well his business is doing, prompted by a job inquiry from a former co-worker.

Sponsors include:

Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.
Podcast Listener Survey: We rely on advertising as a way to support this show. If you could do us a favor and answer a few short questions, it would be really helpful to us.

The Disneyland Stress Test for the iPhone X

Matt Panzarino for TechCrunch reviewed his iPhone X by taking it to The Happiest Place on Earth. There are now several reviews posted with Apple seeding review units to several people in the press. One of the big questions in my mind was how well Face ID will work in the real world. If these initial reviews are anything to go by, it sounds like things will be just fine. Mine shows up Friday and I can hardly wait.

Mac Power Users 402 – Home Automation with Robert Spivack

We’ve been talking off-and-on about home automation on the Mac Power Users for a few years now. This week, we invited home automation professional Robert Spivack and dug deep on home automation. There is lots of good stuff in here about the gear that works and where all of this is heading.

Jazz Friday: Happy Birthday Thelonious

This month we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Thelonious Monk’s birth. While I’ve featured some of Monk’s music in the past, I’ve never featured the man himself. It’s time to fix that.

Thelonious Monk was one of the founding fathers of bebop and is a jazz giant. Both his compositions and playing style changed the course of jazz music. Some of his compositions are legendary like, like Round Midnight. Monk was one of the best composers of his time. One song that stands out for me is Crepuscule with Nellie (iTunes)(Apple Music), which is a rare jazz song that does not provide for improvisation. It was a composition written, start to finish, as a love song to his wife. One of my absolute favorite songs is his Pannonica, which I butcher on the Piano with this downloadable track.

Monk also played piano like no one before. I distinctly remember hearing Monk for the first time in the 70’s. I was about ten years old and it floored me. I immediately went to my piano teacher and begged to play Monk music. She preferred Bach but I eventually figured it out on my own.

There are so many great Monk albums that it really is hard to recommend just one. One of my favorites is a two album set of him playing the piano without his band, Thelonious Alone in San Francisco (iTunes)(Apple Music). I also really enjoy his collaboration with John Coltrane (iTunes)(Apple Music).

If you’d like to learn more about Monk, I recommend the documentary, Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser (iTunes)(YouTube).

Anyway … Happy Birthday, Monk.

Home Screens – Kent Sutherland

This week’s home screen features Kent Sutherland (website)(Twitter). Kent is part of the Flexibits team and a pretty busy guy. Now that Kent has shipped the latest update to Fantastical and a brand new contact app, Cardhop, I asked Ken to share his home screen. So Ken, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Reeder is one of my favorite apps that also gets used all the time. I’m one of those weird people that still loves RSS feeds and uses them all the time. I also enjoy Words With Friends because it lets me distract myself occasionally and keep in touch with friends that I wouldn’t otherwise talk to as often. Pinner is used frequently so I can pull up saved recipies when I’m at the grocery store or when I’m cooking. For built-in apps, the Podcasts app gets used a lot although I’m not a fan of what happened to it with iOS 11 (it might be time to explore alternatives). Finally, it’s not on my home screen, but I don’t know how I’d type on my phone without Gboard.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Reddit, because it lets me look at stupid images and videos while I’m waiting for a bus or in line somewhere.

What app makes you most productive?

I’ve found my phone doesn’t really help make me productive, as getting real work done requires my Mac. Slack at least helps me keep track of our build system and any issues that might come up when I’m away from a computer though. Judging from my home screen, my phone is frequently used for communication (Viber, Facebook Messenger, Messages, Slack, and Words With Friends are all used for text messaging).

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I should probably be using Pocket more often. I’d be a bit more efficient if I deferred reading for later, but I’ve gotten out of the habit.

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

Who knows, but probably more than I’d expect. To try to minimize that number I often keep my phone on do not disturb while I’m at my computer, which helps to reduce the chance that I’ll get distracted by push notifications.

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

Fantastical in the expanded month view and Weather Underground. I’m pretty light on widgets, but I get regular use out of both of those. There’s only really room to see a couple of widgets at once, and I found I never used the others if I had to scroll down to get to them.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

My favorite little feature on the iPhone is the 3D Touch gesture to switch apps. I was distraught when they removed it from iOS 11, and I was very happy with they said it was coming back.

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

In terms of iOS, I’d make iOS faster to use. The iPhone and iPad are fast computers now, but that speed is often locked behind all of the animations and gestures. For example, switching between two apps takes a second or two for the app switcher animation, then another to tap on another app and wait for it to appear. In my perfect world there would be an option to disable all of the unlock and app transition animations. I’ve used iOS enough to know exactly where on the screen everything is going to appear, and if I could tap without delay the time savings would add up quickly.

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

My watch it spends most of its life on the charger, as I’m not much of a watch person. It does get used to test Fantastical’s watch app and complications, and the timer occasionally comes in handy when I’m doing laundry.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

My wallpaper is one of the cloud and star pictures from a previous version of iOS that has long since been removed. My lock screen is a picture of a jellyfish that I took in a zoo. I set it a long time ago and it seems to have just stuck.

Thanks Kent … and great work with Cardhop!

MacVoices Appearance

My pal Brett Terpstra and I guested recently on MacVoices. We talked to Chuck Joiner about 60 Mac Tips, Volume 2, eBook distribution, and nerdy technology stuff in general.