Longtime Mac users may be familiar with one of my favorite Mac utilities, Text Soap. The application lets you fix text just about every way possible. That’s great so long as you’re sitting at a Mac, but what about iOS?
There’s a solution for that as well. TextTool 2 (website)(App Store) is an iOS app for iPad and iPhone that has 27 built-in text transformations. There’s a lot this application can do to text on your iPhone or iPad.
• Add/Remove List Markers
• Affix Text
• Change Case
• Comment/Uncomment Code
• Dedupe Lines
• Educate/Simplify Text
• Escape/Unescape Metacharacters
• HTML Entities to Text/Text to HTML Entities
• Indent/Outdent Lines
• Join Lines/Split Text
• Remove First/Last Line
• Search/Replace
• Sort Lines
• Spaces to Tabs/Tabs to Spaces
• Trim Whitespace
• URL Encode/Decode
• Wrap Text Cleanly
If that’s not enough, it also has its own scripting engine (using JavaScript) allowing you to write your own text transformations. I am always working with text that has one sort of problem or another. If you work with text on iOS, get this app.
I’m happy to welcome a new sponsor this week with workflow.link. Created by the same developer as inShort, workflow.link is a project management web service. With workflow.link, you can keep an eye on your big projects from the 20,000-foot view while still having the ability to drill down into the details.
This ability to combine the micro and the macro has always been one of inShort’s best features and it comes over to workflow.link nicely. As your diagram grows bigger, it can be split up, creating new diagrams until all the steps to achieve the goal are clear and feasible.
From the resulting map of tasks, you can compose a detailed plan and start cranking widgets, marking the progress in the service. For convenient control of plans, tasks can also be displayed as ordinary Gantt charts.
Like inShort, workflow.link’s design embraces the Theory of Constraints to automatically determines the critical path, configures time buffers and sets late starts. If you’ve used inShort in the past, you’ll get it immediately. You can even upload inShort diagrams to workflow.link or the reverse when moving from web service to app.
If you’re curious, give workflow.link a try. You can register for a free 30 day trial and really kick the tires starting today.
The Cloak VPN service, now getting renamed to Encrypt.Me, is offering a new family encryption service where you can have VPN services for everyone in your family of five for $12.99/month. I’m already a Cloak subscriber. The app is dead-simple to use and I’m often around public WiFi. It really isn’t that much more to upgrade to the family plan and put everyone on it. The question is, are we at a point where I need to get religion into my family about VPN security?
My initial reaction is that I’m being paranoid and my wife and kids would probably not bother with VPN even if I set them up with something as simple as Cloak. However, when I read the full extent of government and non-government snooping going on out there, I’m sorely tempted to put everyone on VPN. This sounds like fodder for a dinner table conversation.
Recently I was riding in my daughter’s car and she was playing the soundtrack from Baby Driver (iTunes) (Apple Music) and this song came on that blew my mind a little bit. After a little investigation, I discovered it was a jazz band from the late 60’s and early 70’s from Houston Texas known as the Kashmere Stage Band. Further investigation revealed this was not a band formed of seasoned professionals but instead high school kids. Bandleader and teacher Conrad O. Johnson wrote arrangements for his band that were a unique mix of jazz and funk and he got such a sound out of his band. It just makes you want to dance. It’s a crazy story that eventually became the subject of a documentary film, Thunder Soul, (YouTube) produced by Jamie Foxx. You don’t have to go that deep if you don’t want to, however. Just stream or buy their album, Thunder Soul, and prepare yourself for some big band jazz, unlike anything you’ve heard before.
Gabe Weatherhead, author of the MacDrifter Blog, is one of my favorite writers on the Internet. He’s thoughtful and wicked-smart. Visiting Gabe’s website, you’re not only likely to find some bit of technology magic, you also may learn just a little more about Kurt Vonnegut. In addition to all of that, as a kid Gabe was an absolute badass. I remember that shirt. I wore mine out. Anyway … Gabe, show us your home screen.
What are some of your favorite apps?
Well, I guess every app on my home screen earned that place so by that logic they are all my favorites. But if you want to know what apps I enjoy using the most, I’d say MyScript Nebo is the one that makes me feel like technology is catching up to my childhood dreams. The handwriting recognition is a small miracle. In that same vein, I really like sketching with Linea Sketch. It’s so close to writing on paper but with the feel of a whiteboard. I think visually and sometimes it helps to just doodle and draw some lines. Linea works well for that. It’s not as advanced as an app like like Procreate. or Tayasui Sketches but sometimes all of those extra tools are just cruft in the way of thinking.
Writing in Nebo. (Click to expand)
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
I guess Slack since it’s mostly just for chit-chatting and memes. I don’t really feel guilty about it because my primary Slack group is a bunch of super smart people that are also pretty helpful.
I’m not really an iOS gamer. I enjoy Monument Valley but usually, iOS games leave me feeling uninterested after about 20 minutes. Strangely, I enjoy Wikipanion Plus for iPad with the Adventure Time, Wookiepedia, and Simpsons Wikias. I can spend an hour reading random pages.
By design it’s OmniFocus, because that’s where I manage my project and task list. But, I really spend a ton of time in DEVONthink To Go. That’s where I keep pretty much every piece of information I might need for a task. The search performance is fantastic and it has one of the best share sheets for capturing from other apps. I know iOS 11 is bringing a new file manager, but I’m not sure if they can beat what I get with DEVONthink meta data and search.
What app do you know you’re underutilizing?
Without a doubt, I could get more out of iThoughts if I really forced myself to use it the right way. Every time I noodle around in iThoughts I find something new or something I forgot it could do. It’s a pretty snazzy research tool but I always forget to start in iThoughts, which is the best way to capture with the app. There are so many excellent apps for iOS that it’s hard to keep to just one workflow and really learn it in depth and build routines. But there are dividends when I focus on one application and disregard existing habits.
What is the app you are still missing?
Call Recorder for podcasting. That’s not very relevant for most people but the sandboxing and lack of true multi-tasking prevents the iOS platform from doing some things I love on the Mac. Apps like Little Snitch, Keyboard Maestro, and Hazel are among my favorite applications on the Mac and they aren’t just missing on iOS, they are impossible. I also can’t say that I want Apple to open up iOS like the Mac, either. It’s the sandbox on iOS that makes it so safe. But, there are a lot of smart people at Apple. I like to think that this is a problem with a technical solution that doesn’t depend on share sheets and switching apps.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
There are about 1,000 waking minutes in my average day. So let’s say about 1,000 times.
I use the Copied widget a lot since that’s the closest thing to a mult-clipboard on iOS. I just pull down and activate the widget to keep gathering items into the Copied stack. Later, I can get to everything from any of my Apple devices.
I also really appreciate the Drafts! widget for its dictation option. I use that far more on my iPhone than on my iPad though. I probably use that feature once a day, just to take down a quick thought. I even dump some half-considered tasks in Drafts to avoid cluttering OmniFocus with things I haven’t thought through.
The Workflow widget is nice but I’ll be honest, I don’t want to depend on Workflow too much. I don’t think it will be around that long and there are so many routines that I had that were unrealistic without Workflow. It felt like dangerous territory to depend on one app that’s now owned (and barely updated) by Apple. I still use Workflow, but I’m trying not to build new dependencies on the App until I see Apple move it forward and make it an equal iOS citizen with Mail, Safari, and Calendar. If it remains as important as Clips then I don’t have confidence in its future.
Gabe’s iPad (click to enlarge)
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
My single favorite feature is portability. I know I should say that the limitations make me more focused, but that’s not as true anymore. If I had true multi-tasking like on the Mac, I’d be more productive on iOS. But what wins the day is how easy it is to pick up my iPhone and just get something done. Easy in and easy out.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
iOS 11 is on the right track, but they need to rethink how sandboxing works. I think it’s time to rebalance the safety controls with the modern needs of a computing device. As I mentioned above, most of what the iPad can not do is related to the guard-rails Apple has against inter-app communication and system level access. I don’t claim to be as smart as a team of Apple engineers. Those are some smart cookies. But they are working with user requirements that are nearly a decade old now. I bet that if they really focused on the problem that they could come up with a way to allow a user to exercise their own control and accept the risks of those decisions, without endangering the device or the network.
Do you have an Apple Watch?
I wear an Apple Watch almost every day. I bet I’m not like a lot of daily users though. I wear it like I do a pocket knife. I have it with me because it’s nice in a few circumstances but most of the time I don’t need it. If I lost it, I probably wouldn’t replace it until the next revision.
I have two primary faces:
The daily face that’s pretty ugly but really functional
The distraction-free face that’s good for movies, bedtime, and when I don’t want to think about the outside world
What’s your wallpaper and why?
On my iPhone, I use the app WLPPR which has some terrific looking satellite images to use as wallpaper. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since 2016 and doesn’t support the iPad.
I highly recommend two David Lanham collections available for sale. There’s a collection of over 100 cartoons that I love so much I have a few framed. His photography bundle is also fantastic.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’ve considered myself a “Mac guy” for a very long time. Since the latest iPad Pro was released, I’ve tried to go iPad-only. It’s mostly been a success but when there are edge cases on iOS, they are pretty hard edges. No automation on iOS comes close to what can be done on the Mac. A lot of what I need to do is completely possible on iOS. Some of it is even easier with a dedicated app. This notion that there’s a competition between an iPad and MacBook is unreasonable. The iPad is not a Mac replacement for someone like me and it often requires ten times more work to get something done. My Mac is nowhere near as convenient and ever-ready as my iPad or iPhone. I wrote all of these words in Drafts on my iPad because it’s pretty handy. That doesn’t mean I don’t also love my Mac. They are two different things in my world but I use my iPad a heck of a lot more than my Mac.
Last week I attended the first ever CMD-D: Masters of Automation conference in San Jose. At the end of the day, Jason Snell did a live on-stage podcast with all the speakers, including yours truly.
The show went live this week in the Upgrade feed. I though it came out great and there is a lot of good information about where we stand with automation technologies with both Mac and iOS. The CMD-D portion starts about 30 minutes into the podcast but I recommend listening to the whole thing.
This week Workflow got a middling update. The update includes lots of bug fixes and improvements for iOS 11. This is further evidence that Apple is committed to keeping the lights on for Workflow at least for the next year.
Last week when I was at the CMD-D conference I got to spend time with some of the Workflow developers and they were actively soliciting ideas and thoughts about the application from me. They weren’t acting like someone who thought their app already had one foot in the grave.
I have no idea what’s going on at Apple. If I was a betting man, I would say that some version of the Workflow feature set is going to somehow get incorporated into a future version of iOS, but until that time it seems that Apple is happy to keep paying people to keep the current version working.
I still get emails from people suggesting I’m nuts to keep using Workflow after it’s been acquired by Apple. My reply is that I think I would be nuts not to use it. One of a few things is going to happen:
Apple will continue to support workflow for the foreseeable future until shutting it down without some sort of replacement.
Apple will continue to support workflow for the foreseeable future until replacing it with some new technology (hopefully) incorporating a lot of the ideas and motivation behind Workflow.
In either of those scenarios, Workflow will continue to work for the foreseeable future. This week’s update supports iOS 11 and supports this point even further. Workflow is, in my opinion, the most powerful utility available on the iPhone and iPad. It quite literally allows nonprogrammers to develop their own custom apps that can speak with multiple applications and make their lives easier.
An added benefit of many Workflow users is that it sends a message to Apple that iOS users want automation and power tools, just like Mac users. More of that … please!
Best of all, the application is now free. Even if you’ve never picked up Workflow, now is a great time to kick the tires.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniOutliner, my favorite outlining application for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Recently the Omni Group has released OmniOutliner version 5. One of the best things about this new version is the addition of OmniOutliner Essentials. It includes several of OmniOutliner’s key features, like keyword filtering, document stats, distraction-free mode, resource search, touch bar support, dark mode, opml mode, and pro file compatibility.
I use OmniOutliner often. It’s a fantastic tool for collecting ideas and organizing them. Whether you’re taking notes, making lists, brainstorming, or starting your book, OmniOutliner can help you out.
With OmniOutliner Essentials, you get all these features for just $10. OmniOutliner Essentials is a great deal and if you have any interest in adding a world-class outliner to your tool belt, go get OmniOutliner Essentials today.
Intel recently announced its 2018/2019 CPU, called Icy Lake. AnandTech explains the new chip in detail. To summarize, Intel is putting the hammer down on making their chips smaller and faster. I’m sure Apple and other competing chip designers/manufacturers are taking note.
As I was growing up with computers, CPU improvements were all about speed. Computers didn’t change the way they looked so much as they got a lot faster … often. I can’t help but feel that as 10nm chips become “the thing”, the speed improvements will end up taking a back seat to the ways these new chips liberate hardware manufacturers to rethink the kinds of hardware we can put these small, fast chips in. Future chips are not about getting faster (although they will get faster) so much as they are about further evolving the idea of what a computer is. I can hardly wait.
