10 Years with iPhone


I did some traveling this week and that gave me an opportunity to observe a lot of people making their way through airports. Travel is just one more thing that has been revolutionized by the iPhone. When Apple released a touch screen computer that fits in your pocket, they changed the world.

I think a bit of this story that people miss is that it really took Apple to make this work. Apple’s engineering talent and user interface designers built a transformative bit of electronic gadgetry that I don’t think anyone else could have made and changed … well … everything.

I went back and read my comically bad review of the original iPhone from 2007. Most interesting for me was that I’d forgotten about several of my problems with the original iPhone. The device was limited and missing a lot of the features in phones of the day. I think the reason I didn’t remember so many of those original problems is because the iPhone was so good at the limited features it had. I vividly remember sliding to unlock, sending emails and viewing attachments on that screen, looking at maps on my phone, and … best of all … using Safari. If you’d ever attempted to access the Internet with any mobile phone made before the iPhone, you’d understand exactly how special the original iPhone was.

I don’t know if Apple will ever have another world-changing product like the iPhone. Indeed, I don’t know if any consumer electronic company will make something that changes the wold as much as the iPhone did. 10 years can feel like a lot of time. It also can feel like the blink of an eye. The iPhone has come so far in the past 10 years. Can you imagine what it will be like 10 years from now?

iPhone JD’s 12.9″ iPad Review

I enjoyed reading Jeff Richardson’s iPad review.

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“The second generation iPad Pro is better than the first generation iPad Pro in the ways that matter most for attorneys using an iPad to get work done — how the screen looks, how fast and responsive the system is, and how it works with the Apple Pencil.”
— Jeff Richardson, iPhone JD

I’ve been using the new 10.5 inch iPad exclusively since I received it but I have occasionally missed the big one, which is particularly good for contract reviews and sheet music. I’m going to continue using the small one exclusively for a few weeks to see exactly how much I miss the big one. Right now I’m leaning toward keeping (but not upgrading) my 12.9 inch iPad for those special times where it makes sense and working primarily from my 10.5.

SummerFest Software Discounts


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Every summer, several of the premier Mac App Developers pull together with sales of their products, called SummerFest. This year’s SummerFest lineup is impressive including, among others, Tinderbox, Nisus Writer, Scrivener, PDFpen, DEVONthink, and HoudahSpot. There’s even more and they all are 25% off. The whole thing ends in a few days so if you’re interested, now’s the time.

MPU 383 – Teddy Svoronos Is Back




MPU Episode 383 is up. This week Harvard lecturer Teddy Svoronos comes back and there is lots of nerdy goodness in this one. Harvard Lecturer Teddy Svronos returns to talk about how he’s using his Mac and iOS devices for giving presentations, some very clever iOS automation techniques, and academic writing. Finally, we fall into the music rabit hole at the end and share some of our favorite apps for making music.

Here’s Teddy’s Number’s Sheet Mentioned in the Show

 

Sponsors Include:

  • Jamf Now: Manage your Apple devices from anywhere. Get your first three devices free!
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  • Sanebox Stop drowning in email!
  • The Omni Group We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Daylite, the Mac CRM for Small Business (Sponsor)



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For those of you who don’t know about Daylite, it has been around for over 15 years. Daylite is a Mac customer relationship manager (CRM) that helps you get new business and deliver on your promises. Whether you are contacting new leads or reviewing your list of past clients to see who is in need of your services, Daylite helps you track everything. From a single lead or client, you can see every email, every booked or upcoming appointment, who referred them, pending business deals, active projects, and even future follow-ups. 

From a single project, you can see all of the important emails, files, completed tasks, as well as upcoming tasks and who is responsible. Daylite also has custom pipelines so you can visually track the stage of each project. 

The Daylite team is always coming up with new ways to help Daylite make business more productive. They’ve recently added an easier way to schedule meetings and book resources.

If you’re looking for a mature, reliable system to manage your business, look no further. You can even read about other companies using Daylite here.

One Week with the New iPad Pro

I’ve been using the new 10.5 inch iPad Pro a lot over the past week and thought I’d share a few thoughts:

That Screen

Wow. 

The screen refresh at 120 timer per second is immediately noticeable. Everything is snappier. Maps zoom faster. Apps and folders leap off the glass. It plays with your mind. As I write these words, it even seems the cursor is jumping across the screen faster than usual. The screen is also noticeably brighter than my existing iPad Pro. My best summary for this new screen is that it is hyper-real. 

Maybe at some point I’ll get used to this but then again it may just delight me for years. (Retina screens still make me giggle.) Speaking of retina screens, I think the jump from non-retina to retina was a bigger deal than this, but not by much. This tech is pretty remarkable. One clever bit to all of this is that the screen isn’t always driving forward at 120 frames per second. Instead the iPad is smart and only amps things up when needed. If there is no movement going on with the screen, the frame rate slows down to conserve battery.

10.5 Inches

While the feel of the 10.5 inch iPad is about the same as the prior 9.7 inch iPad Pro, Apple managed to add some additional pixels. They did not, however, make the 10.5 inch iPad match the pixel count of the 12.9 inch iPad Pro. Doing so would have allowed us to see two full sized iPad apps on the 10.5 inch iPad but also make everything on the screen smaller. I used to make fun of people that didn’t use the smallest possible typeface on their screens. These days I actually prefer text a little larger. Apple’s decision to keep the same pixel size (so text doesn’t shrink) but just add about 20% more screen real estate with the 10.5 inch iPad works for me. However, 20-year-old me would have preferred smaller pixels and two full-sized iPad apps. 

As for my existing 12.9 inch iPad, I have yet to determine its fate. The big iPad currently taking a sabbatical while I attempt to do all of my work on this 10.5 inch iPad to see how it goes. I’ll revisit and report back in a month or so.

There’s another piece to this larger screen: the keyboard. When I first started using the new 10.5 inch iPad, I didn’t feel the keyboard was any different than that for the 9.7 inch iPad. Now that I’ve spent more time typing on the Smart Keyboard and the glass, I can report this slightly wider keyboard is more comfortable than I expected it to be. Just that little extra width makes a significant difference.

The Pencil

In addition to a faster screen render, the new iPad also provides a faster scan for the pencil at 240 times per second. You won’t notice any difference when drawing quickly. The first time I tried it, I made broad fast strokes on prior generation iPad right next to this 10.5 inch iPad and couldn’t notice a difference. Then I got thinking about the times I try to use the pencil with precision and I started doing some tests. I use the pencil to make very small and detailed annotations on PDFs. I also use the pencil to write music in NotateMe. It was with that second test that I really got religion. NotateMe allows me to write music on my iPad with my pencil. It transcribes the music as I write it and even gives me a little preview. I like using the application to sketch of ideas for songs and solos. This task gets a lot easier with a higher scan rate on pencil. The application gets a better reading and, as a result, gives me better response. No longer do my eighth notes turn into quarter rests. One remarkable part about all this is the fact that I did not have to buy a new Apple Pencil. The iPad improvements were all that were needed in order to give my existing Apple Pencil these new powers.

Other Nerdy Bits

  • If you spend any time in Safari, you’ll notice the additional memory (4 GB).
  • The weight feels exactly the same as the 9.7 iPad Pro.
  • The speakers sound about the same to the 9.7 inch iPad Pro
  • There is no discernible difference in battery life. About 10 hours.

What about the Software?

For months I’ve been writing that the problem with the iPad isn’t hardware, but instead software. Apple fixes a lot of my complaints (and a few I didn’t even think of) with iOS 11. I’m currently running the iOS 11 beta on my 10.5 inch iPad and will have a lot more to say about that when it gets closer to shipping. The point, however, is that Apple has improved hardware and software. When iOS 11 ships, a lot of people will be able to get work done on iPad. September can’t come soon enough.

Too much going on? Email reminders by MailButler are there to help you. (Sponsor)


This week MacSparky is sponsored by MailButler. Multitasking is bad. Nonetheless, in today’s world we’re forced to to juggle business meetings, calls and emails, deadlines, and family birthdays and more. It’s easy to drop the ball. 

That’s one of the reasons I write here at MacSparky. Technology can help. If you feel overwhelmed with constant multitasking, it’s time for you to check out MailButler. It’s a multifunctional email extension, time-saver, and productivity game changer. 

With MailButler you can compose emails beforehand and schedule them to be sent on a certain day in the future. It’s a good solution for planning birthday greetings for the entire year in advance and getting them off your mind. Also, you might want to reduce the risks of forgetting about some of the open conversations you need to follow up on in case you don’t get any response. Once you’ve written your email, just tell MailButler when you want to be reminded to follow up, and the notification will appear at your preferred date and time. With MailButler you can schedule a reminder about any kind of task for each of your emails – just attach a short note to it and turn on the notification.

MailButler doesn’t stop there. It also helps you with attachments. With the “Attachment Reminder”, you will get reminders about possibly omitted email attachments. MailButler super-charges Apple Mail and helps you process your emails faster and more effectively, saving hours a day to complete other tasks. Check it out today.

 

Road ID for Apple Watch

For people who are active or have special needs, Road ID is a great product and service. Road ID is a wearable doodad that lets emergency responders know who you are and who they should call. There is even an option that allows you to keep an online profile with lists of your medications, allergies, and more.

Best of all, they now support the Apple Watch. They’ve got several products that will work with Apple Watch bands. If you’re active without identification or have a medical condition that you want to make sure first responders are aware of, check these out.