MPU 382 – Automation Update

The latest episode of Mac Power Users is up. In this episode we review the current state of Home Automation and the technology we use in our homes. We also talk about our new iPads and wrap-up WWDC.

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.

MultiMarkdown Converter Pro

Fletcher Penney, who has put years of work into MultiMarkdown, has a new app: MultiMarkdown Converter Pro. If you write in Markdown or MultiMarkdown, this one is worth checking out. With MultiMarkdown Converter Pro, you can drag and drop text files from anywhere and convert them into the format you desire. It includes support for HTML5, EPUB 3 (including images), LaTeX, and Flat OpenDocument.

The New Glif

I backed the new Glif iPhone tripod mount and mine showed up a few weeks ago. Studio Neat has come a long way with this product. The newest Glif is spring loaded and pulls back easily around your phone (any size, in a case or not). You then just press down the quick release lever and you’ve attached three tripod mounting points to your phone. The whole thing easily fits in your jeans’ pocket. Quick. Secure. Portable.

If you want to go crazy, Studio Neat also sells a wooden grip with a tripod screw on top and wrist strap. You can combine this with the Glif to have a nice comfortable handle for your phone. I used it in this configuration recently at Disneyland while walking in a crowd. Combined with the iPhone camera stabilization, it took some great video for something I just pulled out of my pocket. As an aside, you’ll see some cranes in the background at the end of the video. You’ll never guess what those are for.

This third iteration of the product is so good that I’m not sure where they can go next. If you have any desire to put your iPhone on a tripod, look no further.

Free Agents 23 — Hard to Get on a Different Train

The latest episode of Free Agents is available for download. In this episode, we talk about what business forms make sense for your new venture. Topics include sole proprietorships, corporations, LLCs, and what seems like an episode-long disclosure that you really need a local attorney to help you out with these things.

Sponsors include:

Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.
Storyworth: A new way to bring the family together.

Hazel 4.1 Update

I’m a little late on this story but Hazel got a very nice update over the last few months. The new version 4.1 adds several useful features including:

Better date matching
The ability to make a match based on file attributes of another file in the same folder
There’s also a new token for “any non-blank character”

These and other additions make this a nice improvement to an already useful Mac utility. I’m working on some new video content based on the updates. It will get added to the Hazel Video Field Guide when it’s finished. I’m not making any promises on a release date just yet.

Subscription Database

Several months ago we did an episode on Mac Power Users about managing subscriptions. During the show I explained that I have an Apple Numbers spreadsheet where I keep track of all of that information. I’ve finally gotten around to posting it. Below is a screenshot and at the bottom of this post is a download link.

The spreadsheet allows you to enter the name of the service and then whatever fee you’re paying. When you click the checkbox as to whether or not it’s an annual subscription, the spreadsheet does some conditional computations to figure out the monthly cost and annual cost in the following two columns. Those are the key locations that you’re going to be getting information about how much you’re spending. At the bottom of those columns you’ll see how much you’re spending per month and per year.

After that it’s just further information concerning the specific service like website, account number, contact information, and email. The point is you want to keep whatever you need in this database so you can cancel a subscription whenever you feel like it. The one thing I don’t keep in this database is passwords. For that I go to 1Password.

Feel free to download, use, and modify. Let me know how it works for you.

Download the Subscription Database.

10.5 Inch iPad Pro Reviews

Several of the early reviews are out and they are generally positive. My favorites are:

Federico Viticci at MacStories

Rene Ritchie at iMore

I particularly like the sample of the improved pencil scanning at iMore. The new iPad pros combined with iOS 11 improvements is going to let people get a lot of work done on tablets.