Grabbing a Safari Link with Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro is a really powerful tool for automating work on your Mac. Here’s a simple Keyboard Maestro script I use every day. When you write for the Internet, you often include links. This little script, upon me activating the magic keyboard combination, jumps to Safari, selects the URL (⌘L) then copies the link (⌘C), then jumps back the app from which I triggered the script and pastes the link at the current cursor location (⌘V). I’ve been doing this so long that it feels second nature. Below is a screenshot of the script along with a short video of the script in action. Enjoy.

More IFTTT iOS Applets

Cloud-based automation tool, IFTTT has been taking the approach on iPhone and iPad of adding “applets”, small apps that plug into pieces of their service. Today IFTTT announced a few more of these.

The new Calendar Applet lets you plug into your calendar to both grab and add events though IFTTT’s pipes. One thing I like about this is that it lets me get events into IFTTT even though I don’t use Google Calendar. There’s also a new applet for the App Store that I don’t see as much use for but it does give you an idea how deep IFTTT is going on iPhone and iPad.

We’re planning a future MPU episode around cloud-based automation tools and I’ve been doing a lot of testing. I’m increasingly a fan of IFTTT and Zapier for getting more work out of iOS.

The Slippery Slope of Internet Privacy

The U.S. Senate has now voted to remove prior regulations prohibiting Internet Service Providers (ISPs)–the folks you pay for your home Internet pipe–from selling your browsing and Internet data to others for fun and profit. This is pretty terrible news if you care at all about your Internet privacy. For a long time now ISP’s have been storing and saving your Internet history data. They know where you go and how long you spend there. This new regulation, assuming it also passes the house and gets signed into law (it will) lets them sell your data.

I hate this.

One of the big arguments in favor of this change by ISPs is that because Google and Facebook are making money from our data, they should get in on the action too. That argument, however, fails. Google and Facebook are services that consumers can use or avoid. Consumers can, in effect, opt out of the madness. That isn’t true with your home Internet connection. Every website you visit and every web service you use are now information available on the open market.

You may be thinking how you don’t do anything particularly nefarious so it doesn’t matter. I think that is short-sighted. Somebody with a few bucks should not be able to find that I spend time at certain banking websites or researching certain medical issues or even websites about one political belief over another. Future employers, or insurers, or anybody else with a check book should not be able to snoop through my browsing records.

This seems to me the kind of thing that you’d want to protect no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. Even though the vote on this is down party lines, I have multiple conservative friends that are up in arms over it.

So what can you do?

1. Complain

I’d encourage you to complain to your congressperson. The House of Representatives hasn’t voted yet and 5calls.org is a great place to start.

2. Get a VPN

Virtual Private Network services allow you to get on the Internet without the ISP seeing where you are actually going. The VPN company will know but, assuming you use a reputable one, they won’t sell your data. I’ve been using VPNs for years. They’re particularly helpful if you spend a lot of time on the road using WiFi that you don’t control. Recently I purchased a one-year subscription from Cloak and right now I’m feeling pretty good about that. I could turn that on at home any time (or selectively) to hold on to my privacy.

3. Go Elsewhere for your Internet Pipe

For a lot of communities, the options are very limited but if you have other options for your Internet service, investigate them. Maybe some of them will make your privacy their selling point.

Before you email me to say I’m being alarmist or to remind me that most of our Internet privacy was already fictional, I understand what you are saying. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel in the slippery slope of Internet privacy, we’re about to take a pretty long slide.

The New APFS File System

Today’s iOS 10.3 update to the iPhone adds the brand-new Apple File System (APFS) to your iOS devices.

The APFS system was announced last year WWDC. It replaces the now 30-year-old hierarchical filing system (HFS, later updated to HFS+) that, until today, was on your iPhone and iPad, and still remains on your Mac. APFS is a much needed modernization, more secure and designed around SSD storage, which didn’t even exist when HFS first showed up. In addition to being more secure, the new system should be faster and more efficient, allowing you to save some space.

When Apple first announced this new system, I expected it would be years before we saw it on iPhones. The iPhone is the lifeblood of Apple and changing file systems can sometimes cause problems. Now here we are less than 12 months after announcement and Apple’s installing APFS across all iPhones and iPads. I spoke to a few friends that are more knowledgeable about these things than me and they explained that implementing APFS was easier on iOS because of the way the operating systems is already so locked down.

Following my usual “fire, ready, aim” philosophy about these things, I already updated all of my iOS devices and while the update took a while (converting a file system is never a fast process), everything went just fine and devices are all working just like before. Indeed, I’m writing this post on my updated iPad Pro.

Hopefully this success is a sign that we will see the APFS deployed on the Mac in the next year.

MPU 370 – Sal Soghoian Talks Automation

This week we’re joined by long time Automation evangelist and former Apple Automation head, Sal Soghoian. This is a very special episode of the Mac Power Users where we discuss the current state of automation technologies on the Mac and iOS and where we’d like to see them go in the future.

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Time for an iCloud Security Tuneup

Depending on who you believe, hackers have either compromised 600 million iCloud accounts or they have just a few and are trying shake Apple down for $150,000. Sometimes, humans are the worst.

Either way, either today (or this weekend) would be a great time to:

Reset your iCloud password. You can do that at appleid.apple.com.
Turn on Apple’s two-factor authentication.
Have a cookie. You’ve earned it.

All of this will take you 10 minutes and make you a lot less vulnerable to terrible people.

Free Agents 17 – Stop Digging

On the latest episode of Free Agents, we discuss firing clients. Not all clients are good clients. If you don’t manage the herd, you could lose the farm. This is why it’s important to consider the right time, and right way, to fire a client. We discuss fireable offenses both obvious and subtle, and the best approach to take when firing a client.

The Case For and Against Apple’s Purchase of Workflow

There was a bit of surprising news today out of TechCrunch from Matthew Panzarino. It looks like Apple bought Workflow, which is–in my opinion–the single most useful utility application on the iPhone or iPad. I love Workflow so much that I made a MacSparky Video Field Guide about it.

Workflow is an application that allows you to glue together other applications on iOS and create automated tasks. For instance, I use a Workflow recipe to automatically date and file PDF documents on my iPad. Once I figured it out, the process is actually faster on my iPad then it is on my Mac.

I once made a joke on Mac Power Users that the only reason Workflow got approved was because someone must have naked pictures of somebody important at Apple. The application seemed just so contrary to Apple’s general position of iOS simplicity. (Not that I’m complaining.) Over the years, the Workflow team has continued to innovate with this application, adding new features often and allowing us to automate work on the iPad and iPhone that we only dreamed about just a few years ago.

Frankly, I’m mixed about the idea of Apple purchasing Workflow:

The Case against It

There was another innovative application on the iPhone years ago that Apple purchased called Siri. Once they bought it, the pace of innovation slowed down and while it’s great that the Siri got incorporated into the operating system, there’s a lot of us that still miss the old version that had some crazy new innovative feature with each update. I think there’s a legitimate concern that Apple will do the same with Workflow. They could simplify it and incorporate Workflow into the operating system so everybody has a bit more automation but nobody has the vast library of options Workflow currently offers. We certainly aren’t going to get the frequent updates once Apple takes the reins.

The Case for It

In a lot of ways, it feels to me like Workflow is held together by chewing gum and rubber bands. The Workflow developers have (brilliantly) taken advantage of every little toe hold in iOS that allows them to move data between applications. They do things with URL callbacks that make your head spin. All that being said, there are inherent limitations as to how far Workflow can go as an external application outside of Apple.

If, however, Apple absorbs Workflow into the operating system with the intention of bringing real power user tools to iPhone and iPad users, I believe they could go even further than the current third-party version of Workflow. Imagine if Apple created APIs that allowed any app to tap into Workflow’s automation tools. Imagine if we could string together automation steps that allow users to press one button and have five different applications lend a hand to getting work done. Once (if?) Workflow gets inside the iOS security sandbox and becomes an integrated Apple product, Workflow could become much more powerful. These are exactly the kinds of power tools for iOS I’ve been yammering about lately on this blog.

One promising note is that it appears the members of the Workflow team are taking jobs at Apple where they will continue to press for iOS automation from inside the mothership. I wish them much success.

Holding Our Breath

For now all we can do is wait and see. If you haven’t tried Workflow yet, shame on you. The application is now free so you have no excuse not to go download it and give it a shot. Spend a few minutes in Workflow and you will find ways to save time on your iPhone and iPad.

Interact Scratchpad for Mac

Today Agile Tortoise released a new Mac App, Interact Scratchpad (website)(Mac App store). One of the best features on the Interact for iOS app is the scratchpad, where you can paste any address-related clump of text and the application sorts it out for you. It’s way faster than manually adding a contact and now that same scratchpad is available in the menu bar on on your Mac.

In addition to helping me sort out somebody else’s poorly formatted address information, the Interact Scratchpad is also an easy way to capture address information on your Mac as someone gives it to you over the telephone. You don’t have to fiddle with clicking on fields. Just type in the text and let the app do the rest.

When you’re done, you can share the contact data into your contact database. You can even pick which Contacts Group, the new contact goes in.

Not surprisingly, Agile Tortoise, did a great job with this app. I bought it as soon as it went on sale. Check out the developer’s video below.