The rumor sites are starting to show evidence of an increasing iOS 10.3 beta size inside Apple. The only feature we’ve had any whisper of so far is “Theatre Mode” which is maybe a dark mode? There were a lot of rumors of a dark mode last year. Either way, I’m really crossing my fingers that 10.3 (or 10.4) deliver significant productivity improvements to the iPad. It’s time.
MPU 358 – Gabe Weatherhead Returns
Gabe Weatherhead is one of my favorite nerds. He’s smart and always has a few good ideas about getting the most out of his Mac. He joined us this week on the Mac Power Users to discuss OmniFocus Automation, follow-up on DEVONThink, address privacy and cloud services, the iPad as a computer for a child, and more.
Sponsors are:
- PDFpen from Smile With powerful PDF editing tools, available for Mac, iPad, and iPhone, PDFpen from Smile makes you a Mac Power User.
- 1Password Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Save up to 20% using this link.
- The Omni Group We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
Sponsor: PowerPhotos – The Ultimate Toolbox for Photos on the Mac
I’m pleased to welcome a new sponsor to MacSparky, PowerPhotos. There has been a lot of action in photo management on the Mac in the past few years and PowerPhotos is that powerful utility we’ve all been waiting for. If you have photos scattered across multiple libraries that you want to merge together, have a library that you want to split up because it’s gotten too large, or just want to get rid of duplicate photos, PowerPhotos can help you get your photo collection back in order.
PowerPhotos allows you to work with multiple Photos libraries and store them wherever you want, including on an external drive or a network drive. Split up your giant library into smaller ones by copying photos and albums with a simple drag and drop, preserving metadata such as descriptions and keywords along the way. Or, if you already have multiple libraries, use PowerPhotos to merge them together while weeding out duplicates along the way. PowerPhotos also features a powerful duplicate photo finder, a browser to let you see your photos without even opening up Photos itself, a multi-library search feature, and more.
You may recall an app from the iPhoto days called iPhoto Library Manager that gave you a similar set of tools. PowerPhotos is by the same developer and it’s just as reliable.
So go check out PowerPhotos today. Best of all, MacSparky readers get a 20% discount. Just use the code MACSPARKY at check out.
ComicBookFonts Annual Sale Today
If you’ve ever wanted to add some whimsical fonts to your library, there probably isn’t any better place than ComicBookFonts.com. This is a resource for professional comic artists and there is a dizzying array of fonts available. I purchased their Hedge Backwards years ago and still use it all the times in presentations when I want something different. (I even occasionally use it as my dictation font just to switch things up.)
Anyway, these are professional fonts with professional costs. Hedge Backwards, for instance, normally sells for $129. But not today. Every year they have a New Years Day sale with fonts at a penny per year. So for today only just about everything is $20.17. I buy an additional font from them every year on January 1. Check it out.
Productive App for Habit Tracking
Happy New Year. If you’ve been thinking about changing some habits as we head into 2017, why not game the system with an app? I have fallen off the wagon with habit tracking so I looked at a lot of the popular habit tracking apps before settling on Productive as my favorite. It has a bit of whimsey in its design and is customizable in just about every way you can think of for a habit-tracking app.
You can have habits run multiple times a day (like flossing in the morning and the evening) or much less frequently, like paying bills twice a month. You can have reminder alarms fire off or have the app remain completely silent. I even like the way it has a selection of categorized pre-built habits the first time you run the app to get you started.
The app is free to get you started with a one-time upgrade for more than 5 habits and some other additional features. If you’re trying to get some momentum today, check it out.
Talking Rogue One on Rebel Force Radio
The day after Rogue One released, I joined the Rebel Force Radio gang to debrief the movie. I actually didn’t join in until about half way through but it’s an excellent show, start to finish.
iPhone City
The New York Times digs deep on the iPhone manufacturing hub in China that’s capable of building 500,000 iPhones per day. It’s interesting that this story comes out on the same day that the Wall Street Journal reports Apple is also exploring the possibility of manufacturing in India. Is it that the Chinese capacity still isn’t high enough or that they don’t want all their eggs in one basket? I suspect the latter.
The AirPods After a Week
I wrote about my new AirPods after one day. Now I’ve been using them over a week and have a few additional observations worth checking in on.
- The AirPods charging case fits nicely in that little coin pocket in your jeans. This makes them easy to access and less likely to get all scratched up by your keys.
- I still haven’t given them a real stressful battery test. As I go through the day, I am constantly recharging them in their case. I plug the case in at night so it’s getting charged once a day. With this method, battery simply is not an issue.
- I’ve now used the AirPods to make approximately 70 calls with no drops, lost connections, or complaints about audio quality.
- I use the AirPods with one ear probably 70% of the time. Specifically, if I’m on a call or listening to a podcast or audiobook, one ear is fine. I use both AirPods when listening to music. Switching between one and two ear mode is as easy as pulling them out of your ear.
- I’ve always had an aversion to that guy that walks around with a Bluetooth things in his ear at all times. I realize that I’m leaning that way with these AirPods but my concession is that I only have them in my ear when I’m actually on a call or listening to Audio, which leads to my next point …
- The smart connection between AirPods and the iPhone is really nice. When I’m not wearing them, my iPhone puts audio and its ringer through its speaker. When I put an AirPod in my ear it switches. With prior Bluetooth headphones, I missed a lot of calls because audio was going to Bluetooth headphones when I thought they were turned off.
- Over a week and no cord tangles. So nice.
- When somebody does approach me while I’m wearing the AirPod(s), I just pull one out of my ear. Double tapping and audibly telling the AirPod to “pause” while somebody is standing there looking at you is goofy. Pulling it out of my ear lets me focus on the person in front of me.
- I received emails from a couple readers saying they don’t like the force required to double tap the AirPods. It doesn’t bother me. I would add, however, that figuring out the right amount of tap force takes a few days.
- I’ve used them a lot more with Siri since my initial write up. It doesn’t feel to me as if Siri is any more accurate through an AirPod than it is through the built-in iPhone microphone. One big difference is you no longer have a screen to rely upon for feedback. Maybe because of this, I feel like I see the rough edges around Siri more with the AirPods than I do the iPhone.
- They haven’t fallen out of my ears. I seem to have Apple-compliant ears.
- I still don’t like using the double tap and Siri commands to pause or play or skip a track. I suspect I will never get used to that. Like I wrote last time, the Apple Watch helps a great deal.
Overall, I’m still really happy with these AirPods. For someone like me, who spends a lot of time on the telephone and listening to audiobooks and podcasts, they’re pretty great. I haven’t used any of my other Bluetooth headphones in the past week and that’s not a result of me trying to pull a stunt for this blog but instead a result of the fact that the AirPods are just so damn convenient. (That doesn’t mean I’ll be abandoning my noise canceling headphones on my next flight.)
Sponsor: Tinderbox – The Tool for Notes
I’m pleased to welcome back Tinderbox as this week’s MacSparky sponsor. Tinderbox stores and organizes your notes, plans, and ideas. If you’re like me, you’ve got a lot rattling around in your brain and Tinderbox helps you make sense of it. Tinderbox is a powerful but personal content assistant that helps you share your notes through the cloud and on the Web.
Best of all, Tinderbox is part of the WinterFest 2016 festival of artisanal software. This is a collection of some of the very best software available, much of which works together.
For example, Tinderbox and DEVONthink are an excellent combination. You can store your research materials in DEVONthink and make sense of them with Tinderbox. Another great combination is Tinderbox with Scrivener. Organize your novel with Tinderbox and then write it with Scrivener. All of these apps work brilliantly together and are on sale with rare discounts as part of WinterFest 2016.
Heading into the new year, get yourself some powerful tools to accomplish some big goals in 2017. Check out Tinderbox and WinterFest 2016 now before the sale ends.
Thank You Carrie
I was at an impressionable age when I first saw Star Wars and Carrie Fisher showed me that a princess could be fierce, smart, and the one who does the rescuing instead of the opposite. While Carrie Fisher was so much more than her role in that galaxy far, far away to me … she’ll always be royalty.