Thinking About Touch Screen Macs

I’ve been thinking more lately about touch screen Macs. There’s lots of talk in the community about how Microsoft has added touch screen to Windows and it’s now time for Apple to follow suit. Just a few days ago, I was sent a link for the Air Bar, which is a bolt-on sort of thingy that sort of adds a touch screen to a 13 inch MacBook Air. 

I have no inside knowledge but I think you’re dreaming if you expect Apple to add a touch screen monitor to the Mac. Microsoft added touch to Windows because they were unable to successfully launch a separate touch interface. Even with that, Windows touch implementation still has a very long way to go before it is as intuitive or easy to use as iOS. Making a single interface that can satisfy both touch and keyboard/mouse users is no easy task and I’m not convinced Microsoft (or even Apple) can pull it off.

Apple will expand upon touch computing through iOS, not the Mac. The hold up right now is that iOS needs more power but that will come along with bigger and better iPads. You won’t get your touch screen Mac. Instead, you’ll get a gigantic iPad (or whatever Apple ends up calling it). For the Mac, the Touch Bar is probably all we’ll ever get in terms of touch. If they do go further with touch on the Mac, however, I’d expect it to be a full touch screen keyboard, not a touch screen monitor.

Apple TV Party Game Pick: Fibbage

I spent New Years Eve with a pile of family members and we decided to spend some of that time lying to one another with Fibbage on the Apple TV. Fibbage is an Apple TV gameshow-type app. Participants play along using their iPhones or iPads not through a dedicated app but instead a webpage. (It requires your device be on the same WiFi network as the Apple TV.)

Once everyone is logged in, Fibbage gets started by asking a question, like this.


Then each participant types in an answer on their iPhone. You can either try and come up with an answer that your friends will think correct (which gets you points) or something that is just funny (which gets you likes). Once all answers are entered, Fibbage puts all the user answers along with the correct answer on the screen and everyone picks. You get points for picking the right answer. You also get points for your friends picking your wrong answer. In reality, the points matter very little. It’s just fun, particularly with a big group.

We had family members of all ages playing and kept it relatively G-rated but that is really up to the players. We had so much fun playing Fibbage that we almost missed the clocks hitting midnight on New Years Eve.

In addition to Apple TV, they’ve also got versions for Xbox, Playstation, and Amazon Fire TV. 

iOS 10.3 Rumors

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.
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  • 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



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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



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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.

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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.