If you own a USB-C MacBook or MacBook Pro and are missing the MagSafe power cord, there’s the Griffen BreakSafe with an integrated USB-C cable and there’s a new Kickstarter project called Snapnator, that works with an existing USB-C cable.
Calendar Spam
Here’s a new one. The last week I’ve started getting occasional spam-based calendar invites. Be careful out there.
2016 Holiday Gift Recommendations
Happy Thanksgiving fellow nerds! If you’re looking for a geek-related gift for yourself or others, I’ve got a few recommendations. Most of these were covered in this week’s Mac Power Users episode but not everyone listens to the podcast so here you go …
Bose QuietComfort 35s
Everyone keeps telling me how putting on Bose noise-canceling headphones on an airplane is like putting a pillow over the face of everyone on the plane. With these headphones, that is delightfully true. I bought a pair of these while traveling and can’t believe I waited so long. The 35s are the new Bluetooth version and they work better than expected.
eero Home WiFi
I bought a set of eeros earlier this year and then they sent me a few more when they sponsored the podcast. Sprinkle a few EERO devices around your house and it’s like wrapping up in a warm blanket of WiFi. I used to have dead space problems in my house, particularly near my teenage daughters’ rooms. They’d not notice (or not care) and end up on LTE, burning through our wireless allowance. With eero, no more.
Waterfield Bags
I bought a few more products from Waterfield this year. Whether you’ve got the smallest iPad or rocking the latest MacBook Pro, Waterfield has a bag/case/sleeve/backpack that will look great and last a long time.
Sonos
I’m officially a Sonos weirdo now with them sprinkled all over my house. That means that when I want music, I get it … everywhere. And loud. This year they added Apple Music integration which makes it even more awesome for Apple device owners. Start with just one piece and grow it slowly.
Anker Batteries
Anker expanded its line of external batteries this year so they have something at every size and price point. I’ve bought several of these over the last few years. I keep them in my bag and love knowing I’ve got a little extra juice … justin case.
Apple Air Pods
I like Apple’s new Air Pods. They were supposed to be out by the end of October but got delayed. Some rumors say we’ll have them available before Christmas. Hope springs eternal.
ARM Macs
The Internet is abuzz today in response to Jason Snell’s Macworld article arguing that Apple probably will not convert the Mac to an ARM processor. ARM processors are currently being designed by Apple for use in the iPhone and iPad and their custom chips are one of the reasons they are so far ahead of the competition on mobile processors.
Lately, the Mac has been taking heat for the slow upgrade cycle, Part of the blame (but not all of it) falls on Apple’s current Mac chip manufacturer, Intel, for missing deadlines. Jason makes the argument that Apple will, in all likelihood, stay with Intel because the Mac doesn’t earn enough money for Apple to justify the substantial cost of time and money to make a transition to a new processor.
I can’t help but think that Apple’s tendency to want to control everything would probably be enough for them to commit resources to switching to ARM. If Apple designs their own silicon, they’ll never rely on Intel again. Also, with the ever increasing race for better battery life, I’d expect Apple could make a MacBook that runs a very long time on an ARM-based chip. Jason Snell’s a pretty smart guy and been around this racket much longer than I but I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple does bring ARM to the Mac at some point, even if it is just the lower-powered, super-long battery MacBooks.
Mac Power Users 2016 Geek Gift Guide
We had some great picks on this week’s 2016 Mac Power Users Geek Gift show. Listen now so you can put your requests in while your family members are in their post-turkey stupor on Thursday.
Sponsors inclue:
- The Omni Group They’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
- Automatic The connected car company that improves your driving and integrates your car into yoru digital life. Enter code MACPOWER to get 20% off your purchase.
- Making Light Get (or give!) a candle subscription and make some new habits. Use offer code “MPU”.
Task Management Pain Points – False Urgency
I’ve been working long hours the last few weeks and, despite my best efforts, I’ve been finishing my days with a nagging feeling that I’m not getting anything done. A big part of this is me biting off more than I can chew. As I’ve explained in the past, no task management system can make your day magically 30 hours long. You have to be realistic when planning your day.
There is, however, a related trap – false urgency. Specifically, in looking at my tasks, I’ve had this bloat of due dates and flagged items that are not merited. Part of this problem is a result of me going a little nuts with my project templates. As I showed in the latest version of the OmniFocus Video Field Guide, it’s now super-easy to add flags and due dates to your auto-generated projects. However, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
I can’t blame it all on the robot though. I’ve also been manually adding more flags and due dates than normal. This is a result of me feeling like I’m not getting enough done and then creating artificial deadlines to try and give myself a kick in the pants. While that may work for a day or two, in the long run it just made me feel further behind and desperate which, in turn, led to even more flags and due dates.
So over the past few days I’ve been looking really close at flagged and “due” items. Most of them did not need this artificial urgency and I’ve removed many of them. My task list once again only has a few truly time sensitive and flagged items and I’m getting my daily list back to something manageable.
Note that all of this is happening in my head. I’ve not technically increased the number of tasks I’m performing. Instead I’ve just made adjustments so I look at the list in a healthier fashion. I’ve been down this road before and can tell you that the net result will be an actual increase in productivity and a significant reduction in stress.
If you feel like you are drowning right now, take a look at the false urgencies you are carrying around and see what you can do about setting them down.
Home Screens – Joshua Holt
This week’s home screen features reader and listener Joshua Holt (Website). Joshua is a lawyer working at a big shiny office in New York. In his spare time, he blogs about personal finance topics while trying to build a community of lawyers to help each other avoid doing dumb things with their money. So Joshua, show us your home screen.
What are some of your favorite apps?
Drafts, Overcast, 1Password and Hangouts are my favorite home screen apps right now. My iPhone is mainly a device for capturing ideas, communicating and the occasional consumption of video.
I’m a total convert to Drafts. It’s my digital notepad on both my iPhone and iPad and my number one resource for capturing ideas, tasks, or anything that needs to be written down. It’s one of the few apps that is allowed to have badges turned on, which lets me know that I need to process through my notes (which is a snap thanks to the robust action platform that lets me send text to the right app).
Overcast is a must for my subway commute. It’s how I keep up with MacPowerUsers and thanks to a neat trick from Katie Floyd, it’s also a way to get Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits, which are required in the legal profession.
A lot of people make a fuss about the security aspect of using strong passwords, but without 1Password I have no idea how people keep track of their various logins. It seems crazy to me. I have over 425 accounts according to 1Password. Without one program to manage them, I’d explode in frustration every time I had to login to a website.
Hangouts is a new home page app for me, but I am experimenting with dropping my voice plan since I rarely make voice calls. Hangouts allows you to make free calls to regular phone numbers over both wifi and data. So far, so good. I think the day isn’t too far away when voice plans will go the way of the dinosaurs. I already prefer to use FaceTime Audio thanks to the superior call quality and my work phone runs over the Internet, so why shouldn’t my mobile phone?
Which app is your guilty pleasure?
Chess. A few months ago, I discovered that you could play three minute games against anyone in the world. I’m hooked. I find it relaxing to get lost in a few quick chess matches in between tasks. I probably play more than I should, but I figure it’s a better habit than using Facebook.
What app makes you most productive?
I’m surprised to say this, but I’m most productive in the Mail app. I enjoy processing email on my iPhone more than on Outlook on my work PC. As a lawyer, we spend way too much time writing email and I appreciate the limitations on email responses that comes from replying with an iPhone. Also, the predictive “move” command in iOS 10 has really helped me keep my inbox clean which means I try to triage email as much as possible on my iPhone rather than diving into Outlook.
What app do you know you’re underutilizing?
ToDoist. It’s my favorite task management app, particularly because it is cross-platform and has a lightweight UI, but I’ve just never been great at running a task management system. There’s something about sitting down to handle tasks assigned by former me that I find really distasteful. Like, “who is that guy to be telling me what to do?” That said, I use Todoist as a running list of things I’d like to accomplish and open it up from time to time to pick things I feel like working on in a given moment.
What is the app you are still missing?
Hazel for the iPhone would be pretty amazing. I’d love to see an app that could automate certain functions and be triggered by things like time, files, or other inputs.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?
Thanks to the app Moment, I can tell you that I picked my iPhone exactly 46 times yesterday. I don’t know how it’s working under the hood to provide that data, but I think it’s handy to get a sense for how much screen time I’m spending with my iPhone.
What Today View widgets are you using and why?
Workflow is hands down my favorite Today widget. I’m getting used to swiping right (rather than down) to bring up my helpful workflows. I work with a personal trainer and send him an email each day with photographs of what I ate. Using Workflow, in two taps, I take a picture, crop it and upload it to a Dropbox folder. From there, Hazel takes over and renames the photo using a timestamp. At the end of each day, Hazel drafts and sends an email automatically attaching my food photos of the day. It’s still magical to me.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?
I’ve always been blown away that we have more computing power in our pockets than Neil Armstrong had when he landed on the moon. If you had asked the astronauts in the 1960s whether by 2016 we would have traveled to Mars or invented a device that carried around the entirety of humanity’s knowledge, I think we know which they would have said is more likely.
If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?
First, I would fix the search functionality in Mail on the iPhone/iPad. It’s not usable. Perhaps this isn’t their fault given that my work email is stored on an Exchange server, but I find it surprising that I can’t easily pinpoint an email in iOS that would take me a few seconds to do on my work PC.
Next, I would fix the problem with iMessage being tied to the phone number of the SIM card. Because iMessage automatically assumes your SIM card number is your primary number, iMessage “breaks” if you travel abroad and replace your SIM with a local SIM. If someone sends you a message at your primary number, you will not receive it. The way around this is to send iMessages to email addresses but not many people know that you can send iMessages to email addresses. The simple fix would be for Apple to allow you to associate any phone number with iMessage if you could prove ownership of the phone message (likely be receiving a SMS code similar to two-factor authentication). This is a big flaw in foreign countries where many people switch SIMs quite regularly and communicate via apps like WhatsApp (which doesn’t have this limitation).
What’s your wallpaper and why?
I can’t remember where I found my lock screen wallpaper, but it’s some type of zen Japanese artwork that I love. I’ve had the same wallpaper since my iPhone 5, so going on four years now.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I think JustSend is a great app. The developer bills it as “Zero Inbox” because it’s email without the inbox. When you open the app you’re presented with the Mail drafting pane and your only options are to send the email. The app makes it really easy to compose and send an email without getting sucked into the inbox.
Dolphin is a great web browser that I use when I’m not on wifi. It has a feature that allows you to turn off photos and videos. Pages load super fast and I don’t worry about using excess data.
Thanks Joshua.
Test Drive Touch Bar with Touché
If you’ve been wondering about the Touch Bar in the new MacBook Pros, check out Daniel Jalkut’s Touché. It’s a Mac app that simulates the Touch Bar on your Mac’s screen. I’ve been running it all afternoon and while putting the Touch Bar on the screen isn’t nearly as convenient as stretching it across the top of the keyboard, it does really give you a feel of how the Touch Bar works. The below image, which magnifies on click, shows the Photos Touch Bar on my screen.
In order for Touché to work, you’ll need to download the latest build of macOS. Daniel has a link on his website. While you’re there, check out some of Daniel’s other apps from his company, Red Sweater Software.
Din Tai Phun dumplings. There is no substitute.
Sponsor – OmniOutliner 5 Public Beta
This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniOutliner. For many years OmniOutliner has been my go-to outlining application. The Omni Group has been hard at work on OmniOutliner and they just announced version 5, which will be shipping soon. In the meantime, you can try out the public beta. You should. I’m already hooked. There are some great features including:
Outline Filtering
You can now filter your OmniOutline based on column values, status, note content, and more. You can save each filter to reference later.
Keyboard Shortcut Sets
You can customize nearly everything with custom keyboard shortcuts.
Distraction-Free Writing
The new full screen mode hides the toolbar and sidebars. I like this better than I thought I would.
Built-In Themes & Templates
There are new themes and templates. Your outlines will look better than ever.
There’s a lot more. Go check it out.
Sal Soghoian Leaves Apple
Today the news broke that Sal Soghoian has left Apple. For those of you that may not know Sal, he was the longtime Product Manager of Automation Technologies at Apple, but in my mind his unofficial title has always been “Automation Tsar”. If it involved AppleScript, Automator, or any other technique to make your Mac do work for you, Sal was your man. For the last 20 years, Sal had a hand in all those little built-in automation services that improved your Mac experience. Every time Apple releases an update to macOS, one of my questions is, “What has Sal given us this year?” He’s been like Santa for automation nerds.
I learned all that I know about AppleScript a few years ago when I took a two day course from Sal at Macworld. That man can make a Mac dance.
Sal explains at his website that, “I was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies was eliminated for business reasons.” Sal was incredible asset for Apple and I’m baffled by the fact that they would let him go. This does not bode well for the future of automation on Apple platforms.
I wish Sal all the best and I’m certain that we will hear more from him … perhaps even more than we heard when he was inside Apple. I recommend following his website at macosxautomation.com.