This week’s Mac Power Users is up. It’s our monthly feedback show and we have lots of great content on subjects like MPU workflows on a PC, merging Apple IDs, cleaning up after being scammed, more iOS photography, and family tech support.
Sponsors include:
This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniPlan. OmniPlan combines the simplicity and beauty that comes with all Omni Group apps with some serious planning power including features like Microsoft Project compatibility, Monte Carlo simulations, network diagrams, and earned value analysis. OmniPlan takes advantage of the Omni Group’s OmniPresence syncing service to make everything sync across to your Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
A lot of people are interested in OmniPlan but not sure how to get started. The Omni Group just released a series of videos called the “Project Planning 101” series. In it, they explain, in the context of world domination, how to easily set up your own project planning workflows. I’ve embedded the first in the series below. Thanks again OmniPlan for supporting MacSparky.
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The new Rubin Cardigan blog has an interesting post for OmniFocus users stuck on Windows where he uses an Excel spreadsheet to add new tasks. Clever.
This week I had the pleasure of joining Jason Snell, Dan Moren, and Georgia Dow on the Clockwise podcast. In 30 minutes we solved the world’s problems relating to email, virtual reality, two-factor authentication, and the privacy vs. services debate. Easy. Right?
Fujitsu recently released the ScanSnap Cloud, a cloud-based service for ScanSnap users. The idea behind ScanSnap cloud is pretty clever. Your scanner connects to the Internet and sends all scans up to ScanSnap Cloud where they are then distributed to your cloud service of choice, like Dropbox, Box, One Drive, Evernote, and others. ScanSnap Cloud can figure out if your scan is a document, receipt, business card, or photo and then can follow your specific instructions based on the category of document. ScanSnap Cloud will also do some rudimentary OCR and, where it finds a date in the document, set the file name to match.
The net effect of this service is that it allows you to remove your scanner from your computer. You can put it anywhere in your house or office where it has access to Wi-Fi and your scanning works just fine. I’ve been using my ScanSnap iX500 in my laundry room with ScanSnap Cloud. Now I just scan the mail as it comes in the door. I can trash and recycle as appropriate right there and the paper never even makes it up the stairs to my home office. Getting the scanner off my desk frees up more space and having the scanner next to the recycle bin means I scan things immediately now, as opposed to the old system where I let it pile up until the weekend. Win-win.
They made a clever video, below.
Full disclosure: Fujitsu has been a long time sponsor of the Mac Power Users and I’ve been a long-time customer of their products.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Hoban Cards and Stationery, where you can get quality letterpress calling cards and stationery that stand so far above the competition. There’s something special about the paper goods that roll off Hoban’s 1902 letterpress machine.
Recently, Hoban added several calligraphy calling card styles that look great. If you want to share the Hoban Letterpress love with your friends, they also now have an affiliate system.
Since Hoban Press first started advertising here at MacSparky, I’ve heard from many readers that love their Hoban Press cards and stationery. Every time I give one of my Hoban-pressed cards to a new client, they comment upon how nice they are. You too can set a great first example. Head over to Hoban Cards with this link to learn more.
This week on the Mac Power Users Katie and I talk through the tech required to plan and put on a special event. Topics include project planning, audio and photo slideshow workflows, and websites and social media.
My friend Fraser Speirs is currently coordinating a fundraising effort to send iPads to a women’s school in India. It’s a great cause and I’ve already donated. If you’re feeling generous, this is an excellent place to spend a few dollars.
A few weeks ago I guested on the Techtonic podcast with Joshua Peiffer where we talked about the state of automation on macOS and iOS. Good times.
This week’s home screen features Christopher Hannah (Website) (Twitter). Christopher developed my favorite Wikipedia app for the Mac, Qwiki. Qwiki puts Wikipedia in my search bar and I use it all the time. You should check it out. So Christopher, show us your home screen.
I would have to say Overcast , Infuse , Tweetbot , and 2Do .
Overcast because I listen to loads of podcasts, I prefer this to listening to music, and they’re especially useful when traveling to university. My favourites at the minute have to be Connected , Cortex , and also Canvas which is helping me learn loads of new things about my iPad. I also listen to Mac Power Users and Under the Radar occasionally. I am of course an Overcast patron, as I just /love/ dark themes.
At the minute I can’t see any guilty pleasure on my home screen but Engage. I know it’s an app designed for people with a big number of followers, and want to see interactions from other influencers, but I like to see stats about everything, so that’s why I downloaded it! But the bottom row of my iPhone home screen is very volatile, and it’s where I put apps that I’m currently trying out, or I can see myself deleting soon.
Definitely 2Do, it was only recently that I started using this properly, but I can already feel it helping me organise what tasks I need to do. I used it to plan out the features and also the release of Qwiki, and also to schedule things like paying rent, and to reminding me to send invoices on a certain day of the month. I haven’t got a good memory, so I usually forget due dates for coursework, and what tasks I have to do. But luckily 2Do also helped me with scheduling my university coursework, which made it easier to see the scale of work I had to do at a simple glance.
This would have to be Workflow, just because I know it can do so much, and I use it for quite basic tasks. The most used Workflows of mine would have to be joining multiple images together for writing reviews, sending the last photo to a WhatsApp contact, and a few different quick tweet actions.
I can see myself using Workflow more in the future, especially as I’m slowly using my iPad more and more for work purposes.
This is a hard question, because if there was a app I desperately wanted, then I would try and develop it myself. I can honestly say that at the minute, I can’t think of anything else I would want my iPhone or iPad to do, if anything I’m more surprised what my devices can actually do when I listen to podcasts like Canvas.
I use my iPhone way too much to measure, there’s rarely an hour gone by before I’m on it again, whether I’m catching up with Twitter, or actually doing something productive.
With my iPad, it’s a bit different. When I go out to friends houses, or just traveling, then I’m now taking my iPad over my MacBook Pro, so it would be used a few times a day. But if I’m at home, then I’m normally at my desk, which means I’ll just use my Mac for everything. So on average I use it 3/4 days a week.
I don’t have any at the minute, because I’ve done the risky thing and installed iOS 10 on both of my iOS devices. But before this I just used Fantastical, 2Do, and Workflow with a few quick actions. It’s never been a part of iOS that I’ve used that much.
Picture in Picture, it’s amazing. The other day I was on my iPad reading twitter, and also watching the Euros at the same time. It shocked me again at the time that iOS has actually come pretty far from when the iPad as first introduced. I sure Federico would also agree!
I wouldn’t add anything special, but I would stop or at least slow down the invention of new products. I know the Car is being worked on, and that’s fine for a long term project, but I can see the current devices being updated constantly, and sometimes it’s too much in my opinion. I think they need a good few years of refinements, and slimming down product categories.
Regarding the Macs, I want the MacBook Air to die. Then there’s just the MacBook and it’s Pro counterpart for the laptops, and the the iMac and Mac Pro to represent desktop computing. Each Mac should have 2 screen sizes as a maximum, and I think the non-retina pros should be discontinued.
For iOS devices, I think the iPhone lineup should be thinned down drastically. There’s too many old products, simply for the price range. I think it’s already going that way with the iPhone SE providing current hardware to users who want a smaller screen size. So preferably I would only have 3 different iPhones on sale at any point, but maybe that’s a step too far. I would also do the same thing to the iPads, I think there should simply be an iPad, and an iPad Pro. Then the iPad in all three sizes, and the Pro in the current two.
So yeah, I would try and stabilise Apple off was in charge, there’s a lot going on at the moment, and I sort of want that to change.
I do, and it’s become one of my favourite devices. I gave two different watch faces, one for casual use, and the other for when I want access to emails, next calendar events, etc.
Before watchOS 3 was announced, my watch was simply a way for me to receive notifications on my wrist, and also to tell the time. But like just my iOS devices, I’ve installed the beta on my watch as well. So I know use it more for reading texts, and also replying got them now with the new Scribble feature. It’s also proven useful for keeping up to date with the football scores. Apps and that are stored in my dock really do open up instantly, and I can see watchOS 3 really changing the watch for everyone.
For my iPhone and iPad I just have a plain blue graph paper image as my wallpaper, I like it to be as simple as possible. So it’s always something like that, or occasionally a nice wood texture.
The only other thing I want to share about my iPhone is typing, I hate typing on it. I think it’s down to the physical size of the phone, as I’ve got the 5S at the moment. But hopefully it’s fixed when the new one comes out!
Thanks Christopher. And thanks for making Qwiki.
