My MacBook MenuBar


I’m starting a new post series here at MacSparky where I feature some nerd’s Mac MenuBar with a discussion of some of their favorite cool little MenuBar apps. I’m starting with the MenuBar on my MacBook. So here it is.

Fantastical

While Fantastical has matured into a full-fledged calendar application, it has never stopped being a killer MenuBar application. I add calendar events every day on my Mac with my preferred keyboard shortcut, Control-Option-Command-F. (Website)(App Store)

Apple Time

Putting the time next to the date just makes sense. I don’t use the AM/PM indicator. I know if it is morning or evening … usually.

Carrot Weather

This is one of those apps that I first found on the iPhone. I live in southern California so I don’t normally keep the weather in my MenuBar. However lately we’re getting some very occasional rain and I don’t want to be caught off guard. Once, “storm watch” is over, I’ll remove it, or move it inside Bartender. (Website)(App Store)

Dropzone

Because I often run apps in full screen, I use Dropzone to move apps between screens. There’s a bunch of apps like this but I particularly like Dropzone because you can create little script-like automations. For example, I have one that moves files to my Dropbox action folder. (Website)(App Store)

TweetBot

There are a lot of good Twitter apps. My favorite is Tweetbot. (Website)(App Store)

Battery

I’ve been doing some tests lately on my laptop battery so I’ve got percentages turned on. They’re usually turned off.

Bartender

Bartender is that magic application that lets me hide MenuBar apps inside a second drawer. This is so useful, especially on my small MacBook screen. So here’s my bartender bar. (Website)


Paste

Paste is one of a series of clipboard apps I’m testing for a future story here. No recommendations on this app yet. Still testing. (Website)(App Store)

Default Folder X

This is an app I’ve used on the Mac for a long time. It’s a load/save dialogue box enhancement but it also has a handy MenuBar app. (Website)

BetterTouchTool

Man do I love BTT. If you’ve not tried this application, you should. (Website)

Flux

With iOS 9.3 and Night Shift, I’ve been curious about Flux, that brings a similar feature to your Mac. I’m not sold and still playing with the settings. (Website)

Hazel

My precious. (Website)

Script Menu

There’s a lot of ways to fire off AppleScripts but I do like, in a pinch, using the trackpad for script.

Time Machine

Yup. I’m still doing that.

Trip Mode

If you spend any time tethering your Mac to your iPhone, get this app. It allows you to turn off data-hog apps and services when tethered and can make the difference between you busting through your data cap on your next trip. (Website)

PopClip

You know how you can select text on your iPhone and get options to perform tricks on that text? PopClip does the same for your Mac. (Website)(App Store)

Dropbox

Of course. (Website)

1Password

I know a lot of 1Password users that don’t bother with the MenuBar app. They’re making a mistake. The 1Password MenuBar app is great. (Website)(App Store)

About Dark Mode

For giggles a few months ago, I switched my MacBook’s menubar to dark mode. I expected things to break and for it to drive me crazy. It didn’t. I’ll switch it back at some point but if you’ve been hesitant to try Dark Mode, you shouldn’t be.

FBI vs. Apple: Where is this Going?

Several times over the course of my legal career, I’ve either had cause to delay a hearing on motion or had opposing counsel do the same. While nothing I have ever worked on has the sex appeal of the FBI vs. Apple, I can tell you that sometimes the reason for the delay is because one party thinks they’re losing and want some time to either get additional evidence or find some other way out.

With the FBI vs. Apple matter, the stakes are very high in terms of public relations and important but probably not as high in terms of legal precedent. A federal magistrate judge is a pretty important person but also at the bottom of the federal precedent pecking order. I’ve had a lot of people write me asking if they think this delay was the result of reconsideration at the FBI and my answer would be, “quite possibly”.

I don’t talk about it at MacSparky much but I served as a judicial extern for a federal judge a long time ago and spent some time in the trenches. That got me thinking about where this is all heading.

One point I think is generally missed by the tech press is that no matter what happens with the magistrate judge or, for that matter, the next judge on the next case, this issue will not get resolved for some time. An issue this big is going to work its way up through the Court of Appeals. Both Apple and the government know that and I suspect everybody is in it for the long haul.

The tech press also often writes about how a legislative solution will solve this and while on principal that makes sense, practically I’m not so sure. Judges generally prefer that the legislature come up with a specific law for questions before it rather than requiring the court to interpret some 200-year-old law that was never intended for regulating cellular phone encryption. I have my doubts as to whether any law could get passed given the current stalemate in Congress but given the way everyone goes a little crazy whenever the word “terrorist” is used, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they could pass a law. Indeed, such a law is already in motion.

However, thinking forward if Congress were to pass some sort of backdoor legislation and the President were to sign it into law, I expect we would land right back in the courts as Apple and other manufacturers and consumer protection groups, like the EFF, challenge such a law on constitutional grounds. That, in turn, would lead to more trips up the ladder at the courts of appeal and, most likely, the Supreme Court.

The best case scenario at the legislative end would be for a law to be passed restricting access and prohibiting the government from requiring backdoors in cellular phones. Let’s just say I’m not holding my breath for that one. In my opinion if there is going to be a law passed, it’s going to be a law requiring installation of a backdoor and not the opposite.

If that’s not enough to make your head spin, now think about 50 different individual state legislatures and countless foreign nations also taking a crack at requiring back door access to cell phone data.

Ultimately, I believe this question as to whether or not the government can force access into our mobile devices has to be decided by the Supreme Court. Until then, a great cloud will hang over this entire issue and for the next few years I’m guessing we will see lots of ink spilled on this issue. Put simply, even if the FBI backs down on the San Bernardino case, this issue is hardly over for any of us, including Apple.

“We Messed Up”

There are a lot of reasons why I love supporting small software companies. I was reminded of this today reading this post from the Hours team about their recent botched launch. It’s refreshing seeing a company take responsibility for mistakes and setting it right without any hedging. I’m pretty sure you’d never see a post like this from a big company.

Thanks @tbaucells for the link.

Which iPad Pro?

Since Apple’s big announcement earlier this week, I’ve received a lot of emails from people asking me whether or not I would keep my jumbo iPad Pro or, if I had the choice, trade it in for the newer, smaller, 9.7 inch iPad Pro.
 
 In my case, I would keep the big one. In my head, I’ve run the little mental exercises watching a truck run over my big iPad Pro (cringe) and then determining which one I would buy. 

The new 9.7 inch iPad Pro has some additional features in terms of a better camera and a screen that adjusts ambient light but none of that is really a reason to choose one over the other for most people. To me, the big question is whether you want it really big or just kind of big. I can understand why some people hate the big iPad because of the unwieldy screen size but I’m just so damn productive with it. 
 
Split screen on the big iPad Pro is amazing. Apps are nearly full size and super easy to read and manipulate. Reading and annotating documents on the large-size iPad Pro is also a joy. Combined with the Apple Pencil, I’m chewing through hundred page contracts like nobody’s business. One of my most productive workflows is annotating a document on the iPad Pro with the pencil while sliding in the Dragon Anywhere app to dictate notes about certain sections as I read and annotate. I then send the annotated contract along with my notes to the client.
 
Another workflow that I’m enjoying is Apple Mail on the left and OmniFocus on the right every morning as I work through my email and task list. I find this more efficient then working through the same data on my laptop and, just as importantly, more delightful.
 
Another benefit is the general category of typing. The Apple keyboard cover works just fine for me and takes very little space. The big iPad Pro is also the first iPad that I’ve been able to easily type on glass, particularly in landscape. I’ve tried a lot of 9.7 inch iPad keyboards and none of them are as good as what I’m using on the big iPad Pro. They are just too cramped.

While all of these workflows would be possible on the 9.7 inch iPad Pro, they would also be more difficult. I’m sure I would like the increased portability of the smaller iPad Pro but for me it’s not worth it. One way I’ve cheated on this a bit is that I have an aging iPad mini that works fine when portability is king.

I get that everyone is different and, frankly, for most people the 9.7 inch iPad Pro is probably the right answer but I can also tell you that having used the large iPad Pro now for several months, it’s the most productive I’ve ever been with an iPad and I’m not giving it up anytime soon.

Mac Power Users Session Sketchnote

Last week, Katie Floyd, Jeff Shoenberger, and I gave a session to the American Bar Association about Mac Power User tricks and tips. While some of the presentation was lawyer-centric, most of it was not. The cool part is that there was an artist in the room skechnoting our presentation on the wall while we spoke and it looks great. Click on the below image to blow it up.

 



Sponsor: SaneBox with $25 Discount

This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by SaneBox. I’ve been using SaneBox for years and at this point I can’t imagine email without it. There are so many great benefits to Sanebox. It filters my mail so I don’t wake up to an inbox bursting with irrelevant email. It allows me to defer email messages so they get out of the way while I am doing other things. It also lets me set reminders for outgoing emails.

One thing I’ve never covered, however, is SaneBox’s advanced filtering features. Once you set up your SaneBox email filtering, there are some great options. 


With SaneVIP, you can give your friends and co-workers a word or phrase to add to the subject line of their email messages to push their email to the top of your list.

You can also set the SaneBox intelligence setting between Smart, Moderate, and Manual to change how aggressively SaneBox sorts your mail for you.


SaneSubjects lets you teach SaneBox about subjects that are or are not important to you and lets SaneBox do an even better job of appropriately filing related messages.

There’s also Manual Domain Filtering. Usually SaneBlackHole takes care of any Spam that gets through your net but if you are still having an issue, you can send all messages from a certain domain to the black hole. This is not just a feature for dealing with spam. You could also, for instance, sort all email from a certain domain in your “Later” box or your inbox or any other folder you create through SaneBox.

Somewhat related, you can also specifically identify certain domains that are important to you. Once you do that, SaneBox keeps an eye out for an email from that domain and treats it appropriately.


Because all of this work is done through the SaneBox service, you can use it with any email application you want and this frees you to try and switch mail apps at will.

I love using SaneBox. I’ve talked to the team at SaneBox and they are getting ridiculously high conversion rates from MacSparky readers and Mac Power Users listeners. Because of this, they are offering the highest discount they’ve ever offered just for you. If you sign up now, you get a $25 discount. That’s only good for a few more weeks so make sure to take advantage of it. To do so, go to SaneBox.com/MPU and cash in.


 

Indy 5

Next to Star Wars, I loved the original Indiana Jones trilogy. Particularly Raiders of the Lost Ark is, in my opinion, one of the best movies ever made. For the fourth movie, however, I was tempted to walk out of the theater. I’ve actually never watched it again since that first time in the theater. Apparently, Steven Spielberg also had issues with the movie. Now Disney’s announced they’ll be making a fifth Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg but without George Lucas, which is kind of strange but perhaps for the best. 

I always thought Indiana Jones should be treated like a Bond movie where they bring in a new actor and wind things back to the 1930s and 1940s. Indy always seemed at his best fighting Nazis. Regardless, I hope they get number five right.