This week I had the pleasure of guesting on the Connected podcast. We talked about Relay’s anniversary, my new MacBook, and the Apple Music festival.
MPU 273: Workflows with Jonathan Mann
This week’s Mac Power Users features Song-A-Day’s Jonathan Mann. Jonathan is a talented musician that can write a song in about the same time it takes me to get my keyboard turned on and find my sheet music. Jonathan does all of this with Apple technology and he explains the whole workflow. Jonathan also made jingles for our sponsors that we included in the show. My favorite was the TextExpander one.
Sponsor: Automatic
This week I’m pleased to welcome back Automatic as a MacSparky sponsor. Automatic is a device that plugs into your car’s OBD-II port. (Just about every car made since 1996 has one.) The Automatic then has access to your vehicle’s data and connects via BlueTooth to your iPhone. It gives you tons of data and new and geeky ways to interact with your car. Just a few of the things you can do with Automatic are:
- Get extremely accurate data about fuel efficiency, trip distance, gas used, and other performance metrics.
- Get notifications when your car’s fuel level is getting low.
- Get explanations of any alarms or other events your car reports. No longer do you need to visit a mechanic when you get a cryptic light on your dashboard.
- Detect when the vehicle has been in a significant accident and call you, your loved ones, and emergency support.
- Get driving feedback when you are accelerating too fast, braking too hard, and otherwise doing silly things behind the wheel.
Automatic truly lets you geek out your ride. One of my frequent uses is to keep track of mileage for my work. When I finish any trip in my car, Automatic gives me a notification to mark the trip as work-related. (The notification even displays on my Apple Watch.) If I tap the button, Automatic flags the trip and I can view it through the free Automatic App or on the web. I liked it so much that I bought two more for my wife and daughter’s cars. Having automatic in their cars gives me a notification if any of the car’s sensors go off and also gets me a phone call if they are in an accident.
There is no subscription fee. Once you buy your Automatic, you’re good to go. Moreover, they are giving 20% off to MacSparky readers. Use this link and the usual price of $100 drops to $80. I use my Automatic every time I step in my car. I bet you would too.
Disney’s Star Wars Themed Expansion
One of the advantages of having a Disney blogger wife is that I get the inside scoop on goings-ons with the company that owns Star Wars, Marvel, and a few successful theme parks. This past weekend I attended the D23 convention in Anaheim and woke up way too early to get in line for the big keynote on live action films over the next few years. It was a lot of fun. I got to see J.J. Abrams, the Star Wars episode VII cast (including Harrison Ford), Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o, and more.
They didn’t have much to add about Star Wars and weren’t ready to give us another trailer so instead, they gave us a cool movie poster and unveiled the fact that Disney is going to build 14-Acre Star Wars themed lands in Disneyland in California and Hollywood Studios in Florida. All we saw was concept art and a short video but it looks to be really fun. At several points during the presentation Bob Iger (Disney CEO) mentioned how the experience will be immersive. Not only will you go into a cantina, you’ll interact with the wretched hive of scum and villainy while you are there.
Having visited Universal’s Harry Potter World last year, I can’t help but feel that this immersive Star Wars experience is a direct response. Universal did such a great job with Harry Potter. It was the first time I was truly impressed with a non-Disney theme park and I’m sure Disney took notice. After the presentation I spoke with some Disney Imagineers and when I raised the issue of Universal’s Harry Potter you could see that they were more than a little “motiviated” to exceed it with Star Wars. Let’s hope that Disney corporate gives the Imagineers the budget and support they need to deliver.
Apple Watch Check In
I was putting on my Apple Watch this morning and thinking about how I’m using it now that I’m three months in. I’ve got several observations:
- I still wear it every day. When I forget to put it on (rarely) I miss it.
- The black rubber band is still just fine with me. I’ve worn it working in the yard and I’ve worn it at court and it doesn’t feel inappropriate in either place. I’ll probably buy an additional band at some point but right now I don’t feel any burning desire.
- I was doing great with the fitness rings and then I got sick. The last three weeks or so I’ve been miserable with kidney stones. My fitness records went all to hell. I’m looking forward to getting those rings filled back up.
- Battery life, shmattery life. I don’t even think about it. The watch always makes it through the day.
- I also don’t think much about apps. Except for OmniFocus and Overcast, I’m not using any third party apps. I suspect that will change when we get watch OS 2.0.
- I made this intricate set of watch faces when I first got the watch. I don’t use any of them except a minimalist version of Utility.
- Notifications on my wrist is golden. I’m often in meetings but have many things going on. Keeping up by glancing at my wrist is unobtrusive and handy.
- I find that I keep my phone in my pocket a lot more now that I’ve got the watch.
- I already wrote about watch directions. All of that is still true.
- Overall, my initial impressions haven’t changed. The Apple Watch, while not being essential, makes life for iPhone users a lot better.
Microsoft Translator
Despite having grown up in Southern California, my command of the Spanish language is pitiful. I try. My Mexican friends laugh at me. Then I try again. Given the fact that so many of my fellow Southern Californians speak Spanish exclusively, I really have no excuse. Nevertheless, where I should be Indiana Jones, I’m more like Marcus Brody.
As a result, I’m always on the lookout for a good translating application. You can imagine my surprise when I recently discovered that my new favorite translation app doesn’t come from Google but instead Microsoft. The new Microsoft Translator for iOS is aces.
It is easy to use. You can input text via keyboard or dictation. Then the app speaks the text out oud in the language of your choice or prints it across the screen. They even have a nifty Apple watch application that I’ve used to communicate with Spanish speakers and it works. It’s a free application and if you spend any time trying to communicate in other languages, this can make a huge difference for you. I’m liking this new Microsoft.
Force Touch on the iPhone
I have not said much about a force touch for iPhone. However, recent news leaks make it seem inevitable. It looks very much like the next iPhone will have a force touch screen. I enjoyed this 9 to 5 Mac coverage about force touch on the iPhone a few days ago. All of this got me thinking about exactly how big a deal force touch will be on the iPhone.
At the beginning, at least, I expect it won’t be much of a deal at all. The feature will only be available on the newest iPhones so developers will know a majority of their users won’t even have force touch. Moreover, by its very nature, force touch feels like a feature for power users are much more than for everyday users. I even see this with my wife and her Apple Watch. Rarely does she think of using a force touch the screen when she’s trying to figure out how to make a feature work.
I think it will be the same on the iPhone, only more so. People are used to seeing icons that are tied to functions in their applications. Force touch features are hidden behind a hard press on the screen and a lot of people will never think about force touching when looking for a missing feature. I think application developers that start burying key features behind force touch will do so at their own peril.
Instead, I think for the first few years force touch is going to be very much a power user feature. It will let you do things faster but I think rarely will it allow you to do exclusive things that can’t be accomplished some other way. The example in the 9 to 5 Mac article about how force touching an application icon brings it to a particular screen is a perfect example of this. Alternatively, you could manually open the application and manually navigate to the screen but being able to do both of those steps with one force touch will be much nicer. It will be an improvement on the experience for those people who want to invest the time to figure it out and set their applications accordingly. That’s not everyone by a long stretch.
Maybe in a few years when this interface function is available on all iPhones it will become a bigger deal but my expectation is that initially us nerds will love force touch and a lot of other people won’t even realize it exists.
MPU 272: Mac-Based Small Business
This week’s Mac Power Users features me talking about the steps I took to set up a small business when I left “the firm” to open my sole practitioner law practice. The last several months have been some of the most exhilarating of my life and I’ve picked up quite a few nerd tricks along the way.
Pay What You Want Mac Power Users Bundle
I don’t know who Stack Social has putting these bundles together but that person is earning his or her keep. The newest bundle, that expires in 4 days, has a nice assortment of apps, several of which I use regularly. Pricing on these “Pay What You Want” bundles only requires you to beat the average of what people are currently paying for the bundle. (Currently $6.09.) I recommend you pay more than that. These are some great apps including:
Scapple ($14.99):
A freeform text editor that allows you to make notes anywhere on the page and to connect them using straight dotted lines or arrows. This app is by the same team that makes Scrivener. I need say no more.
RapidWeaver 6 ($89.99):
The all-in-one web design software for Mac that enables you to build the website you’ve always wanted.
StuffIt Deluxe 16 For Mac ($49.99):
Easily and safely shrink your photos, music, and other documents without reducing quality.
CrossOver 14 Mac ($59.95):
Run Windows software on your Mac the simple way. We just talked about this app on the most recent Mac Power Users Live.
BusyCal ($49.99):
An alternative to the built-in Calendar app on OS X that provides powerful time-saving features in a friendly, easy-to-use package.
WinZip 4 Mac ($29.95):
WinZip Mac 4 makes it easy to zip and protect your files, and new sharing options let you seamlessly connect to cloud services.
WALTR ($29.95):
Take the ‘SUCK’ out of copying music & video onto your iPhone/iPad.
RoboForm Everywhere: 1-Yr Subscription: ($19.95)
Unlimited password management
There are two more that haven’t unlocked yet:
Find Any File ($7.99):
Find every file on any of your disks, including those usually hidden—fast and precisely.
Screens ($29.99):
A beautiful, yet powerful screen sharing and VNC client that lets you connect back to your Mac anywhere in the world.
Mac Power Users: Christina Warren and MPU Live
This week we’ve got twice the fun over at the Mac Power Users.
MPU 270: Workflows with Christina Warren
We’ve wanted Christina for a long time and it was really nice finally talking with her about her work as an Apple journalist and Apple Music. We use the backdrop of the Apple Earnings Call to discuss her workflows.
MPU 271: MPU Live – What’s the Worse Thing That Could Happen?
We talk with Kent Newsome about working in a “locked down” office, we also discuss Amazon’s Echo, listener travel tips, two factor authentication apps, OmniFocus workflows, sharing tasks, referenced photo libraries and answer listener questions on a variety of topics.
Get them while they are hot.