Charlie Chapman, the developer behind Dark Noise — the white noise generator I use constantly — is back with a another Mac application that feels custom-tailored for me. It’s called Framous, and it allows you to take screenshots on your Apple devices and elegantly frame them inside an appropriate Apple device bezel.
As someone who frequently frames screenshots, Framous is a game-changer. The app offers granular control over how your screenshots appear. You can select specific devices, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and choose from various finishes, like the natural titanium finish. The attached screenshot showcases my recent home screen with the Framous treatment. (More on that home screen in a future post.)
Framous operates on a freemium model: limited access is available at no cost. You can also choose a Framous Pro license for $10, and unlock all 2025 device frames for $20. Given how integral this functionality is to my workflow, I immediately opted for the $20 option. It’s a fantastic app, and supporting Charlie’s work feels great.
You can download Framous directly from the Mac App Store.
Something I learned while working on the Alfred Field Guide is that building your own workflows is not that difficult. In this video, I show you how to set up your own to quickly switch between your different Focus modes. You learn quite a bit about Alfred Workflows in the process! … This is a post for MacSparky Labs members only. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
I recently joined Tony and Charles on the Two Teachers Talking Podcast to talk about my winding road from engineer to lawyer to full-time Mac nerd. We dug into how I teach tech, the tools I love for helping others learn, and how technology can better serve teachers. It was a fun conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.
I’m pleased to welcome a new sponsor to MacSparky, Direct Mail for Mac. If you run a business, a side hustle, a podcast, or just want to stay in touch with a community, you know how important great email marketing can be.
The brand-new Version 7 is a huge leap forward. This update brings a host of new features, including a reimagined user interface, smarter list management, powerful email sign-up forms, upgraded reporting, and all-new tools to help your emails stand out. Whether you’re sending to 10 people or 10,000, Direct Mail gives you the tools to do it professionally and painlessly.
If you’ve ever been frustrated with clunky email marketing websites, or just want something that feels right at home on your Mac, I encourage you to check out Direct Mail. It’s free to download and try, and there’s no subscription required if you prefer a pay-as-you-go option. You can be up and running with your first campaign in just minutes. Get started today and grow your audience with powerful, Mac-first email marketing tools.
Kim Caloca-Madden joins Mac Power Users to talk with Stephen and me about her online business supporting other entrepreneurs and companies, and how automation and AI make her more efficient at her tasks.
Over the weekend, we learned that smartphones and computers are now exempt from the latest tariffs. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that smartphones, computer monitors, and various electronic components are among the exempted items. This means Apple has dodged another bullet — again.
This news is clearly good for Apple and for us as customers in the short term. However, it’s also a flashing red warning for the future. Apple currently assembles over 90% of its iPhones in China. That represents an enormous concentration of risk in one country. That’s too much for any company, and certainly too much for a company shipping hundreds of millions of devices annually to customers worldwide.
I fully acknowledge that moving iPhone manufacturing out of China isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Apple has spent decades meticulously building that supply chain, a masterpiece of logistics and precision manufacturing. But global trade dynamics are evolving rapidly, and Apple can’t afford to stand still. This isn’t about politics; it’s about resilience.
Apple has executed Herculean efforts before. Now is another moment when they must rise to the occasion. Diversifying their manufacturing base might be the single most critical long-term move they can make right now. (That sentence was difficult to write because I also believe they need to fix their Siri/AI issues. But ultimately, they need to ship iPhone devices regardless of their current limitations.)
ChatGPT recently introduced multi-modal image generation and the Internet freaked out a bit, again. I can see why. In this demo I give a few very simple prompts for some extraordinary results
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs members only. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
I recently shared my current iPhone home screen over in the MacSparky Labs, and it generated a lot of interesting responses accusing me of both genius and madness. Let me explain…
The default tools for managing the iPhone home screen are fine, and I’ve used them for years. But in my never-ending quest for increased intentionality, I started to wonder—what if I took some of the sexiness out of the iPhone home screen?
You’ve probably heard about these minimalist or “distraction-free” phones gaining popularity—devices designed to help people focus more clearly by stripping away smartphone features and distractions. While I get the appeal, giving up all the power of the iPhone for that seems like overkill. So I started wondering, “Can I just tame the iPhone instead?” What if I made a few strategic tweaks to reduce distractions but kept all the power under the hood?
That idea led me to this: a home screen that’s intentionally boring but wildly useful.
This layout was built using David Smith’s Widgetsmith, Apple Shortcuts, and a few clever design tricks.
Breaking Down the Home Screen
Top Widget
At the top is a medium-sized Widgetsmith widget that I’ve customized with a Latin phrase: Materiam Superabat Opus, which roughly translates to “the workmanship exceeded the materials.” I love the idea of making the most out of what you’ve got. It’s how I try to live, and frankly, it’s what I hope they say about me someday. “He did a lot with what he had.”
Also, above that widget is a green image of a hand plane. That icon changes depending on my current Focus Mode. If I’m in Personal Focus Mode, the hand plane appears. If I switch to MacSparky, it becomes a blue MacSparky logo. I use the same logo at the bottom as a launcher for MacSparky-specific shortcuts.
Left Side: Date and Event
Here you’ll see:
A date and time widget from Widgetsmith.
A “next event” widget, also from Widgetsmith, showing my upcoming calendar item.
These keep me grounded without flashing red badges or noise.
Right Side: App Launchers via Shortcuts
Instead of traditional app icons, I use custom Shortcuts with icons pulled from Apple’s SF Symbols library. Each one is purposeful:
Phone – A simple shortcut that launches the Phone app. Communications Button (Megaphone Icon) – A “Choose from Menu” shortcut that lets me select from various communication methods: Messages, Slack, Discord, Mail, and a few others. (For the uninitiated, “Choose from Menu” is a Shortcuts action that lets you build a custom list of options. Each option can launch a different app or action. It’s not difficult and, I cover it at length in the Shortcuts Field Guide.) Here’s the key: I don’t see message badges. I could have ten unread texts and not know it until I deliberately tap the megaphone, then Messages. That’s not a bug—that’s a feature. Safari – A direct shortcut to launch Safari. Reading & Writing – Another “Choose from Menu” shortcut. This one lets me write (Drafts, Day One, Notes) or consume (Readwise, Unread, eBooks, Substack).
The Dock
Hand Plane (Personal Context) – This launches a personalized “Choose from Menu” shortcut. I’ve mapped out all the things I routinely do in my personal life—check a personal task list, jump into a personal project note, etc.—and launch them directly as actions, not apps. This all ties into my idea of contextual computing. I don’t want to launch apps; I want to do actions with my device. By building custom shortcuts for specific actions, it avoids a lot of distraction. MacSparky Logo (MacSparky Context) – Similar to the above, but for MacSparky work. If I get an idea for the MacSparky Labs or want to update a Mac Power Users outline, I tap this and immediately drop the thought in the right place. I’ve got a full suite of MacSparky-related tools under that button. Robot Head (AI Tools) – This is my shortcut hub for AI experiments. I’ve been using all the big frontier models, and I’m also testing smaller tools like Whisper Memos (for voice note transcription) and Cleft (for AI meeting and task summaries). I’m using them enough that they got a dock icon. Appropriately, I built that icon with ChatGPT.
The Magic Trick: Disappearing Dock
A big part of what makes this screen feel quiet is a simple trick: I sampled the dark gray color of the iPhone’s dock in Dark Mode. The hex code is #242424. Once I had that, I:
Set my wallpaper to the exact same color
Set the Widgetsmith widget backgrounds to match
Gave my custom icon backgrounds the same color
The result? Everything blends together into one flat, uniform canvas. The dock “disappears,” the icons don’t pop, and nothing screams for attention.
There are no notification badges or color distractions. The only thing that draws my eye is the next appointment text. That’s by design.
Final Thoughts
I’m really digging this home screen. It’s super boring—on purpose—but still incredibly functional. I get all the utility of an iPhone without the endless dopamine buffet.
I know the rumors are swirling that Apple might revamp the home screen experience this year with something new and flashy. I’ll be tempted to try it, of course. But for now, this quiet, intentional home screen speaks directly to my heart.
If you’d like to build something like this, here’s a link to a video I recorded in the MacSparky Labs. It’s the kind of thing we do in there all the time. If you’re not yet a member and want to join, use the code BORINGHOMESCREEN to get 10% off—but fair warning, it’s only good for a week. Also, I’m planning on publishing more public YouTube content, so you may want to subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: Planes filled with iPhones, CalDigit has a new Thunderbolt 5 dock, and new Mac and Vision Pro apps for immersive content management. I also share a recent AI-focused Labs video on checking my work.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs members only. Care to join? If you’re already a member, you can log in here.
Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, recently posted a letter to employees announcing a reduction in internal meetings and an AI restructuring initiative. Buried in that announcement was a sentence that hit like a cold splash of water:
“Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”
There it is: the quiet part, said out loud. AI job displacement isn’t some future scenario. It’s already happening at one of the most tech-forward companies in the world.
The disruption is upon us. AI will bring benefits, efficiencies, and entirely new opportunities. But it will also come with real costs. One of those is job loss, and as Shopify’s CEO makes clear, that phase has already begun.
