iPhone Maps

The news about Apple Maps being used three times more than its “leading competitor” is being touted as a victory from Apple. I see it differently. In my mind, the built in maps app should be used ten times as much as anything else. When you take your new iPhone out of the box Maps is right there. If you use Siri at all, it goes to Maps. Are one in every four people who own an iPhone really motivated enough by their dislike of the built in mapping solution that they take the trouble to go into the App Store and download Google Maps. Ugh.

In fairness though, I think the general opinion of Apple Maps is much worse than what the product has become. Apple Maps had a bad launch and suffers from what I’d describe as the “MobileMe taint”. It started badly and now for a lot of people it’s a joke. For a year or so after Apple Maps launched I used Google Maps instead of Apple Maps but as Siri became more useful and everything got more integrated, I gradually switched over to using Apple Maps full time. I’ve not had any problems. Apple Maps coverage and traffic data in southern California is just fine. While I’ve kept Google Maps on my phone (primarily for street view), I think the Apple maps user numbers as reported by Apple reflect a perception more than reality.

Thumbs Up for Duet Display


I’m going to write more about my iPad Pro in the coming weeks but one thing that was worth sharing immediately was the way I’ve been using it as a spare monitor. There is a wonderful little application called Duet, made by some former Apple engineers, that lets you connect your iPad to your Mac and turn the iPad into a second screen. I’m now doing this often.

For example, while I record the Mac Power Users podcast, I have all of the recording applications running on the iPad through Duet. That way I can keep the main screen for the content as we record the show and still glance to the smaller screen to make sure all the pipes remain connected and the red light keeps blinking. With the iPad Pro and its additional screen size, this is pretty great. When I’m done and don’t need a second screen, I can disconnect the iPad and put it away and my desk is once again clear of a second monitor.

Duet gets even better on the road. I can connect it to my 12“ MacBook virtually anywhere and have a second screen. This is super useful when working with lots of data. The 13” iPad Pro more than doubles the screen space of my 12″ MacBook.

Setting up Duet is simple. You download the app from the iOS App store and then install a host application on your Mac. (There’s also a version for the Windows.) Using Duet I’m able to carry a second monitor with me that’s essentially the size of a piece of glass.

I’m not alone in loving this feature of the iPad Pro. In the past few days, I’ve spoken with several nerd friends that are also using their iPad Pro as a second monitor with Duet.

Checking in With Apple Watch

In a recent Mac Power Users episode, I recommended the Apple Watch as a year-end gift. This recommendation drew divided responses. Some wrote in agreement while others essentially asked me “is the Apple watch still a thing?”. Then out of the blue my wife asked me if she thought the Apple Watch was going to survive as a product. The question surprised me. My wife is, however, my window into the non-geek world and when she asked about the hypothetical Apple Watch demise, it made me wonder how many other people are thinking the same thing.

I think there is zero chance of Apple walking away from the watch. They view it as a key product moving toward the future and as technology gets better and smaller, the watch is going to improve dramatically.

Nevertheless, I’m generally bullish on my current Apple Watch. I wear it every day and use it to keep up with my fitness goals, set alarms and timers, check my calendar, listen to podcasts, turn on and off the lights, get directions, text my kids, and checkoff tasks. Oh yes … I also use it to tell time. This is the most useful watch I’ve ever owned. I put it on when I wake up in the morning and take it off when I go to bed. (That’s right, I even keep it on while I’m in my pajamas.)

Maybe it’s because there is this connection to the iPhone required to make it work or simply the fact that not many people wear watches and the Apple Watch was never going to be the big seller that the iPhone is, but there appears to be this perception that the product is flawed or not going to survive. I don’t think the product is perfect. The design, user interface, and software interaction can all use improvement. I expect there’s a group of people somewhere in Apple working on that right now.

I understand that some people did not take to their Apple Watch as I did. Maybe they wanted something more traditional or fashionable or maybe they just aren’t watch people. Nevertheless, having used one now since the Apple Watch was first released, I can’t imagine not having it. If something happened to my Apple watch, I would go buy another one.

MPU 291: Focussing on iPad

There have been several developments in the iPad world as of late so Katie and I spent some time talking about where the iPad fits, which one you should use, and some of our own personal workflows. I also spend some time discussing my new giganto-pad.

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Daylite 6 Ships


Marketcircle is definitely one of the “wise men” in Mac productivity circles. For a long time, Daylite was the application that just about everybody ran their Mac offices from. It supports multiple users, tasks, calendars, and all the other bits you need to get work done with a group of people.

Then the cloud become a “thing” and people started moving these types of shared data applications to the Internet. The trouble that I’ve always had with these solutions is they are limited to the browser and generally look like crap, are hard to figure out, difficult to train to your staff, and –when the Internet goes down – completely useless.

This cloud trend did not go unnoticed by the makers of Daylite and for a few years now they’ve been refining a solution that lets you have your cake and eat it too. Specifically, a native app with all that OS X goodness and years of development and UI experience combined with cloud sync. Today Daylite releases version 6, which is really something special.

I’m friends with some of the people at Marketcircle and I know how hard they’ve worked to make this happen. I’m impressed and if you are looking for something with the panache of Daylite combined with reliable cloud sync, you will be too. Learn more from Marketcircle.

Sponsor: PopClip for Mac


I’m pleased to welcome PopClip as this week’s MacSparky.com sponsor. PopClip is a Mac utility that gives you the ability to perform acts upon your text just by selecting it. Select some text and you are just one tap away from doing something clever, like changing text formatting or dialing a selected phone number. This works just like the popup tools you get on the iPhone and iPad. One of my favorite PopClip actions is putting quotes around selected text when I’m writing legal briefs.


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There are now 143 downloadable PopClip extensions that range from something as simple as converting the selected text to uppercase to something more exotic, like looking up the selected word in the urban dictionary or sort the selected text alphabetically.

For just $6.99 you can dramatically shorten the amount of time you spend formatting and otherwise working with text on your Mac. This one’s a no-brainer. Learn more at the developer’s website.