While attending the Star Wars Celebration yesterday, I got the opportunity to tour an exhibit of costumes, Models, and Props from the upcoming Star Wars, The Force Awakens movie. This pushed all my nerdy Star Wars buttons and it will probably press yours too. SPOILER ALERT: Be advised these pictures most certainly contain spoilers. There are a lot of images in this gallery. Enjoy.
About a month ago I wrote a snarky post about Microsoft updating Word. In my defense, Word for the Mac has not had the best track record over the past several years. Nevertheless, I do frequently need to use Word in the law gig and I’ve been using the new beta on nearly a daily basis and have to admit, I like the new version. It’s still Word and full of features, buttons, and dials, but this is the cleanest user interface they’ve had yet. Most importantly, it is the most stable version of Word on the Mac I’ve used since before the Intel switch. I’ve not had a single crash.
Earlier this week Microsoft released an update to the beta that you can download here. I asked around to some other Office power user friends and I’m hearing that Outlook is having issues but if you are just using Word, give it a spin.
There’s an interesting Kickstarter project built around expanding the new MacBook’s one USB-C port. I think USB-C is going to be an interesting contrast to Thunderbolt in third party adoption. I’m really not going out on much of a limb here since it is “USB” but when you consider this port is non-proprietary and going to be on a lot of devises in the not to distant future, I doubt you’ll need Kickstarter to find cables.
I’ve got a full agenda of meetings today but it looks like my day ends pretty close to an Apple Store. Sounds like an excuse to go play with the demo Apple Watches to me. I’m going to be turning Periscope on at approximately 4:45 PM PST so if you are far away from an Apple Store and would like to look at the demo watches with me, check in with me on Twitter at about that time.
One of the most frequently used iPhone Today View widgets on my iPhone is the Hue App. It isn’t anything particularly special but with a quick flick down, I can can turn the lights on (and off), which is nice and faster than opening an app and navigating to buttons.
The interesting part to me is how second nature this has become. Doing the home screen posts, I find people either love using widgets or don’t use them at all. I’d be interested to know how many people actively use Today View widgets. I’m guessing it’s a pretty small percentage of overall iPhone owners and that may explain why Apple has backed off it’s initial, conservative stance with respect to widget approval. I also have to wonder if the Apple Watch may wake people up to just how handy widgets can be on all of the iOS devices.
Reading all the Apple Watch reviews it occurred to me that a lot of people are going to want to reign in their notifications before getting their new watches. So I made a short video. Enjoy.
My wife has waffles nailed. The trick is her secret ingredient and now she’s shared it with the entire Internet.
Gabe Weatherhead from MacDrifter joins us this week to talk about how you can manage big data on your Mac with DEVONthink and how it compares to Evernote and other data management options.
This week, I’m pleased to welcome back, curbi as a MacSparky.com sponsor. While the Internet can be scary for most people, it is terrifying for parents. Letting our kids enjoy the good parts of the Internet while protecting them from the nefarious parts isn’t easy. Not only can kids get into trouble over your local WiFi network, they can also get into trouble through a cellular connection or at a friend’s house. curbi solves this problem, giving you amazing parental controls for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. You can easily block specific types of content or add a specific site list. curbi tracks (and can block) websites through Safari or any other iOS app that has a web browser. Perhaps even more importantly, the curbi blocks will work no matter how they access the Internet, even using their Pal’s home WiFi on the other side of town.
curbi also lets you set boundaries. For example, you could block social networks from 3pm to 6pm and the entire Internet from 9pm to 8am. For just $6.99 a month, you can protect all of the iOS devices in your home. curbi is the only service I’ve ever seen that can protect your kids, no matter where they are. Learn more here.
In addition to spending 30 minutes with the Apple Watch yesterday, I also spent 30 minutes with the new MacBook. I’ve talked about the new design already on the Mac Power Users and written about it here. Now, after having spent some time behind one, I have a few additional thoughts.
My questions about the new MacBook are not hypothetical. My current laptop is three years old and I’ve been thinking about replacing it while it still has some resell value. Since I turned my life upside down, I no longer spend every work day sitting at my laptop. I use my home iMac a lot more and my laptop a lot less. Put simply, my laptop has changed from being a a second primary computer to just a second computer. I don’t need it super powerful but do need it to write words, handle mail, outlines, mind maps, and the other tasks that I normally do on the road. Getting it down to just two pounds means I’d be able to carry it a lot easier and more often. Something this portable has a real benefit to me. I’m just not sure if I could get used to that keyboard.
To answer that question I’ve ordered one. I’m going to use it for a week, but still keep the box and my MacBook Pro at the ready. After a week, I’ll either keep it and sell the MacBook Pro or send the MacBook back. Either way, I’ll be reporting in.
