Initial Thoughts on the New Photos

It has been a busy few days for all of us Apple nerds. With all the news about the Apple Watch and the new MacBook, you may have missed that we had an operating system update that included the public release of the new Photos application. This is a big deal.

For several years now, the iPhoto model of photo management has been broken. There are a lot of reasons for this including the fact that digital cameras have bigger sensors and make massively larger files and, for most of us, that digital camera is now in our pockets at all times and we are taking a lot more of those bigger pictures.

Regardless, the old days where you would take your camera home and plug it into your computer are long gone. With the release of the Photos application, Apple is attempting to drag us into the future with cloud-based photo management.

Prior to a few days ago, Apple developed two photography applications, iPhoto and Aperture. iPhoto was for the unwashed masses and Aperture was a more specialized tool for photographers and “prosumers”. They all were based on the traditional model of local management of the photographs.

Now we’ve just got Photos. While photos can use your Mac as the central location for your photographs, the clear thrust is cloud-based photo management. It ties in with the iCloud Drive and allows you to upload all of your photos to Apple’s servers and then be able to access them from any of your devices. No longer should you have to decide which photos make the cut to get onto your iPhone or iPad. Instead, all of your photos are everywhere. They pull this off by only displaying small thumbnails on your storage restricted mobile devices. If you open up an image on your iPhone or iPad, it will appear a little blurry at first and then quickly sort itself out.

Part of this new vision is the idea that you can manage and adjust your photos from any platform and have it nearly simultaneously show up on any other platform. This is an excellent goal. I have been using the Photos beta for some time and I can tell you that sitting on my couch and sorting through photographs on my iPad and making deletions and small changes only to watch them show up on my Mac and iPhone almost immediately is a fantastic user experience and long-overdue.

The news here is that this is not hypothetical. It has been working for me. It worked during the beta and it’s now working on version 1.0. My big concern was that once Photos got released to the public with broad distribution, the servers would get slammed and this functionality would grind to a halt or, at least, get really slow. That’s why I waited a few days before publishing this.

Yesterday I installed the updates to my wife’s computer and initiated the iCloud upload of her 36,000 photo library. This is a long overdue upgrade since iPhoto had become virtually unusable with her library size. She would boot it up and go get a cup of coffee.

The application took her library in stride and scrolling through the library on her three-year-old MacBook Pro is no problem at all. I expected this because the Photos is just so much better at handling a large library than iPhoto.

The big question still remained what will happen to the servers when everybody stars uploading a lifetime worth of photos into them. With respect to my wife’s computer, it has been slowly uploading her photos now for 24 hours and it’s about halfway done. She won’t actually get the benefits of this new cloud-based photosystem until that process is done but it looks like we’re only a day away from that being the case.

Another moment of truth for me was how would this impact my existing photos library. I’ve got a feeling my wife isn’t the only person currently jamming thousands of photos into the Apple servers. Will that slow down to my already established Photos library? The answer is no.

I sat on my couch this morning and had my laptop and my iPad open simultaneously. As quickly as I was deleting, favoriting, and modifying images in one device, they showed up on the other. These photos are all large file sizes and this demonstration of cloud-based syncing is impressive coming from Apple. After we’ve all made Apple the cloud services whipping boy for so long, I’m actually surprised more people aren’t making a bigger deal about how stable Photos cloud sync is just a few days after launch.

Another clear design goal of the new Photos app is to make editing easier. Again, the tools are simpler and while the edit tools don’t rise to the level of Aperture, they are also better than iPhoto. It looks like Apple is clearly aiming for a middle ground.

There is a lot more to learn about the Photos application and I’m going to be producing more content on the Photos app in the near future here at MacSparky and the Mac Power Users. For the meantime, I would recommend that you start experimenting with the application as well. So long as Apple can keep up with the server load, Photos is a substantial improvement for photo management.

MPU 250 Live: We’re Just Getting Started …

It was fitting that our 250th episode took place with a live audience. You’d think that after this long Katie and I are running out of things to say. We’re not and there is lots of great content planned for the coming months.

In this episode we’re joined by Brett Bruney to discuss scanning on the go, we follow-up on LaTex, RSS and cord-cutting. We also address listener questions about splitting iTunes accounts, merging contacts, scheduling time to complete tasks and share listener tips about automating a home webcam, using Keyboard maestro, and automated RSS feeds.

∞

Random Trek: “A Time to Stand”

Recently I joined Scott McNulty on the Random Trek podcast to talk about the DS9 episode, “A Time to Stand”. In it we talked Star Trek, Star Wars, my Julian Bashir man-crush, and how Captain Picard got me through law school.

∞

Initial Apple Watch Reviews and a Few Thoughts

Today a bevy of Apple Watch reviews showed up on the Internet. They are all mostly positive. If you would like to burn a couple hours, head over to this Mashable linkwhere they have got a summary of the key reviews and links.

There seems to be a few common threads throughout the reviews. Some early reviewers complaint that it took them awhile to figure out the new interface. For so many years now, Apple has been training us to use iOS and the “escape anything” home button. That isn’t going to work on the watch and it looks like this new paradigm is going to take some getting used to for some people.

Another common theme is the frequency of notifications. Watching the video reviews, it appears you can have a lot of control over what gets your watch but out-of-the-box, it drives them all at you. I already have most of my notifications turned off but those who like to leave the fire hose turned on should expect a lot of taps and dings from their wrist.

For me, the biggest news from these reviews was that there were no complaints about battery life. As big of an Apple geek as I am, the Apple Watch would be a non-starter if it runs out of gas at dinnertime. I was happy to see that the reviewers, who were presumably playing with these watches a lot more while writing their reviews than a normal user would, were all able to make it through a day without trouble.

I’m still wavering between the sport and stainless steel models but having looked through the reviews, I’m definitely planning on ordering an Apple Watch of one sort or another.

The iPhone Extension Trick

Have you got any contacts that have extensions in their phone numbers? If you do, you’ll know that adding extension information to your contacts can give your iPhone fits when placing calls. There is, however a trick.

When creating a contact, instead of this:

Jenny
866-5309 x1982

Do this:

Jenny
866-5309;1982

The semicolon is secret code to your iPhone to wait once the call connects and gives you the option to dial the extension when you tap it at the bottom of the screen.

I use this for telephone extensions and also for my conference call dial-ins—that seem to always have ridiculously long conference ID numbers.

Alternatively you can use commas to have the phone delay slightly and enter a digit for you. For instance, if you frequently have to call your cable company to reset your cable box and you know the tone sequence to make that happen, you could have a phone number like this.

Cable Box Reset
555-1212,3,5,2,3

Assuming you got the numbers in the right order, that sequence would actually penetrate the bureaucracy and reset your cable box.

You can set the commas and semicolons in the Contacts app on your Mac, which is obvious. Not so obvious is the fact that you can add commas and semicolons on your phone too. To do so, press the symbol button on the dialer and then “pause” for a comma or “wait” for a semicolon.

Clever.

Mac Voices Interview

Today I appeared on the Mac Voices podcast with Chuck Joiner. I say appeared because I did it on video, which was a new thing for me. Chuck and I talked about the OmniFocus and Workflow Video Field Guides.

∞

MPU 249: Tech and Families

Dan Moren, who recently co-authored a book on The Connected Apple Family joined us this week to discuss common problems and solutions using Apple technology with your family.

∞

Apple Watch Guided Tours

When the original iPhone was getting released, it was a big investment and I wasn’t sure whether I’d get one or not. Then just a few days before launch Apple released this video and I was hooked. Showing us exactly how the revolutionary phone worked was brilliant and, in my case at least, sold one more iPhone. Apple is going back to the same playbook with a series of guided tours on the Apple Watch. So far there are only three videos available but there are at least seven more that will unlock between now and launch.

My favorite so far is the second video, on faces. Another observation is that in the third video, on digital touch, it looks like a 42mm watch on a slender wrist and it looks pretty big.

<br />

Home Screens: Mike Williams

This week’s home screen features Mike Williams (Twitter). Mike is the President and CEO of the David Allen Company and a geek just like the rest of us. Okay Mike, show us your home screen.

Notes about my home screen

My home screen is intentionally very simple. I do this to minimize distractions. The distractions are all tucked several screen swipes away. It is a simple reminder to me to keep things simple. The act of intentionally finding an app helps me become conscious to what I am doing and why. I also turn off 98% of all the alerts. I have a very quite iPhone.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Fantastical (thanks to Mac Power Users!) – Love the ease of calendar entry. The UI is beautiful and whimsical.

Omnifocus – This is the part of my GTD trusted system for all things that are Actionable = Yes (Projects, Next Actions, Waiting For).

Evernote and Dropbox – This is the part of my GTD trusted system for a majority of the things that are Actionable = No (Reference, Checklists, Lists)

Focus@Will – My Bose over the ears headsets (which I’ve had since 2006) and Focus@Will put my brain in a wonderful state for work.

Timer+ – I like working in sprints. A timer helps keep me honest and I love the sense of completion. I’ve had way to many situations when productive time has become unproductive time simply because I drifted off. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy drifting off time too. There is nothing like a good day dream. I create some space for that to happen too (e.g. Walking time, Coffee shop time).

Podcasts – I rarely listen to radio any more. I enjoy a wide range of podcasts. This is my go to app for commuting and walking.

FlightAware – This is my go to travel app for getting information to help me understand the status of my flight, the status of my specific plane and more.

Which apps are your guilty pleasures?

USAToday – It is news candy. Business Insider – Ditto. Medium – For the coffee shop or airport reading… a little deeper and longer form reading.

What app makes you most productive?

It is actually three apps in tandem: Calendar + Omnifocus + Timer. The calendar helps me see my calendared actions and reference information (e.g. appointments, meetings, day specific actions, day specific reminders). When I have “white space” or open time on my calendar I shift to work sprint mode. Omnifocus serves up the list of possibilities for me to choose from based on my context, time available and my energy level. I use the timer and time blocking to identify the number and types of sprints I am going to do within a given amount of time (e.g. process emails for X minutes, brainstorm on a topic for X minutes, clean up ___ area for X minutes, and many more).

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I am working to discover the power of Workflow. I love the ETA (estimated time of arrival) workflow. I use this to help my wife know when I will be home. There is a heck of a lot of territory to explore here. This is another app that Mac Power Users brought into my life – thank you!

What is the app you are still missing?

An app that, with minimal clicks and super fast speed, can capture an audio idea, turn it into text and send it to my Omnifocus Inbox.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

For me, when I am optimally productive, very little.

When I am less productive, a lot.

For me, when I am most present, very little. When I am most distracted, a lot.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The whole iOS ecosystem and how it works together. Siri is great for getting information very easily.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

Time Machine and all iOS devices backup to iCloud automatically.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

Picture of a latte from Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco. Why? I love the serenity of a coffee shop and a journal. It is a reminder of the power of cool funky places. I love the vibe. It is a reminder to build in some unstructured mind wandering time into my day which helps me be more engaged, creative and productive.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Yes, I really enjoy Mac Power Users. Many thanks to you and Katie for all the work you do there! If anybody would like to learn more about me, David Allen or Getting Things Done® (a.k.a. GTD®) you can find information at www.gettingthingsdone.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at @GTDmw. Cheers to all! Keep rockin’ the Mac and iOS world!