Initial Thoughts on Microsoft Word 2016

Today Microsoft released a preview of the new 2016 Office for Mac update. I think complaining about the menus in office and the massive number of features is pointless. Office exists to satisfy IT checklists and every obscure feature has its group of advocates out there … somewhere. Put simply, Microsoft Word is going to be big and ponderous just like the scorpion will always sting the frog. Nevertheless, I spend time in an industry where Word is used often and I, necessarily, must get over it. While I don’t like big and ponderous, I’d be able to deal with it, if Word were otherwise stable and stopped messing with my head.

I can’t help but feel Office for Mac and I have been in a dysfunctional relationship for several years. When Apple switched over to Intel, Office would toy with me. I’d type a letter and then Word would think about it just for a moment before deciding to put that letter on the screen. In the years that followed, new iterations would get released that would find new and interesting ways to toy with me. The 2011 version, for example, insists on rendering worse on retina screens than virtually any $1 utility app currently available in the Mac App Store.

So when I read about the beta today (which you can download right here), I decided to try it out. I even wrote a rather detailed contract in the new version. My initial impression is that Word is still big and ponderous. However, I also didn’t find any terrible lag, poor rendering, or any of the other sins we’ve seen in prior versions. The new version is based on Cocoa, where all prior versions were based on the aged Carbon.

Granted I’m only a few hours in but I already like this new version better. My initial impression is that Microsoft has pulled Word forward quite a bit with this new release. I’d love for Word to be more stable so I can get back to my old hobby of just complaining about its feature bloat. 


The Safe Mac


Recently, I’ve seen an increasing number of emails from readers and listeners that stumbled into Adware on their Macs. Interestingly, the bad guys are not just distributing these things through bit torrent and porn sites (as they used to) but instead they are infecting users with “helpful” utilities. Usually it involves a user hitting a website with a pop up that explains it just scanned their system (it didn’t) and there are big problems (there aren’t) and offers to speed up their Macs with some utility or cleaning application they’ll conveniently install with one click. The user clicks, enters their system password, and they are hosed. 

The problem I had was that I didn’t have a good recommendation about where to go when you or a friend stumbles into this bramble bush. I do now. TheSafeMac.com is a website published by Thomas Reed, who is on the side of angels. The site posts news on recent adware outbreaks on the Mac and even has a tool, Adware Medic, to de-cruft an infected Mac. I recommend bookmarking both of these links. I expect at some point in the future you or a friend are going to need Adware Medic. Also, if you do use it, throw a few bucks Thomas’s way. He is distributing this tool gratis.

New MacSparky Video Field Guide: Workflow




I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Workflow app (website) (App Store) as of late. Workflow is one of the most powerful apps available for the iPhone and iPad. Using Workflow, you can combine functions from different applications to make things happen on your iPhone and iPad wicked fast. Because it’s so flexible, Workflow is difficult to get started with. That’s where this new video field guide comes in.

The Workflow Video Field Guide starts with a few, easy workflows and builds upon them over the course of an hour to turn you into a Workflow pro. By the time you get to the end, you’ll be able to roll your own workflows and change the way you work on your iPhone and iPad. 

Some of the workflows in the video include:

  • Build your own animated GIF and share it.
  • Automate notifications to family and friends when you’re running late.
  • Send a message to your family so they know when to expect you home.
  • Get a Google Street View picture of the address of your next appointment.
  • Have your phone automatically give you the travel time and directions to your next appointment.
  • Share your location with friends and family with one tap.
  • Easily send screenshots to your Mac via AirDrop.
  • Automatically send photos from your phone to your Mac.
  • Have your iPhone show the location of your photos on a map.
  • Upload images to Dropbox.
  • Convert images to different file formats automatically.
  • Resize and send photos.
  • Blast photos out to multiple sharing services with one workflow.
  • Share your most played music.
  • Get walking directions to the nearest coffee or tea shop.
  • Have your iPhone or iPad look at your calendar for a given day and prepare a message displaying your availability.
  • Create custom iOS extensions
  • Save documents, websites, and other data directly to PDF
  • Create a custom workflow to take a picture of a receipt, give it a custom name, and save it to Dropbox.
  • Build your own tip calculator app. (Yup. Tip calculator.)
  • Set up a workflow to check your battery level, adjust your screen brightness, and send you a message.

Workflow has over 200 available actions that you can mix and match to make your iPhone and iPad dance for you. Don’t you want to see that? This screencast is fully bookmarked, an hour long, and engineered to make you a Workflow master. You can download it for $9.99.

Did you say you’d like to see a sample? Then here you go.

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Home Screens: Sam Montooth


This week’s home screen features Sam Montooth (website)(Twitter) In addition to being an extraordinarily talented bassist and photographer, Sam has, quite possibly, the coolest picture in the history of the home screen posts. I got to spend some time with Sam this year at NAMM and you should definitely check out Sam’s music and photography. So Sam, show us your home screen.


What are some of favorite apps?

I really like Downcast, Camera+, iReal Pro, Google Maps, Tweetbot, Instagram.

Downcast I use on a daily, almost hourly basis. I’ve tried all of the other podcatchers out there and it holds up and works perfectly for me. 

I use Camera+ in conjunction with Instagram. If there’s something I’ve taken a shot of quickly with the Camera app that I need to fix and share, then I edit in Camera+ and share via Instagram. 

Tweetbot is the only way to use Twitter. Like Downcast, I’ve tried all of the Twitter clients for iOS and I’ve spent a lot of money looking for some new way to manage my Twitter life, but I always come back to Tweetbot, it’s just great!

Being a musician, iReal Pro is invaluable. It’s a chord sheet manager. Fully editable and you can use it as a practice tool as well. For those familiar with the term Music Minus One, it is exactly capable of that, except you can change keys, tempos, styles, etc. I mostly use it on my iPad, but the iPhone version is just as good (but small).

Google Maps is important for my work as well. Getting to gigs on time is what your reputation is built on and Google Maps makes that happen.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Touch of Modern. I’ve bought so much there it’s embarrassing.

What app makes you most productive?

I haven’t found an app that’s made me more productive yet, but I am trying out the revamped Coach.me an so far I like it.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

Triage. It’s great! I just don’t use it enough as you can see by my Inbox count. (sorry inbox zero people, I don’t want to give you a panic attack.)

What is the app you are still missing?

The original Siri app was great and I was using it to it’s full potential. Still not the same since Apple bought it.

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

More than I can count. More than I should. But, in my defense, many of my friends are not local and are in other countries, so the only way to chat with them is via chat clients, twitter, etc.

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

I don’t use any of them. I barely check the notification screen as I’ve disabled almost all notifications because my phone has to be silent about 90% of the time. (including no vibration)

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The Camera hands down. Being able to take a decent shot nearly instantaneously of my daughter is the killer feature for the iPhone. The fact that I can get a decent quality shot so quickly is still amazing to me on a phone.

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

I would first license (not buy and absorb) Dropbox and make it a part of iCloud so it would actually work correctly. Apple’s ecosystem is great, but it shouldn’t be an all or nothing proposition. They should allow their iCloud integration to natively live on other devices because sometimes people have to have Windows in certain situations and why be locked out of your stuff for that? I would also start production on a Mac Pro mini tower. 

Somewhere between the old Mac Pro and the current design that would allow for an internal RAID. Lastly, I would fund the Pro app development to continue to have actual Pro apps and allow them to be developed. My biggest disappointment was the news of Aperture being let go. The PR says it’s because Photos is enough, and it may well be, but they killed Aperture over a year ago and just didn’t let us know. The Pro user is still important to Apple and if I was in charge I would establish an entire department just for Pro development, consultation, and service.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

My current wallpaper is a Stop sign from Seal Beach, CA. I took the photo with my DSLR and imported it specifically for my iPhone and iPad. It’s significant to me as I was there at the beach making a big decision for my life and I saw this sign and it simplified everything I was trying to resolve within myself. So, every time I notice that image behind my icons, I’m reminded of all the things that led up to that decision. It’s an empowering image to me and it’s great to be reminded daily of my resolve.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I have the Star Trek Communicator app in my dock on my phone because I’m a huge Star Trek fan, and I love using it to call people. It would be great if Apple would allow skins to be installed over the Phone app natively so I could actually use that app the whole way through a phone call. It’s a fun app with great sound clips from the original series.

Also, I have to mention that on my iPad, I’m a huge user of the Unrealbook app. It’s a PDF aggregator for musicians and it allows me to carry 20 fake books in my bag and has allowed me to save my back. 🙂

Thanks Sam.

Iconic Book


I’ve been spending some time lately with a distinctly non-digital book, Iconic. Iconic is a visual tribute to all things Apple. It has gorgeous full color photographs of everything from the Apple I to the the new jet-pack style Mac Pro. I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic turning through its pages looking at some amazing photos of beautiful Apple devices I haven’t seen in years. The book includes shipping products, prototypes, and even packaging. Sprinkled throughout are essays by a lot of smart people talking about what makes Apple special.

In an age where most publishing is going the electronic route, this is a book that you would want to buy and put on your coffee table. It’s gorgeous, informative, and the pinnacle of Apple porn. You can learn more at iconicbook.com.


Apple Pay is Gaining Altitude

Chase Bank today announced over 1 million customers have provisioned their credit and debit cards using Apple pay (via AppleInsider). Even though Apple Pay is gaining altitude slowly, it is gaining altitude. I know from my own experiences with Apple Pay that it is my preferred method for purchasing anything and that is not just because I’m an Apple geek.

Of all the credit cards and electronic payment forms I’ve used over the years, Apple Pay is the fastest and, since it generates a new number for every transaction, the safest method I’ve ever used. In 2014, my credit card was replaced three times due to fraud.

I fully expect more banks to join in. (My local credit union even now supports Apple Pay.) Moreover, I expect even more retail establishments to install NFC machines making Apple Pay more useful as we go about our days. Now add to that the fact that all future Apple mobile devices will support Apple Pay and you can see where this is going.

This will all take some time but I suspect in a few years we are going to look back at the introduction of Apple Pay in 2014 as a much bigger deal than we realized it was at the time.

Upgradeable Apple Watch

Serenity Caldwell writes for iMore about what happens in year 2 of the 18K gold Apple Watch Edition that a lot of smart people think will sell for something north of $10,000. Specifically, if you had a tech gadget that is a year or two (or three) old but made of gold would you be happy or would you drop another great big pile of money to get the latest and greatest version in gold. 

Serenity’s post contemplates a replaceable core, which could work but seems so unlike Apple in 2015 that I find it hard to believe. If I had to bet a nickel, I’d say that they’ll have a trade in program. The gold in those watches is valuable and Apple could give you a significant discount when upgrading. Also, I’m sure there will be a thriving third party market for those gold edition watches even when they are a year or two old.

Either way, Apple really doesn’t have to answer this question until 2016 when they will presumably release the generation 2 Apple Watch.

MPU 242: Troubleshooting with Joe Caiati

This week, former Apple Genius Joe Caiati joined us to talk about about troubleshooting your Mac and iOS devices. We discuss removing adware, explain Activity Monitor and Console, how to diagnose hardware and software problems and when you can attempt to fix something yourself and when its time to call a pro.

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