On the Rumored Retina iMac

Rumors are heating up that Apple is about to reveal a retina caliber iMac. Having used a retina MacBook Pro now for two years, I can tell you I love it. After all of this time I still sometimes look at text on this screen and just drool. I’m so spoiled. 

If Apple releases a retina iMac I’m sure it is going to be gorgeous. I do, however, have a few tips if you are thinking about this currently-mythical device:

1. Don’t Buy on Launch Day

The first generation retina iMac may have issues. Specifically, every time retina screens are added to a new device, there is a performance hit. Usually, it takes the second-generation device for the graphics horsepower to catch up with all of those pixels. Recently, we have seen this in the third generation iPad and also the first generation retina MacBook Pro. This may not be a big deal to you, but you should at least go in with your eyes open. Shortly after the product releases, there will be benchmarks that will give you an idea of what you’re getting into.

2. No Cinema Display for Awhile

Don’t hold your breath for a retina Cinema Display anytime soon. In an iMac, the screen is, in essence, jacked straight into the graphics card. With an external display it would have to go through the Thunderbolt port. The amount of data required to drive that many pixels through a Thunderbolt cable is going to be difficult until Thunderbolt cables get faster (which is planned).

3. Be Prepared to Pay a Premium

When the retina screens found their way onto the MacBook Pro, Apple added the “retina” moniker to the front and a few dollars to the price tag. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happens to the retina iMac.

4. Don’t Look at One Unless You’re Willing to Buy One

I love my retina display on my MacBook Pro. Text is gorgeous. I could never see myself buying another non-retina screen Mac. This screen has ruined me. I will intentionally not look at the retina iMacs if/when they show up.

 

Yosemite Conference

Next April, CocoaConf is hosting an Apple conference called, “Yosemite” held in … you guessed it … Yosemite National Park. I’m not going to be able to make it but if you’ve never been to Yosemite, this is an excellent excuse to go. Next to a few reefs in Hawaii, Yosemite is my favorite place in the entire world. April is an ideal time to go. The snow will have melted and the falls will be in full bloom. In addition to seeing Yosemite, there is also an outstanding slate of speakers, several of which are former MPU guests like Michael Lopp, Jim Dalrymple, and Serenity Caldwell. Learn more here.

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Dispatch Update and Print to PDF

For awhile now I’ve been splitting email duties on my iPhone between the native Apple Mail application and Dispatch (App Store). I covered Dispatch in the Email book and there is a lot to like about it. Dispatch gives you the ability to attach actions to emails and easily ship emails off to Evernote, OmniFocus, or whatever other app you use to handle tasks out of emails.

The developer recently issued the 2.1 update that now lets you navigate between folders, meaning Dispatch is useful in all your mailboxes, not just the inbox. That really helps people like me, that use services like Sanebox to make sure the Inbox isn’t very large to begin with. They also added the ability to send and archive with one tap, which is pretty special.

All of this is swell but the reason I’m writing about this update is the addition of a feature I’d nearly given up on in iOS, Print to PDF. I’ve long pined away for a simple way to save documents, files, and emails to PDF from my iPhone and iPad. This problem is particularly difficult when you want to save an email, which is ridiculously simple on the Mac. Dispatch now includes its own service that will save the selected email as PDF and even let you share it to cloud storage or a PDF application. There are a lot of reasons to save an email as a PDF and now, thankfully, you can pull that off in iOS too. Now if we can just talk them into releasing an iPad native version of Dispatch …

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MultiTasking Troubles

I really enjoyed Clay Shirky’s recent piece on requiring his students to put technology away in class. While I’m not sure his decision was correct, the essay nicely describes the sins of multitasking. This is a thing for me. I believe that nobody multitasks effectively. Splitting your attention between various masters just means you will serve none of them very well. The elephant metaphor explains it far better than I could. Save this one and read it over a nice beverage, while not doing four other things.

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MPU 216: iOS 8 Developer Roundtable

In this week’s Mac Power Users episode we interview Ken Case (Omni Group), Greg Scown (Smile), and Dave Teare (1Password) about the wild ride they’ve been on since WWDC and the big changes they’ve been able to make in their applications with iOS 8. This is the first time we’ve done a developer roundtable and it came out great. We’ll be doing more of these in the future.

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Jazz Friday: Joshua Redman, Never Let Me Go


While I’ll admit I have a particular affection for jazz artists from the bebop and cool jazz movements, there are also some contemporary artists I really enjoy. This week is the first time I’m featuring someone (slightly) younger than me. Joshua Redman (Wikipedia) is one of the best contemporary jazz saxophonists playing today. He is smart (Harvard educated!) and plays the sax with a technical expertise that makes my head spin. However, what makes him Jazz Friday-worthy is his artistry. Joshua puts himself out there when he plays and I find it almost impossible to play his music in the background because I always fall into it. There are several great albums. Two of my favorites are his Timeless Tales (for Changing Times) album, which features his take on several jazz standards and the more recent Trios Live album. The live recording shows off his talent. If you are going to just pick one track, I’d recommend Never Let Me Go from the Trios Live album.

Home Screen: Stephen Hackett


This week’s home screen features my pal Stephen Hackett (website)(podcast)(Twitter). Did you know that this month Stephen is dedicating his site to raising money for St. Jude? Did you know that as I post this, he has already raised over $11,400!? I contributed and ask you to consider doing so as well. 


What are Some of Your Favorite Apps?

Overcast and Tweetbot are my most-used apps by far. In addition to helping make some great shows, podcasts are my favorite form of entertainment. I listen to very little music in my car or while working around the house, and Overcast is just great to use.

Tweetbot is the best Twitter client on the iPhone. While the iPad version needs some love, I still use it for all the filtering and power-user options. 

Next in line usage-wise is probably Slack, which I use to communicate with my team at work and The Sweet Setup.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Currently, it’s a Risk-like game called Blood and Honor. My brother and some friends of ours are playing against each other online a few too many times a week currently. 

What does your “Today” screen look like? What widgets are helping you out?

I’ve taken it slow when adding widgets. Currently, I’ve only enabled OmniFocus’ and Evernote’s. Notification Center now shows me tasks due today and gives me a quick way to create a note, image or more in Evernote.

Any favorite iOS 8 extensions?

I love the Day One extension. I can send a photo or URL right to a new diary post without ever entering the app. However, photo metadata isn’t passed in, so I’m having to add location data later, which is a bummer. 

What is the app you are still missing?

A couple of years ago, my needs outgrew what I could do with plain text files, but I only use about 25% of what Evernote can do. I’d love a light-weight cross-platform app that could do text notes with the ability to attach images and files to them easily. 

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

Many days, my iPhone is my primary computer. My iPad is basically used for reading in the evenings and watching videos. It’s pure luxury at this point. 

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The camera on my iPhone, while not the best shooter I own, is the most used. With the iPhone 6, it’s better than ever, and iOS 8 offers a lot of power when it comes to capturing and editing images. 

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

While my request from 2011 is still unanswered, I think Apple really needs to clarify what it’s cloud services can actually do. iCloud is pretty great most of the time, but it’s really hard to explain. 

What’s your wallpaper and why?

I’m using the iOS 8 moon photo because space is awesome. 

Thanks Stephen.