Natural Scrolling in LaunchBar


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Apple has me so well trained on natural scrolling that when LaunchBar scrolls the old way through its lists, I panic a little. “Why is it going the wrong direction?” The LaunchBar gang has a post explaining their design decision. They also have a terminal commands for people like me that want a naturally scrolling LaunchBar. If you want natural scrolling in your LaunchBar, go into your terminal and type the below command. Then quit and relaunch LaunchBar and you’ll be all fixed up.

defaults write at.obdev.LaunchBar NaturalScrolling YES


Jazz Friday: John Coltrane, A Love Supreme




John Coltrane is one of the most well-regarded saxophonists ever to pick up the instrument. He was a vital band member with Miles Davis and a force of his own as a solo artist. I used his Ballads album to serenade my children when they were babies and I still find myself playing it when I need a bit of serenity.

John was also quite spiritual. He recorded several albums that were spiritually inspired. In one of his seminal works, A Love Supreme, he wrote a Psalm and then, in the studio, put the words on his music stand and played them I first heard about this when I was 15 and playing the sax several hours a day. I couldn’t fathom someone playing words instead of music. However, I did read John’s Psalm and listen to the music and I did hear it.

Just a few weeks ago, Dan Colman made a video at OpenCulture, that shows you John’s original words overlaid with the music. I found it mesmerizing to watch as I could put myself in the head of this musical genius and look at the words float by as the notes come out.

My thanks to David in Cincinnati for pointing me at the OpenCulture post.

About that Sapphire Crystal Video

I’m going to declare the release of the below video demonstrating an alleged Sappphire crystal display from the next iPhone the official opening of iPhone rumor silly season. Every year about this time, the parts leaks start up giving us increased information about the next iPhone, which Apple will probably announce in September or October. While the video is impressive, I’m not sure how relevant the tests were. I’ve been using iPhones without cases since the first iPhone. Granted I’m pretty careful about it (the left pocket is for iPhone only) but I have never had a scratch on the glass of any of my iPhones.

Shattered glass is another story. The real test I would like to see with this Sapphire crystal (if this is Sapphire crystal), is shatter resistance. If Apple is incorporating this new material and it can dramatically decrease the amount of shattered screens, then we are talking.

Either way, I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more links and stories in the coming months leading up to Apple’s announcement. Moreover, if the new material is used and is more shatter resistant, I’m certain that Tim and gang will be shouting that from the rooftops at the eventual announcement.

Home Screens – Hardik Pandya


This week’s home screen features Hardik Pandya from the Netherlands. Hardik was featured here once before when he was still a student. Now he runs a company. Okay Hardik, show us your home screen.


Who are you? What do you do?

I’m Hardik Pandya, I am a developer, hobby photographer and a writer. I run a company with a friend of mine at Octal which is a automation systems and product design studio. I write most of my articles at my own website, connect with people on Twitter and share photos on my VSCO Grid.

I use an iPhone 5S 16GB model in Gold color. That awesome wallpaper is here.

What apps do you use the most and why?

Not a lot has changed from when I showed my homescreen the previous time. Currently I have a few of the basic Apple stock apps and a few of the best replacements I could find out from our good folks on the Internet.

Calendars 5: I love and prefer this over Fantastical because of its better Week, Day and Month views. I use calendar on my iPhone mostly to check sports schedule and plan my travels. I do not prefer using it to schedule appointments and meetings because that’s what I use another app I will discuss in a while.

Instagram / Over / Vine / VSCO Cam: I am a photographer at heart. I edit photos I take on my phone and for that I use VSCO Cam and its large array of filters. It’s a great great app. Over is an app that I use to put typography on my photos that looks great sometimes (not always, but a good app to have). Vine is an app I mostly use to share some visual bugs that we encounter while product development with my colleagues. It’s a great use-case but of course not much useful with the social nuance of Vine.

Pocket Casts: The Sweet Setup guys called it! I was using it since even before their iOS 7 redesign and I loved it even back then. Just the best podcatcher out there before you finally try Marco’s Overcast.

Simplenote: I have always loved a simple text catching app that is always handy and just a click away. Its speed and reliability in sync has always prevented me to look at other options. I long-ditched Evernote for its bulky and overblown premises. I use Simplenote for starting blogpost ideas and at times building lists.

Day One: The most used and the most priced possession on my phone. It contains so many life-long memories I could just pay Paul Mayne a yearly fees just as a mark of appreciation for building this gem.

Telegram (www.telegram.org): WhatsApp got acquired and I decided to move on for Instant Messaging needs. Telegram is cross-platform, free (will always be) and even has desktop/Mac apps and web-apps. Perfect for chatting from the laptop whenever you feel typing on the phone makes you mad.

Reeder / Interesting / Pushpin / Zite: My news-reading begins in Reeder and Interesting (from Mike Rundle) and good and long articles end up in Pinboard (the best bookmarking service that recently completed 5 years of existence). Pinboard is link-saving nirvana.

1Password & Tweetbot: Well, no surprises here.

LiveScore: A free and awesome app for following your favorite sport. Football World Cup is going on and I use this app to stay up-to-date with all the matches and schedules. It supports Football, Cricket and a lot of other sports. I really cannot live without it for the sake of the FOMO.

Todoist: Todoist is my task-manager of choice. I love OmniFocus too. But OmniFocus is not exactly for teams nor does it have a web component. I have my own company and we have a team. We use Todoist and it’s great for sharing projects and tasks and delegating tasks without much of a deep hierarchy or a learning curve. It’s pretty straight-forward and easy to get up and running with.

Slack: Our tool of choice for inter-company communication. It’s great for chatting with colleagues, sharing files and troubleshooting with code snippets. It has web, native and mobile components and is even free to start with.

So these are the tools I use to get my daily work, social communication and entertainment done. There’s been a lot that evolved since my last iOS 6 screen covered here on MacSparky but that’s the nature of this industry!

What’s your favorite feature of the iPhone?

Control Center. I can’t imagine going to the Photography folder to pull out the camera without missing a moment. Control Center makes switching to Camera, Torch and Music much faster. Indispensable.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Threes. Ruzzle and Monster Dash too. But mostly Threes. I even played 2 games in the middle of writing this article. It’s so addictive I need psychological help.

Thanks Hardik.

MPU Live 202

The once-a-month live feedback show format is really finding its stride. In this latest edition, we tackle getting started with becoming more productive with your Mac, answer questions related to traveling with your tech, extending Wi-Fi networks, and get lots of Evernote feedback. Go get it.

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Broadwell Delays

Intel’s new Broadwell chips have a lot of hopes pinned upon them. They are supposed to be bring energy efficiency and graphics performance to new levels. I suspect Apple is relying on Broadwell to make the fabled 12″ Retina MacBook Air-ish computer into reality. If that is the case, we may be waiting longer for this computer than expected. MacRumors reports the necessary chips are now pushed back into next year.

If the rumored delay is for real and if Apple needs the chip to release a thin, light retina MacBook, this has got to be driving people at Apple crazy. I’ve always thought the idea of an Apple designed ARM-based Mac a little nutty (at least for a few years into the future). However, when Apple can’t ship a product because a supplier can’t deliver, I bet the super-secret-put-an ARM-in-a-Mac team in Cupertino is getting a few phone calls.