The Email Field Guide

I just published the fourth MacSparky Field Guide. This one is all about email. I’ve spent most of the past year looking very closely at email and how it works. This new book explains the best methods, technologies, services, apps, and workflows to make email work for you.

There are over 300 pages and nearly 1.5 hours of video screencasts and 200 screenshots as I walk you through. I’ve also included several audio interviews with friends including Serenity Caldwell, Rob Corddry, Merlin Mann, Fraser Speirs, Jeff Taekman, Aisha Tyler, David Wain, and Gabe Weatherhead, that provide even more perspective on the best ways to tackle email.

The book features a new craftsman-style design and is illustrated by Mike Rohde. In a lot of ways, this book feels like the culmination of everything I’ve learned along the way. I’m really proud of this book and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it. It is available in the iBooks Store and PDF for $9.99.

Buy the iBooks Store Version of the Email Field Guide

Buy the PDF Version of the Email Field Guide

Visit the Website

The Field Guide Mailing List

You may not know it but there is a mailing list for the MacSparky Field Guides. My goals is for it to be one of the lowest volume mailing lists on the Internet. All that being said, if you are interested in learning about new Field Guides and big updates, today would be an excellent day to sign up for it.

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Hands on With the iPad mini with Retina Display

I got to spend some time this evening with an iPad mini with retina display in the local Apple Store. The store was slow enough that I could take my own personal iPad mini and compare it side-by-side. I spent about 20 minutes putting the new iPad Mini through its paces and here are some initial impressions.

The Retina Screen

The retina screen is obvious and gorgeous. It’s everything you expected. Because it has the same pixel count as the larger size iPad packed into a smaller display, it’s actually sharper than the iPad air. All that being said, looking at the iPad mini with retina display and iPad air side-by-side, I couldn’t tell any difference. Pixels were invisible on both devices. As an aside, I never noticed before how Apple cranks up the brightness to maximum on in-store devices. That’s smart because they looked really great.

The Weight

I could not tell a difference between the weight of the two devices. I understand the iPad mini with retina display is slightly heavier than my existing iPad mini. I thought I could perceive a slight difference between the two until I had an Apple Store employee hand them to me with my eyes closed and I guessed the wrong one of the two as heavier. If you’re afraid about increased weight with the upgrade, you shouldn’t be.

Processing Speed

The new iPad Mini with retina display is a lot faster than its predecessor. Even doing silly little things like jumping between applications are noticeably quicker. It renders webpages faster, loads complicated applications faster, does Garage Band tracks faster, and generally kicks some serious ass. Having used an iPad mini for the past year, this upgrade was much more obvious than I expected it to be.

First World Problems

This truly has come down to the question of how big do you want your iPad. Whether you want large or small, there is an excellent option for you.

Bringing processor speed, weight, and retina screen parity between the two devices means everybody has a good option without having to compromise something. That’s right. I said it. This is the Apple version of “no compromises”. I suspect it’s going to be a very happy holiday for Apple.

Pixelmator gets 1,000,000 downloads.

I recently wrote about the release of Pixelmator version 3.0. Today Pixelmator announced they’ve had over 1 million downloads. I’m thrilled for their success. Pixelmator truly is a disruptive product bringing powerful imaging tools to your Mac for just $30. I used it extensively in the new Field Guide I’ll be announcing very shortly.

“Desktop-Class”

Speaking of Fraser Speirs, he wrote up his new iPad Air and is impressed.

“I don’t want to bury the lede here: the major story about the iPad Air is not the reduction in size and weight but the increase in performance. It is, to put it simply, an utter delight to use. “

I’ve heard a similar version of this from all of my friends driving iPad Airs. What is even more interesting than how fast the A7 is making existing apps, is what kind of new apps developers will create to harness this power.

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MPU 163: Education and iPads with Fraser Speirs

This week Fraser Speirs joined us to update us on the progress of the 1 to 1 iPad program he has been administering for several years. Fraser has unique insight on the iPad and education and this one is a great listen for that alone. We also talked at some length concerning his impressions and thoughts on the new iPad Air.

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New Cleartones for Your iPhone

Cleartones remain my favorite ringtones for my iPhone. They’ve now released their new Pure series of ringtones and notification tones. I really like the new tones and it is nice having quality ringtones and notification sounds that nobody else in the room is using. They’ve got samples on the website so go check it out.

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Home Screens: Mike Vardy

Mike Vardy (Twitter) (website) speaks and writes about managing your time better. How appropriate then that Mike released a book this week about how we use our calendars, The Now Year, A Practical Guide to Calendar Management. In addition to being prolific, Mike’s a really kind fellow and agreed to share his home screen. So Mike, what’s on your home screen?

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

One of them is 1Password because I’m actually using it as my main browser app now. It has all of my passwords stored in it, and the new version sports a much better browsing component. I rarely browse the Internet on my iPhone, but when I do (other than when it comes from a prompt within Dispatch, which defaults to Safari), I use 1Password.

30/30 is also an interesting choice because while I use it sparingly, it’s nice to have it there when I want to use a modified version of The Pomodoro Technique. If it wasn’t on my home screen I’d probably not use it as much.

YNAB and Neat are there for the same reason. I want to keep on top of my finances and my scannables, so having these apps front and center really helps. In fact, most things on my home screen are there because of that. And if the Reviewables folder (where all of my beta testing apps are) then I’d not put the apps through the paces nearly as often…or as well.

What is your favorite app?

Drafts, with Dispatch being a close second. I’m a big fan of “gateway” apps — apps that allow you to get in the door with something and then place that thing where you need it most with as little friction as possible. Drafts and Dispatch (along with Launch Center Pro) are the best gateway apps I’ve come across. They’re the reason I am getting so much more use out of my iPhone than ever before.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

I’d say that’d be the Untappd app. I don’t use location check-in apps other than this one. Untappd is essentially a social networking app for beer drinkers, and ever since I started getting into craft beers (I’ve even started cellaring them and have been using Evernote to help out with that process) I have been using Untappd to indicate when I have a beer and what beer I’m having. Other than listening to the Mikes on Mics back catalog, it’s the only other way I track the beers I’ve had.

What is the app you are still missing?

With Drafts, Dispatch, and Launch Center Pro in my arsenal, I don’t really find myself wanting for any particular app. What I think is missing is the fact that I can’t choose to change my default mail app from the stock app to Dispatch, or the stock browser to 1Password if I want. I understand why that’s the case (or at least I think I do), but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, right?

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

Far more often than in the past – I’d say upwards of 10 times per day since I’m actually using Dispatch as my primary email app (yep, even over the one on my MacBook Air). The ability to quickly capture and shift things to where I need them to be (email tasks to OmniFocus or Asana, email information materials to Evernote, quick capture of ideas to Drafts, etc.) is what makes iOS (and my iPhone) the operating system I’m using more and more these days.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I’d say the new Control Center feature introduced in iOS 7 is my favourite. I love that I can quickly swipe up with my thumb and activate Airplane Mode, open the calculator, and fire up the flashlight. It’s a small thing, but it’s a classic example of great UI and UX – something Apple knows a thing or two about.

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

Other than the ability to choose my own “sensible defaults” — hat tip to Patrick Rhone for that phrase — not much. That said, the default thing is pretty important (but I don’t see it changing anytime soon).

Anything else you’d like to share?

If you’re not using Drafts, Dispatch, and/or Launch Center Pro do yourself a favour and start. Any of these apps (when you take the time to set them up to meet your needs) will really change the way you use your iPhone.

Obi-Wan, Redeemed

Obi-Wan has always been my favorite Star Wars character. I love that he always tries to do what’s right and to this day, as a 45-year-old nerd, I still ask myself on occasion, “What would Obi-Wan do?”

One problem that has never sat right with me though was the way he lied to Luke about his father. It turns out, he really didn’t want to do that but instead did it at Yoda’s request. There is some cutting room floor footage from Episode VI where Yoda states, on his death bed, “Obi-Wan would have told you [about the true fate of Anakin Skywalker] long ago, had I let him.” This didn’t make the film but gives my beloved Obi-Wan some (but not all) redemption on this point.

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