2012

Before jumping into 2013, I want to thank each and every one of you for reading MacSparky.com. It has been an amazing year for me as the podcast and blog both grew bigger than ever and the successful launch of the MacSparky Field Guides. Apple’s “Best of 2012” award for Paperless was the corker. Somebody pinch me.

While I love and appreciate my day job, writing and podcasting for all of you is really what gets my motor revving. In so many ways, MacSparky saved me. When I think about how many great friends and experiences I’ve had as a result of MacSparky, I consider myself perhaps the luckiest guy in the world. Happy New Year everybody.

The OmniFocus Setup and Debut

People often ask me how I manage pull off a day job and all my MacSparky stuff. The simple answer is that I love everything I do, which makes it much easier to get out of bed early and keep cranking widgets.

However, I also need a system, not only to manage all of this but also to help me decide which of this stuff makes the cut. I would not be able to do this without OmniFocus. I love OmniFocus so much that I made a lot of screencasts about it.

This year during Macworld, the Omni Group is having a special couple of events surrounding OmniFocus. The first is called the OmniFocus Setup, where you can get hands-on assistance getting up to speed with OmniFocus. The event is taking place during the afternoon at the Cartoon Art Museum on January 31. In addition to the hands-on help from the Omni Group’s own staff, there will also be a small presentations and a panel by some really smart people like Merlin Mann, Kourosh Dini, Sven Fechner, and others. (They are also crazy enough to give me the mic for a few minutes.)

That evening, there is an additional event, the OmniFocus Debut, where Ken Case, Merlin Mann, and I get to show off OmniFocus 2. Ken has already written about how the new version will incorporate many of my favorite iOS features like forecast and better review. There is more. It is spectacular. Don’t miss out if you are in San Francisco.

The Omni Group is an amazing collection of people dedicated to improving your life with superior software. I often talk about how much I not only love the Omni Group’s products but also the people that make them. Now is your chance to find out why this is true. I’m going to be there for most of the event so if you stop by, make sure to say hello.

MPU118: Resolutions

The latest Mac Power Users episode is live. In it Katie, and I cover some great geek-related resolutions including a tech security audit, using an electronic diary, geek estate planning, locking down social networks, offsite backup, and creating something amazing with an iLife app.

This episode was exclusively sponsored by 1Password.

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Home Screens: DaisyDisk’s Taras Brizitsky


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As we enter the new year, I’m going to be posting these home screens more consistently. This week I’m featuring Taras Brizitsky (Twitter), one of the smart fellows behind my favorite Mac drive management app, DaisyDisk. So Taras, show us your home screen.


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What are some of favorite apps?

There’re many… 1Password (version 4 looks incredible), Deliveries (I rely on it for tracking packages from eBay), Buy Me a Pie (the best grocery list I’ve used), Panamp (music), Light (yes, it’s a flashlight app; I also have a good “hardware” one), Verbs (IM), Partly Cloudy(weather forecast), Fantastical, Chrome, Tweetbot, Reeder, Sparrow…

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Letterpress (you won’t tell anyone, right?).

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m still looking for good music and video players which are not chained to iTunes.
I just want to listen to the music on the go, not sync, re-sync or move my music collection to iTunes (which doesn’t play well with NAS).

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

None to every few minutes, that really depends on what I’m working on.
Sometimes I prefer to leave all my gadgets on a shelf.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Pocket-sized Web browser. Seriously, this covers most of my needs.
My iPhone is mostly used as a web browser, news reeder, mail checker. And yes, it can make calls (killer, app, huh…). iPad works as a book and news reader and a portable game console. I tried using these devices for writing short texts or drawing and still prefer paper and good old iMac.

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

App switching. Current solution (icons) is even inferior to one of Palm’s webOS.
Notification Center. Either you do have widgets (weather/finance, anyone?) or you don’t.
Camera app. It’s now incredibly cluttered.
Lock screen. Another design abomination…
Siri. She’s unbelievably slow, stupid and useless.
iCloud. There’s a lot of space for improvements.
App integration. Let’s just face a simple fact: files need to be shared between apps.
And, most of all, iBatteryLife. No complains about iPads, but hey, I don’t need a razor-thin iPhone, I need it work longer.

Thanks Taras

iPad for Photographers

Lately I’m doing an increasing amount of photo editing and management on my iPad. It just so happens that Jeff Carlson wrote a really good book about techniques and apps for photography on your iPad. Jeff is one of my favorite tech writers and has a lot of good knowledge to share. Of course there are also some really great photos in the book.

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Kiva – Loans that change lives

Are you scrambling for a last minute gift? Why not set somebody up with a Kiva investment account. For me, Kiva is the perfect charity based gift for kids. Instead of telling them that you made a donation in their name (which means nothing to them), give them some Kiva money to go make an investment. Then get online with them and help them decide who they should invest in. Help someone buy cattle in Tajikistan or phones for resale in Uganda. Most of the investments pay back and then the kids can re-invest it again. You can start for as little as $25. I’m giving this to several young people in my life this holiday.

PDFpen for iPhone Tutorial

A friend asked me why on earth I’d need a PDF app on my phone. Rather than explain briefly, I made a 40 minute video. Here is my soup to nuts explanation of how I use PDFpen for iPhone.

If you haven’t bought the app yet, you should right now. Smile just dropped the price (for a limited time) on PDFpen for iPhone* to $2. (PDFpen for iPad* is also on sale for just $7.) Watch the video, buy the apps, tell your friends. You can’t go wrong. 

* Affiliate link lining my pockets one nickel at a time.