For a long time, I felt it was only a matter of time before some nation called Apple’s bluff on iOS security and demanded a secret backdoor into user data. While the United States has made several threats over the years without following through,…
Continue reading →The Lab Report for February 14, 2025
In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: Finally! You can now migrate those purchases from an old Apple Account (né Apple ID), Pixelmator now officially a part of Apple, Sparky recommends his popular block scheduling Labs videos and shares his love of knots.
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History of the Screen Saver
I fell down this delightful rabbit hole giving the full history of the screen saver. There is a lot more to those flying toasters than you’d think.
Continue reading →Focused 223: Solving the Actual Problem, with Ian Byrd
Ian Byrd is back on Focused to talk about flexibility, focus traps, and finding balance. This episode of Focused is sponsored by: Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code FOCUSED.
Listen & read notes →Simple Scan: From Documents to PDFs in Seconds (Sponsor)
Scanning apps on iOS have taken a turn for the worse. Many have become bloated with features. Monetization schemes have multiplied. That’s what Greg Pierce (maker of Drafts) realized when he wanted to scan a document to a PDF. The good news is that…
Continue reading →A First Look at Apple Invites
I’ve done some project planning scripts in the past but folks have been asking about doing it with Reminders. Here you go!… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Thunderbolt 5 Devices
As Apple increasingly moves to Thunderbolt 5, some interesting devices are emerging that take advantage of this new interface. A couple that stand out, both from OWC: the OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 Drive (in 2- and 4-terabyte capacity), the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Hub. There’s also the CalDigit…
Continue reading →Local Mail Sorting with Apple Mail
The Opal C1 Webcam is meant to be the webcam everybody actually wants to use. It\’s got tons of software features and a better lens system than anything you\’d find in most (all?) other webcams. It\’s time for me to kick the tires…
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Mac Power Users 783: Managing Notification Frustration
🚨 Breaking News: On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I dive into Apple’s vast sea of notification settings. We also cover best practices and where Apple has gotten things wrong. Open this alert to hear more! 🚨 This episode of Mac Power…
Listen & read notes →The Six Colors Report Card
I enjoyed reading (and participating in) Jason Snell’s annual Six Colors Report Card. It’s a nice barometer of how Apple is viewed from the outside by people who spend a lot of time thinking about the question.
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