Focused 195: The Productivity Field Guide

After several years in production, the Productivity Field Guide is here! Check out this episode of Focused where Mike interviews me about what’s in it, how much went into it, and why it’s so important to me.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

  • Factor: Healthy, fully-prepared food delivered to your door.
  • Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code FOCUSED.
  • Indeed: Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide using Indeed to hire great talent fast.

The Vision Pro: Popularity, Availability, and Iteration

I’ll join the digital queue this Friday morning to purchase my Vision Pro. This is an interesting product as we head towards its launch because it appears that while it won’t be a big seller (on an Apple scale), it may still be hard to buy.

If the rumors are true, those fancy screens are hard to make and will limit the number of units Apple can ship. I also can’t help but wonder if Apple doesn’t particularly want to make this first iteration of the Vision Pro something that sells in the millions. I suspect they are still figuring out the product category themselves and getting feedback from a few hundred thousand users will give them a lot of good ideas.

The Vision Pro is expensive, and the story is unclear. A lot of the Apple faithful will pass, at least initially. This point landed for me in a recent MacSparky Labs meetup. Labs Members like Apple products. A lot. Yet we had a room full of Apple fans and only a few of them intend to buy one. Again, I expect that is due to the price and the fact that people aren’t sure what they would do with it.

The interesting point is that despite the fact that demand for the Vision Pro is lower than for other Apple products, the rumored limited quantities could still make it hard to get. (Strange, right?)

Regardless, the story of this product is not about its first iteration. Apple is thinking long-term, as they always do. Fourteen years ago, John Gruber wrote about how iteration is Apple’s superpower. Here we go again.

Apple Vision Pro Thoughts

It’s a big week for those contemplating buying a Vision Pro. Apple has always prided itself on only releasing products when they are “done.” While I have no doubt that the Vision Pro is done, I also think the use case for the product is far from done…This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Mac Power Users 727: The Productivity Field Guide

After years of thought and work, I have launched the Productivity Field Guide. In this episode of Mac Power Users, I speak with Stephen about some of the elements of the guide, what went into it, and what comes next.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Never forget a password again.
  • Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code MPU.
  • Indeed: Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide using Indeed to hire great talent fast.

BBEdit 15 is Here

The folks at Bare Bones Software just announced a big upgrade to their ubiquitous text editor, BBEdit. It’s got too many features to mention, but here are a few that jumped at me:

  • A new AI-driven document type called ChatGPT Worksheets, which lets you interact with ChatGPT as you put your words on the page.
  • Minimap, a palette gives you a nice overview of the document you’re working on, making it easy to see its structure.
  • Expandable Cheat Sheets to reference bits of text that you use often or don’t remember how to type.
  • A new UI for Text Factories, a long-standing and unique feature of BBEdit.

You can read more about the new features and get upgrade pricing if you have an older version of the app.

I’ve seen BBEdit grow for the last few decades and it’s nice to see it’s still going strong in 2024.

Fantastical: The Superhero of Calendar Apps (Sponsor)

I’m thrilled to once again have Flexibits’ fantastic calendar app as a MacSparky sponsor. 2023 was a busy year for the Fantastical team and that meant users got a ton of great improvements. I use Fantastical every day at MacSparky HQ and I keep being blown away by how much it can do for me.

This is one subscription that gives me great value, and I’m happy to keep renewing. Flexibits published a nice video recap in December so you can see for yourself all the hard work they put in. For me, some features really landed and continue to make managing my calendar events and Zoom calls a breeze:

Openings and Proposals links got a lot better and I can now add contact details in the URL link.

Live Activities — for those of us with a Dynamic Island-equipped iPhone, seeing your upcoming Fantastical event in this prime spot is so handy, and you can get right to it with a tap.

In June, the Quarter view was added to the Mini Window on Mac. This is my favorite view in Fantastical and one that I’m convinced they added just for me.

With iOS 17 came interactive widgets, and SmartStack and StandBy widgets, too. Fantastical was ready, and took advantage of these new features in September. I use widgets all the time. They also made the Apple Watch app so much nicer and easier to use.

I could go on and on…but I think you’re getting it: Fantastical has never been better, and if you’re wondering whether it’s right for you, head over there now and give it a spin! Managing your events, tasks, and meetings has never felt as good.