MacSparky

Automating the holidays has never been easier. Rose and I have a pile of holiday-related automations to make life easier and impress your friends and family on the this episode of Automators. This episode of Automators is sponsored by:LinkedIn Jobs: Post a…

I’ve enjoyed some recent posts from John Voorhees and Jason Snell about expanding Shortcuts on the Mac using AppleScript and the terminal. However, I still am having trouble getting consistent and reliable automation with Shortcuts on the Mac. The product…

Peak Design is a company specializing in various bags and cases. They make some excellent (and opinionated) gear. They sell many of their new products via Kickstarter and often manage to hook me with their very polished campaigns.For instance, a while ago,…

A shoutout to TextExpander, MacSparky’s sponsor this week. I’ve been a user of TextExpander for a long time. It’s been a real difference-maker in my workflow by doing a lot of the work for me.TextExpander supports a variety of macros, and one supported…

In Ryan Holiday’s book, Ego Is the Enemy, there is an excellent section called “To Be or To Do.” The idea is that you can easily get lost in being when you should instead focus on doing.Being is the trappings. Doing is the work.Looking back on my law…

Stephen and I are joined by Daniel Jalkut on this episode of Mac Power Users. After his absence is blamed on an innocent co-host, Daniel chats with us about his indie development career, the new MacBook Pro, and the many options developers face when picking a…

With the proliferation of cloud-based storage, it’d be easy to think you don’t need local backup any more. I disagree. I make regular backups of my data to big, slow, inexpensive spinning hard drives that I store away from the computer (with one going…

HomePod mini in the front, Focal in the back.…

Join us for the latest episode of Focused. Mike and I consider the source of negative self-talk, the power of positive thinking, and taming the rebellious brain.This episode of Focused is sponsored by:Privacy: Smarter payments. Get $5 to spend on your first…

As a lot of Americans prepare to spend some time off tomorrow, I do think the idea of setting aside time to give thanks is a good one. One of the biggest things I have to give thanks for is the success of MacSparky. The fact that you listen to my shows, read…

My thanks to MacSparky’s sponsor this week, SaneBox. My plate is full enough as it is, but I’ve got SaneBox to help me clear my plate by managing my inbox. I’ve tried using rules before, but things would slip through that weren’t supposed to, so rules…

Today Pixelmator dropped version 2.3 of Pixelmator Pro. There are a few highlights of note:• AI-powered automatic background removal: With just a click, users will now be able to remove the background from any image• AI-powered automatic subject selection:…

There is a range of applications to supercharge your copy-and-paste game. This week’s Mac Power Users has Stephen and me exploring some of the best options for macOS and even the iPad and iPhone.This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:Hullo: A…

In this episode of Automators, Rosemary and I are joined by Kelly Guimont and dive into getting started with automation, fun seasonal lighting, and the trouble with tribbles, er HomePod mini multiplication.This episode of Automators is sponsored by:LinkedIn…

This week MacSparky is sponsored by the Timing App, the time tracking app that tracks time for you automatically. It’s that “automatic” part you should really pay attention to. Because I do so much work at my Mac these days, I’ve been using Timing and…

I’ve longed talked about Hazel being one of the best tools available to automate using your Mac. Noodlesoft, the makers of Hazel, have released an update with Hazel 5.1, which now supports macOS Monterey. Features include: New “Run Shortcut” action to…

I’m excited to be joining Michael St. Pierre for the upcoming Nonprofit Productivity Summit, which is from December 7-9, 2021. Other guests include Mike Vardy, a past guest of Mac Power Users and Focused (back when it was Free Agents), and the father of…

I’ve been using FastScripts for years to run AppleScripts, and it’s just released a major update. FastScripts 3.0 has got: Parallel script execution: no more waiting for long tasks before starting another.ScriptLight menu searching: quickly see a summary…

I’ve chosen Obsidian as PKM weapon-of-choice, but that doesn’t take anything away from the strides made by the Craft team during the App’s first year. Craft now supports inline Markdown, backlinks, code snippets, images, videos, attaching PDF files, and…

Believe it or not, it is time for the annual MPU Holiday Gift Guide. Listen here. This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits…