Apple has several variations of its warranty offerings. On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I detail the differences between various AppleCare products and discuss their value to customers.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
This week I’m welcoming back Dropzone as a sponsor at MacSparky. Dropzone is a productivity tool that enhances drag-and-drop on your Mac. Drag files onto the menu item and a beautifully designed and animated grid of all your actions opens. Share with services such as AirDrop, Imgur, FTP, Amazon S3, Facebook, X (Twitter) and many others. Move and copy files, launch applications, and even develop your own actions using the powerful Ruby-based scripting API.
With Dropzone, you can easily add actions to your grid with the new Quick Add menu or by dropping folders or apps onto the ‘Add to Grid’ area. Quickly reorganize your actions using drag-and-drop and delete them by holding the Option key. The new in-grid progress bars let you keep track of task progress. Also see how tasks are progressing at a glance in the new animated menu item.
Drop Bar has another great feature: Drag files you know you’ll need later onto the Drop Bar area of the grid to stash them temporarily. Drag stacks on top of each other to combine them. You can even drag a stack onto another Dropzone action.
One of my favorite new features is Add-on Actions, where you can add pre-configured actions to Dropzone. Want to resize files, search images, download from YouTube? Those actions (and a lot more) are available to you.
I use Dropzone daily. Here are just a few things I do with Dropzone:
I’m a big Dropzone fan and happy to have them as a MacSparky sponsor. Check it out today.
Today, I woke up at 4:30 AM so I could give Apple $4,000 for a product I’ve never tried before. Crazy.
The order process went smoothly (at first). I was able to get through the checkboxes fast enough. There are upgrades for additional memory. An extra $200 will double your storage to 512GB, and an extra $400 will get it to 1TB. There is also Applecare for $499 or $25/mo.
I had a lot of questions about glasses. My distance vision is 20/20, but I need readers for books and screens. A dialog box asked if I needed glasses, and then it asked what kind of glasses. I ticked the box for readers and told them 1.5-1.75 works for me, and that was it. I was not required to upload a prescription.
My final order was a 512GB device (probably dumb to add the extra storage). I did not order any additional accessories. I’m going to wait to see how I use the device first. Then I clicked the button to pay and (foolishly) picked Apple Pay in haste. The problem is that my business card is not part of Apple Pay. (My bank only supports Apple Pay for personal cards, not business cards.) I had a moment of crisis there but decided I’d go ahead and pay on my personal card and let my accountant sort it out.
The app gave me a 9:00 AM pick up time at my local Apple Store on February 2, and I was good to go. I pushed the Buy button.
Declined.
I have no idea why. That card has a balance of a few hundred dollars and plenty of credit. Likely a fraud thing.
So I switched (in Apple Pay) to my company debit card. The only problem was that my pickup window was then gone, so I had to pick a new one. 11:30 on February 2. Check. Press Buy.
Declined.
Again, I have no idea why. Plenty of money to pay for this ridiculous headset.
So then, I canceled the checkout. I figured at that point I had a 50/50 chance that pushing that cancel button would reset the whole transaction, and then I wouldn’t be able to get one–since I’d lost my place in line. At that point, I was okay with that potential outcome.
So I pressed Cancel.
Good news? It didn’t cancel the transaction but just brought me back to the screen where I could choose to pay via Apple Pay or traditionally with my company card (as I usually do with Apple transactions). Now the first available time is 3:00 PM on February 2. Click Buy.
Transaction failed. The allotted time is already taken. Pick a new one.
So this went on multiple times. I’d pick a time, and then it was no longer available when I pushed to buy a second later. It finally worked with me picking up at 12:30 PM on February 3.
So success? I think? I have to admit I’m mixed about spending so much on a product I haven’t tried and don’t fully understand. I’m hoping that there is a productivity/contextual computing story around this headset, and the only way I’m going to really know that is to try it for myself. So I have some trepidation and am mindful of that return window. But I’m also excited to try something entirely new from Apple. So often, it is when they come to an existing platform with their own unique spin that Apple does their best work, and I want to see them do that again. Either way, here we go.
P.S. For you Mac Power Users listeners, Stephen also got one, so we’ll be sharing thoughts soon.
Have you noticed folks are increasingly skeptical about social media lately? Lawmakers are starting to regulate it. Scientists are increasingly vocal about its dangers. I also see this skepticism in friends and family. One of my daughters is a high school teacher, and it only took her a few days of teaching to declare that the “biggest problem is TikTok. “ Her kids were addicted, and I don’t use that term lightly. Some could not stop watching videos during class until she took away their phones.
Just yesterday, I was listening to a saxophone podcast (yes, a saxophone podcast) where the guest explained that young musicians couldn’t find their own voice, because they are constantly comparing themselves to videos they see on TikTok instead of exploring their own art.
If you look for it, you see constant evidence of people rebelling against social media. I spoke to some teens about this subject, and one told me that she deleted all the social media apps from her phone because, in her words, “I just couldn’t resist. “ If only everyone had the self-awareness of that young woman!
Now that science has had a few years to study social media and its impact on humans, particularly younger humans, it’s clear there are negative consequences. I’d argue that these consequences equally apply to older humans if they’re not careful.
This increasing groundswell against social media is a comfort. I never quite got the swing of social media. I like making stuff for the Internet. I like putting my ideas out there and seeing what happens when they crash into other people. But I never found social media to be very useful for that. I’m not witty or clever enough for social media. I’m more long-form than short-form, so social media never really got hold of me.
Cal Newport was one of the early ones talking about the dangers of social media. His recent New Yorker article explains that he’s not as alone in these thoughts these days as he used to be. That’s a good thing.
My occasional rants against social media may seem off-brand for a guy who pays for his shoes talking about technology. But when you think about it further, my thoughts are entirely consistent. Specifically, my goal with my content is to teach people how to use technology to pursue their best lives. Technology can help if used wisely. Social media works against that goal. If, as a society, we’re starting to think about ways to put some constraints on social media, sign me up.
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:
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.
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:
Join Rose and I on this episode of Automators as we get out our scorecards for the existing automation platforms.
This episode of Automators is sponsored by:
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:
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.
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.