I’m pleased to announce that the Focused Wall Calendar for 2025 is now on sale. We’ve been collaborating for years with the NeuYear calendar people, and it is, in my opinion, the best wall calendar on the market.
Mike and I spent a lot of time adjusting it over the years to get it just right. A couple of the features that I love:
It starts on Monday as a proper calendar should.
It’s big at 25 inches by 36 inches.
It gives you an overview of the entire year. Over the years, this calendar on my wall has gotten me out of a lot of pickles as I look at the calendar to see just how busy I am before I say yes to another commitment.
It’s designed with no gaps between the months, so everything flows together.
You can write on it with dry-erase or wet-erase markers.
It’s beautiful.
You can buy it now. (whispering) Mine is already on order.
There are a lot of great time-tracking applications out there, but one of the absolute best for Mac users is Timing. That’s because it is a native app on your Mac with a bunch of built-in automation. You don’t have to worry about pushing buttons to reset timers. The app pays attention to what you’re doing and gives you a report later.
Along those lines, Timing received an update recently that includes AI-generated summaries of your day. It gives you a concise view of what you did throughout the day and is entirely automated. I just started using the feature, so I need to spend a bit more time before I can recommend it. However, I thought the mere inclusion of the feature was noteworthy. If you’re interested in time tracking and haven’t looked at Timing lately, you should.
This week, MacSparky is sponsored by SoundSource, a utility I use daily. The problem with the Mac’s native sound controls is that they are designed for people who need them once every few years. If you need to adjust your sound settings more than that, you need SoundSource.
Whether you listen to podcasts, rock out with music, or stream video, SoundSource is for everyone who uses audio on their Mac. SoundSource gives you per-app audio control, letting you change the volume of any app, and route individual apps to different audio devices. Mute your browser, or send music to one set of speakers and everything else to another.
Want to improve sound quality? Use SoundSource to apply effects to any audio on your Mac. Boost volume levels, add an equalizer, and even apply advanced Audio Units. SoundSource also provides fast access to your Mac’s audio devices, so there’s no need to dig around in System Preferences when you need to adjust things.
Oh, and one more thing…if you have a DisplayPort or HDMI device that fails to offer volume adjustment, SoundSource can help there too. It gives those devices a proper volume slider, and the Super Volume Keys feature makes your keyboard volume controls work as well. Neat! All this power is available right from your menu bar, with SoundSource.
SoundSource, like all of Rogue Amoeba’s audio capture apps, has recently been updated to be easier to install than ever before. Gone are the restarts and system settings adjustments that used to be necessary. Now you can be up and running in under a minute.
Through the end of October, MacSparky readers can save 20% off any purchase from Rogue Amoeba, with coupon code SPARK20. Learn more and download a free trial on the SoundSource site.
And don’t forget, SoundSource is from Rogue Amoeba, which is the authority for sound processing on your Mac.
I finally got around to trying Widgetsmith 7 for iOS 18, which is a significant improvement from the previous version. Widgetsmith, the leader in the customizable Home Screen app genre, expands its feature set with support for Control Center, Lock Screen, and Home Screen customization. The new version of the application takes full advantage of these new features and brings a bunch of customization that I expect Apple would never include.
In many ways, this reminds me of the old days when we would all customize our Mac computers with apps like this. You can choose from Widgetsmith’s Icon Pack or import your own to customize your iPhone’s look and feel.
If you’d like to take your Home Screen customization to a new level, check out Widgetsmith 7.
Rumors are we will get a new iPad mini later this month. The seventh generation iPad mini looks to have several nice improvements with better specs, an A18 chip, and hopefully support for the Apple Pencil Pro. But overall, it’s going to be the same iPad mini.
So many people in the MacSparky Labs have asked me about Apple releasing an iPad mini Pro. The iPad mini is a perfect mobile device for many folks, but they’d like just a bit more power and features as you get with the iPad Pro in the other sizes. Why not make one with the best possible screen and the improved “Pro” design aesthetics?
I’m sure Apple has researched this and, for whatever reason, decided not to make one. But I can tell you that among the MacSparky Labs folks, an iPad mini Pro would be popular.
I often hear from listeners and readers looking for a research solution in the Mac ecosystem. My favorite app for this, without a doubt, is DEVONthink. DEVONthink is the most professional document and information management application for the Mac. It’s the one place for storing all your documents, snippets, or bookmarks, and working with them.
The integrated AI engine assists you with filing and searching, while the extensive search language includes advanced Boolean operators.
DEVONthink features a flexible sync system that supports many cloud services — or lets you synchronize over your local network — with everything securely encrypted. This gives you the choice for whichever syncing works best for you!
It has Smart rules and flexible reminders that let you automate all parts of your workflow and delegate boring, repeating tasks. Let DEVONthink automatically organize your data with rules you define!
DEVONthink’s AppleScript dictionary is one of the best on the Mac. There’s no part of DEVONthink that can’t be automated. Extend DEVONthink’s functionality with your own commands by adding them to its Scripts menu. Even templates can have scripts inside and you can set up new documents with data from placeholders, or inserted using your own AppleScript code.
DEVONthink just continues to get better. In the latest update they improved PDF annotation, Evernote import, Markdown functionality, and added even more AppleScript and JavaScript automation.
I find DEVONthink’s combination of innovative features and automation support irresistible. Interested? MacSparky readers can get a 20% discount on DEVONthink.
A few weeks ago Instagram announced some changes to accounts to further protect minors. Anyone under 18 who signs up for an Instagram account will be placed on a restrictive teen account, and those under 18 will be migrated over the next 60 days. However, the user’s age is reported by the user. So, minors can easily lie on the form to subvert these restrictions.
Teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages will be restricted so teenagers can only receive them from people they already follow, and some sensitive content will not be viewable. While it’s nice to see Meta put some effort into this, it’s not enough. Moreover, people have been asking for protections like this for years. Why now? My theory is that these partial restrictions exist because of the threat of looming regulation.
I think the solution to keep minors safe on social media requires a combination of social media companies, hardware companies, and parents. (Some regulation would also be helpful.) Your iPhone knows how old you are. And there are certainly better ways to confirm someone is a minor other than just asking them. Regardless, these changes are not enough. I’m just spit-balling here, but I’d have a two-step verification: one from the hardware device and a second confirmed by the social media company itself. If they can earn billions off these accounts, they surely can come up with a reliable age-verification system.
I recently read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and it confirmed my thinking about minors and social media. Specifically, that it’s harmful and dangerous.
I recently saw a link to The Walt Disney Productions 1957 Strategy Diagram (via Kotke). I’ve seen this several times, and every time, it impresses me. Specifically, the Disney Company treats their movies as the source material for everything else they make, whether it be music, books, or theme park rides. When it all works properly, they had a virtuous circle where the movie characters generated interest in the theme parks, and the theme park visitors’ experiences generated interest back in the movies. If something doesn’t tie into the overall flywheel, then it probably shouldn’t be there.
I try to do the same thing with my tiny MacSparky empire, and this 67-year-old chart still makes a lot of sense to me.
