Apple Intelligence Summarization

Because I’m a little nuts, I’m running the Apple Intelligence betas on all my devices. In my opinion, Apple Intelligence still has a ways to go, and these are early days, but we’re starting to get a peek at what Apple’s been working on. The more powerful Apple Intelligence features haven’t entered beta yet, but there are already some features in this first tier of on-device Apple Intelligence features that I’m genuinely enjoying.

One of them is the message summaries. In earlier betas, they just applied to the Messages and Apple Mail apps, but now you can extend them to third-party applications. (Although you can control this in the Notification settings on a per-app basis) This means that notifications on your phone are now summarized by Apple Intelligence on-device. With less than a week of testing, I already dig it.

The summaries are more concise and include more details than the previous notifications generated by the apps. There are no teasers here. It just tells me what I need. It’s AI-based, so it occasionally gets it wrong, but we’re still in early beta, and I will give it some grace. Also, this is the worst it will ever be, and it’s already pretty good.

Get Organized with DEVONthink (Sponsor)

I often hear from listeners/readers looking for a research solution in the Mac ecosystem. My favorite app for this, without a doubt, is DEVONthin k. 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!

Even templates can have scripts inside, and you can set up new documents with data from placeholders or insert them 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 .

Pondering the iPhone 16 Capture Button

If the rumors are to be believed, with the upcoming iPhone 16 announcement Apple will introduce a new capture button that will be added to the phones across the line (both pro and non-pro models). The tea leaves also say that this new capture button will be mechanical, not capacitive, but that it may be touch-sensitive. This is so it can detect, for instance, swiping across the button as opposed to pressing it.

After a year with the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro, I can tell you I am sold on these additional buttons. I’ve programmed my Action button to be context-sensitive to my current Focus mode. If I’m in Work Focus mode, pressing the button does different things than when I’m in Personal Focus mode or Disneyland Focus mode. (Yes. I have a Disneyland Focus.) In most modes, the Action button gives me a menu of options. In Disneyland mode, it just takes a picture. So, adding an additional button makes it that much better in my mind.

However, what we haven’t heard from the rumors is whether this physical button will be programmable. While I have no problem with Apple making the default behavior of the capture button to take a picture, I admit I would be disappointed if it wasn’t programmable. Not everybody wants to take a picture. Maybe for some people, “capture” means adding an item to their task list or recording a voice memo, or, in my case, triggering a customized shortcut that does all sorts of cool tricks. While I suspect a large percentage of people will use a capture button just to take photos (and by “large percentage” I mean over 90%), I hope Apple makes that button programmable for the rest of us.

Get Organized with DEVONthink (Sponsor)

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.

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.

St. Jude Fundraiser 2024

Every September, it is my privilege to play a small part in the enormous enterprise of the Relay St. Jude Fundraiser. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, located in Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the premier research hospitals in the world, treating and researching childhood cancer and other diseases.

If your child has cancer, St. Jude will be there for you, and you will never receive a bill — no strings attached.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is one of the largest research hospitals in the world. When St. Jude opened fifty years ago, the childhood cancer survival rate was 20%. Now, partly due to St. Jude’s efforts, it’s 80%. As successful as they’ve been, they’re not satisfied. They want to wipe out childhood cancer, and they are relentless in their efforts.

Unlike most hospitals, the majority of their funding comes from donors. My friend Stephen has a personal experiencewith St. Jude that you can read about. But regardless, this is a worthwhile cause.

Many of us are about to send a lot of money Apple’s way as they announce their fall lineup of products. When doing that, perhaps think about sending some money to St. Jude as well. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting several people from St. Jude over the years, and they are singularly devoted to their cause. Also, look into employee matching at your company. The Walt Disney Company is very generous; each year, we double our contribution through my wife’s employment matching.

Mac Power Users 760: Production Workflow Check-In

Join Stephen and me on this episode of Mac Power Users as we take inventory of what software and services we’re using in our content businesses, and talk about how we work with our respective teams across multiple time zones and platforms.

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Siri Concerns

Last week Ryan Christoffel over at 9to5Mac quoted the latest Mark Gurman report about Apple developing an additional AI personality. Gurman reports that Apple is working on “[…]another human-like interface based on generative AI.” Like Ryan, I am confused by this.

official siri icon currently in use in 2024

For too long, Apple let Siri linger. It’s been the butt of jokes in tech circles for years. We’re told that this year will be different and Siri will truly get the brain transplant it deserves. But if so, why is Apple working on an entirely different human-like interface? Does this signal that the Siri update isn’t all it should be?

It’s too early for any of us to tell on the outside. There are some Siri updates in 18.1, but they are largely cosmetic. We’re still waiting for the big shoe to drop on Siri updates with later betas.

However, the idea that Apple is already working on the next thing before they fix the current shipping thing does make me a little nervous. I realize that at this point, we’re all just reading tea leaves, and I could be completely off the mark here, but I sincerely hope that the updates to Siri this year get all of the effort that Apple can muster.

Focused 211: The Focus MOB

On this episode of Focused, Mike and I consider the role of Margin, Ownership, and Boundaries in the pursuit of living a focused life.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Vitall y: A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.

The Rumored AirPods Max 2

Rumors continue to swirl around the idea of updated AirPods Max. 9to5Mac did a nice summary of the anticipated features with a new hardware version, including the H2 chip, Adaptive Audio, conversation awareness, and personalized volume. The current iteration of AirPod Max (now four years old) has been lagging behind some of the newer features in other versions of the AirPods.

image of apple AirPods max, in silver, viewed from the front. — *Image: Apple*

I bought the original AirPods Max shortly after they launched, and I use them regularly. However, I rarely take them out of the studio. Sometimes I need really good audio as I edit screencasts and podcasts, and I am unable to or unwilling to use speakers. In these cases, they are excellent. (They’re also really good for listening to music louder than I want my wife to know I am listening to music.)

I went back and looked at my original impressions of these headphones, and most of it still holds true. I never really found the weight to be a problem. I sometimes have them on for two or three hours at a time, and it’s just not an issue for me.

Another use case for me with the AirPods Max is a backup set of podcasting headphones. I’ve had several occasions where I used them as monitors while recording shows, and they work just fine.

I don’t think I’ll rush to upgrade my original AirPods Max when the new ones come out, but some of those new features are tempting. Regardless, I hope we see the long overdue update to AirPods Max at the iPhone event next month.

Apple’s September 9 “It’s Glowtime” Event

poster for apple it's glowtime event, taking place on 9 september 2024

Apple announced this year’s iPhone event for Monday, September 9 at 10:00 Pacific.

A few things about it:

Monday is unusual for an Apple Event. My guess: they want to stay clear of the US Presidential Debate set for September 10.
Mark Gurman reports it’s another pre-taped event. I wonder if Apple will ever go back to the live events. They spent a lot of money on those Steve Jobs Theater seats.
For those of you in the MacSparky Labs, keep an eye on your email. I’ll set up a few events around the announcements.