TextExpander: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander.
Fitbod: Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you. Get 25% off your membership.
Electric: Unbury yourself from IT tasks. Get a free pair of Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones when you schedule a meeting.
In this episode Automators, Rosemary and I are joined by Daniel Jalkut, the man in the red sweater behind FastScripts, MarsEdit, and the Core Intuition podcast. Together, we ponder the future of AppleScript, the restaurant at the end of the universe, and just how fast is a script.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Timing. Timing is a time tracking app that automatically records your time and then reviews it later.
Making positive changes in your life requires good data. How much time are you spending doing your work versus planning your work? How much time do you sink into YouTube, Amazon, and the like on an average day? You might think you know these things, but until you run accurate timers, you really don’t know.
That’s where Timing comes in. With Timing, you instantly see how you are spending your time so you can work more productively and make smarter decisions about how to spend your time.
The Timing app makes recording and reviewing your time easy with automatic tracking and a simple interface for adding details about what you did each day so you can see how much time was focused on each task. In addition, you can use Timing to share projects and times across your team while preserving each team member’s privacy.
I use Timing for my time tracking because the data is so good, and catching up is easy. Some days I may forget to log time, but it is trivial for me to tell exactly when I finished one thing and moved on to another with all the Timing data. Want to hear more about how I time track? We covered that on a recent Mac Power Users episode.
As we are heading toward WWDC in June, many folks have ideas about what they expect or what they’d like to see. Something I’d like to see Apple do is remove their native apps (Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Contacts, and the like) from macOS.
Historically, Apple has kept these apps tied to the operating system release cycle. That means once a year, at best, we get some updates. I say “at best” because there are years in which these native apps get little, if anything, in terms of an update. This annual cycle plays a role in the pitiful state of some of these apps. Apple Mail is the poster child for this. We’ve been asking Apple to modernize Apple Mail for so many years now that, at this point, most pundits have just given up and moved on. Even when Apple does make significant improvements on a native app, Reminders is the most recent to get this, it still suffers because the refinements that become obvious after release will require a whole year to see an update (again, at best).
In contrast, look at the iWork Suite, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. These apps have their own development teams and their own release cycles. As a result, we regularly see improvements, small and large, that make the apps more functional, user-friendly, and stable.
What is the basis for this seemingly arbitrary distinction between Pages and Reminders? They are both productivity apps that Apple’s customers rely upon daily. One has a dedicated team of developers and regular updates, and the other seems to have neither. Whatever the original reason was for giving Pages a team and making Reminders part of the operating system, I suspect few people are left at Apple that remember when or why. It feels something more akin to institutional momentum that keeps some apps trapped in the operating system while letting others escape it. Despite being a company that has so often freed itself from various forms of lock-in, it baffles me why Apple still shackles some of its most important applications to the operating system update cycle, but even after many years, it continues to be the case.
While I have hopes for Apple’s direction with its hardware and software at this year’s WWDC, I have little hope that they will remove these native apps from the operating system. I don’t know enough about the way Apple works with these apps to know why this continues, but it’s time to let them free of macOS.
Speaking of Star Wars, the MacSparky Labs members know that I’m in the process of building an extra room onto my house to serve as a more permanent studio, making it easier to record videos, Field Guides, and podcasts. We’re still in the early stages. (I’m waiting for city planning approval.)
True to form, I’m already ahead of myself. I’ve named the room “Endor Studios” and I contacted Danielle at Sylvan Design, and she kindly agreed to modify one of her existing prints to match. Since sharing this artwork, I’ve had a few people ask about getting their own Endor Studios print. If you’re interested, contact Danielle at the above website and she’ll set you up.
If you’ve been paying attention around here, you may have noted that I have a child-like infatuation with Star Wars. It occurs to me that I’ve never fully explained why I love Star Wars so much, so I thought I’d use this geek holiday to give you a little explanation.
Star Wars, Episode IV, which at the time was just called Star Wars was released in 1977. I was nine years old. It was a moment in time when there was no Internet and geeky kids (like me) got beat up, not celebrated. Going to the theater, I was a clueless nine-year-old with no idea what I was getting myself into.
Then I sat in the theater with my popcorn, and George Lucas blew my mind. I’d never seen anything like Star Wars. I was entirely invested. I have so many memories of that first viewing. When Darth Vader escaped at the end, I was outraged. When Luke turned off his targeting computer, I was worried. When he blew up the Death Star, I was overjoyed.
Growing up my family was very working class. My parents grew up during the depression, and the thought of seeing a movie twice was not on the menu for the Sparks house. The film was in the theaters forever, but it took me months to get the money to see it again. In hindsight, I’d have been willing to sell a kidney.
My sister had bought the soundtrack by then, and it had great liner notes. With two viewings under my belt, I could visualize the movie just listening to that John Williams soundtrack. So I did that. Often. I sat on our living room floor with the record spinning, giant over-sized headphones on my head, looking at the album art and reliving Star Wars in my head.
For later generations, every new Star Wars movie arrived with a deluge of new Star Wars toys, but for that first movie, there was nothing. My friends and I figured out that empty cardboard tubes, the kinds that hold wrapping paper, made excellent lightsabers, and we destroyed so much cardboard in my backyard.
Another thing folks don’t realize is that there were three years between each movie in the original trilogy. That was three years of no content. It was a more innocent time for fandom. We all had fun, but there were no YouTube channels or blogs pumping out theories. So instead, my friends and I discussed endlessly our own ideas of what was going on. There was one line in the original movie about the clone wars. I remember staying up all night at sleepovers, debating precisely what that meant.
When The Empire Strikes Back was released, I was there on opening day. By then, I was old enough to make money off the neighbors doing chores, and as the movie release date approached, I began earning money any way I could. At that point, our currency moved from dollars to tickets. “How much do you have? Three tickets.” When the movie was finally released, George once again gave us a thrilling ride. Little Yoda being the great warrior of days past, completely threw me. When Lando betrayed our gang of heroes, I wanted Chewie to pull his arms out right then and there. “I am your father” literally made my jaw drop. And then that ending! As an adult, I love the way Empire ends. As a 12-year-old, I was outraged. “That’s it!? But they’re still losing!?”
So I was a bit older, but the next three years were like the first hiatus including theories with friends and endless debates. I wore the soundtrack record out. One thing that also started happing after Empire is that my friends and I routinely talked about the light side and the dark side. It became our moral code without any of us realizing it.
Then came The Return of the Jedi. We saw Luke Skywalker in his fully realized bad-ass Jedi self in the first scene. That is what I had been waiting for. I was hooked. I loved every moment of that movie. People today talk about how George sold out using Ewoks instead of Wookies for the Endor battle. None of my friends and I cared or worried about it. We loved those little storm-trooper-killing teddy bears.
The story I’ve shared with you so far explains why a kid in the ’70s would fall in love with Star Wars. But it doesn’t explain why a middle-aged man can still love Star Wars.
For me, it was the final battle with Luke, Darth Vader, and the Emperor. Specifically, it is the moment when Luke has Darth Vader on the ropes and then throws down his lightsaber. Everybody knows these movies now but try to transplant yourself to 1983, sitting in that theater for the first time. Luke, who has been on a Joseph Campbell-playbook heroes journey for six years and three movies, finally gets to the moment of victory. He’s evolved from a farm boy to a Jedi Knight, and rather than defeating the enemy, he throws down his weapon. When does that happen in movies? When does the hero win by refusing to fight? What was the last action movie you watched where the hero triumphed through an act of love? (This also explains my middle-aged outrage at how the Luke Skywalker was portrayed in Episode VIII. But I’ll save that one for another day.)
Luke’s decision was heavy stuff for me. I left that movie so happy to see how the story ended, but I also left that movie with a lot on my mind. How did Luke know to do that? Why did he do that? It was a lot to unpack for me. And it has stuck with me throughout my life. These concepts of the light and dark sides and showing love instead of delivering the killing blow mean something to me. They have stuck with me and helped me make the right choices throughout my life. I’ve failed on occasions. (Sometimes miserably!) But Star Wars morality gives me a framework to pick myself up, dust myself off, and try to do better. I don’t keep a Yoda statute on my desk because he had a funny voice. I keep Yoda there to keep me honest.
It looks like Amazon will be allowing you to put EPUB books onto your Kindle devices. Historically, only MOBI formatted books were allowed on the Kindle, so this is an excellent (if not overdue) update. This change, as noted by 9to5 Mac, will still not allow you to put EPUBs purchased on the Apple Books Store on your Kindle, since the Kindle only supports non-DRM EPUBS.
I’ve not written about this, but years ago, I made a few decisions:
1. I Prefer Digital Books to Paper Ones
I know all my cool friends dig their paper books, and I’ll grant you a full bookshelf makes a great backdrop, but I no longer buy paper books. I remember the days of carrying 50 pounds of books around and still not having the one that I needed. I don’t feel nostalgia for using paper books. I feel dread.
Digital books are better in the ways that matter to me. I can search them. I can combine them with other services. I can copy and paste right out of them. Most importantly, I can carry my entire library in one pocket.
2. I Am Buying Books from Amazon, Not Apple
Having spent some time as an Apple Books author (and using iBooks Author), I was initially sold on the platform. However, over the years, it seemed more and more like the Apple Book Store was more a hobby than a passion for Apple. Moreover, I got a Kindle for my bedside table (and travel), and I like the E Ink pixels before bed more than an LCD.
For additional convenience, I often buy audible books, and Amazon makes pretty good offers to add the Kindle book at the same time. Also, services like Readwise usually get around to Apple Books, but they always cover Kindle Books. I’m not a particular fan of Amazon, but I find the convenience of Kindle e-Books hard to beat.
Yesterday the New York Times ran an article on Jony Ive and the end of his tenure at Apple. The story, titled How Technocrats Triumphed at Apple, felt a little dramatic. Jony Ive and Steve Jobs clearly had a special friendship and working relationship that helped save Apple. But in the years after Steve, the story implies that the suits pushed Jony out. While I’m sure Jony didn’t get everything he asked for and I’m certain that Tim Cook made a mistake in giving Jony too much admin work, it doesn’t strike me as a situation where the accountants have been actively wrecking the products.
The latest MacBook Pro is a good example. The new MacBook Pro, with its Apple silicon, remarkable screen, and functional ports is far superior to its minimalist predecessor. At the same time, I agree with some of the points in the article. For example, I also worry that Apple’s focus on services may cause it to lose sight of what makes Apple special (to me at least).
As is always the case, things aren’t as simple as the stories we tell about them. As someone that uses Apple products every day, I have nothing but gratitude for the hard work Jony Ive did for the company. At the same time, I don’t see him as the only person capable of keeping Apple on track.
Stephen and I sort through listener feedback on this episode of Mac Power Users, revisiting topics such as Preview.app, time tracking and our own Apple silicon experiences. Oh, and the person who took a Mac Pro to the coffee shop to get some work done on the go.
