Automators 97: Automating Rosemary Orchard

In this episode of Automators, I ask all the questions and we get into the nitty gritty details of how Rosemary’s workflows and systems are being automated. From Hazel to Home Assistant, with a sprinkling of Airtable, there’s variety and magic.

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A Few Thoughts on the Apple Peek Performance Event

Wow. Quite a day for Apple. Here are a few initial thoughts:

The Mac Studio

For ages people have wanted a desktop Mac “between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro”. You could make the argument that this is that. Although with it eclipsing current Mac Pros, I’m not sure.
We’ve been talking about the return of the iMac Pro. Is the Mac Studio + Studio Display the new iMac Pro?
The pricing seems about right. It makes a lot more sense to me than Apple’s $100 watch bands. Just think about it that way: a new Mac Studio or 20 watch bands?
At the end of the event, John Ternus teased the eventual release of the Mac Pro. I feel like that will be very much a niche product given the power of the Mac Studio.
I’ll have more on this new Mac later. I need to process.

The Studio Display

I did not expect the new display today. I’m thrilled we got it.
This display is what everyone was looking for. Apple quality, good feature set, and the stand comes with it.
I was expecting the price to be $1,999. I was pleasantly surprised they beat that.
Also, more on this later. I need to think about it.

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has more content that I’ve enjoyed than I expected by this point. It’s not clear to me what Apple is trying to become with this.
Friday Night Baseball: It makes sense for Apple to add sports to the mix. I’m guessing baseball isn’t the only sport they’d like to add.

iPhone

I prefer the new shade of green over what they did in the iPhone 11, which was too gray for my taste.
The iPhone SE serves a definite place in Apple’s lineup and it is good to see them continuing to improve it.
Apple is using the word “Iconic” here to carry a heavy load. As the years go by, I am increasingly wondering if it makes sense to keep the old design and the physical home screen button. I expect there is a certain segment of Apple customers that really want that button, but has that ever stopped Apple in the past from ditching a button?
$429 is a great price
They covered the iPhone SE in 5 minutes.

iPad Air

M1 in iPad Air was a surprise to me, though in hindsight it shouldn’t be. Now the M1 is driving everything from iPad Air up to an iMac.
Again, the lines between iPad Air and iPad Pro are pretty blurry.

Rumors and Tomorrow’s Peek Performance

With Apple’s Peek Performance event tomorrow, we’ll all know soon enough if we’ll see anything noteworthy. That said, it seems the rumors are now flying fast and furious with the emergence of a hypothetical “Mac Studio”, which is something between a Mac mini and a Mac Pro. Luke Miani even has renders (that don’t look very attractive to me). The rumors of a lower-cost monitor are also heating up.

I think the release of this first generation of Apple silicon has been a lot of fun with new Macs and new designs steadily flowing out of Cupertino. I also think that very same fact makes it easy to get carried away with it all. Will I be happy if there are new Macs tomorrow? Yes. Will I be surprised if the event is a lot more low-key with an iPhone SE and a new iPad? No. We’ll all know tomorrow.

Mac Power Users 630: Preview Deep Dive

Preview has been in every Mac’s Application folder since 2001 when OS X launched. Join Stephen and me on this episode of Mac Power Users as we dive into the program, exploring its wide range of features for editing both images and PDFs.

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Running a Shortcut from a Keyboard Maestro Script

Recently, I’ve had several nerd friends ask me about kicking off a Shortcut from a Keyboard Maestro script. You can do that using the Execute AppleScript action with the following text inside:

tell application "Shortcuts Events"
run the shortcut "Shortcut Name"
end tell

You’d need to replace “Shortcut Name” with the actual Shortcut name, while retaining the quotes. That is all it takes to launch a Shortcut from Keyboard Maestro.

Click here to download the Keyboard Maestro Script Download

Want to get better at Keyboard Maestro? I have something for you.

Apple Event: Peek Performance

As predicted by the Apple rumor oracles, we are getting an Apple event next week, March 8, 10:00 a.m. Pacific. Announcements went out this morning and the event is called “Peek Performance”. It is really easy to read the titles of these events and wishcast your own hopes onto them but “Peeuk Performance” does sound like a great name for the new high-end iMacs. I’m just sayin’.

Focused 146: The Extended Mind, with Annie Murphy Paul

Author Annie Murphy Paul joins Mike and me on this episode of Focused to talk about playing with ideas, working in groups, and other ways to extend the mind.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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The Last Month in The MacSparky Labs

We just wrapped up February in the MacSparky Labs. There was a lot of good content in February (listed below) and more planned in March. If you haven’t already checked out The MacSparky Labs, I’d love to have you on board.

2022-03-01 – Convert an Image from HEIC to JPG with Shortcuts (All members)

2022-02-27 – MacSparky Studio Expansion, Part 1 – The Plan (All members)

2022-02-25 – Roles Based Productivity (Early Access)

2022-02-24 – Testing out the Rocketbook (Early Access and Backstage)

2022-02-22 – Testing a second monitor (Early Access)

2022-02-21 – Customizing Folder Search with Alfred (All members)

2022-02-17 – FOD Interview with Gabe Weatherhead (Early Access and Backstage)

2022-02-14 – Automating One Thing (All members)

2022-02-11 – Contemplating a Second Monitor (Early Access)

2022-02-10 – February 2022 Virtual Meet-up (Early Access and Backstage)

2022-02-07 – Birthday Journaling with MacSparky (All members)

2022-02-04 – Retreats with Jason Snell (Early Access and Backstage)

2022-02-02 – Fixing iPhone Wallpaper with a Blur (All Members)

2022-02-01 – Disneyland vs. Disney World with Casey Liss (Early Access and Backstage)

Jim Dalrymple’s Retirement

Jim announced that he is retiring from the Apple-reporting business and moving to Texas. I couldn’t be happier for him. As someone who has a little recent experience with transitions, I know he must have a mix of emotions right now. I’ll miss Jim’s perspective, but fortunately, he’s keeping his podcast running.

My favorite Jim Dalyrmple story is from a few years ago when I met him at the NAMM show, which happens near me when we’re not mid-pandemic. NAMM is the National Association of Music Merchants. It’s like Macworld, but for music nerds, and bigger. Anyway, I spent a day walking around with Jim and realized that everyone in the music business also seems to know Jim. It felt like walking through town with the mayor.

Good luck, Jim.