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Yesterday Chance Miller published an opinion piece at 9to5 Mac on the need for a 16-inch MacBook Air. Stephen Hackett has been talking about the same idea on the Mac Power Users for months now. The idea would be that Apple has two laptop models (consumer (Air) and pro) along with two sizes for each model (small and big).
We’ve got two sizes on the MacBook Pro. Why not have that on the MacBook Air as well? Stephen suggested 13 and 15 inches. Chance is arguing for 16 inches. I would probably tend toward 12 and 15 inches. Regardless, having a larger screen consumer-grade MacBook would be an excellent idea. Because of the significant differences in pricing between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, it’s unlikely a larger MacBook Air would cannibalize sales for the 16″ inch MacBook Pro. If anything, I think it would cause more people to upgrade from the smaller MacBook Air than downgrade from the big MacBook Pro.
I also just like the symmetry of it all. You go into an Apple store and answer two questions:
Consumer or Pro?
Small or large?
Now that Apple has sorted out the Mac and is making excellent laptops, this would be the next logical step in my mind.
A few years ago we had an explosion of “shelf” apps, that let you hold on to a file or a bit of text for use elsewhere. One of my favorites is Yoink and it just continues to get updates.
This week, we got a new version of Yoink that adds clipboard history to the mix. We recently talked about clipboard apps on Mac Power Users and Yoink now definitely belongs on the list of contenders. Yoink’s clipboard history can hold just about anything: text, files, images, and URL links. On the flip side, Yoink ignores items from your Mac’s keychain and all of the more popular third-party password managers, including 1Password, LastPass, and a bunch more. Yoink’s developer explains the new clipboard feature in detail on the Yoink Blog.
There’s also a new widget that allows you to copy previously copied items and they’ve added some Shortcuts support.
It’s a nice update. Moreover, it demonstrates that the Yoink developer is in it for the long haul. If you haven’t tried a shelf app, Yoink is an excellent option. You can find it in the Mac App Store or on Setapp.
Do you ever feel like you forgot to do something, but you can’t remember what? Oh, yeah, that email you meant to respond to but just didn’t because … life. SaneBox, this week’s sponsor at MacSparky, has got you covered.
SaneNoReplies tracks emails that you haven’t responded to yet. With SaneNoReplies, you can monitor who you haven’t replied to yet and follow up with them. “What’s this magic,” you’re asking. All of the emails you haven’t responded to end up in one place with SaneBox: the SaneNoReplies folder. Emails that haven’t received a reply go in here, allowing you to keep track of whom you’re supposed to get back to. Now no one will slip through the cracks. It’s a round up of the emails you need to follow up, all in one place.
Interested? SaneNoReplies is included with all SaneBox plans. Click here to sign up for your free trial, and you’ll get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. Give it a whirl.
I spent the morning doing some work in Disneyland’s Batuu over the weekend and made a short video for the Disneyland Field Guide. I figured there is just enough overlap to share this one here.
I’ve been using my MagSafe battery now for over six months and I thought it would be a good time to check in.
In short, I love this thing.
It’s crazy that they only come in white and it’s crazy that Apple charges $100 for it, but the MagSafe battery is my favorite extra-juice-for-your-iphone-thingamajig ever. Whether I’m traveling, or theme-parking, on days where I intend to use the phone a lot, the MagSafe battery has enough juice to get me over the top. I don’t need to futz with a cable and the battery nearly disappears in my pocket. (Especially on cargo-pants days.) When travelling, I also love that I can plug it in while attached to my iPhone and charge them both simultaneously with one cable.
The battery does exactly what is expected of it with very little weight and no need to carry an extra cable. My wife and I pass it between each other, depending on who has a long day planned.
My only complaint is the cost. Despite all of this great stuff, $100 feels like too much. I don’t know anything about Apple’s costs or margins on this battery, but if they were selling it down in the $50-$70 range, I think they’d sell a lot more of them.
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This week MacSparky is sponsored by Daylite, the best native CRM app for your Mac. It is that simple. Daylite has been around a long time, yet it has evolved with great features like cloud sync and a modern user interface. You should check it out. Rather than me waxing on poetic about Daylite, the team at Daylite wanted me to write about productivity this month (after all, Daylite is all about boosting you and your team’s productivity!), and I’m glad they did because I’ve got a lot on my mind about time block lengths.
One of the most common bits of feedback I get from people trying to hyper-schedule is that it falls apart on them after a day or two. This, most often, is the result of people making unrealistic block lengths. For example, say you want to work on your personal cloaking device tomorrow, and you give it an hour block. Then when the time comes, you spend three hours working on the project. That’s great that you got three hours of deep work done, but it blows your daily schedule to pieces. Then you feel like you’re behind on everything else for the rest of the day.
The failure when that happens, usually, is in the planning. Specifically, as humans, we tend to be way too optimistic in estimating how long things will take. If you had thought about it the day before, could you have anticipated you’d need three hours instead of one? If you’d planned your day around three hours (instead of one), wouldn’t things have gone a lot better?
If you want to seriously give hyper-scheduling a go, I’d recommend a few things:
1. Overestimate the time it takes.
If you think something is going to take an hour. Multiply that by 2 (or 3!) when making your plan. This is particularly true for project work. The kind of stuff that requires you to dig in always takes longer than you think. If you over-estimate and finish early, give yourself a break (or work on something else). Most likely, though, by doubling your estimate, you’ll just be giving yourself adequate time to finish your work. Once you consistently land within your time estimates, you’ll see the real benefit of time blocking.
2. Keep score.
Whether you do time tracking or keep notes, find a way to track how often and how badly you miss your estimates. That can create a feedback loop for you when planning future blocks. By paying attention, over time, you’ll get much better at estimating how long your work will take, and your scheduling will get a lot more effective.
3. Be kind to yourself.
You will make mistakes when trying to make these kinds of changes. As you are learning how to get better at this stuff, do not beat up on yourself. This stuff is hard. With a bit of patience and time, it does get a lot easier. You’ll see.
When blocking your time, your calendar is your friend. And do you know an app with excellent calendar integration? Daylite! See how I did that? (Daylite has a whole suite of tools for small business including a calendar.) My thanks again to Daylite for sponsoring MacSparky this week and letting me turn this sponsored post into a content post.
Dr. Drang gets a gold star for creating a date calculator in Keyboard Maestro. I’ve built a lot of date calculators over the years using various automation engines. (Shortcuts make it trivial.) I’ve always avoided the attempt in Keyboard Maestro, however, because Keyboard Maestro isn’t particularly good at working with dates. Things got better with version 10 and into the breach ran Dr. Drang.
