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Home Screens: Brett Burney

This week’s home screen features my friend Brett Burney (website)(Apps in Law site)(podcast). Brett is a lawyer that helps other lawyers master their technology stack. He’s a great friend and a swell guy. So Brett, show us your Home Screen.

What’s your Lock Screen / Wallpaper and why?

Love changing out my wallpapers every 2-3 weeks and really enjoying the customization options that came with iOS 16. Current lock screen/wallpaper is a picture my daughter took while we were on vacation in New Orleans.

Main screen walk-thru / Today View widgets

I keep asking myself if I should move things around, but this main screen arrangement has stood the test of time for several years. Most apps are non-foldered for quick access, but I’ve got two folders at top: One has all my store/food apps with a toilet to remind me that’s my money going down the drain; the second folder has all my social media apps so it’s a “lying face” emoji. 

I keep the Calendar widget in upper left so I can see the full month. Bottom left is a Widget Stack that primarily shows the weather, but I can rotate through Fitness and Photos (I find having more than 3 widgets in the stack take me too long to rotate through). But I also have “Smart Rotate” turned on so it’ll show me what I need throughout the day.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

How much is too much? That’s like asking how many times a day I take a breath – I don’t even think about it. The “phone” is the new personal computer and it’s become an extension of my brain, daily workflows, and personal/professional communication.

What are some of your favorite apps?

Notes, Microsoft To Do, and OneNote are critical for capturing thoughts & tasks throughout day. Spotify and Reeder get fired up every day. Overcast regularly. 1Password is my digital safe. My iPhone’s second screen has Apple Fitness, Scanner Pro, and all my hotel, airline, and travel apps along with banking and credit card apps. 

On my iPad, PDF Expert and Documents (both from Readdle) are always used to access and organize my files. I use the Files app a lot as well. Notability on my iPad is for taking notes. Also enjoy using iThoughts to brainstorm.

What app makes you most productive?

If I had to pick one it would be Microsoft To Do, but I use Notes and OneNote quite a bit as well. To Do gives me the freedom to forget what I have to remember. And I regularly use the iOS timer to keep me on track and avoid the “SQUIRREL!” syndrome. Dropbox gives me confidence I can find files when I need them.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

Oh, so many. I’d probably pick Freeform right now from Apple, but I’m also woefully underutilizing Shortcuts which is why I need to dig into my friend David’s Shortcuts Field Guide!

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Not a spicy pick, but I would say Reeder for all the blogs and sites I follow. It’s my “guilty pleasure” because I look forward to reading through all my hobbies including coffee, styles, bourbon, travel hacks, tech tips, deals & sales, hiking, etc.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

Probably these days all the Fitness integration between the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro. I’m no fitness guru, but I can quickly filter to a workout on my iPhone or iPad, shut out the world on my AirPods Pro, and have the workout tracked on my Apple Watch … which also now funnels into my Health app. It’s a pretty amazing ecosystem that delivers a consistent experience.

Do you have an Apple Watch? Show us your watch face tell us about it.

Got an Apple Watch Ultra at the end of 2022 and I completely enjoy it, but need to work on customizing the watch face. Currently using the Ultra-specific “Wayfinder” face because it lets me put on the most complications (although I keep wanting to put MORE complications on there).

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

Give me more capabilities to customize my Apple Watch face! I want to take maximum advantage of the larger face in the Apple Watch Ultra.

Tidy Your Inbox with SaneBox (Sponsor)

Let’s say you get 50–100 emails a day. Are all of them important? Of course not. So are you spending or wasting your precious time filtering through your emails to get to the important ones? SaneBox, this week’s MacSparky sponsor, will save you time. 

Those newsletters and other unimportant emails you receive that you don’t need to read right away? You can stop them from interrupting your flow. With your training, SaneBox’s A.I. will analyze your email history. After learning what’s important to you, it makes sure that only important email stays in your inbox. Those pesky emails that don’t require your immediate attention? You can get a daily digest from SaneBox at the time of your choosing and deal with them later.

Tidy up your inbox and let SaneBox deal with the clutter by sending them to your Sane folders. If you’re not quite sold, you can try it out for for yourself. For MacSparky friends, SaneBox has a special offer. You can sign up for a free trial, and you’ll get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. Welcome to email sanity, it’s that simple. 

DEVONthink, The Best Database Solution (Sponsor)

This week MacSparky is sponsored by DEVONthink. There are a lot of ways to manage a database on your Mac, but in my opinion, there is no better tool than DEVONthink. Just a few of the things I use DEVONthink for include:

A reliable repository of research documents. DEVONthink will hold as many documents as you can throw at it. In addition, it makes import (and export) easy, so you can have all that power without feeling trapped.

A research assistant. DEVONthink uses artificial intelligence to analyze and connect your documents in ways that may not otherwise occur to you. This isn’t that new-fangled-kinda-dumb AI. This is search AI that finds shockingly relevant documents. It’s spooky.

An OCR Tool. Everything you store in your DEVONthink Pro library gets OCR’d. It just happens.

An Automation Tool. DEVONthink lets you build powerful automation subroutines into your library to help tag, move, and organize documents.

DEVONthink supports multiple sync methods and lets you even use your own sync password, so everything is encrypted. If you’ve got an iPad or an iPhone, you can access your DEVONthink data there, too, with DEVONthink To Go.

It is this combination of power and security that makes DEVONthink the clear winner. You can think of DEVONthink as your paperless office. You can automate your workflow from capture to filing, editing to publishing. It stores all your documents, helps you keep them organized, and presents you with what you need to get the job done.

And of course the DEVONthink team never stops making improvements. The latest update (3.8.7) improves upon Wikilinks, the Concordance inspector, and more.

Interested? MacSparky readers can get a 20% discount on DEVONthink. Use the code MACSPARKY2022 at checkout. This is a limited-time offer (and about to run out!), so check it out now.

AirTag Battery Replacements and Remotes

It seems that time for early adopters concerning their AirTag batteries. I’ve been slowly replacing them as I get the battery alerts. Ben Lovejoy suggests biting the bullet and replacing them all when the first warning appears. I wish I’d done that.

Changing the batteries is easy enough. Give it a twist, and it separates. Put the new CR2032 battery in (I use these), then twist it back together. 

On the subject of AirTags, I recently bought a few Apple TV remotes with built-in AirTag holders. I love these. I can find the remote via sonar, and they double as NFC tags so I can trigger “Movie” lighting by holding them to my phone.

Craft Adds Artificial Intelligence

I was surprised to see the latest update from Craft added an AI writing assistant. The idea behind its inclusion (they are using the GPT-3 engine) is not so much to write for you (although it can do that rather poorly), but instead to help you with more practical AI tasks given the state of the technology, like outlining, summarizing your words, and translation. In short, it’s not AI to do your work for you but instead improve on what you make.

Because it’s integrated into Craft, you select some blocks, press Command-enter, and you’re off. There are usage limits:

Starter plan: 25 requests per month

Personal pro: 100 requests per month

Business plan: 250 requests per month

Hopefully, those numbers will go up soon.

Just for giggles, here is Craft AI’s summarization of the above text:

“Craft’s latest update includes an AI writing assistant powered by the GPT-3 engine that can help improve your writing instead of replacing it. It offers features such as spell and grammar checking, summarization, and translation and is accessible when editing blocks by pressing Command-enter. Usage is limited to 25, 100, or 250 requests per month depending on the plan.”

Please don’t write me and tell me you like the robot’s writing voice better. I’m hanging on by a thread here.