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Give Yourself an Edge with Hoban Cards (Sponsor)



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Things are getting better. You’re going to start seeing people. What are you doing about your calling cards? There are many lousy calling cards and just a few good ones. Do you remember the last time someone gave you a classy calling card, and you couldn’t help but think just a little bit more of them. That’s why you need to give this some thought.

Your calling card represents you. Why not bring some intentionality to your game? This week, MacSparky is sponsored by Hoban Cards, where they use a 1902 letterpress machine to make cards that your colleagues, clients, and customers will never forget. I sure love mine.

Evan and the gang at Hoban Cards are masters at the craft of designing and making letterpress calling cards. They have some beautiful templates to choose from, or you can roll your own.

I love handing out letterpress cards. It is always a conversation starter. Hoban Cards is where I go to buy them, and it is where you should too. Throw out those ugly, conventional, mass-produced, soulless business cards and reach out to Hoban Cards. Best of all, use ‘MacSparky’ to get $10 off any order. Get yours today.

Focused 126: Productivity vs. Grinding



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Join us for the latest episode fo Focused to hear Mike and I get into note-taking (and note-making), listener feedback, and the pesky problem of productivity versus grinding. 

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

  • TextExpander, from Smile: Communicate Smarter. Get 20% off.

  • Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.

  • Gabi: Get a better insurance. It’s totally free to check and there’s no obligation. Click this link to get started.

  • * Cross Promo: Parallel: A tech podcast with accessibility sprinkles. Listen now.

Dark Noise on the Mac


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Unfortunately, I played in too many bands growing up and now I’m dealing with tinnitus. So I’m pretty invested in background noise apps, which have generally been pretty terrible, until Dark Noise.

If you enjoy Dark Noise on your iPhone or iPad, get excited because Dark Noise is now on the Mac. If you’re not familiar with Dark Noise, it’s a simple ambient noise app that’s delightfully customizable. They’ve already got a library of sounds to choose from, but if you can’t quite find what you’re looking for, you can pick and choose and build your own sounds to help you sleep, focus, or relax.

There’s also iCloud syncing so the perfect soundscape you created will also be available on your Mac. It’s pretty full-featured and does have menu bar actions with keyboard shortcuts and widgets to feel right at home on your Mac. Try Dark Noise for yourself on your Mac or on your iPhone and choose the sounds or make a mix that’s right for you.

If you’d like learn more about the story behind Dark Noise’s creation, we interviewed its develop, Charlie Chapman, on the Automators Podcast.

Cardhop 2.0, Flexibits Premium, and New Videos


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Today Flexibits announced the release of Cardhop 2.0. Cardhop has always had the Contacts app beat because of the Cardhop search bar, where you can access, create, modify, and act on contacts. (Flexibits also makes Fantastical, also known for its similar search/create bar feature.) The new version of Cardhop adds a lot of useful features, including:

  • The ability to take a picture of a business card and have the app extract the relevant data for your contacts database.

  • Diagram relationships between co-workers and family members.

  • Add multiple images to contacts

  • A full suite of auto-created and customizable widgets.

  • The ability to set up group invites in Fantastical with your Cardhop groups. It’s an impressive update. I did several videos for Flexibits showing off the new features. The overview video is below. In addition to the Cardhop update, Flexibits announced that Fantastical subscriptions are now converted to Flexibits Premium accounts. This means that if you’ve subscribed to Fantastical, you’re now also getting Cardhop for no additional cost.

The new Cardhop is available now for free for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. The free version has limited features. A paid Flexibits Premium subscription enables all features for Cardhop and Fantastical on all devices and is available with monthly and discounted annual options.

Subscribers of Fantastical Premium are automatically converted to a Flexibits Premium subscription and will instantly receive all of Cardhop’s premium features at no additional charge. You can learn more at Flexibits.

Finally, I want to pass my congratulations to the Flexibits team for their ten-year anniversary. The company was built on productivity apps that make capture and data management easy for users. I remember meeting one of the company founders in the aisle at Macworld when Fantastical was a brand-new menu bar app built on the quick entry bar. In the ever-changing app market, they found a way not only to make it work but to flourish.

Mac Power Users 589: Zoom Jiu Jitsu, with Teddy Svoronos



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On this week’s episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I are joined by Teddy Svoronos to discuss the tech that he has implemented for distance teaching and learning in his role at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.

  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Automators 76: Automating with Alfred



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Join us for the latest episode of Automators because we’re digging in with ways we’re using the Mac utility Alfred to automate using our Macs. This episode starts with the basics and then starts digging down.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

  • The Intrazone, by Microsoft SharePoint: Your bi-weekly conversation and interview podcast about SharePoint, OneDrive and related tech within Microsoft 365.

  • ExpressVPN: High-speed, secure and anonymous VPN service. Get an extra three months free.

  • DEVONthink: Get organized — unleash your creativity. Use this link for 10% off.

  • * Cross Promo: Make Do: The joys and anxieties of art and making. Listen now.

The New Apple TV Remote

My new Apple TV Remote arrived this morning, and I spent half an hour futzing with it. Here are some initial thoughts.


  • Yes. This remote is better than the prior one in every conceivable way. I don’t hate the old one as much as John Gruber does, but picking it up in the dark sometimes felt more like defusing a bomb than pausing my movie.

  • Pairing the new one is easy. Long press the power button and hold it near your existing Apple TV. That’s all.

  • Speaking of the power button, this is an obvious addition. I had to train my family how to turn off the TV with the old remote. Now they just press power.

  • The same goes for the mute button.

  • There still is a trackpad on the remote, but it is fenced in with the throwback iPod scroll wheel should eliminate accidental presses.

  • The scroll wheel actually scrubs your movie. This is so much better (and more accurate) than swiping the trackpad on the old one.

  • Overall, just yes.

  • Now I need to order a second one for the bedroom TV. There is no way I can go back after just 30 minutes with this new one.

Rocket for Quick Emoji on Your Mac



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When I wrote about the Character Viewer a few days ago, I was remiss in not mentioning Rocket, my other tool for getting emoji on my Mac.

Made by Matthew Palmer, Rocket lets you put emoji characters anywhere on your Mac by typing a colon and then searching for your emoji. If you’ve ever added emoji to Slack, Rocket brings that feature system-wide to your Mac. For example, typing “:thu” gets me the thumbs up emoji 👍. This works anywhere on your Mac. I’m even using it in Obsidian, an electron app that doesn’t usually play nice with built-in text features on the Mac.

For $10, you can get Rocket Pro, which adds the ability to get to gifs, snippets, and symbols just as fast.