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Capture Any Text on Your Mac with TextSniper (Sponsor)

My thanks to TextSniper for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. TextSniper is a Mac OCR app that can extract text anywhere on your Mac’s screen and automatically save it to your clipboard so you can paste it anywhere you need it. It can even read the text to you. The whole thing works a lot like the built-in screen capture on the Mac, just way more powerful.

Moreover, in an era where so much software is more about data mining than giving you a service, TextSniper doesn’t collect your data. The text recognition is processed on your Mac and does not require an internet connection. 

With TextSniper, you can:

  • Quickly get a text from PDFs, Zoom calls, Presentations, and Videos. 
  • Copy text from anywhere, even images and websites that don’t let you select text.
  • Quickly grab data like email addresses, phone numbers, and links.
  • Read QR codes and barcodes.
  • Get text out of just about any image format, including JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP.

I use TextSniper constantly. Anytime I need text from an image, TextSniper comes to the rescue. You can even use your iPhone or iPad camera to take a photo for TextSniper to perform its magic.

TextSniper works with macOS Catalina and later and also works with Parallels Desktop

Get TextSniper now and enjoy the fastest way to copy uncopyable text, wherever it may be. Use promo code TS2022 to get an additional 25% off. 

The Old “Pad of Paper Under the Laptop” Trick

I’m setting up my desk and trying it without a shelf. Why am I ditching the shelf? Partly so for the always-on iPhone, but also just to leave things a little cleaner looking.

One of my favorite features of having a shelf on my desk was the way it kept my laptop a few inches off the desk surface. I always liked having the expensive laptop a few inches above the desk surface just in case.

Without the shelf, my laptop is back on the desk. No shelf = no altitude. So it’s time for the old Pad of Paper Under the Laptop trick. It’s not as safe as a shelf but in the event of a spilled cup of tea, it should keep the liquid out of the laptop.

Become the Boss of Your Email With SaneBox (Sponsor)

Did you know that the snooze button isn’t only for your alarm clock? With SaneSnooze, you can snooze on your emails as well. SaneBox, this week’s sponsor at MacSparky, helps me prioritize my email with the SaneSnooze feature.

There are emails that you don’t have to act on right now, and that’s where SaneSnooze comes in handy. I can snooze the less important emails until I want to respond. The email disappears from my main inbox. Not delete disappear, but more of a I’ll-deal-with-it-later situation because SaneSnooze will hide the email until the time I say I’m ready for it to show back up in my inbox, and I can give it my attention when I’m ready to deal with these kinds of emails.

And SaneBox lets you choose how long you want to snooze. You can set your Snooze Folders to SaneTonight, SaneTomorrow, SaneNextWeek, SaneNextMonth, or whatever you think works best for you. When you move an email to your chosen SaneSnooze time, that email will disappear from your inbox, and then SaneBox will move that email back into your inbox at the time you’ve designated it. Want to deal with email on your terms? Click here to sign up for a free trial, and you can get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. 

“Far Out” Apple Event

Apple's "Far Out" Event Art

Today Apple made it official. The new iPhone event is September 7. Mark your calendar. Check your wallets. We’ll definitely get the new iPhones and likely Apple Watches. Things that I am curious about:

  • Rumors are the iPhone Pro camera will take a leap. I hope that’s true.
  • I’ll be shocked if the iPhone Pro doesn’t get the always on screen. I’m curious to see what that will be like in actual use.
  • There is an interesting rumor that we’ll get a “pro” or “sport” watch that will cost a bit more. It’ll be fun to see what that means if true. Also, if true it will be the first time that the phone chip between the watches will be different. Until now you got the same chip whether you bought a $300 watch or a $20,000 watch.

We’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be doing some fun things in The MacSparky Labs for this event. If you’re in the labs, keep an eye on your email over the next few days.

iPadOS 16 Delay

Today Apple confirmed to Tech Crunch that the iPadOS 16 will get pushed back to later in the fall and officially get released at version 16.1.

As the iPadOS creeps away from iOS, I don’t think this should be a surprise. Indeed, I could see this being the model going forward. Apple earns half of its revenue from the iPhone. While a delayed iPadOS release is not a big deal, a delayed iPhone very much is a big deal. If I were in Tim Cook’s chair, I would also be focused on the iPhone right now too.

Shortcuts for Mac Webinar Series

We just wrapped up the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide initial webinar series. All the recordings and shortcuts are now uploaded and available in the course curriculum. That’s another five-and-a-half hours of content and 31 new shortcuts.

I plan to continue with more Shortcuts for Mac webinars over time. Future topics will include additional features with macOS Ventura updates and third-party app support. I expect we will see a lot of interesting third-party app support for Shortcuts over the next year.

The Utility of Lock Screen Widgets

As the iOS 16 betas have continued to march out of Cupertino, I increasingly see third-party app betas add support for the new feature. While I don’t want to disclose anyone’s secret betas, I can tell you that adding third-party widgets is a level-up improvement for the lock screen. Any app developers that want to share glanceable information should be looking into it.

However, I also don’t think any of us will really understand the utility of the new lock screen until we have always-on screens. As it is, when I glance at my iPhone on my desk (even on a charger), the screen is nearly always dark. There is a widely circulated rumor that the iPhone 14 Pro will remedy that with an always-on-screen. At that point, lock screen widgets get a lot more useful.

Take Your Business Out Of The Dark With Daylite (Sponsor)

For small businesses, it can be difficult to stay on top of clients, leads, and projects that are evolving every day. Here’s how Daylite can help supercharge your team to shine brighter, handle more clients, close more deals, and execute more projects. Designed for Mac, iPhone, and iPad exclusively. 

Daylite empowers small businesses by improving team efficiency and making collaboration easy—everything is organized, searchable, and accessible (even offline). You can easily access information and segment data tailored to your specific client’s history. You can manage and share everyone’s schedules, project status, and next steps. 

Seamless Apple Integration 

Daylite is the only Mac CRM and productivity app that integrates with Apple devices and most of the built-in Apple apps and features, like direct Apple Mail integration. You and your team can capture all email communication in one place and create opportunities, appointments, and tasks right from Apple Mail. 

Linking 

Its linking capability is what makes Daylite shine. You can link emails, notes, tasks, projects, appointments, and other records to existing contacts in Daylite. This enables teams to quickly and clearly view an organization’s structure and access the information they need in a unique way. 

CRM + Project Management 

Daylite’s productivity-focused design helps you and your team get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. From meeting prospects and winning business to managing the moving pieces on projects, all the way through to following up on referrals and repeat business, it’s all done in Daylite.
If you live by the mac, you’ll love Daylite. Start your free 30-day Daylite trial today!