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To Help A Teacher

I haven’t said much lately about my oldest daughter, Samantha, but I’m immensely proud of her. In the last few months she completed her Masters in Education program and now is now about to launch her career as a high school teacher. She’ll be teaching Art and Art History at Hollywood High School. (Yup, that Hollywood.) The school hasn’t had an art/art history program in years, and she is building the program from the ground up. Those kids are going to be lucky to have Sam as their teacher.

One of the facts of life here in California is that most teachers buy a lot of their own supplies. Sam is starting from scratch, so we’ll be helping her gear up. If you feel generous and want to help a teacher, you can check out her classroom wish list here.

The Voice of Baseball

We lost Vin Scully tonight. At 94 years old, he had a good run. But we sure will miss him.

Growing up in the greater Los Angeles area in the 70s and 80s, there was one constant in our lives, Vin Scully. His soothing, educational storytelling (there were a lot of stories) was our soundtrack. As Dodgers fans, the only thing we hated more than Billie Martin and the Yankees was network announcers calling Dodgers games. We kept a radio in the room with our television, largely so we could turn down the television volume on Dodgers games and listen to Vinnie call it on the radio.

As I got older, I paid less attention to baseball but any time I could hear Vin Scully call a game, I would. It brought me right back. Listening to Vin Scully was like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket. There will never be another sports announcer like Vin.

The New Anker 65W Portable Charger

I am so in the bag for Anker. I’ve been buying their stuff for years, and they’ve always been reliable. In the MacSparky Labs meetup last week, I was asked a question about portable batteries for the new M2 MacBook Air. It got me thinking. Years ago, I had a portable laptop battery that was roughly the size and weight of a paving stone. What’s available now?

So I ordered the newly released Anker 733 65W Charger/Battery. It arrived just in time as I was leaving town, and I’m really digging it. This is a hybrid charger, meaning you can plug it into the wall and use it to charge your devices, but also unplug it and use it as a battery. It delivers 65W, which is plenty for a MacBook Air, and it gives me both a way to charge with power and from a battery in one package.

The battery is 10,000 mAh, which is sizeable, but certainly not the largest battery on the market. It’s already been used to charge my MacBook Air, my iPhone, and my power-hungry beta-software-running Apple Watch. It has two USB-C ports and one USB-A port. On this trip, it’s all I need to keep the MacBook, iPad, and Apple Watch charged. (I keep the iPhone next to the bed.)

At $100, it’s not the least expensive option but certainly feels like one of the most flexible options. I’ll be using this as my primary bag charger/battery for years. If you’re looking for a flexible charging solution, this is the one.

$83 Billion

Chart showing Apple product line percentages between 2018 and 2022.
Source: sixcolors.com

I remember when Steve Jobs went on stage, astounded that Apple had become a $50 Billion per year company. Now Apple beats that in a non-holiday quarter. There aren’t a lot of surprises with Apple’s latest quarterly earnings. It still makes half of its money from the iPhone and “Services” continue to grow. The Mac is down a bit, but last year at this time, we were in full swing on the Apple silicon revolution. I think that prompted many people to upgrade who wouldn’t have otherwise. Also, the M2 MacBook sales are not part of last quarter’s numbers. Either way, things seem just fine in Cupertino.

Jason Snell continues to be the best source for these earnings calls. He makes beautiful charts (like the one above) and even gets the call transcribed.

Hoban Cards and Stationery (Sponsor)

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 and stationery. 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.

If you’re set on calling cards, I also recommend going to Hoban for your stationery. I bought stationery from them years ago, and I love sending it to friends and family. In a world full of text messages and email, personal stationery sends a whole different message altogether.

Best of all, use ‘MacSparky’ to get $10 off any order. Get yours today.

Wither iPhone Mini

The rumors all seem unanimous in their opinion that this year the iPhone mini will go away, and in its place we’ll get a bigger (non-pro) iPhone to match the size of the iPhone Pro Max.

I suspect a bigger iPhone will sell more units than the iPhone mini. Many people buy the Pro Max iPhones not for the “Pro” but for the “Max.” I’m sure there are a lot of other folks who would buy a bigger non-pro iPhone if one were available.

What makes me scratch my head, however, is why it needs to be one or the other, Max or mini? Why not both? Apple is a company that understands how to make electronic gizmos. For two years they have been making and selling iPhone minis that many people like. While I appreciate that proportionally, the iPhone mini crowd is probably the smallest number, cumulatively, that’s still a lot of iPhones.

A lot of people are passionate about smaller size iPhones. It seems a shame that they will no longer be able to buy the latest and greatest. My question, sincerely, is why? What is the reason that Apple can’t make the entry-level iPhone in three sizes instead of two? Is it because of the global supply chain problems? Or maybe they don’t have enough manufacturing bandwidth? It seems like such a no-brainer to me and I’m really curious as to why Apple doesn’t keep the iPhone mini and add a Max iPhone simultaneously.

Hook Turns Three

Hook is the link-everything app for your Mac. It creates links to files, email, and other digital bits, letting you easily “hook” things together. It’s increasingly becoming part of my contextual computing workflow, and this week it turns three. You can get 30% off with the code: “HookTurns3”.

My initial concern about Hook being a flash-in-the-pan is now obviously unfounded. They have a solid business model and the principal developer is clearly committed to making Hook work for everyone. (Note: I agreed to accept an unpaid and uncompensated position on Hook’s board of advisors.)

M2 MacBook Air Reviews

The initial reviews are in on the M2 MacBook Air. My two favorite are Jason Snell’s at Six Colors and Brian Heater at Tech Crunch. Overall, it seems that the M2 MacBook Air delivers on its promise. It’s a small, light Mac that can do most tasks, but isn’t built for heavy lifting. Having held one of these Macs, I really can’t understate how thin and light it feels. It reminds me of the first time I picked up an iPhone 5.

I’m reading a lot of hand-wringing about the thermal limits and throttling. I think this is getting blown out of proportion. IF you run a diagnostic at the MacBook Air designed to punish the processor, which is the lowest end Apple silicon chip combined with it’s substantial improvements over the M1 and the fact it doesn’t have a fan, it’s going to throttle. IF that is your normal workload, you should probably buy a MacBook Pro.

I’m much more interested in its performance for everyday Mac tasks – browsing, writing, email, and the likes. It seems the machine runs just fine for those tasks.

Start Linking with Daylite (Sponsor)

This week MacSparky is sponsored by Daylite, the only made-for-mac CRM solution. Daylite expands the definition of CRM and boosts your team’s productivity while maximizing leads, customer relationships, and profits.

Daylite includes a remarkable set of tools to run your business. Calendars, tasks, contacts, and all the other bits you need for a world-class CRM are right there. Moreover, Daylite *gets* linking.

I’ve written (and talked) plenty about how laser-like linking can improve your productivity. The ability to jump from this task to *that task* or bit of data without having to wade through inboxes and master lists can make all the difference between getting your work done and getting stuck in the data molasses.

Daylite gets that. With Daylite, you can link all over your Daylite database (and out to external links as well) to stay on target. Moreover, since all the data in Daylite is shareable with your team, they also get the benefits of your laser-like tasks so they can stay on task as well.

Creating these custom links in Daylite is trivial, so you (and your team) can start using them today. So put Daylite to work today in your business.