Mac Power Users 676: Workflows with Kaitlin Salzke

Kaitlin Salzke is an accountant, student, and programmer who has built a library of OmniFocus automations. On this episode of Mac Power Users, she joins Stephen and me to talk about using JavaScript for automation, working on a PC during the week, and pushing the boundaries of what macOS can do.

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Leaning Into the Notch

So I’ve had the MacBook Pro for a while now, and while I usually use it connected to an external display, there are also plenty of times that I bask in the brightness of that high frame rate HDR screen. As laptop displays go, it’s the best I’ve ever seen.

There is, however, the question of that notch. It took some getting used to and made the installation of Bartender a must, but I barely notice it at this point. So I thought it’d be fun to lean into the Notch a bit and see what developers are doing with it. My favorite Notch-adjacent app is Notchmeister.

Close-up of the MacBook Pro Notch with 8 small alternating purple and blue bulbs hanging below it.
Notchmeister’s Festive Theme

Notchmeister from The Iconfactory and Craig Hockenberry isn’t practical but loads of fun. The app lets you plus up your notch with effects like Glow, Plasma Leak, and Nano Radar. They even have a Festive theme that strings lights from your notch.

It’s a silly little app, but it also brings some whimsy to your Mac. That used to be commonplace, but these days not so much. I wish there were more.

The New M2 MacBook Pro and Mac mini

Today Apple announced the release of a few new Macs.

M2 Mac mini
The big news here is that there are multiple Mac minis. There is an entry-level M2 Mac mini and a souped-up M2 “Pro” Mac mini. The new Pro chip is clocking as an improvement of up 20% processing, 30% graphics, and 40% on the neural engine. This fills an existing gap in the line for desktop Macs between the entry-level Mac mini and the much more powerful Mac Studio.

M2 MacBook Pro
This is the next iteration of the Apple silicon MacBook Pro. The M2 MacBook Pro comes in “Pro” and “Max” configurations. This machine is iterative compared to the M1 MacBook Pro, with improvements of 20% in processing and 30% faster on graphics. Few people will need to upgrade from the M1 MacBook Pro, but those on Intel machines should look at this one closely.

Below is Apple’s announcement video.

Timing App Updates to Use Screen Time Data

Time tracking can pay a lot of dividends when you are trying to figure out how you really spend your time. The problem, of course, is getting good data. Timing is a Mac application that automatically tracks your time based on your current activity. It’s a smart app, that gets even smarter with a little training.

But it’s never really had an answer to tracking time on your mobile devices, until now. Yesterday Timing released a new update that lets Timing import your iPhone and iPad usage from Screen Time. The trick is that Timing will read the Screen Time data in the background (once you give it permission) and then incorporate that data with the rest of your Timing data. Daniel Alm, the developer, wrote up a full explanation.

The solution is really clever, but I wish it didn’t have to be. Just like Apple makes it easy to share your health data with third-party apps, they should also let you share your Screen Time data.