My friend Andy Hall is both an engineer and a hardcore Star Trek enthusiast. He’s taken his passion to the next level by creating a free app for iPad (and now Vision Pro) called Starship SE Corps. With it, you can design the next generation of starships using real-world systems engineering techniques. It’s a niche app, no doubt, but if this sounds like your kind of thing, you’re going to love it.
It’s time for the Lab Report from the MacSparky Labs, covering this week’s Apple news and rumors. In this episode: Some changes to AppleCare+, one of my favorite games gets an update, my rant around screen recording permissions in macOS Sequoia, and I share a great album from Brad Mehldau.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
It’s time for the Lab Report from the MacSparky Labs, covering this week’s Apple news and rumors. In this episode: Some changes to AppleCare+, one of my favorite games gets an update, my rant around screen recording permissions in macOS Sequoia, and I share a great album from Brad Mehldau.
… This is a post for to Early Access MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
One of my favorite Apple Intelligence features is the AI-generated Memory Movie option available in the Photos app. They look great and are so easy to make. Here’s a demonstration.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
The Contact Photo & Poster is a delightful iOS 17 feature, and one I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t use or even know about.… This is a post for the Early Access and Backstage MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?
Apple Intelligence recently entered beta. Stephen and I have spent time with the features currently available on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac and share what we think on this episode of Mac Power Users. We look at writing tools, summarization Mail and Messages, and a new Focus Mode.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
We recently received beta 5 of iOS 18, which includes a new distraction feature called “Distraction Control.” This feature lets you hide distracting elements on web pages, like sign-in pop-ups and content overlays. It is not an ad blocker and does not permanently remove items, but it can be used to hide elements while you are reading a page. In short, it makes things less distracting.
I’d love to know the story behind features like this and Focus Modes. Clearly, there are some advocates at Apple for the problems, including features that combat the focus and distraction issues inherent in a smartphone. Indeed, Apple has been the best player among the big technology companies in tackling this in their devices, so much so that they get the ire of the advertising industry and Facebook aimed at them on occasion.
What we haven’t got is a clear statement from Apple on this issue, the same way we did on Apple’s privacy stance, declaring privacy a “human right.” Apple has not been so explicit concerning focus and distraction. Instead, we get these occasional features that pop up and help us.
I would like for Apple to be more declarative about the issue of distraction and focus. They are best placed to do so, and their words could impact this issue industry-wide. Moreover, it would be an excellent sales point for Apple devices over others.
Months ago, I stumbled into Derek Sivers’ What Am I Doing Now page. The idea was to have a regularly updated page on his website explaining what you’re doing now and writing it as you would when catching up with an old friend. It’s a great way to be social without using social media, and it’s also a great backup when you tell people you can’t do the thing they want you to do. I liked it so much that I made my own. I plan to update it regularly. Enjoy.
At a recent MacSparky Labs event, the topic of Vision Pro came up. Several members are now getting access to the device as Apple expands the release to more countries.
Some Vision Pro owners regularly use the hardware, particularly those who travel and want to use that big screen and entertainment device in a hotel. For other folks, the bloom is off the rose, and they’re not exactly sure what to do with their Vision Pro.
I am in the middle.
My best-case productivity usage continues to be writing. I’m writing this post sitting in my Vision Pro in my usual spot at Yosemite with a keyboard in my lap. I do that often. It feels like a context change and makes my work easier. I do two to four writing sessions a week.
Other transactional productivity tasks, like email, calendar, and task management, never stuck with me. Maybe I should try to do it exclusively for a month to see if I could build some new workflows, but for now, at least, there’s too much friction.
Unsurprisingly, this is the most successful implementation of Vision Pro. I’m pretty careful about video consumption, but when I do decide to watch something, I want to give it my entire attention — none of this silly fiddle-with-iPad-while-watching-TV for me. So, Vision Pro is perfect for what I’ll call mindful consumption. I’m out of town this week, but I recently finally bought The Boy and the Heron. I can’t wait to watch it in Vision Pro when I return home.
That said, Apple needs to turn the Vision Pro content machine up to 11. They should produce a lot more immersive content and make deals with artists and sports teams.
I’m also a fan of several art gallery-style apps. There is a huge difference in looking at art in Vision Pro versus any other screen.
I’m hardly a serious gamer, but Bombaroom continues to make me giggle as I lay waste to a digital castle across the room.
Putting Vision Pro in context, this is the early days. I wish Apple were more aggressive with the software stack and content. If I add all of these uses up, do they stack up to the significant cost of the Vision Pro for me? I think so, but it isn’t an obvious calculus. Moreover, I want to watch this technology and see what Apple does with it. That is an additional benefit for me, but not for all.
Mike and I share the different ways we apply intentionality to our media consumption on this episode Focused.
This episode of Focused is sponsored by: