The Lisa Documentary

I recently watched David Greelish’s documentary, Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa. It’s a love letter to the Apple Lisa. For those who’ve never heard of Lisa, it was Apple’s original attempt to make a graphical user-based computer. While not a commercial success, the lessons learned with Lisa made the Macintosh possible.

Highlights for me in the documentary:

  • The interview with Bill Atkinson. He had many details about making Lisa and even Polaroid pictures of the initial GUI experiments. (I once spent a very pleasurable hour in the Macworld Speaker Room with Bill Atkinson. He’s just as nice as he seems.)
  • The remarkable efforts people made to hack Lisa after it was released. In the early days of computing, opening up your machine and tinkering was normal. As a teenager, I opened up my Atari ST and doubled the RAM by soldering memory chips on top of the existing ones. It was nuts, and I loved it. People did the same stuff with their Lisas, and this film covers that. It brought me back.

Mac Power Users 734: I Got to Be the Hero

On this Mac Power Users feedback episode, Stephen and I check in with the Vision Pro, discuss plumbing super powers, the mysteries of AppleCare, and more.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Never forget a password again.
  • Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code MPU.
  • Parallels Desktop: Run Windows on Mac with a virtual machine. Get 15% off with code POWER15.

The End of Project Titan

This week, we got the news that Apple canceled its Apple Car program (Project Titan). Apple spent the last ten years poking around the edges of making cars and, according to Bloomberg, got to a critical decision point recently and decided to pass.

I’m relieved for several reasons:

  • Apple is best when it’s focused, and getting into the car business would be a massive distraction.
  • While I’m sure Apple could make a nice car, there are a lot of nice cars. Apple can make a more significant impact on consumer electronics. (Look at how the wearable headset space turned upside down last month.)
  • I wonder how Apple could have continued to partner with automakers with Apple CarPlay once they entered the market and became competitors. Also, what would motivate Apple to make CarPlay better if they preferred you to buy their car instead?
  • (Selfishly) The Apple Car would be an Apple Product I couldn’t afford.

My big point, however, is that first one: I don’t know how they could build out the car business and retain their current focus on the Apple products I like most.

Announcing the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide 2024 Update and Discount

I am happy to announce an update to my Keyboard Maestro Field Guide. It includes 16 new videos covering many new features added with recent updates, including version 11.

To celebrate this update release, I’ve got a limited-time 20% discount on the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide. Use HOORAYKM11 at checkout for 20% off.

Moreover, I’ve spoken with the gang over at Keyboard Maestro and they are also offering a discount on Keyboard Maestro. For a limited time, you can get 10% off a Keyboard Maestro license with code “KMFG”.

Enjoy!

Your pal, David

P.S. Here’s what people are saying about the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide:

As a Mac nerd, Keyboard Maestro is an indispensable app. There are so many helpful, powerful, and fun things you can do with it. David, as usual, does an excellent job at showing you how to use this app to change your life.

— Shawn Blanc, Founder The Sweet Setup

The Keyboard Maestro Field Guide is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to take their Mac productivity up a notch. David Sparks does a fantastic job of making Keyboard Maestro highly accessible to new users while also providing clever use cases to delight even the most experienced users.

— Tim Stringer, Founder, Technically Simple

Keyboard Maestro is a popular automation tool for the Mac that has a long list of different functionalities, all based around automating different tasks. It takes a simple approach based on triggers and actions, which means you don’t need any scripting or programming knowledge to use it.

The new Keyboard Maestro Field Guide from David Sparks is designed to help you master the app…. The Field guide is completely self-paced, allowing you to follow along and learn at your own speed.

— Chance Miller, writer, 9to5mac.com

February 2024 in the MacSparky Labs

There was a lot of activity for the Labs in February, including 8 exclusive videos on a variety of topics:

  • 2024-02-28 – Sparky’s Desktop Widgets Tour (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-27 – Automating OmniFocus 4 with Shortcuts Actions (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-02-26 – February 2024 Deep Dive – The Case for Time Tracking (Level 3)
  • 2024-02-26 – Vision Pro Productivity Check-in (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-23 – The Lab Report for February 23, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-21 – Cleaning Up iMessage Apps (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-02-20 – Getting More From the Mac’s Globe Key (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-16 – The Lab Report for February 16, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-15 – 2024 Q1 Midpoint (Session 2) (Level 3)
  • 2024-02-15 – 2024 Q1 Midpoint (Session 1) (Level 3)
  • 2024-02-14 – Vision Pro Walk-through (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-13 – Tips for Repeating Tasks in OmniFocus (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-02-12 – Vision Pro “Lifeline” Call Podcast Audio (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-09 – The Lab Report for February 9, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-08 – FOD – Damien Schreurs – Local AI (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-02-07 – Vision Pro: Initial Impressions and Questions (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-06 – Contextual Computing Article about My Writing Environment (Early Peek) (Level 3)
  • 2024-02-06 – How Sparky Uses Notion (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-02-05 – Labs February Meetup (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-02-05 – Vision Pro Initial Impressions (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-04 – Labs Deep Dive – Task Management Strategies (Level 3)
  • 2024-02-03 – Vision Pro Questions Newsletter (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-02-02 – The Lab Report for February 2, 2024 (Levels 1-3)

If you’d like to be a part of the MacSparky Labs, you can get more information and join right here.

Simple Scan

Greg Pierce at Agile Tortoise (Drafts, Tally) has a new app, Simple Scan. It’s a no-frills scanning app that doesn’t try to do more than be a good scanning app, made by a guy who really understands how to make great apps. If you’re looking for a simple scanning app, this is the one.

ScreenFloat 2: Power Up Your Screenshots

This week, MacSparky is sponsored by ScreenFloat 2, a major upgrade to the Mac’s built-in screenshot tool. With ScreenFloat 2, screenshots become so much more.

To begin, your screenshots will float, just like the name implies. You no longer have to dig through windows to find your screenshots. It’s right on top, waiting for you.

Then, there is a suite of screenshot tools: markup, annotate, colors, rotate, and trim. ScreenFloat 2 lets you record your screen and trigger screenshots on a timer. If you need to re-capture, there is a tool for that, so you don’t have to reframe the shot from scratch. You can even extract text and barcodes. If you need to redact, there are tools for that as well. You can remove text, faces, or barcodes. 

I often want to get exact color matches out of screenshots which is actually pretty difficult. But not so with ScreenFloat 2. The app has a built-in color sampling tool. If you want to use your screenshots, you can drag and drop them out of the browser, or directly from floating shots. ScreenFloat 2 also includes a browser to organize your images with folders and tags, and it all syncs over iCloud. If you want to use your screenshots, you can drag and drop them out of the browser.

Check out ScreenFloat 2 today and learn just how much more useful screenshots can be.