September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and time for the annual Relay FM St. Jude Fund Raiser. St. Jude’s mission is simple. You give them money, and they use it to cure cancer in children. That’s pretty simple, and over the years Relay.FM has now raised over $2.2M for St. Jude. We’re at it again this September on all the Relay Shows. If you’ve got a little extra money that you would like to put to some use, I can’t think of a better way.
It’s time for the latest Lab Report from MacSparky, covering this week’s Apple news and updates…This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Mike and I discuss the satirical self-help book How to Be Miserable by Randy J. Paterson on this episode of Focused, and we share the dysfunctional skills we are particularly good at.
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
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In the last week, we’ve had a lot of rumors that a gray iPhone Pro is in the works. If true, it will replace gold in the new titanium iPhone 15 Pro lineup.
My guess is that making a gold-colored titanium phone isn’t easy, so Apple decided to lean into the titanium gray.
Whatever the reason, I am down with it. I’m unsure if it is because I’m sick of the standard white and black iPhones or because my hair is also increasingly trending titanium gray. Regardless, I like the new look.
Source: 9to5Mac
Here’s what I sent out to Labs Members in August 2023:
If you’d like to be a part of the MacSparky Labs, you can join right here. Use the code “HEADSETS4EVERYONE” to get 10% off. That code expires tomorrow.
I’m so pleased to announce the release of the Obsidian Field Guide. Hooray!
Obsidian is a remarkable app, and the new Field Guide came out great. You can even get a 40-minute free sample at the above links. Check it out.
Obsidian brings new tools and paradigms to working with our thoughts on computers. Obsidian can be a game changer, and I’ve been using it since its early beta release. You can turn Obsidian into any sort of notes and data management tool you need: research, client work, PKM, or whatever. I use it primarily to document my own personal operating system, but there is more on that in the course. However, before you can make Obsidian truly race, you need to get some time behind the wheel and figure out how it works.
Obsidian allows linking to and from notes throughout your Obsidian “vault”, making connections of thoughts easier and more illuminating. It’s built on a plugin-style architecture that gives the app an ever-increasing feature set with plugins built by Obsidian’s developers and the Obsidian community. It’s based on a folder full of Markdown text files, so you always own and control your data. It can be end-to-end encrypted to protect your privacy. People use Obsidian to gather their thoughts, write their dissertations, plan their projects, and even track visits to the veterinarian. The app is powerful and flexible.
However…
The Obsidian on-ramp is steep. It takes a while to wrap your arms around exactly what you can do with this app and unlock its full potential. You need a guide. That’s me, MacSparky, your Obsidian pal. Once you master Obsidian, you’ll also need help picking plugins and figuring out exactly how far down that rabbit hole you want to go. I’ve got you covered there, too.
The Obsidian Field Guide is a 6-hour course including 78 instructional videos that will get you up and running. The course starts with the basics and goes straight through to the advanced. It is carefully paced so anyone can take advantage of Obsidian. Each tutorial includes a full transcript and closed captioning. The transcripts are even bundled into ePub and PDF documents you can download.
Your purchase will also get you access to the Obsidian Field Guide Private Vault, where you’ll get additional resources, links, and access to the samples used throughout the course.
In addition to the above, with the Obsidian Field Guide Plus Edition, you’ll get an additional webinar series going deeper into Obsidian with additional materials, guest speakers, questions and answers, and even more Obsidian goodness. All webinar sessions will be recorded and added to downloadable content for plus edition customers.
There’s a lot more, along with a free 40-minute sample, at the below Obsidian Field Guide links. If you’ve ever wondered why so many people love Obsidian, now’s your chance to learn.
Don’t forget, the code OBSIDIANLAUNCH gets you 10% off.
Want a 40-minute sample? Here you go.
In this video I demonstrate how I used two AI tools, MacWhisper and ChatGPT, to generate transcripts and SubRip text (SRT) files for the Obsidian Field Guide videos.…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Level 3 (Early Access) and Level 2 (Backstage) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Halfway through the third quarter of 2023, Early Access members and I got together to talk about our progress, the idea of a mini reset, dogs, notecards, and more!…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Level 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Last week Jason Snell and John Gruber weighed in on what they’re doing with their iPads these days. I, too, have a much-simplified relationship with my iPad.
For years, I tried to turn the iPad into a production machine. I still love the idea of sitting down with a piece of glass and getting real work done. But there were just too many hoops to jump through for much of my work. I remember at one point sitting in a meeting as a lawyer while we were discussing the purchase of a company. An accountant in the room sent me ten spreadsheets to review. I had an iPad Pro and thought to myself, “How am I going to keep up with everybody in the room trying to process these files on an iPad?“ The answer, it turns out, is that I didn’t.
The real turning point for me was a dinner conversation with my children. Both were in college and using their iPads and were very happy with them. They explained how they used them to take class notes, work on outlines, and make themselves flashcards. It sounded like an Apple commercial.
I realized as I listened to them that they were using the iPad just like Apple envisions it. They were not looking at edge case uses but instead using it for what it is good at. That is when the switch flipped in my brain, and I changed my relationship with the iPad.
People will tell you that if you’re in a relationship with another human and think you can change them, you’re on a fool’s errand. I feel like the same goes for the iPad. You have to accept it for what it is to enjoy using it.
It’s been several years of me using the iPad as Apple intended instead of as I wanted. I can tell you the relationship is a lot healthier. I still use it all the time (indeed, I am dictating this blog post on my iPad mini.), But I’m not trying to get it to record podcasts or perform any task that requires me to do silly things like setting up server connections or gimmicky Rube Goldberg-based automation schemes.
The iPad remains a production-plus-consumption device for me. I write on it, research on it, and plan on it. But as soon as I meet any significant resistance, I set it down and pick up a Mac.
So, the iPad and I are settled and at peace with one another. I still wish Apple would give the iPad more horsepower. There are many ways Apple could make these devices, which run on Apple silicon, take on Mac-type work. Until then, I’m done swimming upstream. I use my iPad as the maker intended.
Getting back to those posts by Jason and John, I usually bring my iPad mini and MacBook Air when I travel. I generally find nothing I can’t do without those two machines.