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.

Curio: The Mac’s Most Advanced Notebook App (Sponsor)

This week MacSparky is sponsored by Curio, the most advanced notebook application for note-taking and research. There have been a lot of notebook-style applications for the Mac that have come (and gone) over the years. Curio is the best of these. 

That is because Curio combines simplicity with power in a way I’ve never seen in a notebook app before. Your books are easy to organize, and the canvas (Curio calls it an Idea Space) is easily customizable with drag-and-drop tools like text, images, to-do lists, mind maps, and even Kanban stacks. It also holds many file types like images, PDFs, documents, web links, and multimedia files. Make each space your own.

Professionals, creatives, and students use Curio to be more productive and focused. Whether you are finding a cure, writing a novel, or trying to survive the education system, Curio is there for you. I like the way you can jump between notebooks so quickly and context switch from one Idea Space to another.

Curio also plays nicely with others. It has built-in integrations for DEVONthink, Hookmark, Evernote, Calendar, Reminders, iThoughts, and TaskPaper.

Curio is one of those great Mac apps developed (now for 20 years!) by a dedicated indie developer. Go check it out. Make sure to use Coupon Code MACSPARKY for 20% Off!

The Next Focus Session (MacSparky Labs)

It’s time for another Focus Session. If you’re not familiar with these Focus Sessions, they are a time when a group of us commit to showing up and working on our independent projects, but at the same time connected on a zoom call to give us some sense of accountability…

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?