Mac Power Users 675: Cruisin’ with CarPlay

Gone are the days of using tapes, CDs, and iPods in cars. Apple has taken center stage in most new cars sold as the iPhone replaced all of those older media sources in the car. On this week’s Mac Power Users, Stephen and I pack up and go on a tour of CarPlay.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Never forget a password again.
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  • More Power Users: Join and get a longer, ad-free version of the show each and every week!

Automators 119: Moving Houses and to the Mac with Chris Lawley

Chris Lawley (YouTuber, nerd, and photographer) joins Rosemary and me on this episode of Automators to talk about moving house and what that means for his smart home, as well as his journey back to the Mac.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

  • ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get an extra three months free.
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Why I Love Kaizen Foam

Every time I open my drawers, I smile a little bit. The reason, is Kaizen Foam.

Years ago I bought some of this and I’ve been lining my drawers with it ever since. It comes in big sheets (2′ x 4′) but easily cuts with a box cutter to fit your drawers. Then you cut bits out of it to fit the shapes of your things. And the thing is you can cut those bits out over time, as you figure out exactly what goes where. When you’re done, everything has its place … and if you are as anal retentive as I am about these things, you get warm and fuzzy all over.

If you decide to get your own Kaizen Foam, check out these guys. The trick is to buy a bundle for the free shipping. It took me a few years to work through my first bundle, but now that I’m reopening my wood shop I’ve just received my second bundle. If you’re curious, I get the 30 mm variant in black.

If you want your drawers to make you smile, look no further.

Turn Your Out-of-Control Box into a SaneBox(Sponsor)

Does your email go into your inbox, or is it more like an out-of-control box? Amirite?! With the help of this week’s sponsor at MacSparky, you can turn it into a sanebox. 

Take back control of your email with SaneBox. SaneBox’s A.I. will make sure that only important email stays in your inbox by analyzing your email history and learning what’s important to you. Important emails you need to deal with now go to your inbox. Emails you don’t have to deal with immediately are filtered into a separate folder and saved for later when you can switch your focus and headspace and deal with them at a later time. Goodbye, distractions. This allows you to work more efficiently.

A cleaner inbox. A more useful and productive inbox. A sanebox. You can try it out yourself and see how your inbox email is trained and sorted by signing up for a free trial, and you’ll get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. Restore your sanity to your inbox with SaneBox.

About Those Touch-screen Macs

Today we heard from Mark Bloomberg that Apple is indeed working on a touch-screen Mac for release sometime in the future. (The article estimates 2025.) I agree with most of the Internet that it’s a good idea.

Every time I use my iPad for an extended length of time and sit down in front of my MacBook, I inevitably reach out and tap the screen. It feels so natural.

Steve Jobs didn’t like the idea of touch-screen Macs, but that was long ago.

I expect another reason Apple hasn’t gone there is because the mac OS is not designed for meaty human fingers. If Apple were to make a touch-screen Mac, they would need to make affordances for fingers, which are much less precise than a mouse pointer.

If the Bloomberg prediction is accurate, and Apple does release touch-screen Macs at some point, I will be curious to see what accommodations Apple makes to macOS for fingers.

Related, I continue to wish Apple would be more willing to experiment with form factors. Lots of people are doing interesting things with computers these days and while many of them are terrible, some are interesting and could be useful if Apple put its design expertise into them. I still daydream about an iMac that would tilt down like the Microsoft Surface Studio into something that becomes a giant, drafting-table-sized touch-screen and Apple-Pencil-friendly iPad.

Mac Power Users 674: Workflows with Shawn Blanc

Shawn Blanc left his job back in 2011 to become a full-time writer. Twelve years later, he is the mastermind behind sites like The Focus Course, The Sweet Setup, and more. Stephen and I ask him about that journey and and how he has grown his operation from a solo venture to a team running multiple projects on the this episode of Mac Power Users.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • TextExpander: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander.
  • SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!
  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
  • Electric: Unbury yourself from IT tasks. Get a free pair of Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones when you schedule a meeting.