Here’s the December planning session video for Early Access members. Planning and working on making our dents in the universe is hard, but we’re making progress…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
I’ve been leaning into the orange bands with the Apple Watch Ultra. They look great, particularly with that big orange button on the side. The problem is that my Apple Orange Alpine Loop is getting filthy. I wanted an orange band appropriate for working in the yard and whatnot so I ordered the Nomad Orange Sport Band.
It arrived a few days ago, and I’m digging it. The material is “Premium” fluoroelastomer. It feels good on my wrist and the abundance of holes makes it comfortable, even when I’m working outside and sweating. It feels secure and looks easy to clean. If you’ve got the orange watch band bug, this is one to check out.
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?
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Daylite, which just added its new Daylite Opportunities Board.
We are humans, not robots. We think and understand things visually and this week’s sponsor, Daylite, has figured out a way to use that so your team can communicate better. That is why they added the new Opportunities Board.
Unlock your sales potential with the new Daylite Opportunities Board
For small businesses, acquiring new business often means juggling multiple priorities at the same time, as each deal has its own time frame and different client requirements. That’s why you need a tool that will help better manage your sales pipeline, so you’re making the most of every sales opportunity that comes your way.
Meet the Daylite Opportunities Board
The Daylite Opportunities Board lets you visually track your deals’ progress at every stage and helps you prioritize sales opportunities. This powerful feature gives you a holistic view of your sales pipelines, allowing you to track where each Opportunity is in the process, so you and your team can focus on the most valuable ones. The drag-and-drop functionality allows you to move opportunities from one stage to the next, and you can easily classify deals as “won” or “lost” by dragging them to the respective status categories. Learn more about how this powerful Daylite feature has become a game-changer for Apple-savvy small businesses.
I really like this new feature. Something visual like this is the best way to keep all of your team on the same page. Because it is so easy to access and adjust, it means your team will get invested and use the tool. There is a reason why boards like this are so popular.
About Daylite
The Daylite team understands the Mac and they’ve been great native Mac software for a long time. Daylite is an award-winning CRM and productivity business app that empowers small businesses to get more done throughout the full customer lifecycle. Daylite is a native app built exclusively for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. From meeting prospects and taking control of your sales to managing the moving pieces on projects, all the way through to winning more repeat business, it’s all done in Daylite.
And now, with the Daylite Opportunities Board, you can finally better manage your sales process and unlock your sales potential.
Are you ready to close more deals with Daylite? Start your free trial here.
For years now, my primary keyboard has been an Apple Extended Keyboard. I fell into it, to be honest. I bought a Mac with an extended keyboard and found myself using those extra keys not so much as a keypad, but as a mechanism to launch automation. Those extra keys came in handy with seven additional function keys, proper arrow keys, and all those number keys. The addition of a Touch ID button sealed the deal.
On the downside, it sometimes looks like you have a battleship parked on your desk. My right hand has to move 10 inches from the keyboard to the mouse. Lately, I’ve put so much of my macro triggers into my various Stream Decks I’ve been thinking about downscaling.
So I purchased an Apple Magic Keyboard with TouchID sans Numeric Keypad last week to see if I could turn the battleship into something smaller. This is an excellent comparison because it is so close (but not identical) to the same keyboard I’ve been using with the right 5 inches chopped off.
When the keyboard arrived, I thought it would be a no-brainer. But it turns out that adjusting was more challenging than you’d think. I’ve given it the better part of a week, and I’ve discovered that I like the layout of the battleship. The smaller keyboard has the Function key where the left control key is on the bigger keyboard. I also use the arrow keys and additional function keys more than you’d think. While I could adjust to the smaller keyboard, I feel the inconvenience of it way more than I enjoy the shorter trip to my mouse.
In the end, this is a clear choice for me. You can get a keyboard that takes less space and makes the trip to the mouse shorter, or you can get the bigger one with more buttons. There isn’t a right answer, but in my case, the battleship won.
I recently mentioned how my wife and I share an Apple Note for holiday gift shopping. Several folks wanted help setting that up. Here you go. I added some additional automation tricks if you want to plus this one up a bit… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Today Apple announced some nice updates to the iCloud security features. The following features now have end-to-end encryption on iCloud:
End-to-end encryption means your data can’t be viewed on the server in these categories (if you opt in). Put simply, Apple will no longer be able to see the above categories of data. If Apple gets hacked in the future, the bad guys can’t see your data either.
Apple has very publicly stated an interest in protecting user privacy. I believe them. What is impressive about this is how they’ve added the encryption at Apple’s user-base scale. That can’t be easy.
At this point, it’s opt-in. You must go into the iCloud settings and click on Advance Data Protection. I will be opting in. Advanced Data Protection is in the latest iOS 16.2 beta. It will be available to all U.S. customers by the end of the year and rolling out to the world in early 2023.
One note of caution, however, is that this means if you ever lose passwords, the data is gone. Apple can’t help you. So get your password security sorted out before you push the button.
Craig Federighi did an interview with Joanna Stern on these updates. She did a great job explaining end-to-end encryption in the process.
On the latest episode of Focused, Mike and I walk through our planning processes and make our best case for leaving social media altogether.
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
I am always interested in E-Ink Notebooks but have yet to fine one I wanted to use. Here’s my take on the latest entry, the Kindle Scribe…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
It seems that time for early adopters concerning their AirTag batteries. I’ve been slowly replacing them as I get the battery alerts. Ben Lovejoy suggests biting the bullet and replacing them all when the first warning appears. I wish I’d done that.
Changing the batteries is easy enough. Give it a twist, and it separates. Put the new CR2032 battery in (I use these), then twist it back together.
On the subject of AirTags, I recently bought a few Apple TV remotes with built-in AirTag holders. I love these. I can find the remote via sonar, and they double as NFC tags so I can trigger “Movie” lighting by holding them to my phone.