Using Project Templates in OmniFocus, Troubling Trends with iOS Email Apps, a Keyboard Mestro Workflow, and More

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Using Project Templates in OmniFocus so You Can Spend Less Time Thinking and More Time Doing »

I don’t know what your ideal workday looks like, but mine looks something like this.

I wake up around 10 a.m., feeling refreshed. I prepare my oatmeal, I add some nuts and fruits, and I brew myself a cup of Aeropress coffee. While I enjoy my breakfast, I read up on the morning’s news. I make my way to my home office — a whopping four feet from my dining table — and I open my task manager, OmniFocus. I plan my day to make sure I work on the right things.

3 Troubling Trends We See in iOS Email Apps »

Being the developer of a third-party email client on iOS isn’t easy.

For one thing, Apple ships a perfectly capable email app that comes pre-installed on every device. It can be tough to convince a customer who already paid a ton of money for their iPhone or iPad to fork over more dough for an email app that offers additional features or a better user experience. The productivity apps space has also never been so crowded, so for the small percentage of people who are willing to pay for a premium productivity app, the competition is fiercer than ever.

It’s not an easy problem to solve, but we are a little concerned by a couple of trends we’ve noticed recently:

Flighty’s Beautiful Design, Fast Push Notifications Make It One of the best Flight-Tracking Apps on the App Store »

Flighty is a brand new app designed to take at least some of the stress out of the airport. Flighty comes from the makers of Weather Line, features an incredibly simple and easy-to-use design, push notifications for staying on top of flight changes, and inbound plane-tracking to ensure you’re at your gate when you need to be.

Start Your Day Automatically with Keyboard Maestro »

Keyboard Maestro is a very powerful tool for your Mac that allows you to control work magic on the operating system and applications with an easy-to-use scripting user interfact! The possibilities of Keyboard Maestro are endless, but the basic concept is that you can choose a keyboard shortcut that triggers any number of actions automatically. This can be as simple as setting a shortcut to open a specific folder in Finder, or as complex as opening, closing, and moving windows around on the screen, pressing specific file menu buttons, and much, much more.

One of the ways I like to use Keyboard Maestro is to start different parts of my day, such as making sure all of the applications I use every day are started and ready as soon as I get to work. As well as this, I set my volume to 25%, start music with a random track in my work playlist, and then to open a specific tab in my browser!

Day One 4.0 Brings Video Support, Apple Health Integration, and More »

Day One (our favorite journaling app) just received a major update to version 4.0. There’s a couple big features in this release, but the big one is support for videos in your Day One entries.

The ability to add video to Day One is a game changer for parents like myself who record small video clips of the crazy things their kids do on a daily basis. Until now, those short video clips have had to stay in Photos library. But now that Day One supports video, I’ll be able to transfer those my journal where I’d prefer they be stored all along.

How To Control Your Apple TV from Control Center on Your iPhone or iPad »

One of the amazing things about Apple TV is that not only can you can control it from the remote that came with it (and depending on your TV remote), but you can also control it from your iPhone or iPad! No longer do you have to hunt for the remote between sofa cushions in order to pause your Netflix marathon — pick up one of your devices and with a few quick steps you’re ready to go. Today, we’ll look at using Control Center as a remote for your Apple TV.

Macstock is This Weekend »

If you’re going to be coming to Macstock this weekend (July 27-28) in Woodstock, IL, be sure to stop by and say hi! Myself and Rosemary Orchard will be speaking from The Sweet Setup team, along with David Sparks, Brett Terpstra, Chuck Joiner, and a lot of other really smart people eager to teach you how to master your Apple technology. There’s even going to be a live recording of Mac Power Users episode 500.

Bumpr 1.2 adds Custom Browser Rules, Browser Plugins, and More »

Bumpr is a Mac App Store utility that allows you to select a browser in which to open links when clicking them. It’s a handy little app that is great for anyone who occasionally has a need to open links in various browsers, and it recently received an upgrade to version 1.2 that adds several new features.