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I stumbled upon an interesting dialog box while working in Xcode and the Simulator this week. I was logging into one of my developer iCloud accounts to do some testing, and during the login process the following screen briefly appeared.

Lately I have been seeing advertisements for simple iPhone home screen interfaces. These layouts tout a minimal design with just text and a few simple icons for minimizing distractions. With Apple introducing more customization options, I decided to see if I could create a clean design using Shortcuts and custom icons. Apple is introducing more customization with iOS 18 this Fall, but I am using tools that have been available for some time, relying on Apple Shortcuts and using custom icons.

I have relied on small utility apps for many years. One of these, Renamer, was useful for renaming several files on my computer. I would drag several files into Rename and then I could prepend, append, or delete text all in one command.

I have been saving articles to read later since the early days of the iPhone with apps like Instapaper. At some point Apple added Reading List to Safari as a way of saving items to read later. These are more than bookmarks, a solid read it later service will download text and images, remove ads, and provide a way to read and save articles that can be accessed offline.

I am a big fan of using keyboard shortcuts. Even though Apple made the mouse a mainstream input device, the Mac has always embraced keyboard shortcuts as well. I like to keep my hands on the keyboard as much as possible. MacOS is setup so that one can be very productive and fast at executing commands, all from the keyboard.

One the reasons I started this website was for the opporunity to learn Wordpress. I have tried a few different hosts over the years and I have a better understanding of the pros and cons of Wordpress.

I am not a natural journal writer, and I am a nerd who likes to program as a hobby. So, it seems natural that I could combine these two traits and use Apple Shortcuts to automate a daily journal entry for me in my favorite journaling app, Day One. I used to accomplish this only with AppleScript, with inspiration and help from Brett Terpstra.

I am a Pro Tools power user. When I am recording or producing a recording session, Pro Tools is my DAW of choice. It is the industry standard and incredibly powerful. However, sometimes I need to trim an audio file or do some light editing, and for those times Pro Tools is overkill.

When trying to type fast on iPhone, autocorrect can be your friend. Autocorrect can be annoying when it changes words that you want to ones that you don’t, but with this quick tip you can make autocorrect work for you.

I grew up during the beginning of the personal computer era. The first computer in our house was an IBM PCjr and my dad used an IBM PC at work. The Macintosh had just been announced, but I was sheltered from Apple except for a few days using an Apple II at school.

My favorite to do list app is Things. I like how easy it is to add things to the inbox. On the Mac, the Quick Entry window is awesome, but on iOS there isn’t a Quick Entry window unless you are already in the app. This is when you can use the Mail To Things service.

Creating A “Save As PDF” Keyboard Shortcut In MacOS Ventura

If you have long been using the old trick to create a Save as PDF keyboard shortcut and recently updated to MacOS Ventura, you may have noticed your old keyboard shortcut doesn’t work anymore.

I have relied on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) for keeping up on the news and interesting articles since the days of Google Reader.¹ RSS is an easy way to subscribe to your favorite websites and blogs and to collect new articles in one place.

The Best Screen Recording Apps for Your Mac

In this category, you’ve got several possibilities. Some are free, some are paid apps. Some require you to install software on your Mac while others will just run from a browser.

• Jeff Butts, The Mac Observer

Like many people, when the pandemic hit I started to use and learn more about webcams. I found myself on Zoom calls each day and also recording more video. At the time, the Logitech Brio 4K had just come out and was a coveted 4K camera.

Spotlight in macOS was first announced in 2004 as a part of Mac OS X Tiger. It was revolutionary at the time for quickly and efficiently searching your hard drive for files and apps. The Spotlight magnifying glass continues to live in the Mac menu bar and is accessed via the command-space keyboard shortcut.

I am coming up on my one-year anniversary with my M1 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro. It is the best computer I have ever used. It is so fast and a powerhouse in every way. I use it for Xcode, Final Cut Pro, music production, and it always delivers.

Email spam is an ongoing problem, which seems to be getting worse over time. When I have had the same email address for many years, more and more spam seem to clutter my inbox. Using the same address with shopping online or trying new services and apps, brings with it an increase of junk email.

If Apple Maps is showing a blank screen on macOS, here is a quick way to restore and refresh the map data:

The cache for Maps specifically can be cleared by deleting the following folder ~/Library/Caches/GeoServices

The built-in Apple apps for Mail, Calendars, and Reminders have improved each year and are solid apps. However, I find myself wanting more out of these apps and have turned to 3rd parties for each of them.

Saagar Jha on Twitter

Tip: when expanding an Xcode XIP archive, use the command line (xip –expand) rather than Archive Utility. It’s at least 25% faster–sometimes even twice as fast, depending on the circumstances.

My iPad Pro 2018 is still going strong. It has been an incredible device with its beautiful screen, fast processor, and Apple Pencil 2. When Apple enabled touchpad support, new possibilities opened up to turn the iPad into a laptop replacement. There have been many keyboard case options available for the iPad over the years, but few have checked all of my boxes.

I have been familiar with and used David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) for many years. Getting Things Done came out in 2001 with David Allen’s popular book. Apps later followed that were based on the GTD system, including my first favorite task-list app, OmniFocus.

I had a weird Microsoft Office bug a few months back. Every time I would open Word or Excel I would get this error in a dialog box:

Microsoft Visual Basic Run-time error `53'
File not found: /Libary/Application Support/Adobe/MACPDFM/MacPDFM.framework/Versions/A/MacPDFM

I would dismiss it, but it would return every time I opened a file or started the app. It got to be very annoying after a while. Fortunately, there is a fix.

Apple released two new watches this month, the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra. I have been an Apple Watch user since the Apple Watch Series 3. My current watch is a Series 5. I had planned on this Fall being my time to upgrade with whatever was released. Each series has been fairly incremental, which is fine when you wait two to three years to upgrade. Those incremental updates each year equate to a nice upgrade every few years.

For better or worse, email is where I spend a lot of my time. When you spend a significant amount of time each day in a certain mode, the tools that you require need to be efficient and enjoyable to use. I have tried many email apps over the years. I can still remember the days of Microsoft Entourage.

I don’t know if this a new feature or only new to me, but here is a fast way to switch to “Reader” mode on websites using mobile Safari.

Jeff Butts from the Mac Observer

One of the greatest improvements in iOS 16 is with the dictation engine. Apple has greatly enhanced dictation in iOS 16 to make it even smarter and more useful. This applies not only to the iPhone, but also the iPad, Mac (via macOS Ventura) and Apple Watch.

My name is Adam and I am addicted to apps. I admit it. I am a sucker for a new app or tool for my Mac or iOS device, which is why Setapp has been a great fit for me. Setapp is a subscription service for apps for your Mac and iOS devices.

I spend a lot of time in my calendar, email, and task management apps. When I started using a Mac in the early 2000s I used Microsoft’s Entourage, which combined all of these into one app. Entourage was the Mac’s answer to Outlook.

If you are an Apple Developer, then you know the pain associated with downloading a 12GB Xcode installer.

I have a midi keyboard connected to my desktop computers. It is great to be able to quickly enter notes into Finale, or experiment in Logic or GarageBand. However, sometimes I just want to play a few notes or practice some piano without launching a large app like Logic.

My first Mac was the 2002 iMac G4, the one that looked like a desk lamp. It was beautiful. I had experimented with Macintosh in the 1990s, OS 7–9 days while in music school.