Federico Viticci

10804 posts on MacStories since April 2009

Federico is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MacStories, where he writes about Apple with a focus on apps, developers, iPad, and iOS productivity. He founded MacStories in April 2009 and has been writing about Apple since. Federico is also the co-host of AppStories, a weekly podcast exploring the world of apps, Unwind, a fun exploration of media and more, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about portable gaming and the handheld revolution.
@viticci@macstories.net
@viticci.macstories.net
viticci@macstories.net

Hazel 3.2 Adds Mavericks Tagging Support

Hazel is the key element of my paperless workflow and several other automation scripts I run on my Mac, such as photo backups. One day, I will get around describing my paperless system (which I have tweaked and perfected over the past months), but, today, allow me to link to version 3.2 of the app, which adds support for tags in Mavericks.

You can now create rules that check for tags in matched files and apply tags automatically. This is great if you want to process a bunch of files automatically and tag them instead of moving them into a folder. Hazel can pick up tags you’ve already created on your Mac, as well as create and replace existing tags if you want to type a tag’s name manually in Hazel.

Interestingly, Hazel can still set color labels (I assume for Mountain Lion users?) and it doesn’t show a tag’s color inline when editing an action – for me, it just displays a blue “token” for the tag with a white label. It’s really a minor issue –  I have been testing the public betas with Mavericks support and they’ve been working well for me.

You can get Hazel here, and check out our review of version 3.0 and some of my workflows.

Mavericks, Mail, and Gmail→

Joe Kissell:

Apple Mail in Mavericks treats Gmail accounts differently than any previous version of Mail did. Although some of the changes are quite clever, the implementation has flaws. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I’ve seen a number of folks on Twitter complaining about some of the same things I’ve found. Here’s what I’ve observed and what you can (and can’t) do about it.

I mentioned “strangeness” with Mail in my review of Mavericks. Joe does an excellent job at documenting what’s going on and why.

I’ll let you guess what other old feature Mavericks broke in Mail (keep reading Joe’s article until the end).

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AppleScript Support Effectively Gone From New iWork Apps→

Clark Goble notes that, with the new iWork apps released yesterday, the AppleScript dictionary included in them has been so slimmed down it’s basically gone. He has screenshots showing the regression, and he concludes:

What I suspect Apple doesn’t realize is how much small business and small shops workflow depends upon AppleScript. Casual use is fine. But a lot of people do more. It wouldn’t be so bad were there an alternative. This isn’t just like Apple not upgrading the Mac Pro. This is like Apple not upgrading the Mac Pro for four years, then announcing that the Mac Mini is the new Mac Pro. And discontinuing FCPX, Aperture, and its other pro apps and telling you to use iPhoto and iMovie.

It’s baffling that the same company that brings these automation enhancements cuts AppleScript support in other Mavericks apps. Maybe the iWork team didn’t have the time to rework AppleScript support for the new apps. However, as Dr. Drang notes, it’s strange that AppleScript has been removed from apps that once had it.

I hope that Apple will put AppleScript back in a future update to iWork. I don’t want to think that Apple just doesn’t care about consumer apps also used by advanced users (with higher needs) anymore.

 

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Working with Mavericks After A Year of iPad

I don’t need my Mac as much as I used to.

When I started MacStories in April 2009, I had a late–2008 MacBook Pro and an original iPhone I had bought from the United States and unlocked to make it work in Italy. From 2008 and until the better part of 2012, my MacBook Pro (and then the Air) was my primary computer: it was the device I used to write, browse the web for research and leisure, respond to emails, and do all the other tasks to get work done on a daily basis. Because my Mac was also the only device that could allow me to manage MacStories, I had to bring it with me on trips or longer vacations.

I’ve always been the kind of Mac user who likes to enhance his OS X experience with little scripts, shortcuts, and automation tools to save a few minutes every day and speed up tedious work tasks. I have Keyboard Maestro macros to automatically resize and generate screenshots for my reviews; I have assigned hotkeys to actions that I run frequently; if necessary, I can trigger a Python script or AppleScript-based workflow and have OS X take care of a complex task for me. I fall into the category of OS X power users and I’m fond of the apps and utilities I rely upon. But, in the past year, I’ve found myself using them less and less because I enjoy working from iOS more.

Most of my work activities are related to writing: whether it’s an article, a quick research note, an email, or chatting with my co-workers, I spend a lot of time typing and assembling words in a way that (I hope) makes sense to my readers and colleagues. In the past year – as people who have been following this site know – I have realized that I can be as efficient on my iPhone and iPad as I am on my Mac. I was initially forced into my new iPad-first workflow by frequent hospitalizations and a general inability to use my MacBook Air for long writing sessions; after the initial “What do I do now” moment and annoyances, I’ve come to like iOS – and the iPad – more and more.

I haven’t listened to people who told me I couldn’t work from my iPad. Read more

Apple Updates Podcasts, Find My iPhone, and iTunes Movie Trailers for iOS 7

Following major updates to its iLife and iWork suites of apps for iOS and OS X, Apple has also released updates for some of its other App Store apps today.

Podcasts 2.0. Apple’s official Podcasts app for iOS has been updated to version 2.0, which sports a complete iOS 7-themed redesign that gets rid of every last bit of skeuomorphism that was left in the app and adopts a cleaner, simplified look with purple UI accents.

In terms of new features, Apple added support for iOS 7 background downloads to the app, allowing Podcasts to ask the user to always download new episodes in the background without having to open the app. Each of your podcast subscriptions comes with a Settings area that can be used to tweak the refresh rate to check for new episodes (default is every 6 hours) and adjust play and sort order.

Podcasts from the iTunes Store are now available in the new Featured tab, and Top Charts can be viewed as lists. There is a new search tab to look for podcasts on iTunes, and, in the Now Playing screen, you can tap on the podcast’s artwork to show an episode’s description. Alas, it appears the app still doesn’t support show notes for episodes, which aren’t displayed at all.

Podcasts 2.0 is available on the App Store.

iTunes Movie Trailers 1.3. Reaching version 1.3, iTunes Movie Trailers sports an iOS 7 redesign and no major new features. The app has a new icon, and the interface adopts a black theme with gold highlights for other icon and UI elements. There’s a nice contrast between the dark background and colorful movie posters and thumbnails, and the app makes nice use of blurs and transparencies for various menus throughout the interface.

iTunes Movie Trailers 1.3 is available on the App Store.

Find My iPhone 3.0. Last, Apple’s iOS app to locate, find, and manage lost iOS devices has been updated to version 3.0, which also features a new iOS 7 design. The app is now primarily a map view with white toolbars and redesigned green icons for iOS 7. Interestingly, Apple isn’t using a regular sharing menu for the Actions available at the bottom of the screen opting for a bar that you can tap instead.

Find My iPhone 3.0 is available on the App Store.

For more coverage, check out our October 22 news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.