@MacSparky : “…we’re now starting to come out of the pandemic…” @ismh : “…face unlock. It’s awesome that we have it but it was really important for three months.”
I would remind you that many of your listeners live in countries other than the US. For example, I am an American citizen who has been living in Thailand since 2008. I am not scheduled for my first shot until August, and that’s open to debate. For me, it’s a mask for the foreseeable future. The face unlock is very important to me and will be, probably for the rest of the year. I may even go along with David and just keep wearing a mask when I go to crowded places after “it’s all over.”
Not criticism, just a suggestion to keep in mind. After all, Apple is playing to a worldwide audience…and so are you!
P.S. I listen to all the MPU podcasts, but I’m really enjoying this show, in particular. As someone who is all in on the Apple ecosystem, I’m finding it (still not quite finished) very interesting.
I don’t use dictation, but I found that the announcement for on-system dictation as a new feature in Monterey was disingenuous. At least since our first Mac in 2004 there has been on-system dictation. It’s just that when Siri was brought to the Mac in Catalina they brought over the Siri dictation (with the short time limits). However the older on-system “enhanced dictation” is still there, just moved under Accessibility. Presumably it’s still there in Monterey, especially for Intel Macs that won’t get the new on-system Siri dictation.
Thanks for this post - I have to agree. I teach university undergraduates and I also use hand-off, and multiple devices, all the time. I have an iMac in my office but take my MacBook Pro and/or iPad Pro to the various classrooms I teach in. At home another iMac. I use the iPad Pro for things that need annotation with the pencil, or for presentations with GoodNotes hooked up to the projector where I can annotate in real time. I go back and forth between the macs all depending on where I am, and to a certain extent project. I am also very excited to see what Universal Control does for this setup as I often work with my iPad right next to either MacBook or iMac. I understand not everyone would have this kind of workflow, but I agree that we are out there and that the new features will be a benefit for us.
There might be a blurring between my personal devices and work use that I presently have that’s a bit unique that no one questions, and that especially makes features like this more useful, as my phone is also able to be a hub for work-related tasks when appropriate.
I always feel like I should make more use of my phone in a work context but it just hasn’t stuck, other than maybe making a quick note on the fly with Drafts. It’s always interesting to me to hear how others are making use of the phone in a working context.
My biggest uses are related to music — using a tuning app, metronome, or GarageBand to play a warm-up accompaniment I made. And of course, Drafts for me as well.
Because I have only so much space on my music stand which is occupied majorly by physical music that’s not on my iPad, I might also use it to check Agenda for my rehearsal notes if it’s a pain to get to my iPad (though I’m thinking of moving out of Agenda).
The other portion is for quickly referencing on the go — if I have to get a student from their classroom for a lesson, I’ll check Tap Forms on my phone for it unless I was already on my Mac and found it faster to pull up there.
A lot of it is social cues, too — if a student is still packing up in my office after our lesson, but I need to get the next kid, I find it a bit rude to pull out my phone, so I’ll usually check on my Mac instead.
Not the point of this thread, but I’m also thinking of leaving Tap Forms too. I used Ninox prior to it, and might go back to it. The band-specific database software out there is out of my budget and looks too pricy and maybe not flexible enough.
No need to apologize. It’s something I would probably do given the same situation. We tend to think locally in a global world (I guess that’s somewhat redundant).
A really good episode and may be digging back into the Shortcut section later. So good!
@MacSparky I understand your frustration with M1 iPad, and I have been a little, but I’ve not been looking at it in the same way. I did find the best understanding and explanation of why Apple expanded RAM and how it will be used - https://youtu.be/_72gpFABj-U - If you haven’t had Brad on (I’ve listed to you guys since 2011, if not earlier and I don’t remember who you’ve had on) it may be a really good MPU.
On another front I stumbled into tagging files in Toolbox Pro. I haven’t tried it yet as my need to obsessively tag my own files isn’t a need or as helpful at the moment. But, I also stumbled onto file aggregation on the iPad by file tags (I’m still on iPad OS 14 on my iPads - the creation iPad may bump up after the next beta rev or two).
