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How I Use Custom Perspectives in OmniFocus

My custom perspective setup.

My custom perspective setup.

A few weeks ago, we released the latest product under the MacStories Pixel brand: MacStories Perspective Icons, a set of 20,000 custom perspective icons for OmniFocus Pro. You can find more details on the product page, read the FAQ, and check out my announcement blog post here. The set is available at $17.99 with a launch promo; Club MacStories members can purchase it at an additional 15% off.

As part of the release of MacStories Perspective Icons (which, by the way, takes advantage of a new feature in OmniFocus 3.8 to install custom icons with a Files picker), I wanted to write about my perspective setup in OmniFocus and explain why custom perspectives have become an integral component of my task management workflow.

Let me clarify upfront, however, that this article isn’t meant to be a primer on custom perspectives in OmniFocus. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, I recommend checking out this excellent guide over at Learn OmniFocus; alternatively, you can read The Omni Group’s official perspective documentation here. You can also find other solid examples of OmniFocus users’ custom setups around the web such as these two, which helped me better understand the power and flexibility of perspectives in OmniFocus when I was new to the app. In this story, I’m going to focus on how I’ve been using perspectives to put together a custom sidebar in OmniFocus that helps me navigate my busy life and make sense of it all.

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Sofa Debuts Modern iPad App, Rich Themes Experience, and More

I suspect I’m not alone in saying that 2020 has been a big year for personal media consumption. The absence of normal social events has meant more time for reading, watching shows and movies, and other forms of relaxation.

At the end of last year I wrote about how I was using Sofa, a media list app, to track the TV and films I’d watched in 2019. I’ve used the same approach throughout 2020, and it continues to work well for me. The only change is that I’ve been testing a big update to Sofa for the last few weeks that’s available now. Previously exclusive to the iPhone, Sofa now offers a rich iPad experience complete with Split View, Slide Over, and multiwindowing, keyboard shortcuts, and mouse and trackpad support. Additionally, today’s update adds a robust theming system to the app and seamless iCloud syncing. It’s a strong step forward for the app, making it more versatile than ever before.

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Yes Plz: Great Coffee, Delivered to Your Door [Sponsor]

With Yes Plz you can enjoy coffee bar-caliber quality in your own kitchen — and it’s easy when you start with great beans. The best cup of coffee you ever drink should be one you brewed yourself.

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Delicious beans with no corners cut from longtime leaders of coffee’s “third wave” movement. Try a bag and you’ll be convinced. MacStories readers can take $5 off their first order by signing up here today or using promo code MACSTORIES at check out.

Our thanks to Yes Plz Coffee for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Apple Shares Open Source Resources for Password Manager Apps→

Today on Apple’s developer site, the company announced the release of new resources for password manager apps:

Apple has created a new open source project to help developers of password managers collaborate to create strong passwords that are compatible with popular websites. The Password Manager Resources open source project allows you to integrate website-specific requirements used by the iCloud Keychain password manager to generate strong, unique passwords. The project also contains collections of websites known to share a sign-in system, links to websites’ pages where users change passwords, and more.

The open source project can be accessed on GitHub.

Apple has continually deepened its investment in the area of password management with iCloud Keychain upgrades in recent years and new APIs for third-party apps. Today’s announcement takes things a step further down the path of openness and collaboration, enabling apps to share important site-specific information with one another so that users have the best, most secure experience possible no matter their choice of password manager.

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MacStories Unwind: A Message from MacStories, Apple’s Response to Racism, Notes Shortcuts, and a New HomeKit Camera

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This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • Tempo for Runners
    • Apple TV Channels: A Great TV Experience That’s Failing by Ryan
    • A new webpage to PDF workflow from Federico
    • Q&A, links, apps, and more

AppStories

Unwind Picks

Shortcuts Rewind: Working with Apple Notes, Part 1

Whether you have hundreds of notes and are looking for a way to sift through them, or you want a quick way to create a note or add to an existing one, Shortcuts is a terrific solution. I have about 300 notes. That’s a lot, but I know people with many more. Between pinning and sorting by date modified, my notes are manageable, but often I find myself searching for a bit of information I stored away months ago. That’s why I want to kick off a pair of Shortcuts Rewind installments with two shortcuts to help you locate existing notes. In a future installment, I’ll tackle note creation.

Apple’s Notes app has built-in search, and its sorting is powerful, but with Find Notes (with Menu) and View Recent Notes, you can create a customized system that takes you to your most-used notes faster, regardless of whether you are working in the Notes app.

Aside from the utility of the shortcuts themselves, these two shortcuts are also an excellent way to dig into Shortcuts’ scripting actions. As I walk through each shortcut, you’ll see how picking from lists works and use a counting script action to tie a shortcut’s behavior to the number of items found. I’ll also briefly revisit If and Otherwise actions, a staple of many shortcuts.

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Apple Watch Activity Challenge Coming June 5 for World Environment Day

Apple Watch owners will have the chance to earn perhaps their most attainable special Activity award yet. On Friday, June 5 the World Environment Day Challenge will call Apple Watch users to close their Stand ring for the day to earn a unique award badge. From the Activity app:

Recognize World Environment Day this Friday. Close your Stand ring on June 5 and earn this award by getting up and moving around for at least one minute during 12 hours that day.

Presumably for wheelchair users, the award can be earned as well by closing the Roll ring, which follows the same basic parameters as the Stand ring.

I always enjoy earning additional awards related to Activity challenges, so I’m glad Apple is continuing to offer these options and adapt them to the restrictions of the ongoing pandemic.

Apple’s Tim Cook Publishes Open Letter Addressing Racism in America→

Today, Apple CEO Tim Cook published an open letter addressing racism in America. In the letter, which is currently featured on the apple.com homepage, Cook explains:

Right now, there is a pain deeply etched in the soul of our nation and in the hearts of millions. To stand together, we must stand up for one another, and recognize the fear, hurt, and outrage rightly provoked by the senseless killing of George Floyd and a much longer history of racism.

That painful past is still present today — not only in the form of violence, but in the everyday experience of deeply rooted discrimination. We see it in our criminal justice system, in the disproportionate toll of disease on Black and Brown communities, in the inequalities in neighborhood services and the educations our children receive.

To play its part in combating racism, Cook says Apple will redouble its efforts on social programs and inclusion initiatives:

But we must do more. We commit to continuing our work to bring critical resources and technology to underserved school systems. We commit to continuing to fight the forces of environmental injustice — like climate change — which disproportionately harm Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to looking inward and pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity, so that every great idea can be heard. And we’re donating to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, which challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration.

Cook’s letter is important not just as a statement of where Apple stands on racism but as an example of the sort of leadership role tech companies can take to address the systemic causes of it.

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Preorders Begin for Eve Cam the HomeKit Secure Video-Enabled Indoor Camera

Source: Eve Systems.

Source: Eve Systems.

The devices I previewed in January during CES continue to trickle out with the HomeKit-enabled Eve Cam becoming a little more concrete today. The $150 indoor camera isn’t out just yet, but it is available for preorder with shipments to begin June 23rd.

In a press release issued today the camera’s maker, Eve Systems, is touting the privacy of the HomeKit Secure Video-only device:

Eve Cam offers a state-of-the art feature set and user experience, ranging from seamless installation and rich notifications to fully automatic, presence-based operation that allows the camera to deactivate when everyone is home. Eve Cam is made exclusively for Apple HomeKit Secure Video, delivering data security and privacy by design. Live images are never streamed through a server, and recordings are stored securely and fully encrypted in the user’s iCloud.

Because the camera only works with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video solution, it requires a 200GB or greater iCloud storage plan. A 200GB plan, which costs $2.99 per month, can be connected to one camera at no additional charge, while a $9.99 per month 2TB plan is required for up to five cameras.

The Eve Cam shoots video in 1080p at 24fps, has a night vision range of 5 meters, a 150-degree field of vision, two-way communication, a motion sensor, and can be wall-mounted using a magnetic plate that can be attached to a wall with adhesive. The device connects to iCloud using WiFi, requires a wired electrical connection, and is compatible with wall outlets in the US, UK, EU, and Australia.

I haven’t had an opportunity to try the Eve Cam, but I have owned electrical plugs and motion sensors from Eve Systems and have been impressed with their quality and reliability. The camera’s relatively slim profile and feature set make it look like it could be a good indoor alternative to the Logitech Circle 2 camera, though for outdoor use, you’ll still need something that can withstand the elements. Preorders can be placed on Eve System’s website.