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Micro.blog is an independent and unique microblog and podcasting community created with privacy and safety in mind. It supports IndieWeb standards and gives you several options to host your blog and other content while making sure you keep control of it.

Rosemary gives you a tour of the various features that make Micro.blog a unique alternative to other social platforms and introduces you to some apps for Mac and iOS so you can get a native experience on your devices.

Whilst we have a fantastic messaging app with Apple Messages, it's not always easy to chat or transfer files to non-Apple devices.

Step forward WhatsApp Messenger.

This free app and service is owned by Facebook and boasts over 2 billion users worldwide. It's never been easier to share chats, photos, videos, documents even location data with individuals or even better, with groups of people. You can even video conference with multiple people from your phone without worrying what device they have. WhatsApp Messenger is available for both iOS and Android although we only cover the iOS version in this show. In addition, you can also install WhatsApp Desktop on the Mac or PC, and access all of your WhatsApp chats and media from your computer.

In this video tutorial, Don takes you through setting up and using WhatsApp along with its many features.

In the second part of his Fantastical two-part series, Lee looks at some at some of the more advanced features that version 3 of the calendar application has to offer, such as Time Zone support, Invitee Availability and Weather. You also learn about template creation and get a tour of the configuration options within Fantastical's Preferences.

Zoom is an extremely popular video conferencing application, that is used by the British government for press conferences, as well as by schools, universities, and businesses around the world.

In this special tip show, Rosemary shows you how to configure Zoom and quickly host your first meeting, even before creating an account. She then goes on to show you many of its great features including the ability to schedule recurring meetings, create templates that make hosting the same type of meeting or webinar more efficient, how to use the built-in chat, and much, much more. You also learn the many settings Zoom offers to customize your experience.

Some privacy-sensitive issues where Zoom installed a local server on your Mac, or the iOS app sending data to Facebook, have both been resolved and should no longer be a concern for users.

In the first video of a two-part series, Lee starts to take a deep dive into the new version of Fantastical, by Flexibits. Fantastical 3 has added a lot of premium features and in this screencast, you learn how to get started with the application on all platforms. First by understanding the new licensing model, installing the app, and adding calendar accounts.

Lee also goes over creating and editing new events, adding calendars within an account, how to create Calendar Sets, as well as subscribing to external calendars that focus on your key interests.

There are a plethora of cloud-based services available, but most are expensive and hosted on corporate infrastructure.

Synology has introduced Synology Drive, a potential replacement for many cloud-based services, all hosted on your personal Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. Sync files between your Mac, backup data to your NAS and access files from your mobile devices. Free yourself from ongoing monthly costs and rest easy knowing that your files and folders are stored on your own personal hardware. Accessible from your local network or via the internet using web apps, desktop apps, and mobile apps.

In this second part, Don takes you through using the iOS Synology Drive App and shows you some more advanced features such as setting up a Team Folder and using an alias to directly access the web app.

There are a plethora of cloud-based services available, but most are expensive and hosted on corporate infrastructure. Synology have introduced Synology Drive, a potential replacement for many cloud-based services, all hosted on your personal Network-attached Storage (NAS) device. Sync files between your Mac, backup data to your NAS and access files from your mobile devices. Free yourself from ongoing monthly costs and rest easy knowing that your files and folders are stored on your own personal hardware. Accessible from your local network or via the internet using Synology's web apps, as well as desktop and mobile apps. In this first of two parts, Don takes you through the basic setting up Synology Drive and demonstrates how to sync using the Synology Drive Client on the Mac.

In this video, Lee introduces a task management application that has recently undergone a change of ownership.

Formerly known as Wunderlist, Microsoft To Do is a cross-platform task management solution that allows you to make quick lists of tasks that require completion. You learn how to create tasks and lists, configure notifications, use attachments and notes, and collaborate with others. Lee also walks you through the configuration of Siri Shortcuts to add tasks to lists on the move. After switching to the Mac, he wraps up with a short section that shows how Outlook and To Do work together.

DEVONthink is one of the most powerful database applications made for the Mac. In fact, some people have said this one application makes it worth getting a Mac just to run it!

In the third of this three-part foundation tutorial, Todd covers how to work with your data once it is inside DEVONthink. He then goes on to show how to use the powerful search AI to find the files you have in your database and some of the automation features that are new to version 3. From there he shows how to sync your databases with your other devices and ways you can get your information out of DEVONthink if you want to use it somewhere else.

In this tutorial, Rosemary walks you through Unibox, a modern email client for Mac and iOS.

Unibox's fresh approach groups your emails by sender rather than chronologically. Alongside many of the things you would expect of your mail program, it incorporates unique features. These include an attachment view which you can filter by type, a clever way to compose emails and keep track of your drafts in one window, as well as flexible swipe gestures on iOS so you can quickly process your inbox.

Tim Stringer is our special guest presenter this week. Tim has been a contributor to ScreenCastsOnline before, covering Daylite in three separate screencasts, but for this tip he brings us up to date with the improvements to OmniFocus 3.4 on iPhone and iPad. Since contributing to ScreenCastsOnline, Tim has set up his own video tutorial service, Learn OmniFocus. You can learn more about this terrific service at the end of these show notes, along with a special offer for ScreenCastsOnline members.

OmniFocus 3.4 is a significant update that taps into new functionality that Apple introduced in iOS & iPadOS 13. Most notably, it's now possible to automate OmniFocus in many new ways, thanks to a set of actions available in Shortcuts.

DEVONthink is one of the most powerful database applications made for the Mac. In fact, some people have said this one application makes it worth getting a Mac just to run it!

In the second of this three-part foundation tutorial, Todd covers the many ways you can view your database and goes over setting up workspaces. He also shows you how to work with the rich metadata that you can assign to your files inside of DEVONthink, then goes over how you can use groups and tags as a way to organise the information inside your databases.

ScreenFlow is the ultimate video production tool for screencasting and is the core tool we use every day here at ScreenCastsOnline to record and edit our weekly shows. Since recording the ScreenFlow 8 Foundation course in early 2019, Telestream has released ScreenFlow 9, a major update to this amazing application.

In this update episode, Don walks you through all of the new features of version 9, which turns ScreenFlow from a niche screencast production tool to a fully-featured video recorder and non-linear editor, capable of tackling most video projects.

DEVONthink is one of the most powerful database applications made for the Mac. In fact, some people have said this one application makes it worth getting a Mac just to run it!

In this first of three foundation screencasts, Todd covers how to install and set up DEVONThink for the first time. He then walks you through all of the ways to get information into your databases. DEVONThink is a really rich application that has a plug-in for just about every type of information gathering you can think of, and some you may not have thought of!

In the second episode of this two-part tutorial, Lee continues his exploration of Parallels Desktop 15, an application that allows you to run a variety of operating systems from the comfort of your Mac.

Here you learn how to configure your input devices, set up application shortcuts, as well as back up your virtual machines using various techniques. Customising your hardware options to optimise performance is also covered. Finally, Lee shows you how to install the latest beta of macOS Catalina as a virtual machine.

In the first of a two-part tutorial, Lee introduces you to Parallels Desktop 15, an application that allows you to run a Windows operating system from the comfort of your Mac.

In this episode, you will learn about installation, how to create a new virtual machine, as well as how to share files, folders, and applications between your Windows and Mac environments.

Zenkit is a web-based project management tool that also provides native applications for macOS and iOS.

In this episode, the second of our two-part series, Lee builds on the foundations laid in Part 1 and shows you how to deploy Zenkit in a team environment. Integration with third-party web services is also covered, as well as using Zenkit efficiently on iOS.

Apple is continuously improving Pages, Numbers and Keynote by adding in new features or adding back functionality that had been removed from the original versions several years ago.

In this tip video, Don takes a look at some of the common features implemented in the most recent iOS release, as well as some app-specific features.

Apple is continuously improving Pages, Numbers and Keynote by adding in new features or adding back functionality that had been removed from the original versions several years ago.

In this tip video, Don takes a look at some of the common features implemented in the most recent macOS release, as well as some of the new app-specific features.

Zenkit is a web-based project management tool that also provides native applications for macOS and iOS.

In this episode, the first of a two-part series, Lee shows you how Zenkit handles project management using Workspaces and Collections. You learn how to create and modify collections using various field types depending on your needs, configure useful views for your data, as well as filtering and searching through your workspaces and collections.