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It's time to get a little geeky! When it comes to using Mail daily, lots of tasks can become repetitive and whilst it may not seem like a lot of time is wasted on these actions, when you add up the time involved, it soon builds up. Now lots of these tasks can be automated with a little bit of AppleScript and in this video, Lee walks you through three simple examples that will help create new message templates, download files to a specific location as well as move messages and change their flagged and read status.

You can also download the text files Lee uses as examples, from the link below.

Proton Mail is part of a growing suite of privacy-focused applications developed by scientists who met at CERN. Designed with security and freedom as core principles, Proton Mail not only offers robust encryption—it also delivers a clean, user-friendly interface.

In this video, Lee guides you through everything you need to know to get started. You’ll learn how to set up different types of Proton Mail accounts, compose encrypted emails, and see what it’s like for someone without a Proton account to receive a password-protected message. Lee also covers how to forward emails from Gmail into Proton Mail—and even how to migrate your entire Gmail account if you’re ready to make the switch.

Terminology is celebrating its 15th birthday this year and to celebrate, it's undergone a massive redesign from the ground up. For those of you who don't know what this wonderful application can do, then this video may surprise you. I use it as my go-to tool for researching a subject or topic when I'm working on the iPad or iPhone. Yes, it started life primarily as a dictionary and thesaurus however over the years it has grown into so much more, and with hooks into some of your favourite AI services, such as ChatGPT, it's the Research app you may not have known you needed

More of a conceptual video this time round as Lee walks you through his menu bar setup, starting with a look at how it's structured, followed by a brief look at the software used to manage it. Then, the bulk of the video centres on some brief overviews as to the apps themselves, and how they are used. If you are looking for inspiration as to how to set up your own menu bar, or just look for some new apps, this could be the video for you.

The iPhone (and iPad) screens are a delight to behold. Super high resolution with bold bright colours. I get bored pretty easily with the same wallpapers so I came up with a solution to quickly capture new wallpapers from social media, and change them on my devices with a simple tap of the lock screen.

This tutorial takes you through all of the steps to do the same,

The Apple Watch is regularly touted as a life saving device. It feels like every WWDC and every keynote we get a video about real life cases of people using specific health and safety features to avoid the worst. It’s easily the best part of this product and in this video you’ll find out about those features. Use your watch to monitor your heat rate for any irregular highs or lows, detect falls or crashes, and create a medical ID so paramedics can easily identify essential information in an emergency. We’ll even show you how to use the Check-in feature of iMessage to keep others aware of you journey and keep an eye on you.

Raycast have an extensive offering on Mac. Not only as a replacement for Spotlight but as a repository of different app extensions. The company have now released an offering on iPhone and iPad with some shared features in Notes, Snippets and Quicklinks, as well as an extensive AI assistant. This incorporates many of the different GPT models to assist you in writing, researching and learning.

Apple continues to lead the way in making technology more accessible.  One of its latest features turns the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) into a powerful tool for hearing support.  In this video, Lee demonstrates how to test your hearing using your iPhone and AirPods, and how to enable Hearing Assistance to make conversations clearer and easier.

In show 1020, Lee looked at Widgetsmith in a Tip video covering the basics in less than 15 minutes, to help get you started. It's fair to say that since then, both the popularity of the app as well as its functionality have increased to the point where it's time for a full-length video. It's one of the most universally popular apps for all age groups because it allows you to customise your Home and Lock screens with widgets and icons that YOU want to see.

Since the last video was released, Widgetsmith has added more Interactive Widgets and Action widgets that allow you tap and execute an action rather than open an app in the usual way. Each category of widgets also has more variations to choose from. If you have an iPhone, or iPad, Widgetsmith has something to offer, and you can get started for free, with more options available with a subscription.

Widgetsmith runs on iOS or iPadOS 15.0 or later.

The Premium version is available for $1.99 per month, or you can have the annual subscription for $19.99

The macOS Dock has gone relatively unchanged for as long as it's existed. Enter Sidebar, a utility that offers a modern take on the Dock. Join Darcy as he takes you on a tour of the app and reveals some of its most useful features, including one-click access to files, folders, or apps, and the ability to display date and time right on the Sidebar dock. You can also add a volume control as well as get a preview of an open app's window.

Sidebar will run on macOS 12.0 or newer. A 7-day trial is available on the developer website listed below. Sidebar is included as part of a Setapp subscription.

When your Apple laptop's battery is working as it should, you don't tend to not notice; it just works.  However when the things you do on your Mac are causing it to drain more quickly, it can have a significant impact on your day to day.  In this tip video, Lee walks you through some key settings you can apply to keep your device lasting longer when you are off of the mains.  You also learn how you can use Activity Monitor (a utility built in to macOS) to identify and troubleshoot apps and processes that affect your battery's performance.

After giving a thorough introduction on how to use both the free and Powerpack-driven versions of Alfred, Lee takes a deeper dive into building customised workflows. In this video, you learn how to build simple Keyword and List Filter workflows, understand how arguments and variables work and break down a complex workflow into its component parts, allowing you to better grasp each one.

At the end of the show, Lee shows his most-used workflows that can be obtained directly from the Alfred Gallery, including some on popular applications like DEVONthink, OmniFocus, and Obsidian.

Alfred requires macOS 10.14 or newer.

Back in show 1032, Lee covered Session in one of the Tuesday Tip videos. Since this show was released, the application has developed significantly and he now uses it as his main tool for staying focused on his work. Session is an application that uses the tenets of the Pomodoro Technique to split the working day up into focused sessions of work, encouraging you to set intentions, eliminate distractions and take frequent breaks, ensuring you make the most of the time you have available.

Focusing on the Mac version in this video, Lee walks through not just how to use the app at a functional level, but also offers some ideas for how you may want to set it up for yourself. Lee also looks at some of the useful automation functionality Session has to offer, such as Shortcuts integration and the ability to support URL schemes, allowing you to start custom work sessions by clicking a link.

Session runs on macOS 10.15 or newer, and iOS 13.4 or later.

Clipboard management on our mobile devices has been problematic for years. Alexander Picard's OneTap is here to help remedy this. By utilising its dedicated keyboard, you're able to create shortcuts that can paste text, photos, URLs, as well as links to documents. This eliminates the need to repeatedly paste the same content over and over.

In this video shot on iPhone, Lee walks you through how to set up OneTap, as well as use Apple's versatile Shortcuts app to create shortcuts using the app.

OneTap will run on:

iOS and iPadOS 15.0 or later

macOS 12.0 or later

visionOS 1.0 or later

In last week's show, Lee walked you through the features available with the free version of Alfred. This week, he takes it up a notch by showing what you can do with a purchase of the Powerpack. It both extends the free functionality as well as adds new features to an already rich application.

In this video, you'll learn how to use Alfred to navigate your folder structure, buffer files for actioning later, access Contact information, manage Music playback, integrate with 1Password as well as get started on building your own workflows to improve your productivty.

Alfred from Running with Crayons runs on macOS 10.14 and newer.

Pricing information for Powerpack

Virtual private networks (VPN), while they've been around for a while can still be hard to understand. Even if you know about them, once turned on it can be unclear if you're receiving the benefits. Using ClearVPN, in this show Darcy outlines exactly how a VPN works to protect your devices while browsing on insecure networks (such as your favorite coffee shop's public wifi) with real demonstrations of ad blocking.

With a beautiful user interface, ClearVPN also gives you the ability to access streaming services around the globe. Throw in quick access through Shortcuts and widgets on your home screen, and you've got a very flexible way to manage your VPN connections.

ClearVPN from MacPaw runs on macOS 13 or newer, and iOS or iPadOS 16 or later.

You get access to ClearVPN through a Setapp subscription, or you can subscribe to the app on a monthly ($9.99 USD) or annual ($44.99 USD) plan, after a 3-day trial, perfect to follow along with Darcy!

The application Almighty from Indie Goodies software simplifies how you use system shortcuts and settings on your Mac by combining them into a single app experience. It gives you access to over 50 different customisations that can be triggered using keyboard shortcuts or the menu bar. These include tasks like automatically converting rich text to plain when copied, creating spaces in your Dock to organise your apps, and displaying your keystrokes, to name just a few.

Join Darcy in this episode as he goes through many of these actions, demos them for you, and shows you how to organise your favourites into a workflow that allows you to run a sequence of actions and settings with a single click!

Almighty will run on macOS 13.0 or newer.

In this episode, Don goes on a deeper dive of the iPhone Mirroring app that was introduced with macOS Sequoia. You learn how you can control your compatible iPhone using your Mac's keyboard and input device (trackpad or mouse), and do things like copy and paste between a Mac app and your iPhone, right on your Mac. Don also goes through the system requirements in detail so you're ready to start using this useful addition to macOS.

Living in the menu bar, Dropzone from Aptonic creates a single space to store, reference and edit files of all different kinds. Start by taking files and folders you access most regularly and store universal aliases that can be accessed from anywhere. Join Darcy as he explores advanced actions, dragging files from anywhere on your computer to create an email from, convert to a different format, and much more. Dropzone offers a non-invasive space to collect your most used shortcuts and tasks, no matter the project.

Dropzone requires macOS 11.0 or later.

It is available with your Setapp subscription.

14-day Dropzone 4 Pro trial included (with free download)((httpss://aptonic.com/dropzone/latest)

Every now and then a utility comes around that you didn't know you needed. We use tabs in various applications, such as Preview and Safari and when it comes to opening one, it's normal practice to just switch to the application and then manually switch to the tab you need. With TabTab, you can simply key in a shortcut to invoke it, and then search for the tab name. As long as the application is supported, it takes you to it. TabTab can also act as an alternative application launcher from the macOS default, so there's no reason not to give this gem of a utility a try. The free version limits tracking to the last 5 applications or tabs, whereas a TabTab Pro lifetime license ($24 USD) removes that limitation. It runs on Intel and Apple silicon Macs, macOS 14.0 or newer.