Holiday Sale: Save 50% on all Enpass password manager plans

This is directed at those of you who are in the market for a password manager. I’ve been using Enpass for several months and am very happy with it.

I’ll mention that Enpass moved to subscription a few weeks ago but they also have a lifetime license and with the sale you, can get a lifetime license for just $24.99.

A special deal for the Holidays: 50% off on all Enpass plans

Enpass will be on sale with a discount of 50% on all app stores – while you can get a lifetime license for only $24.99, you can also get an Enpass Premium subscription starting for as low as $0.49 per month. And, of course, the full-featured desktop versions of Enpass – macOS, Windows, Linux – are completely free.

Note that this is a limited time offer, starting from December 24, 2019 and valid till January 2, 2020. So, don’t wait and unlock the full version of Enpass at this special discounted price. Spread the word to help your friends and family members get started with safe and secure password management.

My 2020 Must-Have Mac, iPhone, and iPad Apps

Each year towards the end of December I summarize in a post, on this site, the Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps that I will be using for the next year. This is always one of my most popular posts.

This year instead of a separate article for Mac apps and another for iPhone and iPad apps I’m putting them all in one article. I indicate in parenthesis under the app title where I’m using the app Mac, iPhone or iPad.

During 2019 I tried a lot of different apps. Some I liked and switched to and others I tried, didn’t like and stayed with what I’d been using. I hope you’ll discover a new app or two that will improve your workflow or make you more productive.

My setup:

  • MacBook Pro (early–2015 13”)
  • iPhone 7 Plus
  • iPad 5th Generation
  • Apple Watch 44 mm Series 4

Here’s my software and what I use it for:

Safari
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Safari is my browser of choice. It just works best on macOS. I use Firefox when a site doesn’t play nice with it.

Enpass
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Gotta have a password manager.

Fastmail
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
I’ve been using Fastmail for email for over 5 years. A few weeks ago I also started using it for calendar, and contacts. On my iPhone and iPad, I use the Fastmail app. Unfortunately, Fastmail doesn’t have a Mac app but with Unite I turned the Fastmail web client into a native Mac app. I’ve written about Fastmail here.

Fantastical 2
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Fantastical is my calendar app. It integrates perfectly with my Fastmail calendar appointments and events.

Things 3
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
I use Things 3 for task management. I love the simplicity of how it works. I wrote about it here.

Due
(iPhone and iPad)
Due is where I keep all my reminders.

Drafts 5
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
I’ve been using Drafts for several years. It’s my multi-purpose writing and note-taking app. I often use it as the first stop for most everything I write and then use Drafts actions to send what I’ve written anywhere I want to. I’ve written about how I use Drafts here.

Bear
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
I’ve been a Bear pro user since the inception of the app. It’s where I keep all my notes and lists. For now, it’s also where I’m doing my writing. And for plain text I use iA Writer on my Mac and 1Writer on my iPhone and iPad.

Marked 2
(Mac)
Marked is the markdown previewer app I use side by side with my writing app.

Grammarly
(Mac and iPad)
I use Grammarly for proofreading my stories for grammar and punctuation.

Yoink
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Yoink speeds and up my workflow by simplifying drag and drop. I’ve written about Yoink here.

Copied
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Copied is my cross-platform clipboard history manager. I’ve written about it here.

Reeder
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Reeder is what I use for my Feedly RSS feeds.

Pocket
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
I’m now using Pocket instead of Instapaper for reading later. I wrote about why I switched here.

Tweetbot
(iPhone and iPad)
Tweetbot is for Twitter.

Day One Journal
(iPhone and iPad)
Day One is where I keep a lifelog.

Alfred
(Mac)
Alfred is Spotlight on steroids. I’d be lost without it. I’ve written about it here.

Keyboard Maestro
(Mac)
Keyboard Maestro is another app that I couldn’t live without it. I use Keyboard Maestro keyboard shortcuts to launch apps, open files and folders and automating actions. It has a learning curve but once you start to get the hang of it you can do some amazing things. I’ve written about Keyboard Maestro here.

Dropbox
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
Dropbox is where I keep files that I want to have available on all my devices. It’s also where syncing happens for apps like Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, and Due.

PDFpen and Hazel are key apps for my paperless workflow. I’ve written about my paperless workflow here.

Scanner Pro
(iPhone and iPad)
Scanner Pro is also part of my paperless workflow. I use it to scan paper documents into PDFs with OCR that look clean and professional.

App Cleaner
(Mac)
AppCleaner is my app uninstaller. I use it because it deletes all the junk that gets left behind when you just drag the app icon to the trash.

Moom
(Mac)
I use Moom for window management on my Mac.

Witch
(Mac)
Witch is my Mac app switcher.

PopClip
(Mac)
I use PopClip to manage what I do with selected text. I’ve written about PopClip here.

Bartender 3
(Mac)
Bartender is the app I use to organize my menu bar. I’ve written about it here.

ScreenFloat
(Mac)
ScreenFloat is my app for taking screenshots and storing them.

TunnelBear VPN
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
TunnelBear is my VPN for security on public WiFi and web browsing privacy.

PCalc
(Mac, iPhone, and iPad)
PCalc is my stock calculator replacement. I use it for its additional features and customization.

Apple Activity app
I use the Activity app with my Apple Watch to track all my daily activities.

Drafts for Mac now supports actions

I’ve been using Drafts for several years. It’s my multi-purpose writing and note-taking app. I often use it as the first stop for most everything I write and then use Drafts actions to send what I’ve written anywhere I want to.

This week Agile Tortoise released Drafts 16 for Mac which now supports actions and multi-window. This makes me very happy. With the addition of actions, I can now use Drafts on my Mac just like I do on my iPhone and iPad.

Actions!

The full power of Drafts actions, previously only available on the iOS version, are now available for Mac! Integrate with many popular apps and services, and manipulate your drafts and text with scripted actions!

If you use the iOS version, all your existing actions will automatically sync to the Mac. If not, a default set of actions will be configured.

Actions are available through the action pane to the right of the main window, via the “Actions” menu, or the Action Bar 19.

Moving away from iCloud continued

Previously I made the following changes:

Since then I’ve made a couple of additional changes:

As a side note, you may be wondering why I’m still using Bear since it uses iCloud for sync? Well, I’ve never once had a sync issue with it. It just always works in spite of all the other issues I’ve had with iCloud sync.

Transition to subscription done right – Enpass password manager

I started moving to Enpass when 1Password 6 stopped working with Safari 13 on Mac.

Here’s why. To continue using 1Password with Safari 13 on Mac I would need to purchase a 1Password 7 subscription or a new 1Password 7 standalone license. Which by the way, in my opinion, is just wrong! Users of 1Password 6 should have been offered a free upgrade to a 1Password 7 standalone license and not forced to buy it. It’s not the user’s fault that 1Password 6 stopped working with Safari 13. That said, I’m not going to purchase a subscription or a standalone license.

I’m using the Pro version of Enpass on iOS and the free version on my MacBook Pro. Since purchasing Enpass it has moved to a subscription. I have to congratulate Enpass on the way they have handled the transition for existing users.

How will our subscription model affect existing users? | Enpass

We’ve worked out the transition in such a way that all our current Enpass Pro users will have access to the full version of the app on all platforms without paying anything extra.

Everything you need to know about subscription on Enpass | Enpass

As we shared in our blog post last week, existing Enpass Pro users will not have to pay anything extra as we make this transition. All our current Pro users will have access to the full version of the app on all platforms without paying anything extra. They will continue to receive future app updates and new Pro features that we’ll release over time – for lifetime, on all supported platforms.

Web Finds for November 17, 2019

Web Finds are from my web surfing travels. You’ll find some unique and informative news, apps and websites that you may have never known existed. Enjoy!

IBM Finds Its Mac Users to Be More Productive Than PC Users
Today, during the keynote at the 2019 JNUC, Previn was back on stage to share research claiming that Macs enable IBM employees to be more productive, and also improve employee satisfaction and retention. IBM now has 290,000 Apple devices deployed in the company.
Via TidBits

Apple Research app
With the Research app, volunteering to help advance medical understanding has been greatly simplified.1 You can sign up for a study (or studies) right from your iPhone. If you meet the criteria for a given study, you’re in. It’s that easy.
Via Apple

Save Safari Web Pages to PDFs on iOS with Dropbox App
Dropbox has just updated its iOS app, and the latest version includes a useful new addition:

“Save to Dropbox” App Extension now saves PDF versions of websites from Safari (iOS 8 & 9 only) — to enable, you can tap the share icon in Safari and toggle the extension from the “More” section
Via Kirkville

How to Use iOS 13’s Text Editing Gestures on iPhone and iPad
With the release of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, Apple introduced a number of new text editing taps and gestures that can be performed on both iPhones and iPads. These taps and gestures make it quicker and easier to do things like select text, copy and paste, undo and redo edits, and move the cursor around the screen.
Via MacRumors

Previous Web Finds are here.

Store Ulysses files in Dropbox instead of iCloud

Ulysses is my favorite writing app. But I have had iCloud sync issues with it off and on since I started using it. Well, I have solved that problem forever.

With Ulysses 18 it’s possible to use Dropbox in place iCloud for sync. The ability to do that hasn’t been widely written about so I’m guessing a lot of folks don’t know about it. I stumbled across it in the Ulysses library settings. I searched for information about it on the Ulysses website and here’s what I found.

Ulysses 18 & External Folders

One of our most requested features, like… ever, was to allow Ulysses files to be stored on Dropbox (or any sync service for that matter). Well, with Ulysses 18, you can finally do it!

We’ve added the option to use native Ulysses files in external folders, no strings attached. These files offer the full feature set, from Markdown XL right down to attachments, goals and everything else. So if you don’t want to use iCloud (or are not allowed to), you now have an alternative means of syncing your work.

I moved all my writing into Dropbox and disabled iCloud in the Ulysses library settings. So far everything is working flawlessly.

Convert existing external folders to Ulysses’ own format

If you already have lots of Markdown files in external folders and you want to benefit from the advantages of our Ulysses files, simply create a new folder, change the file format and drag your existing text files into the new folder.