Omni Newsletter Summer 2024
Summer time, and the living is busy. Summer is always the busiest time at Omni as we learn the new technologies introduced at WWDC at the beginning of the summer, and ship a full line of updates at the end of the summer. Plus, summer is also a beautiful time to be in Seattle, WA with blue skies, warm (but not scorching) temperatures, and lots of lakes, mountains, and the ocean nearby, making even the weekends busy. Our Summer newsletter is equally choc full. Let’s dive right in.
Post-WWDC Roadmap Update
Always a highlight of our year, WWDC brings new technologies, technology improvements and some level of disruption. It’s a mix that’s always different, always exciting. This year, we learned about Apple Intelligence, described as “AI for the rest of us.”
In our Post-WWDC Roadmap Update, we reflect back on Apple’s long, rich history with machine learning and AI, and how privacy has always been at the center of their implementation. It validates our own core belief at Omni, which is in complete alignment that “privacy is a fundamental human right,” and one which we deeply integrate into our technology.
At the Omni Group, we also believe in community, which is why we got involved with LIVE Near WWDC 2024 again this year. LIVE Near WWDC is a benefit concert, featuring “James Dempsey and the Breakpoints” (a collection of nerds, techies, and community luminaries from around the globe) performing songs written by developers on programming themes.
We were honored to contribute as a sponsor, plus our CEO, Ken Case, contributed as one of the “Breakpoints.” Sponsorship funds cover costs, which lets 100% of ticket/merch sales go directly to the beneficiary. This year it raised over $10,000 for Techtonica. You can watch the show on the livenearwwdc.com site, also hosted on YouTube. It’s gratifying to support an event that brings together the developer community, while also supporting inclusivity in tech.
OmniFocus 4.3 Brings More Focus into Focus
It’s hard to improve on the word “focus.” It can be used in the sense of “concentration” or in the sense of “making something clear.” It’s tight. We like it. Apple likes it. And in a world full of distraction, any tool to help focus is useful.
While “Focus mode” has long been a key OmniFocus feature, OmniFocus 4.3 introduced an entirely new way to focus on your OmniFocus data, with new support for device Focus Filters. They allow you to customize what app data is displayed when a Focus mode is enabled on your device and automatically filter out any OmniFocus content which is not relevant to the current Focus.
Thematically related, OmniFocus 4.3 also introduced a new Favorite Perspective shortcut, which you can change with a Siri command, or you can automate perspectives displayed in the OmniFocus Perspectives Bar when a device Focus is enabled or disabled. Clearly, there’s a whole lot of focus going on.
Omni Automation Install Links Now Available Everywhere
Omni Automation “Install Links” were first introduced in OmniFocus 4.1 on Apple Vision Pro, as a super simple "Look, Tap, and Approve!" mechanism for installing plug-ins. We then brought Omni Automation Install Links to other platforms with OmniFocus 4.2, followed by OmniPlan 4.8, not just on Apple Vision Pro but universally across all platforms.
Now, with our latest updates to OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner, Install Links are available everywhere that Omni Automation plug-ins are available: in OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and OmniPlan; on macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS!
While an Omni Automation innovation, updating plug-ins to use Install Links is very much a work in progress! The pages about OmniFocus and Automation (with more than one hundred plug-ins) have been updated, along with the Shared Classes and Methods and Omni Automation Plug-Ins pages. But there’s plenty more that’s still in progress, such as the pages documenting OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner. With the next major versions of OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner in progress, we didn’t want to wait for you to enjoy Install Links, plus we had some other changes, which you can check out on the blog post.
Hookmark Names Omni “Partner of the Month” for July
We’re tickled pink to have been named the Hookmark "Partner of the Month" for July! You may recall that Ken Case was an original signatory of the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking.
Essentially, it’s the idea of having a link from what you’re working on to a related resource, and back again. Useful stuff, and we’re all for it. Naturally, Omni apps are linkable, and we’re humbled to be called a role model.
MacSparky OmniFocus 4 Field Guide
The MacSparky Field Guides are legendary for being incredibly in-depth but without being overwhelming. We’re thrilled that David Sparks released the OmniFocus 4 Field Guide, and can’t quite believe it includes more than 90 training videos (that’s more than seven hours of content). Very impressive.
About OmniFocus 4, David Sparks said, “Over the years, I’ve used the application as a trial lawyer, a professional nerd, and a dad, all to great satisfaction and effect. In this extended Field Guide, I aim to drop all my OmniFocus wisdom on you so you can hit the ground running.”
The MacSparky OmniFocus 4 Field Guide is available for purchase on the MacSparky website, with a preview of the first 45 minutes available for free. For the next month or so, you can enjoy a 20% discount on the OmniFocus 4 Field Guide (standard or plus edition) and/or the Productivity Field Guide (standard or plus edition) by using the coupon code “HOORAYOMNI” at checkout.
OmniFocus: The Movie, the Sequal, a Fourth Biscuit
In the Spring 2024 newsletter we mentioned the 58Keys release of a “Three Biscuit Guide to OmniFocus,” created by the talented, inimitable William Gallagher. Based on requests from his viewers, he created a follow-up episode focused entirely on automation, called (wait for it), “OmniFocus – The Fourth Biscuit.”
Very few people could take an overwhelming topic with infinite possiblities, like automating Omni apps, and give it a ’narrative’ that makes it digestible and approachable. In this episode, he walks you through Shortcuts workflows, interoperability with TaskPaper, and the world of Omni Automation, rendering this fourth biscuit a lovely digestive indeed.
Highlights from The Omni Show
In a special episode of The Omni Show, Omni Group CEO, Ken Case discusses the Post-WWDC Roadmap Update with insights into the the exciting potential of Apple Intelligence. Plus, we were so honored to be named Hookmark Partner of the Month for July we had Dr. Luc Beaudoin on The Omni Show to explain the Ubiquitous Linking Manifesto and why it works well with Omni Apps.
Here are some other highlights from the amazing community surrounding the Omni Group’s award-winning products, as heard on The Omni Show:
How Jonathan Sorum Uses OmniFocus – As head of Google Cloud’s Center for Excellence Telco team, Jonathan shares his journey with OmniFocus and how it became an essential tool in managing his demanding and diverse responsibilities across global telecommunications partnerships.
How Jamie Thingelstad Uses Omni Software – The first of our experiment in presenting The Omni Show in video format, this episode introduces the particularly inspiring Jamie Thingelstad, SVP and CTO of SPS Commerce. Jamie shares how he leverages OmniFocus to streamline his professional and personal life for efficiency, but also to ensure he remains present in every aspect of his life.
How "offlinemark" Uses OmniFocus – Balancing the left brain and right brain, this episode features “offlinemark,” a multifaceted artist and engineer from Berlin, Germany, who shares his unique approach to balancing creativity and technical prowess using OmniFocus.
From the Omni Labs: Universal OmniGraffle 8 Takes Shape
Over the past few years, we’ve been hard at work designing and building the next major version of OmniGraffle. We’ve implemented long-requested features – like themes and reference objects – and laid the groundwork for greatly improved feature parity across all its supported platforms: Mac, iPad, iPhone, and (soon) Apple Vision Pro.
OmniGraffle 8 has dozens of inspector palettes, used for content creation, arrangement, navigation and organization, and for manipulating the properties and appearance of objects, canvases, and the document itself. Over the past few months, our big focus has been to bring these palettes from the Mac to all the other platforms, making all these palettes universal—a big milestone towards our goal of improving feature parity across platforms.
Currently, TestFlight builds are available only on the Mac. We look forward to opening up the TestFlight across all platforms, and you’re welcome to join the OmniGraffle 8 TestFlight today.
Looking ahead to Fall releases, already?
As we eagerly await and prepare for the arrival of the full power of Apple Intelligence, the OmniFocus team has also been hard at work on support for new features coming to Apple devices this fall. OmniFocus 4.4, currently in development, will introduce support for new Control Center and Lock Screen widgets on iOS 18 (plus new Action Button and App Shortcut functionality), as well as support for new widget types and the double tap gesture on watchOS 11.
We’ve also torn ourselves away from exploring App Intents long enough to make sure all our apps are compatible with all of the new operating systems that are coming – macOS 15 (Sequoia), iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, and visionOS 2 – on the day they ship. Our Summer has definitely been busy.
Omni Summer Picnic!
As has become our annual tradition, the Omni team took a day off from busy summer development schedule to enjoy each other’s company, and some festive Omni cupcakes, at a picnic in the park! It was great to see each other outside the spatial computing dimension, and to play some post-lunch board games just like we used to “back at the office.”
Until Next Time
Thank you very much for reading this latest issue of the Omni Newsletter. Until next time, stay in touch with us on Mastodon, and of course on our blog.
Want to catch up on past newsletters? Check out the archive here.