Tag: ios

  • iOS 18.0 is very nice even on my limited iPhone 12 Pro Max. The Passwords app, Transcripts, Home Screen customizations, Hiking Routes, Safari highlights, Call recording, Notes updates, Math in Notes, Messages updates, Lock Screen customizations… People are saying that this is a lackluster update? Far from it. I think this update is fantastic.

    Continue >

  • Will Apple’s headset enhance productivity?

    I’ve written several times about mixed reality experiences over the last 6 or 7 years here on my blog. I recently went back and looked at some of those posts and so I thought I’d sum up my thinking as it stands today, as well as detail what I hope to see from Apple’s headset.…

    Continue >

  • Using Wavelength to chat with darkroom printers

    Update July 1, 2024: Wavelength is shutting down July 31, 2024. For the past few days I’ve been testing out Wavelength – a group messaging app that is currently only available on Apple’s platforms. It reminds me a lot of Quill, the former messaging app that was swallowed whole by Twitter just prior to ……

    Continue >

  • History Book – an app by Zhenyi Tan

    Zhenyi Tan, announcing History Book: History Book automatically saves the content of your browsing history for searching. And it does it in a privacy-friendly way. Instant buy.

    Continue >

  • DuckDuckGo for Mac in private beta

    DuckDuckGo: So today we’re excited to announce the beta launch of DuckDuckGo for Mac, with DuckDuckGo for Windows coming soon. Like our mobile app, DuckDuckGo for Mac is an all-in-one privacy solution for everyday browsing with no complicated settings, just a seamless private experience. Plus, we’re excited to share some new features we think you’ll…

    Continue >

  • Datafilm – Log your film photo EXIF data

    Today I stumbled across Datafilm, a free iOS app for film photographers to log their photo EXIF data on the go, via Japan Camera Hunter’s blog. The app is being made by Vincent Tantardini. Datafilm describes itself this way: Datafilm is the note app designed for film photographers, focused on simplicity, ease of use and…

    Continue >

  • How I turned off social media apps on my iPhone

    Last week we took a road trip for a few days away for our anniversary. During that time I wanted to disconnect from social media, news, etc. as much as possible. My goal was to stop my muscle memory from opening the apps I tend to open every single day. I found an iOS setting…

    Continue >

  • Micro.blog open sources iOS and Mac apps

    Manton Reece: I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the longevity of Micro.blog and where we need help to continue to grow the platform and community. As we approach 4 years since the public launch, there are some parts of the platform and supporting services that should be shared more widely, so that I’m not…

    Continue >

  • Any Distance

    Luke Beard: I was frustrated that there was no simple and beautiful way to share a run that was story first, looked great, and was photo-focused. I was thinking about it like “Unfold for running” at the time. Try the app. The results are really cool.

    Continue >

  • Understanding ProRAW

    With iOS 14.3 and the new iPhone, Apple has introduced an updated RAW image file format spec that extends on the already robust editing capabilities of RAW. They call it ProRAW. Ben Sandofsky, of Halide, goes long on explaining how digital image sensors work, what RAW is, and how Apple has extended that spec and…

    Continue >

  • My answer to my own askATP question (again)

    A little over a year ago I sent in a question to the crew at ATP and subsequently I blogged my own answer to that question. This past week I sent in another question and they’ve kindly answered it (time stamp: 1:57:16) so I thought I would answer my own question again. My question was…

    Continue >

  • Using Spotlight and Shortcuts to create daily notes in Simplenote

    While trialing Obsidian I became fond of a core plugin it had called Daily notes. Activating the plugin adds a button in the interface that creates a new note with a name based on today’s date. It makes keeping a daily log extremely easy. Since I primarily use Simplenote I wanted the same thing on…

    Continue >

  • Delay updating to Big Sur

    macOS Big Sur will be released to the public tomorrow. As I did with iOS 14 this year, I’ll be waiting for at least two releases before I update. Josh Centers for TidBITS: We recommend delaying upgrades for your production Macs. We’ve heard similar stories from many beta testers and TidBITS readers: Big Sur is…

    Continue >

  • NetNewsWire for iOS is now available

    NetNewsWire: You can go get it on the App Store! It runs on iPhones and iPads and requires iOS 13. Got it.

    Continue >

  • iOS creates a competition hostile environment

    Below is a screenshot of the sheet you see on YouTube for iOS when tapping on a link in a video’s description. They invoke this custom sheet because, like Google, Apple has created iOS to be competition hostile to other browser vendors like Mozilla, Opera, Microsoft, etc. Tapping on a link should open your default…

    Continue >

  • Random WWDC 2019 thoughts

    Random WWDC 2019 thoughts: Overall, this seemed like a solid, solid WWDC. I’m sure there will be a lot more news over the coming week. But to me, it addressed the main things I was looking for: a commitment to the Mac, iPad OS updates, and for Marzipan (now Project Catalyst it seems) not to…

    Continue >

  • My questions for WWDC 2019

    I am looking forward to this year’s WWDC more than I have in the last 4 or 5 years. There is so much riding on this conference for my personal productivity but also for the Mac and iPad platforms as a whole. Here are a few reasons why and I’ll follow with a few questions…

    Continue >

  • A new interview with Manton Reece of Micro.blog for 2019

    Last year, around this time, I published an interview with Manton Reece – founder of Micro.blog (M.b) – about how the platform was growing and what the goals for 2018 were. It was such a great interview and it helped me to understand the direction that M.b was going that I knew I had to…

    Continue >

  • Snapthread is now free to try

    Becky Hansmeyer: You can use all of the app’s features for free with only two limitations: a watermark in the lower left corner and a 30-second limit for video exports. I’ve mentioned Snapthread in the past. I’m not on iOS anymore, but if I were, I’d use and buy Snapthread in an instant. Looks great.…

    Continue >

  • Matt Haughey on the mobile WordPress app

    Matt Haughey vents his frustrations with WordPress: Over the past week I’ve written a bunch of posts while out and about using the iOS WordPress app, often with photos of things I was seeing. But unless I was on WiFi or had 5 bars of LTE connectivity, I would get a Posting Failed, Retry? message.…

    Continue >

  • A review of the Google Pixel 2 XL and Android 8.1 by a longtime iPhone user

    After 10 years of using iOS as my primary mobile platform I’ve decided to give Android more than just a casual try. This post is my review both of the Google Pixel 2 XL and Android 8.1 as well as a few comparisons I’ve drawn between iOS and Android ecosystems. I’ve been an Apple fan…

    Continue >

  • Snapthread 1.5 Beta

    Becky Hansmeyer: I’m going to do something I’ve never done before: ask people to beta test my app! If you’re interested in being a part of my very first beta test, please either send an email to feedback@beckyhansmeyer.com or DM me on Twitter (@bhansmeyer). All I need to know is what email address you’d like me to…

    Continue >

  • Repost: Becky Hansmeyer re: app icons

    👉 Becky Hansmeyer: Xcode should, by default, generate app icons for all sizes from a single artwork file. That would eliminate such an obvious pain point for app developers and designers.

    Continue >

  • Universal Apple apps

    Mark Gurman, for Bloomberg: Starting as early as next year, software developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad depending on whether it’s running on the iPhone and iPad operating system or on Mac hardware, according to people familiar with the matter. Remember the many times…

    Continue >

  • Apollo for reddit

    Apollo: Apollo is built by a former Apple employee with feedback from thousands of Redditors to sculpt the best client possible. It features a beautiful, native iOS design, smooth, customizable gestures, fast loading pages, a supercharged Media Viewer experience, a powerful, full Markdown editor, a Jump Bar for lightning-fast navigation, and so much more. You…

    Continue >

  • iOS shelf apps

    Des Paroz: One of the great things about iOS 11 is the multitasking capability, and with it the emergence of so-called ‘shelf’ apps. I had never heard of the term "shelf apps" until I read Des’ post.

    Continue >

  • Creating Summit: The current summit view

    This post is the first in a series of posts about my experience building and designing Summit. This post focuses on just one view within the application; the current summit view. The idea for Summit came nearly 4 years ago as far as I can tell. I’ve hunted around for scraps of paper, digital notes,…

    Continue >

  • Repost: Daman Rangoola on Twitter

    👉 Daman Rangoola: Random iOS 11 bug: type 1+2+3 quickly in the stock calculator app, see what happens. Bet it won’t say “6”.

    Continue >

  • SnapThread

    SnapThread by Becky Hansmeyer: Portrait video compilations made easy—that’s what SnapThread is all about. Like SnapChat without the network. I’ve long held that SnapChat and Instagram have the best UIs but it is a shame they aren’t just an app. Apple tried to solve this with Clips but that is only square-crop. This app could…

    Continue >

  • Microsoft releases Edge on iOS and Android

    Joe Belfiore: Introducing Microsoft Edge for iOS/Android and Microsoft Launcher for Android, two apps designed to make it easy to move what you’re working on between your phone and PC. Great move. Likely tons of Surface users that also have iPhones and definitely have Android devices. The Launcher is an interesting move. I’m anxious to…

    Continue >

  • Please turn on Do Not Disturb When Driving!

    Jason Snell for Six Colors: iPhone users, well, there’s still great stuff there—Do Not Disturb When Driving is going to make the world safer—but it’s a bit less of a world-shaker. Not a world shaker? This isn’t a ho-hum, hum-drum update for iPhone. This is going to save a ton of lives, injury, heartache, and…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • Tom Dale: \”Compilers are the new frameworks\”

    Tom Dale, Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn and co-creator of Ember.js, in a post where he argues that compilers are the new web frameworks: Native code tends to have the luxury of not really caring about file size—a small 40MB iOS app would get you laughed out of the room on the web. And…

    Continue >

  • E19: Launching Summit’s public beta

    Recorded on August 23 2017. A quickly captured audio bit while walking to get a coffee the day after launching Summit’s public beta. Download MP3.

    Continue >

  • Pedometer++ 3.0

    _DavidSmith: I’ve been steadily working on Pedometer++ now for nearly four years. Over that time the core conceit of the app has remained the same, to motivate you to be more active. It has done this with colors, confetti, complications and streaks. Now I’ve added another tool to hopefully motivate, achievements! Pedometer++ continues to be…

    Continue >

  • Colin Walker on the Summit beta

    Colin Walker: I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the time I’ve spent beta testing Summit and look forward to the new builds. Colin has provided excellent feedback on Summit. So have so many of the beta testers. I too am looking forward to publishing new builds. If you’re on the beta list (which you can get on by…

    Continue >

  • Presenting at the August 2017 Lehigh Valley Tech Meetup

    The Lehigh Valley Tech Meetup is an excellent community in the Lehigh Valley that meets monthly at the Ben Franklin Technology Partners incubator within the Lehigh University Mountaintop campus. The community around the meetup is excellent and the building is amazing*. While the tail-end of my presentation walked through my experience building my first iOS…

    Continue >

  • Summit – The Adventurous Step Counter

    This evening, at a presentation at the Lehigh Valley Tech Meetup, I’m opening up public beta access to my new iOS app, Summit – The Adventurous Step Counter. I’ve stitched together a temporary web site for the app as well as a mailing list that will allow you to get access to the final few…

    Continue >

  • Mirage

    Mirage: A world living on top of reality. I played around with the app this afternoon. It is very rough. Super frustrating to try and use. But I sincerely hope they continue to pull this thread. I hope to see a lot more of this type of thing over the next 36 months. /via Andy…

    Continue >

  • I can work on anything I want

    One of the most enjoyable aspects of working on your own project is that there is so much to do. That may seem strange, why would I want to have so much to do? But if you look at it a different way it becomes a much more enjoyable experience. Whenever I sit down to…

    Continue >

  • Observations on using the iOS 11 Public Beta

    The iOS 11 Public Beta is the first beta OS I’ve installed from Apple. I did so in part because I want to help improve the OS by providing feedback and analytic data, but also because I wanted to test my aforementioned app that I’m building, and lastly I’ve wanted driving mode since very early…

    Continue >

  • Observations on building my first iOS app in Swift

    In early June I decided I wanted to learn iOS app development using Swift. I’ve made a lot of progress over the last month, building two apps that I can use on my own phone, and one app that I’m now in beta testing via TestFlight with a few friends. Over the last month I’ve…

    Continue >

  • WWDC 2017 recap

    I wanted to take a few moments to jot down a comparison between my wish list for this year’s WWDC and what was announced. Also, towards the end, some quick thoughts on the surprises that were announced. Here are my wishes, in order from the previous post, and whether or not we got them. Shared…

    Continue >

  • Back to Apple, again

    Each year WWDC week gives us new and updated Apple software that is easier to use and more tightly integrated. As a result, each year I find myself wishing that I used Apple software exclusively instead of using third-party applications. Forgive me, but I’m about to quote an entire post that I wrote in June 2014 as to…

    Continue >

  • WWDC 2017 wish list

    It has been an exciting year for developers so far. Facebook is making the camera a platform, Microsoft is making cloud computation happen with two clicks of a mouse, and Google is doing everything that everyone else is doing plus a billion more things. WWDC is next week. So what are my wishes? Since I…

    Continue >