Cody Fink

1547 posts on MacStories since January 2010

Former MacStories contributor.

[email protected]

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Gmail 1.3: Faster, but Still a Web App

Gmail has a small update out this afternoon, promising all around smoother animations and scrolling, the ability to save picture attachments to your photo library, and bug fixes that squash some annoying issues.

Gmail 1.3 on iOS is certainly a bit speedier: scrolling through the Inbox and revealing the panel feels as smooth as a native app, although Gmail’s sliding animation to a message can still display lag here or there. However, the speed improvement doesn’t change that Gmail is a web app, with the Gmail splash logo being displayed at startup, network complaints when strained for bandwidth, and some “this doesn’t feel right” moments when composing email.

A new feature added is the ability to save pictures to your photo library, but it’s clunky, awkward, and not obvious. To save an image attachment, you have to open the image attachment in Gmail’s browser, then tap and hold on the picture to bring up the dialogue to save your picture to your photo library. Oddly, you can print from the message view, but you can’t save a photo (you have to open it first). I think the Gmail for iOS team would be better off replacing the Safari icon in their browser with a sharing icon, letting users Open in Safari, Save to Library, Open in App, or Print from a more familiar and traditional list of actions.

Composing email still feels awkward, with the compose window being relatively finicky and jumpy, but bug fixes have at least solved one annoying selection issue. Before, I couldn’t drag the cursor before the first letter of the first sentence in Gmail for iOS, but this is remedied in today’s update.

Gmail is passable as an app (it’s certainly not Sparrow) and it’s slowly getting better, but its flaws as an email client in a web view still show in the most important places, such as when working with attachments and composing a message. If you’re inclined on being in Google’s ecosystem, Gmail is free on the App Store.

Hulu Plus Arrives on Apple TV→

Hulu Plus Arrives on Apple TV

Dallas Mahrt, Senior Software Developer at Hulu:

Hulu Plus arrives on Apple TV today.

To start watching Hulu Plus shows instantly, find “Hulu Plus” on the Apple TV home screen. If you are a Hulu Plus subscriber, simply enter your username and password to start streaming […]

If you don’t already have a Hulu Plus account, you can sign up at Hulu’s website or register via iTunes, in which you’ll be charged $7.99 as a monthly reoccurring subscription fee after a 1-week trial. While Hulu has limited advertising, the affordable monthly subscription gives cable cutters the option to watch current seasons of their favorite programs on demand and in HD from major networks such as ABC, FOX, and NBC. Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune writes that Apple’s 30% cut likely delayed Hulu’s availability on the Apple TV, and that Hulu aims to provide a proper alternative as web users can now watch Hulu content for free from OS X Mountain Lion through AirPlay.

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Google Earth 7 for iOS Brings 3D Imagery to iPhone 4S, 2nd and 3rd Generation iPads

Ahead of iOS 6’s release and Apple’s new Maps application, which includes photo-realistic interactive 3D views with Flyover, Google has updated their Google Earth application for iOS, bringing 3D views to Apple’s most recent iPhones and iPads. Google’s 3D views are automatically rendered when you pinch into supported towns and cities — tilting your perspective will let you rotate about building model and get a sense of placement that flat satellite imagery simply can’t provide. The transition from a flat satellite image to 3D models is quite seamless, although rending those 3D models did put a lot of strain on my iPhone 4S, where I received a “memory low” error via an alert before the app crashed. Viewing your locale in 3D is nifty, at least while Google Earth cooperates. Funnily enough, Kansas City has yet to receive a 3D render of the city, despite today’s announcement of availability for Google Fiber.

Also in today’s update is a brand new tour guide that suggests places you might not otherwise search out, guiding you to explore suggested landmarks and natural wonders from your iOS devices. I found that while this feature is nice to have on the iPhone, it really makes sense on the iPad, where you have the larger screen real-estate to zoom and pinch around maps.

Google Earth is a free download from the App Store.

[via MacRumors]

 

Apple’s Podcasts 1.0.1 Update Feels a Lot Faster

While I’ve talked about Apple’s Podcasts app before, I’ve only largely talked about the implications of it being available on the App Store, what it does well, and how it’s not going to totally supplant feature rich podcatchers and their developers who want to continue improving upon the actual medium of podcasting itself. What I didn’t talk about was performance, but at the time it felt no different than my usual experience with the App Store or iTunes apps.

Podcasts 1.0.1 is a significant performance improvement for Apple’s podcatcher. While the Podcast catalogue still feels a little sluggish here or there, overall navigating the catalogue, browsing the library, and starting a podcast stream feels much snappier than before.

Much like a red badge on an app icon, Podcast artwork will display a blue badge indicating the number of unplayed episodes for your subscriptions. Also improved is how Apple handles missing for missing artwork in top stations — they now display the podcast title in its place. Apple has also fixed playback speed, keeping it persistent when a new episode plays.

Apple’s Podcasts 1.0.1 is a solid update, addressing small issues and improving how the app feels when browsing and playing podcasts. You can download Podcasts from the App Store.

Safari 6.0 Is Nathan Ingraham’s Next Browser→

Safari 6.0 Is Nathan Ingraham’s Next Browser

Nathan Ingraham of The Verge writes,

But just as I’m getting fed up with Chrome, Apple goes ahead and launches Mountain Lion with Safari 6.0. With the addition of iCloud tab syncing across multiple OS X machines (which will finally come to iOS 6 this fall), integrated sharing to Twitter, a unified search and URL bar (finally), and a new gesture-based tab management system, I should be just as productive as I was in Chrome — but without the memory leaks and white screens. As a big fan of Apple’s gesturing system, I’m looking forward to pinch-and-swiping my way through the many tabs I have open all day long.

I love Nathan’s reminisce of Safari on the Mac, and how he, like myself, ended up using Chrome when working online became a priority.

I always have a hard time deciding between what browser to use on the Mac. While most of the websites I visit are now serving media to browsers without Flash plug-ins, there are still plenty of websites that don’t have HTML and Javascript substitues for Flash audio and video players. Chrome is convenient: Flash (while occassionally buggy) is built in, the browser handles having lots of tabs open quite well, and for a while, Chrome’s omnibox was advantageous over Firefox or Safari, whose separate address and search bars suddenly felt outdated. The decision is even harder now that Chrome is available on iOS.

Safari’s clean aesthetic, however, remains unchallenged. Safari’s experience is simply elegant, and I find myself missing the same features that Nathan has come to relish, such as Safari’s Reader, its superior support for gestures, and Apple’s implementation of the bookmarks bar. Safari gels with my idea of what the ideal browsing experience should be, and as with all of their apps, goes out of their way to include subtle pleasantries such as when a download jumps into the Downloads button. With Mountain Lion, Safari also includes the ability to open tabs from other devices, an important and recently added Chrome feature.

I think, for a little while, I’ll be returning to Safari as well. At least until I miss the ability to pin tabs when commenting on the next linked article.

You can learn more about Safari 6.0 for the Mac at apple.com/safari.

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.Mail is Coming To Your Dock

Remember Tobias van Schneider’s redesign of the classic email client? It’s happening.

.Mail’s main features include:

  • Actionsteps, which lets you prioritize mail without abusing favorites, flags, or labels in a typical email client.
  • Centralized attachments, putting email attachements in one easy to find place for recollection.
  • Integrated notifications, which removes the clutter of everyday emails like Facebook updates or Amazon receipts by filtering them into clever notification icons.
  • Personalized messages, showing pictures of your friends and company branding alongside the email’s subject line.

You can sign up to know when .Mail (pronounced ‘dot mail’) is ready by visiting dotmailapp.com, or by following Tobias on Twitter at @schneidertobias.

Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iTunes U Receive Small Improvements for iCloud and Sharing

While Apple might seem busy releasing a brand new operating system and compatibility updates for their apps on the Mac App Store, that doesn’t mean apps on iOS haven’t been ignored. Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iTunes U are all receiving small updates that improve compatibility with iCloud, and in iTunes U’s case, adds a way to share your favorite courses with friends through Twitter, Mail, and Messages.

Pages 1.6.1, Numbers 1.6.1, and Keynote 1.6.1

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have received simple updates that improve compatibility with iCloud for instant document syncing. Document syncing requires Pages 4.2, Numbers 2.2, and Keynote 5.2 respectively on OS X Mountain Lion.

iTunes U 1.2

Sharing courses isn’t the only new feature — iTunes U 1.2 also adds the ability to search within posts, assignments, notes, and materials from the improved search feature from any subscribed course.

You can download the update for Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iTunes U for iOS from the App Store.

Xcode 4.4 Now Available in the Mac App Store, Enhanced for the MacBook Pro with Retina Display

While developers are likely already running the latest and greatest from Apple’s Mac Dev Center to take advantage of iOS 6 beta and Mountain Lion beta SDKs, everyone else who is learning about development, building for fun, or simply wants a stable version of Xcode can find the latest release in the Mac App Store. Updated to take advantage of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, Xcode 4.4 also includes OS X 10.8 SDKs in concert with the release of Mountain Lion earlier this morning. (Later versions of Xcode 4.3 already offered support for iOS 5.1). Xcode 4.4 requires the latest version of Lion, 10.7.4, or Mountain Lion 10.8 to run.

Xcode 4.4 Release Notes from the Mac App Store

Included in Xcode 4.4:

• SDKs for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and iOS 5.1.
• Enhanced for the MacBook Pro with Retina display.
• Code completion persists your selections to give more accurate suggestions.
• Objective-C @synthesize command is generated by default when using properties.
• Objective-C adds literal syntax for numbers, arrays, dictionaries, and expressions when developing for OS X.
• Apple LLVM compiler supports additional C++11 features, including lambdas.
• Assistant editor tracks caller or callee for the current selection.
• New localization workflow can share a single base .xib file for multiple locales on OS X.
• Source control can commit individually selected changes.
• ARC migration tool converts both retain/release and garbage collected code.
• Fixes an issue where code completion could fail, requiring the user to delete derived data.
• Additional bug fixes and stability improvements.

Specific Xcode 4.4 release notes and feature highlights should be available through the Xcode 4 Downloads and Resources page later today, and through the Mac Dev Center for developers in the Mac Developer Program. Xcode 4.4 can be downloaded via the link above or from the Mac App Store.

Aperture, iPhoto, and iMovie Receive Small Updates Alongside Launch of Mountain Lion

While Apple’s iWork updates for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers include support for iCloud and the MacBook Pro with Retina display, today’s updates for professional and creative applications such as Aperture (already updated to take advantage of the Retina display), iPhoto, and iMovie consist of stability improvements and further integration with this morning’s release of OS X Mountain Lion.

Aperture 3.3.2

The latest version of Aperture includes updates for added compatibility with Mountain Lion, addresses stability issues that can occur when the app is in Full Screen mode, tweaks auto white balance when using Skin Tone mode, and now lets users sort projects and albums in the Library Inspector by date, name, and kind.

iPhoto 9.3.2

Today’s iPhoto update is about bringing sharing options to Messages and Twitter, whilst fixing some stability issues and improving compatibility with Mountain Lion. Last month, iPhoto and Aperture were updated with the release of the MacBook Pro with Retina display. Among other things, this update unified the two apps’ libraries, enabling them to access each others’ stored photos natively.

iMovie 9.0.7

While iMovie’s release notes don’t specifically mention Mountain Lion on the Mac App Store, it does call for fixes with third-party Quicktime components, improved stability when viewing MPEG-2 clips in the Camera Import window, and brings sound back to MPEG-2 clips important from a camera (where it may have been absent before).

You can download Aperture, iPhoto, and iMovie from the Mac App Store.