Ryan Christoffel

684 posts on MacStories since November 2016

Ryan is an editor for MacStories and co-hosts the Adapt podcast on Relay FM. He most commonly works and plays on his iPad Pro and bears no regrets about moving on from the Mac. He and his wife live in New York City.

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Apple Uses Tips App to Promote iOS 11 Features→

We’re less than a week out from Apple’s big September 12 event, when the release date for iOS 11 is expected to be revealed. As part of the lead-up to that release, Apple is now using its Tips app to promote upcoming iOS 11 features to iOS 10 users. Mitchel Broussard reports for MacRumors:

Apple has begun sharing tips to users on iPhone and iPad concerning the newest features of iOS 11…Users on Twitter and Reddit pointed out the new iOS 11 Tips section starting last night, noticing a few push notifications that encouraged them to read up on tips for Control Center, Siri Translate, the new iPad Dock, and more.

This news makes sense considering the how-to video series Apple surprisingly launched last month to explain iOS 11 features like the Files app and the iPad’s new dock. While those videos focused on iPad features, the items seen in the Tips app so far have been iPhone related as well. Clearly, Apple wants to get people excited about upgrading to iOS 11 while simultaneously helping prepare users for the changes that update will bring.

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Moleskine Launches Paper Planner That Syncs Appointments to Cloud Calendars→

Image Source: TechCrunch

Image Source: TechCrunch

Today Moleskine unveiled its latest work in the area of integrating physical and digital methods of note taking: the Smart Planner. Matt Burns, writing for TechCrunch:

Like other Livescribe systems, the Smart Planner as it’s called uses paper embedded with sensors that can read and sync anything written by the Moleskine Pen+. Meetings and appointments written on the planner part of the paper are synced automatically to the user’s Google or Apple account and placed appropriately on their calendar.

Both the pen and the paper are required for this system to work.

The system will be available worldwide on September 12…The set will cost $199 or $29 for just the planner.

Moleskine’s reputation in the area of physical notebooks is top-notch, and its work in the digital space with apps like Timepage is excellent as well. It should come as no surprise, then, that a company with expertise in both physical and digital realms would put that skill to use creating a system that seamlessly blends both worlds.

I prefer to avoid handwriting anything if I can help it, but for the huge market of people who love their handwritten notes – in this case, handwritten calendar appointments – but also want the benefits of keeping that data in the cloud, Moleskine is building an exciting system here.

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HomeKitty: A Crowdsourced HomeKit Database Written in Swift

Recent days have seen an increasing number of HomeKit accessories released, making it more difficult to keep up with all the products currently on the market. Enter HomeKitty.

HomeKitty is a new site created single-handedly by developer Patrick Balestra as a hub for all things HomeKit. It was written entirely in Swift, and contains basic information about every currently available HomeKit accessory. Thanks to the site’s categorical listings, you simply select a category of device – such as lights, outlets, or thermostats – to view all available products of that type.

Alongside a product’s image, HomeKitty displays its name, price, maker, and a link to either the product’s official manufacturer site or its listing in the Apple Store – that’s it. Rather than include detailed listings and ratings/reviews for HomeKit products, HomeKitty keeps things clutter-free and serves as a sleek, easy-to-navigate database that can help point prospective shoppers in the right direction.

HomeKitty was designed to serve as a crowdsourced site, so anyone can submit a product for inclusion in its database. Once approved, the product will be displayed alongside existing entries; currently over 80 products are listed. For now, every listing is restricted to products currently available for purchase, but in the future Balestra plans to add announced-but-unreleased products as well.

Apple Introduces Wireless, Noise-Cancelling Beats Studio3 Headphones

Today Apple introduced the latest addition to its Beats lineup of premium headphones: the Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones.

The Studio3 headphones differ from the existing Solo3 option in two primary ways. First, they sit over your ears rather than on them – an important distinction for prospective buyers. Second, related to the over-ear design, they include Pure Adaptive Noise Cancelling (Pure ANC), which works to shut out external noise while also optimizing audio for the precise fit of the wearer and calibrating music to top-quality.

These wireless headphones join the existing lineup of Beats options that adopted Apple’s W1 chip late last year. Also seen in Apple’s AirPods, the W1 chip provides improved connectivity and power efficiency. With Studio3, the W1 chip enables battery life of up to 22 hours with Pure ANC enabled, and up to 40 hours without it. The Studio3 headphones also charge quickly, with up to 3 hours of playtime after a 10-minute charge.

The last noteworthy design note is that on-ear controls allow you to control playback directly from the Solo3 hardware, enabling audio control and even Siri activation.

You can order the Studio3 headphones today in a variety of colors for $349.95, but they won’t ship until mid-October.

Weather Atlas: Weather Mapping for a Modern Day

One of the app categories that’s always receiving new entries – and that I’m always pleased to try a new take on – is weather. Often weather apps share the same data sources, but their design and customization options make them stand out. The developers at Contrast are no strangers to the crowded weather app market, as creators of the now-retired Perfect Weather. But with the help of developer Greg Pierce, Contrast is introducing a fresh take on the modern weather app with Weather Atlas.

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Apple Releases Developer Guidelines for ARKit Apps→

Apple’s developer site now contains Human Interface Guidelines for augmented reality apps. The guidelines are not hard, fast rules for developers working with ARKit, but more “best practices” Apple suggests for an ideal user experience. Guidelines that stand out include:

Use audio and haptic feedback to enhance the immersive experience. A sound effect or bump sensation is a great way to provide confirmation that a virtual object has come into contact with a physical surface or other virtual object.

To the extent possible, provide hints in context. Placing a three-dimensional rotation indicator around an object, for example, is more intuitive than presenting text-based instructions in an overlay.

Favor direct manipulation over separate onscreen controls. It’s more immersive and intuitive when a user can touch an object onscreen and interact with it directly, rather than interact with separate controls on a different part of the screen.

Suggest possible fixes if problems occur. Analysis of the user’s environment and surface detection can fail for a variety of reasons—there’s not enough light, a surface is too reflective, a surface doesn’t have enough detail, or there’s too much camera motion. If your app is notified of insufficient detail or too much motion, or if surface detection takes too long, offer suggestions for resolving the problem.

ARKit is a brand new technology that opens up a world of possibilities to app developers. But alongside its potential for magical, immersive experiences is the potential for user frustration as developers learn the hard way what works best. Apple’s guidelines – though released later than I’m sure many developers would like – should help minimize those frustrations.

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YouTube Revamps Logo, Adds Dark Mode for Web, Playback Speed Adjustment for Mobile, with More Coming Soon

YouTube today introduced a new logo and announced a host of improvements to its service across mobile and web platforms – some of which launch today, while others are coming soon.

After testing with limited groups for a time, YouTube’s Material Design web update is now being rolled out to all users. With it comes the exciting addition of a Dark Theme – a feature I hope makes its way to the service’s mobile apps soon.

YouTube’s iOS app received a minor update today that brought two primary changes: a redesigned header dominated by white space and the new logo, and new playback speed controls. Playback speed can be set as slow as 0.25x or as fast as 2x, with several options in-between. You’ll find the controls in a video’s settings menu, which can be accessed from the top-right corner of the screen.

Perhaps more exciting than the new features launching today are those coming in the near future, such as adaptive video:

Soon, the YouTube player will seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal. That means you’ll always get the best viewing experience automatically – including vertical videos with no black bars on the sides!

A new gesture to switch videos with a single swipe is also coming soon, and lastly a revamped area below the video player for improved browsing.

Elgato Introduces Five New Eve HomeKit Devices

Adding to its collection of HomeKit-supported devices, Elgato today introduced five new devices that are coming soon, each of which serves different areas of the home.

  • Eve Thermo is a second-generation connected radiator valve that brings the typical benefits of a smart thermostat to the world of radiators. It includes capacitive touch control on-device, doesn’t require a connected bridge, and starts shipping September 26.
  • Eve Smoke is a smart smoke detector that can not only set off an alarm, but also trigger different HomeKit notifications and scenes. One of the benefits is that in addition to offering a ten-year battery life, you can also check the device’s state using Siri or your iPhone to ensure it’s working properly.
  • Eve Lock enables control of locking and unlocking a door via HomeKit, even if you’re away from home. It can also automatically lock the door every time it shuts. It’s powered by an internal battery and uses Bluetooth.
  • Eve Window Guard monitors the state of a window, so you can easily see if it’s open or closed from your iPhone. It also can sense when the window is being tampered with and will send a notification to let you know.
  • Eve Aqua makes watering the lawn or plants easy by allowing you to set up and manage irrigation schedules from your phone. You can also activate and monitor irrigation on-demand.

Besides the Eve Thermo, every other new Eve device is currently without a shipping date.

It’s always good to see more devices enter the HomeKit ecosystem, especially now that Apple will soon have HomePod, a voice-powered HomeKit hub, on the market. Hopefully the combination of HomePod’s launch and the changes Apple has in store for HomeKit in iOS 11 will lead to a renewed enthusiasm for Apple’s ecosystem among smart device makers.

Amazon Announces Multi-Room Music for Echo Devices→

In a press release today, Amazon announced the newest feature addition to its Echo devices:

Amazon today announced an all-new Alexa feature that lets you control and synchronize music across multiple Amazon Echo devices in your home. Starting today, you can target music to a specific Echo device or a group of devices—just ask. Soon, this ability will be extended to control multi-room music on other connected speakers using simply your voice.

The feature is currently only available on Echo devices, but Amazon has also announced a couple new tools to help expand Alexa-powered audio to other speakers. There’s a new Alexa Voice Service SDK that device makers can adopt to enable their speakers to play music in sync with Echo devices. That SDK will be made available early next year. And there is also a new set of Connected Speaker APIs, available today, which allow third-party speakers to be controlled via an Alexa-enabled device.

It should be noted that multi-room audio is only available through a handful of music services. Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn are available today, while Spotify and SiriusXM support is coming soon.

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