Among the various first-party omissions on watchOS 2, the lack of a Voice Memos app for Apple Watch is perhaps the most curious one. Given the OS’ support for audio recording and playback, a native Voice Memos app for the Watch would be an ideal companion for capturing ideas and audio notes anywhere. Just Press Record, a $2.99 Universal app, wants to provide the missing voice recorder for Apple Watch users.
Posts in iOS
Just Press Record Is a Simple Voice Recorder for watchOS 2 and iOS 9
Pixelmator Updated with iOS 9 Support, iPad Multitasking
The excellent Pixelmator for iOS – which I use regularly on my iPhone and iPad to assemble screenshots that can’t be automated with scripts – has been updated today with support for 8K images and iOS 9. I’ve been playing with a beta version of Pixelmator 2.1 on my iPad running iOS 9, and the ability to work with the app’s canvas alongside other apps in Split View is a refreshing change that saves me time when creating images off multiple assets.
iOS 9 and YouTube Picture in Picture with YouPlayer
With the release of iOS 9 last week, I was hoping YouTube would be ready with an app update to support Picture in Picture. As I suspected, though, YouTube hasn’t brought iOS 9’s improved video playback experience to their official app yet, and I wouldn’t be surprised to know they’re not thrilled to enable a floating video player that would make ads and annotations non-tappable.
To overcome the lack of Picture in Picture for YouTube – a perfect use case for the feature, especially if you consider YouTube as a music player – I’ve started using YouPlayer, a free app by Homegrown Software that supports iOS 9 multitasking on iPad and, more importantly, Picture in Picture for all videos.
Twitter for iOS Adds Universal Links Support on iOS 9
Readdle’s Documents for iOS 9 and Safari File Downloads
Given iOS Safari’s baffling lack of a proper file management interface in 2015, I was relieved to see an update to Readdle’s file management app Documents with iOS 9 support yesterday.
Documents is a good file manager for iOS: its options aren’t overwhelming, it lets you organize files in folders with decent search filters (unlike others), and now it can be used alongside other apps thanks to Slide Over and Split View. More importantly, it comes with a built-in web browser that, upon tapping download links, will bring up a downloader UI to start a download, choose where to save it, and monitor its progress.
Since releasing our eBook version of my iOS 9 review yesterday, the question I’m being asked the most is how to download the .zip archive containing two EPUB files directly on iOS. The problem is twofold: readers need to download a .zip file and expand it, then choose to open one of the EPUBs in iBooks for iPhone or iPad.
The main issue is that Safari seems to do nothing when tapping a download link (such as a link to a .zip file) in a webpage. In reality, Safari starts the download invisibly in the background (something I mentioned in the past) without showing any indicator or progress bar: if you leave the tab open long enough, the download will eventually complete and show you an outdated Open In menu to send the downloaded file to another app. In our case, because the .zip archive is well over 100 MB, tapping its download link in Safari may result in nothing showing in the browser for several minutes while the download is actually happening in the background, without the user knowing.
For this reason – and this goes beyond our eBook – I recommend using Readdle’s Documents app to download and manage files on iOS 9: it’s been updated for iOS 9 multitasking and search, it has a web browser with a downloader feature, and it’s free on the App Store.
1Password 6.0 for iOS 9 Adds iPad Multitasking, Spotlight Search
Terrific update to 1Password for iOS released today: version 6.0 adds iPad multitasking support so you can manage your 1Password in other apps, plus a refreshed design, a new Diceware password generator, and Spotlight search.
Besides Slide Over and Split View, I’m excited about the ability to find 1Password items directly from iOS search thanks to CoreSpotlight indexing. Once enabled in Settings > General, 1Password search will let you look up logins, notes, and other items by searching for their title. iOS search will show a 1Password icon for these results, vault information, and it’ll let you tap an item to open it in 1Password.
I search for logins and secure notes in 1Password every day. The ‘Favorites’ shortcut and last year’s action extension helped in getting to often-used items more quickly, but I still do quite a bit of manual search in my vault on a daily basis. Being able to easily search for 1Password content shows why local app search in iOS 9 will change how we navigate and launch apps, and it’s a clever addition by AgileBits.
1Password 6.0 is available on the App Store.
Workflow 1.3 Brings Powerful Widget, Sync, Health Actions, and More
Since its debut on the App Store last year, Workflow has established a new paradigm for automation on iOS.
By deeply integrating with iOS apps, device hardware and sensors, an array of web services, and advanced actions for scripting and control flows, Workflow has shown how automation – for many an area of computing that evokes thoughts of old desktop apps and arcane scripting languages – can be reimagined for the iPhone and iPad while being fun and powerful. Workflow is one of the reasons behind my decision to go all-in with the iPad as my primary computer, and the Apple Design Award it won in June is testament to the amazing work by the app’s young and prolific team.
Workflow 1.3, launching today on the App Store, is another major step forward for the app, bringing a powerful Today widget, sync between devices, new Health actions, and more.
Dispatch 3.0 Brings iPad App, Improvements to Actions and Snippets
Dispatch has long been one of the most powerful email clients for iPhone. Originally released by Clean Shaven Apps in 2013, Dispatch took a unique approach at managing email by relying on integrations with third-party apps, online services, and text snippets. In a pre-extensibility world, Dispatch was the only email client for iOS that could work alongside your todo or calendar app of choice, turning messages into actionable items that could talk to other apps on your device.
As more and more “modern” email clients started using proprietary server-side features for smart processing and limited external integrations, Dispatch augmented email on iPhone with the power of third-party apps. Even after iOS 8 and extensions, the team at Clean Shaven Apps didn’t lose its focus: in addition to custom integrations, Dispatch was quickly updated to support the native share sheet so you’d have the best of both worlds.
Dispatch for iPhone had app integrations, advanced reply options, and little touches that made it a superior option for power users who wanted more than Apple Mail. With one major caveat: Dispatch didn’t have an iPad app.
This is changing today with version 3.0 of Dispatch, released on the App Store as a Universal update that adds a proper iPad counterpart designed to take advantage of the bigger screen for even faster email management and triaging.
Slack as a Shared Notification Layer
Here’s an interesting announcement from the Slack team earlier today:
You’ll soon find a button on many of your favorite apps and sites that says “Add to Slack”. Clicking the button will take you to an authentication page where you’ll pick which Slack team you’d like to integrate with the service, and which channel (or your own @slackbot) the service will report to (provided your Team admin/owners allow team members to add integrations).
Once configured, any web apps or services that send you notifications or emails can start automatically reporting those to Slack. Many apps and services will also give you the ability to share things into Slack without leaving their app; handy!
(Emphasis mine.)
We use Slack at MacStories, and we pay for the fantastic service it offers. Something I’ve recently started testing is using Slack as a shared notification layer for multiple users: rather than being alerted of important news or updates myself and then having to communicate them manually to others, I can let the notification go to Slack directly so everyone can know instantly and take action more quickly. I’ve been doing this with integrations such as RSS, Zapier, IFTTT, and the recently launched email in both regular Slack channels as well as a dedicated #aggregator channel where bots only report notifications and links.
With today’s announcement, Slack is making it easier for developers to build support for Slack notifications even if their apps have nothing to do with Slack as a chat service. This is where Slack radically differs from everything I’ve tried before: it’s not just a chat room with a bunch of integrations – it’s a whole layer of services, commands, file management, search, and collaboration that is primarily advertised as a communication tool.
It makes sense, then, to properly support rich notifications as extensions for Slack: because users are spending hours in Slack anyway, services like Nuzzel can support native device push notifications (individual) and Slack notifications (shared), allowing multiple people to receive the same notification and coordinate accordingly (inside Slack, of course).
I’ve set up Nuzzel integration today (on the website), and, if my understanding is correct, I can expect my Twitter alerts powered by Nuzzel (and years of carefully curating my following list) to be available to other team members through Slack notifications. I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty great addition to our Slack setup, and I fully expect more web services to start supporting Slack notifications as a feature soon.