Nice update to my favorite utility to browse Unicode characters on iOS: Uniconsole 3.0 has a redesigned interface for iOS 7 and it lets you manage characters easily with drag & drop. Favorites can now contain multiple characters (if you have often-used emoji combinations, like Casey, this can be useful) and every list of characters can be scrolled vertically.
Uniconsole is $1.99 on the App Store.
This week, Jason Snell puts on his best Italian accent and joins Stephen and Myke to talk about online collaboration, keyboards and the third rail of 5by5 podcasting — comic books.
Bad news: as you may know by now, I couldn’t record on Wednesday due to issues with my ISP.
Good news: Myke and Stephen had a great discussion with Jason about iPads, comics, and more. And: my Internet should be back next week. Get the episode here.
Last night, Apple published a new mini-site called “Life on iPad” that, alongside a video that was first shown at the iPad event on October 22, includes profiles of people whose personal lives and businesses have been transformed and enriched by the iPad.
While I agree with Fraser Speirs’ comment, I think that this bit from Palmaz Vineyards’ profile sums it up well:
iPad brings us the perfect balance of function and creativity. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the one device we all love at home is the same device we want to use at work. Nothing else comes close.
The examples that Apple is showcasing are obviously specific (wind service technicians; Broadway dancers; a surgeon) because they need to tell a captivating story (“Frank, average iPad user from Dallas” doesn’t exactly make for an enticing profile), but the underlying theme is clear. The iPad is what you make of it.
Released today on the App Store, Dropbox 3.0 is a complete redesign that gets the app ready for iOS 7.
Two months after the release of iOS 7, the new Dropbox shows the work of designer Tim Van Damme, who left Instagram to join the Dropbox design team earlier this year. “Dropbox 3.0 is all about your content. We stripped out as much branding as we could, just so you can focus on what’s important”, Van Damme told me. Noting how several functionalities and interactions have been simplified in this update, he mentioned how, for instance, documents and photos are easier to enjoy in full-screen: “On your iPad, it used to take two taps to see a photo full-screen. Now, a single tap will let you enjoy your photo full-screen, and this also works for most other file-types”, Van Damme added. Read more
MacRumors’ Jordan Golson:
On the Mac, Keynote gained the same new transitions as on iOS, while Numbers and Pages received new toolbar customization options and other bug fixes.
These first updates come 15 days after Apple promised they would restore old iWork features, and they are part of “some of the features” Apple said are coming back in the next 6 months.
Smile just sent out a press email confirming what they shared in a Google group earlier today: following a rejection by Apple’s review team, TextExpander touch is going to be revised significantly to stay on the App Store.
Yesterday, after a period of engagement with the App Review Team from Apple, they informed us that TextExpander’s use of Reminders for shared snippet data storage is not an intended use of Reminders and will no longer be accepted. TextExpander touch will not clear review until this is resolved. Apps which implement the current TextExpander touch SDK may not clear review until their TextExpander touch SDK is updated.
To expand snippets in iOS apps that integrate with the TextExpander touch SDK, Smile relies, essentially, on a hack that lets them store snippet data in the Reminders database (it used to be a persistent pasteboard before iOS 7). Smile is bending the rules to make TextExpander touch work seamlessly within apps, but it’s still sad to hear that they’re facing technical issues because TextExpander touch is a great app that, to my knowledge, never caused problems due to its workarounds.
Smile is looking for an alternative solution and they want to publish an updated SDK by Monday. They are considering x-callback-url, which would make apps store TextExpander data in their own database but lose the possibility of syncing snippet changes with the main TextExpander touch app. It’s not good news, and I hope that Smile can figure out a solution soon.
Keeping score? Counting how many of cups of coffee you drink? Need a quick way to count up for a science experiment? Keep track of multiple figures with Counters, a simple, focused app that keeps tabs on how many times you do… well, anything. It looks great and is a buck on the App Store.
Runtime keeps track of not only where, but how you run, highlighting workout intervals and displaying your path on a shareable map. Runtime lets you add individualized notes to each workout, define custom interval timers (useful for mixing up intensity), and safely backs up your data to Dropbox. You can even use it as a basic pedometer and step counter, as a tool to track hikes, and as a way to measure your athletic progress. Because Runtime is so focused around places and routes, I’d love to see integration with an app like Day One so you can turn trips into memories. It’s simple, looks great on iOS 7, and is well done.
Runtime can be had for $2.99 from the App Store.
Apple is featuring Clumsy Ninja, an iOS game that was first announced at the iPhone 5 keynote in 2012, with a custom page on the App Store that, alongside a description, features a 1-minute trailer for the game. The custom “Featured” page is live on the UK App Store at the moment and it features Clumsy Ninja as Editor’s Choice for the week; it’s likely that the game will also be featured on the US App Store and other international stores later today.
The big news is, of course, the fact that Apple is embedding a video in the App Store, which has historically only allowed developers to include up to five static screenshots for their apps. Clumsy Ninja’s video opens the built-in iOS media player in portrait mode, and it features music playing in the background with no voiceover or custom App Store branding. It is, effectively, a game trailer on the App Store; right now, it’s only available in the special Featured page for the app, as the app’s regular App Store page doesn’t show the trailer.
The possibility of including videos alongside screenshots on the App Store has long been one of the most requested features by third-party developers who, over the years, have struggled to explain App Store customers the purpose of their app or game with just text and images. With iOS 7’s focus on motion and animations, the lack of videos on the App Store was particularly surprising, and it led many to wonder as to whether Apple would soon add support for videos besides screenshots. When iOS 7 was first announced in June, even Apple produced a series of short videos for the OS’ official website, where they showcased the new features and design through animations and quick demonstrations of Messages and other apps.
It’s unclear at this point if Clumsy Ninja will remain an isolated case or become the norm for the App Store going forward. It’s also not clear whether any developer will be able to add a video for their app on the App Store, or if trailers will be limited to Editor’s Choice and managed by Apple’s curation team on a weekly basis. Developers have traditionally resorted to creating videos and screencasts of their apps for their websites or YouTube channels, and an integrated solution available in the App Store alongside screenshots, description, and buy buttons would be a fantastic addition to better illustrate an app’s feature set, flow, and user experience.
