TextTool: Text Manipulation On iOS

TextTool

TextTool

It used to be that, to do nerd stuff, you had to get a Mac or PC. As iOS progressed over the years, however, developers saw that users were spending a lot of time trying to do work on their iPhones and iPads, and started building utilities that packed powerful functionalities in what looked like “just an app”. We got Drafts and Launch Center Pro, calendar apps and password managers just as powerful as their desktop counterparts, and, of course, apps to script iOS and a text editor with its own workflow system. To sum up: iOS is still maturing, but there’s no shortage of nerdy apps and utilities at this point.

iOS is great for quick text entry thanks to the portability of an iPhone or iPad mini, but doing advanced text manipulation is a bit tricky unless you want to get dirty with Editorial and Python scripts. On the Mac, it’s easy to fire up Automator and create a workflow that takes a line of text and turns it Into Title Case or UPPERCASE; even going the extra mile and building services to take selected text and indent it or swap spaces with tabs takes a few minutes, but it’s doable with a basic knowledge of built-in OS X tools. On iOS? There’s no Automator (yet?), so, until today, if you wanted to do automated text transformations you’d have to get Editorial and Pythonista or use some of Launch Center Pro’s (limited) text filters.

Craig Pearlman noticed this problem and built TextTool, a $4.99 Universal app that comes with 28 built-in text transformations that you can use inside the app’s text editor or chain to other iOS apps with URL schemes and workflows.

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Oak: A Pokédex for Your iPhone→

I’ve had Oak on my iPhone for a while, but now that it has Kalos region Pokémon for X & Y, I’ve been using it more and more as a companion for referencing abilities

The hardest decisions you’ll have to make in these games is deciding which of your Pokémon’s moves stay and which ones go. Not having played since I was a kid, I’m not familiar with a lot of the new moves and types that have been added since Red and Blue. Oak lets me search for Pokémon, find pertinent stats, and browse through their entire moveset. The app is free to try, with an in-app purchase unlocking the full directory of over 700 Pokémon for $4.99.

Download it from the App Store.

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Leaving Google Chrome: Why I’ve Returned To Safari

Safari

Safari

I guess you could say that I was quite the fan of Google Chrome.

Before switching to Chrome last year, I didn’t have a “favorite” browser or “browser of choice”: I just kept jumping between Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, trying out all the features that the three major players had to offer on OS X. I’m pretty sure that, at one point, I even tried to go a full week with using Opera. My browser requirements have always been fairly standard (several open tabs; a lot of reading; sync with mobile devices), so I could afford to change browsers without having to worry about setting up a complex environment from scratch.[1]

As I started using my iPad as my primary computer last year, I was growing increasingly annoyed with the state of iCloud sync in Safari and lack of major overhaul to a design that originally shipped with iPhone OS 1. I don’t frequently abandon systems that work for me due to stagnation, but iOS 6’s Safari exhibited a certain staleness on top of issues with bookmark and tab sync that, for me, were becoming an annoying problem. I liked Safari’s speed and native integrations with iOS, but it was prone to errors and boring.

On the other hand, Google Chrome for iOS was promising, familiar, and power user-friendly. I fell in love with Google’s support for x-callback-url, which I integrated in several workflows of mine as it allowed me to save time when switching between apps on my iPad; sync was nearly perfect; I praised Google’s superior implementation of voice dictation and feedback, although I noted how their Voice Search couldn’t exactly compete with Siri. Google kept pushing updates to Chrome for iOS, making it a capable browser for average and power users alike.

A few weeks after publishing my review of iOS 7, I decided to uninstall Chrome from all my devices and move back to Safari as my main and only browser on my iPhone, iPad, and two Macs.

I’m not looking back. I’m happy with the new Safari – so much, in fact, that I’m even considering Reading List as my “read later” service going forward.

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First iOS 7 Game Controllers Now Available→

As reported by The Verge, the first third-party iOS 7 game controllers are going on sale this week, although with mixed reviews by the press. Namely, PowerA has released the MOGA Ace Power ($100) and Logitech announced the PowerShell (Controller + Battery, shipping in December in the United States, priced at $99).

Both controllers take advantage of Apple’s new game controller API that was added in iOS 7, which allows hardware makers to create physical controllers that follow a specification provided by Apple, and that lets game developers easily add support for the controller framework once and expect their games to work with controllers by any company. However, Apple decided to make controllers optional in iOS 7 games (multi-touch is still required as primary input) and they didn’t launch or highlight a specific section of controller-ready games in the App Store, which led me to wonder about the potential of game controllers in the future.

Polygon’s Russ Frushtick tried the MOGA Ace Power, and he was not impressed:

It has a cheap, plastic feel and a rattle that makes it seem like the controller could shake apart at any moment. There’s also no wireless support, which means that you can only use devices that fit inside the controller’s expanding design (basically just newer iPod Touch and iPhones that support Apple’s lightning connector will work). There is a battery pack in the controller, so you can use it to charge your phone in a pinch, but it’s far from ideal for anything beyond that.

The MOGA Ace Power uses the “extended” controller option of Apple’s framework, which has support for dual analog sticks and shoulder buttons + triggers. Apparently, Apple asked PowerA to make sure iPhones and iPod touches could sit in the middle of the controller.

In his hands-on post, TouchArcade’s Eli Hodapp noted the potential of the MOGA Ace Power, its poor build quality, but also described the experience of playing first-person shooters on iOS:

Additionally, I’ve found myself actually enjoying playing first person shooters on my iPhone for the first time I can ever remember. All the frustration of having your thumbs all over the screen desperately trying to look and move while avoiding and/or hitting a plethora of virtual buttons just totally fades away. If you’re a huge fan of iOS first person shooters, consider one of these controllers an absolute must-have accessory.

Alas, it sounds like most game developers haven’t tested their games with the first iOS 7 controllers, resulting in interfaces that don’t disappear when a controller is connected (virtual buttons and sticks) or control schemes that don’t use all the provided buttons.

The Logitech PowerShell, on the other hand, uses the simple, SNES-like controller configuration with no dual analog sticks. SlashGear’s Chris Davies tried the PowerShell, although I’m not sure this justifies its premium price tag:

As you might hope for a hundred-dollar controller, the keys are sturdy and firm, with just the right sort of response under your fingertip. If you’ve tried a recent Logitech pad for PC, they’ll be very familiar.

On the official website, Logitech has posted a list of games that are compatible with the PowerShell (and presumably any other controller as well) and a product page with additional information and photos.

Based on initial reviews, it sounds like it’s too early to invest in an iOS 7 game controller: as expected, the first controllers work but they’re not great, and, more importantly, you won’t find many games with proper support for game controllers today. iOS 7 game controllers keep having enormous potential to enhance gaming on iOS; at the same time, though, we’ll have to wait and see if physical controllers are what iOS really needed to go beyond freemium games, ports, spin-offs, and the occasional gem.

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Hatch Brings Virtual Pets to the iPhone→

Suzanne LaBarre for Co.Design on Hatch, the latest app from Impending dream team Phill Ryu, David Lanham, and friends.

The average app is a money making proposition first, and artistic statement or utility second. That’s why the App Store is loaded with clunky Angry Birds clones and pandering zombie shooters. But Hatch, a tamagotchi app by the two-man, part-time team at Impending, is a rarely polished labor of love.

It’s worth $2 alone to see David’s creatures come to life. Download it from the App Store.

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The Apple Store App, Now on iPad

Apple has launched a brand new version of their Apple Store app for the iPad, bringing their online digital storefront to iOS 7. Just like the iPhone app, you can browse through all of the Apple Store’s available listings for backpacks, accessories, and Apple products; customize products like iPod touches and iPads with engraving and add gift wrapping at checkout; and explore products using gestures to zoom and browse. Unlike the iPhone app, however, Mashable writes that the app brings some new functionality to the big screen.

Many features baked into the iPad app don’t appear on the existing iPhone app version, like highlighting products trending on the site based not only purchases, but also reviews. It also draws attention to a slew of products, not just iPads and iPhones, like the Anki Drive racing game, headphones and a connected basketball. The app is also rich with filtering capabilities, including colors and price.

The Apple Store for iPad app is separate from the iPhone version, likely due to new features and to accommodate iPads that don’t have cellular capabilities. Download the app for free from the App Store.

[via Mashable]

Podcasting On iOS→

When I told some friends that I was “podcasting” on iOS, they assumed that all I was doing was recording myself on iOS and doing the post-production later on a Mac. Not so! In fact, we actually do the entire end-to-end audio production purely on iOS.

Fraser Speirs details his workflow for producing episodes of Out of School without a Mac. The fact that several episodes have been created using an iPhone and iPad with a portable podcasting setup is pretty incredible.

Also of note (towards the end): one of the benefits of the A7 processor.

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App Stagnation→

Michael Lopp decided to move away from Things:

How can I trust that I’m using the state of the art in productivity systems when I’m using an application that took over two years to land sync I could easily use? What other innovations are they struggling to land in the application? Why hasn’t the artwork changed in forever? What is that smell? That smell is stagnation.

Daniel Jalkut responds:

He applauds the app for allowing him to do his work “frictionlessly.” How does a software developer achieve this level of performance? By first building a quality product and then working deliberately over months and years to address the minor issues that remain. Woodworking makes a reasonable analogy: after a chair has been carved and assembled the job is functionally complete. It’s a chair, you can sit in it. It’s done. But customers will gripe with good cause about its crudeness unless the hard work of detailing, sanding, and lacquering are carried out. Only then will it be considered finely crafted.

I’ve gone through a similar process several times in the past few years. Why change something that works? But, on the other hand, why avoid trying something that could be better?

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