With the release of iOS 7, I wanted to find some cool custom wallpapers that would fit with the OS better than some of the default options provided by Apple. I want my iPhone and iPad to look nice – with iOS 7, the wallpaper is now an essential part of the experience, providing the color background for several system apps and features. I don’t have the time to browse around dozens of wallpaper websites, and I don’t have the knowledge to fire up Photoshop and create my own wallpaper that has just the right amount of color I want. Fortunately, the developer community has thought about people like me who want nice iOS 7 wallpapers with minimal effort, offering apps that make it easy to mix colors and gradients to give your iOS 7 device a unique look. Read more
Posts tagged with "iOS 7"
For The Colorful: Create iOS 7 Wallpapers From an iPhone or iPad
With iOS 7, Byword Brings Markdown Syntax Highlighting and Simplified Keyboard
Byword is my text editor of choice on the iPhone, and the one I recommend to anyone who’s not willing to play with Editorial and its advanced automation features on the iPad. While not as customizable as Zorn’s app, Byword is, in my opinion, the most powerful Markdown and Dropbox-compatible text editor for people who want to take notes, export to HTML, and perhaps publish posts to services like WordPress or Evernote. I have already covered the solid feature set of Byword and the reason why I prefer it to other text editors for iOS in my review of version 2.0. Read more
Velocity→
I never got into the idea of catching up on my read later queue through speed reading, but, for those who did, Velocity is a great choice.
I have been testing Velocity for the past month, and it comes with a clean, elegant UI made for iOS 7, Pocket and Instapaper integration, and even a built-in browser to add articles without leaving the app. In the speed reading view, you can tweak words per minute, switch themes (black is my favorite), and see how many minutes you have left in the title bar. It’s an extremely well-considered and functional app, which isn’t a surprise considering that the Quotebook guys made it.
If you like speed reading, Velocity is $2.99 on the App Store.
Layer Cake→
Justin Williams:
What we see today isn’t what we’ll see six months from now. Everyone is still learning to speak the modern iOS design language: Apple included. The folks in Cupertino built a completely new foundation for their mobile operating system in just a few months and are still working out how to best adapt their applications to speak the new language that foundation affords. It should be no surprise that many of Apple’s apps that are distributed through the App Store aren’t updated to take advantage of iOS 7 to its fullest. They’re trying to find the answers to the same questions designers outside of Cupertino are.
A great response to a shortsighted observation by Topolsky. iOS 7 – as also confirmed by Matthew Panzarino’s interviews with developers such as the NYT team and Evernote – will make conversions to Android extremely difficult and unlikely (unless you want to end up with poor interface decisions on both platforms, which is another problem).
iOS 7 For Keyboard Power Users→
Rui Carmo (via Michael Tsai) on iOS 7 and the new support for shortcuts with external keyboards:
Furthermore, to add insult to injury, the Spotlight key on my Logitech keyboard also stopped working. It takes me back to the home screen without toggling the search field, so I am now without any truly quick way to launch apps solely from the keyboard.
Finally, something happened to Bluetooth support in general — I’ve had three separate instances where my keyboard did not work at all, all solved by toggling Bluetooth off and on again, in the classic spirit of The IT Crowd.
The new Safari shortcuts that Rui mentions are welcome, and I wish that Google added that kind of keyboard support to Chrome (which is ready for iOS 7, but doesn’t have substantial new features yet). I have experienced the same issues that Rui brings up with my Logitech keyboard, and I wonder if this is a problem of iOS 7.0 that will be fixed soon or a real incompatibility of old Logitech keyboards with the new OS. I hope it’s not the latter, because I really like this keyboard.
In general, I’m not surprised that Apple hasn’t added many keyboard shortcuts to their apps yet. iOS 7 for iPad is rough in some spots, and power user stuff is the one that gets easily cut when you have to meet a deadline. The fact that third-party developers jumped on external keyboard integration gives me hope though, and I’m looking forward to seeing more shortcuts popping up in my favorite apps soon.
For iOS 7.1, it’d be awesome to see new multitasking shortcuts on the iPad.
iOS 7 Updates: Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo Weather, and Google Chrome
Yesterday saw the release of thousands of apps optimized, enhanced, or, in some cases, completely redesigned for iOS 7. At MacStories, we highlighted several apps that were ready for the OS’ rollout such as Pocket, OmniFocus 2, or Instacast 4, and then we fired up iTunes – or simply waited for automatic updates to do their magic on iOS 7 – and checked out all the other apps that were also released yesterday. In this post, I thought I could offer a quick overview of iOS 7 updates from four big-name companies: Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google. Read more
Apple Launches “Kids” App Store Category
Following iOS 7’s public launch yesterday, Apple today officially opened a new “Kids” App Store category that parents and teachers can use to “quickly find apps that are perfect for children”. The category is available now by browsing the App Store on an iOS device or computer running iTunes.
First announced at WWDC in June alongside iOS 7’s developer debut, the Kids category is aimed at facilitating the process of finding apps and games based on age ratings. The category is curated by Apple editors, who, according to the company, “search the App Store for the best apps in each age group — up to 11 years old”.
The Kids category is, unlike other App Store categories, divided in age ratings: at the top, there’s Apple’s typical carousel of featured apps and sections, with shortcuts to “Best for Ages 5 & Under”, “Best for Ages 6-8”, and “Best for Ages 9-11” areas listed below. According to developers we contacted earlier this month, Apple started requesting additional artwork for promotional materials for the Kids category in the summer, and there is, indeed, a rich selection of games and apps already available in the category today.
Besides featured apps and age ratings, Apple has also created Kids-specific sections to group related apps and games, such as “Create & Play”, “Shapes & Colors”, and “First Words & Numbers”. Each section comes with custom graphics and a selection of apps curated by Apple editors.
Apple’s focus on making iOS devices more accessible for younger generations, teachers, and parents isn’t new, and the Kids category is the culmination of Apple’s efforts to curate App Store software suitable for children.
Taking Developers Along For The Ride→
Matthew Panzarino talked to several developers of third-party iOS apps about the importance of iOS 7 and what it means for the developer community. The background on the deeply-reimagined Evernote app (by CEO Phil Libin himself) is fascinating.
iOS 7 and VoiceOver→
A great overview of Apple’s improvements to VoiceOver (and Accessibility in general) in iOS 7 by Josh de Lioncourt. I am not an Accessibility expert, but I keep hearing from smart people like Josh and Steven that Apple is far ahead than its competitors in this area.
Just by reading through the overview linked above, I was impressed by this tidbit about the Handwriting feature and how it integrates with Safari:
When in web content, such as in Safari, Handwriting mode has yet another use. Write a letter corresponding to a rotor option, and VoiceOver switches to that form of navigation. For example, writing “H” switches to Headings, and two-finger swipes up and down will move you through the headings on the page. Draw an “L”, and now you are navigating links. This will be particularly nice for users who keep a lot of items in their rotor and want a faster way to move through various HTML element types.
The accuracy of the recognition of this mode is superb, and with just a little practice, many users are likely to find they enjoy this form of text entry. Hats off to Apple for incorporating this in such a fluid and intuitive way.
For more on Accessibility, check out Apple’s main webpage, VoiceOver section, and developer page.