Is this a joke? Nope. Apple released an app that does nothing but feature iAds. I normally love just about everything Apple does, but this just seems downright tacky.
Sebastiaan de With [puts it best on twitter][sdw]:
I imagine Apple wanted to release 'iAds Gallery' (lets you browse ads) on April 1st, but the review team delayed it.
You can take a gander at this sad little app here.
[sdw]:
It's starting to feel like Iconfactory central around here, but the company has been on a roll these first few months of 2011. They've released a major overhaul of Twitterrific for Mac, a new photo app called Flare, the unveiling of their game-changing development kit called The Chameleon Project, and now one of their iOS originals has come to the Mac.
Take Five for Mac is a simple utility that pauses your music for 5 minutes (or whatever you set in preferences), then gracefully fades it back in when time is up.
You may be asking why anyone would need something like this. The answer is simple: we all have distractions. I can be on a roll working on something while listening to music or a podcast when my phone will ring, or my wife or son needs my attention for a moment. So I pause iTunes and deal with the issue at hand. And then, more often than not, I listen to absolutely nothing for the next 45 minutes (and often with my headphones attached to my ears). Take Five solves this.
I've been beta testing the Mac version for the past couple weeks and it works really well. I never did buy the iOS app because I didn't want to switch apps just to pause what I am listening to, especially since I often pause with the in-line remote on Apple's headphones.
The Mac app makes perfect sense, though, as it works as advertised while staying out of the way. An added bonus is that is pops up slightly with track info when tracks advance.
Take Five for Mac is available in the Mac App Store for $3.99. However, it is half off for a launch special of $1.99 for a short time.
If you listen to stuff via iTunes while sitting at your desk, you need this app.
Ben Brooks doesn't like the new Twitterrific for Mac. I know, I know, I'm a Twitterrific die-hard. Ben has some good points, but I find a lot of his criticisms to either be unfounded or, well, nit-picky.
After you post a tweet your Twitter stream is not updated, so you see your new tweet at the top of the old tweets. Then when Twitterrific does update, the new tweets jump into position where they should be in the timeline. Your new tweet, that was at the top of where you had read, is now mixed in with a jumble of other tweets. You could get used to this, but you shouldn’t have to get used to non-sense like this.
Agreed. I am used to this behavior of the app, but I would love for the stream to update.
The title bar with all the icons is very imposing and throws off the balance of the entire app. Even with all icons removed it is still just too thick. Twitter clients should always feel like small-apps and not like full-blown apps 1 — Twitterrific fails at this.
I partially agree with this. The account switcher could, honestly, be better. I also like having icon only for the elements in the title/tool bar. His opinion of Twitter apps being constrained to "small-apps" (I believe we call those Dashboard widgets) seems odd. These are Mac apps. Why should they not be a full app? And TweetDeck, being an Adobe AIR app, is a horrible comparison. May as well compare a steak to a pile of crap.
If you want two accounts you need to pay $9.99 — which is silly given that Twitter for Mac is free.
Then go download Twitter for Mac. Fact is, the Iconfactory doesn't, to my knowledge, have venture capital and angel investments totaling in the tens of millions of dollars. They make great products, and sell them for money. That's called a business plan. If the only incentive to pay is to get rid of ads, then I don't think many folks would pay.
You can’t remove the menubar icon.
I don't have a problem with it, but I agree. It's not for everyone.
You can’t close image windows (Twitpic and the like) with the keyboard.
Tap the escape key. Side story: Popovers are an iPad UI element. They aren't native to Mac OS X (at least, not yet. I wouldn't be surprised if they are in Lion). If you rip open Twitterrific's app bundle (right click, Show Package Contents) and scope out their frameworks, you'll see UIKit. UIKit is an iOS framework. To me, that says Iconfactory rewrote Apple's UIKit framework for use on the Mac. That's pretty much amazing (and a lot of work).
In contrast, when you click an image link in Twitter for Mac, it appears a type of popover opens. You can dismiss this with Command-W. That tells me that Twitter for Mac is actually opening a standard window with a custom UI.
Iconfactory did the work to bring iOS popovers to OS X. They chose to use escape as the dismissal shortcut for this new UI.
This is my biggest gripe: the direct messages show up as a random hodgepodge based on the time sent. So I can’t view the entire conversation thread, I just see messages in a confusing and un-helpful way.
I partially agree. In the main timeline, I like that DM's are part of the timeline. It's part of what attracts me to Twitterrific, a universal timeline. However, when viewing just DM's, I would actually like them to be threaded as conversations.
No live streaming of the Twitter feed, which at this point is basic and mandatory.
It'd be a nice option. Personally, to me, it would feel like a constant trickle of information overload. I prefer to digest tweets in morsels during set intervals. But, that is a personal preference that is different for everyone. I'm sure this will be in an update.
No drag and drop support for posting pictures — I mean I guess sending the file path for the picture could be useful at times.
I actually reported this during the private beta. There just wasn't time for it for the initial release.
The icon: I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it.
Dude, it's fricken Ollie! He's awesome! And don't get me started on Twitter for Mac's various icons over its three updates thus far.
The app is stable and works. It does what it says. I can’t help but feel a lot was left out to get the app out. Most of the problems can be easily fixed with updates, but for a version 4 product these issues should have never shipped. Making sure CMD+W closes picture previews and that dragging in pictures to a compose window attaches the image, is basic stuff for a 4th version product. [...] It doesn’t feel finished — it feels like a version 1.0 product. If this was a version 1.0 then I would be excited for its future, but given the version 4 nature I am hardly impressed.
I get the feeling Ben just doesn't know about the product's history, which is understandable. I highly encourage reading Filing a Flight Plan and On Final Approach for some context. Essentially, Twitterrific 3 for iOS was a complete re-write of the iOS app, and likewise, to get the Mac and iOS apps on the same codebase the Mac app is essentially built from the ground up as well. Even though the new Mac version says 4.0, it's a 1.0 from a codebase point of view.
Now that the Mac and iOS versions are built on the same foundation, it should be easier for both platforms to grow concurrently with new features. It was a ton of work for the Iconfactory, but in my opinion, a great investment for the future of the app.
I've seen a few of the folks I follow on Twitter get a Verizon iPhone 4 today, and quickly posed the question of what are the must-have apps. Here's my list:
Those are some of my favorites. Enjoy your new iPhone 4.
It's no secret that I am a huge fan of the Iconfactory's wonderful twitter client Twitterrific. Back in October I wrote about an upcoming revamp of the Mac version of Twitterrific.
Today, the eagle has landed.
Apple's motto for the upcoming Mac OS X Lion is "Back to the Mac." Twitterrific 4 for Mac is exactly that. It is the iOS app brought "Back to the Mac." From popovers to fade-away scroll bars, Twitterrific 4 for Mac is a foreshadowing of Lion on Snow Leopard.
I've been beta testing Twitterrific 4 for the past month or so, and I wouldn't even think of using another Twitter app on my Mac. Where the new Twitter for Mac feels completely foreign on the Mac (in my opinion, it feels too much like an iOS app), Twitterrific is the perfect blend of the Mac and iOS worlds. It has many visual elements from the iOS version, but feels like it belongs on the Mac and operates accordingly.
My favorite thing about Twitterrific, for both the Mac and iOS, is that it covers the essentials of tweeting. The app is well-designed, and isn't bogged down by feature creep. Too often twitter clients throw in everything but the kitchen sink (and sometime even that). Not Twitterrific. It serves two main purposes: reading and writing tweets. You know, the good stuff.
Without further ado, I'd like to overview some of the features. Twitterrific has the ability to open multiple timelines, a collapsible sidebar that shows searches, lists, & trends. The sidebar also lets you switch between a the unified timeline, or filter between Mentions, Direct Messages, and Favorites. There are dark and light themes. Lastly, just to show them off, the tweet composer, and the info and photo viewer popovers.
There's even a fantastic little video walkthrough.
If you aren't convinced, give Twitterrific for Mac a try for free (ad-supported) from the Iconfactory directly. There is also paid version which is ad-free and supports multiple accounts for $9.99 either directly or on the Mac App Store.
I'd like to give a huge congratulations to Ged, Craig, Sean, David, and the rest of the Iconfactory team for bringing Ollie back to the Mac.
Earlier this month, on January 6th, the Mac App Store opened. I previously wrote about some developers throwing their chips all in. One of those developers was the folks behind Pixelmator, one of the lightest, fastest, and most well-designed image editors available for the Mac.
Well, so far, it has paid off for them. To the tune of one million dollars. Within 20 days. That’s $50,000/day. Or look at it this way, to reach $1M, Pixelmator had to sell 33,345 copies. Comparatively, Adobe would have to sell 1,428 copies of Photoshop at $700 per copy. Adobe can reach the goal faster, but in a race to $1M, Pixelmator has more users.
And if you ask me, Pixelmator is a fantastic alternative to Photoshop for prosumers.
A week ago from today, I started something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but I had yet to ever commit to. I want to run a 5K. There’s always been one problem: I’m a couch potato.
Couch to 5k is a regimen that’s been designed to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometers or 30 minutes in just 9 weeks. Nine. Weeks.
Now, I am all about having structure and a schedule. That seriously helps me keep focused on a goal and away from shiny distractions. But the static grid of the training plan is, quite frankly, not too helpful while I’m on the treadmill.
Now, in my past experiences with running, I have used the Nike+ system with my old second-gen iPod nano. Nowadays, I use my iPhone 4 and a Griffin AeroSport for Nike+. And now that I endeavor to train, and train properly, for Couch to 5k, I needed a little help. You guessed it, There’s an App for That™.
The aptly named Couch to 5k app is my weapon of choice. Like I said, I started a week ago, and this training takes 9 weeks. Just so happens, a week and a day after I complete the training, there’s a 5k in my town. So this is good for me.
So, about the app. It prompts you during each workout for a walking warmup, then when to run, walk, and to do your cooldown. The greatest thing is that you don’t have to think about it. You just let the app guide you and you just do it™.
You can control music playback from within the app, and it works concurrently with Nike+ on your iOS 4 multitasking-capable iPhone or iPod touch. Another nice touch is a complete guide to stretching within the app. It is super important to stretch before and after your workout. Heck, stretch daily, your tendons will thank you later.
If you’re a fellow Apple geek who needs some motivation to uproot yourself from the couch and run a 5k two-and-a-half months, definitely look into this app. To get you started, watch the developer’s video below.
My favorite retailer is Amazon, and I am the benefactor of a perpetually gifted Amazon Prime account (thanks, Mom!), so it stands to reason that I have a couple deliveries to track every month.
So there’s this great little utility I use called Delivery Status. It’s made by this outfit called Junecloud, and is available both as a free Mac OS X Dashboard widget and a wonderful universal iOS app that is worth every penny.
On Saturday, Junecloud celebrated the fifth anniversary of Delivery Status, giving a brief overview of its history, and some new developments.
Here’s what great about Delivery Status: it supports just about any courier you could shake a stick at, but it also lets you mark your most used couriers, so you don’t have to hunt and peck through the massive list. Then you just enter your order/tracking number, and it gives you updates all the way up to delivery. Heck, it even shows you where the delivery is on a map. Great stuff.
The widget and the app are both extremely well designed and are refined further with every update. At the very least, treat yourself to the free Dashboard widget. However, I highly recommend picking up the iOS app. It’s usually $4.99, but for a little while, it is $2.99.
Now, go order something with my Amazon affiliate link and track it right to your doorstep.
Finally, the Mac App Store opened for business today (though far earlier than the rumored noon release). It is bundled with the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update, so you’ll need to run Software Update. Once you reboot after the update, you’ll have a shiny new blue icon in your Dock — App Store.
You’ll have to log in with your Apple ID — the same credentials you use for iTunes — and then you can be on your merry way to purchasing apps. And it has never been easier.
Installing apps has never been, well, all that easy. That’s not to say one couldn’t learn the procedure and just go through the menial steps, but there has been room for improvement for quite some time. I have seen many people running their apps from inside disk images (.dmg) because they didn’t know they needed to move the app into their Applications folder. Also, try explaining what a disk image is to someone that doesn’t know much about computing. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
The App Store makes installing apps as easy as two clicks. You click Install (or if the app is paid, you click its price), enter your password, click Buy to confirm, and the app literally zooms off the App Store page and into your Dock. It is also automatically delivered to your Applications folder. Honestly, installation doesn’t get a great deal simpler than this.
Another great feature is the App Store will notify when any of your apps have updates available, along with a list of the changes. Many third-party apps prior to today utilized Sparkle to notify and install updates, but Sparkle requires that a user opens the app for the updater to run. (By the way, it appears the developer of Sparkle “designed and implemented exciting new technology for the Installer that will be employed throughout Mac OS X” when he interned at Apple a while back, according to his resume).
Fact is, it’s easy to go for some time without an app, and you could miss out on some updates, even ones that introduce new features that might interest you in using the app again. The App Store should help mitigate those lapses. Either way, update notifications are welcome in my book.
I have no doubt about the Mac App Store being a wild success. I imagine the App Store will be the way most folks (read non-techy) discover new apps from here on out. Especially switchers. They’ll be introduced to it when they buy a new Mac at the Apple Store, and may not ever know that there is another way to get apps on the Mac (kind of unlikely, but you never know).
At the end of the day, I am all for making user experience easier.
Camera+ has returned to the App Store this evening sporting a version number of 2.0. You may remember Camera+ for the controversy it stirred with Apple when the developers unveiled a way to reassign an iPhone’s volume buttons to act as shutter triggers when running the app. It is unknown whether Apple outright pulled the app from the App Store, or if the developers pulled it to avoid banishment or something of the like.
Nonetheless, it is back with a laundry list of improvements. What I’m liking the best so far is the removal of the silly SLR interface that used to greet you upon launch. Now the app gets you from launch to taking a picture extremely quickly. Everything else, so far, seems mostly like polish, polish, polish.
To celebrate the app’s return, it’s on sale for a whopping 99¢ right now. Owners of 1.x need not fret, 2.0 is a free update.
