Facebook Messenger

For a while now, I have been dogging Facebook's iOS app to my friends for being buggy, crazy, and generally slow. Honestly, the quality of the Facebook iOS app would lead one to think Facebook was a three person outfit handing development of the app to a volunteer intern. And ever since Facebook revamped their Messages infrastructure, the iOS app hasn't been playing as nicely with that particular area of the service.

Well, a while ago, Facebook acquired Beluga, which was an app for sending and receiving messages, pictures, and locations between two people or a small group. Say, that fits right in with Facebook's reimagination of Messages, doesn't it?

Yesterday saw the first fruits of Facebook's Beluga acquisition, as they released Messenger for iOS and Android. This new, separate app is pretty much a wholesale replacement for the current "inbox" area of the Facebook app, doing one thing and doing it very well.

In a couple conversations I've had using Messenger, it facilitates quick messaging very quickly and easily. One friend I was chatting with said it was a little crazy how it was sending duplicates of the messages to his email address and texting his phone in addition to notifying him via push notification for the app. I don't have this problem as I have disabled Facebook from sending me any emails or texts. I prefer to keep Facebook's communication within Facebook's own ecosystem. If I want to check Facebook, I'll go to Facebook.

Overall, the Messenger app is solid and performs well. It's much more stable than Google's competing Huddle feature within the Google+ app. If you're a Facebook on the go, I can't see why you wouldn't want to use Messenger over having Facebook always email you.

I can only hope that Facebook is letting the Beluga team rewrite their primary app accordingly.

Twitterrific 4.3 Syncs Timelines

When it comes to third-party Twitter clients, each one usually needs to find a way to set itself apart. Tweetbot recently added its own push notification service, even offering the ability to set a daily quiet time for when you are asleep.

My favorite twitter app, Twitterrific, has long held its niche with being minimal and offering a unified timeline, showing tweets, mentions, and direct messages all in one continuous timeline. Today, though, the Iconfactory unveiled a new feature to set the blue bird apart from the rest: Tweet Marker.

Tweet Marker works like pure magic. You read some tweets on Twitterrific for Mac, and decide you need to leave your desk for a bit. Simply close Twitterrific, and it sets the top-most tweet in view as the last read tweet. Next, open Twitterrific on your iPhone or iPad, and your timeline auto-scrolls to that marked tweet, signified by a purple bookmark. Read some more tweets, and exit the iOS version of Twitterrific, and then go back to your Mac, and pick up at the latest marked tweet.

This doesn't just work between Mac & iPhone or Mac & iPad, but it works between iPhone & iPad as well.

Twitterrific 4.3 also brings other features to the table, such as initial support for decoding t.co links. Picture services such as TwitPic, yfrog, img.ly, and Twitter's Photo service that have been hidden behind t.co links will now open in the photo viewer.

Be sure to read the full changelog (Mac, iOS) and, if you don't already use Twitterrific, pick it up for the Mac or iOS.

Byword 1.3

Byword is a fantastically simple typing interface for the Mac. I picked it up when version 1.2 came out, which introduced Markdown support. I held off on publishing my thoughts after having a brief discussion with the developers about Markdown support getting a lot better in 1.3. Well, Byword 1.3 made its way onto the Mac App Store today, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on what has become my go-to tool for writing on my Mac.

Syntax

When Byword 1.2 introduced Markdown support a while back, the furthest it reached was the ability to convert your markup into HTML and preview or export it. This was all well and good, but having come from using the abandonware of TextMate, I missed being able to see my Markdown syntax take effect while I wrote. Meaning that by surrounding a word with an asterisk on each side, it would italicize. Well, Byword 1.3 takes care of that. Emphasis and strong emphasis, headers, ordered and unordered lists, and more all render in real time, aiding in visualizing your final work at a glance.

The export options have even expanded to include PDF, RTF, Word, & LaTeX in addition to HTML.

Preferences

I have always enjoyed Byword's minimal preference pane, which offers a light or dark theme, text width choices of narrow, medium, or wide, and the font chooser. Thankfully, one crucial preference was added, and that is the ability to set a default text format of rich text, plain text, or Markdown. And the Markdown choice even uses the .md file extension.

Miscellaneous Niceties

When tapping out a list, whether ordered or unordered, tapping return once now adds the next row with the appropriate marking. Also, there is a new typewriter scrolling mode which keeps the current line centered vertically in the window, so you can watch one area while typing, instead of traveling down the length of your screen as your type.

Ready to Roar

Byword 1.3 also adds support for OS X Lion, which should be arriving any day now. Once running on Lion, Byword will trade its custom full-screen support for Lion's native Full-Screen App support, along with Auto-Save, Versions, and Resume.

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As someone who writes almost exclusively in Markdown anymore, Byword has grown to become the tool I reach for when I go to write. Today's enhancements to how Byword handles Markdown syntax has sealed it. In my book, Byword has become the tool that every serious writer using Markdown should use.

If you are looking for an app that is clean and simply gets out of your way so you can write, I can't recommend Byword enough.

Byword is available on the Mac App Store for $10.

Capture — An App That Does One Thing Well

I can't tell you how often I miss shooting a video of my boy doing something great because I have to do the following:

1. Unlock my iPhone.
2. Find the Camera app.
3. Wait for the Camera app to load.
4. Toggle the switch from still photo to video.
5. Tap record.

The above process can take anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds, which, by the time I am ready to record, I have missed the moment.

Apple is hoping to alleviate some of this by adding a camera button to the lock screen in iOS 5, but that still seems like it will be best suited for quick access to taking still photos (which is also welcome).

Enter Capture, a great little app that does one thing, and does it very well. Tap Capture's icon on the home screen, and it instantly begins recording video as it launches. Simply press the home button to stop recording, and the video is saved to your camera roll.

Capture is 99 cents well spent if you are also frustrated with the slow performance of the built-in camera app.

Marco Arment pretty much speaks for me on that front:

By the way, it's embarrassing that Camera is so slow to launch and be ready to capture videos or photos that apps like this are necessary.

I guess that is a good reason to have a third-party developer community.

Make sure to pick up Capture for 99 cents over at the App Store.

Reeder for Mac

Reeder is my favorite RSS reader for iOS, and it is finally out of beta for the Mac. I've been using the betas for months, and couldn't imagine a better experience across all my devices. The Mac version feels like a hybrid of iOS and OS X, and where that feels a bit out of place on Snow Leopard, I have a feeling it will be right at home on Lion next month.

It's $10, and featured over on the Mac App Store. I also recommend the iPhone/iPod touch version and iPad version.

Pixelmator 2 Sneak Preview

My favorite image editor, Pixelmator, debuted a sneak preview of their next major release, Pixelmator 2. There is a lot of amazing stuff happening in this release that brings it closer to a Photoshop replacement for many users. At the very least, I think Pixelmator 2 will certainly seal the deal on surpassing Photoshop Elements.

Pixelmator 2 adds a ton of new and improved brushes. The crown jewel among new features looks to be Content-Aware Fill, which is something that the world first saw in Photoshop CS5. Like I said, Pixelmator 2 will probably satisfy most people's need for Photoshop, at a fraction of the price.

Speaking of price, Pixelmator 2 will be a free upgrade for those who have purchased Pixelmator in the Mac App Store. If you owned Pixelmator previous from the pre-Mac App Store era, I would suggest moving over to the Mac App Store version now, as the price is $30 once again for a limited time to encourage folks to get on board with the Pixelmator team's decision to sell only via the Mac App Store. After a little while, the price will return to $60.

Also, if you don't currently have Pixelmator, but think you may want it, it'd be a good idea to pick it up now.

iWork Apps for iOS Go Universal

Apple updated its iOS version of the iWork suite with new file management and iPhone & iPod touch user interfaces across the board. I currently only have Pages, so I installed the newly universal app on my iPhone 4 to give it a whirl.

Let's just say it's bittersweet.

Pages on the iPhone looks very nice and operates well given the constraint on screen real estate. That said, I'm not going to write a novel on my iPhone. Heck, I'm not going to write a full page document on my iPhone unless the situation were critical.

This all being said, Pages will be handy for the occasional edit. And that's where I think this app fits on the iPhone. Creating very brief documents to send out on the go, or making quick edits and sending them out.

I like Pages on the ipad and find it very usable for brief document creation. The iPhone interface should be a nice companion.

I can't speak for Keynote or Numbers, but just from the screenshots, Keynote on the iPhone looks like it could be handy in the same capacity as Pages. The Numbers screenshots look downright atrocious on the iPhone.

For $10 each, the apps are a bargain, especially if you find you only need one or two of them.

Twitterrific 4.1 for iOS Shines with Polish

My favorite Twitter app, Twitterrific, has released a major feature update chock full of refinements on iOS, bringing it up to par with the Mac app.

The biggest new feature is username suggestions when composing a tweet. Simply type the @ symbol then start typing either the username or the corresponding listed real name, and a little slide bar with show up showing you users that match. Tap the user and the name is filled. Other apps do this, but Iconfactory's implementation is pretty slick.

Also, Twitterrific's tap gestures have been simplified and overhauled. I'm especially loving the Report Spammer button when long-tapping an avatar. That button has been long overdue.

These are just a couple of the many updates (and a ton of bug fixes) in Twitterrific 4.1. Be sure to check out the release notes and take the app for a spin.

¶ Seamless

Nearly ten years ago, Apple introduced the original iPod. In their first ad for the iPod, before the silhouette dancers, we are introduced to a guy jamming out to a song on iTunes, which he then drags onto his iPod in the source list, stuffs headphones in his ears, clicks play on his iPod, and seamlessly continues jamming out to the song.

That was the dream, wasn't it? To seamlessly pick up where you left off. Unfortunately, that dream has never been a reality — until now.

Enter Seamless, a new app for iOS and your Mac. Seamless allows you to transfer what you are currently playing on one device to the other, without skipping a beat. Press one button, and music fades out on one device as it fades in on the other.

The dream has been realized. And I can't believe this isn't a feature found in iOS and iTunes already.

Seamless works completely as advertised. It is pure magic.

Seamless for iOS is a buck in the App Store and the companion Mac app is free in the Mac App Store.

They even have a great video which, like all great app videos these days, is done by Adam Lisagor.

Hat tip to a tweet from my close friend and fellow writer, Samantha.

Tweetbot

Tweetbot is a new Twitter client that debuted yesterday in the App Store. Rather than write ad nauseum about it, I suggest you read Shawn Blanc's excellent review.

My brief thoughts are:

• This app is really polished.
• I love the gesture support, especially the slide right and left actions.
• Being able to use a list as a main timeline is a thoughtful feature that hasn't been done this well until now. It makes me want to do a better job at curating my lists. I hope other clients take note.
• I also love Tapbot's solution for the bottom tab bar. Having the last two items be configurable is a great UI and UX solution. I hope Apple takes note on this one, because the "More" tab they use sucks.

Tweetbot is two bucks right now for a limited time. I have no idea when it will go up, or by how much. But for two bucks, this is worth having in your arsenal.

I do have to mention one thing though. As much I like Tweetbot, and I think it is as good, or perhaps better than the official Twitter app, I am still sticking with Twitterrific as my main client. I like Twitterrific's unified timeline, the themes, and the interaction. Maybe it's just what I am used to. Though I do love that Twitterrific has a unified experience across the iPhone (and iPod), iPad, and Mac.

Regardless, when I do feel the need to occassionally reach for a backup client, that will now be Tweetbot, instead of Twitter for iPhone.

Update on 2011-04-14 21:55 by Chris De Jabet

I would be remiss if I didn't point out Tapbots' very well done video for Tweetbot, which you can watch here.