¶ Day One

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On and off over the years I have tried my hand at journaling. It has never stuck. I have several reasons behind why it I have never done well with it.

  1. I’ve never really set a clear purpose for journaling, hence motivation to do so wanes quickly.
  2. I hate writing by hand, partly because my penmanship is terrible.
  3. I never felt motivated to really try journaling via a text file or an app, directly related to reason 1.

Then I read Shawn Blanc’s review of Day One. I had seen Day One in the App Store before, but hadn’t given it much thought, because I never had a clear reason to journal.

Then Shawn wrote this:

As a writer, I believe journaling on a regular basis is critical. It’s writing that will never be judged. It’s writing that doesn’t require an editor. It’s the only place where I am completely free to write for my truly ideal reader: a future me. I have my own inside jokes, my own running story arc, my own shorthand. I love the freedom to write whatever I want, however I want, with no need to make it tidy or clear or concise. And I have no doubt that it makes me a better professional writer.

I realized I had always attempted journaling with the thought that my audience would be someone who would eventually read it. It had never crossed my mind that I could just write for myself and not worry about that writing being judged or analyzed. I could have fun with it.

So I’m giving Day One a shot. I bought the Mac & iOS apps, and after a couple weeks I’m happy to say I have stuck with it.

Being able to attach photos is a nice touch to tie words more vibrantly with memories. I love the automatic tagging of location and weather. Most of all, though, I like brig able to journal from anywhere. I can be at my Mac, or use my iPhone or iPad. iCloud keeps it all in sync.

Most of all, I think I am learning how to approach writing more casually and have more fun with it. Journaling is a new avenue for me, one I like taking a daily stroll down.

You can get Day One for Mac for $5 on the Mac App Store and Day One for iOS for $5 on iTunes.

Pixelmator 2.1 Cherry

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I don’t do a great deal of work with images, but when I need something a little more beyond what iPhoto or Aperture can offer, or if I need to make something from scratch, I turn to Pixelmator.

I’ve been using Pixelmator for a few years, and it has always been a better experience than that other pixel-pushing tool from Adobe.

Today, Pixelmator 2.1 Cherry was released, making an already easy to use image editor even easier. It’s ready for both Mountain Lion and the Retina display, includes iCloud document storage support, and features a new effects browser and alignment guides.

Effects always intimidated me because they resided by name only in a menu. I didn’t know what each one did. With the new effects browser I can see what an effect will do before I apply it.

As for alignment guides, this is something I have wanted for a while. Now it is super easy to center or align objects in an image amongst each other. This makes Pixelmator a precision tool.

The Pixelmator team has some great walkthroughs of the new features on their site.

The best part of Pixelmator is the price. It’s just $29.99 $14.99 on the Mac App Store.

iOS 6 Beta 4 Shows Built-In YouTube App the Door

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Back in June, I listed a few things I’d like to see Apple remove from iOS. One of those was:

The YouTube app seems slightly irrelevant these days, given that is somewhat out of date with YouTube’s current feature set, and YouTube’s mobile site is more than functional. Heck, let Google roll their own YouTube app onto the App Store.

I just don’t see much advantage to having a built-in YouTube app anymore. And let’s face it, the icon is hideous.

Apple released beta 4 of iOS 6 to developers today, and the built-in YouTube app is gone. The Verge has a statement from Apple:

Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.

I’m sure there are folks who will be upset. I just see this as a reclaimed spot on the Home Screen.

¶ Ruminating on Updates

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Just a little late night ruminating on the eve before OS X Mountain Lion hits the App Store.

Gatekeeper

I’d say my Applications folder is pretty evenly split between App Store apps and non-App Store apps (hereafter referred to as direct apps), once you take away the system apps.

Of the direct apps, I honestly haven’t seen as many as I thought I would gain Mountain Lion and/or Gatekeeper support. Gatekeeper is Apple’s new security system in Mountain Lion that ensures a developer of a direct app is known by Apple. And, if a direct app does anything nefarious, Apple can shut down that app’s developer ID, stopping the spread of malware cold.

Here’s the thing: Gatekeeper is on by default. And if developers have not updated for Gatekeeper yet, users will either have to exempt each non-Gatekeeper app one by one, or disable Gatekeeper entirely, rendering this new layer of security moot.

That isn’t good.

If users disable Gatekeeper, they will likely never reenable it. I guess they compute at their own risk, huh?

The far greater risk, however, is users becoming used to allowing any direct app that asks to circumvent Gatekeeper to do so. If they develop a Pavlovian response to clicking Allow every time an app wants through the Gate, they will have a false sense of security if a malicious app does someday surface. The trained response should be to say no to such prompts.

iWork

Another thing that has been bugging me is Apple’s lack of showing off any truly significant updates to iWork — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. We know iWork will be gaining iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud feature with Mountain Lion, so the apps will need to be updated in some fashion.

My concern is whether this will just be yet another bolt-on update to the current versions of iWork — which have been around since January 2009 — or whether iWork will truly get a proper update for 2012.

Furthermore, Apple only allows App Store apps to take advantage of Documents in the Cloud. Like I said, iWork has been around since 2009, well before the App Store existed on the Mac. My copy of iWork came on a DVD.

Now, Apple certainly has the right and the ability to give the non-App Store versions of iWork access to iCloud, much like my non-App Store version of Aperture can use Photo Stream. But I can’t help but feel like iWork has been deprived of a significant rethink for too long. I’d like to see iWork 2012 (or 2013, or just plain iWork) in the App Store tomorrow.

Transitions are always awkward. The transition to Gatekeeper will take some time. I just thought more developers would have been ready for it.

I’d also like to see Apple start wrapping up the transition from the apps that were sold on physical media to App Store versions by putting iWork ‘09 to rest, and giving the trio of apps a much needed update in this era of refinement.

End of Development

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Some high profile apps have ceased development today in the Mac & iOS ecosystem. Pulp and Wallet by Acrylic and Sparrow, the eponymous email client focused on Gmail. The companies were purchased by Facebook and Google, respectively.

I’m sure the developers are elated. Their users, however, can expect no further feature development (I wouldn’t count on bug fixes, either).

So, if you were a fan of Wallet, you should probably look into migrating to 1Password. And Pulp users may want to look at Reeder. And Sparrow users better get comfy with Apple Mail again.

I think Marco Arment puts it best today:

If you want to keep the software and services around that you enjoy, do what you can to make their businesses successful enough that it’s more attractive to keep running them than to be hired by a big tech company.

Honestly, getting free updates in the App Store all the time is nice on my wallet, but I’d rather have a frictionless paid upgrade path for major releases than to watch great apps fade away.

Tweetbot for Mac Public Alpha

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Tapbots have released a public alpha of Tweetbot for Mac. If you’ve ever used either of their iOS versions of Tweetbot, you’ll feel right at home with it on your Mac, as Tapbots have maintained consistency.

The public alpha is free to download for now, but it is far from a finished product. Expect bugs, crashes, and incomplete features. I imagine that when it hits 1.0, it will be a paid product in the Mac App Store.

¶ Apple's New Podcasts App

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Me, last week, on the rumor of a standalone Podcasts app for iOS 6:

When Apple touted iOS 5 as being PC-free, one thing they forgot to include is being able to subscribe to podcasts on the iPhone and be able to check for and download new episodes.

Well, it turns out that iOS 5.1 is the release that makes iOS PC-free in this regard. Apple just released their standalone Podcasts app.

Here are the details from Apple:

Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature.

Features:

  • Enjoy all of your audio and video podcasts in a single app
  • Explore hundreds of thousands of podcasts including shows in over 40 languages
  • Try the innovative new Top Stations feature to find new podcast series in a variety of topics, including arts, business, comedy, music, news, sports, and more.
  • Browse by Audio or Video podcasts, or see what’s most popular in Top Charts
  • Tap subscribe for your favorites and automatically receive new episodes for free as they become available
  • Stream episodes or download to listen while offline
  • Skip forward and back using simple playback controls
  • Turn on Sleep Timer to automatically stop playing a podcast while listening in bed
  • Share your favorite episodes with friends using Twitter, Messages and Mail
  • Optionally sync your favorite episodes from iTunes on your Mac or PC
  • Sync your episode playback for seamless transition between devices

This is all very good. The interface is very nice. When you are listening to an episode, tap or swipe up on its artwork to reveal an old reel-to-reel player and the sleep and sound speed settings. If you tap pause, you can see the mechanics of the reel-to-reel player stop.

Another nice touch with the reel-to-reel player is that as the episode progresses, the spool of tape on the left reel diminishes as the spool on the right increases. This also happens quickly as you scribble the timeline.

As for setting up Podcasts, it should pull in any episodes currently found in the podcasts section of Music.app. Also, it should continue to sync with iTunes, just as before. The added benefit of Podcasts, though, is that you can set you device to watch for new episodes and to download the latest. Annoyingly, though, you have to tap into each podcast and toggle each and every one of them to subscribe on the device.

And this is where I see some shortcomings from what I was hoping for. In that post from last week, I stated:

Hopefully Apple will make it easy to use iCloud to keep your subscription list, and allow a new Podcasts app to download new episodes in the background when plugged in to power and on Wi-Fi, in the same manner that it does iCloud backups and Newsstand updates.

Well, this just isn’t part of the app. At least, not yet. iCloud doesn’t keep your subscription list, and while the app will download new episodes, it won’t do so in the background. The app must be open to check for and download new episodes.

What iCloud does offer is syncing the playback position of episodes between devices — say, an iPhone and iPad. Unfortunately, it does this via whatever Apple ID is used for the iTunes Store, and not via the Apple ID set for iCloud.

This identity conundrum won’t affect everyone, as I am sure the vast majority of users have the iCloud ID and iTunes Store ID as one and the same. But for a family? Well, my wife and I each have separate iCloud IDs, yet we both use the same iTunes Store ID. If we were to both be subscribed to the same podcasts (thankfully, neither of us are) we would have a nightmare of playback syncing issues (there isn’t an option to not sync playback).

That aside, this is a very nice 1.0 app. I look forward to how it will improve. Hopefully iCloud will be emphasized more in a future release.

The important thing is Podcasts no longer solely rely on iTunes.

Podcasts is a universal app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and requires iOS 5.1 or later. It’s free in the App Store.

While podcasts will exist in both Podcasts and Music apps in iOS 5, it looks certain that the podcasts function within Music will disappear in iOS 6. Use the next few months to transition to the new app.

Apple also has a little support section for Podcasts on its site.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the only way to add a podcast in the interface is via the Podcast Catalog. However, some podcasts aren’t on iTunes. If you want to subscribe to a podcast that isn’t in iTunes, just enter the feed:// URL in Safari, and it will redirect to the Podcasts app and add it to your feed.

‘The App Store is for the Average User’

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There’s been some kerfuffel over TextExpander leaving the Mac App Store because of Apple’s recent enforcement of sandboxing, which doesn’t allow TextExpander to work within its scope.

Ben Brooks brings some sanity to the issue:

The App Store is for the average user. Apps that don’t fit in the App Store guidelines are simply not for the average user. That matters because the apps that don’t fit those guidelines can/will/could cause a massive support headache for not only Apple, but for the resident family geek. Users should be able to make the reasonable assumption that anything they download from the App Store cannot and will not mess up their computer in any way that uninstalling the app won’t fix their computer.

I am one such resident family geek. Let me tell you that I cannot wait to start flipping the dial on family members’ Macs to only allow Mac App Store only apps in Mountain Lion.

As for myself, I am a geek, and I know how OS X works. I have no fears nor quibbles with installing stuff from outside the App Store. That said, if an app is available in the App Store, I am likely to favor getting it from there instead of directly from the developer. Why? Because the App Store is easier. It keeps all my apps archived in the Purchases section. I don’t have to remember serial numbers.

Now, if an app is only available directly from the developer? That’s fine. I can handle it. But for the majority of people, the App Store is tailor made for them.

The New Nike+ Running App

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To go hand-in-hand with the new Nike+ website launched earlier this month, Nike has released Nike+ Running 4.0 (née Nike+ GPS). The refreshed app is now free and has a new interface that lines up with the website’s new features. NikeFuel is now shown cumulatively and on each run. It will also automatically tag the weather for your route, so all you need to report is how you felt and what kind of terrain you ran on.

Another nice new feature (also on the website) is the ability to tag which shoes you were wearing, as Nike+ will then keep track of how many miles you have put on them. When it is time for new shoes, you can retire your old ones from the settings.

Another little gem is the ability to delay the start of your run by 3, 6, or 9 seconds. This would be useful in a race, so you could tap the start button on your iPhone a few seconds before crossing the start line, so your arm isn’t blocking the tracker in your bib. iPhones will vibrate when the app has started tracking you, as well (iPods just get an audio notification).

This is a great update to my favorite fitness app.