Speaking of neat Terminal tricks for OS X, i was reminded of this project at Github by Mathias Bynens called dotfiles. In particular, I’d like to call attention to his .osx file as it is a great list of sensible defaults commands for OS X. I copied the list into a text file that I aptly named os x defaults.txt on my Mac.
Have fun.
Awesome tip from Brett Terpstra. Just yesterday I tried to select some text within QuickLook, and frowned when I couldn’t. It just seems like a no-brainer.
Just slap the following in Terminal, then relaunch the Finder.
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE
via Shawn Blanc.
Shortly before going to bed last night, I saw that *The Verge had featured something from one of their forum posters. Brent Caswell, aka brentcas, had a pretty neat concept of how the iOS multitask tray could be improved. He focuses mainly on the iPhone, and I really like what he came up with.
By adding another row of apps, I think the multitask tray would gain much more utility in easily switching between several apps. I also really like how he keeps the status bar visible and adds Spotlight search.
I love iOS’s Spotlight search, when I remember it is there. I think it would become much more notorious for use in Brent’s mockup.
I’m also loving his idea for dedicated music and settings sections. As far as his settings mockup goes, I applaud his toggles for Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G (or 4G/LTE, depending).
What I don’t like about his settings mockup is the Clear All button for killing every app. I know many of my friends swear their iPhone performs better when they tediously kill off every app int he multitask tray, but I still subscribe to it being unnecessary. Sure, there is the occasional errant app, but that is the exception, not the rule. In my experience, iOS is very good at managing itself.
In the comments to the post, user ThomasEvans makes the suggestion that instead of Clear All the button should be for activating Personal Hotspot. I’m much more on board with that idea.
I’m sure if someone important at Apple saw this mockup and was inspired to add it to iOS, it would be a little late in the game to include it in iOS 6. Maybe for iOS 7. Or maybe Apple has something better up its sleeve.
Dan Miller at Macworld has some great tips for using the keyboard on the iPad. I knew a fair number of these already, like tapping and holding most keys for extra stuff (which also works on the iPhone). I did not know that you could simply swipe up on a key to expose those extras ever faster. That's something I'd like on the iPhone, frankly.
Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac is on a roll today with iOS 6 related news, as he noted that Apple (briefly) had a beta site for iCloud up that showed the Notes and Reminders icons. He also updated with a reader tip that the beta is likely tied to iOS 6, and that there are references to an iCloud developer site.
It’s plain to see that iCloud is one of the biggest things going on at Apple right now. I’d even venture to say that it is and will continue to be bigger than OS X and iOS. And that’s why we’re going to see leaps and bounds of improvements to it, especially if Apple launches a developer program for iCloud.
I suppose it is close enough to WWDC for the rumor mill to start swirling with iOS 6 leaks and rumors. Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac reports that Apple will be dropping Google Maps as their backend for the Maps app in iOS 6, in favor of an in-house backend.
This doesn’t surprise me, and I pointed out a couple months ago that it makes sense for Apple to sever ties with Google regarding the iOS Maps app.
Speaking of Louie Mantia, I’m reminded of his fantastic S.H.I.E.L.D. wallpaper. If you’ve been to The Avengers, you owe it to yourself to make your device a little more awesome.
You simply cannot make this stuff up.
Horace Dediu today on Twitter:
Apple captured 73% of phone industry profits and Samsung captured 26%. HTC took 1%. Everybody else lost money.
— Horace Dediu (@asymco) May 2, 2012
Imagine if the iPhone 4S hadn’t been such a disappointment.
I was really happy when Apple revamped notifications in iOS 5. Back in December, though, I wrote about the need for a Do Not Disturb setting for times when you need to silence push and local notifications, without necessarily silencing your entire phone. Like when you are sleeping. I could care less about email and texts overnight, but want the phone to ring if the crap were hitting the fan.
Well, according to 9to5Mac, Mountain Lion’s Notification Center is getting a Do Not Disturb setting. I wouldn’t be surprised if that made it to iOS 6, where I think it is needed more.
