I am a little late in posting this, as I've been busy at my day job at AgileBits. A week and a half ago we released the much anticipated 1Password 4 for iOS.
It's really fantastic and we worked a long time on it. It is on sale for $7.99 until the end of 2012, and when 2013 arrives it will go to its normal price of $17.99. If you need a last minute gift for the nerd in your life, go get it on the App Store.
I love Twitter. Most of my friends over the past few years, both local and afar, started as acquaintances on Twitter. For the years that I have been on Twitter there is one app that I have used primarily to interact with the service — Twitterrific.
Twitterrific has had a mixed past. It started as simple as Twitter itself, and contributed some features back to Twitter that we all take for granted now. While Twitterrific’s roots are on the Mac, it is the iPhone, and later the iPad, where its story really takes flight.
Twitterrific for iOS was my first app downloaded from the App Store as soon as I had purchased my iPhone 3G on launch day in July 2008. The initial iOS app was a basic way to read, tweet, and reply, just like its big brother on the Mac. And it was fantastic in its simplicity.
I have always admired The Iconfactory for their attention to simplicity.
That is why Twitterrific 2 was a little surprising. It packed in just about every feature that could be thought of but the kitchen sink. However, it suffered from feature creep and interface bloat. And The Iconfactory knew it.
When the iPad came out, The Iconfactory was again first to have an app out for the new device. They took the opportunity afforded to them by the short time to develop the app to strip Twitterrific back to basics. Where version 2 had feature overflow, Twitterrific for iPad went back to the bare minimum.
Then Twitterrific 3 (and 4, since 4 was really an evolution of 3) came to the iPhone, actually being an update to the iPad app. It had the same feature set as the iPad app did, and cautiously returned features as needed. However, Twitterrific remained very bare bones compared to other apps, something I enjoyed. As I alluded to earlier, I am a fan of simplicity.
That is not to say I didn’t have some qualms with Twitterrific 3 & 4. It always felt a step behind other clients, and it had really started to show in recent months.
Today we have Twitterrific 5. It is not only an all-new direction for The Iconfactory and Twitterrific, but it is a new direction for the potential of an iOS app.
Twitterrific 5 feels like the intersection of all the great interface aspects of iOS, Palm’s WebOS, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
Twitterrific 5 captures the smoothness and fluidity of iOS, a look and feel reminiscent of Windows Phone, and the “sidebar”, browser, Tweet composer, and image popovers pay homage to WebOS’ cards.
When you launch Twitterrific 5 for the first time, it will ask you if it can access your Twitter accounts in iOS’ settings. When you allow it to, it will show the avatars of all the accounts you have signed in to iOS. Tap each one you want to add, and Twitterrific handles the rest.
In the past, and in other clients, you would have to be shown an ugly Twitter web form to sign in with manually. Somehow The Iconfactory has cooked up some secret sauce that will take care of business for you.
Twitterrific’s timeline is cleaner than ever. Controls for reply, retweet, favorite, and an ellipses for more items appears on a tap of a tweet. Delightfully, gestures are also integrated. Swipe a tweet from the left to right to reply, and from right to left to see a conversation.
The timeline has a setting to be unified, showing all replies and direct messages in the main timeline. This is Twitterrific’s hallmark since the beginning, and I am glad to see it still there.
Along the top there is a circle with your profile picture on the left, a capsule navigation for the main timeline, replies & mentions, and direct messages. On the right is the Compose button.
Twitterrific 5 now supports proper gap detection in the timeline, signified by a tiny capsule with an ellipses smack in the middle of the horizontal rule that separates tweets.
That separator also glows purple to serve as the last read point when syncing the timeline either via iCloud or Tweet Marker.
To refresh the timeline, Twitterrific 5 now uses Pull to Refresh. They rolled their own custom pull to refresh and it is adorable. Look below.
I mentioned the unified timeline earlier. In the past the entire cell that contains the tweet would be color coded to show what kind of tweet you were seeing. Green for your own tweets, orange for mentions, and blue for direct messages. In Twitterrific 5 the cell is not colored, but rather the text itself. There are even a couple shades of orange and blue, the first to show whether a mention is just a mention or a reply, and the latter to show whether a direct message is sent or received.
Filtering by direct messages used to be a bit of a chore, because there was not a way to thread the conversation. Now, simply swipe a direct message toward the left and the conversation will thread, just like mentions. This is a huge improvement.
Tapping the circle with your profile picture in it will bring up what I am calling the Sidecard. It is pretty much the Sidebar of old, but it literally looks like a floating card. From here you can browse saved searches and lists. You can also tap the search button to search for tweets, or the newly added People. I have been wanting people search in Twitterrific for a long time.
At the bottom of the Sidecard, you will see Accounts, which brings up your various accounts, the format panel, and the Settings panel.
Protip: Tapping and holding the circle with your profile pic at any time will bring up the account switcher. I love this!
The format panel, which is shown by two A’s, sized differently, allows you to change the font, the font size, the spacing between lines, avatar size, dark theme and light theme, and brightness.
I appreciate the ability to choose which size the avatar is shown at, as you can reduce it to nothing. I go to an area of the Middle of Nowhere twice a year, and being able to cut out loading avatars at that time will save on bandwidth, battery, and time.
Settings lets you change the sync service, its behavior, notification sounds (which I love the new sounds), whether or not to have a unified timeline, and my favorite, automatically turning on the dark theme at night. It flips to dark at 7pm local time and back to light at 7am.
The Help button in the Settings panel explains the various gestures available. There’s good stuff there. Be sure to check it out.
Composing a tweet is rather straightforward. You tap out your tweet. If you don’t like it, tap the character count to bring up a delete circle, tap again to delete it all.
Tap the location glyph to add your location, or the camera to add a photo.
There is no longer a choice of photo services. It is just Twitter’s photo service. I’m okay with that.
However, it is somewhat misleading in that Twitterrific will let you take a video or choose one from the library, but it will not upload anywhere. The Iconfactory told me this is an oversight, and video options will be removed for now in a future update. They didn’t say, but I suspect they think Twitter will have its own video service. Honestly, it makes sense. If that happens, I am sure we will see the return of video uploading to Twitterrific.
In the week I have had Twitterrific 5, I am enamored with the new direction The Iconfactory has taken their flagship app. It is clean, light, and fun. Delightful and adorable are other adjectives I’ve used so far.
Everything loads fast, looks fantastic, and the gestures have ruined me.
Twitterrific has been and still is my favorite Twitter app. Of course, there is room for improvement, but there always is. The Iconfactory told me streaming is on the roadmap, as well as a Mac counterpart (I can’t even look at the Mac app anymore, that’s how good this is).
Twitterrific 5 is available now (or will be shortly) on iTunes for an introductory price of $2.99. The regular price will be $5.99.
Twitterrific 5 doesn’t have all the bells & whistles. But I do think it has what most people will want out of a Twitter client. Just enough power to do more than before, but not overwhelming where many features go unused.
If you appreciate fantastic design, speed, and overall delight, Twitterrific 5 is for you.
Disclaimer: I work for AgileBits, makers of 1Password.
The company I work for, AgileBits, gave iMore a sneak peek of 1Password 4 for iOS. Everything that I can probably say about the app at this stage is said in iMore’s article, so I encourage you to go check it out.
We’re all pretty excited to get this out to all of you. It really is an amazing improvement to our iOS app.
With iOS 6 being released later today, it’s not a bad idea to check out this installation guide put together by Dan Frakes and Serenity Caldwell over at Macworld.
Another thing changing in iOS 6 is that the built-in YouTube app is going away. Today, Google released an official YouTube app in the App Store to replace it. I’ve only spent a few moments with it, but already it seems better than the built-in app.
Just like Apple is eschewing Google’s Maps in favor of their own Maps, the change of guard around YouTube feels right for Google. You need to own your experience.
With iOS 6 likely due out in the next couple of weeks, it’s a good idea to talk about podcasts. If you, like me, are a podcast listener, things are changing in iOS 6.
Traditionally, I’ve used podcasts the Apple way: subscribe via iTunes and sync episodes over USB or Wi-Fi to my iPhone, and then listen to them from the Podcasts tab of Apple’s Music app. It is certainly a process full of friction. It keeps your iPhone tied to your Mac, still, even though iOS 5 made significant inroads to making iOS independent from iTunes.
I take several long-weekend trips every year, and this past year I gave serious consideration to just leaving the Mac at home. A couple times I did, and regretted that I wasn’t able to reload on podcasts. So the past couple trips, my Mac has made the trip with me for that very reason.
In iOS 6, podcasts are being removed from the Music app. Apple’s new way is for users to use the already available Podcasts app. I’ve tried to use it a couple times to preemptively get on board before the big switch. But honestly? Don’t use this app as it stands today.
Apple’s Podcasts app is slow, buggy, and lacks the typical polish and refinement we’ve all come to expect. This app does not feel like something Apple made. It doesn’t even use iCloud to sync the subscription list between your iPhone and iPad, instead making you go through the subscription process twice.
So here’s what you should do. Buy Downcast. It is every bit the caliber you would expect Apple to make, but Apple didn’t make it.
Here’s a rundown of what makes Downcast awesome:
Unplayed and Played or Empty. Edit button, mark a bunch of them, then toss them in the download queue. I could go on, there’s much more. The bottom line is this is the sort of full-featured podcast client you want.
I highly recommend that you switch to Downcast before iOS 6 comes out (rumor has it September 19). Downcast is a universal app and runs a whopping $1.99 on the App Store.
Also, I noticed Downcast’s Twitter feed mention they are working on a Mac app.
This is the first feature update to my favorite text editor on iOS (and the Mac) — Byword. I reviewed Byword for iOS when it debuted in March. While the initial release was really great, it had two shortcomings:
These are the two areas of focus in Byword for iOS 1.1.
Byword now includes a dark theme like its big brother. In addition to that, the keyboard extension has received a little polish in appearance.
The biggest feature is the ability to switch between Local, iCloud, and Dropbox storage in the file browser. It really feels like a best of both worlds approach. You have the deeper file system of Dropbox, while also being able to dip your toe into iCloud. Another nice feature of the new file browser is the ability to create folders on the fly.
If you are serious about your writing, I have no reservation in recommending Byword as the best iOS text editor. It’s a universal app for iPhone and iPad and you can pick it for $2.99 in the App Store.
Facebook 5 isn’t too big on visual changes, at least on iPhone. For the most part, it looks a lot like Facebook 4. On the iPad, however, the update brings Timeline and the nuances of Timeline’s effect on all of Facebook’s design across platforms.
But visual change isn’t the focus of Facebook 5. Even though it doesn’t look a great deal different, it acts different. How? Speed. Lots of speed.
Facebook has historically been an HTML5 mobile site wrapped with a few native iOS controls. More or less, it was a slow loading website, especially over 3G. Now Facebook is a fully native iOS app, and everything loads near instantaneously.
This is great for me, as I have been primarily using Facebook on my iPhone and (even more so) iPad as of late. Mobile is my main vehicle to keeping tabs on family, friends, and acquaintances, and a faster and more consistent experience is always welcome.
Facebook 5 for iOS is available on the App Store.
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.
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.
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.