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.
Chairman Gruber has the best analysis on the "iPad mini" rumors that I've seen yet. He really thought this one out, and it shows.
Apple released the Golden Master (GM) version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers today. The “golden master” designation indicates that this version of the software is intended to be the final version released to the public, barring any last-minute issues. The Build is 12A269.
I’d say it’s a fair bet we’ll be able to buy Mountain Lion next week.
About a week and a half ago, Twitter’s Michael Sippey penned a letter on Twitter’s developer blog about the service’s ambition of delivering a consistent Twitter experience.
A lot of speculation has swirled around Sippey’s post the past week, primarily because of this paragraph (emphasis mine):
Back in March of 2011, my colleague Ryan Sarver said that developers should not “build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” That guidance continues to apply as much as ever today. Related to that, we’ve already begun to more thoroughly enforce our Developer Rules of the Road with partners, for example with branding, and in the coming weeks, we will be introducing stricter guidelines around how the Twitter API is used.
Why is this important to you and me? Well, it probably isn’t if you are happy with Twitter’s official clients. But for those of us who use third party clients like Twitterrific, Tweetbot, Echofon, or Plume — this potentially spells disaster for our favorite client.
I see this thinly veiled threat from Twitter being fully revealed in one of two ways:
If the first option is what happens, I don’t see that as a bad thing, really. Twitter has to pay its bills, and they’ve chosen to do that through ads (I, honestly, would have paid a subscription for Twitter). Third-party clients get to use Twitter’s API for free, and many of them are paid apps. So, third-parties are making money for themselves while not having to provide direct revenue to Twitter.
I can live with ads in the tweet stream. Heck, if you use the official client, you already do.
Now, the second option. This is the tough one. I honestly don’t know if I could stomach using Twitter if third-party clients were killed. Why?
Because Twitter is a hypocrite. Here they are, claiming they want to deliver a consistent experience. But have you used various official apps from Twitter? They are anything but consistent.
The iPhone and Android apps behaves somewhat like the website experience, having both the Connect and Discover areas. However, the iPad app has hardly any of the same features as the phone apps and web. It also has a vastly foreign user interface in comparison.
And I don’t even want to get started on the Mac app, which has been neglected for over a year — its last update was on June 1, 2011. The Mac app cannot even upload an image to Twitter’s own picture service.
Now, maybe there are big updates in store for Twitter’s first-party apps that will unify the experience. But for a company that is implicitly saying it doesn’t want third-party clients in the ecosystem because they are “inconsistent”, they have been showing through history that they do not care about a consistent experience.
So let’s talk about a consistent experience. Go try Twitterrific out on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Everything is laid out relatively the same and the apps are updated consistently at the same time, rolling out new features to all platforms at once. If you use Twitterrific on one device, you know how to use it on the other.
The same goes for Tweetbot. Currently, Tweetbot is on the iPhone and iPad, and if Twitter doesn’t pull the third-party rug out, there will soon be a Mac version. On the iPhone and iPad, the Tweetbot experience is consistent and easy to move between one device to the next. I assume the Mac version will be very similar.
Simply put: third-party apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot have proven they do a much better job at maintaining a consistent Twitter experience than Twitter itself does.
I know that when a company builds their product on top of another company’s product, they should expect that the rug could be pulled out from under them at any time. But it seems such a shame the way Twitter treats third-party developers, since I doubt Twitter would be half the juggernaut it is today without having been built up by third-parties in the first place.
Twitter, historically, has been largely unoriginal in how it has developed new features. Things like mentions and direct messages came from users, not Twitter. Twitter had to buy the leading third-party iPhone app (at the time, Tweetie) to offer the first version of an officially branded client. Even the use of the word tweet and associating a bird icon came from a third-party developer.
If Twitter pushes third-parties out the door, I don’t see a bright future for Twitter. The evidence shows they have little original inspiration and even less commitment to a consistent user experience.
I’ve been using this wallpaper by Tim Van Damme for the past few days on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I think it’ll be sticking around for a while.
via TBR
But in versions of OS X prior to 10.7, it was possible to adjust the volume in smaller increments: If you held down Shift and Option before pressing the Volume keys on your keyboard, you could adjust the volume in quarter-steps instead of whole ones. For some reason, Apple removed this ability in OS X 10.7. But reader aGr[j5(6WU noticed that it has returned in 10.7.4—a change not mentioned in the release notes.
Holding shift-option also works for brightness. I used this all the time in OS X Snow Leopard and really missed it when I switched to Lion. Good to see it’s back.
Shawn Blanc on what he has learned from 5 years of writing:
…what I consider to be the most important advice I have for writing a successful weblog it would be consistency and honesty.
Shawn has a fantastic list of insights. Many of them are things I needed to hear.
I don't think anybody really likes using just the cable that comes in the box when they set their iPhone down at night to charge. I'm certainly no fan of just laying my phone down flat on my nightstand.
And since the iPhone's first day, Apple has known this, too. They included a charging dock in the box with the first iPhone. A year later, with the iPhone 3G, they realized people would probably drop a cool $30 on one, and they decided to instead sell it as an accessory.
When I had an iPhone 3G, I used Apple's dock on my nightstand. It sucked. It wasn't heavy enough in comparison to the iPhone, so the slightest bump would tip it over. And when you are fumbling for your phone in the early hours of the morning, you're probably going to bump it before you grasp it.
Not only that, but taking the iPhone out of the dock required both hands. Lifting the iPhone single-handedly would bring the dock along with it. That gets old fast.
So, with my iPhone 4, I have been in search of the perfect dock. I've tried many things, and for the past year, I had settled on the Bluelounge Refresh. That was okay, but still required both hands to disconnect the iPhone, and it was a little too large for my small nightstand.
And then, about six months ago, the Elevation Dock was announced on Kickstarter. Its creator, Casey Hopkins, had the same frustrations as me. So he set out to make a dock to vanquish those problems.
It took a long time, but the wait was definitely worth it. Yesterday, two Elevation Docks (one for me and one for my wife) arrived.
This dock is awesome. It works exactly as advertised. Here's a few more pictures.
There really isn't a whole lot more to say about the Elevation Dock. It is, after all, just a dock. It does one thing and it does it extremely well.
The machining and precision of craftsmanship on the Elevation Dock is outstanding. This is the dock you would have expected Apple to make.
Now, there has been one concern recently surrounding the rumors that Apple may change the dock connector on the next iPhone. Hopkins has assured should that happen, Elevation will make new circuit boards that users can purchase and install themselves (the board is held in by three little screws).
I can't recommend the Elevation Dock enough. It's beautiful. It does what a great dock should do. Elevation Lab is still fulfilling Kickstarter orders, but you can preorder one from their site.
With that, I'm going to leave you with their Kickstarter pitch video, which I think illustrates Hopkins' drive and passion well.
Five years ago today the original iPhone was released. I lived in South Dakota at the time, which, back in 2007, didn’t have an iota of AT&T service (now the entire state has it).
I do, however, remember the first time I saw an iPhone. It was July 16, 2007. Two days after I married Karen. My bride and I were sitting in the Denver airport, awaiting our connecting flight to Seattle. A young woman sat down next to me, on my left, and she pulled out an iPhone. I politely asked her a few questions about it, and after a couple moments she received a phone call.
A few days later Karen and I made our way to an Apple Store in Seattle, specifically because I wanted to play with an iPhone. The store was packed, and I had to wait a few moments to have a chance to try out one of the many display models.
When I picked up an iPhone for the first time, I was blown away. The fit and finish of that original iPhone was mesmerizing. I immediately went to Safari and looked at my website on it. I went into the iPod app and checked out Cover Flow, which was completely novel at the time (I honestly can’t stand it now). I watched a minute or two of an episode of LOST. And then…
…then I wondered if it would be okay to make a phone call. All the staff were quite busy. I decided to give it a whirl. I called my parents back in South Dakota. As I recall, they were a little surprised to hear my voice when the Caller ID said Apple was calling.
Then I called my friend Nathan, who — just days earlier — stood with me as a groomsman at my wedding. Nathan and I have always enjoyed discussing technology.
I left the Apple Store knowing I desperately wanted an iPhone. But, without any sort of service (not even roaming, as South Dakota only had CDMA towers at the time) in my state of residence, I knew I could be waiting a while.
I was satiated a couple months later with the release of the iPod touch. The iPod touch started out extremely sparse compared to the iPhone. This was, after all, before the App Store. It came with just a few built-in apps. That January, Apple gladly took $20 from me to add Mail, Notes, Weather, Stocks, and Maps.
In the Spring of 2008, we decided to move to Lincoln, NE. It turned out that Lincoln had AT&T. Fast-forward to July 11, 2008. Here I am, standing in line in Omaha at the Apple Store for the iPhone 3G. Karen was pregnant and due at pretty much any moment, so, I was a little nervous about being an hour away.
I got the iPhone 3G, and had it set up a while later. Four days later, my son was born. It is amazing how useful the iPhone was the day he was born. I timed contractions using the built-in stopwatch. And while I didn’t take the first photos of him with the iPhone, the first one most of our friends & family saw was taken with it. I had drafted an email a couple days earlier, leaving blanks for length, weight, time of birth, etc. I had also set up a MobileMe Gallery (because the iPhone couldn’t copy & paste yet) and inserted that link into the draft. So, I took a photo of Jonathan, uploaded it to the gallery, filled in the statistical information and sent it off. I did all that without needing to leave the side of my resting wife & son. Without needing to pull out a laptop.
I’ll never forget my son’s birth. And in those memories, the iPhone is there. It sounds silly (believe me, it does). But the iPhone played a very important role that day.
In this day and age, our phones are important to us. They are certainly the most personal computer we own. They are almost always within arm’s reach. We plug them in to charge right before going to sleep. We pick them up to check the news and weather and what not moments after awakening.
In one way, that can seem quite sad and pathetic. In another way, the barrier of technology in our lives has melted away. I can’t imagine feeling this close of a connection with the Motorola RAZR I owned five years ago. I can’t imagine not having my iPhone today.
I often think about the future. Much of that thinking is spawned by watching my son, who is about to turn 4 years old in a few weeks. He has Karen’s old iPod touch, with all the restrictions turned on, and loaded with kid games and Pixar movies. He knows what our Macs are, and he is interested in them a little. But not like his iPod. Not like our iPhones. And certainly not like my iPad.
My son has never known a day of his life without one of these devices present. Certain apps on his iPod helped him learn how to read and write earlier than many of his peers (you read that right, he can read a book on his own and has a pretty good grasp on early writing, and he isn’t even 4! Sorry about the Daddy Brag, but I’m proud of him!).
There isn’t a doubt in my mind that when he goes to college, he’ll take something that looks more like an iPad than a MacBook. Heck, typing on a screen may very well be the way he learns to type.
A lot has changed in the past five years of computing. I think you’d be hard pressed to argue that the iPhone isn’t the catalyst that inspired or outright started those changes.
Here’s to the next five years.
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.
