App

Dark Sky Acquired by Apple →

March 31, 2020 · 23:26

Adam Grossman:

Today we have some important and exciting news to share: Dark Sky has joined Apple.

Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy.

There is no better place to accomplish these goals than at Apple. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to reach far more people, with far more impact, than we ever could alone.

The iOS apps will remain without change, Android and Wear OS are being shut down by July, and the API isn’t accepting new sign-ups but will continue to function without change through the end of 2021.

15 Million Steps in Pedometer++

February 7, 2020 · 12:38

I have been using Pedometer++ since it’s debut on the iPhone 5S. I don’t think I’ve ever had it lose any significant amount of data and since every new iPhone was restored from a backup of an older model, it’s count should be pretty accurate. I continue to use it today, on both my iPhone 11 Pro and Apple Watch Series 4. The counter recently displayed 15 million steps.

It took me a little over 6 years and now, dear Underscore David Smith, I need a new goal.

Reeder 4 Beta for Mac Is Here →

March 13, 2019 · 10:21

While I really like using Unread for more casual reading, nothing lets me get through my RSS queue quicker than Reeder for iOS and Mac. I love this app and I’m happy to see that a new version is coming. Silvio Rizzi mentions that the iOS version is almost ready and having spent the morning with the Mac version, it appears this will be a nice update. Since Reeder 3 debuted in 2015, Silvio hasn’t been charging for updates, so I’ll gladly pay for the new version. You can find a list of some of Reeder 4’s new features on his site.

Rogue Amoeba’s 2019 Status Report →

January 22, 2019 · 10:05

Paul Kafasis:

It’s the beginning of a new year, which means it’s once again time for a Rogue Amoeba status report. This post offers a look at what we did in 2018, as well as a glimpse at our plans for the future.

These guys make some of the most amazing Mac apps and it’s great to see they’re heading into 2019 with a strong roadmap.

The Biggest Threat to the Mac →

December 8, 2018 · 08:08

John Gruber, on Daring Fireball:

The biggest threat to the Mac isn’t iPads, Chromebooks, or Windows 2-in-1’s — it’s apathy towards what makes great Mac apps great.

Apple’s own software quality is slowly going down hill over these past few years, as if they stopped caring. There are too many examples to list, but it’s long past due to sound an alarm. Even on iOS, Apple often fails to have updates for its own apps ready in time for new screen resolutions or features.

David Barnard Explains How to Game the App Store →

November 29, 2018 · 09:09

David Barnard:

I’ve been pestering Apple for years publicly and privately about the manipulation and outright scams going on in the App Store. Apple has made some progress here and there, but overall Apple’s strictness in some areas and hands off approach in others has disproportionately rewarded bad actors while stifling conscientious developers.

First of all, read the whole thing — some parts might shock you. These issues won’t be problematic to users aware of which developers are the good guys — there are quite a few out there — but the average consumer will have no clue which ones to trust. Apple really needs to crack down hard on the bad actors, cleaning out their own store of the garbage that has accumulated over the years.

Castro Is Now Part of Tiny →

November 27, 2018 · 22:14

On Supertop’s blog:

Castro has reached a size where the demands of running the business have been pulling us in too many different directions. We haven’t been able to focus as much on the core work of designing and building a product. Selling to Tiny gets Castro access to more resources, contacts and expertise. By growing the team we can specialize our roles to be more focused individually and get more done collectively. We can get back to what we’re good at and what we love doing.

This sounds promising.

Google Photos for iOS Adds Portrait Mode Depth Editing to iPhones X, 8, and 7; Apple Photos Still Not Offering This Feature →

November 20, 2018 · 08:28

Michael Potuck, for 9to5Mac:

While Portrait mode depth editing arrived with the iPhone XS, XR and the 2018 iPad Pro, the feature isn’t available on iPhone X, 8 Plus, and 7 Plus. Today, Google is rolling out support for the feature with Google Photos for iOS.

It’s been argued that the iPhone X isn’t fast enough to support the editing of bokeh. I called it out after the keynote. Now Google is joining in, assisting users of “old” iPhones and bringing them functionality that Apple should have provided on day one.

iSH — an iOS Linux Shell for Your iPhone or iPad →

November 13, 2018 · 06:53

Lawrence Abrams, for Bleeping Computer:

Have you ever wanted to run a Linux shell on your iOS device to transfer files, write shell scripts, or simply to use Vi to develop code or edit files?  Now you can, with a project called iSH that is currently available as a TestFlight beta for iOS devices.

iSH is a project that aims to bring a Linux shell to iOS devices using a usermode x86 emulator. iSH is built on the Alpine Linux distro, which is designed to have a small footprint, be secure, and easy to use with little or no distracting bells and whistles.

There’s a link to apply for the TestFlight beta there.

via @stroughtonsmith

Micro.blog Client Icro Open Sourced →

August 22, 2018 · 10:19

Icro does not serve the purpose of a showcase project. Many parts were hacked together as I wanted to ship this App as quickly as possible. From now on all development will happen in public on Github. A structure with issues, planned features will be added using the GitHub tools.

I use Icro for my Micro.blog interactions and I actually like it more than the official client — the secret is in the font.

1Blocker X for iOS — New App, More Rules

April 25, 2018 · 12:15

The guys behind 1Blocker for iOS and macOS are launching 1Blocker X tomorrow, with support for many more rules by combining several content blockers into one app — this rewrite took them 6 months, which is why I completely understand their need to make back their investment. Salavat Khanov wrote up all the new features of 1Blocker X on their blog — it’s an interesting read — and now that I finally understand how it works under the hood, I’m upgrading tomorrow, when the app goes live. You can pre-order it today though…

★ 1Blocker X — $4.99 / €5,49 / 23,49 PLN →

Alto’s Odyssey Is Available for Pre-Order!

February 12, 2018 · 09:54

I wrote a short piece on why I loved Alto’s Adventure so much a few months ago:

These weeks were incredibly taxing, ultimately driving me into severe depression, which took me over two years to shake. I did find one way to keep sane at the time, during those long hours in the halls of the hospital my mom was in — by playing Alto’s Adventure [iOS / Android] when my stress levels were particularly high or there was just nothing else to do. I would completely lose myself in the wonderfully calming music, various sound effects, and flowing gameplay, while skiing down the slope of the endless in-game mountain. At one point Alto’s Adventure was the only experience that would calm my frayed nerves.

I don’t know what I would have done without this wonderful game, but I would like to deeply thank the team behind it — Snowman — for their efforts. They will always have a special place in my heart.

This was partly done in anticipation of Alto’s Oddysey — the sequel to that fantastic title. Well, it’s up for pre-order today, which I did, and I can’t wait until February 22, when it’s scheduled for release.

★ Alto’s Odyssey — $4.99 / €5.49 / 23.99 PLN →

Transmit iOS Development Suspended →

January 9, 2018 · 13:03

Cabel Sasser, from Panic:

Hello. Here’s an update on Transmit iOS that I promise will not use the words “sunset” or “journey” […]

Transmit iOS made about $35k in revenue in the last year, representing a minuscule fraction of our overall 2017 app revenue. That’s not enough to cover even a half-time developer working on the app […]

My optimistic take: we hope that as iOS matures, and more and more pro users begin to seriously consider the iPad as a legitimate part of their daily work routines, Transmit iOS can one day return and triumph like it does on the Mac.

This is terrible news. I don’t often use Transmit iOS, but when I do, I love it and wish I had reason to use it more often.

PCalc’s 25th Birthday →

December 23, 2017 · 07:48

James Thomson is currently celebrating the amazing history of his scientific calculator:

25 years sounds like a really long time. A quarter of a century sounds even longer. Yet, that is how long it has been since PCalc 1.0 was released […]

PCalc was my first ever application. I started writing in the summer of 1992 and it took me around six months to get it into a state where I was happy to show it to the world. Some of that code still runs today, deep at the heart of the machine.

That is both amazing and terrifying.

This means that both the iOS and Mac versions are on sale — down to $0.99 from the usual $9.99.

If you need a really good programmable calculator, do one of two things:

  • wait for the sale to end and buy it at full price (it’s totally worth it)
  • buy it now, go into the About screen, and drop a few coins into the Tip Jar

Wishing you as many more years of PCalc as you want James!

P.S. Don’t forget to play the AR game hidden in the About menu!

Users Report Battery Drain With YouTube App on iOS 11 →

November 13, 2017 · 22:20

Benjamin Mayo:

There are many reports to the YouTube customer support account on Twitter complaining about battery drain when running the app on iOS 11. The company is apparently ‘actively working to fix this’.

The YouTube app appears to have some bugs on iOS 11, affecting all iPhones and iPads, causing the devices to run very warm when watching videos.

This is happening on my iPad Pro 10.5”, but it doesn’t get warm at all — the battery drain is through the roof though. Using YouTube through Safari solves this problem though.

DJI Removes JPush Plugin From Their App for Collecting User Data Without Approval →

August 29, 2017 · 08:04

This is yet another example of third-party libraries, plugins, or add-ons, which do things they aren’t supposed to:

DJI has removed a third-party plugin called JPush, which was introduced in March 2016 for iOS and May 2017 for Android. We implemented the plugin as a way to push notifications when video files are successfully uploaded to DJI’s SkyPixel video sharing platform. JPush assigns a unique JPush ID to each user and informs SkyPixel of this ID when the user chooses to upload a video. After uploading is complete, SkyPixel sends the user’s unique JPush ID back to the JPush server, triggering an “Upload Complete” notification on the user’s DJI GO or DJI GO 4 apps. By using JPush’s third-party plugin, DJI has allowed users to multitask while uploading large video files to SkyPixel occurs in the background of their app.

As a third-party company, JPush only needs to send and receive a minimal, narrowly-defined amount of data in order for this function to work properly. Recent work by DJI’s software security team and external researchers has discovered that JPush also collects extraneous packets of data, which include a list of apps installed on the user’s Android device, and sends them to JPush’s server. DJI did not authorize or condone either the collection or transmission of this data, and DJI never accessed this data. JPush has been removed from our apps, and DJI will develop new methods for providing app status updates that better protect our customers’ data.

I still don’t quite understand how and why developers and companies would choose to go down this route without a detailed check of what the used third-party code does precisely. Laziness, I guess.

DarkSky Comments on AccuWeather, Location Tracking, and Privacy →

August 28, 2017 · 13:12

Adam Grossman:

(…) we also believe that Apple and Google should do more to prevent this sort of behavior. They should set — and aggressively enforce — clear App Store rules forbidding the sharing of location data for any purposes not directly relevant to the app’s core functionality. If an app is caught breaking this rule, it should be removed from the store. This won’t stop all abuse, but it would, at the very least, put many of these data monetization companies out of the business of tracking where you go.

I completely agree and have much respect for the DarkSky team for their declarations. Especially since Adam also posted many examples of companies, such as Reveal Mobile, contacting them and offering to pay for their data. In the meantime, AccuWeather’s response on the matter was a non-answer.

AccuWeather Caught Sending User Location Data, Even When Location Sharing Is Off →

August 23, 2017 · 14:33

Zack Whittaker:

Popular weather app AccuWeather has been caught sending geolocation data to a third-party data monetization firm, even when the user has switched off location sharing.

AccuWeather is one of the most popular weather apps in Apple’s app store, with a near perfect four-star rating and millions of downloads to its name. But what the app doesn’t say is that it sends sensitive data to a firm designed to monetize user locations without users’ explicit permission.

Delete this crap and never install it again.

Removing “Send to Watch” from Overcast →

August 12, 2017 · 14:48

Marco Arment:

I’ve spent many months of development on Overcast’s Apple Watch app, especially implementing standalone “Send to Watch” playback. Unfortunately, I now need to remove the “Send to Watch” feature.

I tried it once, soon after it debuted in Overcast. The transfer of a single podcast episode was so slow, that I never bothered again. Apple needs to fix the Watch’s biggest bottleneck.

One Other Thought on Ulysses’ Subscription Model →

August 12, 2017 · 08:59

From Ulysses’ FAQ:

What happens after my subscription or trial ends? Can I still access my texts?

Definitely. Ulysses is in read-only mode, meaning you can still access all your sheets and export them using any export format.

I strongly believe that to alleviate concerns over “renting software” instead of owning a copy, Ulysses (in this example) should still be fully functional when a user ceases paying their subscription, but it would stop receiving updates and new features. If a developer was feeling extra generous, they could support new OS versions and security updates.

The 1Password Memberships/Subscription Conundrum

July 16, 2017 · 13:31

Dave Teare, writing about 1Password Memberships:

1Password is what it is today because we all love working here and have fun helping our customers. We are completely self-funded, independent, have turned down all offers from venture capitalists, and our board of directors consists entirely of people who work on 1Password and help customers directly each and every day.

I love indies who make it work, without outside help. That is what we’re doing with our publishing business, and it’s not easy.

Continue reading →

2017 Apple Design Award Winners

June 13, 2017 · 12:25

Apple announced its 2017 Design Award winners a few days ago and I was quite surprised — I try to keep up with the best apps and games, but I was completely unaware about some of them. Oh well — time to go spend some money.

★ Blackbox – iPhone – $0.00 →
★ Splitter Critters – iOS – $2.99 →
★ Mushroom 11 – iOS – $4.99 →
★ Old Man’s Journey – iOS – $4.99 →
★ Severed – iOS – $2.99 →
★ Lake – iOS – $0.00 →
★ Bear – iOS – $0.00 →
★ Bear – Mac – $0.00 →
★ Kitchen Stories – iOS – $0.00 →
★ Things 3 – iPhone – $9.99 →
★ Things 3 – iPad – $19.99 →
★ Things 3 – Mac – $49.99 →
★ Elk – iOS – $0.00 →
★ Enlight – iOS – $3.99 →
★ AirMail 3 – iOS – $4.99 →
★ AirMail 3 – Mac – $9.99 →