John Voorhees

5810 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
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This Week's Sponsor:

Crickets

The first alarm app for families.

Twitter Delays Transition to New API That Threatens Third-Party Clients

Last April, Twitter announced that it would deprecate parts of its API that third-party Twitter clients rely on for their apps. Originally, Twitter planned to replace the functionality with a new Account Activity API on June 19, 2018. The trouble is, Twitter hasn’t provided third-party developers with access to the new API, which jeopardizes core functionality of those apps.

With the API transition looming, the makers of Twitterrific, Tweetbot, Talon, and Tweetings created a website to alert their users about the impact the changes to third-party Twitter clients:

After June 19th, 2018, “streaming services” at Twitter will be removed. This means two things for third-party apps:

  1. Push notifications will no longer arrive
  2. Timelines won’t refresh automatically

If you use an app like Talon, Tweetbot, Tweetings, or Twitterrific, there is no way for its developer to fix these issues.

We are incredibly eager to update our apps. However, despite many requests for clarification and guidance, Twitter has not provided a way for us to recreate the lost functionality. We’ve been waiting for more than a year.

The site encourages users to express their feelings about the situation to Twitter’s developer account with the hashtag #BreakingMyTwitter.

The response from unhappy Twitter users was swift. By the end of the day, Twitter announced that it would delay the API transition to an unspecified date in the future and provide at least 90 days notice to third parties before shutting down the old APIs.

Although it is good news that Twitter’s transition to the Accounts API has been put off, it doesn’t solve the issues that it raises for third-party developers.

Tension between Twitter and third-party developers isn’t new. Still, when Jack Dorsey returned to Twitter as CEO in 2015, he said he wanted to repair relationships with developers. It’s impossible to know if this latest episode represents a strategic shift for Twitter or mere indifference toward third-party developers. Either way, it’s a shame to see third-party Twitter clients, which pioneered many features that users love, under threat yet again.

App Debuts

Federico

Noted Noted is a rich text note-taking app with the unique twist of supporting audio recordings and timestamped notes. Noted is ideal for lectures, meetings, and interviews: you start recording using the device’s built-in microphone and every note you take is automatically associated with the audio so you can jump back and listen to...

Copied for Mac

John

I’ve had good luck with Apple’s Universal Clipboard feature that lets you copy text, links, images, and other content on one device and paste it on another one. The trouble is, what you copy is only available on other devices for a limited time, and there’s no clipboard history, among other things. As with...

Q&A

Question: I need a solution for organizing my ideas, reference material, documents, email, and other information so I can search for items in just one app. I’m considering DEVONthink, but am wondering where it stores its data. (Alexandre)

John

DEVONthink is an app that can handle all the types of information you want to store...

Snapchat Debuts Exclusive iPhone X Lens Filters→

At last September’s iPhone event at Apple Park, Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of software engineering, used Snapchat to show how the iPhone X’s True Depth camera and ARKit could create realistic camera filters. Today, those filters finally launched with an update to Snapchat’s iOS app, which is featured in the Today section of the App Store.

Craig Federighi demonstrating Snapchat Lens filters in September 2017

Craig Federighi demonstrating Snapchat Lens filters in September 2017

The update includes the two filters demoed by Federighi during the keynote, as well as a masquerade ball Lens. The advantage of using the True Depth camera and ARKit is that the filters can track your face better than other Snapchat Lenses and account for the lighting in the room, providing realistic highlights and shadows.

The new filters are available now without updating Snapchat’s app. If you long press the screen with the selfie camera enabled, the new lenses are currently the first three listed.

Permalink

Medical ID Record Provides an Extended, More Flexible Solution to Storing Medical Data

Many of the stock system apps installed with iOS are designed to meet the needs of most people, but they rarely satisfy everyone. Apple leaves it to third-party developers to fill in the gaps. That comes with the risk of being ‘Sherlocked’ in the future, but it’s also an opportunity for developers to attract users who want more than Apple provides.

Medical ID Record is a perfect example of such an app. It takes a feature of the Health app and extends it. The depth of functionality in Medical ID Record may not be needed by everyone, but it’s an excellent option for anyone who has felt constrained by the Health app’s Medical ID feature.

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Apple Hires John Giannandrea, Google’s Chief of Search and Artificial Intelligence→

According to The New York Times, Apple has hired John Giannandrea, Google’s chief of search and artificial intelligence. In a memo obtained by The Times, Tim Cook said:

“Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear,” Mr. Cook said in an email to staff members obtained by The New York Times. “John shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach as we make computers even smarter and more personal.”

Giannandrea joined Google in 2010 as part of the company’s acquisition of Metaweb and is credited with infusing artificial intelligence across Google’s product line. Giannandrea will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

This is a huge ‘get’ for Apple and comes fast on the heels of reports that the company is hiring over 100 engineers to improve Siri.

Permalink

Downie: Elegant and Efficient Video Downloads for Your Mac [Sponsor]

Downie for Mac makes downloading video from the web as simple as dragging and dropping a URL. From your browser, drag a URL to Downie’s menu bar icon or onto its Dock icon from sites like YouTube, Youku, Bilibili, Vimeo, and many more to immediately download a video. The app supports video downloads for over 1,000 different sites, and the list keeps growing.

Downie is efficient and organized. Instead of downloading now, queue up downloads for later. It’s a great way to process dozens of videos while you sleep and aren’t using your Internet connection for something else. Downloads can be organized autmatically into folders too based on source and playlist, saving you the hassle of organizing them yourself.

When you use Downie, you also know you’re getting the best version of a video that’s available. For example, unlike many other download apps, Downie can grab the 4K version from YouTube if one is available. It’s that sort of attention to detail, combined with attentive support, frequent updates, and localization that makes Downie a great choice for video downloads.

Downie has a special 25% discount just for MacStories readers. All you need to do is use this link to purchase the app. The same great deal applies to the Downie and Permute bundle if you use this link. Permute is a great companion to Downie that lets you convert video between a wide variety of formats. You can use the coupon code 905E0C5D at checkout to get either discount too.

Expand your video collection the easy way, with Downie.

Our thanks to Downie for sponsoring MacStories this week.