iOS 12 Beta: Our Favorite Tidbits and Hidden Features (So Far)

By Federico Viticci

Apple released the first public beta of iOS 12 today, allowing non-developer testers to check out the new features and improvements in the next major version of iOS, set to be released sometime in the fall. While it’s always good practice to avoid installing a beta OS on your primary devices, the public beta seed typically ensures a minimum level of stability and functionality that isn’t always guaranteed with the first developer builds seeded at WWDC. If you’re interested in installing the public beta of iOS 12, you can find more details here.

We covered the big themes of iOS 12 and its most important functionalities in our original overview earlier this month. In this article, I want to focus on something different: showcasing my favorite small features and tidbits that I’ve come across in iOS 12 since installing the beta on both my iPhone X and iPad Pro a few weeks ago. While these features may change (or be removed altogether) between today and iOS 12’s final public release, they should give you an idea of the nice and hidden details you can expect from the latest iOS 12 beta. Let’s take a look.

Connected, Episode 198: The Prompt →

Linked By Federico Viticci

To celebrate five years of podcasting together, Myke, Federico and Stephen do what they do best: talk about iOS betas, ponder photo management and screw up a round robin.

On this very special, Prompt-themed episode of Connected, we discuss the changes coming to Photos in iOS 12 and round up some excellent apps we’ve been using lately. You can listen here.

Attention Revisited: iOS 12 Notifications, Do Not Disturb, and Screen Time

Federico

John

AppStories Episode 61 - Attention Revisited: iOS 12 Notifications, Do Not Disturb, and Screen Time

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33:38

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

Federico and John take a close look at the tools coming in iOS 12 to help monitor and control time spent on iOS devices and compare those to what they wished for in Episode 56.

Member Requests

By Federico Viticci

Question: I am a Workflow newbie and struggling with naming Magic Variables. For example, if I ask for input twice I’ll get two variables with the name “Ask for Input”. What is the best way to give them a proper name? (Gerrit Kruijer, @gkruijer56)

Federico

Magic Variables can be renamed and assigned any name you...

Compiling and Exporting Tagged Notes in Drafts 5

By Federico Viticci

Federico

As I shared on MacStories earlier this week, I’m in the process of evaluating whether Drafts 5 could replace Editorial for my Markdown automation and perhaps become the app I use to write my annual iOS review. Putting together these longform pieces involves a lot of writing, editing, and navigating between different sections; the...

Drafts 5.2 →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Tim Nahumck:

When writing my review, I needed a way to navigate between the different sections, and all of the subheadings I had created. I had developed an action to navigate to each of the markdown headers, which I was happy with at the time. It was nice to have that functionality to switch around where I was in my review.

Well, I’m happy to say that I have been Sherlocked.

In the upper right corner of the editor, there is a small triangle icon; when you tap the icon, you are presented with a navigation menu. Not only does this navigate headers in Markdown, but it also navigates projects in TaskPaper, and code blocks in JavaScript. It also include a top and bottom button, as well as a select all button.

Drafts 5.2 came out while I was in San Jose for WWDC, and I’ve been meaning to check out the new features since I started getting back into a normal routine. Tim Nahumck, of course, has a great overview of the changes in this version of Drafts, along with some useful examples you can download.

As Tim points out, the ability to navigate headers of a Markdown document through a dedicated “section popup” is a terrific addition to Drafts. Few text editors designed for people who write in Markdown get this right; one of the reasons I still keep Editorial on my iOS devices is because it lets me navigate longer pieces with a header navigation tool. However, the implementation in Drafts 5 is more powerful, modern, and can be controlled with the keyboard (you can invoke the switcher with ⌘\ and, just like Things, dismiss it with ⌘. without ever leaving the keyboard).

Speaking of Editorial, every update to Drafts 5 is pushing me toward converting all my old Markdown workflows to Drafts actions powered by JavaScript. Automation in Drafts involves a lot more scripting than Editorial’s visual actions, but I feel like Drafts 5 is a safer bet for the future. I’ve been putting this off for a long time; maybe I should spend a few days finalizing the process before I start working on a certain annual review.

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Connected, Episode 197: Retire Hate for Negative Love →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Recovered from WWDC, Myke previews his summer’s work, Federico shares what he knows about Shortcuts and Stephen gets super nerdy about Dark Mode in macOS Mojave.

On the latest episode of Connected, I go into more detail on Shortcuts and discuss my initial plans and goals for this year’s iOS review. You can listen here.

The Apps of WWDC 2018

Federico

John

AppStories Episode 60 - The Apps of WWDC 2018

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

Federico and John discuss the new and updated apps announced at WWDC 2018.

Fixing 3D Touch →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Eliz Kılıç:

I should start with the obvious. 3D Touch is broken! The user experience is far from great. Apple introduced 3D Touch and its new related interactions Peek and Pop in 2014. It’s been almost 4 years since its first introduction, yet people don’t know/use 3D Touch. Why would they? Even tech-savvy users don’t know which buttons offer 3D touch. Let alone regular users.

What would happen if we decide to make all links same color and style as the regular text? People would not know what to click on right? Why is 3D Touch be any different? We rely on our vision to decide actionability before anything else. If you can’t distinguish 3D Touchable buttons from those that are not, how are you supposed to know you can press on them? Look at this screenshot and see if you can tell which of the buttons can be 3D Touched.

I couldn’t agree more with the idea of “decorating” buttons with 3D Touch visual cues.

Here’s the thing: I use 3D Touch a lot, and I love the fact that it’s the modern equivalent of a contextual click, but, anecdotally speaking, I’ve never seen any of my friends or relatives use it. Not the quick actions on the Home screen, not peek and pop. It’s like 3D Touch just isn’t there for them. It’s hard to say whether the very concept of 3D Touch is flawed or if iOS’ design prevents discovery of this unique interaction. However, the argument that an interface with little depth doesn’t lend itself well to a gesture built around pressing into UI elements is a compelling one. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with future iPads and iPhones, too.

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