Michael E. Cohen, writing for TidBITS:
iBooks is not quite as unreliable and confusing as it was when I wrote about it last year, but neither has it improved nearly as much as loyal iBooks users deserve. Moreover, what little support documentation Apple provides is sketchy and inaccurate, leaving the impression that even the support and documentation departments within Apple are ignoring iBooks.
Cohen’s library may be an edge case with over 700 titles, but the problems he mentions are basic usability issues that should get fixed.
New website dedicated to The Omni Group’s upcoming automation features in their apps, created by Sal Soghoian:
By default, all of the macOS versions of the Omni applications offer robust integrated AppleScript and JavaScript (JXA) support for Apple Events scripting on the Mac. These excellent automation tools will continued to be integrated into every macOS version of Omni software.
And in addition, the Omni Group now offers integrated cross-platform JavaScript support for both the iOS and macOS versions of their popular productivity applications. Finally, the power of automation is available regardless of whether you use Omni tools on mobile devices, laptops, or desktops.
As for the technology itself:
OmniJS, the name for Omni’s new version of the JavaScript language, is based on JavaScript Core, the foundation of the JavaScript implementation in WebKit. Using OmniJS, the Omni Group suite of applications will be able to be queried and controlled on both iOS and macOS in ways similar to how they are automated today using the traditional macOS Apple Event-based scripts.
What’s most impressive is that The Omni Group is bringing all of these automation features to iOS as well – it’s not limited to the Mac. Watch the OmniGraffle videos recorded by Sal to get an idea of the functionality automation will unlock. I’m genuinely excited about all this.
In this episode, Fraser and Federico update the Workflow series for the major new feature that debuted in Workflow 1.7 - Magic Variables.
On the latest episode of Canvas, we decided to release an extra show for our Workflow series all about Magic Variables and why they’re a fundamental change to the app. You can listen here.
If you haven’t listened to the previous episodes of the Workflow series yet, now’s a great time to catch up.
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As part of my ongoing experiments with Spotify and Apple Music, I recently wanted to switch back to Apple Music and take almost a year of Spotify playlists with me. While there are online services and desktop export tools that allow you to quickly migrate songs from one ecosystem to another, my goal was...
) I’ve been keeping an eye on Songlink, a web service to share a song across multiple music streaming services, for the past couple of months since I was first told about it on Twitter. Songlink’s premise is similar to SoundShare: given a song from one of the major streaming services, the app returns...
Question: I’m trying to time-track my oversleep time as CGP Grey does. I want to get Zapier to automatically start a timer at a specific time every morning. And then I want to run a workflow on my iPhone to stop the timer. Is this possible? (Jakob Sundell, @jakobsundell)
There are two parts to...
In the first installment of my new iPad Diaries series on MacStories, I detailed how I’ve been using DEVONthink’s advanced file management features to organize my research material. One of the power-user options I mentioned is the ability to generate links to individual files and groups, which allow you to reopen a document or...
As I wrote in my story on one year of iPad Pro, I consider cloud services a necessity for managing files on iOS. Dropbox and iCloud Drive make it possible to keep the same sets of documents and app libraries synced across devices, but, more importantly, they help overcome iOS’ file management woes through centralized storage spaces. In the article, I espoused the flexibility of Documents and its tight integration with Dropbox, noting how Readdle had built the missing iPad file manager with features Apple omitted from their iCloud Drive app.
Since early January, I’ve been thinking about my larger writing projects scheduled for 2017 and whether Documents can scale as a reference and research tool. Looking back at 2016 and the time I poured into organizing and referencing files for my iOS 10 review draft in Scrivener (which I covered here), I realized that neither Scrivener’s built-in file manager nor Documents could meet the basic requirements I have set for this year’s review. These include the ability to search different file types with advanced operators as well as a system to reference individual files and folders throughout iOS with local URLs. It was during this meta-research phase that I decided to try DEVONthink To Go again.
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This week, Stephen tries something new, Federico talks about camping, and Myke looks forward to a new television show.
On this week’s Connected, we discuss Apple’s upcoming Planet of the Apps show and a bunch of other fun topics. You can listen here.
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