Developed by Andreas Karlsson, Tydlig wants to reimagine how a calculator should work in the modern age of iOS devices and multitouch screens. Rather than mimicking every aspect of old physical calculators in the transition to pixels, Tydlig eschews conventions by turning an iPhone or iPad’s screen into a canvas where numbers can be placed anywhere, linked together, and rearranged. The result is a breath of fresh air into the landscape of iOS calculators, but it also takes a while to get used to it and it likely won’t appease purists. Read more
Introducing A 27-Year-Old Computer To The Web→
Jeff Keacher:
Reviving an old computer is like restoring a classic car: there’s a thrill from bringing the ancient into the modern world. So it was with my first “real” computer, my Mac Plus, when I decided to bring it forward three decades and introduce it to the modern web.
In 2040, will people try to connect 27-year-old iPads to the web?
App Store Optimization→
Dan Counsell:
An app’s name, and the keywords it uses are some of the biggest influencers in search results; all the research I’ve done suggests that the download volume acts as a multiplier on the name and keyword match. For example, If two apps have the same keyword (and rating), the app with the most downloads will come out on top — I’ve experienced this first hand with Clear for iPhone & Clear+ for iOS.
These are some good tips by Dan for third-party developers. I think the bigger theme is that the App Store is now so large, apps have to be treated like websites for a search engine with optimization tricks. This also explains why so many developers run regular promotions or agree to “free app of the week” initiatives (either official or not) – download numbers matter for long-term survival.
Everything Is A Remix Case Study: The iPhone→
I’m a big fan of Kirby Ferguson’s old Everything Is A Remix series and I can’t wait to see what he’s been working on. This case study on the iPhone does a good job at pointing out how the iPhone was really a revolution and what happened after it.
Party DJ Brings iTunes DJ Feature Back to iOS 7 With App for iPhone and iPad
Developed by Alex Price, Party DJ is an iOS 7 app that brings back one of the old features of iTunes DJ and Apple’s Remote app: the possibility to collaborate with friends on what music to play through a voting system. The app, available today on the App Store, comes in two versions: a paid, $1.99 “host + remote” app to handle playback and queue management, and a free Remote companion to install on iPhones or iPads that can vote songs. Price is the developer behind CameraSync, a longtime favorite of mine, and I was immediately intrigued when he showed me Party DJ a few weeks back. Read more
DaisyDisk 3
I’ve been using DaisyDisk for years now. Developed by a small team, DaisyDisk is a disk analyzer tool that manages to make the boring process of understanding what’s wasting space on your hard drive pretty and almost fun. We’ve covered the app quite a few times on MacStories over the years, and the basic functionality hasn’t changed, but we missed the 3.0 update released in September and I wanted to fix that. Read more
Better Two-Factor Authentication with Authy for iOS and OS X
In my list of Must-Have iPad Apps for 2013, I mentioned Authy and two-factor authentication:
Authy. If you’re not using two-step authentication for online services that support it, you’re doing it wrong. And if you assume that the ugly Google Authenticator app is the only way to generate one-time security codes, well, let me tell you about Authy. Simple and well designed, Authy is “a Google Authenticator app” in that it can generate codes for services, like Evernote and Dropbox, that would normally ask you to use Google’s app. Authy is secure and fully compliant with the standards required by two-step authentication; it has a clean UI, it’s free and Universal, and it comes with a Mac utility to share codes locally over Bluetooth.
Because it’s an app that I use every day, I thought that Authy deserved a separate mention on the site; I replaced Google’s terrible Authenticator app with Authy, which provides a cleaner interface, support for multiple devices, and a Mac utility to share tokens using Bluetooth Low Energy. Read more
The Prompt: What the Bleep is a Pepper Jack?→
This week, free of British tyranny, Federico and Stephen discuss iBeacons, Feedly, Federico’s friends and Stephen’s new business idea.
A discussion about tortellini, my friends’ iPhones, and business ventures in the same episode? Find out how here.
Launch Center Pro 2.1: Fleksy Keyboard, Lists, Photo Attachments, and Share Sheets
In October, Contrast released Launch Center Pro 2.0, a free update to their shortcut launcher and automation tool for iOS that brought a new interface for iOS 7 and, among other minor additions, Dropbox integration. Launch Center Pro is one of the three apps I keep in my dock[1], and I use it several times a day to create new tasks in Fantastical, launch Google searches, open my favorite websites, and more.
Today, Contrast is launching Launch Center Pro 2.1, a seemingly not-so-major update that, however, brings important changes to the app, including a new way to build visual actions and support for the new third-party Fleksy keyboard. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that version 2.1 is just as important as 2.0 for heavy users of Launch Center Pro. Read more