Posts in Linked

Made with ARKit→

ARKit is one of the iOS 11 features I’m really excited about along with iPad improvements, changes to Notes, and better screenshot workflows. The “problem” with ARKit is that Apple isn’t offering a proper AR app for iOS yet – it’s a framework for developers to create AR experiences. Thus, until you play with an ARKit demo, it’s hard to understand the extent of Apple’s efforts and the potential for future ARKit-enabled apps.

Fortunately, the folks at Made with ARKit have been collecting early demoes shared by developers showing a variety of AR apps that will be possible later this year. And some of these are already incredible. From a rocket landing in your backyard to robots dancing in your living room and obvious measuring tapes, these videos give us an early glimpse at the promise of ARKit and the quality of tracking and rendering on an iPhone’s screen.

I don’t know if these showcases will turn into actual shipping products this Fall, but I have a feeling this new category of apps will become a great reason for millions of users to upgrade to iOS 11 quickly. I can’t wait to play with some of these AR apps.

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Remaster, Episode 38: SNES Classic→

Have Nintendo learned from their previous foray in to tiny nostalgia?

On this week’s episode of Remaster, we talk about Nintendo’s recently announced SNES Classic Mini, the games it’ll offer, and the company’s strategy for the Virtual Console. You can listen here.

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Red Sweater’s MarsEdit 4.0 Public Beta Released→

Today, Red Sweater Software’s Daniel Jalkut released a public beta of his macOS blog publishing app, MarsEdit. According to Jalkut,

It’s been over 7 years since MarsEdit 3 was released. Typically I would like to maintain a schedule of releasing major upgrades every two to three years. This time, a variety of unexpected challenges led to a longer and longer delay.

The good news? MarsEdit 4 is finally shaping up. I plan to release the update later this year.

Because the update contains many new features that my patient users have been waiting to get their hands on, I want to give folks the option of trying it out early.

MarsEdit 4 includes a long list of features including:

  • Visual formatting bar for applying common formatting options;
  • Typewriter scrolling mode;
  • Support for MultiMarkdown; and
  • WordPress-specific features like faster refresh times and Featured Image, Post Format, and Per-Post Author support.

If you want to to try the beta yourself, there’s a link in the Red Sweater blog post. The beta is free to use by anyone who has a license for MarsEdit 3 that was purchased directly from MarsEdit on the web. Also, anyone who buys a copy of MarsEdit 3 now will receive a free upgrade to MarsEdit 4 when it is released later this year.

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Connected, Episode 148: The Grand Scheme of Screens→

The Prompt Curse strikes again! Find out what has been struck down, as Myke and Federico discuss the current state of iOS 11, Ticci’s keyboard woes, reviews of the Echo Show, and ARKit.

A fun episode of Connected this week with more thoughts on the iOS 11 beta and a discussion on ARKit and the potential of AR apps for iOS. You can listen here.

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Apple Opens iOS 11 Public Beta→

Apple has released the first public beta of iOS 11. The first developer beta of iOS 11 was released at WWDC on June 5, 2017. iOS 11 includes many new features such as a new Files app that makes navigating files on iOS devices easier than in the past and adds several iPad-only features like drag & drop, an app Dock, and enhanced multitasking.

You can sign up for the beta program here, but be sure to follow the instructions, which include backing up your iOS device, because it’s still early in the iOS 11 beta release cycle. There will be bugs and running a beta always runs the risk of data loss.

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The Wall Street Journal’s Mini-Documentary on the Creation of the iPhone→

The Wall Street Journal released a short documentary called Behind the Glass to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone’s release on June 29, 2007. The almost ten-minute long documentary cuts between interviews with Greg Christie, former Vice President of Human Interface, Scott Forstall, former Vice President for the iPhone Operating System, and Tony Fadell, former Senior Vice President of the iPod division. The three describe the struggle over whether to base the iPhone’s hardware on a multi-touch interface versus the iPod and the ensuing 2.5-year effort to create the first iPhone.

The interviews are short but recount several anecdotes, including the attempts to find a way to adapt the iPod’s interface to work as a phone and the predictive software used to make the touch keyboard accurate. Even ten years later, the retelling of the stories behind the iPhone’s birth is captivating.

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Connected, Episode 147: I Wish We Could Be Friends in Real Life→

This week: HomeKit changes coming in iOS 11, our approaches to running betas and Business Chat in iMessage.

On this week’s Connected, more on running the first beta of iOS 11 on our devices and interesting changes coming to iMessage next year. You can listen here.

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iPhone App Size Is Increasing at a Breakneck Pace→

According to a Sensor Tower report, the total space required for the top 10 most installed iPhone apps has increased more than 1000% since May 2013, increasing from 164 MB to a whopping 1.8 GB. During that period, Apple has raised the maximum app size from 2 GB to 4 GB and the minimum storage capacity of iPhones to 32 GB, but the size of the most popular iPhone apps has far outstripped those increases. iOS 11 will address the issue in part, with a feature that can offload apps that aren’t used often, while saving settings and user data.

Sensor Tower explains that,

We see the often sudden growth in size exhibited by apps such as Facebook and Snapchat as directly tied to the intense competition between them, which necessitates a steady rollout of new and more space-intensive features. Of course, some apps have likely grown in size simply due to a reduced need (or perception of a need) for optimization.

I’m sure that competition and perception play a role in the increases noted by Sensor Tower, but it would also be interesting to see how deep this trend extends beyond the ten most popular iPhone apps. I suspect it runs deeper than many people realize. Scrolling through the Update tab of the App Store, I have many recent updates on my iPhone that exceed 100 MB, including Apple’s own Keynote, which is 675 MB.

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