Posts in Linked

Remaster, Episode 10: Nintendo’s Plans for E3 and the NX→

Nintendo has announced that they are only bringing Zelda to E3, and that their next console will launch in March. How is this going to effect the company, and what do their launch plans look like for the NX?

Oh, and the new Pokemon trailer is out.

This week’s episode of Remaster is an old-school one: we talk about Nintendo’s latest NX rumors, what they’re doing at E3 in June, and the latest announcements for mobile games. You can listen here.

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Connected, Episode 90: A Set of Unlucky Coincidences (Plus T-Shirts)→

Stephen’s collected all the iMacs, there’s a new shirt and things are happening with Apple Music. Pretty normal week.

Short and sweet episode of Connected this week with a focus on Apple Music. You can listen here.

And, don’t miss the new Connected t-shirts, available for a limited time here.

New Connected t-shirts.

New Connected t-shirts.

I love the new design (for those who missed it, it celebrates Stephen’s successful iMac collection). Get yours before it’s too late.

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WhatsApp Launches Mac App→

WhatsApp has announced today they’re launching desktop apps for Windows and OS X. From the WhatsApp blog:

Today we’re introducing a desktop app so you have a new way to stay in touch anytime and anywhere - whether on your phone or computer at home or work. Like WhatsApp Web, our desktop app is simply an extension of your phone: the app mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device.

The new desktop app is available for Windows 8+ and Mac OS 10.9+ and is synced with WhatsApp on your mobile device. Because the app runs natively on your desktop, you’ll have support for native desktop notifications, better keyboard shortcuts, and more.

Note how WhatsApp continues to use apps for other platforms as extensions of the phone app – the Mac app is, effectively, an interactive display for the WhatsApp database stored on your mobile device.

Side note: I’ve used WhatsApp Web on my iPad, and it works okay if you request a desktop site in Safari or use something like iCab to permanently change the browser’s user agent.

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Jobs, Healthcare, and the Apple Watch→

Tim Bajarin, writing for TIME:

I recently spent time with Apple executives involved with the Watch. I asked them to explain the real motivation for creating the device. Although Apple has made fashion and design a key cornerstone of its existence, it turns out that this was not at the heart of why they created this product.

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs developed pancreatic cancer in 2004. He then spent a great deal of time with doctors and the healthcare system until his death in 2011. While that personal health journey had a great impact on Jobs personally, it turns out that it affected Apple’s top management, too. During this time, Jobs discovered how disjointed the healthcare system can be. He took on the task of trying to bring some digital order to various aspects of the healthcare system, especially the connection between patients, their data, and their healthcare providers.

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Building a Photography Workflow with the iPad Pro→

Perhaps it should have been obvious to me — and maybe it’s always been obvious to you — but I’m just now realizing that the more and more I embrace each creative process, the less time I want to give to anything but the act of creating. Over time I begin to build negative associations with each creative act, mentally, but it’s not because of the ‘art’ itself; it’s because of all the work I put into a thing after the component I love most is over and done with.

These realizations have led me to try and create ‘less workflow’ in my life, not just in writing, but across the board. For photography, that means if I innately desire more than anything else to just shoot, then I need to learn more about composing and ‘editing’ in camera, and being happy with the result.

So, I’ve begun building a new way of processing photos using only the device I love — the iPad Pro — but it’s been a challenge.

Drew Coffman has been trying to rebuild his established photography workflow on an iPad Pro. His post has a good rundown of photo editing apps (with a final pick I didn’t know), but, more importantly, it highlights how iOS still needs improvements for basic tasks such as bulk editing and exporting.

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Apple Music Introduces Student Subscription With 50% Discount→

TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reports that Apple has today introduced a new student subscription plan for Apple Music which cuts the cost of the subscription to just $4.99 per month.

The option isn’t just arriving in the U.S., though. Students in other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, will also be able to take advantage of the new membership option.

However, because Apple Music is priced slightly differently in other markets, the cost of the student membership will vary. But in all markets, it will be 50 percent off the standard subscription price.

This is a smart move to boost subscription numbers. At just $5 per month, Apple Music becomes a really good deal - even for cash-strapped students. The new student subscription plan is available from today, but it does require you to verify that you are a student.

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Connected, Episode 89: The People v. Myke Hurley→

Stephen is back with an assignment for Federico and Myke, but first: changes come to Withings, auto-correct and Apple Music.

On this week’s Connected (which has, quite possibly, one of my favorite titles so far) we discussed the apps we use when we’re not working. That was fun. You can listen here.

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Some Good News from Evernote→

Casey Newton has an interview with Evernote CEO Chris O’Neill, who took over the company 10 months ago.

Reading through the article, three things stand out to me: I like his attitude; they don’t need to raise more money; and, they seem to realize Work Chat hasn’t been a success.

So let’s talk about business. Evernote invested significantly in a feature called Work Chat, which allows for collaboration around individual notes. But it doesn’t seem like the company has gotten much of a foothold. How will you tackle the business market? Should we expect the company will orient itself more toward collaboration uses?

No. It’s important to not try to be all things to all people. You have Slack, you have Hipchat. That’s a well-served market. Let’s just politely say, collaboration and chat is well served. So I don’t see it as, we need to try to do everything. If we do well with frictionless capture of ideas, and world-class search and retrieval, I think we can partner with a lot of other players.

I want to believe there’s still hope for Evernote.

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Overcast 2.5.2 with Quicksync→

Marco Arment on the latest update to Overcast:

In the last few Overcast releases, I’ve been optimizing the sync protocol and decreasing the burden of each sync to both sides (my servers and your iPhones). In 2.5.2, we’ll reap some of the benefits with the first version of what I’ve been informally calling “quicksync”.

In short, syncing Overcast between multiple devices — say, an iPhone and an iPad — is now much faster and more accurate, making multi-device usage much more practical and compelling.

“I’ve been testing this for a few weeks…”, the saying goes, but it’s true. In my tests during the beta, quicksync made switching between podcast episodes on two devices faster and less annoying than before.

Quicksync worked well in my typical use case: I’m washing dishes and Overcast is playing through the iPad Pro’s speakers, which are louder; then, I have to go out and connect my iPhone to my car’s audio, resuming Overcast to the same episode. With quicksync, I no longer have to skip ahead to catch up with the iPad’s progress. Marco did good work here and I hope the servers hold up well.

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