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Slack Launches an App Directory and $80 Million Fund for Slack Integrations→

Casey Newton from the Verge, reporting on the new Slack App Directory and investment fund:

Slack is wrapping up a breakout year with a set of announcements designed to press its advantage as a next-generation productivity app. The team-communication app, which now has 2 million daily users and 570,000 paying customers, has established an $80 million fund to invest in companies who build Slack apps and other products that rely on integration with the company. (The fund is backed by Slack along with venture capital firms Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Spark Growth, and Social + Capital.) Slack has also set up an “app directory” where administrators can browse the 150 integrations that are now available — Twitter, Dropbox, Trello, and Google Drive among them — and install them on their team’s Slack instance.

We use Slack behind the scenes at MacStories and really enjoy using it – out of all the group messaging services we’ve used, it’s easily the best. Part of what makes Slack so great is the way you can integrate third party apps and services with Slack, and as you might imagine, Federico has a lot of fun with that. Which is why this latest announcement from Slack is exciting to us. Slack integrations are now easier than ever to find with the Slack App Directory, and there’s now another incentive for companies and developers to build Slack integrations with the introduction of the investment fund.

If you want to learn more, be sure to read The Verge’s report, or alternatively the announcement on Slack’s official blog.

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For the Good of the Business→

Curtis Herbert has some wisdom for indie developers running a business:

What happens when the developer, designer, and the “evil” business/marketing person are all one in the same? You get a blog post out of it! Welcome to my inner struggles with Slopes as I’ve tried to turn it into a serious business.

Over the last few months I’ve learned that there is a need to compromise on some of my ideals. Well, compromise might not be the right word. I think some of the things that we think compromise our ideals actually don’t, when done right. I think as a designer / developer I was too quick to dismiss things I needed to implement to help my business be healthy just because of some preconceived “Apple would never do this” notion.

I would say that this applies to a lot of creative endeavors online. Many of us are fixated on ideals of elegance and perfectionism that aren’t healthy for the business, which ultimately results in failure to monetize and survive. A great product doesn’t sell by itself.

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The Numbers of Apple’s New TV App Store So Far→

A month after the launch of the new Apple TV and associated App Store, the folks at appFigures have released some numbers on the TV apps available to users:

The long awaited Apple TV App Store opened about a month ago, and since we happen to be into apps that got us pretty excited. We started tracking the new store when it had just opened in late October, and have been keeping a close watch on its progress for a little over a month now. Armed with a database full of apps we set out to share some of the things we’re seeing.

These are some fascinating stats – I wasn’t expecting Education apps to be high in the list and, given Apple’s promotion during the Apple TV introduction, I imagined we’d see more Shopping apps.

With over 60% apps available for free and 85% of them priced between $0.99 and $2.99, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when and if some console games come to the platform.

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Tweetbot Upgrades to CloudKit Sync→

The latest version of Tweetbot for iOS has upgraded its iCloud syncing engine to CloudKit, bringing faster performance for timeline, DM, and mute filter sync. From the release notes:

This update is all about sync. We’ve switched our syncing engine to use CloudKit which will provide you with faster, more consistent syncing between your iOS devices and Macs. It also sets up a foundation for some cool features we have planned for future releases. We know improved syncing doesn’t sound too exciting, but it will provide a better underlying experience.

From a user’s perspective, nothing’s changed – Tweetbot still uses iCloud and you don’t have to change anything in your preferences. However, Tweetbot is now using a better version of iCloud, with near-instant sync of changes between devices.

I’ve been running this version of Tweetbot with CloudKit sync for a few weeks, and it’s a very nice upgrade from the old iCloud sync. I’ve often left two devices running with Tweetbot in the foreground at the same time, and I’ve seen the timeline scroll on one device just a second after I stopped scrolling on the primary device. It’s impressive.

If you haven’t tried iCloud sync in Tweetbot in a while, go check it out again. Tweetbot 4.3 is available on the App Store (my review of Tweetbot 4.0 is here).

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Tumblr’s iOS App Adds Support for Live Photos→

Jacob Kastrenakes, writing for The Verge:

Tumblr’s iOS app now allows iPhone 6S users to add Live Photos to their posts, just as though they were adding any other photo. When someone on an iPhone comes across it in their feed, they’ll see the Live Photo icon in the corner, letting them know it can animate. Like in the iOS Photos app, iPhone 6S users can use 3D Touch to activate the hidden video and sound. If you’re on an older iPhone, you can still view Live Photos by pressing and holding on the image. Android users appear to be out of luck, however. Despite receiving an app update today, Tumblr on Android just displays Live Photos as a still image. Same thing on the web.

Arguably, Tumblr is the first major social app to integrate with Live Photos. Kind of odd that Twitter and Facebook weren’t ready with official support a few days after iOS 9.2 – especially because Facebook appears to be on a 12-hour update schedule for their iOS app.

I wonder if Twitter will natively support Live Photos or convert them to their GIF-like format, but with audio as well.

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Steady Square 3D Touch Game for iPhone→

I found this game yesterday via 9to5Mac – developed by Asaf Avidan Antonir, Steady Square is a simple game where you have to keep a square steady and let it pass through openings in a series of walls. The twist: on the iPhone 6s, the game is controlled through 3D Touch.

Steady Square is extremely basic: there’s no sound, no items to unlock, no menus – it’s more of a proof of concept, really. But, there’s something compelling about the simplicity and silence of Steady Square and I find it to be somewhat relaxing. The collisions are unforgiving (it’s reminiscent of Flappy Bird in this sense) and 3D Touch adds an interesting dimension to an otherwise unsurprising mechanic. It’s free on the App Store.

Also, Steady Square’s developer found a way to bypass Apple’s rules for scale apps based on 3D Touch. He explains how you can calculate the weight of objects with his game in a video.

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Slide 3D GIF Camera App→

Fun new camera app for iPhone by William Wilkinson and Deepak Mantena: Slide lets you create animated GIFs with a 3D effect that you can share with others. The 3D effect, as delightfully explained in the app’s weird promo video, is achieved by sliding the iPhone quickly to the side after selecting a subject.

I bought the app, and it works as advertised. Slide doesn’t work with the front-facing camera because it requires high frame rate to build the 3D animation, which, depending on what you’re looking at, may produce odd and funny results. I’m sending pictures of 3D furniture to my parents right now and they’re asking what’s going on.

Nice diversion from Live Photos and traditional GIFs, and just $1.99 on the App Store.

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Pixelmator Updated with iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Support→

Great update to Pixelmator for iOS released this morning: the app is now fully compatible with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, with support for 16K images up to 100 megapixels and a new collection of brushes. I tried the app with the Pencil for a couple of minutes, and it works as expected; if you don’t have an iPad Pro with a Pencil but you have an iPhone 6s, pressure-sensitive painting has also been made available via 3D Touch:

Pixelmator on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus adds full 3D Touch support. In addition to useful shortcuts when pressing firmly on the Pixelmator icon from the home screen and on an image in the Pixelmator gallery, Pixelmator for iOS 2.2 also brings 3D Touch-sensitive painting. Now you can change the look of a stroke simply by varying the pressure you apply on the screen with your finger, without having to change the brush settings.

The new Pixel brush is a lot of fun, and I’m curious to see what kind of creations pixel artists will come up with. Pixelmator 2.2 is available on the App Store.

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