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Reeder for iOS Updated with iPhone 6 Support, iOS 8 Share Sheets→

Reeder, Silvio Rizzi’s popular RSS reader for iOS and OS X, has been updated to version 2.6 on iOS, adding support for the iPhone 6 larger display as well as compatibility with iOS 8’s new share sheets. Like Unread, you can now tap a “More” option in the share menu to show the system share sheet with action and share extensions, which means that you can still keep Reeder’s existing integrations around if you don’t want to use the extensions.

Reeder 2.6 with iPhone 6 support, share sheets, and a new landscape mode for iOS 8 is available on the App Store (you can find my review of Reeder 2 here).

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Google Maps for iOS Getting New Material Design→

With an official blog post, Google has announced that a new look for its Google Maps app for iOS and Android will roll out “over the next few days”. Based on the company’s new Material Design aesthetic, the new app will feature a blue interface with drop shadows, redesigned buttons, and more.

Bold colors and textures are in—and Google Maps is on trend, with a slick new style to make traveling with Maps even easier. Over the next few days, when you open up Google Maps on your Android or iPhone, you’ll be greeted by bright colors and a fresh new design. This new look is all about creating surfaces and shadows that echo the real world; with Google Maps’ new material feel, layers and buttons come to life so you know just where to touch to get directions, recommendations and imagery.

In the US, the app will also integrate with OpenTable for restaurant reservation. The Google Maps app for iOS still hasn’t been updated to the new design, but you can find more screenshots here.

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Byword Updated with Handoff, Document Providers on iOS 8→

Byword, my favorite general-purpose Markdown editor for iOS has been updated today with iOS 8 features that include Document Providers, Handoff, and iCloud Drive. While I can’t try Handoff with my Mac and I’ve yet to figure out if I want to try iCloud Drive, I’ve tested Document Providers in Byword and they work as advertised. You can open documents from other apps in Byword, edit them, and changes will appear back in the originating app with no Copy or Move operations required. I tested this with TextEdit and Readdle Documents, and it worked perfectly – a nice reminder of how better document management can be on iOS 8 when compared to the old system.

Byword for iOS with the latest iOS 8 features is available on the App Store.

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Dropbox and Microsoft Team Up for Dropbox Sync in Office Mobile Apps→

With a blog post, Dropbox today announced that they are partnering with Microsoft to extend integration with Dropbox storage to the Office mobile apps for iOS and Android. “In the next few weeks”, users will be able to open Office documents in Microsoft’s apps directly from the Dropbox app, and Dropbox sync will be bundled into Office for iPad to create, edit, and sync documents across devices. Dropbox will coexist with Microsoft’s own OneDrive service, and users will even be able to browse their Dropbox account and copy shareable links to files without leaving Office for iOS.

From the Dropbox blog:

We know that much of the world relies on a combination of Dropbox and Microsoft Office to get work done. In fact, Dropbox is home to over 35 billion Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. That’s why we’re partnering with Microsoft to help you do more on your phones, tablets, and the web. Soon you’ll be able to access your Dropbox directly from Office apps, and edit Office files from the Dropbox app.

Tom Warren writes at The Verge:

“Access to Dropbox content popped as one of the very first [iPad for Office] requests that customers had,” explains Kirk Koenigsbauer, head of Microsoft’s Office Engineering team. “They want access to where their content is. We’re doing it to make sure customers have a great experience.” Although Microsoft has its own OneDrive cloud storage, Dropbox will appear alongside Microsoft’s own service in the Office for iPad apps, allowing users to natively browse, open, and edit Office documents stored on Dropbox from directly within the app.

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Microsoft was long criticized for ignoring Office on mobile devices, but, under CEO Satya Nadella, they appear to be actively listening to how people want to use Office on the go – Dropbox is an obvious choice for file storage and sharing, but Microsoft still requires an Office 365 subscription to fully use the iOS apps (side note: Word for iPad is a regular fixture of the App Store’s Top Grossing chart).

It’s also notable that Microsoft has chosen to develop their own custom integration rather than simply rely on Apple’s new document provider feature of iOS 8. As you can see from the screenshots, Word for iPad will have a custom Dropbox file browser with support for multiple accounts that doesn’t require you to open a document picker to switch between file storage locations. Given the complexity of sync and the strategic importance of this partnership, it makes sense for Microsoft to control this integration with a custom, full-featured approach.

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Trent Reznor on Beats Music→

Billboard’s Joe Levy posted an interview with Trent Reznor last week, and among various questions he asked about his new role with Beats Music at Apple:

Is it about music delivery?

It’s in that world. It’s exciting to me, and I think it could have a big enough impact that it’s worth the effort. I’m fully in it right now, and it’s challenging, and it’s unfamiliar and it’s kind of everything I asked for – and the bad thing is it’s everything I asked for.

Reznor added that “the right streaming service could solve everybody’s problems”. This isn’t the first time Reznor has expressed his thoughts on how a music streaming platform could go beyond the traditional feature set of streaming services. From an interview with USA Today in January:

“We’re going to offer artists metrics in terms of where their music is being consumed in the service, we’ll allow artists to curate their own pages, and in general provide a friendly place where artists can make fans aware of T-shirts or concert tickets, and consumers can learn more about music and culture,” says Reznor, who in particular is excited about being able to present his true face to fans.

“Not to throw stones at Spotify, because I know those guys, but on their site, I sit behind an impenetrable wall,” he says. “I’ve got an old bio, old photos and a discography with some bootlegs. I feel like I’m walking into a mall record shop and my little area has the wrong picture of me and the catalog stinks.”

It’s unclear if and when Apple will introduce new artist or listener features in Beats Music. According to recent speculation from Re/Code, Apple is looking to cut the $10 monthly fee of Beats Music with an overhaul planned for next year.

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Nintendo, One Year Later→

Lukas Mathis, checking back after a year on the idea that Nintendo should drop consoles and make games for iOS:

Now, one year later, Nintendo just announced that it made a quarterly profit of 24.2 billion yen (about 224 million US$). Ars Technica notes that this is mainly due to strong sales of its first-party titles, mostly on the 3DS. However, even the Wii U is starting to show sustainable game sales numbers. So far, Mario Kart 8 sold roughly 3 million copies on the Wii U, and it continues to sell well. At 60 US$ a piece, it’s not clear to me that Nintendo could make the same amount of money selling games for iOS. Even a platform that’s doing poorly, like the Wii U, might be a better option if you can sell games for 60 bucks a piece, and reach a 50% attach rate.

As I argued last year in Nintendo Vs. Apple Pundits, Nintendo consoles exist to support the company’s crown jewels – first-party games. The kind of experiences that Nintendo is able to craft on the 3DS and Wii U wouldn’t simply be possible on iOS (from both technical and economic perspectives).

As Mathis notes, the rest of the console industry isn’t doing too bad after a year either, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 reporting higher sales numbers than the previous generation.

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Apple No Longer Rejecting iOS 8 Calculator Widgets→

According to TechCrunch, Apple has changed its mind on calculator widgets for iOS 8 following yesterday’s PCalc news:

But now we’re hearing that Apple is changing its course. The PCalc app and widget will remain in the App Store, and all calculator-type widgets will be allowed as well, an Apple spokesperson has confirmed to us.

From our understanding, the calculator use case was not one that Apple had anticipated, which is why an App Store reviewer originally explained to Thomson that he would need to adjust the app, or risk being pulled from the App Store.

James Thomson still hasn’t heard anything from Apple officially, and, obviously, there are hundreds of apps that are mysteriously rejected every week and that aren’t covered by dozens of tech blogs in a single day.

Still, this is the right decision from Apple, and it’ll hopefully turn into an opportunity to clarify the App Store Review Guidelines for widgets and improve the company’s internal Schrödinger process that makes an app featured and at risk of rejection at the same time.

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The iPad Air 2’s Extra GB of RAM→

Display aside, another hardware change that I noticed in my iPad Air 2 is the extra RAM Apple put in this year. Pocket Gamer’s Mark Brown ran some tests:

To see how things have changed, we rebooted an iPad Air and an iPad Air 2, and then loaded monster memory hog XCOM: Enemy Unknown. We then started opening and using apps to see how much we could get done before iOS forcibly removed XCOM from memory.

Apple’s handy OS X tool Instruments lets you keep an eye on what your iPad is doing, so we could see the exact moment that XCOM was killed off like a Sectoid on the receiving end of a shotgun.

Check out his gallery of screenshots to see how much an extra GB of RAM can help. In my case, the iPad Air 2 keeps more Safari tabs in memory without aggressively reloading when I switch between them, and apps generally stay active for longer periods of time. The end result is a faster experience as I see less apps being removed from memory – a change that I particularly appreciate when I’m switching between Safari and a bunch of other apps for research or file management tasks.

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The iPad Air 2 Display→

Since getting my iPad Air 2 last week (I upgraded from an iPad mini), I noticed two things about the display: if I get closer to it, I can (almost) discern pixels again; and, it’s considerably better than the iPad mini when used under indoor lighting.

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira of DisplayMate notes in their in-depth analysis of the display:

A major innovation for the iPad Air 2 (that is not fully appreciated) is an anti-reflection coating on the cover glass that reduces ambient light reflections by about 3:1 over most other Tablets and Smartphones (including the previous iPads), and about 2:1 over all of the very best competing Tablets and Smartphones (including the new iPhone 6). We measured a 62 percent decrease in reflected light glare compared to the previous iPads (Apple claims 56 percent) and agree with Apple’s claim that the iPad Air 2 is “the least reflective display of any Tablet in the world” – both are in fact understatements.

While the anti-reflection coating doesn’t do much in direct sunlight, in my experience it has an effect for working with the iPad indoors. As for the pixels, it’s not a big deal because I wouldn’t normally get my eyes close to display (so in normal usage, the Retina display still looks fantastic), but I’d definitely welcome a Retina HD iPad next year.

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