Posts in Linked

The Prompt: The World’s Greatest City→

Federico, Myke and Stephen celebrate The Prompt’s ruby anniversary by discussing how Google approaches wearables (and how Apple may move in a different direction), Checkmark 2, iOS 8 rumors and the recent changes Apple has made to its iPhone and iPad lineups.

Consider this and episode 33 the spoken versions of my thoughts on wearables and smartwatches at the intersection of technology and fashion. Get the episode here.

Brought to you by:

Permalink

Directional: Lost Backup→

This week Myke shares some 3DS woes, Federico shares some cool things he found this week – including a HD Mario 64 remake – and the guys discuss their new found feelings for Twitch streaming.

If you own a 3DS, Myke’s story of his corrupted data should be a warning and a call for action to back up your games and progress today. Get the episode here.

Permalink

Evernote and OneNote→

I was curious to know more about OneNote for Mac, released yesterday on the Mac App Store, from an Evernote user’s perspective, and I’m glad that Justin Williams wrote up his impressions so far.

I’m not switching from Evernote: I need some of the service’s more advanced features (saved searches, shareable notes, web clipper) and, overall, I’m happy with it. I like Evernote as a company – I’m a fan of the business model and the idea of a service that can stick around for many years. I appreciate the work they’ve put into improving the apps and service in 2014: as I wrote in January, there are still things I would like to see, but the iOS app has improved dramatically since September.

I also agree with Justin’s take on the API. In my limited experience with using the Evernote API in Python, I found it painful to simply send HTML to the service to create a new note or to try to retrieve HTML content from a note (Evernote uses a superset of XHTML called ENML, which has its own set of restrictions). Other developers I’ve talked to shared their frustrations with the Evernote API, especially for integration with iOS apps. One of Evernote’s biggest advantages over OneNote is the rich ecosystem of apps they’ve built, but Microsoft’s launch yesterday showed that they’re not kidding with third-party OneNote support either. Perhaps Evernote should add the API to the list of improvements for 2014.

It’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft will continue to support OneNote on iOS and OS X – they have an uphill battle against Evernote’s frequent updates, but they’re off to a seemingly good start with the Mac app.

Permalink

UpWord Notes Adds TaskPaper Tweaks→

In my original review of UpWord Notes for iPhone, I noted that the app didn’t support TaskPaper’s syntax in any way, which was surprising considering that UpWord is a todo app that relies on plain text, just like TaskPaper.

In today’s relatively minor 1.0.5 update, UpWord Notes added support for marking notes as complete with “@done” and for quickly adding tabs with a two-finger gestures – both enhancements are aimed at TaskPaper users. While UpWord is still far from being a fully functional TaskPaper client, these additions introduce a first layer of compatibility that makes using UpWord with TaskPaper files a bit more feasible. UpWord has handy reminder and favorite features, which are typically absent from plain text apps and systems, and if I were to switch from my Fantastical/Reminders todo system (not happening any time soon), I’d consider TaskPaper with UpWord.

UpWord Notes is $0.99 on the App Store.

Permalink

How Should Dropbox Respond To Google Drive’s Price Cut?→

Bradley Chambers writes about Dropbox and last week’s price cut for Google Drive:

Dropbox has been the king of the folder syncing hill for a few years now. Transporter is doing a end-run around on Dropbox by offering similar functionality with no monthly fees (and using onsite storage). Google is doing a full frontal assault with the price cut. Google is offering 100GB at 75% less than Dropbox at this time.

How does Dropbox respond? One thing they need is a great web presence. Dropbox’s web interface is for viewing, organizing, deleting, and viewing. With Google Drive, you can create and edit spreadsheets, presentations, and documents. Dropbox needs to add this feature, but they also need to provide more. What could they do without matching the price?

I think that Bradley’s proposed solutions make a lot of sense from a productivity standpoint, but I’ll add this: revamp the Photos product on the web and mobile apps. Last year, Dropbox launched a series of enhancements to make it easier to upload photos and share them, but the presentation options and management features still lack behind what dedicated solutions like Picturelife, Flickr, and even Google+ are providing (not to mention the defunct, beloved Everpix).

The Photos view on Dropbox is limited, and while it aggregrates photos from your account and organizes them chronologically, it doesn’t do much else. Dropbox is already storing user files and they’re way past the problem of scaling, so they shouldn’t run into the same issues of a startup like Everpix in terms of costs. If done right, photo backup and management with options to tag people, browse albums and locations, and easily share through Dropbox with family members could become an important part of the Dropbox product, if only because photos are personal, people care about them, and clearly no one has solved the photo problem yet – not Apple, not Flickr, and not Loom or Picturelife yet. Dropbox may not cut prices as much as Google, but a terrific Photos product could add a lot of value to the service.

Could Dropbox “fix” photo backup and management this year, or do they feel like Apple and Google will eventually get it just right (especially Apple, which is in an extremely sorry state of confusing Photo Stream affairs these days). Or does Dropbox prefer focusing on productivity features such as the ones Bradley imagines? Could they do both?

Permalink

iCloud Tabs In Google Chrome For Mac→

Two weeks ago, I covered CloudyTabs, a free Mac app to access Safari’s iCloud Tabs from the OS X menu bar. For those who wished to have a more integrated solution for Google Chrome on the Mac, Thundercloud is a simple extension that, like CloudyTabs, reads Safari’s iCloud Tabs and puts them in a popover. There are a couple of configuration steps to get the extension to work with Chrome, but they’re explained upon installation and they’re easy to follow.

Permalink

Wearing Apple→

First, let’s look at the market for quality timepieces; ones that you’d be proud to wear on your wrist. It’s dominated by companies with centuries of experience. It’s also a high-end market: spending a few thousand dollars on a nice watch is chump change. You’re buying a work of art.

Apple certainly has great designers, but they’re going to be competing against craftsmen who’ve been refining their craft since the 15th century.

Craig Hockenberry makes an interesting case for a wearable device by Apple that isn’t a watch.

We discussed the importance of the fashion aspect for wearables on The Prompt, and I believe that it’s often overlooked by the tech press. I don’t know if Apple’s focus will be on health and fitness tracking or using the wearable’s sensors for notifications and inter-device communication (maybe all of them?), but I think it’s obvious that it has to look good – and be “incredible”, as Cook said – to be considered by young customers.

Permalink

How Apple is Quelling Motion Sickness and Making iOS More Accessible with iOS 7.1→

For The Guardian, Craig Grannell writes about many of Apple’s new animations for iOS 7.1, and what that means for people who previously got motion sick. While iOS 7 had lots of nice visual touches, bouncy animations and parallax effects made some customers feel physically ill when using their iPhone. In addition to numerous visual changes that aim to reduce physical illness in iOS 7.1, Apple has also been hard at work making iOS even more accessible by reintroducing button hints.

Josh de Lioncourt at Macworld also runs through some new additions in accessibility that should help those with low-vision or motor impairments. For example, the camera button can be turned into a switch that turns on head tracking, reducing the need for a separate device.

Permalink